Poison

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

By the time Melanie got back to the Carters’ territory, it was the afternoon, and she assumed the family would be asleep. The only person she imagined that might still be awake was Talon. If he made it back alive.

Despite what she said and did to him earlier, she most certainly didn’t want him dead. Although she told him not to follow her, she knew he hadn’t listened, which meant he had walked right into dangerous territory. She hadn’t told the hunters that he might be out there, but the one who was the closest thing she had to a father didn’t trust that she was alone and had sent men out to patrol the area.

It wasn’t until she heard reports come in that one of the patrols had spotted a wolf that Melanie feared for Talon’s life. From what she overheard, it sounded as if the wolf, which she was certain was Talon, had gotten away unharmed, but she was well aware of the fact the hunters wouldn’t have stopped at scaring him off.

After the revelation that Talon was nearby, Melanie had decided it was time that she left as well. She’d only returned to the hunters since the McGinnis family had raised her and she needed to talk to someone. But that talk hadn’t gone nearly as well as she had hoped. In fact, she felt worse having spoken to them.

As she suspected, everything was quiet around the house and Melanie made her way to the barn. She was a bit surprised to see that Talon wasn’t there, but after what she’d done, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he didn’t want to see her. In fact, she would be surprised if he didn’t inform the Carters where she had gone. And that meant she’d need to find a new place to live.

She looked around at her few possessions, wondering how much she could possibly take with her. She quickly came to the conclusion that she would only be able to take a few sets of clothes, which was really the only thing that was hers. All she owned were the clothes and the flower Talon had given her.

She walked over to the dresser and picked it up. As soon as her hand touched it, she felt tears building up in her eyes. She felt absolutely terrible for what she’d done, even though she still knew that he could never be her mate. She didn’t regret that so much as she did kicking him. That’s what hurt the most. It felt as if someone had torn her own heart out, and she couldn’t hold back the tears.

Eventually, Melanie found herself falling asleep, still unable to comprehend why it hurt her so much knowing that she hurt Talon.

When she woke up, it was dark in the barn and much colder than when she had fallen asleep. Neither of those bothered her much although she was surprised she had slept so long. She looked around and saw that Talon wasn’t back and judging from the smell, he hadn’t been in the barn since that morning.

Melanie slowly headed out of the barn, hoping that Talon hadn’t revealed her whereabouts to the Carters yet. She wanted to leave on her own instead of being chased off. But first, she at least wanted to apologize to Talon. What she could say to make it better, she didn’t know, but she had to at least say something to him.

As she made her way towards the house, she saw Zach and Lyle playing in their wolf forms along with a larger wolf. Melanie couldn’t tell who it was, as she had trouble telling the different wolves apart, especially since most of the Carters were the same grayish color. She could only tell Talon apart due to his stockier build and Dakota since she had a red tint to her fur. When the two kids grew up, Melanie doubted she’d be able to tell them apart from their other family members.

Not seeing anyone in human form outside, Melanie went to the door and knocked. She had done that for over a month when she first came to live with the Carters, but they had mostly broken her of the habit. No longer feeling welcome among them, she knocked, not wanting to walk in if they were angry with her.

Shannon Carter, Zach and Lyle’s mother, answered the door. Her welcoming smile was enough to tell Melanie that Talon hadn’t told them anything yet. When Melanie had first arrived, Shannon had been very vocal against her presence, as she had her young children to worry about. Like the rest of the family, Shannon had warmed up to her, but Melanie was sure she’d be the first demanding she leave once she knew she had spoken to the hunters.

“Melanie, you know you don’t have to knock,” she said, still smiling. “Come on in.”

“Um, do you know where Talon is?” she asked, her voice soft. She didn’t accept the invitation to go into the house or even look Shannon in the eye.

“Haven’t seen him since this morning. I thought he was with you. He did tell you, didn’t he?”

“Tell me?” Melanie asked, a slight frown on her face. Just as soon as the words left her mouth, she realized just what Shannon was talking about. “Oh, that. Yeah. He told me.”

“Oh.” Shannon could tell something hadn’t gone right between the two. Under normal circumstances, she would have expected Melanie to be joyful at the news of finding her mate, but she didn’t seem the least bit happy about it. “Are you okay?”

“I really need to find Talon,” Melanie said, as she realized what his failure to return meant. She had been positive the initial report was that the wolf had taken off and she knew that there was no way they could catch him on foot. Not unless he was injured.

That idea brought an even worse thought to mind – what if her kick had somehow hindered his ability to make a quick escape? Talon could be dead because of her. The very thought of that brought tears to her eyes once again as she started to run back into the forest.

Just as she was getting to the edge of the forest, she picked up a familiar scent and soon she heard someone approaching. When she saw Talon emerging from the forest, she held completely still. Now that he was in front of her, she remembered that she had no idea what she was going to say to him. She had been too concerned about him to even think about what she would do when she found him.

Holding still was not a good way to stay hidden from a wolf. She knew he would catch her scent, and when he turned towards her, she knew she had no choice but to face him. Either that or run away again, but given how that had turned out the first time, she didn’t want to do that.

Talon kept an eye on her as he continued to walk towards the barn, also moving slightly closer to her. Eventually, he was standing between her and the barn with a safe distance between them. He didn’t say anything, but Melanie could see that he was not happy to see her.

Although she had stopped crying once she detected his scent, one look at his face was more than enough to start the tears flowing again. There was a huge bruise covering the left side of his face and there was no doubt in her mind that she had been the one to cause that. Her first thought was to run to him and hug him and start apologizing, but the look in his eyes frightened her.

“Talon…” she started to say, her voice shaking. She almost managed to say something besides his name but ended up choking on the words.

“We need to talk.”