Instant Enemies. - Emily Zimmerman. (graded readers TXT) 📗

twinkling with delight. He pulled me downstairs and I stopped cold as two people, a man and a woman, looked up from where they conversed with the pack.

The woman had chocolate brown eyes. The man had raven sandy blonde hair. The man was handsome, and didn’t look a day over twenty. The woman looked more like nineteen. They both looked up and smiled when we entered.

“Damian, she is more beautiful than I imagined!” The woman said.

I was suddenly tackled in a hug with inhuman speed. It took a lot to keep myself on my feet, but I managed. “We’ve been waiting for Damian to find you!” she squealed in my ear.

She had me in a bear hug, and I was afraid I was going to suffocate. “Mom, you’re going to suffocate her!” Damian said in alarm as I frantically pat her back.

She let me go and I sucked in a deep breath. Damian pulled me into his side, smiling in amusement. “I’m alright.” I said when I caught my breath.

“Cat, this wonderful woman is Julianne, my mother. And this is my father, Cameron. Dad, Mom, this is Cat, my mate.” Damian introduced.

Damian’s father, Cameron, stood and walked toward me, he stopped a few feet away and looked me over, he then looked up and met my eyes. After a few long seconds, he smiled and looked at Damian. “I like her.”

Damian smiled brightly. “So where is Victor?” he asked them.

Mom and dad looked around, as if looking for someone. “He was here a second ago; he might’ve gone out to the car to get something.” Cameron said.

I looked up at Damian in confusion, his brother? “My parents heard about my finding you, and called Victor, who decided to fly home.” He explained softly.

“Okay, who has my-“ a man, probably Damian’s age came in, and he stopped speaking as soon as he saw me. I had a wave of déjà vu.

“Victor, this is my mate-“

“Cat.” Victor smiled.

“Vic! Who’d have known it was you!” I laughed.

We walked towards each other and pulled me into a big affectionate bear hug. “How long’s it been, Cat? Has to have been three years, right?” he asked when he set me down.

I nodded. “Right! The vacation to New York was three years ago. God, it’s good to see you!”

“Cat…you know Victor?” Damian asked from behind me.

I turned to Damian with a smile. “I took a Vacation to New York with mom a few years ago. Vic and I ran into each other at the train station, so, being a fellow wolf, he decided to show me around!” I explained.

“And you didn’t think to ask what pack he was a part of?” Damian asked, his voice getting dark.

I shrugged. “It didn’t cross my mind. Besides, it’s not like he hurt me or anything. We actually became good friends.”

“And apparently you’re going to be my sister, huh?” he nudged me.

I laughed and punched his shoulder. “And then you’ll have to deal with me for more than just a week.”

“Cat, can I speak with you for a second?” Damian asked, and I recognized the voice, he was in Alpha mode.

I looked at him in confusion, but shrugged. “Okay.”

He pulled me through the kitchen and out the back door, only stopping when we reached the far end of the porch. “Are you insane?” he asked incredulously when he turned to me.

I furrowed my eyebrows. “What’s your problem, Damian?”

“You met a strange wolf, in a strange city, and just let him take you by the arm and show you around alone?”

“Obviously he wasn’t that strange, it was your brother, Damian, and that was a long time ago.”

“You’re not seeing my point here. Every wolf you meet that is not affiliated with this pack is a danger. No matter who it is, if you meet one, he is likely to tell his pack, and they will kill you on sight.” He growled.

I glared at him. “Well it’s not like I’m going to be talking to any other wolves anytime soon! That was a one-time thing! It’s not like I’m going to go waltzing up to a wolf and say ‘hi! I’m new here, can you show me around?’ I’m not that stupid, Damian!”

“Apparently you are because you did it once!” he snarled, his eyes turning black.

This stopped me from speaking. I stared at him in hurt. “I’m so glad you think of me that way, Damian.” I said, my tone dripping with sarcasm.

His eyes faded back to blue and I immediately saw the regret in his eyes. “Cat, you know I didn’t mean that.” He sighed.

“No, actually I don’t know that, Damian.” I said, turning and walking away.

“Cat, where are you going?” he grabbed my arm, spinning me around.

“I’m walking home, or do you think I’m too stupid? Do you think I’ll catch a ride with a strange wolf?”

I ripped my arm from his grasp and kept walking. I pulled out my phone to call Trevor, but realized Trevor was here, and probably didn’t want to speak to me. I sighed and called my brother instead, I wasn’t walking the full hour.

“Hello.” My brothers’ voice came in on the other line.

“Hey, do you think you can pick me up? I’m at the pack house.” I said.

“How did you get there, don’t you have your car?” Riley asked.

I sighed. “I, uhm, I took a ride with Damian.” I muttered.

“Ah.” He seemed to understand.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Thanks, squirt.”

“Yeah, yeah, twerp.” He muttered.

A few minutes after I disconnected with Riley, I got a call…from Trevor. I bit my lip as I saw the ID, wondering if I should answer it. I sighed, no reason not to.

“Hey.”

“Cat…where are you? Damian said you had an emergency and you had to leave.” Trevor said.

“Well it’s not like you would care. I mean my own best friend shouldn’t care about my wellbeing, should he?” I hadn’t meant to say it, but my anger and frustration got the better of me.

I heard his sigh. “Cat…I’m sorry, alright? I just felt betrayed. I felt lied to. You were able to tell Derik…but not your own best friend? I mean, how does someone deal with that?”

I felt my anger heighten. “Well if you would have talked to me instead of jumping to conclusions I would have told you what really happened! Derik would have been the last person on earth to know about it, but he happened to find me walking home that day with blood all over me! I made him promise me that he’d never, ever, under any circumstances tell a soul. I didn’t want anyone to know about this because I was a stupid eleven year old girl. What, did you expect me to just walk up to you and say, ‘hey, I was raped yesterday, just so you know?’ That’s not how it works, Trevor.” And I disconnected.

I was angry, not just angry, I was frustrated and having the forest around me was making Lorry anxious. She wanted to run. Screw running with a pack; I didn’t care if the vampires found me. I walked into the forest and stripped my clothes off, shifting into my wolf form. I shook out my dark red coat and sank my claws into the damp earth beneath me. I felt Lorry smile at the freedom. We took off running, both of us feeling exhilarated as the wind blew by.

I ran until I reached a clearing and skidded to a stop, digging my claws into the ground to slow me down. It was a huge clearing, with a large hill. I trotted to the top of the hill and leisurely sank down on my haunches, watching as two, pure white birds landed in front of me and watched curiously. I leaned my head down close to one of the birds and sniffed at it. It surprised me that it didn’t fly away, it took my scrutiny bravely. I slowly cocked my head to the side and the bird mimicked my movement. Its pitch black eyes were more intelligent than I expected.

The bird looked sharply behind me and flew away with a warning call to its companion, whom flew off with him. I spun around, just in time to be hit by a body. We went rolling down the hill, scratching, snarling, and biting at each other every chance we got. The vampire was strong, but I was stronger, when we rolled to a stop at the bottom of the hill, he bit into my neck and I howled in pain. I rolled on top of him and pinned him down with my paws, snarling in his face.

“Stop, young one. Do not kill the boy.” The Wolven Goddesses voice echoed in my head and I blinked a few times.

The vampires face turned from anger to realization, and then pleading. “Do not punish me, Wolven Goddess, for I did not know.” He begged.

“I will not punish you, my son. You may go and tell your coven of what you’ve seen.” The words came out of my wolf mouth, the voice was mine, but the words weren’t.

I slowly backed off of the vampire boy, and he sat up. He quickly scrambled to his feet and bowed from the waist. “Thank you, my dear mother.” He said quickly.

The vampire scurried from the clearing, and I sat down to lick my wounds. But before I even lifted my bleeding paw, I was tackled again. I yelped in pain as I was pinned down by non-other than Damian.

‘Are you insane? You could have gotten yourself killed!’ he snarled through the bond.

I wriggled a little bit and snarled at him. ‘I was fine!’

‘I swear if you weren’t my mate I’d-‘

‘You’d what? Outcast me? Tell me I was a fool and send me off like you did with Gabriel?’ I snapped.

His gaze darkened. ‘How did you know about that?’

‘You can’t keep everything from me, Damian. I’m not stupid.” I pushed him off of me and got up, shaking myself off. “I met him at the beach. He told me about your little…confrontation.’ I said.

I trotted up the hill, wincing as pain shot through my healing paw, causing a small limp. ‘That was necessary, I had to assert dominance, he called me an incompetent Alpha.’

‘Yeah, well did you ever stop to think maybe he was right?’ I asked without turning.

He didn’t answer.

I stopped and turned to look at him. And he stared at me with unreadable eyes. ‘Every day.’ He whispered.

This shocked me. I hadn’t meant for my words to be so harsh, and it seemed I’d struck a nerve. ‘Listen, I didn’t mean that. I-I’m sorry. I have to go.’ I muttered.

I turned away from him and took off up the hill, running to the other side and into the forest where my clothes hung from a branch. I shifted and slipped my clothes on, wincing as the gash on my wrist healed the rest of the way, a healing wound hurts like hell. The bite marks on my neck healed a while ago.

I walked out of the forest just as Riley came speeding down the road. He skidded to a stop after