To the Wolves

Chapter 38

The moonlight illuminated the dark forest as Ethan unlocked the huge wooden door to his pack house with the rusty old key. He pushed the heavy doors open, though he did not step in. He looked at Olivia as the corner of her mouth lifted a little before she reached out to hold his hand. He let out the breath that he didn't know he was holding and they stepped inside the gigantic pack house. Descending two steps, they saw dozens of wolves lying on the floor of the hall.

As soon as they had stepped into the house Olivia felt the remnants of her mother's powerful magic and the rush of energy that took her into the flashbacks of the memory that was decades old. She saw her mother, standing in the center of a circle illuminated by the fire while performing the spell. Hundreds of wolves surrounded her and each one had the murderous look that would kill instantly. Her mother chanted the spell, making the wolves slowly levitate in the air. The wolves started howling in pain as her mother cast a stronger spell. But suddenly, her mother collapsed on the ground and so did the wolves, neither of them ever waking up again.

"Olivia!" Ethan's seemingly distant voice could be heard.

The memory wiped away as her vision turned back to the present one. She looked at Ethan who was standing in front of her with his hands on her shoulders and let out a gasp.

"What happened?" Ethan asked, concerned about her.

"I am okay," she whispered as if to assure herself.

"Yeah, you are...you're okay," Ethan said. "What happened to you just now?"

"I had a vivid vision of the night when... when the unfortunate things happened," she replied. "I saw my mother die."

Ethan's eyes widened.

"I don't think you're okay. Do you want to sit?" he asked.

"No, I am fine," she said. "We should hurry."

The wooden house was decorated with dust, several moon paintings, and antique crockery that only held importance in the werewolf realm. Tall circular pillars divided the hall into sections instead of walls.

As they stepped deeper into the house, Olivia whispered, "Do you know which one your mother is?"

He stopped to take a good look.

Letting go of her hand he walked to the end of the hall where 4 wolves lay separate from all the others. Olivia matched his steps and came to stand beside him.

"That's her." He said, pointing to the wolf with silver fur. Then pointing to the grey wolf that lay beside his mom, he said, "the Alpha", he paused, "and those are his two trusted members", he said pointing at the other two wolves.

Olivia nodded her head in acknowledgment.

Looking at the vial of blood that he held in his hand he said, "this will only revive a few."

"I... I could give you more." Her tone sounded more like it was a question.

"No, this is alright for now. These are the strongest members. If Mico wants my pack then we are going to need them to form a strategy. They will suffice," he said looking at the wolves. He paused and turned to her. "I need you to go upstairs. There must be an old trunk in one of the rooms. I need you to bring clothes for them. They are going to need it when they shift to their human form."

Olivia nodded. Following his instructions, she climbed the old stairs and walked down the hallway. The structure of the house was oddly similar to the one that Ethan and she were currently living in, which is why it was easy for Olivia to find her way. She found the trunk in one of the dark rooms. She had turned on the flashlight of her phone and held it with one hand while she used the other to open the lid. The skin of her hand stretched due to the weight of the lid, resulting in the phone slipping out of her hand. She immediately reached down to catch it. She safely caught her phone but ended up loosening her bandage in the process. A blood patch appeared on the bandage because her wound had brushed against the edge of the trunk. Paying no mind to it she continued her search for the clothes.


Ethan crouched beside his mother, imagining what she would look like now in her human form. He captured one last mental image of her before he got to see her in person.

He gently stroked her fur, like she used to do when he was a kid. The suppressed memories of her from his childhood resurfaced as he remembered how much he adored and loved her.

His nostalgia was disturbed when Olivia walked back into the hall with some old clothes in her hand. She placed them on a dusty sofa before coming to stand beside Ethan again. He looked at her when she audibly winced. Her bandage had come off now, covered in dried blood. Her wound wasn't bleeding anymore, so she discarded the used bandage and threw it on the floor away from them.

"You ready?" She asked, looking back at him.

He nodded his head as he looked at his mother. He physically opened the wolf's jaw before pouring two drops of blood into it.

Standing up, he and Olivia were watching in anticipation, waiting for her to open her eyes. But there wasn't a single movement for several minutes; minutes that started feeling like an eternity, as his shredded hope slowly faded into nothing. Anticipation morphed into desperation, forcing Ethan to repeat the process with the Alpha and two other wolves.

Olivia pursed her lips and rapidly tapped her foot as time passed, yet no there were no signs of movement. The deathly silence of the hall crawled on Ethan's skin as the worthlessness of his actions flashed around his eyes.

"Maybe Dino lied to us," Olivia said, breaking the silence. "Maybe this was never going to work."

Ethan stared at his mother, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. Olivia grabbed his arm and whispered. "I'm sorry, Ethan."

"We should leave," he said coldly, turning around to walk out.

As they stepped out of the front door both of them instantly stopped upon hearing a grunt. Ethan immediately turned around to look.

"Did you hear that?" He asked as life poured back into his body.

Ethan's mother's wolf slowly raised herself on her feet. The loud noise of her bones cracking echoed through the house. Her eyes turned red as her fur slowly changed its color to black as the wolf shifted to a grotesque form.

Ethan took a step back inside while Olivia remained standing outside the threshold.

"Mom?" He whispered as he took a few watchful steps closer to her.

The wolf growled loudly and violently now, as it stalked closer in their direction. It stopped, though, as it caught a whiff of something in the air. The wolf suddenly steered to where Olivia had discarded her bandage. Picking it up one end in its mouth, the wolf held the other end beneath its paw and aggressively ripped the bandage apart using her canines.

Ethan and Olivia stood flabbergasted upon witnessing the scene before them. His mother was no longer a wolf. She was a misshapen creature of mishaps.

With saliva dripping from its canines, the creature sprinted to the front door.

"Ethan we need to run!" Olivia shouted, panicking.

"No! I'm not moving." He said as the wolf stalked threateningly closer by the second. He tried to stop the wolf when it was in front of him but the creature jumped over him causing him to duck and lose his balance, thus falling on the floor.

The creature paid no mind to Ethan, having eyes only for Olivia. She was on the radar.

Olivia ran into the woods. She knew she could never outrun the wolf but her flight instincts strongly kicked in and she ran as fast as she could. In no time she was out of breath and energy and fell to the ground. Olivia looked back to see that the wolf was dangerously close to tearing her apart when suddenly it was tackled to the ground after getting hit by a heavy log of wood that Ethan had thrown.

Ethan quickly ran up to the wolf and stabbed its neck with a knife that he always carried with himself. The wolf cried in agony as it fell.

Both Ethan and Olivia were huffing when he helped her get off the ground. He immediately wrapped his arm around her, making sure that she was okay. Olivia fixed her eyes on the unconscious wolf.

"Is it dead?" She asked.

"No," he said with a dead look upon his face.

The wolf grunted again and tried getting up.

Ethan grabbed Olivia's hand and tightened his grip as they ran together to get out of the woods. The wolf, with the knife still lodged in its neck, stood and sprinted in their direction again, albeit slowly.

It came into their field of vision when Olivia suddenly stopped running.

"What are you doing?! We need to get out of here, now!" Ethan shouted.

"We will never be able to escape at our speed," she said before turning to face the wolf.

As she saw the wolf getting closer she closed her eyes and concentrated all her energy into channeling her magic. Slowly, the sea of blue flames emerged out of the palm of her hands, creating an arc-shaped border between her and the wolf. The wolf, unstopped by the sight of the flames, attempted to cross the border but the flames burnt its already black fur, creating irreversible empty patches on its skin. The wolf started dancing madly, unable to comprehend the unexpected hurdle in its mission.

Olivia took hold of Ethan's hand again and they took it as their cue to get out of the woods safely.




Needing the nearest refuge, the two decided to temporarily hide in the drama club.

Will and Sean, the last people left in the rehearsal room, were surprised to see the intruders, although Olivia and Ethan were too preoccupied with their thoughts to notice either of the two.

"What are you doing here," Sean asked, receiving no answer.

Olivia paced the room. "What was that?!" She exclaimed loudly. "What happened back there?"

"Whatever it was; it looked nothing like my mother. That thing," Ethan cringed while referring to the creature. "Looked like a zombie on steroids."

Will's eyes widened. "Is this an idea for a new play? Zombie on steroids; it has a nice ring to it. As always, you never disappoint, Ethan. This is a brilliant idea. I will start working on it as soon as possible."

Olivia shook her head, completely ignoring Will.

"We shouldn't have done that," she said to Ethan. "This is on me for trusting Dino. Maybe your pack was never meant to return to its original form. My mother's spell must have been extremely strong and maybe she was the only one who could ever repair the damage. This is beyond our skills! I have only half of my mother's magic and her diluted blood. Maybe that's why the wolf was only half-awakened-- awake physically but it had no mind of its own."

"Half-awakened wolves," Will repeated. "Spells, magic; it's not a bad idea. And very shocking that it is coming from you Olivia, given your pea-sized brain and all. It isn't a bad idea at all. Actually, it is good enough to be made into a book. And we could also add a blood-thirsty tyrant. Don't mind if I write decide to write it. But what would be the ending?" he thought to himself.

Ethan put his hands in his pockets.

"That doesn't explain why she only chose to attack you," he said to Olivia. "Did she spare me because I am her son? Or did she not see me? Or did she not attack me because I am one of her kind?"

Olivia deeply thought about the possible reason and dug deep into the recent memory.

"Are they rehearsing a play or something?" Will asked Sean. "Is this supposed to be an experiment?"

"I have no clue," Sean said. "I'm just as confused as you are."

Olivia stopped pacing and looked at Ethan. "It's my blood. It has to be. The zombie-wolf ripped the bandage that had my blood on it before attacking me. It sees me as a threat. It is the only explanation that remotely makes sense."

"For the last time!" Will shouted. "Stop ignoring me and tell us what is going on! Somebody explain it right now or I'm gonna lose it!"

Olivia quickly turned to him and said, "My mother cast a spell on Ethan's pack almost 2 decades ago which rebounded, killing my mother, and the wolves fell asleep forever. Ethan and I recently discovered that my blood could revive the pack but that backfired too, leaving us in a colossal mess." She said in one breath. "Now, will you please shut up and let us think?"

"Jeez, Jones," Will exclaimed. "One hell of a story you got there."

"That is a good plot for a story," Sean said. "Maybe you should be the next writer of our play."

Will had the look of betrayal as he glared at Sean.

"Ethan," Olivia said quietly as if just realizing something, "there are 3 more of those things." She said, remembering when Ethan poured the drops of her blood into the other wolves. She paused before switching to panic mode. "We need to stop them! My spells are unreliable so we have only some time before the fire created by my magic runs out. Is there a way?" She asked him. "Are there any werewolf weaknesses that we should be aware of?"

"We could try using wolfsbane." He said in an unnaturally calm and composed tone.

"Where are we going to find wolfsbane right now?" She asked.

"Aren't you a witch?" Will asked rhetorically. "Just DIY."

Ignoring him, Olivia resumed her pacing while Ethan stood leaning against the wall in denial. His worst fear resurfaced as the thought of losing Olivia loomed over his head if they failed to stop his pack.

Suddenly getting off the wall, he walked over to her and stopped her from pacing. He made her look at him before he said, "I know what to do."