Chapter 6

The intimidating guy that scared me to death was the first person to talk, “We, all of us, are in the Night Shade Pack—a Shape Shifter Pack.”

I couldn’t help but have a laugh escape my lips, and once that one shot through, I couldn’t control the flows of laughter after it.

I glanced up to expect everyone else laughing at the joke, but there were only stone angry faces staring back at me.

My laughing came to an immediate stop and I looked back at each of them,

“Wait—you’re serious.” I said, half in amusement.

I turned to Claire. “You believe them?”

“Well, think bout it, El. It explains things. It makes sense.”

“No it doesn’t. This is crazy—”

“Elana, I shot fire out of my hands today. I caught the school on fire with my hands. How else would you explain that?”

I scoffed. “Not with a dumb excuse like Werewolves.”

I stopped when I heard a low growl come from the leader.

Did he really just growl?

“We don’t have time for this.” He mumbled. “Nathan. Trysten. Take them before everyone notices they’re gone.”

Nobody moved at the command.

“Now!” he said with more authority in his voice.

Wait—take us where?

The blonde guy that, uh, healed my leg before argued. “But, Stephan, don’t you think they should know?”

The leader—Stephan—looked at him sternly. “Now, Trysten.”

He glanced over at the boy who saved me earlier. “You, too, Nathan. Unless you have any other objections.”

Nathan locked his eyes with mine and I just sat there, absorbed in his beautiful dark eyes. After a pause, he responded without breaking his gaze with mine, but it sounded so far away.

“Yes, Alpha.”

I continued to stare at his melting chocolate circles.

I tried to pull my eyes away from him, but I couldn’t do it. I just kept staring at him like he did to me.

I felt like I was in a trance.

The other strange part, I didn’t want to break the intimate contact. It felt like when I looked at him, I was safe and I knew nothing was going to happen that I can’t handle.

He almost made me want to believe this whole Werewolf scam.

Almost.

I didn’t look away until a slight hold came across my arm. I looked up to find Claire with her still worried glance.

She mouthed ‘are you okay?’

I just nodded and returned to my gaze to my safe haven. I looked back to find that Nathan was no longer there.

Instead, there was a huge furry wolf about the size of a small horse.

I felt my body jerk back in fear and my hands start to sweat. I looked around and there were many others, but the people who were there before were no longer there.

Did we get attacked and I didn’t notice? But then wouldn’t there be blood?

I glanced at Claire and she was already climbing on the back of one of the furry over-sized wolves.

I glanced at her worriedly and sprinted at her and started to tug at her arm.

“What are you doing? For all we know it could me a mutation of some kind of wolf.”

“Uh, did you not just see them change? You were staring at that guy and he transformed right in front of you.”

“Nathan did not just transform. He, uh…” the truth was, I didn’t know what happened to him.

I was watching him the whole time and knew he didn’t move, but could he really transform into a wolf?

I felt my hand get wet and cool. I looked down to find one of the wolves with beautiful dark brown eyes.

The same color as Nathan’s.

This had to be a dream.

Maybe this is another metaphorical dream like the fire. I was about to wake up from this horrible nightmare with my sanity intact.

But everything felt so real.

I could feel the light breeze and the wet nose press against my palm again. Maybe this is real?

One look in Nathan’s eyes told me so. I had only seen those eyes on one person, and I knew they couldn’t be duplicated.

These people turned into wolves.

And Claire could too—once she figured out how.

Once I got over my internal conflict and believed what was right in front of me, I looked up to tell Claire something, but she wasn’t there.

Only Nathan was, and he was now dressed in a pair of sweats and gray t-shirt. But he was walking around with his back was to me. I took a second to admire the muscles on his back and his incredible physique, even through the thin layer of his clothes.

His dark hair was cropped close to his head, but still long enough to touch the top of his shirt. I noticed the size of his arms and how proportionate they were to the rest of his muscular body.

I shook the clouds from my mind. Stop staring at him! I mean, yeah, he’s gorgeous, but get a grip of yourself.

“What do we do now?”

“You have to stay away from your friend for a little bit,” his baritone voice rumbled.

“What!?”

Nathan stopped abruptly with his back still turned to me. He turned his head slightly to the side, but I still couldn’t see all of his face.

He sighed, then responded, “It’s for your own good.”

“What do you mean?” I countered, my voice went squeaky and you can sense the hysteria in it, but I wanted to get answers.

This time, he turned his body all the way around and faced me. His eyes were hollow, holding no emotion.

He answered gently as if he would scare me. “I guess the disadvantage of having a best friend is you have to know all their problems and secrets. In this case, your friend has told you too much. With the knowledge you have now, we have enemies that could use that information, and if they get to you… well, we just can’t let that happen. So you and your friend are stuck with us until you get all of your abilities under control.”

“You know, my friend and I have names. And we’re not property just to be taken. You can’t do this. Sooner or later, you’ll have to tell me where I am and let me go.”

“No, you don’t get it. This society has been hidden for over hundreds of years. There’s no way a couple of little brats are going to ruin it. Now, either come with us, or sit out here in the middle of nowhere and starve.”

I guess it was an easy decision, but I still didn't like it. We started off.

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