Revelations (Brighton Wolves #1)

by Samantha Hoffman

  Chapter Eighteen

  Gwen stared out the bedroom window for most of the night, scanning the darkness for the eyes she knew were out there. She got very little sleep, and what sleep she did manage to get was poor and full of nightmarish dreams. In the morning, she woke groggy and irritable, wishing she could just spend the entire day in bed, curled up with a good book and doing absolutely nothing else. However, that wasn’t practical. She would have to be a big girl and face the day as best as she could because she and Gabe had things to do in town.

  After she was dressed, she grabbed a piece of fruit from the bowl on the table in the kitchen and hurriedly followed Gabe out the front door. They were gone before anyone could even ask where they were going, which didn’t bother Gwen one bit. The less they had to explain to their parents the better. That way they didn’t have to make up some kind of lie to tell their parents—a lie they probably wouldn’t have believed anyways. As Gabe backed out of the driveway, Gwen noticed one of the curtains in the kitchen pull back, and her mother’s worried face appeared. Her eyes were anxious as she watched them, but as Gabe pulled out onto the road, the house and their mother were both left behind.

  She and Gabe didn’t speak as they made the drive into town, and Gwen tried not to let the silence get to her. When he pulled into the library parking lot, she hopped out of the car and practically raced through the front doors. She was anxious to get started, and she didn’t want to waste any more of their time. It was past time for them to get some kind of answers, and Gwen wasn’t going home empty-handed again. She made a beeline for the nearest computer while Gabe signed their names onto the list.

  He leaned over her shoulder, giving her tips on how best to use the online catalogue. Despite her poor spelling, it didn’t take long for her to become decent at using the library’s computer. She searched the lists, looking for any books on werewolves that might help them understand what they were possibly dealing with. She scoured through twelve pages of results, trying to bite her tongue and not scream in frustration. All she was finding were dozens of fictional paranormal romance books that featured cutesy versions of werewolves.

  “These aren’t gonna do us any good,” Gabe said, shaking his head in disgust as his eyes scanned the growing list. “How many of these shitty series are there?”

  Gwen elbowed him. “They’re not all shitty,” she said, feeling just a little bit defensive. She actually liked some of these series he thought were shitty. In fact, she had read and enjoyed a good deal of them, and even had more than a handful of them on her bookshelf at home. They were some of her guilty pleasures, and her cheeks flushed as her mind flashed to hunky alpha werewolves that swept normal plain Jane girls like her off their feet in whirlwind romances that never happened in real life. Feeling embarrassed, she shook her head to clear it and went back to looking at the list.

  “Wait!” Gabe said, pointing at the screen. She scrolled back up a bit, and he said, “There! That one looks promising. Click on it.” He read out loud over her shoulder. “The Elusive Werewolf: A History of the Infamous Killer” by Brent Benson. Click on that one so I can see where it is.”

  Gwen clicked on the title and was redirected to the book’s page in the catalogue. Gabe wrote down the number on a scrap of paper from a nearby basket and took off like a shot, leaving Gwen scrambling to catch up to him. He took them down two rows before stopping at a third. She could hear him muttering the number over and over again under his breath as he walked down the row of books. His eyes wandered the shelves, looking for the matching number they were looking for.

  She knew the second he found it. His eyes went wide and his breath hitched in his throat as he practically lunged for the book, as if he was scared someone might pop up and snatch it away before he did. The two of them didn’t even bother looking for chairs to get comfy before they started reading. They just slid down to the floor and huddled close together, with Gwen reading over Gabe’s shoulder as he flipped through the pages to the table of contents.

  Prologue

  Throughout history, there have been countless tales regarding the mythical werewolf. Every culture has their own version of it that differs from region to region, but one thing remains consistent throughout all of these stories…the werewolf is a cold-blooded killer. The werewolf preys on the people around it, never stopping until someone takes it upon themselves to rid their land of the monster that plagues them. In most cultures—even in modern times—the monster is believed to be real and precautions are taken to protect the people.

  We alone are the doubters…the people who no longer believe. We live in an age where these old tales are dismissed as nothing more than bedtime stories, and this has caused us to leave ourselves vulnerable to these very real and terrifying creatures. They walk among us, unseen and unchallenged by people too immersed in their own superiority to notice they’re not the top of the food chain as they’ve believed for centuries. Unless something changes, people will remain in the dark, making themselves eager prey. When you’re being eaten alive by the very thing you thought couldn’t exist, you’ll wish you had heeded my words…

  Gabe looked at her, his forehead wrinkled with distaste. “I’ll bet this guy loves the sound of his own voice.”

  Gwen reached over and flipped to the back of the book. “Gabe, look! This guy is from Rockford!”

  “We should go see him,” he said, flipping back to the front of the book. “It’d probably be better than just reading the book. He probably has all kinds of notes he took while writing it. Maybe he’ll let us make copies of them to take home with us.” He looked at her, his eyes cautious but hopeful. “What do you think? You up for a quick road trip?”

  She nodded. “Of course. Let’s go.” She got to her feet and helped Gabe to stand. He took the time to put the book back on the shelf in its proper space, making Gwen roll her eyes just a bit. If he saw her, he pretended that he hadn’t and led the way out of the library. He nodded politely to the older lady at the front desk. She watched them with what looked like suspicion as they headed for the door, not even bothering to try and hide it. Her eyes were narrowed and shrewd, reminding Gwen of a hawk targeting its prey.

  She did her best not to wither under the intensely focused gaze, but she felt her shoulders pull up a bit as her head ducked, making her feel like a cowardly turtle. She didn’t know why the lady at the front desk was acting like she thought they were about to shoot up the place, but whatever her reason might be, it made Gwen angry. They had done nothing wrong and were in good standing with the library. She was getting really sick and tired of people acting like her family was toxic, or even worse, a circus act for them to openly gawk at.

  She stopped at the door and stared at the woman, meeting her eyes. Her shoulders went back and she held her head high, refusing to look away. She expected the lady to at least have the decency to look away once confronted, but she narrowed her eyes more. If Gabe hadn’t grabbed her arm and dragged her out the door, she might have let herself stand there until the woman got bored and looked away first, no matter how long it would have taken. But they had somewhere they needed to be, and they didn’t have the time to waste.

  Shaking her head, Gwen followed Gabe to the car. She slammed the door harder than necessary, and angrily buckled her seat belt. Arms crossed over her chest and a pout on her face, she angrily waited for Gabe to start the car and get them out of there. He took his time, making sure they were both buckled before finally pulling out of the mostly empty library parking lot. As he drove, he glanced at Gwen out of the corner of his eyes every few minutes, and she felt the tension begin to leave her body.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice so quiet Gabe had to turn the radio down.

  “For what?” he asked, returning his eyes back to the road ahead of them. “I don’t blame you.”

  “I’m letting everyone in town get to me,” she said, leaning her head back against the headrest and closing her eyes. “I don’t know why they affect me so badly. I shou
ldn’t care what they think of me and our family, but I do, Gabe. It kills me inside knowing they think Ginny was some wild party girl that got herself killed.”

  His hands clenched around the steering wheel until his knuckles were white. “The official report is an animal attack—a tragic accident. Nothing to do with partying.”

  “But nobody believes it,” she said, realizing it as she said the words. “The police don’t even fully believe it. They think there was abuse in the house, and they still think she was on drugs. I know it. There’s no way anybody who saw her the day we found her could possibly think drugs weren’t involved in some way.” She looked away, staring out the window at the buildings as they passed. “Hell, sometimes even I think there had to be some kind of drugs involved, even with all that we’ve seen since,” she said, her voice so low she wasn’t sure Gabe even heard.

  “I know how you feel,” he said, his voice equally soft. “Whenever I think about the look in her eyes when she had you pinned to the wall…” He sighed. “She was half-crazed, rabid like a wild animal. Definitely not the Ginny we knew and loved.” He went silent for a moment, and Gwen could tell he was thinking about something. “It’s weird, isn’t it? Referring to Ginny in past tense, I mean.”

  Gwen swallowed past a lump in her throat. “I know. I’ve caught myself a few times before slipping up. I notice Geoffrey and Sandra keep using present tense without even realizing it. Everyone around them freezes like they’re waiting for a breakdown but they just carry on and pretend not to notice. Or maybe they really are oblivious, like their minds just can’t process that she’s gone for good.”

  Gabe sighed. “I don’t wanna talk about this anymore. We should come up with a plan for when we meet this guy. But first, we have to figure out where to find him. All we know is Rockford, but the town isn’t exactly small. He could be anywhere and I don’t feel like going house to house and knocking on everyone’s door. They’ll think we’re Jehovah’s witnesses or something.”

  Gwen almost laughed. “I don’t think we’re dressed for the part,” she said, glancing down at herself.

  He grinned. “Yeah, I guess not. Any ideas on how to find this guy?”

  “We could look at a phone book,” she suggested. “Or we could go to a popular store or restaurant and ask the staff if they know him. He has to get groceries and go out to eat sometimes. Someone in town is bound to know him.”

  “We’ll start with the phone book. That’ll be more likely to pan out. If we have to, we can go visit a few popular places later. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. I don’t want anyone thinking we’re up to no good by going around and asking people about him. It might look a little suspicious.”

  “So you wanna stay under the radar,” Gwen said. “I hope we can do that. I don’t want mom and dad to find out where we’ve been. The less people we have to talk to the better.”

  Gabe nodded.