Riley's Torment, A Moon's Glow Novel #2 (10 page)

Nate growled,
“Come on, Joe!”

"I'm up," Joe
finally grumbled.

Nate emerged
from the bathroom giving Joe a chance to take his turn. When he
finished, they rushed out of the room to check out

Twenty minutes
later, they were headed out of Cape Vincent and back to I-81. The
sun that shone the day before was hidden behind the clouds. There
was no rain yet, but the damp chill suggested it was coming. “We
should stop to get something to eat,” Joe said into the silence of
the car.

Nate winced. He
didn’t want any more delays, but today was the full moon, and they
hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday. They couldn’t risk hurting
innocent people. “Drive thru will be faster,” was his only
answer.

Joe nodded and
headed to a fast food restaurant where they filled up the backseat
with food bags.

When they
turned back onto the interstate, Nate caught Charlotte’s scent.

They traveled
for an hour as they ate their lunch. Nate was munching on fries
when the scent changed direction again in Alexandria Bay, right
before the Thousand Island Bridge. They turned left onto Collins
Landing Road to Seaway Ave.

"Do you think
we're headed to another island then?" Joe asked with a burger in
his hand. They were traveling down a scenic road that held
over-sized lake side houses.

"Probably. Like
you said, she wants to make us suffer. She's not going to make it
easy." Nate sighed, hating what they would have to go through to
find them. "You know where we are, don't you?"

Joe swallowed
his bite, finishing off his burger and turned his head, his
expression blank. "Alexandria Bay, why?"

"Didn't you see
the signs, back there?" He gestured behind him. "That was the
Thousand Island Bridge."

Joe shrugged
"Tis just a name right? They don't mean literally." He wasn't from
this area and had only been here for a few months, so he wouldn't
know that the name of the bridge unfortunately was literal.

Nate laughed
without humor. "There may not be a thousand islands, but there are
hundreds. And since the water erases the scent, we'll have to check
each one."

Joe's face
fell. "That’ll take hours. The moon’s full tonight."

This time of
year, the moon came out earlier; they only had a few more of hours
of daylight. "We can hold the change off for a while, but we bloody
well can't all night. We'll have to turn eventually."

Nate considered
their predicament. Joe was right, as they aged, they could go
longer into the night without changing, but not for long. However,
he was determined to find Megan, so he would go as long as he
could. They could find a place to change when the time came. "We'll
deal with that as it comes; right now we have to focus on the
girls."

The trail led
to a public boat launch that held rows of both private and rental
boats.

Joe parked the
car while Nate stuffed their food wrappers into the bags.

"Can I help you
guys?" A man's voice called from behind them. Nate had smelled his
approach but didn’t bother to look up. He was looking for clues,
and when he found none, he turned around to face a man with a fake
tan, silver hair, and a too bright smile.

"Has anyone
rented a boat recently?" Nate asked, pointing to the boats in the
distance.

The man
grinned, almost blinding the werewolves' with his shiny teeth.
"We're in the off season. Not many people travel out on the lake in
this weather, but I did have one customer yesterday. A pretty
little red-head rented a twenty foot speed boat, but she hasn't
returned it yet."

"Do you know
where she went?" Nate asked, leaning his hand on the nearest boat
casually, but inside, he wanted to scream at the man for allowing
the witch to use a boat.

"Naw." The man
waved his hand at them dismissively. "We don't ask those questions.
But I assume she went to an island on the river." He meant the St.
Lawrence River, home of a thousand islands.

"Was she with
any one?" Joe asked.

"Don't think
so. I left her for a few minutes to answer the phone, but I only
saw her in the boat as it drove off."

Nate tried not
to be discouraged by this information, because it wasn't simply
Charlotte's scent in the air, but both Lauren's and Megan's as
well. He was about to open his mouth to speak when the man beat him
to it.

“She did come
back a few hours later to pick up four young men. Not sure where
she was taking them, but that's not my business."

Nate's stomach
dropped as he swallowed heavily. "Is this boat available to rent?"
he asked, pointing to a silver speed boat, trying to hide his
wariness. This news did nothing to change their mission. They had
countless islands to check and little hours of daylight to do it.
Soon they'd be wolves, unable to maneuver a vessel.

"Sure, come
with me, and I'll get you set up."

They followed
the man to a little office, which was filled with all kinds of
aquatic paraphernalia. The air was stale and smelled of cigars. He
stood behind a counter and pulled out an invoice book. With a swipe
of Nate’s credit card and a payment of two hundred dollars, they
were given the keys to the boat.

Nate took the
wheel, and when he stuck the key in the ignition, the boat
sputtered to life. The smell of gas floated out of the motor.
"We'll start with the closest one." Nate called over the motor to
Joe who stood next to him.

The sky was
overcast, and a drizzle filled the air as they quietly rode over
the dark water.

As they came up
to the first island, Joe spoke. "I don’t like the sound of this.”
He breathed in deeply, a crease appearing on his forehead.
“Charlotte takes two human girls to a deserted island and returns
to pick up four young men that were most likely werewolves?" He
turned to face Nate. "There's a full moon tonight. It sounds like a
hunt—like she's training her new minions."

Nate's face
hardened as he gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles turning
white. He was unable to process that idea. "Let's just find them."
His voice was a low growl.

The first
island was tiny with minimal foliage on the land. Nate slowed to a
stop in front of a large boulder, and Joe jumped out. He was only
gone ten minutes before he returned, shaking his head, his gray
eyes visibly disappointed. "Nope, nothing."

The next one
was larger with three cottages set against a long sandy beach.
There were no boats docked, but they tried it anyway with the same
result. Joe came back shaking his head, worry lines etched in his
forehead.

Hours later,
and they were still searching the islands that were getting further
away and larger. Both men searched with growing desperation,
inspecting every inch of the land’s mass. It was dark now and the
moon was out. They were shaking with the effort to hold the animals
at bay.

"Nate, we have
to stop," Joe snarled as they headed to the next one. He was
gritting his teeth, holding the wolf back. "We can change, run for
a while, and change back."

Nate shook his
head. "Just a few more.” He spotted an island up ahead. It was
about three miles long, trees and bushes covered most of the land,
but a small cabin was visible in the moonlight. The boat slowed to
a stop, and Joe jumped up on the dock to tie it up. Nate followed
him up a small knoll.

Joe's head
snapped toward Nate, his eyes yellow. "They're here." His voice was
a roar; he was having a hard time staying human. "And so are the
bloody werewolves." He raced forward up the hill, towards a small
cabin that was lit up inside. The building was sided with weathered
wood and held a small porch. Gouges and scratches marked the
slightly open door and surrounding area. Before they had a chance
to acknowledge them as claw marks, they spun at the sound of a
growl behind them. A rust colored wolf stalked toward them from
behind the house. It bared its teeth and snarled.

"That’s her,"
Joe said, just above a whisper.

"Yes," Nate
agreed, and pure hatred surged inside of him, making his wolf
respond. Nate's eyes turned yellow, and he felt the hairs hum along
his skin. Again, he pushed it back. First, he had to deal with this
wolf. As both men took a step forward, they heard a moan from
inside the cottage. Joe's eyes glazed over, and his arms began to
shake. "Go on, I can handle this," Nate mumbled, focused on the
animal in front of him.

Joe rushed into
the cabin leaving Nate with the wolf. It growled again and then
spun around, taking off into the woods, its bushy tail swinging
side to side.

Nate raced
after it, his feet pounding into the frozen ground, fully aware
that he was not fast enough. He was in human form and no match for
a wolf.

He was not
entirely at a disadvantage though. With his enhanced abilities, he
was faster and more agile. He could make his limbs move at
incredible speeds. He saw the wolf heading down a straight path
that curved up ahead. He took a sharp turn and raced through the
shrubbery, over the undergrowth, and up a grassy mound. He could
see the wolf round the bend, its paws eating up the terrain. Just
as it moved below him, he pounced, landing on the ground right
behind it. He wasn’t even close enough to grab the tail.

Feeling
frustrated, but not giving up, he focused on all the rage he had
for Charlotte. Letting the adrenaline kick in, he pushed forward.
Not letting the fact that he was a few feet behind the wolf get him
down. He was determined to catch it and refused to give up. He was
so focused on his fast pace that he wasn’t looking ahead of him and
he tripped on a root. It was sticking out of the ground. He stopped
himself from going all the way down with his hands as they dug into
the rough ground. He barely noticed the jagged cuts on his hands as
he got his footing back.

He winced as he
realized he had fallen even more behind. There was no use; the
animal in front of him was just too fast.

Right when his
legs began to slow, the light from the moon shone on a large tree
lying across the path in front of the wolf. Nate pushed forward,
hoping to catch it when it slowed to make the jump. As the wolf
leaped into the air, Nate pounced, trying to grab hold, anything to
slow the animal down. But it was too fast, and his feet landed on
the bare dead maple instead, his feet getting caught in the
branches. He paused taking a deep breath but continued on.

Exhaustion
began to seep into his body, and a wave of anxiety set in just as
he saw another bend in the path. The terrain in the center morphed
into a hill, and he knew that if he could climb it, he might be
able to jump down and stop the wolf. Since he was running out of
options, he took a hard right and dove up onto a tree stump. He
leapt up the terrain, scaling tree stumps, bushes and rocks until
he reached the top.

From up there
he could see the rust colored coat of the wolf as it rounded the
bend, racing toward him. He waited seconds before its approach
before he jumped, falling through the air as wind whipped around
him. He hardly noticed the wet drizzle that wet his cheeks as he
landed on the wolf. He clutched onto its fur and held on, rolling
over the ground. The wolf howled and pawed, scratching its claws
over Nate's arms, shredding the sleeves of his shirt. He tightened
his grip as the wolf struggled to get away.

"Megan, stop!"
he yelled over her growls. "Calm down, it's me, Nate,” he rasped.
“I love you.”

She slowed in
her struggles, but didn't cease in them. She was panicking, tossing
her head around, growling, and flailing her paws. A mewing sound
came out of her as she struggled with him.

Nate held her
tighter and rubbed her rust colored fur that was just a bit darker
than her strawberry blond hair he loved so much. He moved his hand
gently along her silky coat.

"It's okay," he
soothed. "You're safe, we found you. You have to turn back."

The only
response was a whine.

He moved
slightly so that he was gazing into the wolf's yellow eyes. They
were filled with panic and fear. It tore at his heart to see her in
this form. He would kill Charlotte for this.

"You can do it.
Just think of your smooth creamy skin. Your beautiful green eyes
and those cute freckles along your cheeks. Picture your legs, your
fingers and toes. Think human and breathe deeply." Again he stroked
her soft coat until she began to still. "Relax, and call to your
human side. You can do this." His voice was smooth, calming. She
was no longer alone. He was there and he would make everything
better.

Slowly, the fur
began to recede, paws morphed into hands, bones cracked, and limbs
reshaped. The wolf's whines turned into cries, until Megan lay in
Nate's arms, naked, covered in dirt, and sobbing
uncontrollably.

His heart ached
with every sob that escaped her beautiful lips. It felt like a
knife piercing his soul at the sound of the one he loved in so much
pain. "It's okay baby, it's okay," he soothed gently, stroking her
face, her strawberry-blond hair, the smooth skin on her arms.

"It's not
okay," she cried, her voice ragged and cracking. "She took us and
put us in a trunk...and then left us in a cabin to die. The wolves
attacked and tried to get in, but we stopped them." She sniveled,
gasping for breath. "We didn't even know we were werewolves! She
never said anything. We just started to change. It hurt so bad. I
felt like I was dying—I wanted to die, the pain was
unbearable...And Lauren's cries were torture to hear,” she sobbed,
shoving her face into Nate’s neck.

"It's okay,
Meg. I'm here, and I'll help you."

The sobbing
continued, making her body shake. "Lauren...can't change.” More
sobs. "She’s...in pain."

"It's okay,
Joe’s with her."

Megan lifted
her head and gazed into Nate’s vivid blue eyes, her face pleading
with him to understand. "No, there’s something wrong. Her body
grows hair and then it goes back to human—but it’s painful! It
hurts her every time!”