Chapter 3 #3
The sky turned a deep blue, and a scattering of stars winked to life.
Fortunately, she possessed decent vision to see in the dark, despite her city upbringing.
She made out the three tall, muscular shapes of the highwaymen ahead of her.
They, too, seemed to have excellent eyesight in the darkness, neatly avoiding tripping over fallen logs and twisting tree roots.
More animal sounds came from the darkness, crickets and nocturnal birds. They seemed very far from civilization, yet the men ahead of her grew even more confident with each stride of their long legs. The forest was their domain. She was the outsider.
“Lovely night,” Ezra mused, almost cheerfully.
“The kind made for holding up carriages,” Tej said.
“Or wooing sweethearts,” Ezra added, an obvious smile in his voice.
“Neither are on your agenda,” Jessica said. “Here’s the edge of the forest. And the road ahead.”
They emerged from the trees, finding a narrow game trail winding close to the main road. No one was about, the air heavy and still around them. Ragged clouds were strewn across the sky, gray in the twilight.
“Get to the road,” Jessica commanded. “Then stop.”
The men did as she said, taking the narrow path until they reached the dusty road. Yet instead of halting, they continued to amble up the road without a backwards glance.
“I said stop,” she snapped. Her finger rested on the trigger of her pistol as she aimed it at Ezra’s back. Yet she did not squeeze. A trickle of sweat ran between her shoulder blades.
She was now a dozen yards behind him, but her aim was good.
In the distance, the rumble of carriage wheels and horse hooves sounded. It sounded well-sprung, drawn by two teams of two. Soon, the vehicle would be upon them. The rendezvous point.
The clouds parted, and the road was filled with silver light as the ripe, full moon shone down.
She didn’t know a moon outside of the city could be so bright, illuminating everything as though it was the height of the day.
Something within her shifted, and her skin grew more sensitive.
There was an energy in her, rising with the moon.
It had always been thus, since she could remember.
On nights of the full moon, she’d felt herself restless, ripe with potential, as though she’d developed a new sense that clamored for stimulation.
There was a connection between herself and that ripe moon, with it calling to her, resonating within her.
She’d once thought everyone felt that way during the full moon, but no one else she’d ever confided to about it had experienced the same thing. It was, she’d come to believe, an oddity within her nature. But she had to ignore it now. She had other matters to address.
Taking in her surroundings, she saw that the forest banded one side of the road, and a broad field stretched on the other side.
An uncanny noise came from Ezra, Tej, and Rhys, a long, rumbling growl that seemed to come from deep within them. A chill raced through her at the sound, a deep and primal fear she’d never known.
All three men hunched over, as if in pain, snarls tumbling from them.
Jessica sat up straighter as her horse stirred anxiously beneath her. Were they ill? Perhaps they were feigning sickness so she’d take pity on them and herd them to safety. Indecision gripped her as she stared at them.
The air was filled with the sounds of fabric tearing. The coats the men wore split down the back. Their garments pulled apart as the men’s bodies swelled. Grew inhumanly massive.
“Dear God,” Jessica breathed.
Ezra straightened. He stood at over seven feet tall.
His shoulders were broad as barn doors, his arms gigantic, easily twice the size of a normal man’s limbs.
His coat and waistcoat and shirt fell away in tattered rags.
Thick thighs roped with sinew shredded his breeches, and his boots turned to leather shreds that scattered around him.
Even the blue scarf around his thigh turned into a scrap that fluttered away.
Everywhere, he was colossal.
Ezra’s feet elongated, their shapes changing until they looked more like paws than feet. His hands lengthened. Wicked black claws sprouted from the ends of his fingertips, just as talons emerged from his toes. His ears turned pointed.
Dark brown fur the same color as his hair emerged from his flesh. Everywhere, he was covered in fur, though she could still see the hard delineations of his muscles beneath his pelt. His body became an amalgam of man and animal.
Ezra threw back his head, and his face lengthened. His mouth stretched into a lupine muzzle adorned with whiskers. The wolfish grin he gave her was all long teeth—yet it was still Ezra’s smile. Silver eyes glowed bright as the moon.
Beside him, Tej and Rhys underwent the same transformation. One moment, they were three men. And now…and now…
The ropes around their wrists snapped apart as though they were made of embroidery floss.
Surely this was a dream, but the shift of the horse beneath her and the icy fear pulsing through her veins were quite genuine. The moon on the road and the wind in her hair did not spring from a nightmare. Everything she saw was real.
Ezra, Tej, and Rhys were werewolves.