Werewolf Queen

"Once." He answered. "26 years ago. One more question, is he anything to her?"

"I need to protect her is all. I have this very strong urge to just protect her." Jack said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah." He answered. "I don't understand it."

"I can call someone that knows." I said.

"That would be nice." Jack said.

"Well, I'll come back by later tonight. I'll bring pizza or something."

"Pizza?" Jack asked with a smile on his face.

"Pizza it is then." Her dad said and shook Jack's hand. With that he left.

Jack went to the kitchen and scoured the pantry and fridge and finally made him four fully loaded ham sandwiches.

A knock came to the door and I went to it. I looked out the peep hole and saw blonde dreadlocks. I opened it and Brian stood there.

"How did you find us?"

"I can smell your stench five miles away." He said with a shit eating grin.

"Get in here and be quiet." I said and pulled him in and locked the door.

While they ate I caught Brian up to what happened. I stole one of Jack's sandwiches and he protested by throwing lettuce at me.

At one point in time Jade came out in a robe and went to the kitchen, grabbed a glass of water, and grabbed a bottle of Tylenol off the bookshelf.

"Those won't work doll face." Jack said and got up and followed her to the bedroom.

After he didn't come back for a while I went and checked on them. He was sitting up on the headboard just stroking her hair while she slept on his chest. She wanted someone else's scent besides the man's that still lingered there.

Before the sun set her father came back with six boxes of pizza. Jade was sitting between Jack and I when she suddenly got up and ran to the bathroom. I got up and followed her to make sure she was alright. She sat on the floor and had her head against the tub.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I thought werewolves don't get sick." She said.

"We don't." I said just as she went to the toilet and threw up. I grabbed a rag and put cold water on it and put it on the back of her neck.

"Please go, you don't need to see this."

"I've seen worse." I said and sat down on the floor with her. She leaned against me and just breathed deep. She was trying to relax to keep from throwing up again.

"Can you tell them to take it outside or something? That smell."

"Oh." I chuckled. "Some human foods take getting used to. I still want to hurl at cinnamon."

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah. It gets bad. I can't even be in the same house when someone is using cinnamon. You just got to be around it for a while. You might try eating something too. That may help. You need sugar." I said and she sat up so I could get up.

When I came back with a can of soda she was brushing her teeth. She was staring intently at her eyes. When she finished with her teeth she turned the mirror light on and leaned closer.

"My eyes have changed."

"How so?"

"I didn't have heterochromia. They just changed color from blue to green. But both at the same time. Yesterday my left eye was blue and my right eye was green in the mirror. Today it's opposite.

"Now that is weird." I said handing her the pop. She downed it. "Feel better?"

"A little." She said. "I need food." She said and went outside to the guys eating pizza on her dad's tailgate.

"So you actually drove her car?" her dad asked Jack.

"Yeah."

"And she didn't bite your head off?"

"Because I didn't know who drove me home dad." She said. She grabbed a slice of pizza and wrinkled her nose. "Dad, this is Brent, Jack, and Brian, guys this is Jim."

"We kind of already met while you were sleeping honey. Brent explained everything to me."

"Well good because you'll have to catch me up." She said and winked at me and took a bite of pizza.

Jim left around midnight with no left over pizza. Four lycanthropes could put away food. We had to because our metabolism burned quicker than a human's. We also run about two degrees higher as well.

Brian and Jade were sitting on the couch when Jack and I came inside after talking a little more to Jim. She had her head on his shoulder and they were watching a movie.

"You too huh?" Jack asked.

"What?" he asked.

"What do you feel when you're around her?" I asked.

"I feel calmer. I'm happy that she is safe."

"What are you guys talking about?" She asked.

"Jade can I borrow your phone?" I asked.

"Yeah, on top of the TV."

I grabbed it and Brian muted the TV while I dialed a number. I put it on speaker phone so all of us could hear.

"Hello?" A woman's voice answered.

"Laura its Brent."

"Hey Brent, it's been years."

"I know but I have a couple of questions to ask you."

"Let me explain first off, Two days ago I felt this strong urge to come to a small town that isn't even on the map. When we get here we meet this woman who is just a few hours old. I feel nothing for her then except thanks for her hospitality. Well The Enlightened shows up and we have to hide. Since she was so new I taught her the halfway. While both in that form we were drawn to each other and-."

"You had sex." It wasn't a question.

"Um, yeah." I said.

"Go on."

"Well things lead to things and I fight her mate and win. But now Brian and Jack feel the need to protect her. You're the oldest lycanthrope I know. What the hell is going on?"

"Brent I'm a tiger and it is different between species but in my thousand years I have seen this a few times among wolves. Maybe she is a daughter of Selene. She was born to be a wolf. Our matron goddess has chosen her to do something special and you three are her protectors. Brent you are her consort while Brian and Jack are her guard."

"Who was the last daughter?" I asked.

"Her name does not bring any recognition to anyone because she dealt with our side. She stopped the war between lycanthropes and vampires.

"Matilda the Bold?" Jack asked.

"Yes."

"Another thing, her eyes are changing color. What does that mean?"

"She has genes for different eye colors and her human side and beast are fighting over which one will win. Give it a week or so and they'll stay one color."

"Thank you Laura."

"Call me more often Brent. I'd like to know you're still alive. Once in ten years rakes my nerves. You know I love you boys."

"We love you too Laura." Brian and Jack said together.

"By the way what is your lovely's name?" Laura asked.

"Jade." Jade answered. "Jade Lynn Woods."

"Could it be?" Laura went quiet for a few minutes.

"It may not be that you are a daughter of Selene at all dearies. Did your family originate from Scotland?"

"Yes." She answered.

"The Woodard family and Dovah family have fought for generations. Woodard was changed to Woods in the great immigration to America. Maybe you are meant to stop The Enlightened."

"You can't mean that." I said a little loud.

"It's about time someone did Brent. And why not someone from the family that the Dovah hate the most?"

"She will be killed."

"And what if she is supposed to stop them? If it is truly meant to be then she will prevail. Look at history Brent. When all the cards are stacked against a person they still prevail. I'm not saying it will be easy, quite the contrary. It will probably be the test of a lifetime."

"But she is so new." Jack said.

"She was meant to meet that wolf. She was meant to fall in love so he would change her. Now you are meant to help her on this journey. Do this, not for her or yourselves, do this for all of us that are destroyed for just existing. What do you say Jade?" Laura asked.

She was staring at the phone intently. "I'll do it or die trying." She said.

"Good." She said. "Now Brent, call me later you managed to get me while I had important company."

I smiled, I knew the company. "Tell Elis that I said hi."

"Will do." She said and hung up. Laura never said bye. She said it was taboo because sometimes that bye ended up a goodbye which in her terms was forever.

I closed the phone and put it back on the TV. Jack moved over and sat next to Jade and she took his hand into hers. I went in front of them and got on my knees in front of her and put my head in her lap.

Jade

I put my free hand on Brent's head and moved his hair behind his ear. "First I have a funeral to take care of." I said.

"Do you want us to come with you?" Jack asked.

"If you want." I answered. "I'm just going up there with Daniel and taking care of the arrangements. The funeral won't be for a couple of days and I'm not leaving until after it's over and done with. Nikki would have done the same for me."

"You're a good person." Brian said.

"Only to people who are good to me." I told him.

"You should have been there when she hit the shit out of that male. I thought she was going to crush his skull in. The female gave in after she tackled her."

"Well they pissed me off. Only Nikki got away with calling me a whore."

"You don't have to worry about him anymore." Brent said.

"You know how sappy all this must look and sound if someone else was around?" I said.

"Straight out of a romance novel." Brian smiled.

"Well we're not billionaire princes or oil tycoons." Jack retorted.

"And I'm no virgin down on her luck." I laughed.

"Nope were just a bunch of grungy werewolves." Brian said.

"I'm not grungy." I said and looked at him.

"Spend a week out there without a shower; believe me you'll get grungy." He replied.

"Well I do believe I'm going back to bed. I have to be up before nine to file an insurance claim and deal with the funeral home."

"Sounds boring." Brian said stretching.

"Well it may sound boring but what people don't know is I insured that place for five hundred thousand dollars."

"Why on earth would you do that?" Brent asked.

"The electric was bad. Honestly it was a matter of time before it went up. I was working on getting the money to fix the electric but now I don't have to worry about that. I just wish Nikki wasn't in there."

The next couple of days past and it seemed to drag on. The day of the funeral finally came and I went against makeup. I knew it would come off anyway. My dad came by early to pick us up. She was going to be buried in Mangum where her family was. Most of my family was there too. My mother was next to her grandmother like she wanted it to be.

We rode in the limo behind the hearse the 27 miles to the cemetery. Nikki always said she didn't want a sermon during her funeral so I didn't make it at the church. She wanted rock music played and a party. I'd given her the rock music but the party would wait. I wanted to mourn my friend.

Brian, Brent, Jack, and I were pallbearers. With the four of us no one else needed to help. Hell one of us could have done it if it weren't so awkwardly big. It was a closed casket funeral because her body was so badly burned. All of her friends and family wouldn't know what she looked like in death. They wouldn't know I held her after she died.

Tears ran freely down my face as they blared her favorite band on a portable stereo while she was lowered into the ground. I stood with Daniel, my dad, and James her brother. Her parents didn't bother coming. They had nothing to do with her since she was 18. They kicked her out on her birthday and haven't seen her since. They just did the same to her brother who just turned 18. He was staying with Daniel until he could get on his feet.

My dad put his hand on my shoulder in the only comfort he knew how to give. It seemed like it was too fast that this all happened. Just yesterday it seemed like we were in daycare together learning to write our names and tie our shoes. Now I was burying her and it didn't seem fair. It wasn't fair. I grabbed a rose from the table that was set up and went up and tossed it on top of her casket. It was a tradition in my family to do so. It has been passed for generations we don't even know why we do it.

Dad broke away and I went to the guys and Jack held me as I cried. I noticed Brent following my dad's movement and I glanced over to where he was. He was at mom's grave. Nikki was like a second daughter to him and I had forgotten that. I went and grabbed two more roses and went over to my dad. The men followed.

I handed dad a rose and he placed it under mom's name and I did the same. My dad went to his knees in front to the tombstone and kissed it. I saw the tears he was trying so hard to hide.

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I'm so sorry." He broke then and cried. I went over to him and hugged him. It was the only comfort I knew how to give. Words escaped me.

"Do not mourn the dead because they are at peace. They are smiling down at us in paradise waiting for us to join them. Mourn the living that has to suffer until we get there." Jack said.

"You think they are in paradise?" dad asked.

"I was raised that everyone goes to their own paradise after death. A paradise they create, and when their loved ones join them they add to that paradise. The way that Jade says you and Mrs. Woods loved, she is waiting for you there. But you have to wait until it is the right time. Too soon and you cannot join her there."

"Too soon?" dad asked.

"Suicides sir." Brian answered for Jack.

"Then I must wait to join her in her paradise."

"I don't think she completely left dad." I said and noticed a daffodil budding beside the tombstone. It was her favorite flower. The thing was, daffodils didn't grow randomly. They weren't native to Oklahoma. Someone must have planted it. I knew it wasn't divine but I wanted to give dad some peace.

My dad smiled and cupped the flower. "I'll see you someday Maria." He whispered and let go of the flower and we stood up. He turned and looked at Jack. "Thank you. I needed to hear that."

Jack nodded and we all headed back to the limo. If I looked back at Nikki's grave I would have cried again. I was so sick of crying. How can so much snot come out of one person?

Daniel and James got into the limo with us this time because the other limo was needed. The rest of what family showed up rode with other people. We were the only ones headed back to Lone Wolf.

"Jade I want you to read the autopsy report." Daniel said as we started driving away from the cemetery. He handed me a manila envelope from under his jacket.

I pulled out the sheet of paper and started reading it.

"What does it mean?" I asked as I skimmed over the part of reason of death.

"The fire was a cover up. She was stabbed multiple times." Daniel said.

"But there was no blood." I said.

"The fire would have destroyed all evidence of it." Brent told me.

"We have no leads and Shaun was in solitary so he didn't get out again. I wanted to question Derek and Jessie since they were in town when it happened. See if they smelled anything suspicious."

"They would have said something." I said looking at Daniel.

"Stabbings are usually personal Jade. You three were the only ones truly close to her and you have an air tight alibi. You weren't even in town. Do you know of any one that was close to her in any way?"

"No Daniel I really don't." I said as the tears threatened to come back. She suffered a lot more than I thought she did. The paper said sixteen stab wounds to the torso and abdomen.

"Can we save this until tomorrow?" Brent said taking the paper for me. "Today is hard enough on her."

"And it's not hard on me? She was a daughter to me! How do you think I felt when I saw you bringing out her corpse and then getting this paper! Read on Brent, read what Jade hasn't gotten to."

Brent read the paper completely and turned his head away seemingly in disgust.

"What?" I asked trying to take the paper back.

"I'll find out who did it just don't show her that." Brent said.

"Give me the damn paper Brent!" I said angrily as he handed the paper back to Daniel.

"Give me your word that you will find the bastard. Find the bastard and do what he did to her. There will be no police involvement. Bring me his head and everything bad you and your men have ever done will be wiped clean. You will disappear from all records."

Brent stared at him and then nodded.

"What does that mean? What have you done?" I asked. "What does that damn paper say?!"

They didn't talk the rest of the way and I was fuming. No one answered my questions. The driver dropped us off at my house and I stormed inside and slammed the door shut before the guys could come in. I heard it open and I went to my room and slammed the door shut and leaned against it.

"Jade let me in." Brent said.

"Not until you answer my questions." I said.

"Brian, Jack, and I had a fight one night. We all changed out of anger. I told you before those were bad. A couple of hikers came up out of the blue and we killed them. The National Guard found us the next morning covered in their blood. This was before you were born Jade. Since then we make an effort not to get angry. We served our time with no complaints but it's still on our records."

"What were on them papers Brent? What happened to Nikki?"

"Don't make me answer that." He said and I heard the soft thud of him putting his head against the door.

"What happened to Nikki, Brent?" I said sternly.

He sighed and I heard his knuckles pop. "Whoever did it also raped her. They violated her. There was too much tearing for it to be willing."

The tears came again but these were tears of anger. "Call Daniel, make him order a mandatory town meeting. Have him make something up. I'm going hunting." I said and started to take my dress off.

"Well if it means anything now, I'd like to see you in a dress again soon. You're very pretty when you dress up. Tears, snot, and all."

"Oh go to hell." I said and put on an outfit I wouldn't care about being destroyed. I heard him call Daniel and I finally went out of my room. His eyes followed me as I went outside and the other two were under the hood of my car.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked.

"Making sure everything is fine. Sniff the air." Jack said.

I did and I smelled a scent that shouldn't be there. It was all around my car and the outside of my house.

If a rogue comes by you will know. They have the stench of rotting flesh that only we can smell.

The smell of rotting meat. I followed it toward the ruins of my restaurant. It went inside and was heavy there. I heard Brent's voice calling my name from my yard two blocks away.

"You have to wait until seven tonight. Then you only have an hour."

"I won't need an hour." I said and felt like I was talking to myself. I was in an empty building and he was still at my house. It was a little unnerving.

Seven o'clock came too slowly. We made our way towards city hall with the rest of the town to make sure everyone had come. I knew everyone in the town and would know if someone wasn't there. Two didn't show up but one was in the hospital and the other was out of town.

Daniel got the meeting started and the guys and I snuck out of the back. It was about the town budget again. The town had a feel of emptiness to it now. I walked the block to my restaurant and the men followed. I followed the scent where it was heaviest. The rogue had come back. What was the rule? The murderer always goes back to the scene of the crime? Anger filled me as I made my way to the freezer. I could feel my beast rubbing under my skin and I didn't fight the change. Brian and Jack gasped at something and I turned to look at them.

"I've never seen someone change so fast." Brian said.

"She's hunting, leave her be." Brent said.

I sniffed the air again. The rogue was still in the town and close by. I ran and heard the men running after me still in their human forms. I followed the scent towards the school and the smell lingered at the city storm shelter underneath. I waited for the guys to catch up with me and Brian opened the door for me. I had to hunch down to get down the stairs but at the bottom it opened up into a large room with tables and chairs. A man was sleeping on the floor not even bothered by our presence. The odor just came off of him in waves. I walked up to him and growled as menacingly as I could.