Northwood

It took Adline a short while to realize her grandmother knew something she didn’t and as the small group dashed across the open field wolves tried attacking them. Luckily for Adline there was always someone there to protect her.

Her grandmother ran as quickly as possible but before long a wolf jumped at them and broke through the group easily. Adline, Harvey and Taylor all stopped in their tracks as the wolf turned wildly lunging at all of them. Adline shielded her grandmother as best as she could but when a scream ripped through the air she stopped dead in her tracks.

Her head turned quickly towards the source of the noise and Adline spotted a wolf attacking her grandmother. The bite to her grandmother’s stomach area was deep and bled profusely. Panic, sorrow and anger filled the young wolves being completely as she lunged at the wolf that inflicted the damage and snapped her jaws at its throat. The dark colored wolf was completely unfamiliar and in that moment she did not care one bit. She wanted its blood. She hungered and thirsted for it instantly which sent a shiver of surprised disgust through her system.

Before long the wolf struggled against her and somehow pushed Adline off. It’s massive jaw closed around her front shoulder as it thrashed its head trying to inflict maximum damage. Adline had never been a great fighter, she had never really liked being in her wolf form but she had also never been filled with so much rage. It was consuming.

Twisting herself around so that her throat was not at risk of being bitten she latched on to anything she could sink her teeth into. Clamping her jaw shut tightly she heard the wolf howl in agony as she shook her head side to side before releasing her enemy. Getting to her feet quickly she looked down on the now whimpering wolf and saw that she’d almost taken one of its hind legs off completely. It dangled by what some might call a thread but all that held it together was a ligament and some sinewy tissue. It was a moment of pure satisfaction but as the blood lust took over a new darkness settled in her and seeing her enemy hurt was not enough.

Turning her attention to the beast’s throat she gave a howl and closed her jaw around the bottom half of its throat. Forcing her jaw closed she soon felt a gush of blood fill her mouth. The warmth of the red liquid easing the lust slightly. As the dark wolf’s life drained away Adline stood watching as the dead beast morphed back into its human form. As it shrank and withered she saw the lifeless pale face of the human staring back at her, ’Roni Watermann,′ her human brain chanted softly.

Recognizing her as a girl she’d schooled with it did little to make Adline’s wolf feel anything for the corpse as she turned back to her grandmother and the group.

Seeing them very near her grandmother’s home she took off dashing in order to catch up with them. She saw Mollie struggling to keep herself going as she finally caught up.

Reluctance reared to life as they left the fight to Kane and David. She’d had a taste for blood, she wanted more. It was addictive and with the amount of adrenaline coursing through her veins it made her hunger for more.

“Adline!” She heard her grandmother call to her. The blood lust seemed to disappear almost instantly. “I don’t have time for this kid! Hurry along before I die and you get stuck with Nox the shadow cunt.”

Limping towards her grandmother she nuzzled in to the old woman as if seeking forgiveness, “Stop it you dolt! Your getting blood everywhere.” Though Mollie scorned her granddaughter she knew most of the blood was hers and felt her life draining from her. “Shift back to human form,” Mollie ordered Adline as she sat on the thick grass and did as commanded.

“Gran I’m sorry I couldn’t save you! I feel like I’m losing everything!” She cried full of sorrow.

Not one for the sentiment Mollie slapped Adline clean across the face, “you wanna cry? I will give you a real reason to cry.” Mollie sucked in a deep breath and coughed and wheezed trying to keep her strength. “What I am about to do will be doubt kill me but you have to get straight to my house. Move the formal dining table and pull up the floorboards.” Her words were rushed but precise as she looked into her granddaughter’s eyes. “The rest is easier to show you... just in case.” Casting an uneasy glance at the wolves around her she received a melody of growls in return. “What do you expect. Your kind are easily influenced.” She growled back.

She motioned for Adline to move closer and as the young, dark haired woman did so Mollie placed her index fingers against Adline’s temples, her thumbs against the base of her skull and her pinkies against Adline’s cheekbones.

Mollie closed her eyes and concentrated, “vide vero,” the short Latin phrase confused Adline but she didn’t have time to think as a lifetime of memories were forced into her mind in an instant.

They were memories filled with happiness but tinged with sadness. She saw through her grandmother the death of her parents. Mollie was made to was her son’s execution, ‘if you ever see Adline again tell her we love her,’ she watched as her mother cried before the same man that shot and killed Tobias did the same to her parents. She saw the death of her grandfather and felt the pain Mollie felt at being classed as an Omega by her son. She watched Mollies fragmented memories and encounters with Adline and felt saddened at how few there were. She noted the practice of capturing Nox and what needed to be done, what tools she needed and the words she had to speak but the last memory her grandmother shared with her broke Adline’s heart into a million pieces and decided the fate of those that had taken her parents from her.

It was a dark and rainy night when Mollie returned for her son and daughter in law. She had been tormented with having to watch their deaths and now she had to bury them. She couldn’t leave them in the field where their lives were taken for the wild animals to eat. She just couldn’t.

Adline saw as she arrived at the field and was pushed around by guards. They laughed at her and taunted her and spat on the bodies of her parents. They laughed when Mollie tried and failed to put the two bodies on the back of her truck and beat anyone that tried to help her. How could anyone be so heartless? So mean? So cruel? Adline saw as Mollie cried when she finally got her son and daughter in law into her truck and drove away. She felt the heartache, the loneliness and isolation.

She felt it all.

What gave Adline peace and calm was seeing that her grandmother bury her parents next to her grandfather. The words she spoke at their gravesites and the flowers she took to them almost daily. It comforted her more than anyone could ever know it would. When the fighting was all over she made a mental note that she wanted to return and pray over her parents, bring them flowers and just talk to them. Adline wanted to do it. She knew it would bring her peace of mind and help heal her soul.

Mollie felt well and truly drained, everything she had fought to keep in order now rested on the shoulders of her extremely inexperienced granddaughter. She had to pray to the Moon Goddess for help and for strength for the young, naïve woman. There wasn’t much hope but Mollie hoped with everything that she had left that Adline was strong enough to do what needed to be done. That she had the resilience and resolve to do the hard things and not just the gross things.

“You are stronger than you know,” whispered Mollie as her hands dropped away from the sides of Aldine’s face and her head fell backwards. Mollie knew Adline didn’t know what she meant by her words but she knew that she would seek the truth.

Pulling her gaze up to look at Harvey who had now shifted back to human form Adline nodded her head as he knelt down and picked up the lifeless woman carefully. Adline would have found Mollie as light as a feather if she were uninjured but due to the injury inflicted to her shoulder she had no strength in that side.

“She didn’t say what needed to be done,” Harvey barely heard any words exchanged. Even in the midst of all the growling and howling he didn’t hear how they were supposed defeat Luce and Ambrose. The trio were yet to learn of Nox.

“Just get me to that house, I will take care of the rest.” Adline demanded as they all began moving again.