Page 60 of My Girlfriend is a Werewolf

Maybe…

They’d yet to see the situation outside the basement. While no guns fired, that didn’t mean shit.

“Mom?”

“Right here, baby girl.”

She sensed her mom a second before her hands clutched her arm. “Selene? Derek?”

“I’ve got your sister,” Derek replied. “Let’s head back upstairs. Stay behind me.”

“Chivalrous too, lucky girl,” Selene murmured.

“Paws off my man,” Athena muttered, to which her sister laughed.

Her sister clung to Mom, who shuffled between them as they made their way to the stairs, Derek leading the way and cursing when he bumped his foot. “Shift left. There’s something in the way.”

They followed his instructions and made it across the room.

“Where are we?” Athena whispered.

“Abandoned church basement. Watch your step. The stairs are straight ahead.”

He crept up first, while Athena hung back with her mom and sister, even as she itched to be by his side. This wasn’t his fight, yet he’d volunteered, him and his grandparents. It boggled the mind they would risk themselves for her, a person they’d known a month.

It took a moment to realize she could see. The lightening proved gradual, pitch-black turning gray, and moist.

“A fog’s rolled in,” he murmured. The morning mist was common in fall when the warmer ground hit the cooler air.

They emerged from the stairwell into what she assumed to be a cavernous space from feeling alone, not one she could truly see with the lights off and the moist air kissing her skin.

It was quiet, too quiet, and Derek muttered, “Bessie’s not running.”

“Is that bad?” she whispered back.

“Hope not. Stick close. Everyone hold on to each other. I’m going to bring us in the direction of the door.” She hooked her fingers to the loops in his pants, leaving his hands free even as she wanted to clutch one. Mom grabbed hold of the hem of Athena’s shirt, and she assumed Selene did the same to her mom.

They shuffled, their feet sliding and sounding much too loud. Every so often her foot would nudge something soft and squishy, a body, but the kicking of something that rattled as it rolled had Derek hissing, “Fuck.”

“Is that you, little bastard?” Grams suddenly yelled.

“Yeah, it’s me, you old coot. I’ve got Athena and family. What’s the situation?”

“I think the church is empty. Hard to tell with the lights out and this fucking fog,” Grams complained. “Should have brought the goggles.”

“Did you get Rogers?” Athena called out.

“I don’t think so. The men I shot weren’t wearing white coats. He could be hiding in the back office.”

“He can’t be allowed to leave,” Athena stated. If he escaped, then they’d have to live in fear he’d come back.

Derek murmured, “Let’s get your mom and sister to Bessie, and then we’ll see if we can hunt him down.”

“If he’s not already left,” her ominous reply.

“I doubt your brother would have allowed that.”

“Where is Ares?” she asked, surprised he’d not been inside as part of the rescue.

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