Discovered Read online

  E.M. Taylor

  Discovered

  Copyright © 2021 by E.M. Taylor

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  E.M. Taylor asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

  Third edition

  This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

  Find out more at reedsy.com

  Dedicated to my Granda, who always believed I could be more.

  After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.

  - Philip Pullman

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Playlist

  Acknowledgements

  Also by Emma Taylor

  One

  There was snow on the ground, but that wasn’t unusual for wintertime in Maine. It was freezing against the pads of my feet, but it also muffled my steps, creating a cushion beneath my paws. I glanced down at the thought, extending my claws so they scratched over the cold ground, getting a feel for the terrain, and connecting with the environment.

  The blanket of snow only helped me creep silently through the forest if I didn’t fall straight on my ass with the first step.

  I huffed, the breath hanging like a stark, white cloud for a few seconds, before dissolving away, like mist on the horizon. Lowering my muzzle to the ground, I took in a long, deep breath. The icy cold filled my lungs, but it lasted only a moment before my senses recovered and his scent flooded my nose. I latched onto it, mentally mapping out the route he would’ve taken.

  The trail veered to the left, through a thicket. I was smaller and more agile than the wolf that’d passed through before me. The clump of black fur that clung to a branch, swaying lightly in the breeze, proved that. I shook my head as I passed, snorting with amusement. This was going to be too easy.

  I pushed through the thicket, huffing and trying to quiet a sneeze as drops of snow fell onto my nose. Once my head emerged in the small clearing on the other side, I paused, hunkering down low to the ground and looking around.

  Silence.

  The clearing was empty, save for the skeletal trees that towered above, with branches like grotesque, reaching arms, completely devoid of leaves. It would be eerie, I thought, to anybody else. But not to me. This was my home, my place, where I was most comfortable.

  Still, despite the quiet, I waited. Listening for any sign of him – anything that signalled he was close by. But there was nothing.

  I heard twigs snapping underfoot as other creatures, inhabitants that called the forest home, retreated from the threat – the predator – in their midst. A flock of birds, who had settled on one of the highest branches, took off suddenly. I lifted my head to watch as they frantically flapped their wings, fighting against the wind as they rose above the treetops, all whilst never breaking formation. It was safer in a group, after all. I knew that.

  Satisfied that nobody was waiting for me, I heaved the rest of my body through into the clearing. I straightened as a blast of wind raised dead leaves from their resting place on the ground, launching them towards me. They swirled under my snout before settling again atop my paws and, as I shook them off, I caught a fresh wave of the scent I’d been tracking.

  I hesitated, rather than immediately chase after it, lowering my head again to the ground and sniffing. I was assessing for any sign of a trick, any sign he’d used my distraction over the birds to loop back behind me. Not that I really expected that. He was too predictable.

  But he’d at least tried to make it a challenge. The trail went this way and that, zigzagging in and around the small clearing. But the breeze had changed, and now I was down-wind. That meant his scent floated strongly on every gust that swept through the forest. It was impossible to miss; a hint of sandalwood mixing with damp fur. It sounded gross, but it wasn’t. Not to me.

  With a grin, I lowered my forelegs to the ground, my rump in the air. Then I pushed off with a leap, landing heavily, my paws thumping against the ground, only marginally quieted now by the blanket of snow. He’d hear me coming. I didn’t care. The hunt was over; now it was about the chase.

  I was more nimble, lither, and way smarter. In a sprint, he’d be faster than me. But this wasn’t a sprint. We weren’t on a track with a smooth, tarmacked surface and no obstacles to manoeuvre. This was a forest. A forest filled with wildlife, with huge tree trunks and bushes and uneven terrain. He’d run full pelt to evade me, but his size was another obstacle for him to contend with. It’d be too easy for him to crash into something… especially if I made enough noise to make him think I was closing in. It would panic him, and he’d soon tire.

  As the thought crossed my mind, I spotted him. Or, at least, the swish of a black bushy tail as it whipped around a tree trunk about a hundred feet ahead of me. He was lucky not to have tripped over the roots jutting at the base.

  I grinned.

  He was growing tired, having hit the ground at full speed at the first hint I was catching up. He was slowing down, and I paused, letting him think I was waning too… but only for a few seconds. Then my paws slammed against the ground, and I flew across the forest floor, dodging tree stumps, roots, and low-hanging branches until he was only a few feet away.

  He risked a quick glance over his shoulder, and I saw his eyes flash with emotion. Anger? Nervousness? Denial? I couldn’t tell, but that moment of hesitation was his last mistake: it was all I needed to take him down.

  I lunged, smacking into the space between his stomach and his hind. It knocked him down with a thump, and I towered over him, pinning him to the ground with my paws on his shoulders.

  He growled beneath me, and I bared my teeth in a final victorious grin. His eyes, so dark that they looked black, stared straight into mine with a startling intensity. I didn’t waver. Finally, he huffed, grudgingly accepting his defeat. Then he nudged me with his snout, giving a snort of annoyance. I fell back, allowing him to clamber to his feet.

  With one last glower at me, he turned and loped away into the forest.

  * * *

  I guessed he must have been off somewhere licking his wounds, tormenting himself over the defeat. Over thirty minutes passed while I wa
ited, which was way longer than the Change took.

  I sat on an overturned log in the middle of a clearing, adrenaline still rushing through my veins even though I was now back in my human form. But the heat that always followed a run still burned through my body.

  The clearing was our private hideaway. Where other kids might build a treehouse or a fort, we had the wilderness. It was our special little place, deep in the forest. At least, as deep as my dad allowed it, which was about a mile from the edge.

  We’d been coming here since well before either of our first Changes. Back when we were still just regular kids hanging out. The campfire in the centre, that we built a couple of years ago, sat untouched now, because we’d been forbidden to light it. Not by the cops or anything; we were smart kids who knew how to keep a fire under control. But by Ray, the pack Alpha. He was worried it might attract attention. Attention he didn’t want focused on pack land.

  There’d been a party somewhere nearby a year ago. It got out of hand, and someone called the police and the fire department. It was just kids messing around, but we couldn’t take the chance of the authorities turning up over a campfire when we were in our wolf forms. We tried to fly under the radar as much as possible. Wild wolves are extremely rare in Maine, and especially so far south. Regular sightings might be more common in the north, closer to the Canadian border, but not in Havencrest. And we didn’t need the town being on alert for a pack of wolves in their backyard.

  Runs were the only time he would come out with me these days, anyway. So the old, charred logs lay damp and unused; just a reminder of the friendship we once had. And while I still craved for that relationship, I knew I was kidding myself every time I imagined it might reignite.

  We didn’t hang out anymore; he preferred the company of his friends at school, namely the guys on the basketball team. Plus, he was a senior, and I was a junior, so we ran in different circles.

  Honestly, that was a hell of an exaggeration. Mine wasn’t much of a circle. Not much of anything, really, since I spent most of my time on my own. I had acquaintances – people I chatted with in class – but I preferred my own company. It was difficult to maintain meaningful relationships with humans when you couldn’t be honest with them about who you really were. It wasn’t like it was as simple as saying ‘Hey, I’m Madison and I’m your friendly, local werewolf.’

  Yeah… they’d probably burn me at the stake if that information ever made it around the halls of Silveroak High School.

  Despite the distance that’d grown between us over the last few years, we still shared this one thing, him and me. And I loved that it was something that he could never share with any of the girls at school.

  The soft, almost inaudible sound of snow crunching underfoot pulled me from my thoughts, and I glanced up to see him ducking under a bare branch that was hanging low, reaching like a claw towards the ground.

  Henry Barton.

  He didn’t quite duck low enough, and the top of his head grazed the branch. It disturbed it enough to make it judder slightly, and a small pile of snow slid off to land on his crown. He swept it away with a glower, as if the branch had appeared from nowhere to slap him in the face, rather than him being the trespasser in its forest. Then he combed his fingers through his mop of jet-black hair to straighten it out.

  Just the sight of him still made my heart beat a little faster, and I had to work hard to steady my breathing. Even from the opposite side of the clearing, I knew he would hear it pounding, and I couldn’t handle him asking questions about that. I’d been hiding my feelings for Henry for a very long time, and today wasn’t the day for that secret to blow.

  “Hey loser.” I smirked, ignoring the fresh rush of heat as it pulsed through my body. “Enjoy your run?”

  He shook his head and rolled his eyes before stooping to the ground. When he straightened, he had a snowball clutched in his fist. It left his hand barely a second later, hurtling straight towards my head before I had a chance to react.

  I gasped as it collided with me, and then slid down the back of my hair, dripping under my coat and down my back.

  “Jerk!” I yelled, shivers running through me at the contrast of the freezing cold of the snow against the flush of my body heat.

  He laughed at that. “That was to get you back for cheating… again.”

  “Hey, if you fall for it every single time, then that’s your problem. Not mine.” I argued as I bounced on my feet, lifting the back of my shirt to allow the snow to drop out onto the ground.

  “Pardon me for hoping you’d expand your repertoire one of these days.”

  I rolled my eyes and smirked. “Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You know the first rule of wolf school. You can’t run forever. Conserve your energy, or you become dinner for a bigger and stronger predator.”

  He rolled his eyes. “And that’s you, is it? All five-two of you? I must have missed that class.”

  I glared at him, making him chuckle lightly as he sat beside me on the log.

  Henry towered above me. In fact, he towered above most people, standing at six feet and three inches, which was something he took great pleasure in. He liked to intimidate people.

  “You missed most of them, as I recall. And all five-two of me tackled your ass to the ground, Barton.” I yelled, the agitation clear in my voice. Without thinking, I crossed my arms over my chest too, and that got a genuine laugh from him. It was so loud it startled the wildlife, who took off scurrying away from our clearing. The sound was almost musical, and I couldn’t stop a grin spreading across my lips, momentarily forgetting I was supposed to be mad at him. I heard that laugh so rarely nowadays.

  “Why’re you laughing? I beat you!” I tried to force a frown back on my features, but failed.

  “It’s that cute little pout, Mads.” He said with a chuckle as he shook his head, sweeping his hair out of his eyes. I felt my cheeks flush with even more heat, and I was sure they must be as red as a beetroot by now. My eyes widened as I replayed his words, but I didn’t have time to respond before he continued. “You’re so easy to rile up.”

  He smirked and nudged me, and my arm tingled at his touch, my body automatically leaning, wanting to be closer to him. But, before I could, he stood, putting a distance between us that had me instantly feeling cold again. He still had that stupid smirk on his face, though. The one that made my insides go to mush, like I was one of the stupid cheerleaders at school who fawned over him.

  “Yes, Maddie, you beat me. And I in no way let you win.” He held his hand out towards me, offering it to me to help me up. “Nope, definitely not. You are the bigger and stronger predator.” He paused, peering straight into my eyes. “The big scary werewolf.”

  I glared up at him. “You did not let me win! I beat you fair and square.” He was still smirking, and the twinkle in his eye told me he was enjoying it far too much – messing with me. He had an uncanny ability to push every single one of my buttons all at the same time, and he loved it.

  But that was Henry Barton for you, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this little back and forth between us. It reminded me of old times. Times when he was still my best friend. Before he decided the pack wasn’t enough for him anymore.

  That I wasn’t enough for him anymore.

  I pushed back the unwelcome thought, stopping the heavy feeling before it settled in the pit of my stomach. Then I swatted his hand away, my lip jutting out in another pout.

  “Jerk.” I grumbled.

  He chuckled again before he turned on his heels, headed towards home.

  I hung back, just watching him walk. Henry wasn’t overly bulky; his height helped him carry any weight evenly and so, although he had powerful muscles, he was slender. Today, he was wearing those slim fit grey sweatpants that hugged his legs perfectly, and a tight black shirt that showed the ripple of every toned ab of his stomach. He didn’t bring shoes, preferring instead to walk barefoot in the snow, allowing it to cool down the raging post-run heat.
>
  I drew my tongue slowly over my bottom lip as I fixated on his retreating form.

  “You coming or what?” He called, turning back to look at me, and I jumped, almost tumbling backwards off the log. I caught myself before I slipped, and he raised his eyebrow when he saw I was still sitting in the same place.

  I sighed, shaking my head to clear the mess of thoughts running through my mind. Who was I kidding? I was one of those girls fawning over Henry Barton, and I had been for as long as I could remember. But this year, I decided, I was going to tell him. I was going to tell him exactly how I felt…

  I just wasn’t ready today.

  “Coming!” I called before jogging to catch him up, even though I wanted to stay in the forest with him, in our bubble, forever.

  Two

  Emerging from the forest a few steps behind Henry, I saw it in all its magnificent glory.

  Home. Known to locals as Vineyard Manor, but known to us as the headquarters of the Maine werewolf pack.

  It wasn’t really home; not how you would think. It wasn’t where I lived. My bedroom wasn’t there, with my teddy bears and the blanket dad brought me home from the hospital in. Neither were my books, or my clothes, or anything else that was materialistically important to me. But every person who was important to me could be found there, so my entire life was there.

  The house wasn’t as large and overbearing as its name would have you believe. It was essentially an oversized hunting cabin; two floors, but otherwise simple and unassuming. That was intentional. Ray was serious about privacy, and anything too lavish would draw the attention of the locals. The pack could afford a mansion, but there weren’t too many millionaires around these parts. People would talk.

  Instead, when the pack had formed decades ago, they’d opted for the modest building that stood before me, in the sleepy town of Havencrest, two hours outside of Portland. It might seem strange to put the operational centre of the pack in a practically off-the-map part of the state, but nothing ever happened there. And, unlike most small towns, the residents mostly kept to themselves. It was the perfect base.