Born werewolf

Chapter4

Sylvia took some steps backwards and turned to run but what she saw coming the other way gave her little time to scream or run for her life. She stood transfixed as two large wild animals that looked like dogs and as big as small horses, tore out of the bushes. The moon was full so she could see them clearly.

They saw her too and made for her. She saw Darsh chasing after the dogs. Sylvia turned and started running back towards the Flayas, screaming her head off, but she fell. Tumbling and clattering on the gravelled road in her heels and handbag.

She looked back, terrified, expecting the dogs to tear into her any moment, and then saw Darsh flying at the dogs, his hands out, reaching for the nearest one's neck to stop it. He let out a loud growl and the dogs stopped on their tracks, momentarily, few meters from Sylvia.

She could see their fiery eyes and snarling fangs. She realised they weren't dogs but a wilder animal of that species hardly seen around this part. They were like wolves.

'We don't have problems with you,' the Flaya drunk guy shouted at the beasts. 'It is your brother that offended us. It is him we have quarrels with. The

girl is ours. We found her.' Darsh moved forward and placed himself between Sylvia, still sprawled on the ground, and the Flayas.

The wolves growled.

'It is a fight then,' the drunk said. 'Let's go.' The beasts turned and ran back into the bushes and Darsh went after them running on all fours like one of them. The Flayas melted into the darkness. She later saw one or two different looking animals, big cats, spotted like leopards, running into the bushes too.

Sylvia sat up on the road, grits and sand all over her skin. Shaken to her bones. She had skinned her knees and had bruises on other places. She tried to stand up but cried out in pain instead. She had sprained or broken her ankle. She sat there sobbing. She had lost her purse too. Then she used her commonsense this time and cried for help. 'Somebody help me!'

She could only hear growls and snarling of wild animals in the bushes. As if they were fighting. She shouted for help again.

Darsh ran out of the bush still on all fours, he stopped and straightened up and came to her. Sylvia screamed louder.

He squatted beside her, touched her ankle and reached down to carry her. She wasn't a small woman but he picked her up like nothing. He smelled of forest and his hair was wild now and he looked more like his grandfather. His eyes glowed, his hair standing on their roots. She started struggling but her body was in a vice grip. 'Please let me go. I want to go home.'

He stopped. 'But you have been following me all night like a b***h in heat,' he growled at her. She noticed his fangs had grown. 'You wanted something from me. You wanted me.'

She stopped struggling. 'I...I just wanted to be your friend,' she lied. He chuckled. 'It's more than that.'

'Are you going to eat me?’ she asked him. 'Maybe.' He gave a deep chuckle.

She felt an abnormal calmness. Instead of screaming for help as she was supposed to, she decided to resign to fate, or reason with him. He could easily tear her to pieces here. She was dealing with a wild animal in a human form. A night paranormal creature out to mingle with normal humans. And she got snared in his charms. She either hung her hope on the brief friendship they shared at the party or pray hard. She chose to pray instead, because the perceived friendship might have been a snare.

She used to be a prayerful person as a child, but along the line, as she grew, she fell along the way like a bad seed. She had met bad friends at school and rather partied than go to church. Her knees had not touched the floor for a long time nor had she gone to confession. Now, she couldn't even pray well. Her lips moved but only garbled words formed. She was sure God didn't even have her time that night. That was why wild animals were sent to eat her. She was irredeemable.

'What are you doing?' He asked her.

'Praying.' She replied, her voice cracked from crying.

He had moved further into the bush, carrying her effortlessly. She could

still hear fearful snarls of animals nearby. A dangerous, deeper growl from Darsh quietened them. Sylvia's heart no longer pounded normally. She was half-dead from terror. Was he calling them for a meal?

He got to a clearing within the bush and stopped, placing her on a trunk of a fallen tree. 'You will be safe if you don't move.'

'Why don't you just let me go? Please?' 'I can't, you've seen us,' was his answer.

Sylvia bitterly regretted all the advances she made at him that night. She should have suffered the party in silence. The first time she ever picked up a man, he had to be a dangerous abnormal. 'I won't tell anybody. I promise.'

He scuffed. 'I don't trust a woman who can down a bottle of booze and pick up a random stranger. Besides, you can't even walk.'

She hung her head. ’I'm cold.'

He looked at her up and down, her black gown was short and sleeveless. He shrugged off his jacket and gave it to her. 'Stay here. Don't make a sound or you die.' He then moved away about two hundred yards and squatted, one hand planted on the ground. Few minutes later, two men approached him. They moved awkwardly as if their limbs weren't straightened completely. They first walked on all fours then on two legs. They were naked.

'What happened out there?' One of them asked Darsh. 'First you were at that Flaya's party, then you were late for our hunt and a woman was with you. And you got into a quarrel.' 'And you almost killed us!' The second man snarled. 'We were just two against them.' 'Bayy, Faka,' Darsh replied. 'It wasn't like that. The Flayas are friendly to us.'

'Not anymore. We wounded one of them this night, all for that woman.'

'The woman was a passerby,' Darsh told them. 'She brought me something important I lost.' Bayy cut in. 'You knew this was our meeting. Why is she still

here?''She is hurt.'

'You know she is never leaving alive. You are responsible for

her death.' 'She is coming with me.'

'What?! Are you crazy?! We are leaving for a mission tomorrow. Dugu

North-East needs reinforcement. More terrorists are moving deep into the forests and encroaching into their territory. They are killing and eating wolves for food. The last of our wolves kind are more endangered now than ever. Grandfather sent word yesterday, we go to Dugu North-East tomorrow.'

'I will go. Don't worry about the girl.'

'She is already trouble for you. You couldn't turn tonight and didn't hunt with us as brothers. You know how important you must train often. And she caused an avoidable fight between us and the Flayas. Just in one night!' Bayy snarled.

'Get rid of her,' Faka growled. 'Give her back to the Flayas.' 'They will kill her. She is not one of them. A novice.'

'Nevertheless theirs. For meat or for sport. They got her first. Let her go.' The two men melted into the bushes.

Darsh returned to Sylvia. 'Let's go.' 'Where?' she asked him.

He didn't reply. He picked her up again and walked into the bushes. Sylvia was now sure she was going to die. She had walked headlong into her own demise all because John jilted her.