Chapter 7: Alex’s Return
a man standing in front of the door black and white silhouette.
Brooke sat in her bed, propped up on a pile of pillows, sketching absentmindedly with a piece of charcoal, on a much-needed break from the seemingly endless reading assignments from her history class. Most of her homework for form drawing was to keep a sketchbook throughout the quarter to be included in the final portfolio.
The lines on her page gradually resolved into a face, and she realized she was drawing Avery. Something she’d found herself doing a lot recently. She made adjustments here and there, until she had captured the image that transfixed her mind’s eye. Avery, softly lit by Brooke’s dim bedside lamp, smirking off of the page at her, her eyes shadowed but still glowing. Brooke sighed dreamily. She set the sketch aside and made herself work on an actual assignment for her figure drawing class: a lifelike sketch of her room. The dorm room was too quiet, so she turned on some low-tempo music. It was Sunday so the campus was quiet during the day. Avery had had to leave to go do some work for her family business.
Avery had hardly left Brooke’s side all week. She walked her to classes whenever she could and had stayed over in her dorm room the past three nights. Somehow with Avery there, Brooke was able to get better sleep than she had in years. They hadn’t done much more than sleep though. Every time things got too steamy between them, Avery would break things off, then apologize and get all withdrawn. Just like she had on their first date.
Alex still hadn’t gotten back from wherever he was, and Brooke was starting to get seriously worried. He was missing a lot of class. The last she’d seen of him he’d been making out with a very aggressive friend of Avery’s, Rachel, then they’d both disappeared. Avery had assured her that he was fine, and they had just decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment trip together, but she wouldn’t say where they’d gone, or why. Brooke had tried calling him several times, but his phone was dead.
Just as she was considering trying him again, Brooke heard a key fumbling with the door lock, and she held her breath. Several seconds later the door swung open, revealing Alex’s familiar silhouette. He stepped in and shut the door behind him. He was wearing clothes that Brooke didn’t recognize, and it looked like he hadn’t shaved all week, his face covered in a centimeter of scruff. Brooke just watched, silent, as he shrugged off the baggy jacket he was wearing, sat down heavily on his bed, and ran a hand through his hair.
“Well?” she asked. Alex didn’t seem eager to speak first. “How was it?” Brooke smirked suggestively. She had been worried, but now that she saw he was safe and sound, all she wanted were juicy details. Alex chuckled and blushed slightly. As he leaned forward to grab his charger off of the desk, the stretched-out neck of the faded t-shirt he was wearing fell off his shoulder, and Brooke caught sight of two V-shaped rows of bright red marks on the skin of his left shoulder, right around the spot where it met his neck. Brooke gasped.
“What the hell is that?” she asked, swinging her legs over the side of her bed that faced Alex’s and hurrying over to him. “Are you okay?!”
Alex shrugged her off, pulling his collar up in an attempt to hide the marks. “It’s nothing.” Brooke sat down on the bed next to him.
“What are those marks, Alex? Did you get bit by a dog or something?”
“Seriously,” Alex said, his tone calm. “I’m fine.” Brooke furrowed her brows at him, not buying it. He relented and leaned into the lamplight, pulling his shirt aside so Brooke could see more clearly. The marks were bright red, but the skin looked unbroken. They almost resembled small, brand new stretch marks, before they faded to white. “See?”
“What is this?” Brooke asked again reaching out to touch one of the spots. It felt like normal skin, but hot to the touch, almost feverish. Alex looked to the side, avoiding her eyes.
“Brooke,” he started, sounding serious. “I have to tell you something, and I have no fucking clue how to say this…” He trailed off.
Brooke leaned in, listening intently. “You know you can tell me anything.” Alex took a deep breath, letting it out excruciatingly slowly.
“I know this is going to sound crazy… but, our girlfriends are werewolves.”
Brooke laughed, assuming he must be kidding. “No, seriously, what is it?”
“I am serious, Brooke. They’re both werewolves. It’s okay though! They won’t hurt us.” he reassured her, his tone gentle.
Brooke was still trying to process what he was saying. “What do you mean ‘they’re werewolves’?” she asked, shaking her head in confusion. “And how did you know Avery asked me to be her girlfriend when your phone’s been off? And since when are you and Rachel a couple? This woman kidnaps you for almost a week, you’ve missed all your classes, and now you’re calling her your girlfriend?!”
“She is my girlfriend!” Alex sounded defensive. “Rachel told me about you and Avery. Avery told her.”
“Wait, you’ve seen Avery?”
“Yeah, her and Rachel live together, in the pack house. Although she hasn’t been around much the past week. Until this morning, that is.”
Brooke smiled slightly, knowing that she was the reason why. Her head was still spinning, unable to make sense of what Alex was trying to tell her. He just looked at her, letting the words sink in. It was ridiculous. Of course, it was. But a nagging voice in the back of Brooke’s mind argued that it made a certain amount of sense. It would explain how impossibly strong and fast Avery was, and possibly also why her eyes sometimes seemed to glow bright gold.
“There’s no way,” Brooke said, shaking her head. “Werewolves? No way! You’re pulling a prank on me, right?”
“I promise you, I’m not. Think about it. Isn’t Avery crazy strong? Super fast?”
Brooke shook her head, but Alex’s words did make her think. “No, she’s an athlete.”
“Rachel isn’t. Doesn’t it strike you as odd at all how quickly your relationship is moving? How your mood seems to change when you’re around her?”
“Yeah, because I’m into her!”
Alex seemed to consider for a moment, then he sent a text, put his phone back into his pocket, and started to pull his socks and shoes back on. “Come on, I’ll show you. You’ll believe it when you see for yourself.”
“What do you mean?” Brooke said, reaching for a pair of socks.
“I know how crazy this sounds. I think you just have to see with your own eyes. Come on, I’ll drive.” Brooke slipped on her shoes and snagged a blue hoodie off of her desk chair, hurrying out of the dorm after Alex.
They drove in tense silence for almost twenty minutes. Brooke watched at the ‘Now Leaving Moss, Oregon. Come Back Soon’ sign shrink in the rear-view mirror until it was invisible. Avery and Rachel lived a good way outside of town. She thought about saying something several times, but what would she say? Alex’s claims were crazy. How could she argue with him?
Alex took the nearest state highway which ran out of Moss and into the depths of the dense forest that surrounded it. The further out they got, the fewer houses they saw, until eventually they turned onto a gravel road and all they passed were thick trees. The farther they went, the less Brook could convinvceherself that this was some incredibly elaborate practical joke. Alex was never this serious about anything unless it was really important.
Before long the trees parted into a large clearing dominated by a colossal brick building. It was immense, at least the size of the larger buildings on their campus, with old leaded windows throughout.
A flicker of movement caught Brooke’s eye off to her right and her heart dropped into her stomach with fear at the sight that met her eyes. There were 2 huge wolves, not fifty feet from their car, rolling back and forth and snapping at each other’s necks. One was chestnut brown with long, shaggy fur, the other slightly larger and jet black, its fur curling slightly along its spine. The brown wolf looked up when it heard their engine, abandoning the fight to sprint towards the car.
Brooke threw her hands up in front of her face, but the wolf leapt clear over the car, skidding to a halt on the driver’s side, and turning back towards them. Brooke watched in wide-eyed horror as Alex threw open his door and skipped over to the massive brown wolf, throwing his arms around its neck. To Brooke’s shock, the wolf nuzzled into his hands as if it was a pet dog, not a terrifying predator.
Brooke suddenly remembered the other wolf and her head snapped back around painfully, her neck muscles screaming in protest. The larger black wolf had hardly moved an inch. It stood, head down and facing the car, still as a statue. Then it slowly raised its head, and even from far away, Brooke couldn’t mistake the liquid gold color of those eyes. She felt her head get light and the last thing she could remember seeing was the black wolf running towards her.