Chapter 2

Stranger

He gently cupped her cheeks and kissed her sweetly on the forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, and lips. His lips lingered on hers as he emotionally declared his love for her. 

“How is it possible that I love you more today than yesterday? I’m sure tomorrow, I will love you even more.”

Alice rolled her eyes and giggled at his saccharine words that never ceased to make her tummy churn with butterflies. 

He didn’t stop. “My sweet Alice, you are my everything. If I lose you…” He paused as his orbs darkened with distress. He embraced her tightly as if afraid someone might snatch her away from his arms. 

His eyes suddenly glowed eerily, ready to commit a bloody massacre. 

“If I lose you, I will bring this entire world to an eternal termination.” 

He meant his words; she saw it in his eyes. It was funny to her. 

“Silly you, I am not going anywhere. I am yours and yours alone. Now kiss me like you’ve never kissed before.” 

As if he was waiting, he cupped her cheeks again and joined their lips together in a tender yet frizzling kiss. 

“Alice! Wake up already!”

She felt the harsh pain in her arm when her body encountered the wooden floor. She mumbled a curse as she tried to register what was happening around her. 

She had just realized it was all a dream that Miley absurdly interjected and made her fall off her bed. She looked up, rubbed her sore arm, and grunted, “Why are you in my room? How did you get in?” 

“No one was home, and your door was unlocked, so I let myself in.” She shrugged it off and settled on Alice’s bed. 

Alice heaved a sigh as she slumped back on her bed, her head throbbing and threatening to split in two. Thanks to her parents—her father, rather— she spent the whole night overthinking last night’s event, and God knows when she finally managed to fall asleep after hours of brainstorming over Dominic and his imprudent proposal. 

“We heard the great news. Congrats, the new Luna of Umbris.”

Alice snapped her head toward Miley and glared at her. Her orbs immediately changed from their usual blue color to blood red. 

“Whoa…hey, take it easy there. I…I just thought you…”

“I don’t know how or who told you guys already, but I am sure it’s the Alpha. But just so you know, I rejected him. I don’t need to be a Luna for another pack.”

Miley looked at her intensely as she sat up. Alice faced her before she continued, “I don’t need my father to choose a mate for me. I don’t need anyone to. I’m not a small kid, Miley. I deserve to choose my happy ending and who I want to mate with, not…him.”

Miley was mute for a moment—it wasn’t because she was reasoning. She was shocked that Alice rejected Dominic. Everyone knew him and who he was. His pack is ten times bigger than theirs, and he could feed them for a year without going poverty-stricken. 

“You are my best friend, and I love you, but you are out of your mind for rejecting Alpha Dominic. Do you know how powerful that man is? Do you know the good things that’d fall in Scuris if you accepted him? Do you know what he might do if you keep on rejecting him?”

Alice shrugged and got off her bed. “I don’t have all day for this.”

***

The waterways of the woods, the blues, and white lace amid the earthy hues, amid the dance of green, come together as a visual form of poetry, one read by the naked soul. 

She hugged her knees to her chest as she gazed down at the lake from the moderate rock she was perched on. It felt serene to be out here despite knowing her father would be angry if he knew she came out into the woods, close to the humans they’d been warned about. 

She had never encountered one of them before, but from what she had heard, they were bad news. They’ve killed many of her kind. 

She didn’t care.

She loved being out here, all by herself. Especially on her bad days. She needed to be alone and clear her mind from the chaos of the past twenty-four hours. 

She had another fight with her father before running out here. She was having a pep-talk with her mother when he overheard her bad-mouthing Dominic and the idea of being his mate.

They exchanged words that they didn’t mean to say. She hated fighting with her father, but he was sometimes a pain in the neck with his policies and overprotectiveness. It was one of the many reasons why she wanted to become her own leader. 

She was tired of being under the rule of Alpha Fredrick, her father. She loved him dearly, but most of the time, she hated how he was too domineering. It sometimes made her feel as if she wasn’t going to escape from his dungeon—as she called it. 

She crossed her legs and took the worn-out book she came with. It was given to her by her grandmother before she passed away. It was a diary about their descendants and how they evolved over time. 

Whenever she read it, she always wondered how they managed to survive every day, as they lived so close to the humans, and they always got attacked, barely surviving after that. 

She opened the last few pages, her favorite part—where her grandmother met her grandad, the old Alpha of their pack before her father was even born. Her grandmother’s pack was attacked and killed, leaving only her. He saved her and took her into his pack. He made her his Luna, and together they became strong and undefeatable. 

She would want to have someone like her grandfather. He was loving and caring. He was the definition of a dream husband. He loved her grandmother so dearly before he left for a war when she was pregnant with her father, Alpha Fredrick. He never came back. He was killed by humans. 

“Hey there.”

She snapped her head up and hugged the book to her chest. Terror sucked the very breath from her mouth as she stared back at the boy standing before her. 

“I am so sorry to startle you like that. But I’ve been standing here for almost a minute, but you seemed distracted.”

Her eyes were still wide open and alert. She tried to steady her breath and try to calm the panic, but it was to avail. Her heart was pounding in her ears, blocking any other sound. 

She has been out here so many times before, but she has never encountered a human until now. A male human. He looked familiar.  

She stayed in her spot, alert. Maybe if she didn’t move, maybe if her eye color didn’t change, he’d never suspect a thing. 

He stared at her terrified look quizzically for a moment. It was unusual.

“I’m Aaron. I just moved here with my parents and sister a couple of months ago.” He stretched out his hand to her, but she never budged. She looked at his hand—it looked soft and welcoming, but she wasn’t going to buy it. 

What if she took it and he hurt her?

He cleared his throat as he shoved his hands into his pocket. She was weird. He could sense that. 

“Do you live around here?” He asked, looking around. He didn’t feel like giving up yet. 

She felt his voice in her stomach. That’s not good. Voices should stop at the ears, but sometimes—not very often at all, actually—a voice would penetrate past her ears and reverberate straight down through her body. He has one of those voices. Deep, confident, and a little like butter. 

She stood still without saying a word back. She only needed him to turn, and she’d get the chance to run. Five seconds was enough for her to vanish from his sight. 

She looked over his shoulder, skimming to see if he was with someone. Possibly they were waiting for her to make a move, and they’d attack her. She didn’t expect to die this way. She hadn’t even said goodbye to her parents or her best friends, Miley and Daniel. 

Their waterfall…

“Oh, don’t worry, I came out here alone. I mean, I’m not supposed to be out here… we’re not. Are you allowed out here? This is actually the first time I’ve walked further into the woods. I always stayed by the edges,” he spoke breathlessly. He was nervous by how she had been staring at him without blinking, and he could swear her orbs changed whenever he blinked. Or maybe it was him going insane over how beautiful she was. 

She had the appearance of soul fire sparking against the ice. In the sunset, her silver hair, long and loose, reflected the sunlight as well as the bonny lake wave. It made him wonder if she dyed it to that specific color or if her hair was naturally silver.

Either way, it suited her, and he would do anything to touch it and feel how soft and silky it was. 

“Please leave,” she finally managed to speak. At first, she didn’t want to say anything. But she was afraid if she took off, he might come after her and find out where she lived, revealing her factual self. 

She wouldn’t want to risk her or her family’s life. 

“Your voice…” he blurted out. Her voice felt like water in the air, for it both quenched and cleansed the soul. “Sorry, I mean… I’m so sorry for making you feel uncomfortable.”

“Aaron? Aaron…”

He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh out of annoyance. It was his fifteen-year-old sister. He knew she was going to eventually come after him even after he had warned her not to come wandering into the woods. 

“That’s my…” He halted when he noticed that she was gone. “Fuck,” he cursed under his breath. Just when he was about to get her name was the time his sister managed to show up and ruin it. 

“What, Lily? I thought I’d told you not to follow me out here. It’s too dangerous.”

“Well, you shouldn’t be out here too,” she cut in, giving him a critical look. “I am old enough, and I can protect myself. But you are still afraid of monsters under your bed.”

She pinched his torso as she grunted. “They exist,” she affirmed. 

“Ouch, that’s not nice. And you scared my new friend away.”

“Who? Did you see a dog? A cat? Oh, oh, a bunny?” Lily spoke gleefully, waiting for an answer but never got one. He spotted a book lying on the dead leaves beside the rock Alice was sitting on. He took it and observed it. 

“What’s that?” Lily asked, but he never gave her an answer. 

“Let’s head home, Lily.” He clasped their hands together and found their way back to the farmhouse. 

Alice watched them from afar. They seemed unharmful to her. Possibly because she looked exactly like them and they have no clue she was half werewolf. 

She watched as they disappeared out of the woods, with Aaron holding her book and checking it out. 

She hoped he wouldn’t find anything suspicious about her and have the thought that it was only a fantasy book. She sighed softly and also headed home. 

Aaron spent that night reading the book Alice had left. He read how wolves were the largest members of the dog family. Adaptable gray ones are by far the most common and were once found all over the Northern Hemisphere. Wolves almost never attack humans without reason, but they are always considered one of the world’s most fearsome natural villains. 

What he read was so much different from what he was told and learned about them. They seem harmless unless you trespass on their territory or try to harm them. 

He spent half of the night reading and pouncing over the rumors that the werewolf pack was rampant somewhere in the woods, and though he thought it was nonsense, he always kept a modified cricket bat next to his bed. 

The next evening, Aaron went back to the same spot, waiting to see if she’d show up so he’d return her journal like he had made his mind to believe. But deep down, he only wanted to see her again. Maybe this time, she’d tell him more. Maybe she’d tell him her name and where she lives. 

He had met so many girls, interacted with them. But never in his twenty years of life has he ever met a girl like her. There was something about her, something thrilling and enigmatic. She looked alarmed yet robust. He knew she was frightened, probably as of the tales about the werewolves lurking somewhere in the woods. 

He hopped onto the rock and rested on the spot she sat on yesterday. He slowly exhaled, looking around the beautiful yet spine-chilling nature that was before him. He felt as though someone was watching him from afar— as if they were planning a death trap for him to fall into. 

***

“Is he tall? Is he handsome? Does he look like us? Does he speak like us? Did you touch him—”

“Shh, Miley!” Alice hushed her as she looked around, “Keep it down. You might never know who’s watching and listening to us.” 

Miley rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms to her chest. 

“You’re overreacting, Alice. It’s just the two of us here.”

“Yes, I know that. And yes, he’s tall and handsome. He is a human, so, yes, he looks and speaks like us. Did I mention that he’s handsome? I mean, so attractive.”

Miley squealed as she stumped her feet out of excitement. 

“This is so wrong yet so right. You must go see him again. I mean, we have to go see him.”

“No, Miley. We are not doing that. I’m not going out there ever again either because we don’t know what those human beings are capable of. And do not under any circumstances tell anyone about this—not even Daniel.”

“But,” Miley mumbled as she pursed her lips. 

“No, Miley. You should understand that I trust you enough to tell you one of the most dangerous and darkest secrets, and I expect you to respect that and keep it to yourself.”

Miley nodded as she pressed her lips together. 

“Whenever I’m ready to tell Daniel, you’ll be the one to break it to him, I promise.” She gave her a side hug as they walked toward home.

If Daniel found out that she had gone out into the woods and met an actual human being, and they even spoke, he’d flip. He might not tell the Alpha, but he’d scold her and keep an eye on her from going back into the woods. 

She would. 

She would go back out there again—she was afraid, but it wasn’t going to stop her from getting back her journal again. And she feasibly wanted to see him again. 

He seemed nothing like people from her grandmother’s journal. He seemed kind, soft, and composed.