by Paige Tyler
“Hunter, it’s me,” she said. “Andy and Nate came by, so we’re all going to go over to Ken Marberry’s and try to convince him that he’s in danger. I know you won’t be as worried since I’ll be with Andy and Nate. Call me and let me know how things went with Porter.”
Fuck! He had told Eliza to stay put, but instead she was going out to see Marberry herself, and he had a terrible sinking feeling that’s exactly where the werewolf was heading, too.
Chapter 9
It seemed to take forever to find Marberry’s house in the dark, and Eliza let out a sigh of relief when it finally came into view. She was even more relieved to see a pickup truck parked outside. She still had no clue what they were going to say to Ken Marberry, though. After all, it’s not like they could come out and tell him that a werewolf was after him.
“Why not?” Nate had asked when she’d said as much on the drive over.
“Oh, I don’t know. Because he might think we’re insane,” she’d told him dryly.
Nate had said nothing for a moment, but then he’d nodded. “There is that.”
As the three of them got out of Nate’s truck, Eliza couldn’t help but shiver a little as she glanced over her shoulder at the darkened woods surrounding his rustic looking cabin. She’d feel a whole heck of a lot better if Hunter were with them. She hoped he’d gotten the message she’d left him.
Lifting her hand, Eliza knocked on the door. Despite the truck parked outside and the glow of a light coming from the windows, no one answered. She felt a little trickle of fear run down her back. What if the werewolf had already killed Marberry? Taking a deep breath, she knocked again, louder this time.
“Mr. Marberry!” she called. “Are you in there?”
Still no answer.
“Maybe he’s not here,” Andy suggested from behind her.
Eliza shook her head. “He’s gotta be here. His truck is here, and there’s a light on.” She lifted her hand to knock on the door again when it abruptly swung open to reveal a huge, angry-looking man.
“Who are you?” he demanded, his dark eyes suspiciously taking them in.
She swallowed hard, her gaze fixed on the rifle the big man had pointed at her. “M-my name’s Eliza Bradley. I’m a reporter.”
His eyes narrowed as they sized her up. “So? What do you want with me?”
“I… We…” she corrected, glancing over her shoulder at Andy and Nate. “We have reason to believe that someone may be trying to kill you.”
Ken Marberry continued to eye them for another moment before he finally lowered the gun and gestured for them to come inside. Relieved at the prospect of putting a closed door between them and that dark, scary forest, Eliza hurriedly stepped inside, Andy and Nate close on her heels. Looking around the dimly lit cabin, she saw that it was small, with the main room serving as the kitchen, dining room, and living room. There was a door that led off to another room, she noticed, presumably to a bedroom. Apparently, Marberry had no electricity because the only light in the place was coming from several kerosene lanterns set about the room.
As she turned her attention back to the main room of the cabin, Eliza couldn’t help but let out a little shiver, and she had wrapped her arms around herself. If she’d thought Nate’s cabin was creepy, that was nothing compared to this place. Mounted animal heads stared down at them from every available wall surface. There were bears, foxes, moose, and even wolves. Lots of wolves. The flickering light from the lanterns almost made it seem like the taxidermied animals were glaring at her, the look in their glassy eyes suggesting they blamed her for their present predicament. She shivered again and looked away, only to find herself staring at boxes of animal skulls shoved up against the wall. She was shocked to see that there were more skulls on the kitchen table. God, that’s just gross!
Eliza tore her gaze away from the skulls to see Marberry bolting the door. “Mr. Marberry,” she said, the words coming out in a rush. “We think that you and another one of your friends are in danger, a Tom Porter. We know it sounds crazy, but—”
Marberry let out a harsh laugh. “Tom! Tom’s not in danger! Hell, he’s the one who’s trying to kill me!”
Eliza blinked. What does he mean by that?
Before she could ask, however, Marberry continued. “We didn’t mean to do it. We thought Tom was dead,” he muttered, pacing back and forth in front of them. “That’s why we left him. But we should never have done it. Tom is back to get revenge on the rest of us for what we did.”
Eliza shared a look with Andy and Nate to see that they looked as confused as she was. She was starting to think that Ken Marberry might be a little deranged. “Mr. Marberry,” she said, turning back to him. “What are you talking about? Why would Tom Porter want revenge?”
Ken Marberry stopped pacing to look at her, a haunted look in his eyes. “A couple of months back, a bunch of friends and I went on a hunting trip to the Yukon, just north of Whitehorse. We go there every year. Well, this time, we found more than caribou and bear; we found a downed plane full of drugs and a whole buttload of money.” He shook his head. “Tom wanted to just leave it, but the rest of us outvoted him. We took the money and the drugs, figuring we might be able to sell them. Tom complained the whole time. He kept saying that it would bring us nothing but trouble. Turns out he was right.
“A huge wolf came into camp that night, bold as brass, and tore into Tom’s tent,” Marberry continued. “The thing just ripped him apart. We’d never seen anything so savage before. We put over twenty rounds in the beast before it went down. We should have known then that something wasn’t right with the thing.
“Tom was torn up real bad. We couldn’t believe he was even still alive,” Marberry said, his voice trembling a little. “We should have strapped him to a litter right on the spot and hightailed it out of there, but we didn’t. We just stood there staring at him as he lay there bleeding to death. Then Johnny, one of the other guys, mentioned that splitting the money four ways would be better than five. None of us said anything at first, but we were all thinking the same thing. I don’t know, something took hold of us—greed, I suppose—and we made the decision to leave Tom there. We convinced ourselves that he’d never make it anyway. We told ourselves we were just being practical.”
“So you just left him there to die?” Eliza asked incredulously, amazed that someone could do such a thing.
“We did worse than that.” Marberry said, shaking his head with obvious remorse. “We didn’t want anyone finding Tom’s body, and then linking us to that plane through him, so we dragged him to a ravine and tossed him over the side. Tom begged us to help him, but we didn’t. Instead, we just tossed him down that ravine and left him to die.”
He sighed. “I’d do anything to make up for what we did. The money and the drugs are still out back in my shed, and I’d give it all to Tom if he wanted it. But he didn’t come back for money. He came back for revenge. We sent him to hell and now he wants to drag us back there with him. He’s like some cursed hellhound come to take our souls.”
As if on cue, a wolf howled outside. Eliza jumped, startled by the sound, but before she could say anything, a terrified Ken Marberry pushed past them and bolted for the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Beside her, Nate gave her an I-told-you-so look. Before she could reply, however, there came the sound of breaking glass from inside the bedroom. A moment later, a gunshot rang out, followed by screams and growls that echoed through the tiny cabin. Though every instinct told her to get away as fast as she could, Eliza found herself running toward the bedroom door and throwing it open.
She gasped in horror at the sight that met her eyes. The werewolf had a grip on Ken Marberry and was shaking him like a rag doll. At the interruption, the beast turned his black gaze on her. He stared at her for a long moment before dropping his latest victim to the ground and lunging at her.
Screaming, Eliza quickly backpedaled out of the room. Andy and Nate, who had followed her inside, did the same. On their way out, N
ate grabbed the doorknob and tried to close the door before the werewolf could get through, but he wasn’t fast enough. He only got it halfway closed before the wolf’s huge body slammed into it. The force of the blow knocked all three of them backward, but somehow, they managed to keep their feet, and as one, began to push back on the door.
Oh God. If the werewolf made it into the room, none of them would get out of there alive.
Crouching down, Eliza put her shoulder against the door and pushed with all her strength. For a moment, she actually thought they were going to succeed in getting the door closed, but just then, the wolf savagely smashed his head through the small gap remaining. She didn’t even have time to move before the beast sank his teeth into her forearm. White hot pain shot through her, and she cried out as the creature began to yank on her. Crap, he was going to pull her through the partially opened door. She couldn’t let that happen.
Gritting her teeth against the pain, she struck over and over again at the wolf’s head with her fist. More by luck than anything else, her fingernail gouged into the monster’s eye, and he released her with a yelp.
Eliza fell backward from the door, no longer able to stand. With the wolf momentarily distracted, Nate and Andy were able to get the door closed and slide a chair in front of it.
“We have to get out of—” Nate started to say, turning toward her. But he stopped when he saw her arm. “Oh God, you’ve been bitten!”
At the other man’s words, Andy whirled around to look at her, his gaze wide as he, too, stared at her arm.
Eliza tried to speak, but no words would come. She could only stare down at her savaged forearm. Her whole arm burned fiercely, and it was all she could do to keep from crying as blood bubbled out of the wound. She wrapped her hand around her arm, trying to stop the bleeding, but it did no good.
Her arm felt like it was on fire. The pain was becoming more and more unbearable with every passing second, and she squeezed her fingers around the lacerations even more tightly. Still, it didn’t help. Whereas the pain had been limited to her arm when she’d first gotten bitten, now it was beginning to feel like her whole body was slowly being engulfed in flames.
“Come on,” Nate said, taking her good arm and helping her up. He urged her to the front door. “That door’s not going to hold him for long.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when the door to the bedroom completely blew apart, scraps and splinters flying everywhere. For a moment, Eliza, Andy, and Nate all stood there frozen as the werewolf slowly pushed the remains of the shattered door aside and advanced into the room.
Nate and Andy automatically moved in front of her, ready to fight, but she knew it would do no good. They weren’t going to make it. Her only thought was of Hunter. He would never know how much she loved him.
Suddenly, with a crash so loud that she instinctively ducked aside, the large front window of the cabin exploded. When she lifted her head a moment later, Eliza saw a huge, gray wolf land gracefully on the glass-strewn floor.
“Hunter…” she breathed.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw both Andy and Nate give her startled looks, but she was too intent on Hunter to pay much attention to them. Even the burning pain in her arm was forgotten as she watched the two werewolves square off.
They stared at each other for a moment. Then, without warning, Hunter charged, leaping onto the other werewolf. There was a howl of pain as the two combatants rolled around on the floor. The skulls on the kitchen table went flying as they slammed into it, as did the kerosene lantern that was there. It sailed through the air and smashed against the wall, igniting the curtains on the windows.
Andy and Nate tried to pull Eliza toward the door, but she resisted. She couldn’t leave Hunter. She wouldn’t!
“Eliza, the whole place is going to go up!” Andy shouted. “We have to get out of here!”
She shook her head, heedless of the fire spreading through the small cabin. “I’m not leaving him!”
But just then, Hunter turned his head to look at her. There was no mistaking the command in his gleaming yellow eyes. He was telling her to go. The fact that he was willing to risk his life for her made her heart constrict in her chest.
“Eliza!” Andy shouted. “Come on!”
The photographer tugged on her arm again, and this time she didn’t resist as he pulled her out of the burning cabin.
“We have to get you to a hospital,” Andy said once they were outside.
Eliza shook her head. ‘No. I’m not leaving until I know he’s safe.”
Andy and Nate exchanged looks, but they didn’t ask who she was talking about. They already knew that Hunter was the other werewolf. The implications of that should have made her uneasy, but right now, she couldn’t think about that. Or about what the bite on her arm would mean, either. All she could think about was Hunter.
But as the minutes ticked by and the fire continued to rage, her fear for him only mounted. Suddenly, she heard a savage yelp of pain from inside the cabin.
“Hunter!” Eliza screamed.
Heedless of the danger, she took off at a run toward the cabin. Before she could take more than a few steps, however, hands gripped her, holding her back. Eliza didn’t know which of the men had stopped her, and she didn’t care; all she knew was that she had to get away, she had to get to Hunter.
“Let go of me!” she cried, struggling to free herself. “Damn you, let go—”
The rest of her words were lost as the roof of the cabin collapsed with a loud noise. Eliza froze, her heart seeming to stop in her chest as she stared at the fiery rubble in disbelief.
Hunter!
Then something big and gray came leaping out from the billowing smoke. Eliza blinked, almost afraid to believe what she was seeing. Tugging free of the hands holding her, she started forward on trembling legs, tears welling in her eyes. Hunter’s fur was bloody in places and he was limping a little, but other than that, he seemed fine. God, she’d been so afraid for him!
Dropping to her knees in front of him, Eliza threw her arms around him, burying her face in the thick fur of his neck. “Oh, Hunter. Thank God,” she breathed, the tears that had been threatening finally spilling over onto her cheeks.
He pulled back from her embrace to lick her face in reply, and she couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. It faded quickly, however, when she saw him turn his attention to her injured arm. She’d been so worried about Hunter that she had all but forgotten she’d gotten bitten. To her surprise, the wound wasn’t bleeding nearly as much as it had been before, but it still burned. She held her arm still as Hunter sniffed it. A moment later, she felt him gently lick the wound. The touch of his tongue was soothing and almost immediately, the burning sensation began to lessen.
The shrill sound of sirens echoed in the distance, and Eliza tensed. Threading her fingers in the ruff of fur at Hunter’s neck, she urged his head up. “Hunter, you have to go,” she told him.
Hunter hesitated, clearly not wanting to leave her. The sirens were getting closer now. Eliza took his head in both her hands and gazed into his yellow eyes. “Hunter, please, you have to go before the cops get here,” she said. “I’ll be fine. Go.”
He hesitated again, but then, giving her face one more lick he finally turned and loped off into the darkened forest. Eliza waited until he had disappeared from sight before she got to her feet. As she did so, she glanced down at her wounded arm and gasped. Beneath the torn sleeve of her coat, the werewolf’s bite was no longer open and bloody, but had healed to become a series of jagged, red scars along her forearm.
* * * *
Hunter clenched his jaw as pain tore through his body. While he’d told Eliza that changing into a wolf never hurt, that wasn’t exactly true. It did hurt when he tried to push it too fast, like he was doing now. But he didn’t care, he just wanted to get back to Eliza as quickly as he could. When the transformation was done, he stayed there on all fours, breathing hard and fast. Finally pushing himself to
his feet with a groan, he slipped from the forest and yanked open the door of his SUV. Climbing inside, he dressed as swiftly as he could.
When he had first gotten to Marberry’s place, Hunter had been terrified he was too late. He had already been able to hear the growls and shouts coming from inside the small hunting cabin, and could only pray that the other were hadn’t killed them. Hunter had changed faster than he ever had in his life, and then had launched himself through the large plate-glass window in the front of the cabin.
His relief at finding Eliza, Nate, and Andy alive had quickly been replaced with fury when he saw the other werewolf advancing on them. Without thought, Hunter had launched himself at the black were, determined to end it once and for all.
The fight had been closer than Hunter would ever want to admit. While he had more experience as a wolf, the other man possessed a strength born of insanity. It had taken all of Hunter’s cunning to keep the other were at bay while Eliza and the two men had escaped. By then, the fire from the overturned lantern had already been engulfing the small cabin.
Willing to sacrifice himself to save Eliza, Hunter had been intent on keeping the other wolf in the cabin. If the other were had gotten outside, he would have gone straight for her, Hunter was sure of it. But as he and his opponent had rolled savagely across the floor, the roof had started to collapse. A moment later, one of the beams had fallen, knocking Hunter aside, but crushing the black were beneath it. For a moment, Hunter had been torn. Part of him had wanted to try and free the trapped wolf, but the decision had been taken from him when in the next moment, the entire flaming roof had come crashing down with a whoosh. Hunter had barely gotten out the door in time.
