Chapter 30: Chapter 31

The heat in my chest is growing and I’m seeing red. My senses suddenly sharpen drastically, it’s overwhelming. It’s too much.

It’s crushing me all at once. I drop the knife to the ground, clutching my stomach. Something is happening to me.

Another wave of raw pain hits my stomach and I let out a vicious growl.

“What the hell?” yells Thing 2, jumping back. “Bossman said she’s a werewolf. He said she’s their pet!”

Jonah watches me and the two men warily.

Thing 1, who is now in his wolf form snarls at me showing me his sharp glistening teeth and canines.

I snarl ferociously back and hear a thud beside me. Matthew has fallen on the ground looking up at me with terror on his face. He whimpers and shuffles backward on his arms and backside when I turn my attention to him. What the hell is wrong with him?

Thing 1 the wolf, use my momentary distraction from him to launch himself at me. He’s really pissing me off, so I knock him away. I must have socked the wolf harder than I thought because he sails a few feet in the air and falls on the ground unmoving.

Whoa!!! I look down at my hands and almost stop breathing.

My hands are bloody…and look different. Why do my hands look different? The nails are thick and sharp like claws. Fingers are long with veins and muscles. These are NOT my hands! I don’t even look like this when I change into my wolf. What’s happening to me? The red in my vision disappears and now I’m freaking out!

The wave of nausea and sharp pain in my stomach assault me again and I stagger backward and fall unceremoniously on the

ground. I don’t have much energy to get up right now, so I sit clutching my stomach. Blood is seeping out through my

fingers, but I think it’s slowing down.

Thing 2 charges towards me, but Jonah intercepts with a solid punch to his face. I almost wince at the loud sickening crunch.

Almost.

Thing 2 fell to the ground groaning, cupping his face. Blood is pouring out of his nose and busted lips.

“You broke my nose, you fvcking assh*le! Bossman will hear about this. You’re not getting away with it.” He staggers to his feet and clumsily rams headfirst toward Jonah. Jonah just moves aside and Thing 2 tumbles headlong to the ground next to me. He growls and tries to push himself up again, so I raise my fist and sock him right in the jaw causing his head to snap sharply to the side. I raise my fist again, but the big bald man is slumped face first on the ground, out cold.

Jonah approaches me warily and cautiously as if he’s

approaching a wounded animal.

I ignore him and roll Thing 2 to lie on his back. I slap the unconscious Thing 2 a few times. Jonah quietly watches me doing it for a while, then he sighs and shakes his head.

Strangely, he seems more relaxed after that.

I know there’s no honor in hitting a man who can’t fight back, but I when do I care about honors? I’m very pissed that he stabbed me and that he lost consciousness so quickly and my knuckles hurt from punching him. I hope he gets a massive headache when he comes to.

What is happening to me, though? Where did I get such strength? Thing 2 is a huge male werewolf and I knocked him out cold with just a punch.

“What is happening to me?” I look up at Jonah.

“You’re becoming a lycan,” he answers me. “You’re just starting to change…and you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Am I really becoming a lycan? I remember Genesis telling me that she started to change into a lycan before Constantine even marked her physically. It happened after he marked her wolf and she mentally accepted him as his mate. It’s her body preparing her for the mating with him. I guess I’ve made my choice and my body knows it.

“You should go. Get away from here. My friends are coming,” I tell him as I pull myself up. I’m in pain and very tired, but there are things to be done.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Jonah asks me.

“What do you think I’m doing?” I’m pulling Thing 2 to the car by his legs. “He’s a souvenir. I’m keeping him in the trunk,” I announce. I’m not risking him waking up and running off anytime soon.

“You’re a crazy woman, do you know that?” Jonah says,

observing me.

“Says the one who’s working with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Thing 1 and Thing 2,” I say, fighting a wave of dizziness.

“You guys are like Larry, Curly, and Moe.” I point towards him,

and the two unconscious morons on the ground. Jonah just shakes his head at my insult.

“Now help me get him in the trunk.” On any normal day, I could’ve hauled the two men by myself. I’m too tired, weak, and in pain right now.

“You’re very bossy,” he complains as he helps me pull Thing 2

up. We deposit him inside the trunk with a loud satisfying thunk.

“I am not bossy!” I tell him. “Now, bring Thing 1 over here!”

“Why did you help me?” I ask him as he helps me drag Thing 1

to the car.

“Because I didn’t feel like killing your crazy ass,” he says. Thing 1′s head is banging against the stones and the protruding tree roots on the ground as we drag him by his feet. Good. That is very satisfying.

“Because you didn’t feel like…? Wha..? What kind of hoodlum are you?”

He just shrugs his shoulders.

“Who’s Bossman?”

He doesn’t answer me. Fine! I guess he doesn’t feel like talking anymore.

“I’d go now if I were you. My friends would kill first and ask questions later,” I tell him again as we close the trunk. “NOW

GO!!!” I push him away. I’m feeling very cold and lightheaded.

I watch him walk away. I wonder if I’d ever see him again.

Yummy Lip Ring.

“Don’t walk, run!” I yell after him as I hold onto the back of the car. “And I suggest you quit this gig. I don’t think this line of career is the right fit for you.”

He looks back and smirks. In seconds, a big black wolf takes off running in his place. Its black coat shines in the moonlight before it disappears into the ravines and bushes.

As soon as he disappears from sight, my legs give way. It takes a lot of energy just to be standing.

Lying here on the ground next to a wrecked car, I see stars shining brightly up above. The throbbing burning pain in my stomach comes in waves. I wonder where Matthew is. I can still smell him, that means he’s not too far away. I think I’ve stopped bleeding, but I’ve lost a lot of blood and that makes me feel weak.

My friends are close by. I can feel it. I just have to hang on to my consciousness just a little bit longer. My hand seeks the medallion. I grip it tightly as I listen to my own heartbeat slowing down. Darius. I want him with me right now.

A few seconds later I feel a hand cradling my face. “Penny!

Penny!!!” Genesis is wailing. It’s funny, her hands are so gentle on my face, but she’s yelling so loudly. Too loudly.

“Shhh…you’re too loud,” I tell her.

“You’re alive!!!” She’s still too loud. Her eyes are brimming with tears.

“Penny…” Serena’s soft hand pushes strands of my hair off my forehead.

Caspian’s face appears next to Genesis and Serena. “Yup, she’s still alive,” he announces.

No sh*t, Sherlock! I wanted to snap back, but looking at his face, I can’t.

Caspian’s voice might sound light and playful, but he looks serious and angry as he stares down at me, assessing my injury.

His green eyes turn icy cold and his jaw hardens when he sees my bloody stomach.

“I will bloody kill them!” he mutters darkly.

“They’re still here.” I hear Constantine’s harsh voice close by.

“In the trunk,” I manage to mumble just as I hear the trunk is being opened.

“I smell another scent. This one is different. He’s not too far away. I’m going after him,” growls Lazarus.

I grab Caspian’s arm. “Let him go. He’s a friend..” Is he a friend? I don’t know. It’s hard to keep my eyes open. I don’t want Yummy Lip Ring to be harmed is my last thought before I succumb to the sweet oblivion.

“How long have I been out for?”

“Not too long, just about four hours,” Genesis answers. That’s it? It felt longer than that.

I woke up in my own bedroom a few minutes ago with Genesis hovering over me like a mother hen.

I’m no longer caked with mud and sticky blood. I’m wearing a very pale pink cotton sleeping gown that I rarely wear.

“Who cleaned me up and changed me?” I ask her.

“Serena and I did. Your wound still looks bad, but it’s healing up. The powerful painkillers we gave you should help with the pain. Let us know when you need more.”

“Thanks,” I say, feeling really grateful. “Genesis, I’m changing.”

She looks at me uncomprehendingly for a while before her lips tilt up into a big smile. Her eyes glitter. “I knew it! I went through the same thing. You’re not a full lycan yet until you’re marked, but you’re changing,” she says. Her smile suddenly turns mischievous and a wicked gleam enters her eyes. “It would help you heal faster if you’re marked.” She winks before she adds, “And mated.”

Yeah, that could happen if the one who’s supposed to do that wasn’t thousands of miles away.

“Isn’t it late now? Shouldn’t you be in bed?” I ask her instead.

“It’s just after 11 at night, Penny. Everybody is still awake. I don’t think it’s easy for any of us to go to sleep after what happened tonight. Gosh, we almost lost you!” She leans down and wraps me in a crushing hug.

Owww…my stomach! “Okay, okay…I’m still alive,” I tell her, trying to wiggle out from under her crushing weight. Yeah, tonight is something else. “Did you find Matthew? Is he okay?”

“Yeah, we found him running about half a mile down the road from where you were,” she answers, pulling back then she grimaces. “Physically he’s fine…he’s in shock though. When we found him, he was rambling about monsters and wolves.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t improved much since then. The men are figuring out what to do with him.”

I let out a deep breath. It’s my fault that he’s like that. He shouldn’t be involved in our crazy world and it’s not the best way to open his eyes to our existence. Well, okay, that was the worst possible way to let a human know about our world. Heck, he shouldn’t even know about us. Ignorance is bliss they say.

“I’m sorry, Penny,” says Genesis.

I just shrug tiredly. “What about Thing 1 and Thing 2?”

“Thing…Who???”

“Uh…the two men in the car trunk. What happens to them?

Did you track down the other guy too?

“The two men are detained in the cold cellar. Our men, Constantine, Lazarus, and Caspian, are very pissed with what

they did to you, so they’re having too much fun torturing those men for information right now. If they didn’t need information from them so much, those two would already be dead by now.

“The other guy….you told us to leave him alone, so we didn’t go looking for him,” she explains. “Who is he?”

“Yummy Lip Ring,” I murmur.

“Huh?” says Genesis, looking very puzzled. “Thing 1 and Thing 2, Yummy Lip Ring…? Where did you find these guys? In Dr.

Seuss book?”

“No, in the park,” I manage to whisper. I want to tell Genesis that I want to torture them for information too, but my eyelids are feeling very heavy.

“Have a good rest, Penny,” sighs Genesis, kissing my forehead.

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” I mumbled, drifting off.

“No, you’re not feeding me, Genesis!” My best friend has gone crazy!

I just woke up a few minutes earlier to see Genesis balancing a bowl of steaming hot chicken noodle soup on a tray into my room. She’s been insisting on feeding me since.

It’s still three o’clock in the morning. It seems like nobody else in this house is sleeping tonight. I heard even our cook, Anya is

still busy downstairs, making tea, coffee, and snacks for everybody. Serena who’s also in the room with us is sitting back quietly on a chair by the window, watching us in

amusement.

“Yes, I am! You’re still weak. You’ve lost a lot of blood. You need your energy back,” says Genesis.

“I can feed myself,” I tell her.

“Okay, fine. Let’s see it.” She places the tray on my lap. She sits back on my bed and crosses her arms over her chest, watching me.

My hand is shaking. I grip the spoon, try to ladle the soup and bring it to my mouth. The darn spoon rattles against the side of the bowl so much, spilling the soup back into the bowl. By the time it reaches my mouth, nothing is left in the spoon.

Genesis lifts an eyebrow. I try again.

By the third try, Genesis holds out her hand for the spoon.

Okay, I admit defeat. I release the spoon.

“This is silly!” I complain. “Can’t I have anything else besides soup?”

“You just got stabbed! Your tummy isn’t ready for anything solid yet,” argues my best friend who is now acting like my mom slash nurse slash my tormentor.

“I don’t like soup!” I wail loudly.

“Stop being a baby!” wails Genesis just as loudly. “Now open your mouth and let me feed you!”

I just got stabbed once and she becomes so bossy!

“You need to eat. Persephone Aspen Ruiz, open your mouth right now!”

“What’s going on?” asks Caspian, poking his head through the door. Constantine and Lazarus walk in behind him. Great! Now EVERYBODY is in my bedroom.

“She’s a bad patient!” complains Genesis, pointing her finger at me.

“Constantine, tell your mate to stop torturing me.”

Genesis turns her head to glare at Constantine, daring him to say anything. He just raised his hands in mock surrender.

Whipped! That man is totally whipped!!!

“If you keep this up, I will call your abuela. I will let her know what happened and get her to come and feed you herself!” she threatens me. “Now open your mouth and stop complaining.”

Oh, no she didn’t! She just pulled out the big gun. My shoulders slumped. I love my abuela, but having her around here would be really bad. She would fuss over me and baby me and it would totally be embarrassing. Reluctantly I open my mouth and start eating. The soup is surprisingly good…or maybe I’m just very hungry.

I hear snickers from the men and I glower at them while meekly eating my soup. They are all staring at Genesis in awe and wonder. Oh, my goddess! This is so annoying. It’s not like she just solved world hunger issues or reversed climate change or something. She just threatened to call my abuela, for goodness sake! I know they’re secretly laughing at me too.

I have to admit, I feel a lot better after I have food in my tummy. After Genesis is done feeding me, Lazarus, Caspian, and Constantine start asking questions about what happened.

So I tell them. I tell them about Yummy Lip Ring, or Jonah and the guy they called Bossman too.

“Yummy Lip Ring, huh?” says Constantine.

“How’d you know his lip ring is yummy?” asks Caspian?

“Is that relevant to this investigation at all?” I ask them, dodging my head down to look at the pattern of my purple bedsheet. Why did I let that nickname slip out?

“Huh,” says Lazarus thoughtfully.

“Huh,” says Caspian.

Darn it! Enough with this “huh” thing.

I shoot Constantine a glare just in case he’s about to say the same thing. He raises his hands up in mock surrender.

“Well,” Lazarus clears his throat. “I suggest we’d better use his real name instead of Yummy Lip Ring…especially in front of Darius.”

“It’s not like Darius is here to hear about it, is he?” I announce sullenly, plonking my head back on the pillow. I’m feeling down now. My heart aches just at the mention of his name.

“Well…he’s not here now,” says Caspian with a grin. “Who knows when he might decide to show up…one day.”

After they finish interrogating me, Genesis excuses herself to take the tray away. She leaves a glass of water on my bedside table. The three men look like they’re about to give me a hug or something, but change their mind when I scowl at them. I feel bad about it right after the three of them file out of my room.

Serena comes over and covers my hand with hers. “Don’t be too hard on them, honey,” she says. “They’re just happy to have you back. All of us are. You should’ve seen the guys when they figured out that you were taken. Not good. They’re about to rip this place apart.”

I sigh. “I know. It’s good to be back, Serena. It really is. I love you all,” I tell her, suddenly feeling sappy.

“We love you too. It’s only four in the morning. Try to get some more sleep,” she says gently and leans down to give me a kiss on my forehead. “Or maybe not.” She has a smile on her face when she straightens up.

“What do you mean?” I ask her just as my ear catches some muffled voices and a faint, but familiar scent.

My heart thunders in my chest and I think I can’t breathe. My chest is going to explode any moment.

“He’s here?” I ask Serena breathlessly.

Her smile grows bigger as she nods her head.

Oh, no no no…he can’t see me looking like this. I bet I look awful!

“Now where are you going?” asks Serena looking concerned when I push myself out of the bed. Ooohhh…dizzy. She grabs my arms when I sway on my feet.

“He can’t see me looking like this. He can’t see me looking worse than a garden gnome, Serena!”

“Garden gnome???” exclaims Serena. “Oh, Penny, you’re

looking just fine!” she assures me. “Besides, I don’t think he cares how you look like. He’s too happy that you’re alive.”

I comb my fingers through my hair while shuffling toward the bathroom with Serena holding me upright just before my bedroom door bursts open.

He’s standing frozen by the door. His glacier blue eyes are wide, bright, and wild, desperately taking me in. His hair is disheveled and he has blond stubble covering his jaw. His white shirt is wrinkled with a few top buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. All in all, he looks

breathtakingly gorgeous. Hotter any man has the right to.

My heartbeat skyrocket, for a second my brain stops working, I forget to breathe.

*Abuela = Grandma (Spanish)