Hidden in Sheridan (Tainted Series: Book 1)

Moon: FULL MOON

Levi - My feet hit the ground, mud squishing in all directions through the tracks of my boots. It splatters across the remaining piles of white snow. The cool air tingles against the heat generated by my body. I look up at the lowest branch. I had reached that branch with ease. Of course I needed a bit of momentum, generated by a running start and pushing off a nearby trunk. But I made it easily to the branch above that lowest branch of the forest evergreen.

My eyes turn back to Ity, expecting to see surprise or a mirror of my excitement. However, her eyebrows were narrowed as she scans the place I had just demounted. “That’s, what 25 yards?” I brag.

“You couldn’t go any higher?” She asks.

My eyes widen, “That’s farther than any human or wolf, supernatural or otherwise.”

Her brow relaxes as she nods, “I guess you’re right. Wolves aren’t natural climbers, so that is pretty impressive.”

I look down at my clawed hands and I notice, they no longer scare me but they sure are useful. “With these things I could easily pull myself higher.”

“But it was strength that got you up that high,” Ity nods as if she understands. “What about the shadows? Can you tell what’s on the other side?”

“Shadows?” I look around at the forest floor covered in darker shade, but no significant shadows stood out, and even if they did I could trust my eyes would easily adjust. “I can see pretty well in the dark.”

Her head shakes, “Forget it. Let’s test your speed.”

“Are we searching for Rhydian, or testing out my new abilities?”

“You’re the one that was easily distracted.”

“Yeah, because you’re the one that asked.” I laugh my heart leaping into my throat. “You know I’ll do anything that you ask me too. But my life is sort of on the line here. We need to find Rhydian.”

She sighs while looking me straight in the eyes, “You don’t want to stay this way?”

I sigh, “Sure, I can see the appeal but, I haven’t seen my mom in weeks. I’m missing days of memory and the pain I go through …”

I don’t have to finish the sentence. Ity waves her hand to stop my thought. “He’s not in our area. We’ll have to meet up with the Wolfe’s. They’re spread out across the South West part of so, we might as well clock your speed as we go to meet up with them.”

I start to laugh again, “What? You want to race me?”

Her head quirks at my mocking expression, before her hand raises, pointing to the replacement dirt bike behind her. “I ride, you run.” My face flushes again with a hint of heat, but apparently I’m getting used to being in a constant state of embarrassment around her.

Two very light footsteps interrupt my adolescent moment, and one familiar boy appeared at Ity’s side.

Sebastian’s tossed brown hair brushes across his wide brown eyes. The triplets all look alike, but as they’d gotten older, Sebastian began taking on more boyish features. His eyes are still very curious and fully of childish mischief. His fingers instantly took hold of the red fabric of Ity’s sleeve and he looks up at her with a giddy expression.

Ity looks surprised, as she looks down at him. “You’re a quiet little one, aren’t you.” She says.

Sebastian beams with pride, “I’ve been practicing what you taught me.” With an uncomfortable shutter, Ity pulls her arm free of the ten year olds grip in order to back up.

Fighting the desire to know when they’d been having these lessons on stealth, I rapidly realize that Sebastians presence so far from home can’t be a coincidence.

“Sebastian? What’s going on?” I ask.

Sebastian looks at me for the first time since arriving, “Mom’s been calling but neither of you are answering.”

I pat down my pockets looking for my cellphone, before I realize that’s not what he meant.

“He wasn’t listening,” Ity answers for me. “What is the message?”

Sebastian beams, again stepping closer to the teenage girl, “He’s been found.”

A thrill of excitement ran across my skin, “Who found him? Did your dad rip him to shreds?”

“We weren’t the ones that found him.” A dark horror seeps into my chest seconds before Sebastian finishes, “They took him to the police station. He refuses to go home. But, she found him and took him there.”

“Who?” I practically growl.

“Officer Vaughn.”

The chilled wind strikes my face as I turn on my heels and without inhaling, I run through the trees.

I know the direction to run. It’s not like paying attention to a GPS app, it’s more comparable to having a compass installed in my brain. When I turn to avoid an obstacle my entire body knows I’ve turned in the wrong direction and urges me to return to correct course.

Within minutes the woods fall way, the fields open up in front of me and I realize the thick clouds that cover the sky keep the sun from shining its full strength on the snow covered hills. And yet, it was melting steadily away. My shoes squish through the slush and mud as I run. Too fast for anyone to see, even as I enter the town. I slip through the back roads and avoid direct sight, until I reach the police station.

The blue door at the front of the building brings my mind back to reality. My heart pounds in my chest and my lungs burn with every breath. My mother was inside with a dangerous shifting wolf. If I barreled in now, my appearance would surely instigate panic.

“Calm down,” I repeat the mantra. I cannot protect my mother as a mutated wolf-boy. I have to shift back! I close my eyes to listen to my breathing, instead, I hear the rev of a motorbike.

I open my eyes in time to see the dirt bike speed around the corner of the back alley and pull to an abrupt stop in front of the blue door. Both Sebastian and Ity slide off the bike. Sebastian quickly bounds up the steps, like an excited puppy before he stops and waves.

But not at me. At Wendy.

My rusted red bronco skid to a stop in the parking space beside the motorbike. Sterling slides out of the drivers seat, his hair out of place but he focuses mostly on brushing the mud from his pants. The heat in my body rapidly cools as my heart returns to a regular rhythm. I run towards, forgetting my struggle to shift back to my human form.

“How did you get Wendy? Her keys are in my pocket.” I say.

“Then what about the pair in the ignition?” I pat my pockets to discover they are in fact empty.

“Did we beat you here?” Ity redirects.

I shake my head, “I was across the street trying to…” I look at my hands. My normal human hands and breathe a sigh of relief. “… become myself again.” Like an idiot I wave my hands in front of me and only Sebastian laughs and waves back.

“Go home Sebastian.” The young cub sticks his tongue out at his brother but succeeds in flashing Ity another twitter pated smile before running down the street.

“You’re here?” My mother’s voice would usually make me jump at a time like this, but it was the first time I’d heard it in person in a long time. A sense of relief rushes straight into my chest. She linked her arms beneath my shoulders, and I quickly return the hug. Careful not to squeeze her with all my strength.

“You look like you’ve been living in the woods all these weeks.” She says. She ran her fingers across my curls and pushed me back to get a better look at my face. “You have been living in the woods all this time.”

I nod, “Yeah. And it’s been kind of fun, except -” I look her over, expecting to find a reason to justify murdering Rhydian inside a police station. “Are you okay?”

Buttoned and primped as usual, though worry lines had deepened under her eyes. “I am now. But no more vanishing on me without permission. I appreciate that you have somewhere safe to go but I don’t want you disappearing on me.”

My heart hurt. So much has gone wrong these past few weeks, so many opportunities that I could have disappeared and she would have no explanation. She’s already been through that with my dad.

“I heard you found Rhydian?” I say, changing the subject.

She runs her finger one last time through my hair before showing her skepticism. “Yes. He was asking for you.”

We follow her in through the front door. The front desk empty but the back offices buzzing with three different officers. Mom leads the way toward the detention cells, but with Rhydian being a minor he’s not in them. He’s behind the brown door off to left.

In a room full of chairs, we spot Rhydian. He’s in the same clothes I’d seen him in last: Jeans and T-shirt, both torn and dirty. His hair slicked back recently with water and his face warm with a fresh suntan.

“You were right, Rhydian,” Mom announces, “He heard you were here and he came running.”

Literally.

“He’s a good friend, Officer Vaughn.” Rhydian says in way that seems genuine.

“I’ll be out front,” Mom kisses me on the head, “The Allen’s should be here soon to take you back, Rhydian.”

“Thank you.” Rhydian smiles as my mother leaves.

A sharp desire to rip his face off prickles up my spine, however I keep the fake smile on my face until my mom was out of harms way. “Everyone’s been out looking for you, Rhydian.”

Rhydian’s smirk disappears though his posture stays relaxed and his eyes fix on the person behind me, “You’re not kidding.”

I take a step to the side, blocking his line of sight to Ity. “So you let yourself be caught?”

He complies by shifting his focus to me, “Safer in here then out there with Alpha-Wolfe hunting me down.”

“Why don’t you just run away?” I ask.

Rhydian looks down at his shoes, black boots, caked in drying mud. His lips threatening a smile.

“His Alpha won’t let him.” Sterling says. He steps to the other side of the room, flanking their former friend.

Rhydian’s expression darkens, “I don’t have an Alpha. Though he does want me in his pack-”

“Of course he does. You have such a useful talent.” Sterling goads. “At least it worked once, right?”

“It’s worked more than that.” Rhydian leans forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “I thought I had it all figured out until a new problem arose.” His focus shifts back to Ity, who hasn’t moved from her spot at the door.

She leans carelessly on the door frame with her arms folded across her body. Her expression completely unreadable as she stares back at her foster brother.

“The Vaughn boy turned as I imagined,” Rhydian continued and thoughtlessly pulled the marble from his pocket and began spinning it between his fingers. “But you seem unaffected.”

“Maybe you didn’t sink your teeth in long enough.” Ity suggests, her expression unchanging. “Wanna try again?”

Rhydian’s eyebrows raise and small growl rolls from Sterling’s throat. Neither of us liked the idea Rhydian might be getting.

“Is that it?” Ity asks successfully drawing attention to the crystal-like pebble in Rhydian’s fingers. “The thing that makes you, useful?”

He drops the object into the palm of his hand and grips it tight, “Come and get it.”

“You are not biting her again!” I say, trying to keep my voice down.

“It’s been either turn or die. It’s never done, nothing. So - ” He says.

“So you think it did something to her?” Sterling asks, but that wasn’t my question.

“I’m not the first you’ve turned?” I ask, and Rhydian smirks.

“All the females died.” Rhydian says, a hint of sorrow in his expression. “Which is a shame because I bit some cute ones, but they all died except you.”

“He can die now.” Ity says. Sterling and I exchanged surprised looks, “He’s not going to explain. We might as well take it and figure it out ourselves.”

With a laugh Rhydian lifts his hands in surrender, and to show they’re also empty. The crystal gone, “It only works for me. And now that doesn’t mean killing me will change Levi back to a human.”

I rush at him, stopping inches from his face. Rhydian doesn’t flinch, “Theories are meant to be tested.”

“You won’t do anything to me here. Too many humans around, not to mention your own mother.” He takes a more relaxed posture to prove his point. We all know he’s right, but I didn’t feel that meant he should be roaming free.

I nod, “True. Hold onto that belief.” I grabbed fists full of his shirt and pulled him from the chair. Only a brief glance down the hall to confirm no one was able to see then I pull Rhydian from the room and across the hall into the cells. Sterling and Ity follow. Rhydian doesn’t fight back even when I throw him into the empty cell and slam the door closed.

Still on his feet, Rhydian chuckles, but I’m not done. I grab the keys from the officer’s table, slip it into the lock and turn. We hear the click and then I bend the key until it snaps in half.

The humor vanished from Rhydian’s face as he sprung for the bars looking down to confirm that half the key was still wedged into the lock.

“Now, we know you can rip these bars off their hinges. But I’m betting that since your Alpha wants this territory for himself, he also doesn’t want you calling attention to what you are.” The fury in Rhydian’s expression confirms my words so I keep going.

Rhydian’s eyes sparked with his fury, “I should have never created you. Once E.B Wallace is done with the Wolfe Pack, he will rip you apart!” He growled.

“What do you mean my pack?!” Sterling asks by my side.

“E.B. Wallace has your Alpha and three beta’s chasing their tails in the Southern Mountains. They’ll never make it back in time.”

“In time?” Sterling growls, “In time for what?”

CHAPTER END