Furry Humans

❝Run, run, as fast as you can. . .❞

XAVIER

I tried not to become paranoid. I try to wait a few minutes longer because I know that she probably wanted to settle in, it wasn’t that long of a drive from here to her house but still; the worry is eating me alive.

“She’s fine,” Justin says, walking up from beside me.

Everyone has long gone to bed, the house dimmed in lighting and noises as everyone ventured into their own rooms and settle in for the night; that left Justin, Dylan and myself in the living room as I worried about Abigail.

I sigh, dropping my phone beside me, running a hand down my face them rub my brows from how long I’ve been frowning. “I won’t be sure until she calls,” I reply.

Dylan walks in the same moment Justin sits beside me on the sofa.

“Stop messing with him,” Dylan calls out, striding over to us, “You would be the same way if it was Stella.”

Justin simply clicks his tongue playfully and sinks further into the sofa cushion. My eyes betrayed me and flickered down to my phone beside me, the worry in me reaching a new height, and just as I was about to pick up the phone an interruption in the mind link pulled me away.

’Xavier.′ my Dad’s voice rung in my head, ‘What I’m about to tell you, I need you to keep an open mind and be clear of anything in your way.’ from the harden tone he gave off and the waves of tension that can be felt through the link made me uneasy.

‘Whatever you have to say, just say it.’ I tell him.

His sigh passes over through the link, ‘There’s been a kidnapping close on way out of town, we don’t know who or what but all we know is that they’re gone and can’t be traced.’

‘Who was taken?’ I ask, my pulsing raising when he didn’t immediately answer.

‘Xavier. . .’

I shoot to my feet, the beast in my head growling in the back of my head, giving its way forward. Justin and Dylan speak but their voices are muffled by my own anxiety.

’Dad tell me!′

‘Cole’s mate and Abigail were taken, we can’t smell their scents anywhere to track where they were taken. . I’m sorry, son.’

The rest of his words drown out as the beast’s anguish roar rattles my brain and fuels my movements, I cut the link off promptly and dart from the living room and towards the front door.

“Xavier!”

I rip the door open, my claws digging into the wood as I rush outside not the quite, still air. My body drums and vibrates as heat raises at an alarming rate, my muscles rippling beneath my skin as my feet slammed into the snow.

The beast surges forward, violent growls rising from my chest and into the air, blazing heat envelops my bones filling my veins like a fire was lit inside me and yearning to burn everything in its path; my muscles pop and rearrange for him, my steps faltering then picking up as I jump into the air, landing on four legs.

I zip through the trees, zigzagging and letting my beast run free, taking me to the scene of where it all went wrong. Air flows over my fur and into my ears, flattening them to the skull of my head, I gain speed becoming a blur of motion; I make it to the town’s beginning in no time.

Everyone’s scent floods my nose, my Dad stood off to the side speaking with Justin’s Dad— his beta— while pack warriors stood around, alert and ready for any danger; including Mason. A growling frenzy sounds off farther away from the group, and I see Abigail’s Dad struggling against warriors bigger than him in muscle, one knocked his legs from underneath him and slammed his form into the snow while pinning his arms behind his back.

“Diana!!” he hollers, “Let me go! I need to find them! Abigail!"

All my muscles bunch up, my eyes swing away and towards the SUV in a ditch by the road, before I know it I’m darting from the seams of the forest and across the road to the other side, my laws slide along the snow; skidding to a stop as I take in the drastic scene before me.

The looked as if it’s been bulldozed, the doors were crumbled, the passenger’s door dangling from one hinge. Glass was shattered and scattered all over the ground, the front of the SUV was wrapped around the bark of a tree; Abigail’s scent drenched the area with a few spots that mingled with her mother’s, small pools of blood was on the ground near the ripped door.

Nothing but anxiety and fear brewed up inside me, washing over my senses and flooding my mind from any logical thought but to find her. I needed to find her, I needed her in my arms, I needed her safe, I needed her scent to overwhelm me into oblivion.

I needed Abigail.

An emotion made my legs tremble and my paws to sink deeper into the snow, my fur rippled like soundless waves as small growls tear from my chest and gradually grow louder in volume until I tilt my head back and howl into the night, out to the moon to give me my mate back.

This feeling was terror. Pure terror of what will happen to Abigail while I’m not around to save her.

ABIGAIL

I was dragged from my dreamless sleep with sharp zap pain to my arm that zings through my sleeping conscious. I gasp loudly, eyes snapping open and gazing up at nothing, I was laid on my back on a cold hard surface gazing up at a dark ceiling. My temples were pounding with a splitting headache and my arm was throbbing from an area somewhere on it, the atmosphere was heavy, and still as I blink to collect my bearings; a pressure and burning around my neck brings my attention to something wrapped around it.

Lifting my hand, my fingertips brush along the sleek object before a stinging pain shocks my nerves and forces me to pull my hand away with a hiss. That’s when a whirlwind of images slam into my mind, I quickly sit up, the world tilting and spinning at the sudden movements.

The ‘room’ I was placed in was cold, damp, and dingy, the smell of mold and other foul things that my sensitive nose picked up left my mind woozy and sense drowned. Suddenly a thought comes to my mind.

“Mom?!” I call out, blinking furiously at the small haze that clouded my eyes.

“Mom!”

“Right here, sweetie.” her reply was soft and almost hard to pick up.

I whirl to the side, the object around my neck stopping me from moving forward and digging into my skin as I gaze around the room to see her leaned up against the wall, arms cradling her belly and eyes focused on me, clear concern shining in them.

“Are you okay?” I ask, scanning her body for any injuries. I only catch small bruises here and there and the glint of sliver. . .chains? wrapped around her wrist.

She gives me a weak smile, “I should be asking you that,” she whispers.

I look away from her and around the room, the dark brick walls glistening with a sheen coat of moist water, the air humid and dry, I glance to the side to see bars lined up and caging us in confirming my suspension of the room being a cell. I pivot my head down to take a look at the thing around my neck, having a clue it looked the same as what was around Mom’s wrist.

I grip the collar and tug, gritting my teeth to keep in the hisses of pain at the material burns my files. I call forth the strength of my beast with no avail, whatever material the collar was made out of it stopped all connections with the one in the back of my mind. Sighing heavily, I drop my hands, staring down at the rest burn markings; confused.

“Where are we?” I ask out loud, more to myself than to Mom, my emotions jumbled.

“I don’t know. .” Mom replied, her voice trembling. “I don’t know.”