by Lilly Pink
Eloise’s eyes narrowed. The lion inside of her had begun to prick up its ears when Vera referred to her as a little cat, and the more she spoke the more riled up it became. Perhaps it was the stress and fear that had been mounting inside of her, piling up on itself over the last two weeks that made her so sensitive to shifting.
Perhaps it was the fact that it was very obvious to her that Vera had more than a passing stake in who Archer decided to mate with. Either way, Eloise felt her lion go from completely dormant to on the verge of bursting out in the matter of mere moments.
Vera seemed to sense it, too, and her face broke open with a wide, sinister grin, her eyes taking on the golden light of a werewolf about to change. Eloise had heard about this happening, had heard that a werewolf was able to shift outside of the cycle of the full moon, but she had certainly never been anywhere close to seeing it with her own eyes.
It made her own shifting feel even closer to inevitable and she knew that she would not be able to control herself for very long. This woman, this Vera, was looking for a fight and Eloise did not believe that she would be able to be the bigger person for all that long. Her mind shot briefly back to conversations she’d had with her father, lectures where he told her how difficult it was to control her shifting in the real world.
She tried to push the thought away, desperate to get him out of her head, but she couldn’t quite manage it and it only served to make her even more agitated. Vera saw that, too, and let out a nasty laugh that raised the hairs on the back of Eloise’s neck.
“You really thought you had him, didn’t you? You thought you were going to waltz in here and capture his heart and the rest of ours along with it, just going to create your own family. The thing is, little cat, we don’t want you here. And Archer? He might have gotten his head turned by a new piece of snatch for a spell, but after a while he’ll come back to his own. We always do.”
“So that’s it, is it? You’re jealous.”
Vera’s face blanched. Eloise’s comment had thrown her off and although it was only for a moment, it was enough for Eloise to get a better look at her. She was very pretty, but in a way that was completely different than Eloise. In all of the ways that Eloise was light, Vera was dark. Black hair, eyes so dark they almost looked black as well. She was very close to beautiful, but her face was hard and mean, nothing like the sunny disposition Eloise was usually graced with.
She was also angry and growing angrier by the second. Eloise had been one hundred percent correct in her assessment of why Vera was making such a point of hassling her and they both knew it. At some point before Eloise had stumbled into the carnival, there had been something between Archer and Vera and Vera wasn’t pleased that it had come to an end.
She had decided to take that displeasure out on Eloise because doing so was easier than placing the blame on Archer himself, which was where it must belong. She wanted to fight and although Eloise knew the prudent thing to do was to extract herself from the situation, she couldn’t seem to make herself do it.
It was as if her feet were cemented to the earth beneath them. She could feel the shift beginning to take her over, and still she could not move. She was afraid of what was coming but the closer she got to shifting, the less pronounced that fear became. Because the lion inside of her wanted the fight. The lion inside of her had been itching for a fight for quite some time.
“Jealous?! Of you? Oh honey, you must be out of your mind.”
“Am I? Why else would you go to the trouble of trying to make me doubt something I know to be true?”
“And what truth would you be referring to?”
“The truth about Archer and me. You’re right, things have been different since I’ve come along with you, but the thing at the base of it all hasn’t changed one bit. We belong to each other now. Nothing is going to shake that, certainly not you.”
With a force so strong it was almost painful, Eloise realized how true those words really were. They did, they belonged to each other. There was the sexual connection and that was impossible to ignore, but it was more than that, something more that she didn’t have the tools to understand.
From the moment she had laid eyes on Archer Grant, she had belonged to him and she believed wholeheartedly that it was the same for him. There was something there that was stronger than it had any right to be and she wanted to ask him about it, only now there was no getting away. Her words had broken whatever frayed tether kept Vera in check and with a guttural snarl, she reared back.
Her back arched so acutely that it looked to Eloise like it might break and her head snapped back, eyes glowing and mouth open so wide it looked like it had come unhinged. Then, just as quickly, her whole body snapped forward again, hunching in on itself so that it looked contorted and nothing close to human. She was changing, that was what she was doing, she was changing into her wolf form and as soon as that change was complete, she would rip Eloise to shreds.
“No,” she whispered fiercely to herself, hands clenching into balls at her side. It was the last coherent word she got out before her own shift began and the rational side of her mind was pushed aside. She dropped to a crouching position, her neck straining with the work of changing so that all of the veins in her neck popped out like chords.
In only seconds, there were no longer two women facing off and having an argument about a man they were both interested in claiming. Instead there were two magnificent animals, one light and golden hued and one as dark as the night that had completely closed around them.
Without even taking a moment to size each other up, they two of them ran at each other, leaping into the air and crashing into each other before they hit the ground. Both of them were snarling and everything was teeth and claws. When they hit the earth, they landed such that Eloise (or the beast that had once been Eloise) was pinned beneath Vera’s muscular body at such an angle that she could feel the muscles in one side tearing apart like a piece of paper.
She let out a whine of pain, then bit down desperately on the first part of Vera she could get her mouth on. She tore into the wolf’s flesh and felt hot, metallic blood fill her mouth instantly. Vera yelped then twisted her body to get away, only just a fraction of a second too quick for Eloise to stop it from happening.
Her side was burning with a white-hot pain, her breathing coming in ragged gasps that hinted at some kind of real damage having been done. She struggled to her feet, almost incapable of understanding how she had become so badly injured in such a short amount of time, and faced off against Vera again.
The wolf’s fur was matted with blood behind her neck with more of it flowing freely as the seconds ticked by. Eloise lunged, then fell, the muscles around her ribs ripping even further. Vera seized the opportunity and lunged forward herself, taking Eloise’s throat into her mouth and bearing down.
Eloise found that she could not breathe and try as she might, she could not free herself. The world began to gray and she realized that this might really be the end of her, that she might be taken down by one of the werewolves she had chosen to link her life to. Her only consolation in that moment was that she knew she had injured Vera as well, and badly. This was the last thing she thought as she faded out completely. By the time the voices shouting out to stop reached the little part of the woods where she had been felled, she no longer retained any kind of consciousness at all.
CHAPTER 13
“Please Gram, will you try and listen to me at least? Just listen, that’s all I’m asking. Give me that much respect.”
“Respect? Are you trying to talk to me about respect, boy? I don’t believe it. Not after the curse you’ve brought down on our troupe.”
“Enough!” Archer roared, so loudly and with so much anger behind it that he surprised even himself. “That’s enough of that! I won’t be called ‘boy’ again, do you hear me? I won’t. This time you push too far.”
Anyone else in the world would have recoiled and almost certainly burst into tears being on the receiving
end of such terrible, vicious strength, but Gram was unlike any other Archer had ever encountered. It was almost always a blessing, but in this case, it felt much closer to a curse. If she had been anyone else, even any of the other werewolves, she would have relented.
She would have broken underneath the weight of his fury and she would have done whatever it was he asked of her. Instead, she became very still, the way she always did when she was feeling seriously grave about a situation. Normally that was enough to make Archer start to feel guilty about whatever he had done, but this situation wasn’t normal.
He could practically feel Eloise shuddering with pain and delirious fever and it was that feeling that kept him going down his chosen path when he would normally have just let it go. It was that feeling that made it almost easy to maintain defiant eye contact with his grandmother, that made it easy for him to stand his ground.
Seeing this determination, Gram shook her head, her ancient face wearing an expression of sorrow and exasperation. When she spoke again, the fire of her previous words was gone. Instead, her words were heavy, measured, as if she knew that there was something very big at stake in this scenario.
Who the hell knew? She probably did know. Knowing was her business, after all. And God, if she knew how this whole thing was going to work out, Archer sure did wish she would let him in on the secret. Almost three days and nights had passed since he and some of the other men of the camp had discovered Vera and Eloise’s battle and Eloise had been unconscious for almost all of that time.
At this point, he was feeling half-crazy with worry and the knowledge that there was not a damn thing he could do. He could not give her what she needed, at least not on his own. The entire fate of her getting what he knew she needed lay in the hands of Gram, who hadn’t wanted her to come along with them in the first place.
“If I push too far, Archer, it’s only because I love you. It’s only because I want to protect you.”
“If that’s so, then do this thing for me. You can help her, Gram, you and I both know it. It would take you very little time at all and without your medicinal skills she may very well die. Do you understand that? She’s very badly hurt and the injuries aren’t healing. On top of that she’s got a raging fever. It’s going to kill her. Do you hear me? It’s going to kill her, Gram.”
“And what about Vera?”
“What about her,” Archer spat, the fury burning bright inside of him all over again. “She deserves whatever she gets.”
“Is that so? You know, it wasn’t all that long ago that the two of you were rolling around in the brush together.”
“Just minor dalliances, nothing that meant anything.”
“Not to you, but did she know that?”
“Of course, she did. What do you take me for, a complete rake? I told her it was only passing time. She agreed with me, Gram. She didn’t want to couple any more than I did.”
“I’m sure that’s what she told you.”
“And?”
“And that’s what women always tell the men they hop into bed with. It’s stupid, but they think it’ll help them win the man’s heart.”
“That’s got nothing to do with Eloise! It’s not my fault that she did things that way and it’s sure as hell not Eloise’s fault. She tried to kill her. She would have killed her if we hadn’t stepped in. Do you understand that?”
“I do. Now, let me ask you a question. Have you gone to look in on her?”
“On Eloise? Of course, I have! Sitting by her side is all I do! It’s all I’ve done these last three days.”
“No, not Eloise. Vera. Have you gone to look in on Vera?”
“Why would I do a thing like that?”
“Because, she’s your kind, that’s why. She’s your kind and that girl laid up in your trailer is another. She’s not like us.”
“I don’t care about that. Don’t you see that? Haven’t you figured that out yet? I don’t care what she is, I love her!”
Silence. His words were met with silence so complete he fancied he could hear his profession echoing off of the walls of Gram’s camper. Her eyes were wide and full of fear, but beneath that fear was understanding. Seeing that in his grandmother made Archer think back to stories he’d been told when he was very small. He hadn’t heard them in years, but remembering them now made it feel as if he’d listened to her telling them only yesterday.
They were stories about love, or more specifically about a love so rare there were many who didn’t believe it existed. It was a love that transcended everything, even death. This rare love was one that bound soul to soul and remained that way through each reincarnation of the beings bound by it.
He remembered the way he had heard these stories when he was a child, with belief and disbelief that were almost neck-to-neck for their position inside of him. But now? Now he knew. Now he knew without even the smallest doubt that it was that rare love he had found with Eloise. It was why he had not been able to get her out of his head after first seeing her, why he had felt drawn to her like an addict to his substance of choice. He felt so overwhelmed by the sudden realization that you could have knocked him over with a feather and when he looked again into his grandmother’s eyes, he saw this new truth there as well.
“It’s like you used to tell us, isn’t it?”
“It’s not for me to say something like that.”
“Stop it. Please, Gram, just stop it. You know what this is. You knew when she first came into your tent, didn’t you?”
“I suspected. That’s why I warned you off her, don’t you see?”
“No, I don’t. Why would you want to separate us if you know what there is between us?”
“Because, she’s not like us. If you do this thing, if you go down this road with her, it’s going to be hard, dangerous. You both may not survive it.”
“I don’t care.”
“And if you put yourself at odds with the whole tribe? Your ties with them are already severely damaged, Archer. I don’t think you realize how damaged they are.”
“I don’t care about that either. I just want her well, do you understand? The rest of it can be dealt with once that’s happened but while she’s still sick like this I can’t do anything. I can’t even think, except to think about her. I’ll go mad if you can’t help her, and that’s not an exaggeration. I’ll go mad and there won’t be any bringing me back again.”
“Alright.”
“Alright?”
“That’s what I said, isn’t it? I’ll help her. God help us after it’s done, but I’ll help her.”
“Thank you! Thank you, Gram, I mean it. I'll figure out a way to fix the rest of it, I swear I will. Only let’s go do this now. Let’s go help her before it’s too late.”
His grandmother opened her mouth to say something else, thought better of it, and then shut it again without speaking a word. Instead she opened the door of her camper and stepped out into the chilly dusk, not looking back over her shoulder to make sure that Archer was following. She needn’t have worried about doing a thing like that, of course. There was nowhere else on the planet Archer would have chosen to be besides by her side while she worked to make Eloise well again.
His mind, his thoughts, they had become a singular thing, fully occupied by that task and that task alone. There wasn’t room for anything else and so he did not see the little clumps of his people who spoke in hushed voices that went silent as he passed. He did not see the looks of doubt and sometimes outright anger on their faces, nor did he feel their mistrust of his switching allegiances.
He knew, of course, he wasn’t a fool. The thing Gram had been trying to make him see was something he already understood. His people, the werewolves he had spent the whole of his life with, were doubtful of him now because they saw his actions as those of a traitor. He had chosen Eloise over Vera, had stood by her despite the fact that she had gravely wounded one of his own kind.
Nothing like that had ever been done before and it served to ostracize him
a little. Not that he cared, not at the moment. The only thing he could care about was Eloise and the fact that someone was finally going to do something for her.
“Wait here.”
“What? No, absolutely not. I’m going inside with you.”
Gram stood with her hand poised over the handle of his camper, ready to turn it and go inside. When Archer told her no, she stopped moving. One eyebrow raised and she gave him a look he knew all too well. It was the look that said this was a thing she would absolutely not bend on and he had better get wise about it for all of their sakes.
“The things I’m going to do in there, the remedies in this little bag of mine, they are not for you to see. They are old remedies, ancient remedies, and not to be observed.”
“But—”
“No, Archer. This is a fight you will not win. Either you wait outside, wait out here and don’t come inside until I tell you it’s alright, or I’ll leave you right here. I’ll leave her to die, if that’s where she’s headed.”
