Chapter 74: Everything About The Estate Was Weird

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Everything About The Estate Was Weird

"Why are you so sure that they’re werewolves?" Iris asked.

The question hung suspended in the dim light of the bedroom. Iris didn’t wait for an answer before pulling her knees tightly against her chest, her knuckles whitening as she dragged the heavy woven throw higher over her lap.

The wool was warm, a solid, grounding presence Zoey had draped over her, but it did nothing to stave off the sudden chill radiating from deep within her chest.

Only a few hours ago, the boundaries of her world had been predictable, almost mundane. Her largest concerns had pivoted around university lecture schedules, the lingering annoyance of an ex-boyfriend who didn’t know when to stay gone, looming assignment deadlines, and the distracting existence of men who possessed far too much money and devastatingly handsome faces

Now, the word ordinary felt like a foreign language she had forgotten how to speak. She didn’t know what it meant anymore.

She had watched three men transform into creatures that should have existed only in horror movies. Their bodies twisting, bones snapping and reforming into monstrous, hulking beasts that belonged exclusively in dark folklore.

And then Alexander, standing in the center of that nightmare, unbothered, absolute, as if their combined fury was nothing more than a passing breeze.

She had seen his eyes change. Those red eyes still haunted her. And somehow, the most frightening part was that she had no idea what Alexander actually was. But now she knew that werewolves were real. Not in books, not in movies, not in the ridiculous stories people told around campfires.

They were real, and they lived in Seattle. They went to university, they drove expensive cars like Jason. They held jobs like Alexander and Whitmore. They had families. And apparently, one of them had been her boyfriend. Or at least had wanted her to think he was nothing more than that.

The realization made her gaze drift instinctively toward the window. Beyond the glass, the streetlights of suburban Seattle cast long, familiar amber shadows across the pavement. But the familiar scenery offered no comfort anymore.

The city hadn’t changed, but her eyes had. Every passing car, every shadowy figure walking a dog down the sidewalk, every polite stranger in a tailored suit now carried a terrifying silent question mark of who or what they could be.

Zoey leaned back against the headboard, her usual playful posture stiffening as she crossed her arms over her chest. She dragged a hand down her face, the quiet rasp of her palm against her skin loud in the stillness.

"Because of what I saw when I sneaked into the estate," she said, her voice losing some of its earlier humor. "When I first saw everything inside, "At the time, none of it made sense. I honestly thought I had stumbled into some ridiculously elaborate family obsession. But after what you told me today about the existence of werewolves, everything I saw at Blackthorne Estate suddenly makes a lot more sense."

Iris shifted, her voice barely above a whisper. She studied her friend’s face. "What did you actually see inside the estate, Zoey? You were so vague about it earlier."

Zoey shifted, tucking one leg beneath herself, her gaze fixing on a loose thread on the duvet as she organized her thoughts. "For starters, there were wolves everywhere."

Iris frowned. "What do you mean wolves? Like actual real wolves?"

"Not real ones," Zoey clarified. "They were statues. Dozens of them. There were statues in the gardens, statues, smaller ones along the pathways. Some were small, some were enormous, and some looked so realistic that I almost expected them to start moving. Even the decorative pieces inside the outer courtyard had wolf designs carved into them."

She paused, her eyebrows drawing together as she searched her memory. "But the strangest one was outside the mansion."

"What was strange about it?"

"There was a huge fountain in front of the main building, and right in the middle of it was this massive wolf statue." Zoey spread her hands to emphasize its size. "And when I say massive, Iris, I mean it was enormous. It wasn’t one of those cute decorative statues people put in their gardens.

This thing looked like it had been carved to intimidate anyone who dared to stand in front of it. It was standing with its head lowered, its spine curved like a pulled bowstring and jaws snapped wide open with every tooth exposed and carved to an edge, like it was about to tear someone’s throat out.

The sculptor had made every muscle visible beneath its stone fur, and the eyes..." She paused, a visible shudder running through her shoulders.

"The eyes were carved so realistically that when I first saw it from a distance, i genuinely thought a wild animal was standing on that marble pediment, waiting to jump."

Iris’s lips parted, a small shiver tracing its way down her spine. "Woah! That sounds... obsessive.....and intense."

"Exactly. It was terrifying." Zoey nodded vigorously. "I thought it was weird when I saw it. I remember standing on the gravel path, staring up at this monstrosity, thinking to myself, Okay, whoever owns this place has a deeply disturbing obsession for wolves."

She leaned back against the headboard. "While standing there, I wondered what kind of family decorated their entire property like that. I tried to rationalize it. I figured maybe the Blackthornes derived their name from some old Germanic crest, or the patriarch was an avid big-game hunter a hundred years ago, and the heirs just kept the decor out of obligation."

She let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "But now, after everything that happened to you today, it turns out, it wasn’t just decorations, and it wasn’t a historical homage at all. It was a no-trespassing sign, to warn against people like me that tried to sneak in."

Iris kept her eyes locked on her friend. "What else? You already said Derrick caught you, but what happened before that?"

Zoey slowly rubbed her palms against the fabric of her jeans, the friction making a soft rustling sound. "I felt like I was being tracked."

The ambient noise of the room seemed to recede, leaving only the faint, rhythmic tick of the bedside clock.

"I don’t know how to describe it properly," Zoey continued, her voice dropping an octave as her eyes drifted back toward the dark window pane. "You know that sharp prickle at the base of your neck? That sudden, instinctual feeling in your gut that tells you a pair of eyes is locked onto you, even when the space around you is completely empty?"

Iris nodded slowly, her throat feeling dry. "Yeah. I know it."

"That feeling settled over me the second I stepped over the perimeter wall," Zoey whispered. "Long before Derrick ever stepped out from God knows where and found me, I kept spinning around. I was convinced someone was walking three steps behind me, or staring down from one of the second-story balconies.

But every time I turned, there was nothing. Just the wind through the pines and those damn stone wolves." She shrugged, though her shoulders remained tense.

"And then Derrick just materialized out of nowhere, completely silent, and basically made it very clear that I wasn’t welcome there."

"You were trespassing on a high-security estate, Zoey. The feeling of being watched could have come from security cameras," Iris reasoned, her voice cautious as she tried to anchor the conversation to solid ground.

Zoey looked at her. "Security cameras?"

"Yes. Zoey, they’re billionaires. People with that kind of wealth don’t just leave their property lines open. They probably have thermal cameras, motion sensors, and concealed surveillance covering every square foot of those woods and every part of the property."

Zoey blinked, looking at her. "Surveillance?"

"Of course," Iris insisted, leaning forward slightly. "If you breached their perimeter, security control would have flagged your position instantly. Derrick wouldn’t have needed supernatural senses to find you; he probably had an earpiece on, with someone on the other end telling him your exact location."

A slow, wry smile tugged at the corner of Zoey’s mouth. "You know, when you put it like that, it sounds much less supernatural. Almost boring, actually."

"Because it probably was less supernatural." Iris said, though the conviction in her own tone felt thin.

"Maybe," Zoey didn’t sound convinced, leaning her head back against the wall. "But explain his attitude, then. The man caught a stranger trespassing on an estate worth tens of millions.

Normally, guard dogs get turned loose, or you report the intrusion and the local precinct sends three officers up the driveway. But Derrick didn’t even raise his voice. He was calm. Unsettlingly calm, Considering I had practically wandered onto private property. He just... dismissed me, like a man handling an annoying bug rather than an intruder. The whole encounter felt... off."

Iris released a long, heavy breath, letting her hands fall flat against the blanket. "Everything feels off, Zoey. My entire reality collapsed in an afternoon. I spent twenty-two years believing I understood how the world worked.

I thought the biggest stress in my life this semester was going to be my GPA or my love life. I also operated under the assumption that the world was governed by science and logic, and today I saw three men tear through their skin and become predators out of a nightmare. And Alexander..."