Attack
Themoment we pulled up to Safe Haven, I immediately knew something was wrong. Thefront glass door was shattered, sirens could be heard in the distance, and itsmelled like vampire. Without thinking, I struggled out of my clothes andshifted into my wolf form.
“Aurora!We’re in public,” Kai scolded me.
Itwas instinct, I couldn’t help it. If I was going to run into a vampire, Iwanted to be a wolf; not a hundred and thirty pound human girl with no weapon.
Iran to the open doorway, whimpering as glass cut my paws. Kai followed behindme in human form, gun drawn. The entire pack carried weapons ever since thevampires had waged war on our kind by trying to poison our water supply withliquid silver. Kai held the gun, loaded with silver bullets, in hisoutstretched hands. The sound of a scream came from the gymnasium, the fur onmy coat stood, I ran back there. I nudged open the gym door with my snout. WhenI smelled it, I howled.Death. Blood. Human. Vampire.
SafeHaven was a shelter, a safe place for women and children to come and escapetheir abusive lives. The woman that lay before me, was gutted like a fish. Igagged as rage built up inside me. It was a horror show, purposefully meant tosend a message. Our wolf, Andy, who was supposed to be on guard duty, wasunconscious in the corner. Smart. If they killed him, we would have felt itthrough the pack bond, but if they quickly knocked him out, it wouldn’t raisealarm. Two women were sobbing and shaking in the corner. I could hear footstepsand saw other women and children coming out of their rooms.
‘Kaidon’t let them see! They have seen enough blood,’I urged him through our bond. The women were supposed to feel safeat the shelter. However, one was murdered before me and two were traumatized inthe corner. Livid didn’t even begin to describe how I felt. I wanted everyvampire alive to be a pile of dust!
Kaiquickly turned to address the women. “Ladies, there has been an accident. Pleasego back to your rooms while I talk to the authorities. The gymnasium is offlimits.” Kai shut the gym room doors. All of the women knew Kai; they trustedhim. Damn, he was good with public speaking, an Alpha trait, I guess.
‘Aurora,shift and change. Cops will be here within minutes. I don’t smell any vampiresnear. They’ve gone.’
Kaiapproached the two women who stared at me with fear.
“Isthat a wolf?” one of them asked with a shaky voice.
“Yes,I breed mountain wolves in partnership with the wildlife and gaming commissionto help the endangered species. She broke out of the cage in my truck. Shewon’t hurt you.”
‘Whoa,you’re a good liar,’I told him. Interesting. I mighthave to look out for that.
Ipadded over to the women’s locker room and nudged the door open with my snout.I cringed at the smell. Sweat. Old Socks. Body odor. I shook it off and shiftedquickly. Kai and I had the same ability to shift instantly and be super-fast.In this moment, I was grateful. It was stupid of me to have shifted in publicin the first place. Rookie werewolf move. I looked down at my naked body andthen across the room to a pile of smelly, old gym clothes. Yikes. I quicklygrabbed the grey sweatpants and large black shirt and threw them on.Yuck.I reeked.
Ipopped open a small window on the far wall and slid out. I was at the side ofthe building and could hear the sirens screaming. They had arrived. I ransuper-fast to the front of the building just as the cops were about to turn thecorner. I leapt across the broken glass and through the front door.
Afew women were gathered outside the gymnasium doors talking in shushed voices.
“Whois in charge here?” I heard a booming voice from behind me.
Iturned around.Cops.I had a love-hate relationship with cops. When myfather would get drunk and beat my mother up, I would call the cops. They wouldcome to the house and my scared mother wouldn’t press charges. The cops wouldlook at her shaking hands, bruised face, and split lip and leave. Sometimesthey took my father in for a night to dry out, but they never reallyintervened. I guess they couldn’t legally. I needed to keep reminding myselfthat the man I grew up with wasn’t my real father. Sylvia had shown me that. Iwas put with my parents for safe keeping, but I didn’t share his blood. It wasoddly comforting.
“Iam the owner.” I raised my hand.
Thecops looked me up and down. No doubt wondering why I was dressed so poorly,with no shoes.
“Pleaseexcuse my appearance. My name is Aurora. I own Safe Haven. I was just about toteach a self-defense class when we saw the broken glass and the body. Myboyfriend is in the gymnasium right now trying to calm the women down. Followme.”
Iwalked toward the doors.
‘Boyfriend?’Kai spoke into my mind. He seemed disappointed. So he had heardme. Damn werewolf hearing.
Ismiled.‘Mate sounds weird to humans.’
I opened the doors just as the officers came up behind me. Icouldn’t tell before because of the stink on my clothes, but I smelled a witch.One of the cops was a witch. We entered and upon seeing the dead, mutilatedbody, the cops drew their weapons. The two women were sitting up and facingaway from it all. Kai had calmed them down. I breathed in again.
‘Oneof the cops is a warlock,’Kai confirmed.
‘Goodone or bad one?’I asked. Sylvia had taught me alittle about dark witches and light witches, but I didn’t know how to tell themapart yet.
‘Youtell me,’Kai responded.
“Whathappened here?” An officer barked at me and had his gun drawn on Kai.
I thought ofsomething.
