My Unknown Wolf

Unknown POV The young woman clutched the blankets to her chest tightly, her long ash blonde hair flying wildly as she ran through the crowded streets of the city. New York was not a place that she had ever been before, too crowded for her liking, but that’s exactly what she needed right now. She glanced over her shoulder, her blue eyes wide with fright, but they calmed down when she didn’t see anybody following her. She had to come up with a plan fast before he caught up with her. None of the people on the street would be in a position to help her. He was too strong for an average human. She ran for another ten minutes before she spotted a large church and knew what she had to do. She snuck inside and sat in the back pew, hoping the priest at the other end didn’t notice her. She pulled the blankets away from her chest, holding the tiny bundle in front of her. Tears were welling in her eyes as she looked down at her sleeping newborn. Her daughter was only days old, and she loved her more than anything she had before. That love was why she was doing this today. Why she was going to leave her baby behind, it was for her own safety. The woman peppered her daughter with soft kisses, “I love you, baby girl. I hope one day I can come back for you and that you’ll forgive me.” She placed her hand on the baby’s forehead and muttered some words in Latin before she quietly put the little girl carefully on the wooden pew, the handmade blanket thick enough so she was still comfortable. The young woman brushed her fingers over the name stitched on the blanket before she took the crescent moon necklace the baby’s father had given to her when they met and placed it on top of the blanket. Taking one last look at her daughter before standing up and leaving the church as quickly as she could. Once out, she ran as fast as she could to the closet alley, and only then did she allow herself to break down and sob. She pulled herself together and stood back up, taking a few deep breaths before taking the ring off her right index finger, the stone in it now black, meaning it was useless now hiding her magic. She chucked it away, pulled a piece of chalk out of her pocket and walked towards the dirty brick wall. The woman drew a large rectangle on the wall the size of a door before closing her eyes and thinking of a place far away from her baby, “aperiam in foribus vestibule” (open the doorway). Suddenly, the bricks inside of the rectangle vanished, leaving a swirling blue vortex in its place. She looked back one last time, fighting every urge she had to run back to her child and stepping in. The next thing she knew, she appeared in a similar alley in Toronto, Canada. Before she could even take a step, a man appeared in front of her in a cloud of grey smoke. He was 6’3 with jet black hair and a slim but muscular build. His deep brown eyes were so dark that they could pass for black as well. His burgundy red shirt and black pants made his already pale skin even worse. The man reached out and grabbed the young woman’s throat tightly, “Did you really think you could run from me, Adele? Where is she?” She clutched at his hand but couldn’t loosen his iron grip, “You will never find her. I’ve seen to that.” He growled loudly as he punched the wall right next to her head, making a massive hole and turning the brick into rubble. “I will find her. It’s only a matter of time. Until then, I’ll have to take you with me for a private chat and see what I can do about convincing you to tell me where she is.” A cloud of smoke surrounded them, and before they disappeared, all she could think of was one word. “Emerson”, She whispered silently in her head. Emerson’s POV (nearly eighteen years later) “Emerson?” A male voice called out, breaking me out of my daze, “Are you even listening to me?” I heard the music from the DJ at my friends first day of summer party blaring around us as I once again focused on my boyfriend, Justin. I ran my hair through my shoulder-length, ash blonde hair before smoothing down the material of my new Carolina Herrera dress that my mother had bought me specifically for the occasion. The dress was a white, strapless short dress with a sweetheart neckline. With the four-inch Louie Vuitton black pumps I was wearing, I still wasn’t close to his 6’3 inch height, but without them, I was only 5’9. “Emerson?” Justin questioned again, his brown eyes filled with annoyance. I tried to smile at him, but I knew he knew it was forced. “Sorry, what were you saying?” He grabbed my hand in his, “I was asking you if you wanted to get out of here, this party is lame, and it’s nearly midnight. I would prefer to celebrate the beginning of your eighteenth birthday somewhere private.” Justin was twenty-one and a soon to be senior at NYU, so a party with many recently graduated seventeen and eighteen years olds probably wasn’t his scene. We had met at a frat party that my friends had dragged me to a few months ago. My birthday was June second. I was one of the youngest in my class, and I guess he had been waiting for this day as much as I was. Whilst we had been together for a few months, we had done nothing but fool around a little. My parents didn’t seem to think Justin was good enough to be my boyfriend, as he didn’t run in the same circles as us, given I was underage. I didn’t want them to try and press charges against him. The age of consent here was seventeen, but I had learned that anything was possible if you had money and power. At least that was what I told him. I didn’t tell him that every time we came close to getting fully physical, something inside me screamed at me to stop. I don’t know what it was, but some part of me wouldn’t let it happen. But tonight, as soon as the clock struck midnight, I was going through with it no matter what my gut said. He had been so patient with me these last few months, and I felt like I owed it to him. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, “sure, let’s go.” I downed the last of my drink, hoping the liquid courage would help ease my nerves. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a lightweight when it came to drinking, and I had always had a high tolerance. I could drink most of the guys I knew under the table. Usually, that is a benefit. Tonight, I just wanted to get a bit buzzed. I said a quick goodbye to my friends. Ivy, my best friend, gave me a knowing wink when no one else was looking. It didn’t take long to find his car, and we were on the move. When we didn’t take the usual turn off to his campus, I threw him a confused look, “where are we going?” He looked at me briefly, throwing me a playful wink, “I’ve got a surprise for you.” After ten minutes, we pulled into this little motel. “Why are we here?” Justin turned off the ignition and leaned over to give me a light kiss on the lips. “I told you I wanted some alone time with you and my roommates for the summer are all home.” He had to move out of the dorms for the summer and decided to rent out a small apartment near the campus with a few friends. But because of the high prices of rent in the city, five of them all lived in a two-bedroom apartment. Privacy would never occur in that place. I followed him out of the car, where he paused briefly to get something out of the trunk before he escorted me to the last room on the corner. I c****d my eyebrow at him as I watched him pull out a key from his pocket, “ You planned this.” “I wanted to make your birthday special.” He advised, holding the door open for me. I walked inside and studied the room. It wasn’t anything special; a queen bed, an old TV, a dresser and a mini-fridge. It was basic, but it was clean. When Justin closed the door, a wave of nerves washed over me. “I’ll be right back.” I didn’t wait for him to say anything and scurried off to the bathroom, closing the door behind me. I leant against the door, trying to slow my breathing and heart rate. I walked over to the sink, turning on the cold water before leaning down and splashing some water on my face. I grabbed the hand towel off its hook and dried my face, looking in the mirror when I was done. “Come on, Emerson, get it together.” Once I had convinced myself to stop being a scaredy-cat, I took one final deep breath and left the bathroom. When I walked out, I was surprised to see Justin standing there with a bottle of tequila in one hand and a single red velvet cupcake in the other hand that held just one candle in it. “Happy birthday, babe.” I smiled broadly at him as I walked over and blew the candle out, “Thanks, Justin.” He put the cupcake on the dresser and poured two shots of tequila, tossing one down and handing me the other one. I quickly downed that one as well as my nerves were back with a vengeance. Once done, he took the empty glass from me, setting it down next to his and cupping one of my cheeks in his hand, “You’re so beautiful.” A blush rose in my cheeks as he leaned forward to kiss me. I lifted my arms, wrapping both of them around his neck as I returned his kiss with more force. He turned us around and started to push me backwards towards the bed as he forced his tongue into my mouth. He slowly reached behind me and started to fumble with my zipper on my dress before pulling it down quickly until the dress fell to the floor, leaving me in just my heels and a very revealing white, sheer, strapless bra and matching thong. Justin broke the kiss long enough to drag his eyes down the length of my body, “God, you’re as gorgeous as I thought you’d be under that dress.” I wasn’t a supermodel by any standards, but I was on the varsity track team in school and good enough to get a scholarship to multiple colleges, not that I needed them. After years of training, track meets and days out running in the sun, my arms and legs were toned, my skin had a lovely bronze tan, and my stomach was tight and flat. I shivered as his fingertips travelled down between the valley of my generous, c-cup breasts, over my bare stomach and rested on my hips. Justin held on to them tightly and pulled me against him until I could feel the bulge of his arousal against my belly, Just as he went to capture my lips again, when a female voice called “Hello.” I jumped with fright, “did you hear that?” He raised his eyebrow at me, “hear what?” I looked around the room, “that girl’s voice saying hello.” Justin shook his head at me, brushing his lips against mine, “there was no voice, Emerson.” I put it down to nerves and went back to kissing him but as soon as his hands reached up to unclasp my bra, I heard it again, “You know you don’t want to do this, Emmy.” I placed my hands on his chest, pushing him away slightly, “there it is again.” “You’re killing me, babe!” Justin groaned, “there is no one here.” He started kissing me again, his mouth moving to my neck, sucking and nipping his way down to where my shoulder met my neck. I closed my eyes, trying to force myself into the mood. “Stop this now, he’s not your mate!” the mystery voice growled. “No!” I screamed out, “We need to get out of here this place. It’s creepy.” Justin threw his arms up in defeat, “I’m sick of this, Em! I thought it was the age thing stopping you, that this would end tonight, but now I’ve figured out you're just a prude. No amount of money is worth this.” My mouth dropped in shock, “What money?” He sneered at me, “the frat guys bet me that I couldn’t get into your virgin pants. When you came to the party, you just screamed, ‘goody two shoes, little rich girl’. Tonight was the last night I had. The money would have been handy. The pot was up to ten grand, but no, you just had to go all psycho at me at the last minute. Find your own way home. I’m out of here.” I collapsed on the bed, head in my hands as he grabbed his stuff and left. I cried, realising that these past few months had been nothing but a lie. He just wanted to use me for a payday for the entertainment of his friends. After god knows how long, I wiped the tears from my eyes, standing up to put my dress back up. Grabbing my phone out of my bag, I called any friend that I could think of to come to get me, but no one was answering. They must have been all too drunk to hear their phones. I booked an Uber and waited for it to arrive. On the way home, all I could think about was how lucky I had been that that voice had stopped me. Maybe it was my subconscious trying to tell me something. Maybe deep down, I knew that he wasn’t interested in me. I fought back my tears for the rest of the drive, trying to focus on the city passing by. I had never really enjoyed growing up in the city, with too many people, too little space. By the time we arrived at my apartment building, I was so ready to crawl into bed and sleep through the rest of this crappy birthday. I used my credit card to pay the driver and slowly walked towards the doorman on duty tonight, George. “Good evening Miss Thomas”, George greeted me as he opened the door to the building, pausing as he took in my messy makeup, “Are you okay?” I tried to give him a small smile, “I’m fine, George, I promise, just a bad night.” He nodded, “Have a nice night Miss and happy birthday.” George had been working on the door of the building for as long as I could remember. He was always the first person to congratulate me when I aced a test, won a meet, when I got my drivers license or to give me a pep talk when I had a bad day. He always remembered my birthday and never let one Christmas go by without a little parcel of his wife’s amazing candy cane bark. I thanked him and headed inside to the elevator, pressing the button for the penthouse and waiting for the doors to close behind me. My family came from old money. This apartment was passed down from generation to generation, just like money. My father ran one of the largest law firms in the city whilst my mother buried herself in being the perfect wife and her charity work. Once I arrived at our floor, I fished my keys out of my bag, slipping them softly into the keyhole and opening the front door as quietly as possible. When I closed the door behind me, I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking I had got away scot-free, but then I heard my mother clear her throat behind me. I swore under my breath as I turned around to face her, “Mom, what are you doing up so late?” Her arms were crossed across her chest as she looked at me with her patent disapproving look, “You missed your curfew and look at your face. Please tell me no one saw you with your makeup like that.” I rolled my eyes at her, typical Holland Thomas right there. More worried about appearances than why her daughter looked like she had been crying. My mother was in her late forties. She had been the perfect wasp daughter and got married at a young age and then had me. She didn’t work, she was too busy with her charity work growing up, so I was left with a nanny to raise me. Due to the amount of plastic surgery and botox, she wouldn’t pass older than thirty-five. She had the same hair colour as me, but hers came from a bottle and brown eyes. I always looked at both my parents for similarities between us physically but never found any. My father always said I was the spitting image of his late aunt when she was my age, but I didn’t believe him. “Mom, I’m only half an hour late,” I advised, trying to soothe her. “You were with that boy again, weren’t you?” She asked forcefully. I groaned loudly, “You don’t need to worry, mother. We broke up tonight. It’s over. Now before you start throwing the party to celebrate, I’m tired and want to go to bed.” “Emerson June Thomas, don’t take that tone with me,” She chastised. “You’re grounded for a week for missing curfew. The only place you can go is to the club tonight for your birthday dinner.” The club was the last place I wanted to go. I hated it there. “You know, mother, I really do deserve to be punished, and the club would just reward me shouldn’t we cancel dinner?” “Don’t be silly, darling. Many important people are coming to this dinner. It would be embarrassing for the family to cancel. Now go shower and go to sleep. You need your beauty sleep.” She answered. She didn’t say another word to me and just spun around, heading to her room. No happy birthday, no good night, no nothing. I went to my room and stripped out of my outfit, firmly deciding that I would donate it to charity as I never wanted to see it again. I threw myself into a steaming hot shower to try and cleanse my body and soul for the night. Once I was sufficiently scrubbed clean, I towelled off and got dressed in a pair of fluffy, flannelette pyjamas, the only pair I had managed to hide from my mother. She deemed them ugly and, as such, had no place in her home. I snuggled into my queen-sized bed and proceeded to cry myself to sleep. Before I succumbed to sleep, I could have sworn I heard a small animal whining from somewhere nearby, but I was too tired to care.