A Justified Kill (Heart of a Wolf - Amber's Tale)

by MaryLynn Bast

  Catherine continued watching her, “You’re not, you know, pregnant are you?” Worry drawing her brows together.

  Snorting a loud laugh at Catherine’s comment, “Cat, I think you actually need to have sex to become pregnant.” She thought briefly of the nickname she used, it suited Catherine’s catty nature. With one side of her mouth turned downed in a frown Amber shook her head at the absurd question. Leaning back against the white porcelain, she stared at the woman in front of her and waited for her to resume commenting on the situation, and of course she did.

  “You know Ryan won’t let you work here if you’re pregnant,” Catherine continued talking and just would not let the subject go. Rambling on, she walked over to the mirror and stood beside Amber. She checked to make sure her makeup was still perfect. Reaching inside the front of her dress, adjusted her boobs and straightened the plunging neckline of her dress so it showed off the line of cleavage just right.

  Amber had a feeling she knew what was really going through Catherine’s head and wished she could tell her what she was thinking was way off base. She was there to work, not to be any kind of competition for attention. In the short time she had started working with her, Amber came to realize Catherine was not used to being ignored and had the urge to tell her there was no reason to be jealous. If she did though, it would cause a big scene and she couldn’t handle the woman ranting and raving at the moment, better to remain silent on the matter. Her head was still pounding and her stomach was queasy. The way she felt, if there was an altercation, Amber wasn’t sure she could remain calm.

  Looking at Catherine, she couldn’t help but think how petty the woman was. Her boyfriend had paid for her plastic surgery, which had only fueled her need for more attention, especially Ryan’s. From the day she had started working at the bar Catherine accused her of sleeping with him. Apparently he had stopped flirting with her and stared at Amber all the time. She considered telling her things would get back to normal when she moved on in a couple of days. The thought was swept away as soon as it crossed her mind. Not one to tell anyone her plans, she was not about to start now. Especially not with the towns number one gossip Queen.

  “I’ve said it before,” Amber stressed her words with her arms crossed over her chest. “There is not a single person in this shit town I would even remotely consider sleeping with, including Ryan.” She stood up and started for the door. For some reason, Catherine had it in her head that Amber and Ryan were sleeping together. It didn’t matter how many times she had told Catherine it wasn’t happening. Working with women, Amber knew how they thought. Catherine was figuring she and Ryan had a fight so Amber was avoiding him because of it, not the fact that she didn’t want him hitting on her every chance he got. “So we are clear, I’m not sleeping with Ryan and no, I’m not pregnant.” Pulling the door open, they were blasted once more with the noise of the bar. Amber tossed over her shoulder on her way out, “By the way, your table in the corner wants more drinks.”

  Ryan was slamming around the bar, glaring in their direction when he saw her come out of the bathroom with Catherine at her heels. Amber smiled apologetically and waved while she mouthed, “Sorry boss.” Shaking his head, Ryan pulled the rag out of his back pocket and began wiping the counter down, cleaning glasses and restocking the bar. He had already filled the drink orders she had tossed on the counter on her way to the bathroom. Amber knew he watched her pick up the tray. Without looking at him she turned away and passed the drink tray to Catherine since it was for her table.

  The man in the corner was still on her mind, but she would be able to avoid him for now. Catherine was already heading over to their table with the tray and to finish taking their order. Even though they smelled, she didn’t appear to mind since they complimented her looks and gave her good tips. Amber was wary of Gerald. She narrowed her eyes and stared at him in disgust when she saw him run his hand along Catherine’s thigh before she laughed and moved away. If the feelings of rage and frustration coursing through her body and mind were any indication, he just might become her wolf’s first prey.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Several times throughout the evening, Amber sought refuge in the bathroom when she felt her vision begin blurring. Ducking and hurrying towards the back of the bar, she stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact because she knew they would see flashing specks of yellow. With her stomach churning and rolling, she dreaded the thought of getting sick again. There was nothing left in her stomach to get rid of and was spared from the painful dry heaves after the first bout was over. Catherine didn’t follow her again. Obviously, checking on her well-being had lost its appeal after finding out that she was not pregnant. Which worked out great for Amber, she hated people invading her personal space and fussing over her.

  The third time she exited the bathroom Ryan waved her over. “Since you’re spending more time in the bathroom than waiting tables, why don’t you just go on home? Catherine and I can handle closing up for one night.”

  Searching his face, not seeing anything other than concern, she began pulling the small apron from her waist. “Thanks Ryan.” Amber headed towards the back to clock out.

  Catherine, always in the middle of everything, was right behind her grumbling once she was out of earshot of Ryan. “You know he’s only letting you leave early because you are sleeping together.” She noisily smacked her gum.

  Amber turned on Catherine with a frown and hissed through gritted teeth. “Geez woman, give it up. I am not sleeping with him.”

  Catherine stood with her hands on her hips and stared up at her. “I don’t care what you say. I have seen the look in his eyes before and he has it bad for you.”

  “Seriously, it doesn’t matter how he looks at me or anyone else for that matter. I could care less.” Amber could feel her anger rising. Her heart rate sped up and her face became hot. She had to clench her fist to keep from reaching out and shaking the woman standing in front of her. “Unless you want me to puke down the front of your pretty little dress, you might want to get out of my way.” It would be so easy to grab her arms, to lift her up and move her out of the way. But she remained calm by taking deep breaths. She refused to get physical if she didn’t have to. When Ambers comment registered, Catherine huffed and quickly stepped out of her way when she saw her make a move towards her. Without touching her, she breezed on past Catherine.

  She felt his eyes on her like Catherine was saying, glancing over her shoulder, Ryan was indeed watching them. Suddenly she felt a flow of something surge through her veins and her attention was drawn to him. She stopped, turned towards him and began walking towards the bar, his smell slammed into her. Her senses sifted through the cologne, zoning in on his masculine scent. The noise of the bar faded away. All she saw was Ryan and she couldn’t help but admire his physique. He was absolutely the best looking man in town, with his pale blue eyes and wavy black hair. He was tall, broad shouldered with narrow hips and muscles that rippled when he moved. When not at the bar, he was at the gym, constantly working on toning his body, which he displayed proudly with the tight black t-shirts he always wore. She wondered how it would feel to run her hands across the soft cotton. To feel the hard muscles flex with his every move. Her body was on fire and she felt drawn to him. She wanted to run her hands through his hair. To grab a handful, then yank his hot mouth down to hers and press her body against the length of him. To rip his clothing from him, her body wanted to feel his hardness pressing against her, sliding inside of her. She moved towards him, her steps graceful. She lifted her hand and ran her fingers seductively through her hair. Ryan could easily match the size of some of the smaller werewolves she had avoided and she wondered if he could match the prowess of a wolf while mating.

  Stopping dead in her tracks, she closed her eyes and sucked in a sharp breath. What the hell was she thinking? She had only been working with him for a couple weeks and he had asked her out at least a dozen times, but she was not interested. She had turned him down politely and not givi
ng him a second thought.

  Now that wasn’t quite true, she admitted to herself. She had thought of him a few times. Every time she considered going out with another man, she remembered Blake. How she had let him slip through her fingers eight years earlier. She recalled the sad sorrowful look on his face. How she had looked back at him through the rear window of the car that took her away from him and her miserable life at Moonlight Shelter. She remembered how her heart ached to leave him behind. Blake had been the only other person she had ever loved besides her mother. And she had walked away and never looked back. She had refused to risk his life to be with him. And now, she couldn’t afford to become emotionally attached again and she wasn’t one for casual flings or one night stands.

  With her body in sexual overdrive, Amber knew her wolf would be emerging. Her mother had warned her there would be side effects of shifting, but she had never told her if it would affect her sexually. Either way, she had to make sure to keep her distance from Ryan. In a space of a moment, all this flooded through her mind and she turned away. There was a look of disappointment on Ryan’s face when she ducked her head and went into the back. She could feel his eyes following her when she left the bar.

  Catherine could handle closing and cleaning up without her. In the past two weeks the woman had left her plenty of times to close up without helping. She had other things she wanted to do before she went back to her motel room. One, was to get some fresh air and it felt good to get out of the smoke filled bar. Two, leaving early would get her out ahead of the men in the corner. Gerald would lead her to the campsite he had been boasting about most of the night.

  Somehow her scouting expeditions had missed seeing or even smelling him out in the woods and she wondered how that had happened. The insistent urge to follow him made her wonder why her wolf was so hell bent on stalking this scumbag. Her mother had always told her to follow her wolf’s instinct. The plan was already formulating in her mind, she would follow him to see what he was doing out at his campsite and who this person was expecting him to hurry back. Hopefully it would turn out to be nothing and she could leave town in a couple days like planned, or maybe sooner, if her body reacted this way again. It baffled her how her hormones had gone into sexual overdrive when looking at Ryan. He was not a werewolf and she should not have been attracted to him. She should not have been able to hear his blood pumping excitedly through his veins.

  ****

  Amber sat in her vehicle, waiting, impatient for Gerald to exit the building. Her stomach was still bothering her. The headache would not go away, but it was not as bad as it had been in the bar. Thinking on it, she was certain, without a doubt that her wolf was on the verge of emerging and was somehow trying to warn her, to tell her something. Not knowing what her wolf was trying to do was frustrating. She worried about not knowing when she would be shifting. Yes, she had seen her mother shift, but seeing and actually going through it was a whole different thing. With no one around to guide her, if she wasn’t careful, things could get out of hand really quick.

  All the patrons of the bar, except for the group she was interested in, namely Gerald, had already gone home for the night and there were no people in the parking lot. Sitting a little straighter in her seat, she noticed movement at the door of the bar. It was fifteen minutes before closing time when he came stumbling out of the bar with his friends. She was glad, for her sake anyway, there were no cops around. If they had seen the group, they probably would have arrested the lot of them before they even made it to their cars. She wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear if at least one of them had an accident on the way home. The men parted ways, although extremely drunk they somehow made it to their cars, and drove away, leaving Gerald staggering to the rear of the parking lot to his van.

  While she watched, he tripped over his own feet and almost fell flat on his face. Cursing, Gerald got up from his knees. With a lot of effort, he righted himself and wobbled to the van while digging in his pocket for the keys. The deep, long scratches around the key hole showed this same scenario had taken place many times. Once again, his awkward attempts gouged long thin lines in the remaining paint while he searched for the latch before finally inserting the key into the lock. Hearing the door unlock, he stepped back. “Hell yeah!” His slurred words carried across the nearly vacant parking lot and he sniggered in triumph.

  With a bemused look, Amber shook her head at his lack of control. Gerald was so drunk he didn’t know what he was doing. She watched him look down at the keys in his hand and nearly laughed out loud when he pushed the button on the keyless remote which locked the door again.

  Reaching for the door handle, he gave it a yank and frowned at his hand and jerked on it again. Cursing loudly, he punched the side of the van when the handle wouldn’t open the door after a couple more pulls. Shaking his hand, Gerald looked at the keys again, barked a laugh, and pushed the button. Shaking his head at his own stupidity for not remembering he had installed keyless entry. He pushed the button a few times, playing with the remote. He watched the lock lift and disappear a couple times before finally opening the door and stepping up on the side step of the van. Sliding in behind the wheel, he twisted the ignition key. He revved the engine loudly because his foot was on the gas when it started. Lifting his foot from the accelerator, the taillights came on when he stepped on the brake, putting the van in gear.

  Gerald fishtailed out of the parking lot and Amber shook her head in disgust. Silently hoping he didn’t wrap the van around a pole or worse, another car. That would ruin her plans of following him to the campsite. Luckily, in the early morning hours there were no cars on the road. Still shaking her head, she didn’t understand how people got themselves to the point of being so inebriated that common sense was completely obliterated. She had seen this very scene way too often and wondered how he could even see to drive. Turning the key, starting the engine to the Jeep, Amber pulled out onto the old highway behind his beat up Chevy van. She kept a good distance so he wouldn’t notice anyone behind him. With her heightened vision, she drove with no lights so Gerald wouldn’t know he was being followed.

  Amber trailed him for a couple of miles, glad she had stayed back far enough to avoid running into the rear of his van when he suddenly slammed on his brakes for no apparent reason. His driving was erratic. He nearly ran off the road several times before aggressively overcorrecting, jerking hard on the steering wheel. She could hear the thumping of his tires, running over the rough sections cut into the shoulder of the road. He slowed the vehicle to a crawl when he approached the dirt road Amber knew led to the camp grounds.

  His van crept along, still weaving, even at his slow speed. Gerald took the turn wide and almost taking out the stop sign. Amber snorted a bit when she saw the turn signal come on after the van righted its self on the straight away. Shaking her head in disgust, she continued following until Gerald pulled over to the side of the road. He cut the engine and turned off the headlights. Nearly falling out of the door when it opened, Gerald staggered around the front bumper to the passenger side of the van.

  Cutting the engine when she saw he was pulling over, shifting into neutral, she coasted to a stop. Stepping out of the jeep, she pushed lightly on the soft side door until it closed with the softest of clicks. To her sensitive ears, the sound echoed through the quiet night and she winced.

  Amber’s nose wrinkled in a silent snarl when she saw he had stopped to relieve himself in the ditch. Once done, he walked forward, stepped in his own puddle, and stumbled across the shallow gully. He sloshed through the mud, leaves and debris from the rains that had saturated the ground the day before. She watched him turn back and point the keys at the van. At the chirping noise, he nodded his head, fumbled with the keys a bit before dropping them into his pocket. From where she had parked a couple hundred feet behind his van, Amber shook her head again, watching him lurch in a zigzag pattern through the trees.

  Pausing only a moment before sniffing the air, she ran after him, her steps ligh
t and silent. Gerald’s odor was strong and Amber followed him without a problem. Stopping at the edge of the tree line surrounding the campsite, she heard him mumbling and laughing sadistically when he entered the large military style tent. Amber stiffened when she heard someone stirring inside. Sounds of muffled sobs reached her ears and she knew that whoever was inside had something over their mouth, preventing them from crying out. They were not there by choice.

  With her first change close, her senses were on high alert. Her heart quickened and pure adrenalin sped through her veins. The queasy feeling in her stomach disappeared. Her skin began to itch with the feeling of ants crawling all over her. She was excited, yet a little afraid of what would happen with her first shift during the upcoming full moon.

  Sniffing the air, his offensive odor filled her nostrils, but she could still smell the scent of the female inside. The smell of humans differed from male to female and even as they aged. Amber’s heart accelerated and thumped in her chest when she realized that it was a young adult, possible teenage girl in the tent, not a grown woman like she had originally thought. It now explained the sense of dread and urgency she was feeling. Why she felt the insistent push to follow this man.

  The sound of a small generator kicked on. A dim light filtered through the thin material of the tent when it came on, casting a thick shadow of his emaciated form. Amber could see his hand reaching for the girl who was whimpering and trying to scoot away from him, her shadow cowering in the corner.

  Not wanting to alert him to her presence, Amber remained quiet at the edge of the camp. There had to be a way to get the girl away, without Gerald recognizing her from the bar. Standing with her hand gripping the tree, her stomach rolled and the pounding in her head blinded her momentarily. Shaking her head to clear her vision, she remembered that all werewolves had the ability to alter their appearance slightly. Pulling her hair back, tucking it into the collar of her shirt, Amber closed her eyes. For some odd reason the stone her grandfather had given her always settled her nerves. While grasping the stone, she spoke the silent words which altered her face just enough so she wouldn’t be recognized. In his drunken state, Gerald might not have anyway, but she didn’t want to take the chance of him identifying her.