Chapter 3: Alexis

Chapter 3: Alexis

A few hours ago, my first order of business was to escape from this town and never return. Of course, now, given the serendipitous events of the last few hours, everything had changed, prompting me to rethink my entire strategy.

I had always imagined I would find myself blissfully fated to some hipster-looking guy with a full face of facial hair, smoking an elegantly rolled cigarette in the back of some antique bookshop in Maine, perusing some Victorian-era literature. I’d walk over to him in the aisle, he’d notice me, we’d touch hands accidentally, and then boom, we’d both bond with each other.

Except now this had happened. Instead of some covert werewolf in a Maine bookshop, here I was, bonded with someone I had spent my entire childhood hearing tales about. The great Grimm wolf, the savior of the pack. Will, who by all reckoning should be in the nineties but looked no older than I did.

What unspeakable horrors had he been through? Who had mutilated him so much?

“As much as I would love to stay here,” he said sarcastically, “those vampires are closing in on us, girl. And we have nowhere to go!” His voice was a pendulum oscillating between panic and disbelief. But it served the purpose of bringing me back to reality.

“I…” Truth was, I had frozen in fear. Off the top of my head, there was nothing that I could think of doing that would save us both in the face of this new threat. I had spent weeks trying to chart a course out of the forest and had planned impeccably for each step of the way. Even with all that planning, the margin of error had been quite significant.

Now, I had no plan. There was no contingency in my mind for such an event.

“Listen to me, girl. I have not survived the depths of a dungeon and the tortures of a madman only to be smitten by a horde of brainless bloodsuckers. Let’s get out of here this instant!” Will snapped.

“You have no recourse either!” I snapped back. “What are you hassling me for?”

“I happen to have a recourse,” Will stated. “Vampires tend to instill fear in the hearts of their enemies via numbers. But they’re always overcompensating; remember that. They have a weakness that makes their numbers pointless. Can you tell me what that is?”

My eyes shot wide open as I understood what he was saying. “The sun!”

“Yes, girl. The sun, indeed. And when it comes up, no matter if there are hundreds or thousands of them out there, they are going to have to seek shelter unless they want to die.”

“Right on,” I said. “So, what do we do now?”

“Look to the sky. It is at its darkest now. If anything, that’s a prelude to dawn. The stars have dimmed their shine, and the moon is receding along the horizon. Any moment now, the sun is going to emerge from behind the mountain and burn these vampires,” Will said.

I clamped my hand over his mouth before he could utter any more words. The vampires had covered great distance and were now standing on the other side of the clump of bushes we were hiding behind. The air around us became stagnant with the smell of stale blood.

Will’s eyes grew wider as he, too, saw what I was seeing: The barrels of the vampire’s guns prodding the bushes, the beams of their torches penetrating through the darkness of the forest. It would be foolish to wait for dawn any longer.

I nudged Will to come closer. When his ears were within whispering distance, I said, “When I distract them, you head north. You keep running in that direction, and you don’t look back. You’ll find your way to Fiddler’s Green.”

“What about you?” Will whispered back, his face contorted with concern.

“You let me worry about myself. I’m going to distract them. You get to safety. When you head into Fiddler’s Green, head over to the Grimm Abode. They’re bound to recognize you as I did. Okay?”

“It is not the mark of an alpha to leave a member of his pack behind. I cannot doom you to danger,” Will growled.

“Between the two of us, I’m in better shape. I’ll give them a chase, and by then, the sun will come up and do its bit. I’ll come back for you,” I said. “Don’t you worry. Just run north so that the vampires don’t see you.”

Will cast me a wounded look, a look that tore through my heart and made me feel terrible for abandoning him like this. But this was his plan. He was the one who had suggested that whole Gandalf-turning-the-trolls-into-stone idea. I was just implementing it.

“Farewell, Alexis,” Will whispered.

“Take care, Will,” I said. Then I shifted, rising above the thick overgrowth of bushes that we were cowering behind, and howled fiercely to draw the vampires’ attention.

“Do not spare her!” A vampire shrieked and opened fire in my general direction. This was soon followed by a flurry of more gunfire issuing from the weapons of other vampires.

As I ran zigzagging through the woods, my peripheral vision was lit up with flashes of muzzles, and my ears rang with the sound of bullets whirring by me. Despite my aching foot, I ran like the devil himself was on my tail.

The strain on my injured foot would have impeded me had my will not been so adamant. It wasn’t just about me anymore. Back there, there was a weakened wolf who relied upon me to save him.

Wolves are at their strongest when they’re part of a pack.

I powered through the pain and raced along the forest path. At first, the fact that none of the bullets were hitting me was a little hard to believe, but then it dawned on me that it’s hard to keep one’s aim true when one is running. Still, I was not out of danger. The bullets were still soaring around me, and dawn seemed like a far way off.

However, the ferocity of the chase had propelled me past the forest. Here I was, back again at the edge of the forest where I had first found Will, only this time, there was no Will to hold me back. Just a few steps away, the trees ended, giving way to a clearing that marked the end of Fiddler’s Green and the start of the state of Maine.

I stopped to catch my breath in the wake of this liberating sight, and just then, as the vampires caught up to me, a vibrant sun rose from behind the singular mountain and shone its magnificent light on the forest, its rays piercing through the canopy.

I swerved just in time to see the vampires sizzling in the sun, screaming as their bodies smoked and burned. They were no longer concerned about their quarry. Their very survival was at stake.

Where would they run off to, I wondered. I shifted back to my human form and saw the vampires hissing and screaming as they ran for cover in the shade of the forest trees, leaving their guns and their flashlights behind.

The sight was so odd and bizarre that it made me burst out into laughter. All their strength of numbers and their ferocity could not keep them safe from the sun.

But this newfound freedom also put me in a state of indecision. Here I was, standing at the brink of Fiddler’s Forest, looking at the path that led to my freedom. And yet, I could not move. Something intangible was holding me back, and it was after I stood still and pondered for a long time that I realized what it was.

My bond.

I had become fated mates with someone who needed me. Who knew whether Will had made it back to Fiddler’s Green or not? In hindsight, leaving him behind and running off to my freedom was a very selfish thing to do.

The lyrics to The Clash’s song rang in my head, “Should I stay or should I go?” Running off to Maine would mean I’d never have to bear the humiliation of the Grimm pack. My future would await me with open arms, with opportunities at every step. Even though it was kind of late, I’d somehow get admission into an actual college and get a degree that I wanted instead of the community college associate’s degree that I had.

I would get a job and my own place. I would be independent. I’d go to coffee shops and drink the expensive kind of lattes while working on my laptop in front of the window. I would reinvent myself. Maybe even ditch my identity as Alexis Richards and take up a new name. I would never shift again, so no one would ever have to know that I was a werewolf.

All that lay just a few steps ahead. All I had to do was cross the threshold.

But I remained frozen to the spot, unable to move. It was only when I decided to turn back and go back to Will that I was able to move my feet again. I resented myself at that moment, having to choose from two extreme choices, but in the end, it prevailed upon me that Will, the werewolf that I had somehow bonded with, needed me and that he was a stranger in a strange land. He had been gone for more than seventy years. The world was not his ally any longer. He would need someone who understood his circumstances to guide him and help him make sense of this crazy new world.

“Damn it, Alexis,” I groaned as I traced my steps back to where I had last left Will.

He wasn’t there.

Good. This meant that he had paid heed to what I’d told him.

I still had one last chance to turn around and leave.

But the gnawing sensation in my chest beckoned me to go further and see if Will was okay. If he were to turn up to Fiddler’s Green just like that, people would be confused. Some of them would not even believe that it was the real Will Grimm.

And for better or worse, he was now my mate.

I hobbled along the dirt path, looking for signs of Will. Now that adrenaline was not coursing through my system, the pain in my leg had resurfaced and was making its presence known. I winced as I walked, but despite the agony, I kept on walking.

I had walked for ten minutes when I saw the thing I had been dreading all this time.

It was Will. He lay there on the ground, knocked out, the back of his head bleeding. Not that I was a detective or anything, but from what I could see, I inferred that one of the vampires who had been running off to shelter hit him in the back of the head, causing him to faint. Otherwise, why would he be lying here in the middle of the forest path?

“This is not going to be easy,” I moaned miserably as I lifted Will’s body off the ground and flung him over my shoulder.

And so, I began my descent down the path that led to Fiddler’s Green, back to square one. My effort to escape had been thwarted, and I had been plunged into a completely new, completely bizarre situation.

***

Half an hour later, when my body had exhausted its depleting reserves of stamina, I collapsed at the gates of the Grimm Abode with Will on my shoulders.

I was too weak to croak out a call for help, let alone move further.

My vision had turned bleary, making it hard for me to make out the face of the person approaching me.

“Lexie? Holy crap, where were you?” It was Vincent’s voice. Vincent was one of the good ones, roughly a few years younger in age and sort of like my only friend here at the commune. He was the exact opposite of his father, Maurice, in every way. Vincent was a caring wolf, a gentle soul, and a kind friend.

“Vince?” I groaned. “Help me.”

Vince’s arms gripped me. He helped me sit up against the picket fence boundary of the commune.

“Lexie, where were you? Everyone here at the commune thought you’d done a runner,” Vince said.

“Vince, look who I found,” I said weakly, pointing a wavering finger at the unconscious man lying by my feet.

“Who is it?”

As Vince turned around Will’s unconscious body, he gasped and staggered.

“I can’t believe it,” he whispered.

“He looks just like in the pictures that Fred showed us, doesn’t he?” I asked.

“Lexie, how in the hell is he still alive?” Vincent had his hands on his head, the first signs of someone considerably freaking out.

“Vince, I’ll tell you everything, but first, you gotta take me to my home. Help me,” I said faintly. Now that the bursts of adrenaline had subsided, I could feel how much pain I was in and how much each muscle was strained—moving felt like an impossibility. My body refused to budge. My foot throbbed with agony. But lucky for me, Vincent was a man with great emotional intelligence. Rather than pester me about what had happened and what I was doing with the long-lost alpha of our pack, he simply hoisted Will’s body on his shoulder and assisted me in walking as we headed into the commune.

The commune was a collection of cottages and homes built around the commune center, where everyone gathered on the weekends for a bonfire and pack meeting. My house, luckily, was close enough to the entrance of the Grimm Abode. It was the house where my parents and I used to live before they died. Now, I lived here alone.

Vince kicked the door open. He took most of Will’s weight under him and took him to the bedroom beyond the lounge. Meanwhile, I sank into the sofa in the living room, my body’s weakness and pain prohibiting me from moving an inch further.

Vince came running back from the bedroom. He didn’t say much as he looked at me and then shot a look at the kitchen. He nodded as he ducked behind the shelf and reappeared with a bottle of whiskey and my first aid kit. He passed me the bottle, which I first used to sterilize the injury on my foot, then used to sterilize all the wild thoughts that were bouncing around in my brain.

“Let me fix you up,” Vince said.

“Vince, I can do it myself,” I protested.

“No. You let me do this while you explain yourself to me. We weren’t exactly very secretive as we came to your house. Someone’s bound to have seen us come in, and someone’s bound to have told my dad. He might be on his way right now. So, if you want me to cover for you, just give me the barebones of what happened,” Vince said.

I swallowed the remaining whiskey in the glass and watched as Vince patched me up with bandages and gauze from the kit.

“Promise you won’t tell a soul?” I asked once he was done.

“Scout’s honor,” he said, extending his pinkie. I coiled my pinkie around his and tugged, then smiled at him.

“I was trying to run away,” I whispered.

“In the middle of the night?!” Vince gasped.

“Shh, you idiot. Yes. In the middle of the night. Long story short, the vamps caught up to me, but I still managed to escape. As I’m about to leave the forest, I come across this guy…Will…just stepping out from behind a couple of trees as if he’s…I don’t know…out of a daze or something. So, yeah, I saved him, and here he is, lying on my bed. Oh, and here’s the absolute kicker. We freaking bonded with each other,” I said. I poured myself some more whiskey and downed it, letting it sedate me into a calmer state.

“What the…” Vincent’s mouth was gaping open and shut, and no words were coming out.

At that moment, before I had any more time to clarify the details of my adventure to a confounded Vince, the door of my home banged open.

There, standing with his face fuming and his muscles twitching, was Maurice Grimm, the pack alpha.

“You…” He growled at me. “Tell me, girl, what were you doing out at night beyond the hours of curfew?”

On ordinary occasions, my faculties tended to freeze whenever Maurice approached me. But today, I had just been through hell and worse, which lent me a false sense of courage, allowing me to stand up and face Maurice and say, “Let’s just say I was rescuing one of our own.”

“What?” Maurice snapped in confusion. “Speak no lies, girl. I can smell them off you.”

“Oh, that’s just whiskey, Maurice. And I’m not telling any lies. Here, let me show you,” I said, heading into my bedroom, where Will lay unconscious.

“Who is this hobo you’ve brought into the commune?” Maurice asked loudly as he prodded Will’s body and turned him around.

“You mean you can’t tell from looking at his face?” Vincent asked from behind.

“Quiet, boy. I’ll see to you later!” Maurice roared. “As for you, you’ll have to answer for your actions in front of the pack.”

“Maurice, take a good look at the man lying in my bed. Can’t you recognize Wilhelm Grimm, the original alpha of the Grimm pack?” I said defensively, standing between Maurice and Will’s unconscious body.

Maurice’s face broke into a series of confused expressions as he bent and observed Will’s face. Then he got up and faced me, eyeing me with glaring anger.

“This bearded, dirty man is not Will Grimm. Will Grimm died some seventy years ago. Perhaps your delusions of grandeur have finally cracked your brain,” he said.

“We can prove it. We’ll call Fred. He’s the only living member of the original pack. And Fred’s bound to recognize his brother,” Vincent said.

“Very well,” Maurice said, regaining his composure. “Go and get your grandpa.”

Vince cast me a worried look as he left the house. I blinked at him reassuringly to let him know that I was capable of holding my own against Maurice.

Vincent had barely left my house when Maurice, who had so far been holding his thinly veiled rage, snarled at me with madness dripping from his eyes and pinned me against the wall with his hand closed around my throat.

“I have heard what you’ve done. My sources tell me that you were deep in the forest in the middle of the night. You know what the penalty is for breaking the curfew, for disobeying the alpha…and now you bring some random mutt to the Abode?”

I could not breathe, and I had no fight left in me to defend myself. Maurice’s grip around my neck tightened, lifting me up in the air. My hands closed around his grip but to no avail. With legs flailing in the air and the vision getting blurrier and blurrier by the second, I struggled to breathe as Maurice’s hand tightened around my throat.

“This isn’t the first time you have been insolent to me, but this may be the last,” Maurice spat.

The last remnants of conscious began escaping from my body the harder Maurice choked me. My arms fell limply to my sides, and my feet stopped thrashing. The only sound in the room was the hoarse gurgling issuing from my throat.

And despite this violence that I was experiencing, the only thought that was coherent in my mind was this: Why had I even bothered to come back?