Rejected
Start writing here…Fire crackled through the pieces of woods we spent half an hour collecting, illuminating the night at the redwood forest. My mouth watered when a mouthwatering scent of meatloaf drifted to my nose. I reached for one, watching as Tyler, the neighbor's son, and the host of tonight's campfire gathering, struggled to pick a piece from the forked flames, eliciting a chuckle from me.
"So, new gal," he glanced at me, a corner of his lips stretching in amusement, displaying his dimple. He leaned forward, clearly drunk, "tell me more about you."
"Yes," Tobias, his friend chimed in, hand raised high with a bear bottle, "I'm interested too."
I blushed, giggling. "But you already know a lot. We've been friends for a couple weeks now."
"Come on, guys," Talia, Tyler's twin sister and my new best friend, threw her arm over my shoulder, "you know her. Anastasia Miracle, moved from Arizona with her mother, goes to the same college with us."
"Loves cookies and everything extra sweet," Samara joined in the recitation of my life story as well.
I laughed. "See, you already know everything."
"Not everything."
I glanced beside me to find Tyler's sky-blue eyes staring at me as if he was trying to read me, but the frown on his face said he wasn't succeeding.
"There's something more," he whispered while the others got busy fighting over the last pieces of marshmallows. "Something I can't decipher."
I gulped, a nervous smile tugging at my lips. "If I didn't know you better, I'd say you aren't flirting. But I do know you well enough."
He smirked, his eyes glinting with a weird expression.
"And you're drunk," I remarked.
His resolve broke, bringing out his familiar carefree laughter; the thing I liked about him the most. "You got me, senorita."
I smiled, genuinely this time, and shook my head. It'd been exactly a month since I moved to this small town in northern California with my mother. It was hard at first, considering the hassle one has to go through when moved to an unknown place. Then there was also the incident that turned my world upside down all those years ago but still managed to haunt me in my sleep like it happened not a day ago.
But these people—These crazy, weird yet sweet, sweet strangers—made things a piece of cake for me and my mom with their kind hospitality and super down-to-earth manners.
They made me feel like I had always been here, always been their friend, and not the loner at a corner like I feared I'd turn out to be.
The vibration of my phone pulled me out of my thoughts, and I raised my butt to pull it out. Seeing the caller ID, I stood up, excusing everyone and walking away from the meddling crowd.
"Hello, Mom," I answered, but none came back from the other end. "Mom, I'm fine here, really." I spoke again, yet no one replied back. A crease formed in my heart as well as on my forehead. "Mom, are you there?"
Like before, only silence prevailed.
"Mom? Are you okay? Mom!"
My breathing hitched in my throat as I put down the phone and ran back to the group. "I've gotta go."
"What! Now?" Talia frowned, sitting upright while Tyler stood up, nearing me. "Is everything okay?"
I nodded. "I hope so."
"Alright, let me take you back."
"No, no. Don't trouble yourself. I can go by myself."
"What? No." His eyes widened. "How can I leave a girl alone at night in the middle of the woods?"
"No, really. I memorized the path." I didn't want them to spoil their fun for me. Besides, he was pretty drunk which meant taking him along would only slow me down. Then this could be a mere occurrence of poor network connection. So, to convince him, I drew out my pepper spray from my backpack. "See. I'm fully protected. So don't worry. I'll be fine," I assured him.
He frowned even more, not looking satisfied at all. Nonetheless, he agreed. "Fine."
"Just be careful, Ana," Talia said.
"You have my number. Call me if you need anything, okay?" Tyler looked into my eyes meaningfully. He was really concerned like the gentleman he was, and that gave butterflies in my stomach.
Bidding them goodnight, I threw my backpack on my shoulder and ran down the trail we came through. Thank the heavens, there were lights at a few points. At other spots, I used the flashlight from my phone.
Scared? Nope, I wasn't scared. I was my mama's girl; the bravest out there, and right now, she needed me.
Right...
Something smashed under my foot, making my heart flap inside, and blood pressure rise high.
Come on, Ana, it was only a twig. Nothing else— I told myself.
Then another twig snapped, and then another, but I kept going until I stopped, my guts sensing a funny feeling. I had no idea why I did that, but I looked back at the trail, and my eyes rose to my hairline.
There were no twigs or branches on the ground.
Leaves rustled somewhere, making me jump out of my skin. I whipped around, flashing my light frantically all over the bushes.
"Wh-Who's there?"
A low rumbling growl reached my ears before a vicious gust of wind swept past me, blowing my hair all around my face.
Oh fuck…
I bolted.
I didn't think. I didn't wait to see what the heck it had been. I just ran like my life depended on it.
Perhaps, it did.
Who in their right mind wandered through the woods at night by themselves? I, certainly, shouldn't have, considering I had no knowledge about what went on in its layers. Or specifically, who roamed in its shadows. I should have just let Tyler take me back home.
Home... Mom... Oh my God! I needed to get to Mom ASAP.
But all my thoughts came to an abrupt end when I found myself flying suddenly, my heart hurling up my throat, and my phone losing the contact of my fingers. My squeal echoed through the trees as my face planted flat on the ground.
I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting through the pain.
But when my eyes opened back, it was all dark. The flashlight of my phone was gone.
"Shit!" I furiously looked around, groping through the leaves, the fear settling back in my ribs. "No, no, no, please. Oh God..."
A silvery sheen over the forest brought my gaze up at the sky, catching the striking phase of the full moon shining above.
With a deep breath, I tried looking for my phone once again, finally spotting a glint over the metal. Picking it up, I tried to turn it back on, but it didn't work. I tried again, rapidly tapping on the button. "What is wrong with i-"
A hot exhale blew in the back of my head, freezing my movements, and a low growl vibrated through me. I swallowed, a tremor running along my chest.
There was something behind me, wasn't it? Something wild and animalistic.
Slowly, very slowly, I turned around.
A pair of flaming red eyes came into my view. They were so close, my heart lurched inside my ribs. A squeal slipped my lips, reverberating through the sequoia forest before I stepped back frantically. But like a cliche horror movie, my feet got tangled with each other, and I fell on my butt.
The beast slowly appeared out of the bushes into the moonlight, thick ashen fur coating its huge body, and canines sticking out from the sides of its mouth like two fierce blades.
A gigantic wolf.
I stared, my body paralyzing from fear.
It observed me, fiery eyes taking in every inch of my body perhaps calculating how many bites it'd take him to devour me. Judging by his size, it'd probably be two or three bites at most.
Oh God...
My throat dried when it started stalking me in a predatory manner like it was finally decided.
I squeezed my eyes shut, my hands clammy and shaking beside me. My heart pounded in my chest so loud, for a second I couldn't hear anything else. Thoughts of never seeing my mother or my friends ever again filled my head, worsening my fear.
Why did I have to come alone…
A whimper escaped my lips when I felt its warm, wet snout tracing the side of my face down to my neck, sniffing me. Licking a taste off of my skin, its hot breath sending tremors down my spine.
Then its touch disappeared. I could no longer sense the thick, dark energy, holding me in place.
Shaky breaths escaped me. Was it gone? Or was it cruelly waiting on me to open my eyes and see my death right before it ripped off my head?
"Mine!"
Huh…
My eyes snapped open, my brows dipping.
There was no longer a wolf.
No.
There was a man. A tall, enormous, giant of a man, the moonlight above casting his face into a playground of silver and shadows.
The only visible feature on him was his eyes.
His cold, dark, green eyes.
I blinked, scrambling back to my wobbly feet, my breathing bursting out of me in pants. He saved me.
Looking around, I took a step towards him. "Th-the wolf—"
My words got cut off as the pressing energy hit back with double the force, pinning me against a tree behind, the breath getting knocked out of my lungs. Shock rendered me paralyzed for a moment before my senses came back. I screamed but no sounds came out of my lips, and I realized it wasn't the astonishment that had my limbs blocked.
It was the invisible force, actually immobilizing me.
My dreaded gaze flickered back to the man, his broad shoulders menacingly heaving up and down with his own heavy breathing. But that wasn't what had my insides twisting with horror. It was his eyes. It was the way they flashed between green and flaming red like a glitch.
He took a slow, torturous step towards me, his chest rumbling with an animalistic growl.
Another whimper escaped me, a drop of tears rolling down my cheek. But there was something else too. A strange warmth igniting in my chest and spreading throughout my belly. So in contrast with the raging panic consuming my entirety.
He stopped, his bizarre gaze fixing on me.
For a long, long moment, we stared at each other with nothing but the sounds of our deep breathing surrounding us. My vision getting clear in the moonlight, I could trace a few more features on the man. He was well over six feet tall, maybe even seven, I couldn't tell, and flaunted an impressive eight pack I had never seen on a man. But his face; it remained in the dark like an unsolved mystery.
Suddenly I wasn't rigid anymore, the surge of warmth completely eating at the fear and taking a hold of my body.
"Wh-who— What's going—" I stuttered.
"A human," he spat, cutting me off, his voice like the deepest chasm of the ocean, sending a shudder all the way to my tingling toes.
"Ex-excuse m—"
"I—" he started, his voice sounding double, like two powerful tones tangling themselves around one another, "—the alpha of the Mystic Pride pack, reject you, pathetic human, as my mate," he finished.
Confusion clouded me until a pain, like I had never felt before, flared in my heart, a strangled scream leaving my lips. I doubled over from the intensity, my hand shooting to my chest, feeling the ache spreading like the warmth did a few moments ago, and it felt as though I was having a heart attack. Nothing else could explain what was happening to me.
My limbs felt like they were being drained as I fell to my knees, heaving, trying to get air in my constricted lungs.
Maybe, after all, I was dying. Not by a wolf. Not by a man. But by a heart disease.
Before I knew, I was writhing on the forest floor, my vision blurring from tears and dark spots. Moments spent with my family and friends flashed behind my eyes. Mom… I needed to get back to my mom. I needed to make sure she was okay.
Rolling to my side, I tried lifting my body, but I was too weak. Too much in pain to succeed. Sobbing, I tried focusing on something or someone, and that's when I saw it again.
The wolf.
It was towering over me, eyes staring in an intense glare.
I didn't know why, but I reached out for it. "H-help," I whispered. "Help me…"
Maybe I was hallucinating, but its eyes softened, almost as if the pain in mine was reflecting in its own, and it took a step towards me.
"Ana!" a call from somewhere beyond the trees froze its movements. As though it snapped out of whatever trance it was in, long canines flicked back out, and it snarled at me.
With one last glare, the beast looked up at the moon and let out a howl so furious and loud, I thought my ears bled.
"Ana!" Another call from Tyler, and the wolf sent a feral look over its shoulder before jumping over me and disappearing into the darkness.
The same pain washed over me once more, making my consciousness drift away.
