A Werewolf’s Seduction - Chapter 69

The entrance darkened as someone came through. The light from outside backlit his form and for a moment, she could not see who it was.

“Talia! Oh my God, Woman. You scared me to death!” Vander Greyson rushed in and pulled her into his arms.

“Uncle Van!” Devin chortled, speaking for the first time since he’d been told by Talia not to say a word so as to not scare his little bear.

Vander rubbed Devin’s head with shaking hands.

“I looked all over for you and Devin and couldn’t find either of you anywhere around the train!” He hissed, almost frantic with the relief of finding her.

“I thought you had been—” he choked down the words.

“Luckily, I could smell the vampire blood within the boy and followed his scent until I got to you.” He pulled Talia closer and rested his cold cheek onto hers.

“Had I marked you the day I abducted you, I would have been able to find you much quicker!” He berated himself. “Devin’s scent is so diluted from the werewolf side that it was difficult for me to separate him from the other wolves.”

Talia pushed at him to stop the gush of words pouring from him.

“Vander, is Cedric okay?”

Vander narrowed his gaze. “He’s been hurt, Talia. I put him in a suspended sleep to give his werewolf body time to heal itself.”

“Oh no!” Talia’s eyes watered. “Where is he?”

“Shhh. Don’t worry too much,” Vander shushed her gently. “He is resting inside one of the rail cars and his people are watching over him. He told me to go find you, right before I put him under.”

Talia shook her head. “I have to get back. He needs me!”

“Listen to me, Talia.” Vander held up a hand. “He is a werewolf and has super regenerative powers. There is not much you need to do. His body will recover within the day and he will be back to normal in no time.”

“What happened, Vander?” Talia whispered.

“You all got ambushed while the train was heading towards Faria. It was an army of possessed werebears.”

“Possessed werebears?” Talia gasped. “Cedric told me he had been fighting off bears for several days. I didn’t know he meant POSSESSED werebears!”

“Yes. They don’t normally have any grudges against the werewolves. The two were-species leave each other alone mostly.”

Vander chewed on his lip in thought.

“Furthermore, this is normally the bears’ hibernation period and they’ve usually finished gathering food for the winter so they can hole up until spring. They would normally never venture down from their homes in the mountains.”

“They’ve been mind-controlled.”

“By whom???”

Vander shook his head. “I don’t know. Cedric and his men managed to fight them off with the help of Andre’s troops but when I got to the train, I saw some casualties.”

Talia shut her eyes. “When I was running away, I heard a lot of screams and howls. Cedric told me not to turn back, just keep running into the forest so I could hide.”

“It was the best thing to do at the time.”

“I need to go back to him.”

Vander nodded. “I can fly you back to the train.”

He led her and Devin back out into the clearing, and picked her and the child up into his arms.

With a swift push from his legs, Vander sprang up into the air, his bat wings flapping furiously to get airborne.

“Hang on. We need to get higher to clear the tree tops so I can fly without slamming into the trees.

With a rush of air, Vander flew them upward into the murky grey sky.

“Waaaaahhh!” Devin squealed with delight as he was airborne by his uncle. Talia had been worried he might have been scared, but judging by the looks on his face, Devin was having the time of his life!

“You will be able to do this when you get older, Devin.” Vander promised. “You need to eat more good food and practice your arm and shoulder muscles like I showed you.”

“Fly muscles.” Devin nodded.

“Yes. Your flying muscles.” He responded as they soared through the air.

Talia looked down at the tree tops, packed with snow. Those same trees that looked so large as she ran through earlier that morning now looked like snow-covered match sticks.

It didn’t seem as if she had gone very far, but she had actually wandered quite far into the forest.

Ahead in the distance, Talia could see black smoke, curling upward into the sky, tainting the light grey sky into a dark grey sky.

“Fire.” She murmured.

“Yes. One of the rail cars caught on fire.” Vander affirmed. “Look over there. Can you see the smoke?”

Talia scanned the distance.

“I do see black smoke rising from the distance.”

“That’s the rail car burning. They are trying to put out the fire at the moment. The train cannot continue onward until the fire has been contained.”

As she got closer, she realized with dismay that the rail car that had caught on fire was the one Cedric had prepared for her and Devin to stay on.

“That’s our rail car…” she whispered, her eyes tragic. “Everything I own is on that car, and it’s all gone.”

“Things can be replaced, but people cannot. Imagine how I felt when I arrived and found your car burning, and you and Devin were nowhere in sight.”

Vander shook his head. “I was so out of my mind. The fire was so hot and the smoke so thick, I could not go inside to search for you. I was so distressed because I thought you and Devin had perished inside.”

“Where is Cedric right now?” Talia asked again.

Vander glided down towards the ground and hovered a few cars down from the burned car that was Talia’s temporary quarters. It looked identical to the one that Cedric had prepared for her.

“He is in here. This one belongs to his brother Cecil.” Vander lowered them to the ground and retracted his wings.

Without waiting for Vander, she hiked Devin onto her hip, launched up the steps and into the rail car.