Hidden in Sheridan (Tainted Series: Book 1)

Moon: WAXING CRESCENT

Levi - The crunch of the snow beneath our boots echoed in my ears, but only because everything else around was so quiet. The snow flakes increase in size as they fall steadily from the sky. We reach the end of the yard where the forest begins again. That’s when I hear Rory’s voice, clearly as if directly behind me.

“Dad’s on his way home. Are you sure showing him is a good idea? Sterling is right, if it’s just a fluke, then we have kill him.”

My feet freeze, though I don’t turn around.

Me? I wonder, is he was going to kill me?

“It’s not a fluke.” Mrs. Wolfe’s kind voice states, though it’s clearly strained. “Something happened when he got bit. I know it’s not possible but I can see him changing.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“It means we show him, because the outcome will probably be the same.”

Hair all over my body ripples to attention, the lump in my throat is now identified as my heart pounding so hard it was trying to escape northward through my esophagus. Sterling’s boots stomp up next to me, his voice startling loud at first, “Why’d you stop?”

“Sweet Mrs. Wolfe, your mom, is going to kill me.” I say, then my eyes shift to Sterling’s, hoping for a look of shock, or a playful laugh. Instead, Sterling pierces his lips into a tight line. His creamy brown eyes dance everywhere to avoid making contact with me. Then to top it off, Sterling nods.

“She might,” He says.

My body suddenly floods with panic, “Are you kidding me? WHY? Kill me? I mean, WHAT?”

“How did you know that?” Sterling asks. He’s not trying to change the subject the thought just occurred to him to ask, so he asked.

“She just said it,” I spun around, my hand sweeping the space behind me, expecting to see Mrs. Wolf and Rory standing right there. Instead I caught a glimpse of Rory sitting at the table inside the kitchen. The kitchen that is at least 20 yards back across the open yard, than across the patio and in through the back door. True the backdoor is open but there was no possible way I should have heard that conversation so clearly at this distance. “She and Rory were talking … you didn’t hear them?”

“You could?” Sterling shakes his head in disbelief. “Levi, don’t freak out, not yet. Let me show you what my mom wants me to show you. After that, we’ll both freak out. I promise.”

Sterling has been my friend since elementary school. Through sleepovers, bike rides, broken bones, and other failed friendships. Which, in light of my impending doom, is why my feet automatically follow him.

We walk a mile out, I’m not sure how I know the exact distance but I do. The trees are the tall branchless ones. The leaves haven’t grown across the canopy above yet, so snow falls freely around us free of shadows. Somehow the world around me seems to glow around us.

Sterling’s family was known to love the snow. In the fall, when that first snowfall hit the ground, they would always disappear on a camping trip out in the woods. Why anyone would want to go camping in the snow had always been beyond my comprehension, but this new feeling trilled across my skin as we trekked through the soft powder, and I started to understand.

I stumble over rocks and fallen branches but manage to keep my eyes locked on Sterling. He walked with such confidence. Even though the ground was coated in a blanket of untouched snow, he placed each step with purpose, as if he knew where each branch was before he got to it.

The smirk escapes my mouth with a whoosh of billowing white.

What am I doing? It’s just Sterling in the woods. Nothing is going to happen. His mother can’t kill me. That would be murder. It had to have been a joke.

I decide that was it, and I can’t walk any farther.

“Stop. Please.” I run my hands through my hair.

The snow had soaked my curly hair across the top but the moisture hadn’t penetrated any deeper. Which left my fingertips to scratch across a dry scalp and then back across my face. “Just show me. Just … right here is fine. Show me what I need to know.”

Sterling nods before he passes his weight between his two feet. His legs leaving two perfect holes in the snow. Taking several deep breaths through his noes and out his mouth, the heat escaping him in puffs of white.

“Here can work.” He finally says, “Okay. Don’t freak out. If you do, that way is back to my house.” He points directly behind me, and I shake my head.

“No. I’m not running back to your house.” I protest. Especially not after what I’d just heard.

Sterling nods, “Fair enough. Then you can run to your house. It’s …”

“It’s that way.” I point south. Again, I have no idea how I know, but do. Sterling agrees.

“As you know my family has been in this area for generations. That’s because the entire Yellowstone Territory, belongs to our pack. We protect it, we watch over it, and we keep others out of it. My grandpa is at the head, he lives in the National Park. My brothers and uncles families surround it. Butte, Island Park and everywhere in between.”

“Your Pack?” I repeat, my tongue felt too big for my mouth, making the word ‘pack’ taste odd.

Sterling nods.

“Are you trying to tell me you’re a werewolf?”

“No.” Sterling laughs, so I do to.

“Oh good because I’d have to think you’re insane.”

“Well I’m not. Werewolves are the idea that humans turn into wolves. Which my mom was insisting is impossible. We’re wolves, straight up. Wolves that disguise ourselves as humans. Our ancestors accepted the term Lycanthrope.”

“Doesn’t that mean werewolf?” I state flatly.

Sterling shrugs, “Wolf-person. Humans have their definitions, and we have our own.”

My body was completely still as I study him. Searching for a tell that give away the fact he was joking. But his shoulders are square, he’s barely blinking and he continues to look me straight in the eyes.

“You want me to believe that you,” I motion to his entire gangly awkward, not fully developed 16 year old body, “You, are a wolf?”

Sterling nods, “You don’t have to believe, mom said to show you.”

The laugh bubbles from my chest stopping short in my throat. It wants to come out but somehow it’s too afraid to leave the safety of my lungs.

“Ready or not?” I finally say, and Sterling steps back. He crouches low to the snow his finger tips leaving small traces in the top layer of white.

Shadows shift across him as his clothes, skin, hands, feet, it all blurs and changes. Hair - no fur floods across Sterlings body from his back straight to his front. But it isn’t complete until he springs forward into the air. He twists and flips, the rest of his human form falling away as he lands on all fours three feet in front of me.

CHAPTER END