Harry Stringer

POV: Jake

"I am looking for a necklace" the voice sent shivers all over my spine as I turned around slowly to see my client "A pearl necklace, do you sell that?" Mona had just left to get us hot chocolate and I was completely alone in there, which made it even harder to look at the person leaning upon the displayed items I was trying to sell "Not really" my hand instinctively flew above my neck, touching the familiar pearls I had inherited "Well, that's certainly a shame..." Harry Stringer was running her fingers through my things, if you looked closer you could notice how her nails were slightly sharper than a human's, it happened with some of us, those who spent too long in animal form, some traces never fully came back to be human. Most cases were of pure bloods, werewolves born with both wolf parents, in my case it was just dad, in Mona's case it was none, she had been bitten, bitten by Harry "So I came all the way here for nothing...is there anything else you may want to offer me?"

She looked up for the very first time, making eye contact as I gulped. Her brown hair was as messy as always, the result of spending days running on the woods, some locks had a golden shade which was normal of her but some looked a bit...reddish and dry, such thing forced me to wonder if it was human or animal blood this time. Her eyes were of a greenish brown, but more than simply the color was the feeling, looking at Harry's eyes for just a few seconds was enough to notice the madness in them, same madness that could be seen on her devilish smile, with some teethes pointier than they should be. She leaned in a bit more, as if she was preparing to jump inside the tent, and my guess was right...as soon as the flow of people passing by reduced Harry made a quick move and just like that, in the blink of an eye, she was standing right in front of me, running a nail through my cheek "It's been a while Jacob"

I held my breath for as long as I could, trying to look confident, but what was the point? She could hear my heart beats anyway "It has" Harry Stringer was part of the reason why dad never allowed me to go inside LakeVille. My father, Kiam Haley, could be the alpha of Witchtale's pack but that didn't mean he controlled all wolves, there was another pack, one in LakeVille who hated us all and no one ever told me why. The only thing I knew was that they were violent, they were all more wolf than human, and didn't care who could get hurt, in fact they felt some sort of pleasure into biting other people. It is what was done with Mona and Alex, she and her brother were brutally turned and forced to join the pack, that was when I met them. Their adoptive mother Bella Bird was declaring her children missing, just as a stranger knocked on our door to tell the truth about them, about Skylar Faraday's pack, so my dad went after them and made some deal I never learned the details of

What matters is that he brought Mona and Alex back home, explained to Bella the situation and gave her kids a second home, our pack. As for the stranger, they were Z. Faraday, their daughter Skylar was carrying a reign of terror they couldn't bare, so Z. came to us. They couldn't fight against their own blood so they came looking for someone who could help stop her. Z had been living with us ever since, there's a cabin in the woods were they stay, the same cabin we use for meetings or to shelter new members, it's kind of our head quarter and the rule had been pretty simple ever since the deal, we don't go into their territory, they don't come into ours. But I was planing on going to LakeVille with Silas and Harry was standing right in front of me, the pack's precious order was collapsing, chaos was coming to us as my "magical senses" could feel, and somehow I had the feeling Hamish Myers had something to do with all of that, I just couldn't figure out how

"What do you want here Harry?" I could feel my own hand shaking as I heard the footsteps approaching, steps that didn't belong to just random people, they belonged to Billie Dean Day, and so did the cheerful voice that insisted in teasing Hamish Myers asking him to buy them presents too. The last thing I wanted was for Harry to see that Billie was here but it was too late, she had heard them coming too "Oh, well..." she turned around letting go of my face, the smile was still on her lips, like poison, but the thing is that there wasn't anger on the way she looked at the two boys standing outside, as there was no anger when she talked to me, the only thing I could see in her was the madness, she wanted things to become bloody...she wanted to harm anything and anyone she could, it was the only thing that brought her joy "I guess I am eating two birds in one meal" she walked away from me, towards them "That's not the saying...miss?...Mr...?" though a part of me was scary, I must say Myers did made me smile "Today is Miss, but you can call me Harry either way, Harry Stringer" she said her name looking directly at Billie "Oh shit" "Hello Billie"

Their instinct was to try to run, they had never personally met anyone from the LakeVille's pack but regardless of that Billie knew all the stories and they knew exactly who Harry was. But running didn't work, before they could even fully turn around Harry's hand was already closed around Billie's wrist holding them in place, bruising their wrist a bit because of the claws that began to grow "Not so fast" I glanced at Hamish for a second, just for a second before making my move. He had clearly realized already that something unnatural was happening, but I do think he could have been persuaded into believing nothing weird happened but that would definitely be before my eyes glowed shifting to an animalisct stare, before my nails turned into wolf's claws, before I used them to pierce though Harry's flesh, attacking her on the backs

There was gasp, well it was both: from Harry and from Hamish

It was the first time I actually saw anger on her face, lots of it, as she turned around to face me. As for Hamish's face, he was scared but also confused, looking from the blood dripping from her backs to the blood on my claws and to the blood around Billie's wrist. It was a lot to process I am sure "I am going to ruin your pretty face so badly, your dad won't know who you are" she promised slowly and somehow low, with her hand flying through the air ready to hit me, I wish I could say I was faster and blocked her but that would be a lie. Her claws did got to my face, leaving a deep scar, but it would heal, just like the scratch I left on her belly. She was clearly not expecting that I would fight back, and that made her even angrier but she had no time to demonstrate how much, all I saw was a shock on her eyes before they closed and her body fell to my feet "What the-"

"Yes! Heads are better than muscles sometimes" standing behind where Harry once stood, was Billie with a large piece on wood on their hands "Good job" I took a deep breath and glanced at their wrist "Are you okay?" "Me? You should see your face" Billie Dean let go of their weapon and showed me their wrist, there was blood staining it but the wounds were gone, I could feel mine healing as well, what wouldn't heal though was Hamish's trauma "Billie do me a favor" I asked putting my hand above their shoulder "Try to calm him down and take him to the cabin" I made a gesture with my head to Hamish, who seemed as scared as paralyzed "I gotta call my dad and find Mona" Billie nodded then looked at the floor uncertain "What about her?" "You leave that to me"

-

POV: Hamish

I was never one to believe in the supernatural. I knew all the legends about our town because Zach knew them. But I never fully believed that witches were real, that Rose Reynolds was one or that Atlas Reinwald actually existed, but yet here I was

Maybe it had nothing to do with witches or maybe Jake was cursed, maybe it was in his Reynolds' blood, but there was another person...Harry Stringer...was she cursed too? What was she there for? The question haunting me more than any other: What were they? Jake and Harry? I could swear they weren't human, there was something about them that wasn't normal, but did that made them monsters? I guess I would have to stick around if I wanted to find out

In the end it's not like I had much of a choice though. Billie just dragged me around...My brain was flooded with billions of questions, flooded with fear, but my body couldn't keep up. My body was simply walking in automatic driver, and so before I knew I was inside some sort of cottage, sitting on a couch in the living room. There were people around me and on the middle of the place there was a chair where that Harry girl had been tied up

I couldn't recall how I've gotten there or what happened on the path, but there I was. Completely clueless, and to be honest, shaking a bit. What guarantee did I have that I wouldn't be the next to be tied on a chair "You okay? How are you feeling?" The familiar voice of Billie Dean was the only thing that brought me back from my shock and thoughts "What's happening?" that was the first question I managed to make

I tried to take a look around, Billie had crouched down in front of me to see me eye to eye, there was a couch on the other side of the room where Jake and Monalisa were sitting side by side looking at me, the cut I had seen on his face earlier was gone, but there were a few drops of blood staining his pearls which made me remember of my nightmare "Hello Hamish" the voice was of a stranger, a tall man standing in the middle of the living room. He had both: a beard and a mustache that reminded me of Johnny Depp, he also had a thick pair of eyebrows and long curly dark brown hair with some white locks and to finish an earring with blue and green feathers that mixed with his hair "I am Kiam" he introduced himself "Kiam Haley"

The name sounded oddly familiar but I couldn't recognize him, all I could focus was on travelling my eyes around the room. There was a tall skinny boy with dark skin, black curly hair with some blond locks at the top and sunglasses on the top of the head, he was barely looking at me, his curious attention was centered on Harry "Theo don't" Theo, so that was his name, he walked back giving up on getting close to Harry. The voice that called for him belonged to a blonde girl with blue eyes and freckled nose "I see you've been looking around" Kiam said "There's more people coming"

An involuntary shiver ran through my spine, I didn't know what I was scared of but I was "Don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of " he said slowly as if he could read my mind "Jacob please do me favor and take our guest upstairs" it sounded like a typical villain line