"ALPHA LIAM!"
"WHERE'S MY SON?!"
The walls tremble with the roar and my heart jumps into my throat and cuts off my words.
Liam shoots to his feet, his face falling into a hardened stare. "Stay here."
He hurries out of the kitchen as Kyle followed by Violet carrying a sleeping Diana come running.
"Who the fuck is that?"
"ALPHA LIAM!" The house rattles again.
"It's Dave's father," Violet breathes, exchanging a glance with Kyle who nods and takes Diana from her. She doesn't look back as she leaves the kitchen, the lights reflecting off her fingers growing into sharp claws.
"Come on, Arielle." Kyle holds out his hand, but I draw back.
"What's happening?"
"Shit is about to get messy, so I'm taking you girls to safety first."
I give him a skeptical look but he reaches out and grabs me roughly by the elbow.
"It's not up for debate, Arielle. Those men outside will tear you to pieces."
Before I say anything he drags me away, moving swiftly upstairs, not caring if I stumble. He marches past the rooms, to the end of the hall and pushes a section of the wall.
I gasp as it slides open noiselessly, revealing a small compartment, big enough to sit inside. He shoves me inside, gently drops Diana in my arms and stands back.
"Wait…"
But the door slides shut cutting my worried voice short. In the darkness, I hear his urgent footsteps rush down the hallway and fade into the distance.
What now?
My mouth goes dry as I press my ear to the wall, hoping to hear anything that will tell me the state of things. But nothing seems to drift by.
My heart starts pounding with a prayer that nobody else will die tonight. I can't take it if I witness another gush of blood from lifeless eyes.
I swallow dryly, staring down at Diana whose weight is starting to make my arms burn. She's still sleeping quietly, whimpering softly and tossing like she feels something is off even in her dreams.
And the memory comes without warning. Me, barely thirteen being oushed into a closet much like this one all because I was crying and she needed silence while she buried her sorrow in alcohol. I'd cried and begged in the silence to be let out but she never came. Fearful cold creeps into my chest.
Now seems a horrible time to have a panic attack, not when I had no idea what's happening outside and how I might go out in the morning and find all their bodied bloody and broken like Dave.
And it would be all my fault.
Calm down, Arielle, I tell myself like all those times when my mother would lock me in that tiny closet.
I close my eyes to regulate my breathing and push the images of the wolf ripping into Dave out of my head. I shut my ears from his gargled screams, and then try to quench the terror igniting in my chest like a living thing.
"Happy thoughts," I mutter. "Think happy thoughts."
But the feeling of being trapped rises regardless and my chest tightens with panic. So I know I have to get out of this box. I gently lay Diana down who thankfully hasn't woken up and begin to feel my way for a lock. The wall is smooth and empty.
What if it opens just from outside?
The thought feels like a hand around my neck and the hot slithering voice of Dave fan against my ear like he's manifested in the darkness.
My hands become more desperate running over the wall. "Please. Please."
There has to be a way to open it from inside. There has to be. Kyle wouldn't lock us in here without a way out. It feels like my chest would collapse when I hear a click and the door slides open.
Stumbling out, I fall into the arms of someone and it takes me a moment to see through the blur of fear and recognize who it is.
Hugo.
He looks pale and just as terrified as I feel. His hair sticks to his face and his arms holding me up tremble slightly.
"I remember they have this and I figured it's where you'll be," he's speaking too fast that I barely keep up. "Casper told me to get you out. He said it's not safe in here. Dave's father is here for blood, Arielle. Your blood. We have to go. Now. We have to go."
I gesture back to the door that has closed in on Diana. But Hugo shakes his head quickly. "She's safer in there. They're not here for her." He grabs my arm. "Come on."
"But where?" I stumble alongside him. We can't go through the front and the back.
"The window. I came in from your window." He pulls me along into my room, not stopping until he's half way through it.
"But we're high up," I whisper, staring past him to the bottomless dark below. It's as if the events of the night has acted like a shroud over what should've been a peaceful starry night.
"Don't worry, I'll catch you."
"What?" I take a step back in alarm.
"You have to trust me." Hugo stretches out his hand. "Casper won't send me if he thought that I'd let you get hurt."
I hesitate with indecision. Casper had saved my life. If he trusts Hugo then I have to. He has been nothing but nice to me.
"Are you a werewolf too?" it's a stupid question to ask but Hugo nods, answering me.
"We all are."
"You have to take me far away from this place."
"I promise." There's a solemn tone in his voice that makes me put my hand in his, surrending my life fully to him.
He smiles gratefully, leaves me to fully jump out the window.
I gasp as his frame disappears into the shadows but a second later his low urgent voice hisses up at me.
"Jump Arielle."
I hold the ledge, put a leg out and go rigid with dread. The air feels free and endless.
I swallow dryly. Not sure I'm brave enough but not knowing if I'm stupid enough to let myself be captured when I can escape.
"We don't have time! Hurry up!"
Every part of me screams to step away, to not trust Hugo to catch me but I hear a distant noise and I know I can't afford to think anymore. I put my other leg out, lower myself until I'm dangling by my hands, hold my breath and let go.
As the air rush around me, my hair whipping freely in the cold breeze, I get the sense of how my mother must've felt when she slipped off that balcony, fell two floors into the rose bush and had over a thousand thorns dig into her body.
But instead of a rose bush and thorns, I fall into Hugo's chubby cushioning body and I live.
I let out an exhale as he sets me down and takes my hand. "Now we run and don't look back."
We're at the side of the house, and to my right I hear raised voices coming from the front of the house and barely pick out anything over angry growls and thundering shouts.
Hugo takes off, dragging me along and we run into the fields in the direction of another part of the woods. Overcome with emotions I glance behind me at the house. Crazy to think, I thought I'd found a place that was so easy to fit into.
The one time I finally feel like I'm in a place I can belong. Here I am on the night of my birthday, running away from them.
"I'm sorry, Arielle," I hear Hugo's winded voice as we cross the treeline.
"What?" My head snaps to him but I never see him. Only a flash of shadow and violent pain bursting at the side of my head. The world tilts, a scream half forms in my throat and I'm plunged into scary dark.