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In the Dark

I ran across the room and grabbed my clothes and ran down the hallway to one of the other bedrooms and locked the door. I started crying again. I wasn’t sure what to do and was growing angrier by the minute. I was panting! I felt myself wanting to change and remembered what my sister said that emotions or anger would change me. Well, I have never been so mad! I could feel my neck getting bigger and my teeth protruding. I collapsed on the floor and could feel my back and legs expand. The pain was unbelievable. I screamed and howled! I heard Lucian burst in the door, and he picked me up, but I threw him across the room. I said, “Stay away from me!” and let out this curdling growl at him. I looked at my hands and I was covered in white fur! I wanted to murder him and instead I looked out the window and jumped through landing on the grass below. I ran until I came to the dam on the lake. I looked into the water and could see myself. I was a huge white wolf. My white hair was now fur, I had long pale claws and a long snout with razer teeth. That’s what he bit me with, but why? Why would he bite me if he cared for me? I heard paws on the ground and looked up to see Lucian in wolf form. I could hear thoughts seemingly thrown out into the air, but I couldn’t grab them to hear what they were. My mind was racing, and I didn’t see anywhere to go. He was much more massive than me and so out of desperation and confusion I jumped into the lake. It was right by the dam so the water was deep, and I swam as deep as I could in the cool water. It felt good and I felt myself changing back, it didn’t hurt as bad as it did change into wolf form. I then fell out of my breath and was willing to die right then. I let go and heard a thought in my head that said, “I got you Karina, I’m so sorry!” I blacked out. I woke up being carried by Lucian in his wolf form back to the lake house. I could hear the crickets as I continued to cough up water. I cleared my lungs and snuggled into his fur and went into a deep sleep.

I woke up to a cat licking my face. He was a big black and white cat with a collar that said “Delbert”. He looked like a Delbert and as soon as I started petting him, he became snobby, walked away, and jumped off the bed. It made me chuckle. I noticed I was in a different bedroom and the windows were open. I could hear the birds and wind on the lake. I heard footsteps outside and a knock on the door. “Karina, are you up?” I quietly said, “Yes, come in.” Lucian came in with a tray of food, orange juice, and coffee. I sat up in bed and felt my head throbbing. He set the tray on the bed and felt my head. I reached back to feel the wound and I couldn’t feel it! I still felt a bit of pain, but the wound was now a healed scar! Lucian sat on the bed and just stared at me. I couldn’t look him in the face and started crying. I heard what I would call a “thought” and it said, “It’s ok, I’m here.” I buried my head in a pillow and Lucian moved the tray and held me while I cried. I didn’t understand anything, and I was still mad at him but knew I wasn’t understanding anything as well. I changed into an animal for goodness’ sake!

I cried until I passed out, and I slept until the sunset that evening. I woke up and Lucian was gone. I went to the bathroom in the master bedroom as I didn’t know where else to go and he had cleaned the bedroom up. I went into the bathroom and there was a pile of sheets with blood all over them. I put my hand over my mouth at the amount of blood. I questioned if he hit an artery and my analytical brain went to how much bacteria he could’ve had in his mouth and the risk of infection, but how did I heal so quickly? Oh my blood, it responds quickly! I can’t think clearly at all!

I was still angry at him, but I missed him terribly. I knew he saved me in the lake, and he felt bad but why did he hurt me in the first place? I got dressed in an outfit on the bed and it fit perfectly: a t-shirt and jeans. I heard some banging noises, and I followed them to one of the bedrooms and I remembered I jumped out of the window. Lucian was in there fixing it. He looked up and half smiled, he said, “Are you doing, ok? He paused and said, "Karina, I am so sorry! I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I wasn’t thinking about you when I did it. I couldn’t refrain!” I went over to him, and he said, “and you look cute” as he pointed to my outfit. That made me laugh and I said, “I am starving, and I have a lot of questions. I am still mad at you and its because I don’t know what is going on. We had such an awesome evening together and you bit me and then I changed for the first time that I remember and that was soo painful! I was so angry at you I could’ve ripped your throat out. I just wanted it to end, but in no way in a rationale mind would I kill myself and leave my children without a mother!” I looked at him and I had my hands on my hips and was tapping my foot. I recognized I looked just like my mother when she was mad, and it slightly amused me. Lucian gave me a weird look.

He came over to me and said, “Let’s get some food in you and we then can talk it out. We can't leave your wolf hangry. I will tell you everything.” We went downstairs to the kitchen and got out some beef and made sandwiches. I was starving and drank the orange juice out of the jug to his amusement. He said, "When you are comfortable, we can actually go hunting in our form." I just glared at him, and he looked down at the floor. I was so angry and couldn’t get the anger to dissipate, I felt like I was a teenager again with all the hormones. After we ate, we sat down on the deck overlooking the lake. Lucian gave me a glass of wine and we sat and talked. Lucian began by saying, “What I did to you, is called marking. Our kind does that to each other when they want to mark their mate so no one can claim them for themselves. The only way to claim them is to kill their mate. It happens in the heat of the moment when you are feeling an overwhelming storm of love for a person, like you would die for them. You mark them as a natural instinct. I’m not going to say I regret doing it because my animal came out and did it but I do regret not explaining and making sure you were ok with it and gave me consent. My animal misinterpreted the moment for likewise consent.”

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