Deals With the Devil

“Dad! I can’t run as fast as you!” I yelled, racing after my father. He often forgot that I was only eleven years old. The growth of the bushes kept hitting my legs while the occasional ray from the early June sun brushed against my face as I ran. “Not having a wolf is not an excuse, Molly,” my dad chuckled as I came to a stop beside him. “You need to be able to run and defend yourself if your wolf can’t help you.” “Yeah, I know,” I mumbled. “Can I lead the rest of this run? I don’t want to chase you anymore.” My dad chuckled. “Of course, you can. Lead the way, dear.” I started running, leading my dad deeper into the forest. Although I was not going to get my wolf for seven more years, I had already begun to notice my senses increasing more than that of normal humans. My sense of smell was getting so strong that I could tell who was coming upstairs before they got up the first step, and my room was at the far end of the hallway. This was the sense that I let lead me through the forest. “Molly. You need to stop; there’s someone here,” Dad ordered, his command causing me to stop instantly. “Now, listen. What do you hear?” I rolled my eyes; Dad liked turning everything into a lesson. Then I focused on my surroundings. “Crying. I hear faint crying.” “Good job. Can you tell what she is?” “I can’t tell. But I don’t think she is a werewolf like us,” I replied. “Is she human?” Dad nodded. “Good job identifying that she’s female. Let’s go see why she is out here alone.” As he led the way to this girl, I smelled blood and a lot of it. Pushing our way past shrubbery, we saw a girl my age lying on the ground, a bloody bandage wrapped around her stomach. Tears lined my eyes when I realized that she was my age. “Hey,” I murmured so that I didn’t scare her as I got close. “My dad and I are here to help. Can you tell me your name?” She shook her head, wincing as she shifted her weight to move away from us. I gasped when I saw a bloody dagger in her hand. She held the dagger in one hand while the other held what I can only assume to be the dagger’s sheath against the wound on her stomach. Her golden blonde hair was plastered against her back, soaked with what I can only assume to be sweat and some blood. “Honey. Please stay still,” Dad said sweetly, the same way that he would talk to me when I was injured. “We need to get you some help. Can I carry you back to our doctors?” The girl nodded slowly, and I smiled. Even though I had just met her, I wanted to keep her safe. Dad ran off to get my four-wheeler so that we could reach the pack faster, so I sat with the girl. “Do you have a name?” I asked. “I want to know what to call you.” “Call me Elizabeth,” she said softly. “What’s your name?” “My name is Molly Lykaios, Beth. Do you have a family?” She shook her head. “Can you be my family?” I smiled. “If my parents and pack are okay with it, I would love for you to become my sister.” A smile lit up her face as I heard my dad coming up behind us. I climbed onto my dark green four-wheeler and pulled my helmet onto my head. Even though we are wolves, Mom insisted that we use all the safety equipment that humans would use when operating different machines. Dad carefully lifted Beth onto my lap before backing away. “The doctors are ready for her. I’ll meet you there.” What Dad didn’t say was that he was going to look for who would do such a thing to such a young girl. She couldn’t have gotten far with an injury as bad as hers, and we needed to make sure that the threat was not going to go looking for her and potentially harm the pack. At the faint sound of my dad’s bones cracking, Beth’s eyes widened with fear. “What was that?” she asked. I sighed; I couldn’t keep what we were a secret from her if I truly wanted her to become my sister. While we drove back to the pack, I explained to her that we were werewolves, and my dad shifted into his wolf form so that he could figure out where she was and if the person who hurt her was still around. When we reached the pack, Beth was pulled away from me to be checked out by the doctors. Mom took my hand, guiding me to a seat. She brushed back her dark brown hair that matched my own. “Mom,” I said softly. “Can you and Dad adopt her as your daughter? She won’t tell me anything about her family, and I really want to keep her safe.” She smiled knowingly. “You’d make a good Luna one day, my dear. I’ll talk to your father once he gets back to see what he says, but if he doesn’t find anything about her, I’m sure we will keep her safe here.” “Thank you!” I cried, wrapping my arms around her neck.