Animal Heart(56)

“For God's sake, just go to sleep or something...” she growled in pointless desperation, and he closed his eyes and immediately sunk to the ground and slumbered at her feet. Her mind swam for a moment. How could this be? But she didn't have time to think about it, there were a lot more of them out there. One sleeping werewolf was not a victory by any stretch of the imagination.

She took off as quickly as she could, looking for the others. She felt it was a hopeless task. How could she ever hope to track down and stop eleven other werewolves before they ravaged Heart? She stayed central, in the main part of town, hiding behind cars, in the shadows. It was quiet, only a few vehicles were coming down the main street. She saw a set of orange eyes approaching her from a side alleyway. She moved towards them, it was Mia.

Maddy growled at her. 'Sit'. And she sat. She walked around Mia in amazement as she growled at her threateningly. How could she do this? Make a full moon killer werewolf obey her against their will? 'Lay on your back', she commanded with a snarl. Mia flipped on her back, her claws slashing wildly in the air. 'Hide and sit quietly', she ordered, and Mia scampered off, back up the alleyway, growling in complaint at being denied her murdering pleasures.

So many left to find...

She trailed up and down the street, hiding her form from the few people she saw and looking desperately for any sign of another werewolf. She heard a scream, far off, and then another close by. A very loud, piercing scream. She made towards the source of it quickly. He ears picking up the signs of a fierce struggle. As she rounded the corner, a large house stood before her and there she found Verity, her small white nose identifying her quickly. She had their favorite sergeant beneath her on the driveway, and before Maddy could utter a word to stop her, she ripped her throat out, violently. Philomena's eyes dimmed and she died almost instantly, as blood spurted from the massive, gaping wound in her neck. She shifted into her human form and rushed naked to her side.

“Verity, no... No more killing. Oh God... Tell me how to stop all this?” she screamed in horror, holding the poor woman's hand. The wild little she-wolf looked at her with devil-made eyes. To her amazement, she spoke human words, guttural and deep...

“Cross of fire, water and earth, a holy union     will end the moon's curse.”

“Go hide, sit quietly somewhere,” she ordered. She was sickened, overwhelmed, and also confused by the brutal and strange events that had just occurred.

Talking werewolves? Am I losing my fucking mind?

Verity bounded off growling and snarling against her will, up the path behind the house, which Maddy assumed was the Stevens' home.

Maddy sat at the dead sergeant's side in miserable defeat.

“I'm so sorry...” she said to her lifeless body as tears flowed down her face. “She didn't know. She would never have done this.”

A minute or two later the mayor's large and expensive Cadillac Escalade turned up the driveway. She shifted and slunk away into the darkness nearby. His headlights shone on his wife, lying on the ground, lifeless in a pool a blood. She wanted to speak, to console him. But how could she, what the fuck could she say? Not that she would, having no clothes to wear in her human form. He approached with a wail of horror and disbelief, throwing himself on his dead wife's body. “Philly... Oh no, not my Philly... Who would have done this...? No, no, no... Not my lovely wife...”

Being at a violent murder scene wasn't a particularly good idea. Wolf or human... she needed to go.

She turned and sidled off quickly, leaving the scene, saddened and distraught. At that moment, Aden's wolf approached the mayor from across the street, stalking him from the rear. His snarling, drooling, angry jaws about to rip him to pieces.

'Go hide and sit,' she commanded with a glare, and he turned with a deep growl of resentment, leaving the scene quickly, and pounding away down the side street opposite with his long-legged strides.

My God, I really do have the power of command...

She was coming to realise just how powerful her shifter abilities were.

That was her gift.

The gift of control. Of saving lives.

If she'd known this, she could have made them all sleep in their beds at the ranch. This needn't have happened. None of it. She turned away from the bloodied body of Philomena and the grieving Mayor, and started to walk back to the truck, hoping to find and gather up some more of the others. A deep male scream and a loud snarling noise behind her caught her attention, and she turned. Shane had the Mayor by the leg. He'd dragged him off his wife's body and along the floor. The Mayor was shouting obscenities at him as he kicked at him wildly with his free leg. His fangs had already sunk deeply into his flesh, gnawing at him, blood appearing on his light colored pants.