“Thanks.” He gave a nod as he stepped away. When he pushed open the door, he stiffened and added, “Someone here who you’re wanting to see.”
Chapter 21
Not only would Jed not talk, he wouldn’t even change into a two-footed form so he could talk.
After Isaac made a simple request, then Kage threatened him, I asked them to back off and leave him alone.
The sun was taking a last look over the land before twilight. Shadows of trees and ourselves ran on endlessly to the brush or dip to be cut off. These intense purple streaks and vivid golden light were nearly blinding, yet beautiful.
Zar retreated to change, presumably going to wherever he’d left his clothes. Kage grumbled and stalked away. Jason was gone. Isaac also left us. I approached Jed, who sat under the same tree Andrew had occupied that morning.
He was … huge. His paws were not the size of my full hands with splayed fingers, but way bigger than simply my palm. His coat was not quite black like Jason’s. It was chocolate, touched in white around his toes and a spot on his chest, then tipped in true black around his head, ruff, and back. Maybe it was the light, but it seemed he had golden hints in his undercoat as well, a mottling of shades to make what looked like a black wolf layered in an oil painting. His eyes were paler in fur than in skin. Soft brown and gold.
He was beautiful. As striking as the white wolf, though in very different ways.
Walking up to him made me so uneasy I felt my heartbeat quicken and my knees almost lock. But I’d gotten used to Jason in the Jeep and I knew I could get used to Jed if I gave myself a moment.
He sat stiffly, already put out because Kage had been ordering him to change so we could talk—as if Kage were silver. He glared as I approached, sitting upright, but with his head low and forward, hunched. I remembered Kage calling him vulture-face. He had the posture of one as he sat watching me.
Goddess, he was big. Noticeably larger than Jason in fur. He could have held my skull in his jaws.
I stopped several feet from him.
“Jed? You’re very handsome in fur.” I said it on impulse because it was honestly something I was thinking. Yet, the moment I did, I realized it would sound patronizing. Like I’d say it to butter him up and in a minute he’d be eating out of my hand.
Jed laid back his ears at my words, eyes narrowing more.
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “But I mean it. You are. I’d had no idea you spent so much time this way. Do you change every night?” I stopped myself mentioning that Andrew had been telling me about him.
Jed’s eyes softened, as well as his stiff posture, at least a bit. He studied me as I took a few more steps and sank to my bare knees on the ground. I was close enough that, if I stretched, I could have reached out to touch his fur.
“We talked with the druid. She doesn’t know who’s killing wolves. Only that it seems to be the same people who have murdered two druids. And she suspects … other wolves.”
His gold-flecked eyes flickered. His ears had eased forward.
“They say … you’re the only one who really knows the Beech Pack.”
At mention of the Beeches, he lifted his lips from below his nose all the way back to his molars in a soundless gape that was much more alarming in your face than when you see something like it on a screen.
“Jed, please, if you know about them, if you think there’s any chance they could be behind these killings—”
He started to growl. Expression the same, about a hundred white fangs staring me down, only adding a low growl in the back of his throat.
“Don’t you want to know what’s going on? To save your own people? If this pack could be dangerous, we need to know. If you have reason to think it’s not them and we need to keep looking, we should know that also.”
The growl moved forward, lifting in pitch, starting into a snarl as it neared his teeth.
“What are you going to do? Never tell anyone what you know? I’m sorry if you were hurt, if you had a bad experience with that pack, but that’s something that could be important. Please, Jed.”
The noise reached his mouth. His lifted lips quivered. His tongue shot between his teeth and back in a truly diabolical snarl while his head lowered more and his eyes rolled white to look up at me. He might have been a creature straight from the gates of hell.
I considered my breathing as my heart raced. I did not suppose Jed would really rip my face off. Yet … might he? No, he just wanted to be left alone and he thought he could intimidate me.
“Jed,” I said very calmly. “If this is painful for you maybe you could share your most basic observations about them? Just your thoughts on whether or not they could be involved. You can just talk to me. You don’t have to involve everyone else.”
His eyes flickered again. The volume lowered a bit.
“I know something about breakups,” I said quietly. “With someone you thought was the one, right? That’s what makes them the worst. If it’s just any old guy, you move on. Any old female and you go sniff out another. But sometimes it’s not. Sometimes you find that special fit. That other spirit who gets you, who walks through your dreams, touches your soul, holds your heart in the palm of her hand.”
His lips still quivered, but the volume had definitely subsided.
I heard voices and steps of the others behind me. Rucksacks zipping, doors opening and slamming. The last vestiges of sunlight were only in treetops now.
“That’s why they hurt the most,” I continued. “That’s why we don’t get over them. We can move on and have new relationships. But we never really forget them. Not that sort.
“You don’t have to tell me anything about her. Now or ever. I’m trying to help your people, though, Jed. And what would help, right now, is a little feedback about this rebel pack and hearing your take on them. I don’t know if they’re killers or not. You probably don’t either. I’m not saying one way or another they’re good or bad, right or wrong. I just want to know more. Do you think you can help? Just talk with me?
“Want to come inside and sit down? But change and put something on first? I’d really appreciate it if you’d be willing.”
His gaze drifted to the trailer some distance behind me, his growl gone.
Then his eyes widened. Noise returned with a fresh snarl.
In the same moment, I heard the footsteps, and Zar’s voice. “Bloody hell, Jed!” He’d seen Jed showing me his teeth and was jogging over.
“Stop it, Zar—leave him alone!”
Jed sprang to his feet, mouth open, tongue flicking out, ears back.
“Sod off!” Zar shouted at Jed. “What’s wrong with you? She’s the one we’re protecting.”
“No, Zar, it was just a misunderstanding. We’re fine. Leave him—”
All happening in a blink of Zar dashing in and Jed leaping up and me still on the ground, only able to protest.
Zar threw out his arm in a sweeping point, Get out of here.
I threw out my own to catch him.
Instead of fleeing, Jed sprang to bite his brother. And he got me instead.
Chapter 22
There was a whacking impact that made me feel I’d been hit with a bat, the force throwing me onto my back, and a sharp pain bursting from my arm. Even in the first second I thought how ironic that I’d been nervous about them and they’d only hurt me because of the others.
In an instant, Jed leapt clear and dashed into the woods. Zar and I were shouting, me at him, him after Jed.
Isaac, Andrew, and Kage ran over.
“Leave it!” I yelled at Zar as he was trying to look at my arm. “What the hell is wrong with you? Jed was fine!”
“Why are you mad at me? He’s the one who just bit you!”
“He didn’t bite me! He bit you. My arm just happened to be there! Get your hands off me.”
Zar retreated while I scrambled to my feet, taking Isaac’s hand instead as everyone was trying to figure out what happened.
It was too dark
for a good look at my arm but there was no gushing blood.
After more shouting—Kage wanting to track Jed, but Andrew getting in on dressing Zar down when he’d figured out what happened, which made me feel better in a perverse way—and Isaac taking me back to the trailer, we assessed the damage.
“It’s nothing.” I washed my arm in the sink while Isaac held the lantern. “It’s not even bleeding.”
One slight puncture wound where a tooth had struck the skin hard enough to crack through. But the whole bite had been a ram. Jed must have realized what he was hitting as he made contact and jumped back. He certainly hadn’t tried to bite down. A punch with teeth. Agonizing right now, and there would be bruising on the inside of my forearm—not great for my beach look—but that was it.
I told Isaac this and he left the lantern to get something from the Jeep. Then Kage was at the door, asking gruffly if I was all right. I heard claws on the metal step and looked around to Jason poking his head in.
“It was an accident,” I assured them. “Jed snapped at Zar and I reached up at the wrong time. That’s it. Please leave Jed alone.”
Isaac brought a tube of arnica ointment, which was a relief as I realized I had scant first aid material in my overnight kit.
Zar came to apologize but I told them all to clear out—the show was over. Only Isaac remained rubbing in the arnica with a fingertip, going over the bruised skin with a gossamer touch from his large, powerful hands.
I sighed and rubbed my temples. “He was going to talk to me. Now that’s that. And I thought Zar was supposed to be the brains of the operation. At least in some things.”
“He was worried for your safety,” Isaac said quietly. “Jed is dangerous.”
“We were fine. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
“He just did.”
“It wasn’t his fault. What? You think I’m a soft touch and a bleeding heart? ‘Oh that poor brute, he didn’t mean to hurt anyone’? He wasn’t going to hurt anyone. We were fine.”
Isaac nodded, saying nothing.
“You’re not going to make a thing about this, are you? You and Kage? I’m telling you, he didn’t mean to hurt me and if you go after him, he’s just going to be more upset. So am I. Leave him alone and I’ll try to talk to him again tomorrow.”
He capped the tube and left it on the table.
“Isaac? Will you promise you won’t give him a hard time about this?”
Isaac stepped back. He made the trailer seem even smaller. “No,” he said quietly. “I won’t. But I’ll tell the others what you said. Moon bless.” He left.
Goddess.
Afraid to stay in, I went to sit on the metal step a minute later. I rested the lantern on the ground out before me instead of a campfire, pretending it was one, wishing I had another cup of tea and scone from Ellasandra.
I only saw Zar and Andrew talking beside the Jeep by the time I emerged.
Jason trotted up to me from the gloom. He sat against me with his chin on my knees, ears sagging to the sides as I absently stroked his head.
“If I go in to bed, will they go tearing after Jed?” I asked him in a whisper.
Zar and Andrew came over. Zar sat cross-legged beyond the lantern and Andrew hung back beside the trailer to my right.
“I’m sorry, Cassia—”
“Forget it, Zar. Did Jed take off?”
“Right there.” Andrew jerked his head.
I had to squint, making out only the glint of the dark wolf’s eyes just where he’d been before, sitting below the tree, now with night settled around him.
“We have a long day tomorrow.” I addressed the group at large. “Maybe you all wouldn’t mind actually sleeping tonight?”
“Steady on,” Andrew said. But he grinned.
“Sound like a wild idea?” I asked.
Jason nudged my negligent hand and I rubbed him behind the ears, which he leaned into.
Two pale shapes paced into reach of the lantern’s glow from the wood out beyond the Jeep. Both large, one much paler than the other. I didn’t look that way, only seeing them from the corner of my eye. Jed remained where he was, watching me. If they would clear out of Subway maybe they would respect me on this as well.
“Tomorrow,” I said, “let’s get an early start. If we’re not gone by sunrise someone might see us sneaking out.” I suppressed a yawn.
Zar nodded without looking at me, shoulders hunched. He was making me feel like I should be the one apologizing.
Jason turned to sit up on his haunches with his forepaws crossed on my knees. I rubbed his chest with the back of my hand. He didn’t seem so intimidating anymore. His fur was remarkable with its deep thickness. I longed to bury both hands in it. And, as fresh night chill settled over the wood, I remembered freezing last night and wished I really could.
“In the morning, or once we’re back with your people—at some point that feels right—I’ll scry for you. With a new clear intention, I may be able to see if, and where, there could be London wolves. Or if wolves are really who we’re after at all. Right now I’m too tired.” I sighed as Jason licked my bruised arm. Not on the bruise, though, where the ointment was, but above the tender area. That had to be clear thinking.
Just like their sense of smell was sharper and they were able to growl like wild animals in their upright skin forms, they had holdover from that form into their fur as well. Enough to keep Isaac and Kage from trying to kill Jed the moment I went inside?
“Okay.” It took me a minute to stand as Jason kept nudging into my hand and I relented in stroking his face. “Good night. And please don’t hurt each other.” I grabbed the lantern, using my left arm rather than the painful right.
Zar scrambled to his feet with me, still looking anxious. “Moon bless, Cassia. I hope you’re all right.”
“I’ll be fine with a good night’s sleep.” Not that it’s possible here.
Jason wagged his tail after me while I slipped inside and shut the door in his face—so ready for bed maybe I really would sleep. But I’d hardly latched it when the fight started.
Chapter 23
It wasn’t Isaac or Kage.
Jed had Jason by the neck when I threw the door open. Jason yelped and snarled back, kicking with his hind legs, struggling to get his face around and bite into Jed’s while Jed crushed him into the trailer tire and dirt with superior weight.
As I jumped from the trailer, dropping the lantern and gathering the magic, Kage bounded in at Jed, making a noise like a lion, fur on end and teeth flashing.
I was so angry with Jed it went beyond his jumping on Jason the moment my back was turned—just because I’d given Jason attention. The anger was also how I’d defended him. Of course he hadn’t meant to bite me. But, either in spite of, or because of this, one way or another, I’d expected him to feel bad about it. This was no remorse. This was—as Andrew had warned me—a proper bastard.
All this anger channeled into the energy as I rushed out. Kage—large as Jed, looking like a classically marked timber wolf—was midair going for Jed when I hit Jed first.
The magic was a ball of tightly coiled electricity; fury, my own pain, injustice, vengeance, and fear for Jason. It exploded from my hands like a shotgun blast. Almost silent, yet causing a ripple in the air like a sonic boom. And almost invisible, yet leaving a flash of light and color that seemed more like a blink gone wrong than a real image. And entirely energy: a feel beyond any sight, sound, or smell.
It thundered into Jed’s face and sent him flying across the clearing, along with Kage. I didn’t see Andrew, but Zar ducked and the white wolf crouched as Jed plowed through the dirt, ripping brush, smashing into a tree trunk and finally stopping with an agonized final yelp in his howl of terror as he’d gone flying. Kage, not hit as hard, bashed into a tree and staggered.
Jed struggled to get his paws under him, gasping and whimpering.
Jason cowered at my feet, flat in the dirt.
Zar stepped back, staring from Jed to me, ey
es like plates in the weak light. Andrew had run up from the right, his shirt in his hands. He didn’t come in close, staring at us. Isaac’s eyes, the white wolf, reflected the toppled lantern’s glow as he backed away. So did Kage’s. He pressed himself into underbrush, tail between his legs.
Jed shook himself and staggered, almost falling.
Jason trembled violently, panting.
Except for much ragged breathing, the campsite fell silent.
All six watched me, most moving away, but slowly, inching, in fact. All eyes wide, bodies tense as tripwires.
Afraid.
It was the first time it struck me that they had this particular wolfish trait beyond the surface. Deep down, they were afraid of humans. Avoidance and dislike did not come from inherent hate, but inherent fear. For all their mockery, it only took a look around to know humans were the world’s top predator.
And magic. Not being magic users themselves, never having associated with casters, they had no idea what I might be capable of.
I stood straight beyond the doorway in the eerie white glow, light to my back, and faced them while their eyes gleamed in the dark wood.
“The fighting on this trip is over.” My own voice surprised me, very firm and calm.
No one moved.
I looked down. “Are you okay?”
Wobbly, Jason pushed himself to a standing position. He tried a faltering step, then leaned into my leg, holding up his left forepaw.
I bent to feel his arm, my own still aching. Hot, sticky blood smeared my fingers.
Angry all over again, I turned back for the door. “Come on.”
Jason held his left forepaw clear of the ground as he hopped after me and up into the trailer.
I locked the door, set the lantern on the low counter by the sink, then ran water into the washcloth to wipe over his wounds.
I sat on the edge of the table bench while he sat on his tail on the floor with his left paw out to me, watching me with big, soulful eyes.
“You’re not going to bite me if I hurt you, are you?” I asked.
Jason licked my hand.
Moonlight Desire: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 1) Page 14
