54. Chapter 54

Chapter 54

H oly...

What the...

She had never seen anything like the monsters in front of her. This was not her mind playing tricks on her. She could hear the snarls. She could smell the matted wolf. It smelled like something dead that should have been buried long ago.

But the other thing, the one with the red eyes...

It was the thing she had seen the night of the storm. It had jumped over her the same way.

That couldn't be real, but her mind told her it was.

She'd thought the red wolf was huge, but this thing was humongous! Its teeth were razor-sharp and could easily chomp off half her body without trying. In the reduced lighting in the woods, its dark grey fur looked as silky as the red wolf's. And while she had never felt afraid of the red wolf, she was terrified of this one.

At least she knew she was supposed to be terrified. She felt nothing as she watched the wolves tumble and fight each other.

And then a head rolled right to her feet.

She stifled a scream as she looked at the matted wolf's open, lifeless eyes and then at the thing that had killed it.

Was she next?

She started to inch back again. She should have run when they had been fighting, but she'd been too busy trying to process what she could see.

She was still trying.

The thing... The wolf? It lowered its head and looked her in the eye. To prepare to attack? If it was a wolf, then she knew not to challenge it. She lowered her gaze and stopped moving. If she appeared less threatening, it would leave her alone. Hopefully.

But it came forward, one giant paw after the other. She could see it in her peripheral vision until she felt the heat from its huge body. She felt its warm breath on her face.

Something dripped onto her lap, and when she looked at it, she realised it was blood.

The thing was dripping blood all over her.

She should have been shaking. There was so much pressure in her head from the things she should have felt that she closed her eyes against them.

That morning she had decided she wouldn't freeze if attacked again, but how did someone not freeze against this monster?

She closed her eyes and whispered, "Please don't hurt me."

Did such wild animals understand human languages? Would it be able to read her body language?

"Please," she repeated.

A moment passed, and then another. Her head was ready to explode, but the monster didn't make its move. When she couldn't take the suspense any longer, she opened her eyes.

It was gone.

There was nothing there, not even the foul-smelling wolf that had been killed in front of her.

Was this... Had she imagined this again?

"Miss Layla."

She startled and looked behind her. Two men were jogging towards her, and as they got closer, she realised they were the two she had bumped into at the door.

She got to her feet quickly and looked around again. Though it was a little dark, she could see the dark patch where the head had been.

She couldn't have imagined this. The giant wolves had been real. The spot of blood on her leggings was real.

"Miss Layla."

She turned around to the men. Had they seen the monster? Did they know what lurked in their woods?

"Are you okay? You've come too far down the trail alone; we've been sent to escort you back."

The man didn't look around, so she didn't know if he could see the blood on the ground. She opened her mouth to tell him but closed it straight away.

She was sure she had seen what she had seen. But what if she hadn't?

"Who sent you?" she asked instead.

Her voice was clear and steady, yet inside, she was a mess.

"Alph... It was Jackson," the man answered.

Alpha.

The chill went through her body again.

The things she had seen had been huge wolves. These people called Jackson ‘Alpha'. They had called her human several times. And the growls. The inhuman strength. The time Jackson returned to his room with blood all over him...

She hadn't lost her mind.

Wolves.

Werewolves.

Her head started to spin as that possibility whirled around and around in her head.

It was impossible. Werewolves were fiction. This was real life.

"Miss Layla," the man repeated. "We really have to head back, or Jackson will wonder why we're taking so long."

She pushed the ridiculous thoughts out of her head and walked towards the two men.

The two huge men who were as big as all the werewolf fiction books said.

Stop. She had to stop. It was impossible.

She started to walk down the trail. The men walked beside her without speaking another word. Or were they communicating telepathically?

No. Impossible.

She started to jog. The men kept her pace. The trees became sparser, and more sunlight reached them. She snuck a look at the younger man running beside her. Did his eyes also glow?

No.

She couldn't think like this. Even if the story fit, it was ridiculous.

She ran faster until she came out of the woods. People were still walking around; nothing had changed out there. But her head... Her head was different. It kept trying to connect things that shouldn't have been connected.

Were they all werewolves? Was that why they lived in the middle of the dangerous forest?

Were they the wolves that everyone in town was scared of?

No.

Impossible.

Things like that didn't happen.

They were a weird cult. A group of narcissistic people who believed they were superior. They wouldn't have lived in the woods if such giant monsters roamed in them, killing each other. That didn't seem safe for anyone.

Before she was ready, she was deposited in the lobby, and the two men nodded and walked back out.

Her heart was still beating steadily.

"I told you I wasn't going to take long. If you'd been that eager to go back for a run, you should have found me."

She sucked in a breath and looked at the man descending the stairs. His hair was wet from a shower, and he'd changed into a dark t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

Alpha? The highest-ranked werewolf?

She had to stop. The pressure in her head became unbearable as she looked at the impossibly handsome man approaching her.

Too handsome to be a mere human.

And the night he had saved her from being kidnapped, he'd just happened to be nearby?

"Layla, I'm speaking to you. Why did you leave the bedroom without me?"

The growls outside the truck when she had been tied up with Brit. The screams. The way the screams had stopped one by one.

Werewolves.

Jackson and Dylan.

Jackson frowned as he stopped in front of her. His unusual coloured eyes... Werewolf eyes? It all made sense, and yet no sense at all.

"Do you want to go and work out now?"

She shook her head without looking away from his face.

"Do you want to go and lie down?" Jackson asked.

Maybe that was for the best. She would sleep before her head exploded. Maybe her counsellor had been right that her imagination would be the death of her.

She walked past Jackson without answering him and started to walk up the stairs. Everything would make sense when she woke up. There were no such things as werewolves. Just her overactive imagination again.