The Moons' Call

In my shallow sleep I dream of Jacob and Paul, I was standing on a bridge and Jacob was on one side and Paul was on the other. The forest was surrounding us and below me was a treacherous rushing river, here’s the kicker, the bridges ropes were beginning to fray!

“Astra!” Both boys shout in unison as I look between the two so fast I almost give myself whiplash.

“Astra, come over here! The bridge is gonna cave!” Paul shouts but as I begin to take a step towards him Jacob yells something.

“No, not that way Astra! The flames are spreading on that side! It’s safer to come this way!” He yells as I take a step towards him, glancing back at Paul’s anxious expression. But behind him I see those people from the forest two week ago. They were all crouching in the darkness behind him, slinking forward with their teeth bared and hands twisted to look like talons.

“Paul, run!!!” I scream but he doesn’t hear me and they tackle him, I quickly turn to Jacob.

“Help him!” I shout as Jacob looks from me to Paul, he strides towards me but instead of going past me to help Paul he grabs my hand and starts pulling me towards the safer side of the bridge.

“No! Let me go! You have to help Paul!” I futilely shout as Jacob drags me away.

“Paul! Paul!!!!” I scream, waking myself from my dream. I find myself sitting up, I had returned to my room that was still filled with dim light; so it must still be day. I look at my alarm clock; 11:23 PM, breathing a sigh of relief as I realize that my nightmare was just a nightmare.

“You took her cliff diving!?” Uh-oh…I spoke to soon. “What could have come into your tiny ass brain to think she’d be fine cliff diving in October!?” That was Paul…that was definitely Paul and he sounded extremely pissed.

Taking a deep breath I get up and quickly put my dark navy blue ked sneakers on before walking to the window viewing the so called backyard, it was more like a small patch of grass and dirt facing the forest. I gasp seeing Jacob and Paul standing opposite of each other, the other boys watching from the side lines as they stare each other down.

“I figured she’d be fine if she was with me.” I hear Jacob growl out before I run downstairs and towards the front door. While running I manage to grab my black rain coat off the rack before bursting through the front door with more force than necessary. I run fast towards the back of the house, focusing on not slipping on the muddy ground. When I looked between Jacob and Paul I felt a sudden looming feeling of déjà vu.

“Astra…” Sam mutters as both boys suddenly turn towards me. Swallowing hard I take a few step towards them.

“Paul…Don’t be mad at Jacob.” I whisper while biting my lower lip, Paul looked beyond angry by this point.

“You could have died and you’re telling me not to blame him!?” He growled so loud it made me jump, I’d never seen him so angry. His arms were spreading huge tremors through his body. Gathering my nerves I straighten up and stare him dead in the eye.

“Yes, I am telling you not to blame him. I’m the one who went willingly.” I snapped walking towards him, I see all the boys stiffen and tense as I come face to face with Paul.

“You could have died. It’s too damn cold in the water for a damn human and the waves and currents are really strong today! Shit you’re stupider than I thought!” He snarled, pushing up against me. Angry, I unthinkably push him back, pushing him again and again with every word I spoke.

“Don’t call me stupid, you overbearing, arrogant bastard!!!” I yell feeling my veins fill with adrenaline but my heart fill with grief and pain while I push him as hard as I could. During that last push my restraint must have slipped because I balled my hand into a fist and punching him right in the face. And was that a mistake I could never take back, not only did it feel like I broke my hand it caused my heart to throb in pain as he stumbles back.

It looked like he was more shocked than anything but his shaking was so bad now that I could almost see his tan skin vibrating and there was a dangerous animalistic gleam in his eyes that shook me to the core. Feeling suddenly terrified I backed away as he let out several huffs of breath.

“She did it now…” I hear Jared mumble in the background as Jacob and Sam ran to my side. Sam was trying to push Paul towards the forest and Jacob was blocking me from him.

“Get back, Astra…” Jacob grimly whispered, I’d never heard him sound so serious before. I turn just in time to see Paul thrashing around and suddenly bursting through his skin and clothes into a giant horse sized, silver-grey wolf. It shook its giant head back and forth as the shreds of fabric that were once Paul’s shorts settle on the ground. Its mouth then pulled back in a severe grimace with its long white fangs fixated on me and Jacob.

“Paul, you don’t want to hurt her! Just back off until you calm down.” Sam ordered but Paul wasn’t listening, his animalistic brown eyes were very much like an animals at that point, a wolf with its target in sight as he took a giant step forward.

“Paul, back off!” Jacob snapped as Paul took another step towards us with another expression that revealed his knife like teeth but this time a huge barking growl came from the deepest part of his chest. Something in the back of my head triggered what Emily had warned me about.

Well, look what happens when I think only positive things about someone. Hearing another terrible snarl I watch as Paul bolts towards Jacob at an incredible speed that I didn’t think was possible, raising his huge paw with his claws drawn and smacks him out of the way. Jacob had just enough time to brace for the attack before he went flying into the forest.

“Jacob!” Shouting while reaching towards the forest he’d landed in. There was no way he could have survived a blow like that. Then I feel Paul’s hot breath bearing down on me, I turn back towards the huge wolf having to tilt my head back to stare in dread up into his enraged face. I try to say something but nothing would come out of my mouth.

“Paul, stop!” I faintly hear Sam and some of the other boys shout, but all I seemed to see or care about was Paul’s horrendous snarling and his mouth opening to reveal those long incisors. I didn’t know why I didn’t scream for help or just plain scream, all I know is that when I possibly took my last intake of breath something flew out of the forest. I recognized it as Jacob as he ran towards me, I also notice that he was shaking like Paul had been.

Before I could say or comprehend anything he was exploding into a huge reddish-brown wolf right before he leapt to tackle Paul with a horrendous snarl coming from Jacob and a squeaking whimper coming from Paul. All I could do was stand there as both of them tumble just to the edge of the forest, there Paul springs up and lunges towards Jacob’s throat intending to sink his teeth into his neck but misses by mere inches.

The sound of his snapping jaws made goose bumps rise on my arms and the fine hairs on my neck stand on end. Jacob counters from Paul’s attack by simply moving aside, opening his jaws only to instantly close them around a piece of Paul’s shoulder blade. Paul lets out a howl of pain before reaching over and attempting to bite Jacob’s ear. But Jacob was too quick, he tears a chunk of fur from the latter and hops backward, Paul shaking me to the bone when he let out a ferocious snarl of fury and pain.

I watch in terror as they circle each other like mortal enemies, the hair on the scruffs of their necks standing on end before Jacob makes the first move and quickly takes Paul down again. His long white teeth making a loud snapping noise as they closed around nothing but air, Paul was using his front paws to just barely fend off Jacob’s teeth from sinking into him once again.

Using his left hind leg he actually kicks Jacob off and into a tree trunk. The poor innocent bystander moaning while Jacob huffed a growl before shaking his head back and forth, attempting to clear the blow he’d just taken. But Paul wasn’t about to let him have any recovery time as he pounced on Jacob, quickly chomping down on the russet wolfs’ throat. My breath catches in my chest when Jacob lets out a loud whine which grew in volume when Paul began to tug at the flesh in his mouth.

I don’t know how but Jacob manages to gain the strength to lift his paw to hit Paul in the side of his head. It made a cracking noise and Paul released Jacob, stumbling back from the surprisingly intense blow. Jacob quickly stands and shakes the loose tufts of hair from his neck before lunging at Paul who was still stumbling backward…in my direction! Both tumbling towards me as Sam pushed me back into Embry before exploding into a huge black wolf.

The very same wolf from the ordeal weeks ago and with both a stern yet horrific roar that echoed throughout the forest, the fighting wolves stopped. Jacob standing over Paul, a few seconds passing before his brown eyes suddenly regained their intelligence as he looked at me.

I jump in fear; I was actually terrified of him right now. Looking down with his ears pinned against his head he let out what sounded like a whimpering sigh. That was before Paul snarled again and forced Jacob off him before letting out barking growls that I interpreted into threats. Jacob reacting by baring his teeth and straightening up to stand at his tallest, I was both scared and amazed at how tall he got.

Paul seems to take a long step back in intimidation, holding my breath I watch as they lung at each other again. This time they rolled into the forest, I hear branches snapping and snarling ensue before the sound of the fighting pair fades into the deepest parts of the forest.

“Oh my god….” I hear myself mutter in frightened shock. They weren’t just making this up. They were all really werewolves!

The black wolf that was supposedly my brother turns his big wolf head towards me before turning all the way around to face me. He was even bigger then Jacob was, both in height and size. His eyes seemed upset before he nudged my shoulder with his muzzle. I flinch and lean away from his touch.

“Don’t touch me!” I shout, I was absolutely petrified at this moment. I’ve almost been killed twice today and in my opinion that’s two times too many.

“Hey, Astra, it’s still the same Sam. Calm down.” Quil said walking towards me, I back away from all of them.

“No, that is not Sam! That was not Jacob or Paul! Those were monsters!” I scream, Jared, Embry, and Quil all looking at each other in worry before looking at Sam. He looked crushed as he whimpered, his ears flattened, his brow furrowed, and his eyes pleading when he looked down at me.

“Don’t look at me like that…You could have told me.” I whisper getting a whine for a reply.

“Technically, we did. You just refused to believe us.” Jared mused as everyone turns and glares at him, this included my wolfy brother.

“What? It’s true…” He mumbled before Sam took a cautious step towards me. I lean back, getting ready to run pitifully just in case. After all, I didn’t know what being a wolf did to them. If it altered their personalities or actually turned their personas into that of wolves. But something made him freeze up, his teeth suddenly showing. Quickly he turns towards the rest of the boys and barks, they seem to understand him instantly.

“We gotta go, Astra, you get back inside.” Embry said touching my elbow before running past me, Jared and Quil following right behind him. Sam follows too, but stops right before me and locks his eyes to mine. It scared me because in that moment I knew why he had to leave.

“Don’t worry about me…I’ll cope, just promise me you’ll be careful. Tell the rest of the boys I said to as well.” I whisper before he nods and bolts into the forest. But instead of going in the house right away I just stand there in the rain for a long time before looking over at where Jacob and Paul had just been skirmishing.

There were huge paw prints, small gorges for claw markings, and silver-grey and brunette fur everywhere. On the ground, on the ferns and shrubs, and on the trees. Kneeling down I gingerly take a piece of russet colored fur between my fingers, then I pick up a tuff of silver-grey fur in my other hand. I was kind of surprised at how soft their fur was, I expected it to be thick and coarse.

Reluctantly I turn and walk back into the house, looking around for Emily only to see her napping in her room. How she slept through that incident baffled me, but she was sleeping and I didn’t want to wake her with my confession of how virtually horrified I was by all this reality smacking me in the face. I take a deep breath before trudging upstairs where I drag a chair to the window facing the woods.

I sit there with a throw blanket and stare out the window, thinking about what just happened, about what they were doing out there, and about their safety. It was so nerve racking that I began to shake in anxiety. Closing my eyes I try to calm myself by taking deep breathes while doing this I must have fallen asleep because I was jolted awake when there was a knock at my door.

“Wh-who is it?” I ask getting out of the chair, I find myself having to feel around for the light switch because it was so dark out. I wonder how long I’d been asleep…

“It’s Jacob.” He said in a soft voice, I feel a trill of happiness before nearly ripping the door off its hinges to see a normal Jacob wearing a pair of jeans and plain dark grey t-shirt that clung slightly to his muscles.

“You’re alright.” I breathe in relief, there wasn’t even a single scratch on him.

“Where’s Paul? Is he alright?” I ask, getting anxious at the possibility of him being injured.

“And the rest of the boys, are they alright!?” I ask feeling fear begin to pumped through my veins.

“I’m fine, we’re all fine.” He said smiling down at me, I can’t seem to smile back, my mind still adjusting to what I saw. I couldn’t get the images of his malice filled eyes when glared at Paul, those animalistic snarls, and those long sharp teeth.

“Are you alright?” He asked, avoiding the subject of Paul.

“I’m fine.” I lie moving aside so he could come in, he walks past me and looks around.

“Where’s Paul, Jacob.” I demand seeing his shoulders slump before walking over to my desk and warily picking up a picture of my mother.

“Is this your mom?” Rushing over to him I snatch the framed photo from his big hands and glare up into his eyes.

“Stop avoiding my question, where is Paul.” I snap seeing pain flitter across his face.

“Paul is…Paul felt real bad about what he did to you so he went home. He said he’ll probably stay away from you for a while. To let you absorb what you just witnessed and all…” I flinch, I don’t think I could stand being away from Paul that long. I really enjoyed his company.

“That’s stupid! He was just angry, right? He must have been blinded by rage or something…He can’t control that, can he?” I whisper, Jacob seems to harden his expression as he looks down at me.

“You really like him, huh?” I try to nonchalantly shrug, but it came with an eager nod of the head too. His usually beautiful brown eyes seemed to darken when his jaw clenched tight.

“Paul is…he’s like my best friend, Jacob.” I mumble feeling my cheeks heat up, I guess I liked Paul a lot more than I originally thought.

“He makes you happy?” He pursued as I carefully nod once.

“What about me?” I take a step back in shock, I’d never heard Jacob sound so wary with his words. He always spoke his mind freely when he was with me. It was odd to have him speaking his words so gentle and cautious, like he was walking on thin ice or something.

“What about you?” I decide to play the ignorant card, but he isn’t fooled by it. He just lifts a gentle hand and brushes a few strands of hair from my face.

“Do I make you happy? Do you like me?” All the blood seemed to rush to my face and my heart seemed to be going ten miles a second. I was so put off by this side of him. He was being so sincere and serious that it started to scare me.

“I guess, to a certain extent. You haven’t exactly been the nicest guy to me, but I like hanging out with you…I guess.” I didn’t lie that time, though, I toned down how I really felt when I was around him…

“That’s all I needed to know…” He whispered slowly bending down and kissing the top of my head. I was too shocked to react as he pulled back with a gentle smile.

“You should get some sleep, you look horrible.” And there was the sarcastic, obnoxious Jacob I’ve grown to accept. Narrowing my eyes I swat his patronizing hand away from my head before pushing him out of my room.

“Get out you jerk!” I shout successfully getting him through the doorway. He then turns around and smiles down at me.

“I’m glad to see you’re not scared of me, considering I’m such a big bad wolf.” He grinned as I scowl at his mocking words.

“Oh, shut up!” I shout pushing him to the stairs before walking back to my room and shutting the door, my legs wobbling as I press my back against the now closed door. Taking in deep breaths in an attempt to calm my wildly beating heart.

Glancing at the mirror proved Jacob’s point. I did look horrible. So after I changed I went to bed. Falling asleep immediately after my head hit the pillow, I had no dreams I was so exhausted.

Sadly, I awoke to something scratching at my window. Yawning and glancing around the room I notice that it was still really dark out, looking at my clock I see that it’s six in the morning. The scratching was from the tree branch that was closest to the window closest to my bed.

Why did a simple scratch at the window wake me? It was beyond me but since I was up I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad for me to read a little.

I grab a random book and begin reading, it turned out that the book was one of my favorites one that I hadn’t read in a long time. I was used to the beating of the rain against the windows and roof by now, it surprised me how fast I got used to it.

While taking a break from reading and listening to the rain I hear a mournful howl and instinctively my mind went straight to Paul, Jacob, Sam, or the other boys. But for some odd reason I knew it was Jacob.

“Jacob…” I whisper placing my book down and quickly changing into a pair of straight jeans, my black ked sneakers, the plain dark grey t-shirt I wore to bed, and a simple black zip-up hoodie.

As you could tell I wasn’t in the mood to dress for warmth, I was more in a hurry to get to that howling because it sounded off again and a lot closer and a lot more pained then before. My instincts screamed for me to tell Sam but I couldn’t seem to stop when I crept past his and Emily’s room, trying not to bolt out the front door and into the direction the howling was coming from.

Speaking of Sam, why couldn’t he or Emily hear the howling? It was pretty loud.

“Jacob?” I call into the woods after taking a few wary steps. It turns out that my wary steps turned into a speedy walk which then turned into a clumsy run. Why did I have this uncanny ability to be so awkward in stressful and dire situations? I kept tripping over things like ferns, tree roots, rocks, and even my own feet.

I don’t know how long I was running because I was so focused on Jacob. While making my way deeper and deeper into the forest I thought of why I was so obsessed with this guy. I didn’t even talk to him all that much and I really liked Paul. So why did I want to help Jacob? The boys could help him, right?

“She really came.” I hear an all too familiar female voice purr in amusement, it was accompanied by a whimper that sent me into an irate rage but it also sent a scared shiver down my spine.

Bursting through the fern wall separating me from the vampire group and Jacob, only there was no Jacob. They all cackle as I slowly come to the realization that I’d been fooled somehow.

“Surprise!” The dark haired one says jumping up from his seat on a fallen tree that was now covered in moss.

“Fooled you, didn’t we? Lucky for us those damn dogs didn’t kill Olivia or Joel.” He chuckled but his words caused the blonde guy, Joel I presume, to wince. The woman with the loose curls, Olivia I guess, reacted by suddenly appearing next to the dark haired guy and smacking him across the cheek with such force that I could have sworn his head spun around.

The smacking sound the blow made caused me to stiffen in surprise. While those two bickered I began to glance around for any reminisce of Jacob as that russet colored wolf but there was nothing in sight.

“That wolf isn’t here. Thanks to Olivia and my own abilities we successfully deceived you. You see, Olivia has the ability to block out every noise someone makes. Think of it as a mute button or a pair of earplugs with the exception of who she wants to hear the noise.
For example if she wanted to tell me something she didn’t want Daren to know she could use her ability to mute her voice so only he couldn’t hear what we were talking about.” I gulp, I didn’t know that aside from their heightened abilities vampires could have a sixth sense. As for my belief in vampires, well, I figured if werewolves were real then so were vampires.

“And you?” I whisper, making him smirk widely. I felt a frigid chill run down my spin at the evil grin.

“I have the ability to mimic any sound I want as long as I hear it once and I can use that sound and turn it into a voice. Like yours, Olivia’s, Daren’s, all those wolves’, etc. Any sound they make I can mimic.” He explained again, but what scared and angered me was that he was saying this in Paul then Jacob’s deep voices. He must have been around when they were human, it made me wonder how far his ability could record.

“Look, she’s shaking.” Olivia laughs, it seemed that her and Daren were done arguing. Sure I was shaking, but I didn’t know from what. I was pissed, terrified, and feeling an emotion I didn’t quite understand…

“Maybe you should kill her in that voice, Joel. At least she’ll hear his voice as she breathes her last breath.” Daren suggests as my shaking turned into trembling. They were going to kill me this time, with that witches ability they could block out my screaming without any issue this time around.

Last time the boys surprised them but this time they were going to get away with it. No matter what I did I was going to die here…maybe that unidentifiable emotion I was feeling was my yearning to live. For the first time since my mother died I wanted to live. So I did what one of my instincts told me to do, I begged for my life.

“Please…don’t…” I whimper backing up like I did last time, but Joel was right behind me immediately with his bone white and icy fingers around my waist.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you in the way you think. You’re going to be my revenge and replacement.” He purred in my ear, his oddly sweet and cold breath causing more unpleasant chills to run down my neck.

“R-replacement?” I stutter, still fearing for my life. I feel his lips touch the exposed part of my neck and my body reacted with disgust as I try to lean away from him.

“Yes, my replacement for Vivian. You shall be my new mate.” He murmured against the skin of my neck. If I wasn’t terrified before then I definitely was now. I didn’t want to be a cold, soulless monster!

“So…what’s your name?” He whispered in my ear before spinning me around to face him. I shook my head in protest. I refused to give him my name. He let out a throaty hiss as he roughly grasped my shoulders with a freezing iron like grip.

“Fine, I’ll just have to ask you again while you’re changing. You can’t deny the voice of your lover could you?” He asked in Jacob’s voice.

“Why are you doing this? Why not just kill me?” I cry trying with all my might to pull away from him but I couldn’t move an inch in that iron grip.

“I told you, I want revenge and a replacement for my dearest Vivian.” His blood red eyes shone with horrible excitement as he gave me a look like the reason was obvious.

“I know that, but why me?” I was actually very surprised at how even my voice was when I spoke.

“Because of those wolves. They came to save you so I figure if I make you a vampire it would just kill them that they would now be forced to eliminate you, since that’s what they appear to hunt. Then I could soak up the mournful howls of their once loved one turned mortal enemy. While they’re mourning your ‘death’ we can all kill them and be on our marry way to eternity my new mate.” The way he explained this was so happy and eager that I nearly puked. It was a revolting plot of revenge that was all my fault.

I just had to take Paul up on that bet, I just had to get lost in the damn woods…Sam and the boys were all going to pay for my ignorance!

I feel tears sting and burn my irises as Joel took this opportunity to lean in closer to my neck. I hated the fact that I couldn’t do anything…all I could do was wait and pray that he liked my blood too much and drained me of it instead of making me his undead girlfriend.