Chapter 3 Girl in the woods

Ralph shut his eyes in anticipation. But the collision never came.

The sound of two bodies hitting each other and their loud growls made him open his eyes. The second presence was a wolf too, but its eyes were Ice-blue – cold as winter light. Something he had never seen before. They were still fighting, snarling and tearing at each other and it was like the ice blue werewolf was holding the Alpha for him.

As Ralph felt strength in his legs, he ran for his life.

He ran until the growls faded and there was nothing but the sound of his own breathing and his feet hitting the ground. When he finally stopped he realized he had been running without direction. He had no idea where he was. But the moon was bright enough to see.

He walked forward, the moonlight guiding his path, his heart racing against his ribs. Then he saw a figure lying on the cold ground. Slowly he walked forward. A naked girl lay on the cold ground in a tight ball, arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to hold herself together.

His instinct was telling him to run – yet his curious mind was wondering what a girl would be doing out here alone in the woods. On the other hand, the forest belongs to Ridgehaven Academy. ‘She could be one of the students,’ he thought.

He knelt beside her and pressed two fingers to her neck. He felt a faint pulse. His body was still shaking from running. He exhaled slowly, no idea what she was. Her skin was cold and her lips were pale. She looked his age.

He shrugged off his jacket without thinking and draped it over her. That was when her eyes snapped open. Her eyes were red. The same as the Alpha's.

Ralph stepped backward slowly, he could feel his body tingle. His body froze again, unable to move, she grabbed his arm and sank her fangs deep into it.

Ralph screamed, the sound tearing through his throat.

The pain shot straight through his whole body – sharp and deep. He grabbed her head, trying to force her jaws off his skin, but she was stronger than anything he expected, then she flung him away.

Her snarl filled the air and he staggered backward. She walked toward him like a predator, and then her body wobbled and she just fell to the ground. She went unconscious again, a dead weight against the ground.

He did not even know how long he had been there, still catching his breath. His whole body shook so badly that he could barely feel his arm. He pressed his palm over his arm, exactly where she had bitten him. His teeth clenched together from the pain, blood dripping down to his fingers.

Ralph tried to stand up, but his jaw slammed shut as the pain shot through him again. The cold in the woods wasn't helping either. He looked at her – unconscious now, fragile-looking as though nothing had happened.

Ralph stared at her angrily and turned to leave, after taking a few steps, he stopped. He should have left her. Every reasonable part of him was screaming at him to leave.

But his feet didn't move forward.

He turned back toward her and stared at her for a long moment. Then he took his jacket and wrapped it tightly around his arm to slow the bleeding.

His teeth clenched through the pain. Then he bent and gathered her up, ignoring his own pain, her body cold and bare against him, his brain barely registered anything beyond getting them both out of the woods.

He started walking through the woods until he got to Ridgehaven High.

The building was already empty – dark, except for the security light above the side entrance. He knew the lock on the east corridor door had been broken for some time now. He slid it open, took her in carefully with him.

The old storage room at the end of the corridor was unlocked. Dusty. A forgotten stack of chairs and old desks pushed against the wall. He laid her down as gently as he could, folding an old curtain from the shelf into something close to a pillow to support her head and cover her with another.

He sat back against the wall, watching as she slept peacefully. That's when he noticed her hair, it was just like his, but long, dark, and curly. He let out a weary breath. She bit him, and he had carried her through the woods like an idiot. He should have just walked away, but he couldn't control his own heart sometimes. His arm had gone numb from the cold, and he could barely feel it. Still, he stayed until she was breathing steadily. Then he stood and slipped back out through the door into the night.

The Fenwick pack house was quiet when he pushed through the back door. He went straight to his closet, pulled the first aid box from it, and went to the bathroom. He sat on the edge of the tub and untied his jacket from it, cleaning the bite under the tap. The wound was deeper than he expected. He whined in pain as he sterilized it and dressed it carefully.

He managed to get back to his bed and sat on the edge of the bed, staring into space exhausted.

Her red eyes stayed with Ralph. The same red as the Alpha that had made Conan retreat into the woods like a frightened pup, they had not seen one for centuries until tonight.

And the way the ice-blue-eyed wolf had helped him stuck with him. Its eyes were cold as winter light. It had lunged at the Alpha before those jaws could reach him. Why it saved his life unsettled him. But he was grateful.

He had never seen an Alpha before, let alone an ice-blue-eyed werewolf. The Ice-blue werewolves are not even in tales. But the old tales say if a werewolf bite doesn't kill you, it turns you into one. Which means the bite could either kill him or turn him. Into a werewolf? Was that even a tale?

He sighed more deeply than intended. Right now, his situation was beginning to feel like a sentence he couldn't escape.