The Werewolf's Sabbat Ch. 11

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Jan, while I'm gone I would appreciate it if you stayed as near to the mansion as you can. Don't go wandering off anywhere unsupervised."

Janette noticed the worried look in Mitch's eyes. "What's going on? Is there something I need to know?"

"No. I just have a bad feeling, that's all. Just humor me, Jan. Stay close by and don't wander off." She nodded her head and Mitch brought her hand to his lips to kissed her knuckles lightly. "I promise I won't be long."

Janette watched Mitch walk out the door and head downstairs to his jeep. She sat there and shook her head with a small smile on her face. He's probably just being over protective, she thought to herself. She got up from the bed and slipped her shoes on. She walked over to the bathroom mirror and quickly tied her hair up into a ponytail. She slid her fingers over the bite mark on her neck and was surprised to notice it was healing quite nicely.

Janette skipped down the winding stairs and headed towards the kitchen. She turned the corner to find Mariah standing at the kitchen island fixing herself a sandwich. "You don't mind if I have a glass of juice, do you?"

Mariah laughed lightly. "Oh Janette, you don't have to ask. Just help yourself. This is as much your home as it is mine now, remember?"

Janette retrieved a glass from the cabinet and filled it with orange juice from the refrigerator. She took a sip from her glass before turning back to Mariah. "Hey, I have a great idea," she said with her eyebrows raised in excitement. "Let's you and I hop in my car and go to the city and shop. There's a few things I need to pick up from a few stores. We could make a day of it."

"What exactly do you need to pick up?" Mariah asked with a curious look.

"Um... well..." Janette blushed deeply at the thought of what she had been planning to buy. "Lingerie?"

"Aha! I see," Mariah said with a wink. "You two getting a little freaky, eh?"

Janette's blush deepened and she was kicking herself for having brought it up. "Well... no... I just..."

Mariah threw her head back and laughed loudly. "It's okay! I'm just giving you shit." She finished making her sandwich and used a knife to slice it in half down the middle. "Jan, I would love to shop with you but I'm afraid I will have to take a rain check. I have a crazy schedule today. Maybe next time?"

Janette took another sip from her glass. "It's okay. I understand. Maybe next time." She smiled and watched Mariah walk out of the kitchen, her sandwich and a glass of milk in hand. Janette finished her juice and put the glass in the sink. She walked back up the stairs to Mitch's room and grabbed her purse, digging the car keys from the bottom of it. She checked to make sure that she had her wallet with her license and credit card and headed back down the stairs and to her car in the driveway. I won't be gone but for an hour and a half or so. What harm could that do? she thought to herself.

After driving for about half an hour, Janette pulled her car into the parking lot of one of the more popular clothing stores in Seattle. She got out of the car and locked the doors. When she walked inside the store, she was amazed at how skimpy some of the everyday street clothes looked, not to mention the lingerie section.

"May I help you find anything?" asked the store clerk.

"No, thank you. I'm just looking." Janette smiled politely and turned back to the rack of lingerie she had been looking through. Most of the stuff on the rack wasn't her style. She kept rummaging through the skimpy lacy clothing until she came upon a hunter green bra and panty set with a matching sheer lace robe. It was perfect. She looked at the price tag and stood there with her jaw hanging. She had never paid that much for clothing before. What the hell, she thought. It was worth it to see the look on Mitch's face when she wore it for him. She searched around to find the outfit in her size and took it to the register. After paying with her credit card, Janette thanked the clerk and walked back out to her car smiling from ear to ear.

Janette had just pulled out onto the main road when she looked down and noticed that her gas tank was on 'E'. She pulled into the nearest gas station, pulled up alongside one of the pumps and got out of the car. She paid at the pump using her credit card and began filling her car with gas. She wasn't really paying attention and barely registered the voice calling her name from the car next to her.

"Jan? Jan, is that you?" the bouncy blonde asked.

Janette looked over to find her friend Melissa filling her car at the next pump over. She hadn't seen her since the night at the club when Mitch and Melissa had a date. "Oh my God, Melissa. How have you been? I've tried to call you several times. For a moment, I thought you may have dropped off the edge of the earth or something." She walked over to her friend and gave her a hug. "You look amazing. Have you been working out or something?"

Melissa laughed lightly. "No, there have been a lot of things going on. Jesus! What did you do to your neck?" Melissa asked with a disgusted look on her face. "That looks awful. Maybe you should go have that looked at."

Janette ran a finger across the nearly healed bite mark. "Oh I did. It's fine. Doc says everything's healing up nicely," she lied. Janette caught a glimpse into the car Melissa was filling with gas. It was full of suitcases. "You going somewhere, Melissa?"

Melissa looked back at her car and then back at Janette. "I'm leaving town. I don't think I will be coming back. Look, do me a favor. If anyone happens to ask you where I am, you haven't seen or heard from me, okay? I can't explain, Jan. Just trust me. There is some messed up shit going on in this city."

"You're telling me," Janette said, smiling as she thought of the first time she saw Mitch shift into his wolf form.

"Girl, I gotta run. Got a lot of driving ahead of me." Melissa gave Janette another hug. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

Janette nodded her head. "Yeah, I will. You do the same." She waived one last time as she watched Melissa pull away and drive down the street heading for the highway. Why was she in such a hurry to leave? she wondered. Janette shook her head, dismissing the whole incident and got back in her car after closing the gas cap.

Janette drove down the highway for a good twenty minutes before turning left onto the dirt road that would eventually bring her back to the mansion. She had briefly considered visiting her grandmother while she was out but thought better of it. She didn't want to be gone too long. She wanted to be back before Mitch returned. She turned up the car radio as loud as it would go. The song that was playing wasn't her favorite but she sang along anyway.

Janette was in mid chorus when she was violently jarred forward and almost hit her head on the steering wheel. For a moment, she thought that she had hit something in the road, perhaps a deer. She tried to maintain control of the car but the thick sand on the road made that nearly impossible. After swerving for several seconds, she finally got the car straightened out. It was then that she looked in the rear view mirror and noticed the car behind her.

She had, in fact, not hit a deer but rather had been rammed by the car following her. Her heart leaped in her chest as a kind of fear over took her. She slammed on the gas pedal in an attempt to get away from the offending driver following her. It didn't work. She was rammed again, this time sending her car completely out of control. She felt the car spinning in circles several times before finally hitting a tree.

Janette was knocked unconscious for a moment or two. When she opened her eyes she saw that the windshield was cracked and she could smell gasoline fumes. She shook her head in an attempt to clear the fog from her mind. When she lifted a hand up to touch her forehead she looked and saw that her hand was covered in blood. She clumsily fumbled for the door handle and opened it, practically falling out of the car.

When she finally got her feet under her and stood up, she looked back to find a blond man getting out of the car behind her. He calmly walked to the trunk and opened it. He pulled out what looked to be a length of rope and a roll of duct tape.

The level of calm that this man displayed sent a cold shiver down Janette's spine. He closed the trunk and slowly started walking in her direction. It didn't take long for her to recognize the man as being the patient she had helped take care of in the hospital. Even though Janette was still groggy from the bump on her forehead, she felt a surge of adrenaline flood her blood stream and a voice in her head telling her to run. She turned towards the woods on the side of the road and ran as fast as she could into them.

Janette didn't recognize where she was but kept running anyway, trying to guess at which direction would take her to the mansion. She knew that if she could just make it there that there would be plenty of people who could help her and she would be safe.

Janette ran as fast as she could for as long as she could until she finally had to stop to catch her breath. She stood in the middle of the woods leaning over with her hands on her knees panting, trying to breathe normal and stay calm. She thought for a moment that she had lost her pursuer until she heard a rustling in the trees about twenty yards behind her. She bolted off into a run again, forcing herself to ignore the stabbing pain in her side. She screamed out when she tripped over a fallen tree branch and felt her ankle painfully and unnaturally twist to the side. She landed face first in the fallen leaves carpeting the ground.

Janette turned herself over to find the blond man not far behind her, slowly walking towards her, his face twisted in a violent grimace. He still held the rope twisted in his right hand and the roll of duct tape in his left hand.

Janette tried to stand but cried out in agony when she put weight on her twisted ankle. She knew it was probably broken and started crawling on her hands and knees, trying desperately to get away even though she knew she couldn't.

Janette let out a painful grunt when the blond man finally reached her and kicked her hard in the stomach. She felt the bile rise in her throat and tried not to vomit as she held her stomach and lay in a fetal position on the ground. He reached down and grabbed her by the back of her hair, forcing her to stand on her one good leg. He stood directly behind her, holding her up with his mouth close to her ear.

"You thought you could run and hide from me, didn't you, Marie?" he asked in a low guttural voice. "I know you have seen me a couple of times and I know you recognized me. You're not a very good actress, I have to say," he said as he roughly threw Janette back to the ground, her body landing with a hard thud, knocking the wind from her lungs.

Janette lay there in a state of confusion, not sure how to approach the situation. "I don't know what you're talking about. My name's not Marie," she croaked. Her throat was dry as sandpaper from the exertion of running for so long.

"Oh," the man said with a sneer on his face. "So we're playing that game now." He kicked her again in the stomach and once in the face.

Janette felt that she was about to lose consciousness and was trying desperately hard not to cry in front of her tormentor. She began screaming as loud as she could in her mind for Mitch to come find her. She knew that he said they wouldn't be able to talk to each other from long distances but she tried anyway. She prayed that he could at least pick up on her emotions and realize that she was in trouble and needed help. She suddenly found herself wishing that she had listened to Mitch and stayed in the mansion. "Who are you? What do you want from me?" she asked, her bottom lip began to quiver as she lost control of her emotions.

"Oh, don't start your crying now, you little bitch. You deserve everything you're getting and you know it. By the way, just who was that asshole you were sitting with on the bench by the river the other night? Another lover of yours? Just how many lovers does a tramp like you have anyway?"

Janette watched the man pace back and forth in front of her for several moments. She wasn't positive but it seemed that the man was talking to himself. He seemed to get more and more agitated before he finally faced her again. He squatted down in front of Janette and looked her straight in the eyes, a slow wicked smile taking over his features.

"I have just the thing for you," he said in a rough whisper. "You see, Marie, I still want you just like I always have. Yeah, you may be a little more used up than what I usually go for but I still want you. Of course, first you will have to be appropriately punished. I'm sure you understand."

Janette's eyes went wide when she saw the man stand up and throw the long length of rope over a thick tree limb. He tied one end off on a nearby tree stump and started walking back towards her. He reached for her hands and bound them with the other end of the rope. Janette began trying to fight him off but it was no use. He was so much stronger than she was.

Once he was satisfied with the knot he made around her wrists he let her go and walked over to untie the other end from the stump. He then slowly began pulling on the rope bringing Janette painfully to her feet. She tried fighting but again it was no use. Once he had her suspended by the rope standing on her tiptoes, he retied the other end securely to the tree again.

He walked back to Janette and circled her several times as though he was considering what to do next. "I think a couple of days hanging here should do the trick, don't you?" he asked as though he expected her to happily agree with him. "I expect you not to run from me ever again, Marie. Evading me like that wasn't a very nice thing to do." He slid his forefinger down the side of Janette's bruised and bloodied face. "You always were so beautiful. The shitty thing is, you knew it. Vanity doesn't become you, Marie."

Janette shook her head utterly confused. "My name is not Marie. I think you have the wrong person," she said as one tear slid down her cheek. She closed her eyes and flinched when his fist met her cheekbone with a loud crack. It took her a moment to regain her senses and she slowly looked up at the man seeing him through only one eye as the other was slowly swelling shut.

"I'm not fucking stupid, Marie. Don't play games with me!" he shouted before walking a few feet back. He took a deep breath as though to calm his temper and closed his eyes. "Now I'm going to come back in a day or two to check on you. If you are still here and not been mauled by a wild animal then you can come home with me where I will forgive you for all that you have done. I will take care of you then. Oh, and by the way, Marie," he said with a knowing smile stretching across his face. "You have no idea what kind of animals are out here." He turned to walk back to his car and leave but stopped in his tracks when he heard Janette's voice.

"Hey!" she said with rebellion in her voice. She watched him turn to look at her. "I hope you rot in hell," she whispered. Janette gasped when she saw the man walk back towards her only his body was swiftly changing into something else. She heard the bones cracking, muscles, and tendons moving but then everything stopped. What she saw before her was not a wolf but not a man either. It was some form of hybrid or another. She wasn't entirely sure what she was looking at but she knew that it scared the hell out of her. She tried not to scream when he brought his ugly muzzle within inches of her face.

"Do you really?" he growled.

Janette let out an anguished groan as the unrecognizable creature sank the razor sharp claws on both of his hands deep into her sides. She felt the warm blood pouring from the puncture wounds down her abdomen and her body went limp. She looked down and her heart began to race in fear and panic. She had never seen so much blood before. It seemed to be pouring out like from a faucet.

The man/beast stood watching her for several moments. Janette felt her body become heavy. She was no longer able to hold her own head up and everything was becoming foggy and dark.

"Oh, no you don't," the man said when he saw Janette's eyes roll back in her head. "Bullshit! You're not going to die on me now. You are going to suffer every bit of your punishment." He knelt down in front of her dying body and in one swoop, forcefully sank his sharp teeth into the wounds on her side.

*

"Alexander, Jude, thanks for meeting us on such short notice." Mitch had just arrived at the restaurant with Liam and Jack in tow. It took them nearly an hour to arrive as they had a couple other errands to run while in the city. "I'm sorry we are running a few minutes behind."

"That's not a problem." Alexander said with a kind smile. "So, what's going on that you needed to meet with us so urgently, Mitch?"

The waitress came up to the table and Mitch, Liam and Jack all ordered a pitcher of beer along with three mugs. "We have a problem. My mate's apartment was broken into a couple days ago. So far, the evidence all points to a newly changed were that showed up at the hospital several days ago. He was wanted by the police for some crime or another but he escaped. Nobody has been able to hunt him down, not even our pack members of the police department."

The waitress placed their pitcher of beer on the table and carefully filled all three glasses. Mitch took a long swallow from his mug and sighed heavily. "I don't mean to come to you with this, Alexander. However, we could use all the help we can get and I couldn't think of anyone better at tracking than you and your brother."

Alexander nodded his head slowly. "I understand and don't worry about it. You guys would help us if we needed it. Why exactly did this were break into your mate's apartment? Oh and congrats, by the way, on the whole mate thing," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Thanks. I really have no idea why anyone would want to break in. It's all quite confusing really."

"And you're sure it wasn't just a random thing, right?" Jude asked.

Liam put his mug down. "I don't think so. Janette says she doesn't have any enemies and nothing worth stealing really. Until we get the situation resolved, she is not allowed to go back to her apartment. Of course, she is living with us now, being Mitch's mate and all, but Mitch is still worried about her safety and wants this were found."

Alexander nodded his head once more. "I understand. Well, let's see what we can come up with and we will just..."

"Mitch? You okay, guy?" Jude interrupted when he noticed the distraught look on Mitch's face.

"I don't know. Hold on. I'll be right back." Mitch walked to the back of the restaurant to make a call on his cell phone. He dialed his sister's number and impatiently waited for an answer. "Where's Janette?" he asked before his sister could even say 'hello'. He stopped and listened for a few seconds. "Well, is her car in the drive?" He felt his heart jump in his chest when his sister informed him that Janette wasn't at the mansion. "Mariah, don't ask questions. Just get every adult you can to search the grounds. I'm on my way back right now." He disconnected the call and slid the phone back into his front pocket.

Liam stood when he saw the frightened look on Mitch's face. "What's going on?" he asked.

"You guys, we need to go right now. I think Janette's in trouble."

"What makes you think that?" Jack asked with concern in his voice.

"I can feel it. She's in trouble. I called and she's not at the mansion. I need to find her immediately." Mitch didn't wait for a response. He threw some money on the table and left the restaurant as quickly as his feet would carry him. Jack and Liam barely got into the jeep before Mitch peeled out of the parking lot and headed back to the mansion.