If this were a movie or book, there'd be a long ponderous pause as the heroine- which I guess would be me in this scenario- stops to stare at the huge wolf standing in the middle of her path, taking in every small detail like the fur's texture, the abnormal amount of muscles the creature had and so on but all I managed to see as I hurried past the animal was that it was white and its head nearly came up to my shoulder. That was it though- I was more preoccupied with getting to that cave, the one Will had to be in, suffering all alone because of me.

Nope, no time to stop and gawk at any mythical creatures.

I know it might be considered stupid to turn your back on said mythical creature, but I felt this strange certainty that it wouldn't attack me. Like we were acquainted with each other somehow.

But he won't let Brad pass.

I started to glance back at Brad- while still walking- when I heard the roar. A vicious, thunderous sound that lashed out at the very air itself, reverberating right through me and leaving my bones shuddering from the aftershock. When it finally died down there was a tense silence, then the wind suddenly howled back weakly, as if pleading with the angry creature.

The sound had come from the cave.

Now, I've never been much of a National Geography person but I think that roar could've easily rivaled that of a lion's. And it doesn't take much calculating to guess the size of the animal- and the potential damage it could inflict. Survival instincts made me take a step back but before my brain could finish concurring with the rest of my body on choosing loyalty over self preservation, there was another roar, closer now, and then a small figure was catapulting towards me.

"Kiara!" Brad called out.

Too quick for me too move out of the way. I grunted on impact, feeling rocks poking at my head, soil where my palms were pressed under the weight of the human being above me. Yet, just as quickly as the weight was there, it was gone. I blinked up at the sky for a moment, then sat up in time to see Will's fiance pull out a glass vial from her suit pocket, the liquid inside watery and red. She popped the top open with a flick of her thumb, her eyes at the cave mouth- where that ear-shattering sound of fury rose again.

"You're the one that threw me at her," Audrey shouted back, indignant.

It came out of the cave.

This time I simply couldn't dismiss the creature before me. About a head taller than the white wolf I'd passed earlier, the wolf that stood before us (with its head held high like some lion king) had fur that was a strange matching of gray and black; the gigantic body was covered in silver gray while the paws and tail were pitch black. Its eyes were amber, molten and alive with more than an animalistic predation that would've been present in a normal wild animal. Ha. Who was I kidding? What normal wolf could be that size, glowing eyes withstanding?

"Jane."

I dragged my eyes towards the caller, realized I was shaking and still sitting on my butt when Audrey jerked me to my feet.

"He's not exactly in a friendly mood right now," Audrey said, pushing her flaming red hair out of her face.

As if to confirm that statement, the grey wolf let loose a lower, threatening growl. He crouched. Then he was moving forward, powerful muscles covering the distance between us remarkably fast. Albeit, it was slightly awkward, half-stumble because it was missing a left paw, but that fact didn't exactly slow it down either. Its killer glare was honed in on Audrey.

The white wolf barked out in alarm.

"I couldn't give him back his foot, Travis," Audrey grumbled. "I guess we should leave for today."

Before I could ask Audrey if she was talking about the Travis I knew, the dork that was Will's best friend, she raised the red vial up and sprinkled some of the fluid over her head.

She vanished.

Literally. As if she were deleted by some invisible click of an off-screen button. The wolf- Will, I was certain it was him- came to an abrupt stop. He paused for a second. Faced the other direction and snarled where the white wolf and Brad were standing. And Audrey. She was somehow standing several meters from where she'd been moments ago.

My best friend turns out to be a werewolf and his fiance has some voodoo shit going on. Great.

Audrey grabbed a shocked Brad by the front of his shirt, splattered some of the red liquid on his cheek and on the white wolf as well. By the time Will was halfway towards them they were all gone. All three of them.

The forest was still.

Slowly, Will turned back to the cave, limping back to his lair. Without even a glance my way. There was no longer an angry aura around him, only quiet defeat.

He may be a wolf right now, but it was the first time I've seen Will Cage look defeated. I felt a fear similar to when I thought I'd been about to die, but this time it was somehow worse. Because it wasn't my life that was in danger, but the boy I loved.

***

"So you plan on spending the rest of your life in this miserable cave?" I asked, voice too loud in the obsolete dark. I continued talking anyway. "You do know there isn't even a toilet here, right?"

There was no answer, as I'd expected. I've been trying to get him to talk since I followed him in this morning but its currently three hours after sundown and I still haven't been able to make him even budge from his curled up position across from me. His eyes remained closed.

I felt like he might stay like that forever.

It was more than a feeling- like how I knew that wolf wouldn't hurt me, or how I knew the wolf was Will on sight. It was an instinct.

That instinct is what kept me here, why I didn't go running back home even after being forced to pee behind a tree, not even after hunger moaned, cried, then began to chew at the walls of my stomach. I ignored the hunger pangs, ignored the fact that I'd missed school and was in the woods at night with an apparently depressed werewolf that hadn't moved a moved a inch for hours.

Because I knew the terror of not just being alone but the helplessness that came with it and I wasn't about to leave anyone to that fate. Not even if I had to stay here with him, forever.