The Wolf In Me

Listen
I woke up as the sun filtered through my window. I could feel an arm wrapped around me and breathed in Tyler’s scent. Turning over I looked at a peacefully sleeping Tyler. As always I couldn’t help but let my eyes graze his muscled chest.

“You’re staring,” murmured Tyler opening his eyes.

“I’m gazing,” I retorted.

“It’s creepy.” I was melting in those warm brown eyes. His voice was thick with sleep.

“It’s romantic,” I argued. Tyler quickly had me pinned to the bed. His body pressed into mine and I could feel the heat of his skin. He held my wrists on either side of my head.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, a smirk adorning his face. I couldn’t speak. I was left breathless. Hungrily though I pressed my lips to his. Things were getting pretty heated when Tyler’s phone began to ring. He pulled his lips away from me but we were still only inches from each other.

“I should probably get that,” he said. But he still didn’t move.

“You could let it go to voicemail,” I offered wanting him to kiss me again.

“It might be important,” he argued but his lips moved closer to mine.

“Then they’ll leave a message.” It came out more jumbled than I attended but that was because Tyler had placed his lips on mine again.



“I should see what that phone call was about,” said Tyler some time later. With him time was some distant thought in the back of my mind that had no meaning. All that mattered was the present.

“I guess,” I agreed. I watched as he got up, his muscles contracting and relaxing as he moved. He began putting what clothes he had before back on.

“You’re staring again,” he said, a smirk set on his lips. I didn’t say anything but merely smiled softly. It didn’t matter if I was staring, at least to me. Grabbing his phone he dialed his voicemail and put it on speaker.

The message ended up being from Jules. She wanted Tyler to meet her in the woods. At the same place we had witnessed the battle yesterday. The thought sent a chill through my spine.

“Aren’t they supposed to be gone?” I asked sitting up. Tyler’s eyes instantly strayed to below my face. He was a teenage boy, what do you expect?

“They’re supposed to be. I should see what she wants though. Would you want to come along this time?” I didn’t want to. I really didn’t. The thought sent a shot of dread throughout my body.

But I should. These werewolves were people like me. They lived in a world that I obviously knew nothing about. I couldn’t take back what I was. If I wanted to survive, to live life as a lycanthrope I was going to need help. Help they could offer.

“Yeah, I’ll come,” I agreed.

“Awesome,” said Tyler giving me a quick kiss on the corner of my lips. As he pulled away I took his face in my hands and pulled him in for a longer deeper kiss.

“I love you,” I said knowing it was completely true.

“I love you too,” he replied, a smile spreading over his features. “Forever and always,” he whispered in my ear. It sent chills up my spine. But not the bad ones. The ones that gave me pleasure and I involuntarily let out a gasp as the feeling unexpectedly coursed through me.

“Go get ready,” I said lightly as he was left there staring at me with his bare chest exposed. If he didn’t leave now I don’t know if he’d ever get the chance again. With a light laugh he left the room and I was able to breathe again.



I came downstairs dressed and ready to go. As I came downstairs a smile spread over Tyler’s lips as he took in my appearance. “What?” I asked.

“Well, don’t you look badass and sexy,” he remarked. He pulled me close so our bodies were pressed together.

“Come on. We have to go meet Jules,” I said smiling and pulling away from him. I began walking towards the car. Every step filled me with dread. I didn’t want this life. I didn’t want to be like this. As tears came to my eyes I began to blink furiously.

I couldn’t cry. I had to be strong. If not for me, for Tyler. He was terribly lost in this world. He had lost himself. The car ride there was silent, my throat tight making me unable to talk. That and I was focusing on not freaking out.

Once we pulled up Tyler got out to meet Jules. “Willow, you decided to join us,” she said obviously pleased. “Tyler, hi.”

“You’re still here,” remarked Tyler clearly not too pleased with them. Did I blame him? Hell, no. She held a gun to Caroline’s head after torturing her. She wouldn’t be too high on my list either.

“Is that alright with you?” asked Jules.

“That guy last night made it pretty clear that you needed to go.”

“We will, soon,” Jules assured us. Then two guys came around from the side of the camper and I immediately backed away from them. I still didn’t trust any of them. “Listen, we kind of need your help with something,” started Jules. I felt like I was going to laugh. Of course they did.

“We need you to help us find the moonstone,” said one of the guys. He was tall and scruffy looking but not in a bad way. It suited him. At the word moonstone my hand immediately gripped Tyler’s.

“Somebody needs to explain to me what the big deal is about a rock,” said Tyler clearly frustrated. First Mason had wanted it and now them. I didn’t really get it either. What was so special about it?

“That rock,” said the guy in the hat, “helps break the curse of the sun and the moon.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Tyler said flatly. There was so much we just didn’t understand. I had never heard of the sun and the moon curse. It was never in any of my father’s diaries either so I don’t think he did either. The only reason my father created the journals was so that maybe one day I would know what I was and what I could do. He never told me about this.

“Its and old curse placed on both vampires and werewolves,” said Jules sounding tired of explaining. What did she think we looked this stuff up in our spare time?

“Vampires break the curse, they’re free to walk in the sunlight, but we’re stuck only turning at the full moon,” explained the guy with that again. He seemed like the one who knew the most, the informant. “AKA werewolf Armageddon.”

“But if we break it they’re stuck as nightwalkers,” said the other guy. You would think they would make introductions before saying ‘we want this from you.’ “And we can turn whenever we want.”

“AKA werewolf domination.” I looked at him oddly. I didn’t want to dominate anything. I just wanted to live my life and try not to kill anyone. Tyler gave a disgusted sigh and looked away. I was betting he didn’t want to either.

“Tyler, if we can turn at will, that means we never have to turn at all. Not if we don’t want to.” Now this was the good part. The part that I wanted to be a part of. That transformation was painful and I never wanted to go through it again.

“I’d never have to turn again?” asked Tyler. I could hear a trace of doubt in his voice.

“There’s more,” said the scruffy guy. “Stevie,” he said indicating him to explain.

“If those vamps are gearing up to break the curse, they must have also found the doppelganger.”

“The doppelganger?” I asked speaking up for the first time. Everyone seemed to be startled that I had spoken. They must have forgotten I was here.

“Evil, twin, shadow person,” explained Stevie. “We’re betting Mason’s hot vampire chick, Kathy, knows all about it. So, we need you to help us find Kathy.” Kathy? “I have a…a picture,” he said pulling out his phone.

“Mason brought her to the bar once. No one liked her. She was a vampire. Bad news. Right-right here,” he said holding the phone for me and Tyler to see. “The girl next to Mason.” At the picture I felt like my jaw would drop.

“That’s Elena Gilbert,” said Tyler clearly thinking ‘what are you talking about?’

“You know here?” asked Jules clearly surprised.

“I’ve known her my whole life,” said Tyler clearly still wondering what they could be talking about. So was I. That was Elena not some Kathy person. I saw Jules and the guy whose name I still didn’t know exchange a look.

“We need her to break the curse,” said Jules. I could read the eagerness behind her eyes.

“Why do you need her?” I asked. “Why not just anyone?”

“We need her because its her blood that’s going to break the curse,” explained Stevie.

“You’re not going to hurt her, are you?” asked Tyler clearly not okay with that idea.

“She’ll be fine,” explained the other guy. Instantly an alarm went off in my head. I didn’t trust this guy. Just something about him threw me off. “No harm will come to her,” he said at my wary look.

“Do you know where she is?” asked Jules.

“No idea,” said Tyler and I shook my head. I had no clue where Elena might be. I hadn’t seen her in awhile.

“Caroline would probably know,” I volunteered. “I could ask her.”

“She’s a vampire,” said the guy. “She’s not going to want us to break the curse. She would get suspicious and then tell her other vampire friends. Then we’d have a repeat of last night on our hands.”

“Oh,” I said. Sometimes I forget that she’s a vampire, I’m a werewolf. That we’re supposed to hate each other and be mortal enemies. Caroline just seems so normal.

“But if she knows where Elena is, we could always just say like ‘oh I haven’t seen Elena around lately, is she okay?’”

“She’s not going to want to talk to any of us,” said Jules. “It’d have to be you or Tyler.”

“She hates me so it look like it’d be up to you, Willow,” said Tyler lightly squeezing my hand reassuringly. I swallowed the distaste I had in my mouth. I didn’t want to lie or fool anybody. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to pull it off.

But looking around at everybody’s hopeful face I felt like I had to. There was no way I could leave them condemned to a life of changing. I hated after just once. I couldn’t imagine how many times they’ve gone through it.

Especially looking at Tyler’s face I saw the hope written clearly on his face. He didn’t want this life any more than I did. If I had to lie to risk maybe killing someone in the future, I’d do it. Even if it was just for Tyler I would.

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll do it.” Tyler gave me a reassuring smile while everyone else was smiling too. They all looked so pleased. I felt like I should be happy too but I felt bile in my throat. I did not have a good feeling about this.