The Reluctant Wolf: A Paranormal Romance (Werewolves and Shifters) (3 page)

Morgan tried to laugh it off, “Babe, it’s not a big presentation, really – I’m just helping one of the other salesmen with a promo he’s been working on for weeks. The vice president of the company was supposed to do this and Bob was going to assist – well, something happened to somebody in the VP’s family a few days ago, I think his wife is in the hospital, or maybe his daughter, so now Bob is doing the presentation and I’m assisting him. Really, it’s just an emergency thing. No big deal – just think of me as a burlier Vanna White!”

She continued to sit there for a few more seconds – Bailey was getting suspicious, he could feel it. Morgan knew he wasn’t a public speaker and so did Bailey. What to do next he wondered to himself. So he tried to distract her with a few kisses on her belly. He continued to kiss her side, her back, her belly, hoping the distraction tactics would work – after a while he was happy to realize that his methods were working – she never asked him another question. Finally, she gave in to him, and they fell asleep an hour or so later in each others arms.

The next morning came and went as usual – they were both in a good mood and Morgan felt relieved that Bailey hadn’t kept on asking him questions about his last minute trip. By the time the afternoon arrived he carefully went through the motions of packing his bags, taking only what he needed for two days and nights worth of supplies, clothes and assorted sundries, making sure to pack suits also as if he was really going to be doing a business presentation. Once he was done packing his suitcase, he loaded his car, kissed her goodbye and drove off.

A few miles outside of town he stopped at a convenience store and bought a cooler, some groceries and drinks and a few other things – enough to last him a few days. Next, he loaded up all his food and headed for his usual moon safe dive just south of town and about an hour or so away from the house he shared with Bailey. He looked at his watch just to make sure he was all right time wise. 3:12 PM, he was doing good time wise. By 4:00 PM he was working his was down a winding road deep into the woods. He drove until he found the unmarked trail and then drove on up to a dilapidated old cabin about three miles further on up the hidden trail.

It was just after 4:20 PM by the time he reached the cabin. No one ever came to this part of the woods except for him and maybe some hunters from time to time. The trees were so thick here that they grew almost on top of each other, and the presence of thick brush and downed trees made it even more difficult to navigate. Morgan had been using this particular deserted cabin for years now for only one thing – to go through the change in.

It had all the things he needed – it was very far everyone, and even too far for him to hurt anyone if the bloodlust overcame him. There were no farms or anything close and he was truly isolated. And his extra sensitive sense of smell let him know that no other human had been in the area since his last visit so he was completely isolated. He began to feel better already. His secret would be safe for another month.

Morgan quickly unloaded the car, fixed himself a sandwich, got a beer and then sat on the porch an hour or so later as the sun dropped slowly behind the horizon. Just after 8 PM it was completely dark outside and Morgan’s skin started to itch – he knew it was almost time for the change. Hopefully this month’s transformations would be another easy one.

SNAP!

Then he heard a limb break and some leaves shifted around from their place of rest outside the cabin. He froze in place instantly and listened intently as his animal instincts kicked into high gear. It wasn’t a second later and then more leaves whispered to him as they were kicked about, another branch snapped… and then another one broke… and then he heard a human’s gasp.

A human! How could this be? He panicked at the thought as his skin began to throb that unearthly throbbing that let him know it wouldn’t be long now. Why in the world would someone show up here? And now of all times? This cabin was twenty miles or better from everything! And everyone! He had never had a visitor before.

The timing for an unplanned visit by anyone could not be any worse either. In his transformational state he could easily hurt a visitor. He slowly moved inside and closed the door carefully behind him, hoping that whoever it was out there would think the place was just deserted and would move on. Despite the fact that his car was parked right out front!

Morgan waited in the shadows as his skin began to itch and throb more and more. Minutes ticked by and felt like hours as he waited, hoping for the intruder to just move on. After about three or four minutes, thinking to himself he was alone again since he had not heard any more movement from outside, he suddenly heard a knock on his back door. He froze like a deer in the headlights.

“Crap, crap, crap,” he thought to himself, still crouched in the shadows. Just who would be out in the forest this time of the night? Immediately after the first knock he heard another knock, followed by a familiar voice. His heart sank to his stomach, as he collapsed to his knees, sweaty and nauseous, his skin slowly starting to burn from within. It was Bailey.

“Morgan! Morgan!” she called out to him, “Morgan, I know you’re in there. Let me in right now!”

He stood up as best he could, feeling as if he were about to be sick and walked to the door. He was sweating profusely, but had cold chills too and felt as if he would surely pass out – he leaned against the back door and closed his eyes, hoping this was all just a bad dream and that when he opened his eyes she would not really be there. But her yelling let him know he was not dreaming.

“Morgan. What are you doing? Open up right now,” she yelled at him.

“What are you doing here, babe?” Morgan asked in return, still firmly behind the door, the intensity of the burning sensation inside him was getting stronger and stronger.

“I followed you because I knew you were lying to me Morgan. But why in the world would you come to a dump like this – and so far out? Are you on drugs or something? Please talk to me.”

Morgan began to plead to her, “Please baby, just go back home…”

Just then a blast of pain shot through him like a bolt of lightening – his eyes widened in terror as nausea hit him in larger and larger waves – he could feel the change coming on. It wouldn’t be long now – and Bailey was standing just on the other side of the door!

Bailey was crying by now, “I’m not going anywhere, Morgan, until you tell me exactly what you’re doing out here.”

“Please, baby,” was all he could get out before a new wave of pain hit him straight in the chest. He fell to the floor.

Everything was quiet on the other side of the door for a few seconds… then the door knob started to turn.

“Bailey, No!” he screamed, but just then another bolt of pain flew through his body like a flock of birds trying to get away from a predator. He curled on the floor again – sweaty and nauseous, but now in tremendous pain too. So, tonight was going to be very different from the transformations of the past few months he suddenly realized. Tonight might even be a full blown transformation! He was horrified but it was too late!

Just then the back door swung open, exactly at the instant he changed into a wolf! For an instant she stared, frozen in terror, then she turned and ran to her car like a track star on steroids. She saw the entire transformation – Morgan one moment, big, oversized, hairy wolf the next! The next thing he heard was the squeal of her Jeep’s tires as she sped away. He was still a furry heap on the floor recovering from the final end effects of the change. It would be a few more minutes before he would be able to move around without extreme pain as the wolf.

Morgan’s thoughts were becoming harder to control and less and less human – he wanted to run after her, to explain what she had just saw – but not looking like this. Plus, Bailey was the last person on earth he wanted to hurt – and in his current state he wasn’t sure whether or not he could control himself. He didn’t want to hurt her. He couldn’t hurt her.

And then he wasn’t thinking about her at all…

The two moonlit nights came and went – Morgan hurriedly packed up the third morning and headed for home. He couldn’t get there fast enough. As soon as the sun rose on that third morning he started grabbing his things and stuffing them into his car as fast as he could– no rhyme or reason was needed, just get it all in there and go, that’s all he was thinking. If anyone had been taping him as he packed his car it would have definitely been a Youtube favorite.

Morgan sped home like a demon, almost cutting the trip in half time wise. Finally, he got to the house he shared with Bailey, pulled into the driveway, threw the car into park, flew out of the front seat without even closing the drivers side door and ran up to the front door without even unpacking. He never even noticed that her car was gone. He selected the front door key from all the other ones on his keyring as he was running up the stairs, put it in the lock, turned it and pushed open the door. The house was quiet. Too quiet for this time of the morning.

“Babe, I’m home.” Morgan shouted in his best 50′s house husband voice.

No answer.

“Bailey? Where are you, hon?” he asked as he slowly walked deeper into their home.

“Bailey… are you in the shower?” he asked.

No answer.

He walked past the living room and kitchen and headed for the back of the house. “Bailey?”

Still no answer.

Finally he made it back to the bedroom they shared where he noticed that her clothes were all gone because the closet and dressers were empty with doors standing wide open. At that point it hit him – she had left him days ago. Her scent was faint – he instinctively knew she had been gone for at least two days. And with that realization Morgan slowly pulled out his cell phone and dialed her number without even thinking as his hands trembled. He could hear the phone ring long before he put it to his ear.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” was all Bailey said, then instantly she hung up.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit,” Morgan said to himself as the tears formed in his eyes and slid down his non-shaven face, getting caught up in his stubble. He dialed her once again hoping to talk to her this time.

As soon as she answered his call she hung up without a single word. She did this to him 3 more times. Finally on the fifth try she answered. As soon as she answered on the other end he started, “Baby, please…”

“I still don’t want to talk to you. I told you – please respect my wishes. Don’t contact me again.” Bailey replied, her voice was a distant, emotionless whisper.

Morgan responded, “Baby, please…“

Bailey hung up on him again. He hit redial immediately. The phone rang and rang but no one answered this time. Finally, it just went to her voice mail. Her usual cheery message came on and he hung up long before her message finished, completely defeated. He didn’t know what to say to her and she had made it completely clear that she was not in the mood to have a conversation with him. So he simply did nothing.

He stood there a long time, unable to believe that she wouldn’t talk to him. He was in total shock at the events of this morning and all that had happened for the past few days. He just stood in there for a few minutes though it seemed like forever. Overwhelmed, he simply yelled – and then he yelled again, five or six times – a sound that echoed over and over throughout the empty house.

Afterward he lost it – he pulled over several pieces of furniture, and just started wrecking everything in the house, not stopping until he was done. Then he collapsed on the floor and just lay there with his head in his hands and cried like a little baby for the better part of an hour.

Days came and went, and eventually turned into weeks, since he had last talked to Bailey. He had tried repeatedly but she hadn’t answered since that one day almost a month ago. Morgan simply went through the motions of getting up, going to work, then coming home. He looked terrible and it was evident that he had switched his mind off, hardly ate, and wasn’t getting any sleep at all. By the time the next full moon came round again, he just stayed at home because he simply had no reason to leave.

The transformation that night was fast and bloodlust took over his body in just a few minutes. There would be no holding back now – Morgan, now a werewolf, went out into the night and satisfied his cravings in a way he hadn’t allowed him self to do in years. But without Bailey he simply did not care what happened. That was the first full moon without her.

By the time the second full moon came around he was completely exhausted. He hardly ever slept anymore, he refused to eat (other than when he was a wolf), he stopped working, hadn’t shaved in weeks and just looked terrible. A starvation diet was the path he had chosen to not only rid himself of the wolf but to rid the world of him as well. Finally, the time had come and the change happened quickly. But the wolf was weak and cranky and ready to search for food.

As the wolf he decided to find his old mate though so he ran through the night to find her old house, the one she lived in before they had gotten together years ago. That was the only place he thought she might be even though he had never been inside the house itself. The wolf didn’t want to kill her. He just wanted to be near her. Even the wolf ached for Bailey though Morgan was unaware of it. She had been his only relief in life, and without her he knew he wouldn’t carry on. Soon enough he would be dead.

As soon as the wolf found the old house he paced up and down in front of it all night long, growling and grunting as he fought his urges to enter and meet her face to face. His horrible howling could be heard for miles. He hadn’t been there but for a few minutes before he realized that she was inside, he could hear her heartbeat, smell her scent now and his heart ached with every pitiful howl.

Finally, the next morning, after the night of the full moon, he transformed back into a man right there in her own yard. He was so weak due to his bad eating habits, lack of exercise and terrible sleeping patterns over the past two months that he only had the strength to lie on her grass, completely nude, breathing in shallow gasps. He didn’t care what would happen to him now – at this point he hoped someone would come by and just finish him off.