The Half Mutt Mate

Chapter 3

The talking got louder as the strangers approached. I listened carefully to the conversation and was able to make out a few words. There were two people, a boy and a girl I thought, and I could just about see them walking closer to me through the undergrowth. I tried to back away slowly, without making any noise, but the strangers were too close and they were moving too fast.

"We should carry on, " one of the voices said.

I heard branches snapping as they walked clumsily through the forest.

"But we don't know where we're going," said the other, more high-pitched, voice. "We need to make a plan first -- we can't just wander around in circles."

I paused. That voice, it was familiar...I knew who it was. I unlocked my frozen limbs and sprang into action, calling out to the girl.

"Ella!" I shouted, following the sound of her voice. The talking stopped for a moment before I crashed into the view of my friends.

"Ella, Kayden," I said, recognising the boy as well. There they were, my two friends, who I hadn't seen in months, who I knew wouldn't betray me.

"Grace," Kayden gasped. His face was a statue of pure shock. "What are you doing here?"

Before I could even answer him I was being squeezed to death by Ella, who was hugging me and burying her head in my shoulder. 

"Oh, ow, it's a long story," I managed to say from the death grip I was in. "But a lot of things have happened since I last saw you guys."

"No kidding," said Ella, who had finally let me go. "We've had a lot going on as well."

I stared at them, the question of why they were there finally occurring to me. Why were they wandering around the woods with camping gear, too far from the high way to be seen? I stepped back to take a proper look at them.

They were dirty and tired looking, a lot like how I thought I must have looked, with purple bruises under their eyes and mud on their cheeks. Kayden had grown a couple of inches since I last saw him and was now a head taller than me, with messy, uncut brown hair covering his eyes. He was wearing a coat and jeans that looked too big on him, as well as a pair of tough walking boots, and he seemed to have more freckles than before. I noticed the scratches patterning his neck and hands and the tears in his clothes.

Ella looked much the same as before, though she was no longer as neat and pristine. She was the same height as before, but gone was the immaculate, orderly girl I knew , and in her place was a wild, feral-looking child. Her usually perfect black hair was now tied in a loose bun, stray clumps of hair falling out along the nape of her neck and, in the place of her usual blouse and skirt, she was wearing a similar brown coat and jeans combination to Kayden. Around her neck was a piece of string with a key on it which I had never seen before, though the key seemed shiny and new. 

My eyes filled with tears when I saw the large red scab next to her ear, a viscous wound marring the acne-free brown skin she had been so proud of. 

"What happened to you?" I said, my voice quiet. 

Ella looked down at the ground before she answered, her shoes stabbing at the dirt. "After you left, things started to get weird. People went missing from school, entire families left. It was just the odd kids at first, the quiet ones who made sure not to get close to anyone."

Ella paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "It took us a while to figure out what was connecting them, the link between then all... they all had werewolf blood in them. Some had gone into hiding, they'd heard rumours of what the full blooded werewolves were doing and thought they would be safer someplace else."

I frowned. How hadn't I heard about any of this? Oh yeah -- the whole being on the run thing. Ella stopped again, she didn't seem to be able to say anything else, the emotions were just too much. Kayden glanced at her and put his arm around her shoulder, holding her to him.

"Some of the others weren't so lucky," Kayden continued. "You know how much the werewolves hate human mates, they're so scared of weakening their bloodlines, but it got worse after they found an actual half human, half wolf kid. That's what the rumours said anyway."

I nodded and stepped closer to them. There were tears brimming in Kayden's eyes, even as he comforted the dry-eyed Ella. I put my hand on his arm and gestured for them to come with me.

"If it's alright with you I think we should carry on our conversation as we walk. I left my stuff only a little bit away and I think this is going to take a while," I said. Kayden nodded and they followed me back to the tree. 

As we walked I listened to their story, shocked by the whole thing. It turns out that, after I was discovered, Ella found out there was actually a little bit of werewolf blood in her from her birth parents. Kayden, too, had a distant great uncle who married a werewolf, meaning that although he was fully human some of the wolves still saw him and his family as a threat. 

I was silent as Kayden revealed all this. I couldn't believe all that had happened to them. When we got to the tree we sat down, exhausted, and watched as the sun climbed higher in the sky. It was definitely day time by then, about nine o'clock, and I could feel the sun warming my skin.

 When we were settled, Ella decided to continue the story. "My parents sent me to live with Kayden because they knew his family could keep me safer, since they already knew how to deal with this stuff. Eventually, we ended up on the run when the wolves came for Kayden's family."

Kayden was staring crossly at the ground and pulling out grass from the bottom of the tree. We were sat with our backs to the tree and if I wasn't so angry about how my friends had been treated I might have fallen asleep. I had been awake far too long.

"We got separated from the rest of Kayden's family but we're going East to find them. We think they'll be headed there too," Ella finished her story. I could tell she was leaving out a lot, but I didn't want to push her. 

"So," Ella turned to look at me. "What happened to you?"