by Chase Connor
“Rob!”
I whipped my head around at the sound of Lucas’ scream from behind me, searching out my boyfriend, wanting to make sure that he was okay.
When my eyes landed upon him, I saw that he had his own attacker. Lucas didn’t have some guy trying to drown him in the shallow water of the river close to shore. In fact, I wasn’t so certain that the person attacking him was actually a man. Or even human. Though the body of the thing attacking him looked human, it didn’t have human hands or head, but instead, large furry paws that ended in sharp claws, and he had the head of a wolf. Lucas was facing towards me, being pulled back towards the werewolf’s gaping jaws.
“Lucas!” I screamed, trying to dash through the water to help him.
The water pulled at my legs as Lucas’ eyes filled with terror at what was happening to him. Before I could make my way through the water, my eyes locked on the werewolf’s—and something seemed to gleam out at me, as though this thing knew precisely what it was doing. Our eyes stayed locked for a moment as I ran towards Lucas and his attacker and the werewolf froze, its teeth inches from Lucas’ shoulder. A second later, the werewolf bit down, its teeth sinking into Lucas’ shoulder.
Lucas screeched in pain as the bite was delivered and I gasped in shock and fear as I watched blood begin to soak the shoulder of his coat. The werewolf latched onto him quickly, and just as promptly ripped its jaws out of his flesh, then shoved him away. The werewolf watched as Lucas fell into the water, a tornado of legs and arms, trying to catch himself. There was barely time for the werewolf to look into my eyes again before my fire found him as well. I screamed with rage as I sent another pillar of fire crashing into my second victim of the night.
This time, I did not watch my victim burn. Immediately, I began racing towards Lucas, ignoring the tug of the water at my legs as I slid in next to him, and he flailed in the water. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him up to catch a breath, both of us kneeling in the water as the werewolf burned and danced a few yards away. Lucas looked into my eyes and we shared a scared look before both pairs of our eyes were drawn towards the werewolf I had just lit up like a bonfire. For several seconds, we watched him burn, his flailing and dancing slowing down until he finally was standing like a burning mannequin before us. Then, slowly, he tipped forward, crashing face first into the water. He hit bottom and slowly rose to float on the surface of the water.
Lucas’ face turned back to me as I held him. “He bit me.”
“Get your coat off,” I demanded, ripping at the buttons along the front. “Get it off right now.”
“What the fuck, Rob?” Lucas gasped, helping me to undo the buttons of his coat. “Why…what…how…is that Jason?”
Desperately, I glanced up at Lucas, remembering that he now had all of his memories back.
“I don’t think so.” I shook my head jerkily. “The other guy I’ve never seen before, either.”
“Are they his pack, though?” Lucas asked as we pushed his coat off of his body, and it landed in the water behind him. “Did he send them to attack us or something? Does Jason have his memory back, too?”
“No, he doesn’t,” I answered. “But he still doesn’t care for us much.”
I began pulling Lucas’ shirt out of his pants, untucking it and yanking it over his head. Needing to see Lucas’ bare chest really didn’t matter. I had seen the rips in his coat, the torn material of his shirt, the oblong circle of blood that had soaked the shirt around his wound. He had been bitten. There was no mistaking that fact…but I just needed it confirmed.
Lucas looked down at his shoulder once I had his shirt pulled off of him and we both groaned. The bite from the werewolf was unmistakable. Teeth had definitely penetrated his flesh. Both of our faces turned up to look at each other as my hand went to his shoulder. It wasn’t bleeding much, but something inside of me wanted to apply pressure. Doing anything useful when I knew there was nothing that could be done.
Lucas had been bitten by a werewolf.
We both knew what that meant.
Jason had gotten his way. One way or another.
“Rob.” Lucas swallowed hard, his eyes pleading with me.
“It’ll be okay.” I shook my head, refusing to believe what was right before my eyes. “It’ll be okay, Lucas. I swear. We’ll talk to Oma. We’ll talk to anybody we have to. We’re not going to let this—”
“What are you two doing?”
Then we were both bathed in light.
Chapter 1
Putting myself in front of Lucas to protect him, I threw an arm over my eyes to shield them from the blinding light. Lucas didn’t exactly cower behind me, but his body seemed to shrink in on itself as I shielded him. Of course, having just been bitten by a werewolf, and having what seemed to be a spotlight shining in our eyes, it was understandable that he wasn’t at his best. Certainly, I wasn’t going to think less of him for needing a moment to collect himself before we faced something else. One more person present for me to also use as a shield for myself would have been nice, though.
The water was freezing, though I couldn’t spare worry on the iciness of the Maumee when my main concern was that we were bathed in light. We were in the icy water with two burnt-to-a-crisp dead bodies floating nearby. If there was ever a visual representation of “cluster fuck,” our situation would have nailed it. I felt Lucas’ hand on my side, gripping onto me for reassurance and strength as we stood there bathed in that harsh light. Unfortunately for Lucas, all I knew I was good for was being a shield. What to say or do completely eluded me.
“Fire fingers” was my next thought.
“What’s going on?” I heard a voice shout from the shore again.
A very familiar voice.
“Who’s there?” My voice was shaky as my arm dropped marginally so that I could glance into the beam of light. “Who are you?”
Abruptly, the beam of light lessened in strength and I could finally see that a mere high-powered flashlight of some kind was what had produced the spotlight. After a few moments of staring out beyond the less bright beam of light, I could see the shape of the shadowy figure that held it on us. Lucas’ fingers clenched at my side again as I slowly lowered my arm. The outline of the person on the shore came into focus as I lowered my arm to my side, but stayed at alert in case more fire was needed.
I was in the mood for more fire.
My mind was crazed with the thought.
“What in the…”
“Rob.” Lucas whispered into my ear. “Is that…”
My eyes turned to slits as the figure behind the flashlight became discernible. Jason, werewolf pack leader extraordinaire, stood on the shore of the Maumee, shining the flashlight in our direction, illuminating us as we stood prone in the icy water. One of us was bleeding and shirtless, one of us probably looked deranged with anger and power, and surely, he had spotted the two bodies floating nearby. Two choices came to mind. Lucas’ fingers clenching my side, warning me, kept me from being impulsive. I didn’t immediately raise my hand and aim it at Jason, though the compulsion was at the forefront of my mind.
“Jason.” The word carried heat as it left my lips, but it was a struggle not to shiver as I stood there in the icy water with Lucas.
“Who are those people?” Jason’s eyes were wide, nearly horrified as he took in the scene before him.
Unsurprisingly, a thought seemed to come to Jason as he stood on the shore, holding us within the beam of his flashlight. That confused and horrified look slowly started to change, the corners of his mouth slowly turning upward until he looked like the Grinch. When his eyes landed on mine, practically staring into my soul as Lucas stood behind me, I knew we were fucked. Jason had found us in the most compromising of positions, and only one thing would get us out of it. I started to raise my hand.
“Rob.” Lucas whisper-hissed, his fingers clutching at my wrist. “Don’t.”
“Seems you boys have been up to no good.” Jason grinned evilly, his eyes prac
tically twinkling in the dark. “No good at all.”
Glancing angrily down at the fingers clenched around my wrist, it was all I could do to keep myself from screaming obscenities at Jason or yanking my arm free to send a column of fire in his direction. Lucas’ fingers squeezed my wrist firmly, yet lovingly, trying to keep me from doing something that might make our situation even worse. Of course, when I thought about it, burning Jason to a crisp would solve the third problem. Problem number one and number two were slowly starting to float towards shore. Keeping my eyes on Jason instead of the dead bodies floating toward him was an insane exercise of self-control. Visions of fire and a desire to create more destruction continued to assault my mind, speed my pulse, hurry my breathing. Lucas’ fingers around my wrist were the only things keeping me from going completely around the bend while we stood in the beam of light.
“Why are you here?” I demanded.
Jason gave an amused snort, the beam of light jiggling.
“Is that really what you want to ask me?” Came his reply. “Don’t you think you ought to get out of the freezing-fucking-river before you lose a toe first?”
Considering this for a moment, my first thought was to tell Jason how to apply suction to a particular part of my anatomy—only metaphorically, of course—yet I knew he was right, no matter how much I hated to admit it. Lucas was ashen-faced when I glanced over my shoulder at him. The pain, loss of blood, and cold were doing nothing for the love of my life. In fact, my pride was going to turn into the cause for one of us losing a toe to frostbite. Lucas’ teeth were chattering when I glanced over my shoulder at him, so I had nothing else to do but swallow down my rage and take a shaky step towards the shore.
Lucas’ hand slid down my wrist so that his fingers could slide between mine, holding onto me like a life raft as we headed towards shore. Jason lowered the flashlight to point at the water so that it wasn’t in our eyes any longer, and we quickly made our way out of the water. Both of the dead, original recipe men were beached by the gentle waves caused by the early Spring breeze, but we avoided them, averting our eyes from my handiwork. Or, my craftiness, I guess.
Jason grinned evilly and started to speak, but I silenced him with a glare, though the grin didn’t disappear. Doing my best to ignore the smug asshole standing next to us on the shore, I knelt next to Lucas and grabbed his socks. His hands went to my shoulders to steady himself as I struggled to get his socks on over his cold, wet feet. Once Lucas’ feet were covered up, I quickly pulled my socks and shoes on, glaring over at Jason as I worked. Then I was back on my feet and pulling Lucas into me, though holding my boyfriend against my wet, cold body was doing nothing to help bring his body temperature back up.
“You two are morons,” Jason stated, the flashlight dangling from at side, casting the ground next to him in a halo of yellow. “You’re both freezing. Wet. He’s bleeding all over you. Neither of you has made a move to get out of here and go back to your car. And your two murder victims are right. fucking. there.”
“Rob was defending us.” Lucas’ teeth chattered as I held him to me.
That statement gave me pause. Lucas was right, that I had been defending us and not just wantonly setting men…werewolves on fire…just for the hell of it. However…Rob. Rob did it. He didn’t include himself in the reason for the men’s deaths. Shaking my head to chase that thought away, I turned my attention to Lucas’ bite, which was still seeping blood. The seeping had slowed considerably, probably from how cold his body was, but it had not completely abated. I pressed a hand against Lucas’ chest where the teeth of the werewolf had entered, then attempted to press against the ones on his back with my other hand.
How to treat a bite wound from a werewolf was not exactly part of my repertoire, but I knew that putting pressure on a bleeding wound was usually the best thing to do. Lucas grunted and winced slightly as I pushed against both sides of the wound, hoping that the bleeding would stop on its own. Causing Lucas further pain was not optimal, but of course, he had no idea how to treat a werewolf bite either, so he wasn’t offering alternatives. The fact that an actual, live werewolf was standing next to us flooded my mind.
“What do we do?” I half growled, half pleaded with Jason, though my eyes stayed on my hands covering Lucas’ wounds.
“There’s nothing you can do.” Jason was rolling his eyes—I knew it without looking at him. “He got bit. He’s gonna turn, dumbass.”
“I’m talking about the blood, you fucking—”
“Rob.” Lucas stopped me. “What are we going to do? We need to get to the hospital. Or something”
“Jeeez-zus.” Jason groaned. “The bleeding will stop on its own. Our saliva helps our bites heal quicker—unless we decide to bite enough that even our saliva can’t help it. It makes it easier for us to turn others without worrying about accidentally bleeding them out. By morning you might not even be able to tell you were ever bitten.”
“Until the next full moon,” I mumbled angrily under my breath as I pulled my hands away from Lucas’ chest and back and twined the fingers of my right hand through his.
“Let’s just get out of here.” Lucas ignored Jason’s comments, though they had to soothe his worry a little.
“And go where, assbags?” Jason snorted, strolling grandly over to the shore to shine the flashlight on the beached and burnt bodies. “Are you just going to leave the evidence lying around like a couple of amateurs?”
Lucas’ teeth chattered as he gripped my hand tightly, his eyes piercing into mine. I squeezed his hand, trying to reassure him before I turned to Jason. He was pushing at one of the bodies with the toe of his right shoe, making a disgusted face and noises that matched.
“What do you suggest, Jason?” Lucas’ fingers squeezed mine. “Apparently you feel you have more expertise about what to do with dead bodies, so—"
“You’re going to have to weight ‘em down and get ‘em further out into the river. Or take ‘em out onto the lake. Or you’re going to have to drag ‘em out and hide ‘em somewhere else.” He shrugged. Finally, he crouched down and grabbed a handful of hair from one of the bodies and lifted it with a sickening wet sound so that he could examine the dead guy’s face. “Not one of mine.”
“Wouldn’t you know if one of your pack members had come to try and kill me and turn Lucas?” I snapped. “Or are you not able to keep your puppies in line?”
Jason laughed, curiously not in an angry way.
“My boys have gotten a little unruly lately.”
“Why are you even here?” I demanded, sliding my hand out of Lucas’ in case I needed it as I took a step towards Jason. “How did you know we would be out here?”
“I didn’t.” Jason stood up, affecting a bored expression as he turned his head to look at me. “I didn’t know anything until I followed you to that club to watch the drag show. Then I followed you here. So, I didn’t know anything until I followed you out here. Obviously, you exceeded my expectations. I thought I’d catch you two lovebirds out here giving each other Handy J’s by the romantic light of the moon, but—”
“You’re disgusting.” Lucas chattered behind me.
“—you came out here to kill two guys and…then, I guess give each other Handy J’s or something.”
“You sure you’re not mixed with pig instead of wolf?” I asked blandly.
Jason chuckled evilly, his eyes looking hooded in the moonlight as he stared Lucas and me down. I could practically hear my boyfriend’s teeth chattering behind me as I kept my eyes on Jason, wondering what his plan was now that he had found us. Why had he followed us out onto the peninsula anyway? Now that he had and he found out what had happened when we found ourselves out there alone and two werewolves from a different pack had attacked us, what would he do with that information? How much had he seen? Did he see Lucas and I standing in the water, Lucas getting his memories back? What was he going to do with any of the information he might have?
I felt my arm start to raise.
&nbs
p; The water.
I had made Lucas stand in the running water when I had given him back his memories for a reason.
Was it safe to do much magic on the shore?
Slowly, my arm sank back to my side. My palm itched and burned with unused magic. The genie had been let out of the lamp and did not want to go back inside for long. Lucas must have sensed my desire to harm Jason—not that it would have taken a genius, especially now that he had his memories back—because he stepped up behind me and twined his fingers through mine once again. Lucas gave me a nervous yet loving smile as I glanced over my shoulder. Jason just stared impassively at us as the flashlight beam shone at his feet.
“What is it with you guys?” I barked at Jason. “Do any of you have fucking manners?”
That made Jason smile.
“I don’t even know why we’re still standing here looking at you, let alone talking to you.” I continued. “Obviously, I need to get Lucas home and—”
“And leave two dead bodies beached on the bank of the Maumee that could easily be tied back to the two of you?” Jason’s eyebrows raised precipitously. “Is that your plan?”
“How could they be tied to us?” Lucas asked suddenly. “We don’t even know who they are.”
Jason glanced at the dead bodies.
“Bet it’ll take a couple days to identify them.” He shrugged, looking back over at us. “But I imagine they’re carrying identification of some kind. So, it probably won’t take a few seconds for the police to figure it out. And you were just going to leave them here for the police to do just that. You two really are stupid.”
“Why do you care?” I snapped.
“Because,” Jason replied evenly, “you killed two shifters on my pack lands. So, that shit’s going to come down on me first and foremost. And they won’t care if I know who really killed them, will they?”
