The Half-Wolf's Choice

Chapter 3: Questions But No Answers

*Alice*

I blinked profusely. There was no way this was happening. Could I be that badly traumatized? Could I be that badly hurt? That I was still hallucinating things almost twenty-four hours later?

I rubbed my eyes with the palm of my hands, and then looked back up at the mirror, expecting the wolf to be gone.

And it was.

But my eyes were still yellow and glowing like a pair of fireflies. I shut them quickly and took a deep, calming breath. I could only rely on hallucinations for so long.

I moved away from the mirror in the bathroom and searched for my hand mirror in my room. But even in another reflection, the yellow eyes didn’t go away. I reached for my phone and opened my front camera, and in that too, I had yellow eyes.

So it was not a hallucination, then. This was real. This was happening. Either that or I had utterly lost my mind.

I grimaced as another car sped past, the tires screeching on the road. But I was six stories up, how could I hear that?

I closed my eyes, and listened. And heard everything. I could hear the baby crying in the apartment below me, but I could normally hear that. I heard a girl arguing with her parents. I heard a young man working from home, the clicking of his keyboard loud and clear. I heard - everything. Things I should not be hearing.

I could smell everything, too. About ten different dishes were being made throughout the apartment. I could even smell the Indian tea being made by Miss Sharma in her apartment on the top floor.

If this was all real and I was not insane, then there had to be a logical explanation.

I thought back to the previous night and tried to picture what actually happened. But the only thing I remembered was the wolves fighting. No knives, no guns, no people at all. Not even Cayden Veil who I know had been there.

I looked down at my leg, and slowly moved the bandages aside. It was healing, it wasn’t as bad as before, but I could clearly see what it was.

Bite marks. Too big to be a dog. The wolves had been real.

I had so many questions and quickly found myself halfway to my kitchen counter before I even realized it. Cayden’s business card was already in my hand, his number dialed before I stopped to think it through. Should I be doing this?

I didn’t have a choice.

I pressed the call and waited while it rang.

“Hello, Alice,” I hear Cayden’s voice on the other end.

“What did you do to me?!” I fumed, fully aware that I was definitely panicking. My body trembled.

“Well, this call came quickly,” he said calmly, a light teasing in his voice. “I was expecting at least a day before you gave in. Was I that charming?”

I growled into the phone. A growl? Where did that come from?

I took a deep breath but found it did little to calm me down.

“Tell me exactly what is happening to me,” I demand through clenched teeth, trying to keep any further growls from coming out. “I know you know something or else you wouldn’t have hung around and given me your number, so spill! What were those wolves doing there?! One of them bit me, didn’t it?!”

“It sounds like you know exactly what happened to you,” Cayden says again, his voice still calm but the teasing lilt was gone, now. “Wolves fighting a bloody battle beneath a moonlit sky. Your ‘symptoms’ emerging the next morning. You’re erratic, anxious, hearing things too far away to hear, smelling things too far away to smell. Things break in your grip and…you may have even hurt someone.”

My breathing accelerated until I was hyperventilating. How could he have known all that? I put the phone down on the counter.

“Are you having me followed?”

I was about to put it on the loudspeaker when I heard Cayden’s voice come through again, loud and clear, the same as if I was holding it to my ear.

“I don’t need to have you followed.”

“Then explain to me how you could know all that?”

“Use your brain now, Alice,” he said calmly. “And say it out loud. You’re not going to be able to face whatever is coming next if you can’t even say the words to yourself. You know the truth deep down.”

I knew what he wanted me to say. The only thing that fits in all of this. But I couldn’t. Who could? When the only fit was pure insanity? This was the real world, not a teenage girl’s fantasy.

“I can’t,” I say eventually on an exhale. “I can’t. It sounds insane. I sound like I should be wrapped in a straightjacket in a mental hospital.”

I should probably be going there anyway. I had nearly killed Richard, probably scared him off me for good, only to run straight to a gang leader that might be a -no, I couldn’t even think it. But whatever else he was, Cayden was a criminal. He had killed people. And he had had people killed for him.

And here I was, casually standing in my living room, talking to him on my phone.

I should definitely check myself into a mental institution for that alone.

“Alright,” Cayden said, his voice harder. “Then I’ll come to your apartment right now and I’ll explain everything in person. Perhaps then you’ll accept the reality of what you are now a part of.”

What? Him here again? My heart began to beat so rapidly I was certain it would set the rest of me on fire

“Uhm, no,” I told him calmly as I could manage. “I don’t think that’s the best idea. Why don’t we meet somewhere neutral? Eleanor Park, on the southside near the river.”

There was a beat of silence on Cayden’s end for a minute, before I heard his deep breathing.

“There is no neutral ground in all of this,” Cayden said eventually. “You’ll learn that soon enough. Eleanor Park lies at the edge of my territory, quiet enough so that you wouldn’t be noticed consorting with the likes of me, but close enough to a busy street just in case.”

I frowned. His territory? No neutral ground? What was he talking about. In the back of my mind, I know what he’s talking about. Large wolves, bites, those kinds of things normally came with clearly marked territories. Hell, even my pet house cat when I’d lived with my parents had territory that no other cat intruded on.

I really didn’t want to get drawn into this any further.

I took a deep breath. I didn’t have many choices here. I didn’t want him coming here, and I didn’t want people seeing me talk to a known crime boss. The rent was cheap here and I didn;t want my landlord kicking me out because she thought I associated with the likes of Cayden Veil. But what other options did I have?

“Okay,” I told him eventually. “I’ll meet you there.”

I heard the click of the call end, and realized Cayden had hung up without even saying goodbye.

I turned to my leg. I had looked at it not too long ago, but I needed to change the bandages.

I went to the cupboard and got everything I needed. I pulled my pants off, and slowly opened the bandage. And stared.

That couldn’t be right. I had just seen it not even five minutes ago but in that time the wound was no longer a wound. The marks were still there, but barely. It had scabbed over entirely, and there was almost no pain left. This wound looked weeks, if not months old. There was no way that it should have healed like this.

Miss Sharma’s kettle whistled, a small message. I could hear everything, smell everything, things broke in my hand. And now this. Healing at a level that wasn’t normal for a - a human.

I shuddered at the thought. No, I’m not going to get ahead of myself. I’m not going to start classifying things. Not yet, at least.

I quickly pulled the old bandage off and left it at that. There was no need for anything else. I changed into jeans, a shirt and a pair of boots. I grabbed a jacket and pulled the hood up.

A change of clothes would be able to deter Richard, at least for today, if he had still hung around. Though it probably wouldn’t do much to deter anyone else.

I pulled the hood lower down over my head, and then left the apartment. It would be a quick walk to the park, but rather early than late. I wasn’t sure how much patience Cayden had in him, or if he would just come straight to my apartment if he didn’t find me at the park.

The sun began to set as I approached the park. It was quite big, and more natural wood than a playground. The trees towered over me, and I could smell the fresh earth under my boots. There was no one around really at this time of day which made me a bit on edge.

I took a deep breath, and felt everything come back to me. This place was far less chaotic than my apartment. It gave my head a break from all the constant sounds.

Here, I could hear the water rushing in the stream up ahead, the animals scurrying through the underbrush. I could feel the soft breeze on my skin. I wasn’t sure what color my eyes were, but I pulled the sunglasses off nonetheless. I wanted to see the park without the dark tint around it.

I took a deep breath. The colors were more vivid than I had ever imagined, I could see the patterns of the lines on the trees bark, on the leaves themselves.

I could smell the leaves, the roses. The nuts that the squirrels were burying. Nothing was overwhelming, everything just fit together.

And then I heard footsteps approaching.

It looked like Cayden was early, too. I’m grateful, the sooner he can say this outloud, and the more insane it can sound, the quicker this can all be behind me. And with just a little bit of luck, Richard will leave me alone, too.

As I turned at the approaching footsteps, I picked up the scent of the person coming towards me.

It wasn’t Cayden.

And then a bag was pulled over my head, and I felt more than just one pair of arms grab me as fear sunk into my chest.