HOWL and HUNT the HEIR: HOWL 1-3 (Dark World) Read online

  Howl

  and HUNT

  the HEIR

  D.S. Wrights &

  Lilith Dark

  Copyright © 2016 D.S. Wrights

  All rights reserved.

  For and by Lilith

  Thank you, Lilith, for always sticking with and believing in me. You know this story is for you.

  Contents

  Prologue

  1 – Forest

  2 – Moonlight

  3 – Prey

  4 – Sacrifice

  5 – Senseless

  6 – Howl

  7 – Home

  Howl continues

  About The Authors: D. S. Wrights

  About The Authors: Lilith Dark

  Prologue

  Panting... Muffled sounds of feet running, naked feet. It’s pitch-black. Just until my eyes get used to the pale moonlight, searching its way through the crowns of the trees.

  Tall trees... And old... A forest. Big, dark, and cold. I can smell the moisture of the ground beneath me, the softness beneath my feet, the freshness of wood and pine needles.

  Breathing leaves little clouds in the air as I run. My heart is beating in my ears. And then I know why my lungs are aching: Snarls, barks. Right behind me. I am followed, hunted. Wolves. Panic grips me by the throat, and I try to run harder. My feet hurt and I’m sliding, tumbling. Looking down I see that they are naked. I’m not wearing shoes. My skin is clammy. I’m freezing. I have to run faster. Faster.

  Snatching, breaking twigs resound behind me. They are coming closer. Are they? I don’t dare to look back, or I will fall. Still, there’s barking, growling behind me, further away and yet next to me.

  Are they trying to surround me?

  I can’t go faster. I’m already stumbling, risking a fall. Then they will get me for sure. A snarl. It’s too close. My hackles rise. I feel tears of fear in my eyes. Faster. Why can’t I go faster?

  Twigs are scratching me. Are my legs naked as well? It’s so cold. I feel the freezing air on my skin. My bare skin. Am I naked? I can’t look down. I have to run.

  My lungs are aching even more. My throat is dry and disgusting spit gathers in my mouth. I swallow, and it hurts.

  A howl right next to me. It’s like a whip to my spine. I almost fall, but catch myself, sliding on moss, twisting my ankle. A whine escapes my mouth. Another snarl is the answer. Right behind me.

  My heart beats against my chest, trying to break free. Tears on my cheeks. I just want to stop. Let them get me. Rip me into pieces, limb from limb. But I can’t. I have to run.

  The further I go, the thicker the brush seems to get. Twigs are tearing at my skin. It hurts. It burns. And it slows me down. I fight the urge to look behind me because I can’t hear them anymore. The cracking, breaking twigs drown out every other sound. Everything hurts, aches, but I have to go on. Run.

  Suddenly the brush is gone, and I almost slow down instead of speeding up. I tense and fight against the weariness. Run. Faster. Ignore the surroundings. Find life. Find people. Save yourself. I hear myself panting again. Still, it’s silent. Did they give up? Don’t turn around. Run! I stumble but catch myself again. My feet are getting numb. A good thing, I guess. I falter once more. Everything aches. Everything hurts. Yet I run.

  A hit. Against my back. Throwing me forward. More weight. My torso falls over. My feet can’t follow. Pain in my spine, in my muscles, in my bones. I fall. Hard. Instinctively my hands snap forward, trying to catch my fall. I tear up my wrists and palms. Get up! Up!

  Despite the dirt and burning pain I try to struggle up, but a heavy weight pulls me down, my legs give in. Then a snarl. Against my ear. I freeze. Realize. The wolf got me. And I feel his paws on my bare back, his claws in my skin, drawing blood.

  My heart tumbles, my lungs ache, and I can’t move, don’t dare to move. My skin is moist and I notice that I’m naked. Really naked. Completely. Against my will I shiver and the wolf snarls into my ear. Panic. Please, let it be quick.

  I close my eyes, trying to prepare myself.

  Wet. My eyes tear open. I feel the wolf licking my neck and I tense up, making him snarl again. Again I freeze and he lies down. On me. He’s tall. Taller than normal? Do I even know? It doesn’t matter. He still pins me down with his weight. Fur covering my whole back and my butt. No. I close my eyes again. I can feel skin. No. Just kill me. Not this. The weight is suddenly shifting and I press my eyes shut. Suddenly my head gets torn back by my hair. I feel skin against mine, not fur, hard skin against my rear.

  “Yield,” a rough deep voice snarls into my ear, lips against it.

  I can’t believe it, gasping. My eyes try to catch a glimpse, but I can’t move enough to see him. The man. Not the wolf. He presses himself against me.

  “Yield,” he repeats.

  A snarl escapes my throat. Much too inhuman. Suddenly my body begins to struggle, to fight, even though I still feel paralyzed.

  “No!” I hear myself growl.

  I hear bones snapping. Unknown pain in my muscles, sinews, limbs. Tearing pain. I scream, arching, squirming, and rearing up. I can see how my hands clench, deform. This pain.

  I still scream, and then suddenly I howl. I howl. Everything is bright and strangely green. I’m free. I howl again.

  Panting. Muffled sounds of feet running. Paws running.

  The moonlight brightens my path.

  Tall trees. And old. A forest.

  Big, dark and mysterious.

  Breathing leaves little clouds in the air and I run. I can smell the moisture of the ground beneath me, the softness beneath my feet, the freshness of wood and pine needles. My heart is beating in my ears. Wild and strong.

  I am a wolf.

  1 – Forest

  The sound of the car’s engine and the noises of the gravel beneath the tires ripped through the nearing darkness. The sun lurking low in the sky was drowning everything in a warm golden light. It was almost too idyllic.

  The green tall trees, the cloudless, now dark blue summer sky, and the path that looked like there hadn’t been a car driven through for years.

  Liala gasped for air, snapping out of her weird dream and immediately stretched in her seat behind her father, who was driving. Her hazelnut-brown, slightly curly hair had grown long over her shoulders, almost reaching her elbows, setting a strong contrast to her honey-colored eyes which looked almost as golden in the sunlight when it hit them. Usually she wore a braid, but today she wanted to look like her mom.

  “I can’t believe that we aren’t there yet, Dad,” she groaned, yawning. “Are you lost?”

  “Don’t make fun of your old man, Lia,” her father muttered back. “It’s been a while.”

  He wasn’t that old, although his hair was gray already, yet there weren’t many wrinkles marking his face with age, that only counted forty-two years, twice as old as her.

  Liala would be turning twenty-one, tomorrow. She was athletic, pretty, but oblivious to it. Since her mother had died when she had been only ten, her father hadn’t known any better than to bring her up like a tomboy.

  “No, we’re not lost, Lia,” her little brother Benjy turned towards her, sitting next to her in the backseat. “Dad just drives like an old man.”

  Both laughed and their father rolled his eyes, smirking.

  “So much for respecting your father, Benjamin,” he laughed. “We’re almost there. It’s been years, you know.”

  In fact, it really had been more than eleven years. Liala’s little brother never had been there; and she herself visited only as a child. Her smile faded slightly remembering the times they had been camping in the mountains, kno
wing why it had taken her father this whole time to return.

  “When was the last time you were here, actually?” Kiana asked from the shotgun seat, looking at all the trees with interest.

  She looked almost like her cousin Liala, and most people would mistake them for sisters or even twins - mostly because of the names and the fact that they both had long and slightly curly hair. Kiana however was a half year older, her hair was more blackish and her eyes were a soft, hazelnut brown that didn’t turn golden in the sunlight. Even though both girls never would admit it, Kiana was simply pretty, while Liala had something about her appearance that no one really could put a finger on. Their characters couldn’t be more different though. What Liala lacked in girlishness, Kiana made up for it twice.

  Behind them followed Kiana’s dad with his car.

  Liala was glad that he had his son Jason, his girlfriend and two friends with him in his Jeep, which definitely was now drenched in juvenile testosterone, something Liala could easily go without. Kiana however seemed to be glued to her rearview mirror. She had a big crush on her brother’s best friend and everyone knew it. Liala had no idea why Jason had to bring along friends on their family trip. She didn’t mind having his sister with them, but the last time she checked it had been her birthday wish to connect with her mother at her old camping spot. Making it a family trip was her father’s idea and she couldn’t say no to that, just like her uncle couldn’t say no to his eighteen-year-old son, when he demanded to bring along his pals or otherwise he wouldn’t have come.

  The rest of the way everyone kept silent, reminiscing in their own way, of Liala’s mother whom Benjy never had a chance to meet. The last time they had been here she had led the way, knowing the uneven path blindly and cracking jokes, teasing her husband, and tickling her daughter. She had been seven months pregnant then. Even though there were still tiny smiles on their faces in anticipation of their adventure, after some time Liala felt a little awkward, noticing how forlorn the path they were driving had become and she insecurely looked towards her Dad, who replied with a reassuring smile. She couldn’t remember that it was so far off the main roads. Probably, it was an insider’s tip which was visited rarely. With the sun now slowly setting, they reached a little lodge where an elderly woman was rocking on a chair knitting something.

  Her dad stopped his car having ordered Kiana to ask the woman for directions.

  “Excuse me?” she asked, after rolling down the window, and barely managed to hide her annoyance, just wanting them to finally arrive wherever they were heading.

  The old lady already had lifted her frowning gaze to the two SUV’s stopping right at her porch, obviously being disgruntled by the intruders. But when her judging glare briefly stopped at Liala there was a short disruption of her displeased expression.

  Did she know my mom?

  “We are looking for Crescent Valley, could you tell us if we are on the right path?” Kiana inquired.

  “What?” the old lady croaked hoarsely, sounding more like a crow than a human being.

  The shadows cut deep into her aged face and made her appear more fragile than she probably was.

  “Crescent Valley?!” Kiana shouted making the rest of the car’s passenger’s flinch.

  “You shouldn’t go too deep into that forest on a full moon’s night, Missy,” the elderly woman responded making Kiana roll her eyes, which Liala could see easily through the mirror.

  She reached out and hit her cousin against the shoulder, who instantly turned around, frowning.

  Be friendly, Liala mouthed and Kiana rolled her eyes once again, before she addressed the woman again.

  “I’m sorry, Ma’am,” she leaned forward taking over the conversation. “Could you please tell us if we are on the right path to Crescent Valley?”

  “Yes.” This time the answer came straight away and although the woman looked as if she was almost blind her glare moved from Kiana toward her.

  “You should turn around,” she said, her look resting on Liala now. “It’s not safe tonight.”

  “Thank you, Ma’am,” Kiana rolled up the window again and shook her head. “Crazy lady.”

  “You alright, Lia?” Benjy nudged his sister, who was still captured by the old woman’s glare.

  “Yeah,” she just responded, the strange spell seemingly broken, and rubbing her arms that were covered with goosebumps.

  “Look, she’s right!” Her younger brother exclaimed pointing straight ahead, where a dark-orange colored full moon was rising above the treetops. “It’s a full moon!”

  Liala’s father got their car moving again and instinctively she turned her head to look at the old woman, her warning still ringing in her ears. She had vanished from the porch. Probably she just went inside since the sun had left the sky.

  “We’ll have to set up camp in the dark,” Kiana groaned. “Can’t we just turn around and spend the night in that motel we saw earlier?”

  “It’s Lia’s birthday wish,” Benjy scolded. “And we’re going to be quick. Leave the work to us men.”

  While his big sister bit her lip and suppressed a laugh, about his silly words, their cousin wasn’t as kind.

  Liala couldn’t understand why she had to be the grown-up in this car. Driving the vehicle wasn’t an occupation that took up her father’s whole consciousness. Liala had somewhat replaced their mother in their little family and it was a role she naturally had grown into and her father probably relied more on her living up to it than he realized.

  How will they survive without me when I’m at the university?

  Liala already had gone to a college close to home, but she wasn’t willing to repeat this when it came to university.

  When they finally arrived at their destination, the place it turned out to be was a small clearing in the middle of the forest. It didn’t appear as forlorn as Liala had feared because there were remnants of a fireplace and what seemed to be tents or at least sleeping spots.

  Thanks to Jason and his friends, who made a contest out of who would be the first to set up a tent, their camp was set up quickly, while Liala took off to gather some fire wood, of course not without telling her father first.

  Kiana didn’t join her since she was swooning over her brother’s best friend Liam and her brother’s girlfriend Brenna was happy to join her doing the same over Jason. The last thing Liala wanted to do was join them to do the same over the guy they obviously wanted to pair her up with. Rick was cute and all but he was missing something she couldn’t quite put her finger on, plus she wanted to decide for herself who to date.

  When she returned from her third round gathering wood with her little brother Benjy finally accompanied her on this last trip, the fire was set up and the delicious scent of barbecued meat was spreading around camp.

  “Isn’t that a bit risky?” Liala asked her uncle, as she was dropping the branches she and her brother had gathered. “I mean aren’t predators out here in the night? Aren’t we attracting them?”

  “Fire scares them away,” her uncle explained. “Plus, they like their meat raw, right? Apart from that, I came well prepared.” He lifted his shotgun from its resting place next to him.

  Liala stopped herself from making any comments, because her dad definitely had brought at least one gun, too. Whenever it came to her uncle, who was four years older than her father, her dad followed suit as if they were still teens, which made her feel eerily grown-up in comparison. Sure, her dad had been only 21 when she was born, but he was twice that age now.

  Silently she sat down next to her father, only giving him a questioning glance to which he answered with an assuring smile, telling her everything was alright, and offering a paper plate with a delicious smelling steak on it. All her worries were instantly forgotten. When it came to meat, she could eat like a man twice her size. She just loved it and that was something her cousin Kiana couldn’t understand.

  Yet again it was just another thing they didn’t have in common. As similar as they looked,
as different as they were in character, yet still they were something like best friends, sisters even. However, that didn’t mean that Liala followed Kiana around either, like her father did with his brother, who sort of was his best friend.

  I guess I’m the only grown-up in this family Liala mused and believed that to be true, simply because she had to take care of her younger brother and her dad.

  The silence, which had spread around the campfire as everyone was digging into their food, was a relief, and Liala enjoyed savoring the taste of the grilled steak on her tongue. But it wasn’t the only thing she focused her senses on. She listened to the forest, the quiet rustling of the trees and the thicket, the small animals that hastened in the darkness, hiding from the intruders and other predators of the night. Of course, none of the animals were close by, because of the humans and their fire.

  Still, something felt off.

  Instinctively Liala stopped chewing and turned around. Her eyes were searching the darkness around them but naturally it was far too dark for her to see anything, even after her sight had adjusted to the dimness. All she saw was a few feet of bush being lighted up by the dancing flames, disrupted by the shadows of the group. And where the circle of orange light didn’t reach the surrounding area, it was the silver moonlight that cast strange and eerie shadows where it touched upon the ground.

  Realization felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over her. By staring into the fire, they kept their backs to possible threats. They should eat facing the forest so that they could see any attackers approaching them.

  We’re sitting on a silver platter.

  “You good?” Benjy asked her and tore her away from her uneasy thoughts.

  “Yeah,” she answered looking at her little brother and trying to hide her concerns; she took the bite of steak that was already waiting on her fork, focusing on the sensations her gustative nerves reveled in.

  It was a stupid thing to worry about attackers. No one would attack them. The animals would stay clear of the fire and them. Her family and their friends were the most dangerous creatures here. And yet, she couldn’t shrug off the feelings of being watched, of simply knowing that there was something out there in the night.