11 Creature, Part 1

Although it was pitch black outside, I could still see perfectly as I followed Dakota out of the cave. He was nowhere in sight, but I remembered what Dakota had told me earlier. What do you smell? So, instead of running blindly into the night, I lifted my nose to the cool night air and inhaled. Dakota had a definite woodsy, musk scent mixed with freesia, leather, and rain. In the air, I smelled a bear to the left... and a muskrat under the leaves behind me... then Dakota northeast within the forest, but within that short period of time, he could have already run to Wyoming.

There was also another scent. It smelled animalistic, but there was something about it that I couldn't place.

"Dakota, where are you?" I asked in the Pack Mind, following his scent. No answer. "Mark, are you there?"

"Yes, Jessica, we're on our way. Dakota already told us," Mark replied. I could hear his footfalls in the distance.

"I'm on my way," I told Mark, carefully following Dakota's scent.

"Be careful, Jessica," Mark instructed. "You're still new."

"I can take care of myself."

"That's what they all say," Raina replied. "Until they become lunch."

"Raina...." Mark sighed mentally.

"I know, I know, 'Can it, Raina,'" she responded.

I couldn't help but smile, but I forced myself to focus, dodging trees, looking everywhere for Dakota.

"Dakota!" I called out loudly within the Pack Mind, running faster.

"Not so loud!" Austin said, running toward us.

"Oh, sorry," I responded. "I'm still getting used to this talking-in-the-mind thing."

"We call it the Pack Mind," Mark responded. "Hang on, Jessica. Stay where you are. We're almost there."

"Get away from me!" a human girl screamed in the night. Then the same guttural, demonic growl reverberated off the trees within the still night air. "I'm warning you...."

"To the right!" I thought within the Pack Mind. "Mark, where are you? We need you guys! Come on!"

"Almost there, Jess," Micah said loudly. "Hang on!"

"Did you hear that?" I said loudly pushing myself harder. "There's a human girl out here and she's yelling at whatever that animal is. Let's go! She needs us!"

"EEEEeehhhhhhh," the girl let out a blood-curdling scream that chilled my bones. She was a distance away, but I could hear over long distances in my wolf form. I pushed myself harder, determined to find her. Her cries grew louder as I drew near. "Someone help me! Aaaaahhhh Owwwww," the girl's screams pierced the quiet night, sending chills all over my body.

"I'm almost there! Hang on!" I screamed in my mind, wishing that I had my vocal cords so the girl could hear me. Where was Dakota? He must have phased, but why?

Suddenly, the girl's screams cut off abruptly, ending in a gurgle.

My heart stopped as ice filled my veins. I pushed myself harder, then turned the corner and in the moonlight, an animal—or that's what I thought—was standing over a lifeless figure lying on the ground. I bared my teeth as a guttural growl erupted deeply from within my chest as I firmly stood my ground. In the moonlight, the animal was eating, chewing the lifeless figure on the ground. I growled, baring my teeth, and sprinted toward it. It turned to face me, with glowing red eyes, blood dripping from its mouth, baring long primitive fangs. I caught it by surprise as a demonic growl erupted from within his chest, then the creature sprinted toward me. Snarling, I leaped toward this demon when suddenly a giant, mahogany wolf flew at it from behind me, jumping on it, knocking it down as it skidded across the forest floor. Immediately, the creature sprinted toward the forest, almost leaping like a giant cat, then it was gone.

I started after it, but Dakota stopped me.

"See after the girl!" he yelled to me over his shoulder in the Pack Mind. Then he sprinted into the forest after the demonic animal. Suddenly, Mark and the rest of the pack ran quickly from behind me, leaping over and around us, following Dakota into the forest at full speed. I took one look at the lifeless figure lying on the ground, then turned toward the bushes and vomited everything until there was only yellow bile erupting from the pit of my stomach.

"Huh," a sound came from the girl. She was still alive.

Quickly I turned toward her, and all she saw was a giant silver wolf.

"Get away from me," she said weakly. "No! Please! No more...."

I phased into my human form immediately. "It'll be okay," I said to her, kneeling on the soft lichen beside her, then held her head in my hand. I quickly assessed her body. She was young and severely injured in the stomach area, as if big chunks had been ripped from her body. Her blonde hair was stained in blood, and blood dripped from the side of her mouth. Suddenly, she spit up more blood that rolled down her chin and onto what was left of her white T-shirt.

She wasn't going to make it.

"Who are you?" the girl asked weakly, barely coherent. "Where's Jeb? Where is he? Where's Jeb?"

"Who's Jeb?" I gently asked, fearing the worst.

"My fiancé...." The girl's head lulled back.

Suddenly, Dakota appeared in his human form, wearing only khaki shorts, his muscular chest bare. Lexie threw a long T-shirt over my head and I quickly slipped my arms through, putting it on, but I could care less about clothes at the moment, as I held the dying girl's head in my hands. Raina came up behind Dakota, followed by the rest of the pack.

"Jeb, her fiancé?" I quietly asked Dakota, now crouched down on the ground beside me, as tears streamed slowly down my cheeks.

Dakota said nothing, but shook his head, frowning.

"What did this to you?" I asked the girl, bending down low. I didn't dare touch her torso. There was nothing left to touch. How the girl was still alive was a mystery.

"That thing was like you," she said, as her eyes became fixed and breathed her last breath. I would have performed CPR on her, but she had no chest to press. There was nothing that I could do but hold her as she died within my arms.

I bent over her, cradling her head to my cheek, crying openly. "No, no, no!" I screamed, "Don't go! No!" But Dakota pulled me away from her and to his chest, but I pushed him away. "What did this to her?" I screamed to the pack, looking on, as tears flowed freely down my cheeks. "She said it was like me. What was that thing?"

"Did you do this?" Raina asked, her voice filled with sarcasm.

"You selfish b**ch!" I screamed at her, balling my hands into fists, marching toward her with hate filled eyes, until Dakota grabbed me around the waist pulling me back so hard that my feet left the ground.

"Yeah, any time b**ch!" Raina screamed back, as Austin held her back.

"Let me go, Dakota!" I screamed, flailing my arms. "I'm going to kill her!"

"Yeah, any time you think you're ready!" Raina screamed back, fighting Austin.

"Ladies, stop! The fight is out there!" Mark yelled, stepping between us, pointing toward the dense forest. "There's something out there that's doing this, and we need to stop it before it kills again! Not fight each other! Now stop!" Then came the order, "If either one of you lay a hand on the other, you will have to answer to me! And you will leave the pack and be forced to give up your wolf!" Then he turned to all of us, "And that goes for the rest of you, too!"

"Dakota, where were you?" I interrupted, pulling free from him, gaining control as tears streamed freely down my cheeks. "I couldn't reach you, where were you?"

Dakota took a deep breath before answering calmly, "I was looking after the guy."

"Jeb?"

Dakota nodded.

"And?"

He shook his head. "He was worse off than her," Dakota replied, not attempting to approach me.

"Then why didn't you leave him and try to save her?" I screamed as tears coursed openly down my cheeks.

"It carried her off when it saw me," he answered. "And the guy was still talking. I needed to find out what he knew."

"So, you left her to die?" I screamed.

Mark placed a hand calmly on my shoulder. "Jessica," Mark intervened, trying to calm me down. "Dakota did what the rest of us would have done."

"I thought she was already dead," Dakota responded calmly, his eyebrows pulling together in concern. "Jeb was talking at the time, and we needed to find out what's doing this."

"That thing is doing this!" I screamed, jabbing an accusing finger in the direction that it fled.

"I know, Jess." Dakota pulled me into his arms, but I pulled away, refusing to be consoled. "We have to find out what it is."

"What did Jeb say?" I asked, finally calming down enough to listen to reason. I took a deep breath to steady the shimmers running down my arms and to fight the reddish haze forming before my eyes.

"Not much. He was too far gone," Dakota replied. "He was worried about her, mumbling incoherently. I tried to ask him, but then he was gone."

I was crying openly now, and Dakota pulled me into his arms. But this time, I didn't fight him. Then he gently stroked my hair, and said to Mark over my shoulder, "What was that thing, Mark? Have you seen anything like it before?"

"No," Mark replied, shaking his head. "But I think I might know who will." Then, Mark turned his attention to the rest of the pack. "Is everyone okay?" Everyone sounded off, each in various stages of concern, some looking into the forest in the direction that the thing had vanished.