Werewolf Queen

I heard a plate crash to the floor and then a loud metallic whine. I heard the women scream and Jack and I were the first in the den but all the women were outside.

"Let her go!" one aunt screamed.

Jade was on the ground with a man on top of her. He had a knee in her back and a gun pointed straight to the back of her skull. I actually smelled wolf on him but also the smell of rotting flesh. He was a rogue that worked for The Enlightened. Great.

"Did little Miss Jade here not tell you what she was?" The man said. He grabbed her hair and put the gun in a holster and grabbed a knife next to it. He pressed it to her neck and slit it right before everyone. The women screamed.

Jack and I rushed forward and the man disappeared into the trees.

"Stay here and protect the family. Make sure she is alright." Jack said and ran into the trees. Jade tried to protest but was choking on her own blood.

The women came forward at once. Some of them were crying as took my shirt off and put it on her neck and I lifted her up. "She'll be alright." I said.

"What do you mean she'll be okay?" one of her uncles said and came forward. Jim stopped him. "She has been sliced ear to ear! Why hasn't someone called an ambulance?"

Jim took the cell phone from a girl and shut it. "She'll be fine as long as it wasn't silver." He said. "Was it?"

She started coughing and removed the shirt. She rolled onto all fours from my arm and coughed up blood until she finally took a deep rattled breath. Now that I knew she was okay I went running to the woods. I couldn't hear Jack or the rogue. I heard Jade's feet behind me as we passed through the trees and made it to a clearing. Jack was standing there looking over a gorge in the ground. Claw marks slashed down his back. He threw something over the edge and I saw bloody hair before it disappeared. Jade ran to him and looked over the edge as did I.

A real pack of wolves were at the bottom dragging the body into their cave. One of the pups grabbed the head by the hair and dragged it behind him happy with his bounty. The alpha looked up at us and howled and thanking cry. We joined him in the howl. He knew what we were. All wolves did. They either treated us as enemies or allies. Seems we made some allies. He walked into the cave and we turned around.

Jade

I spat out blood the entire walk back. My throat was burning and I was dizzy. Kind of scary drowning in your own blood. I walked hand in hand with my men. The three of us were covered in blood. The only one not his own was Brent. But the good note was all of our clothes were ruined. I had blood all the way down to my belt, Jack's shirt was torn and covered with blood, and Brent's pants were covered in blood and his shirt was back at my aunt's house. My aunt lived on the edge of another town that was surrounded by trees. Back in the prairie days it was a forest.

My dad waited for us just inside the trees. I could see my family back by the house.

"What did you tell them?" I asked.

"The truth." He said. "Not much I can explain when you heal a slit throat in a matter of minutes."

I just nodded. More and more people were learning the secret that wasn't supposed to get out. But why couldn't the world know? Only one explanation was needed. Government experimentation. I didn't trust some of my family not to tell but like I was told once before by someone I didn't want to think of, be ready to leave on a moment's notice.

"They don't believe you." Jack said.

"Of course not. I told them you would come out in wolf form. Do you mind?"

"Not at all Jim." Brent said. "You have helped us more than imaginable and before they put you in a nut house we'll show them the truth."

"Have Aunt Sherry get rid of her gun." I said.

"Sherry put your gun in the house." Dad called back. I heard the door open and something being thrown inside then the door shut.

He went back through the trees and changed with the clothes on as quickly as possible. They were ruined anyways.

I heard gasps as we followed my dad back to the family. The three of us sat on our haunches and waited.

"Doggy!" My two year old cousin came running towards me. I laid down and let her pet me. She tugged at my ear and I heard Jack and Brent snickering.

So do we leave? I asked.

We will have to if they react badly to this. I know they are your family but very few can be trusted. Brent said.

Aunt Sherry came up. "Which one is Jade?" She asked.

I raised my paw like I was raising a hand. She turned around. "Jade is family no matter what she is. We were all there when she was born and we'll be there for her now. Jim told us something is hunting them and want them dead for no reason at all. You know Jade. How many of you did she feed for free at the diner when you happened to run out of food? How many of you did she give you twenty dollars here or ten dollars there? And I know for a fact Andrew that she got your truck out of impound. I don't know her friends but I will vouch for them. If she trusts them so do I."

Aunt Sherry and Aunt Ruth were the speakers of the family. When they spoke everyone listened. "You saw how that man just barged in a grabbed her with no sound at all. What wrong was she doing? Nothing! So I say do what we can to stop these people from harming them." Aunt Ruth said.

Brent looked at me as the two year old Brooke grabbed my ear again and pulled as hard as she could. Her sister Emma came up and I licked her. Sherry's daughter was watching intently as soon as Brooke came up to me. Her husband wasn't with them. She was having a lot of marital problems and was raising them with Sherry's help. She was my age. We actually were just a day apart. She was born on the 3rd and I the 4th.

She came up to me and picked up Brooke. "Do you mind?" She asked and motioned toward my back. I shook my head that I didn't and she put Brooke and Emma on my back. I stood up and Brooke said "Wee haw!" The family just gaped as I went to the line of trees slowly to the gate and back to the trees.

"Can they change back?" Aunt Carla asked.

"They kind of need clothes." My dad said.

Sherry went inside for a minute while the family talked amongst themselves. My cousin took her daughters off and they screamed for another ride. When she got near I smelled something odd about her. I stared intently at her.

You smell depression. Jack said.

She hides it so well. I said.

Anyone would for their children. A mother never wants to let her children see her cry. Brent told me.

Krystina looked the most like me. Her mother and my mother were sisters. We had the same hair, the same body build but after she had her daughters she couldn't get the weight off. And I know she tried hard. Her husband was married to his job and all she wanted was weekends with him. She had called me crying on occasions. In school we were mistaken as sisters many times. But once she reached 18 she got married and had two kids as well as two angels as she liked to call them.

I nudged her face with my nose asking with my eyes if she was all right. I hoped she got the question.

"I'm fine." It was a lie. "But look at you! A werewolf the size of a Clydesdale! And two handsome men too. You've got it made." She whispered the last and leaned her head against mine.

"I wish I could run away like you could." She looked back at her children. "But every time I think of leaving one way or another I can't imagine them being without me."

She has thought of suicide. Jack said. I always wondered what would bring a person that far.

Sherry came outside with clothes for the three of us. We went back to the woods and changed back. The clothes were a little baggy on the men and my pants were a little short but it worked. We didn't have shoes though.

I went straight to Krystina and hugged her. She just looked at me and tears came into her eyes. "Thank you." She said. It was a thanks that came from the bottom of the soul. She needed some sort of assurance that someone cared. She wiped the tears away and said, "You must think I'm silly."

"No Krys, I don't. Try Amitriptyline. It helped for me at my darkest time."

She nodded and went back to the house with her daughters. "Where did doggies go?" Emma asked.

So instead of staying for dinner the three of us left. We were all covered in blood and that just left it awkward and it smelled bad. Jack took the first shower. Brent and I sat in the living room. If anyone would have come in they would think we murdered someone with as much blood as there was on us. I was still dizzy.

I put my head between my knees to wait for it to stop but it didn't. Jack came out just in time and I ran up to the bathroom to hurl. I flushed the toilet and got up and brushed my teeth. I looked in the mirror and my reflection startled me. My skin was too pale. My eyes had settled on green by the way, but the blood made me translucent.

Jack stood against the door jam in just a towel. "You should see yourself in moonlight. Your skin has a glow to it. It's like you were made for this life."

"Your skin glows too."

"But it took years for Brent and I to get that glow. And I mean a lot of years. I think I was 110. Brent didn't until he was I think 128. You're just a couple of months and you glow like a goddess."

"I'm no goddess." I said and went to start my shower.

"Be ready if we have to go. Brent is on the phone with your dad right now seeing how things went."

I nodded and he left me to my privacy. The water came off pink as I washed the blood off. It flaked off more than anything. Dry blood was sometimes a bitch to get off. Brent came in and joined me in the shower. He scrubbed my back from where it ran behind my neck.

What did my father say?" I asked as I scrubbed his back. There wasn't blood but it was a soothing thing to do.

"They're behind you. You don't know how much your family loves you. How much I love you."

I stopped scrubbing and looked at him. He turned to face me. I wish I knew what to say. I told a man I had loved him. I loved him with my heart and soul and he crushed it under his foot. The pain was still there. It was still alive. Not a day went by that I didn't think of Derek. I wondered where he was, if he was okay, if he was eating enough. It was silly things really.

Brent searched my eyes and then lowered his. I really wish I had something good to say. So I said the first thing that popped in my head. "Show me." I said.

"What?"

"Show me that you love me."

"How?"

"Any way you know how." I answered.

He touched my face gently, tentatively, fingers hovering on either side of my face, like hesitant butterflies, as if he were afraid to touch me. He lowered his face towards me, as his fingertips found my skin. His hands slid on either side of my face, cupping me like something delicate and breakable. I'd never felt him be so cautious around me, so unsure. Then his lips touched mine, and I stopped thinking.

His hands moved down my neck to my shoulders, then slowly down my back where he stopped and brought me closer to him. I put my arms around his shoulders and went to my toes to kiss him back. He never grew hard or lowered his hands. They stayed on the small of my back and he held me there. His tongue never sought to open my mouth. It was just a kiss. A kiss that he put everything into. My heart hammered in my chest and I knew he could hear it.

He broke the kiss and just held me. He put his head at the bend of my neck and tighten his arms around me. "I love you Jade. With all my heart. With all my soul. With everything that makes me who I am."

"I love you Brent. With all that I am." I replied.

That night Dad had asked Jack to come over to help him move a lot of stuff. Brent and I had never been alone since that first day together. We didn't have sex or anything like most couples with privacy do. We sat on the couch watching a marathon of an old show we both liked. Brent had his head in my lap and I ran my fingers gently through his hair. If only moments could stay like this forever. But something always comes along and fucks it up. Ain't it always the way?

My cell phone rang but it was a tone that hadn't rang for months. I stared at it dumbfounded. That ringtone only belonged to one person and that person was six feet under.

"Are you going to answer that?" Brent asked and sat up.

I leaned forward and grabbed my phone off the coffee table and flipped it open.

"H-hello?" I asked.

"Jade. Help me Jade!" Nikki's voice came.

"Nikki? Where are you?" I asked frantically.

"I don't know, it's dark. It's hard to breathe, oh god Jade help me!"

"What is the last thing you remember seeing?" I asked.

"A man." She answered. "A clock tower."

The only clock tower near here anywhere was in Cordell. "Did you see any street signs? Are you still in Oklahoma?"

"I don't know. Jade he's coming." Her voice went to a whisper. "Help me." The line went dead.

I just stared there staring at my phone. Fear yet happiness flooded through me. I was happy she was alive. I now feared for a life I believed was dead.

I tore out the door without an explanation and I was on all fours before I reached the bottom stair. I heard Brent behind me. I thought the explanation at him when he had so many questions blaring in my head.

I reached Mangum cemetery in half the time it would have taken me in a car. I didn't care who saw me but just to make sure we went the back way. It was dark outside thankfully. I sniffed to Nikki's grave. Nothing was disturbed but I could smell her all over the place. She had been here and not too long ago. I raised my head into the air and smelled everything around me for something out of place.

Vampires. Brent said as he did the same. He caught the scent as well and we were running again. I followed after him as we headed outside of town. We ran I don't know how long. My paws ached, my muscles hurt. The cold air burned my lungs.

Just a little further Jade and we can stop. He said to me.

It was the farthest I had ever run since I had become a werewolf. How far have we run? I asked.

We're in New Mexico. He said as dawn came over the horizon.

We came to an abandoned old western town. A clock tower was rotting in the morning sun. The dirt was a white brown that I wasn't used to. I was used to mud brown and red dirt. Brent slowly walked with his head down and ears back. His teeth bared and a growl came from him.

What's wrong?

Vampires. He said again. They're watching us.

I don't see anything. I said and glanced around. Plus they can't come out in sunlight.

So says Hollywood. He said and turned his head to his right.

A man dressed in a suit came out to us. He held two robes in his hands. "Welcome to Casa de la Morte." He said and gave a low bow. "We've been expecting you and your wolf mate." He looked over at me and red eyes stared right to my soul.

Brent let out a snarl and the vampire's gaze snapped back to him. "I swear on my life that you are not meant harm. Our newest child Nikki has wished to see her old friend."

He means it. Brent said and looked back at me.

How do you know that?

Because he has sworn on his life. A vampire's life is their most sacred thing. If one of us comes to harm we have all rights to kill him. What do you have to swear on when you seemingly live forever?

So do we trust him?

Do you want to see Nikki?

I started the transformation back without answering him. The vampire came up to me and handed me a robe that went to mid thigh and handed Brent one that went to his knees.

"So gracious of you to join us in your civil state." The vampire said. "My name is Valentine. If you'll please follow me." He said and turned and walked into the building he came out of.

Brent grabbed my arm and held me close to him as we entered the building.

The smell of snakes was overwhelming and I could barely breathe passed it. He led us downstairs where the sun didn't reach. The decaying town was just camouflage. There was an entire town under the ground. Flame lanterns lit the massive cave. There were houses and stores and everything a town needed, even a grocery store that had blood instead of food.

Red eyes stared at us through windows. There were so many of them. Valentine led us through the maze of buildings and finally into a warehouse. He lit a lantern before continuing on down a flight of stairs. The lantern was the only light. I clutched Brent's hands tightly and he did mine as well. I could hear his heart hammering matching my own.

Valentine stopped and lit a few more lanterns and lit a large room. A bed was against the far wall and I couldn't make sense of what was laying on the bed at first.

"Jade." The thing said.

The body was charred but had patches of new skin showing through. Red eyes stared at me and brown hair was growing in strands down the almost bald head. It was the piece of silver that was around the neck that made my heart almost stop. It was a dragonfly.

"Nikki." I said and let go and went to Nikki's side. "How?" I asked.

"I was wandering by a small town and heard the screams of a trapped soul. It was a strong soul not yet ready to leave this world. Your Nikki was in essence still alive. Most humans lose their soul within three days. How long was she buried?" Valentine asked.

"Since July." I answered.

"I see. Well Nikki has refused the blood to completely revive her. She wanted you. She said you and Derek would come save her. Is this Derek?" He asked and looked at Brent.

"That's not Derek." Nikki said. "Where is Derek?"

"Let's not dwell on him right now." I said and sat on the bed next to her. She wasn't even recognizable. "Please drink the blood. I'm here now." I told her and put my hand on hers.

"Who is he Jade?"

"He is my wolf mate as Jessie and Derek were. Derek challenged Brent for me and Derek lost."

"You let him fight him?"

"It is the way of the wolf." I said.

"You are human, not an animal!" Nikki screamed. I could see her fangs.

"Calm down Nikki." Valentine ordered.

Nikki relaxed immediately. She laid back against the pillows and went still. "I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" She asked.

I looked at Valentine. "She needs blood." He said. "Or she will eventually die. Again."

I let one finger go to a claw and took it to my other wrist and cut across it. It wasn't even a thought in my mind. She was my sister, be her beast, vampire, or human, I would always give her anything she needed.

She sniffed and sat back up. She followed my movement before both charred hands came out to hold my wrist. She brought it to her mouth and glanced up at me.

"Don't make me force you." I said. "You don't like it when I force you."

Her lips locked over the wound and pain went up my arm as she began to suck. It really fucking hurt. I watched though as the damaged and rotted skin flaked off and fresh pink skin grew in its place. Her brown hair grew luxuriously in waves like it used to be. Her skeletal figure filled out to her curvy shape. Her eyes started to shine. This all happened within a few minutes. It was amazing. A priest would call it a miracle.

I looked over at Brent and his eyes were on Valentine. He wasn't worried about me at the moment. Valentine had moved closer to the other side of the bed. The world started spinning and I looked back at Nikki who still had my arm to her mouth.

"Enough Nikki." I said and tried to pull my arm back. I was so used to being stronger than everyone but Jack and Brent that it startled me when I couldn't pull away from her. She actually tightened her grip and sucked harder. "Nikki!" I said and pulled harder. She was going to end up crushing my wrist.

"Call off your vampire." Brent commanded.

"Nikki stop." Valentine said.

Nikki let go of me and she looked at me. Her eyes full of pain. "I'm sorry." She said. "It was just so good and I'm so thirsty."