by Tanith Frost
The coward runs, a pale silver form dashing toward the river.
I pelt after it, pushing my legs as hard as I can. This is no pleasure run now, but a hard race. The wolf keeps ahead of me, but I stay close, and it can’t lose me even as it weaves through the trees and leaps gullies on its way back to the sanctuary. This creature has speed and stamina unlike any natural wolf, but I hear its hard breathing and catch the energy of its pounding heart as it runs. There’s nothing in its blood in this form that calls to me—animal blood isn’t at all appetizing. But I sense its power, even when it disappears into the shadows.
The wolf darts right, then left, and I follow. It races under a log that I can’t leap over and keeps on as I climb it. It only costs me a few seconds, but it lets the wolf get far enough ahead that I start losing sight of it when it changes direction in the thick forest.
We’re on sanctuary land now, heading through the females’ territory and moving toward their cabins.
The females. My heart leaps. This clears them. It’s not the full moon, and they’re all in human form now. It’s only with this revelation that I understand how badly I wanted it to not be them.The wolf howls.
Moments later, another howl answers from the direction of the cabins.
My chest tightens. There shouldn’t be wolves there now.
In that moment of distraction, I lose him. I slow and listen for crashing noises in the forest, but he’s stopped moving.
My legs and stomach muscles ache. I haven’t had to run like this since training with Daniel, and my months in the hospital recovering from my rogue incident have left me untrained. Daily exercise routines can only do so much for stamina.
I bend over and rest my hands on my knees, letting my power swirl through me, relieving the pain. I’ll stretch my muscles out later, when I walk back for the Jeep. For now, I head toward the females’ cabins. I’m sure they’re normally asleep by now, but the howling has to have wakened whoever’s still there. I want to make sure the males aren’t sniffing around, threatening those who remain at the sanctuary while they’re stuck in human form.
If I’m being honest with myself, I’m also putting off going back to Bloody Bight and facing the fallout of this death. I send a quick message to Paul, letting him know that happened. He’ll have to walk or drive the ATV in, which is likely a much smaller inconvenience than having to deal with the living will be. I don’t imagine he’ll be keen to take that on.
I raise my eyebrows in surprise when he answers just a few moments later, saying he’ll handle it.
If I knew who to thank, I’d be grateful for that small mercy. I doubt the humans will be as welcoming as they were last time.
The lanterns are lit in the big cabin. Violet stands outside, clad in light blue menswear-style pyjamas, her hair pulled into a high ponytail. She walks toward me, crossing the gravel yard in bare feet. She’s holding a metal camp lantern. Natural flame. I don’t care for fire these days. It’s not as irritating to my eyes as fluorescent lights or a computer screen, but fire is off-putting for a vampire thanks to its heat, its light, and the fact that it gives us more to fear than most weapons do. A fire will consume us far faster than sunlight will, but it’s still a slow and torturous death as our bodies struggle to heal the damage.
Violet slows as she recognizes me. “What’s going on?”
“I was wondering the same thing. There’s another body in town. Wolf attack. At least we know now that…”
My words trail off as a small wolf slinks around the side of the cabin and disappears into the darkness.
“Violet, there’s a wolf here.”
She doesn’t move or look away, but something like regret flashes in her eyes. Or maybe it’s apprehension. “I know.”
“But…” I walk toward the cabin, but the wolf is gone. “It’s not the full moon. I thought that was your time.”
“It is.” Violet has followed me. She’s not trying to stop me, but she seems tense. Wary. Definitely closed off. “We have to change then. The males consider our slavery to the full moon a weakness, and they mock us for it. They feel the pull as well, but they can disregard it in ways that we can’t, ignoring the natural flow of our kind. We can’t escape our nature, so we’ve chosen to embrace it instead.” She sighs. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t perform the change at other times. We usually choose not to. We’re not masochists like the ones who will endure the pain for the sake of a good hunt whenever they feel like it, and we’re not quite as paranoid as others about patrolling our territories in that form every day. But there are times, like when a strange wolf enters our space, when one or two of us will change and defend the pack.”
Her voice is flat. She knows how this sounds.
I pause for a moment to make sure my disappointment doesn’t come out in my voice. I need to be neutral now. Professional. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
Her dark brows gather, digging a crease between her eyes. “You didn’t ask. No one does. The males know, but no one asks them, either. All the vampires seem to care about is that we register when we come in before the full moon and when we leave after. What we do when we stay…” She shrugs. “We’re quiet. We don’t stir the pot. No one gives a damn what we do, and we have no reason to offer information if you can’t be troubled to ask.”
I lean against the side of the building. Violet sets the lamp down, and the flame casts strange, upside-down shadows on her face.
“If I hadn’t come tonight, would you have let me think that this cleared your pack of suspicion?” I ask.
“Yes.”
At least she’s not lying.
“Where’s Irene? I need to speak to her.”
“Gone after the wolf you chased through.”
I can’t tell whether she’s lying. For all I know, Irene is the wolf I was chasing. Its coat was pale like hers, but that doesn’t mean much. I haven’t seen enough of them to be able to tell them apart, and I didn’t get a good look at its face.
“How far will she pursue?” I ask. There’s no point challenging her on this.
“To the edge of our territory. You don’t believe me, do you?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to. I want to think that you’re sincere about wanting to make things better between us. But I know pack loyalty runs deep, and that you wouldn’t tell me if that wolf I just saw skulking around here was the killer.”
She presses her lips together. “Come with me. Please.”
I follow her to the windowless cabin. There’s no fire burning now, no crowd gathered, though a slender grey wolf sits on the rug. Her tail thumps once on the floor when Violet enters, then stops when she sees me.
“It’s okay, Sabrina,” Violet says. “You remember Aviva from Sasha’s change. She was chasing the male tonight, too.” She turns to me. “It tends to be the older, more experienced weres like Sabrina who take on security when it’s needed. We can handle a sudden off-cycle change, even if we don’t enjoy it. Here, take a look at her. She hasn’t killed anyone.”
Sabrina watches me with wary eyes. I look closer. Though she’s panting from her run after the intruder, the lamp light shows a face and coat free from bloodstains. She’s not the killer. This doesn’t clear Irene, but at least it’s something.
“Another human dead,” Violet explains to Sabrina, who cocks her head to the side.
“The mayor,” I add. I don’t see any harm in letting them understand the gravity of the situation.
Violet sucks air between her teeth in a sharp breath. “Yikes.”
“Why would any of them do that?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “You never can tell with the males.”
“Do you think it’s Silas or his pack?”
Pain flickers across her features. “They’re dicks, no doubt, but at least what you see is what you get.” She crouches, then sinks cross-legged to the floor. “They’re open about what Joseph and his pack hide. I bet the old man has been entirely pleasant for you to deal with, right?”
; “Very well-mannered,” I say. “Little standoffish, but I was told to expect that from all of you.”
She nods. “Joseph is a decent alpha in some ways. Loyal to his pack, no matter what. Protective of them and their secrets. The problems come if you’re on his bad side. If you’re not in his pack, if you’re an outsider or have escaped like some of us did, he’s ruthless.”
I sit, and Sabrina lies beside Violet, head between her paws.
“Escaped?” I keep my voice light and inquisitive. I’m not interrogating now. “I knew Irene and the other females who were around at the time broke away, but I hadn’t heard it phrased that way.”
Violet looks to Sabrina, who lifts her head long enough to nod.
“It’s not a secret,” Violet says. “Not among wolves, and no one else has needed to know. Irene was the first female werewolf around here. You knew that?”
“I did.”
“She was the only one for years.” She looks down at her fingers as they trace curving patterns over the short fur of Sabrina’s head, but doesn’t seem to be seeing them. Her mind is elsewhere. “A werewolf’s changes don’t start until our late teens, typically,” she continues a minute later. “Until then we live with our families like normal kids. We all have werewolves somewhere in our family history, but it’s not always a direct line. My father isn’t a werewolf, but my uncle Alvin is in Silas’ pack. Most of the females here come from bloodlines from elsewhere. No ties.”
Elsewhere meaning that their ancestors were likely exterminated by vampires.
She takes a moment before continuing, as if she’s sorting through her thoughts and deciding what I should hear. “The thing is, female werewolves didn’t exist before, at least as far as we know. No one prepared Irene for this. She came to the sanctuary terrified, not knowing what was happening to her when the vampires brought her here after her first change. The males tried to teach her to control it so she could have some kind of normal life. I think at first she was a novelty to them, a little sister, and Joseph was as protective of her as any new member. But she kept showing how different she was. Couldn’t help turning at the full moon, even when she’d taken care of her wolf phase sooner and been sent home. And she was a female. The males assumed things she didn’t intend, particularly when she went into heat in wolf form.”
Violet hesitates again. “There are things that aren’t mine to tell. Suffice it to say that she was miserable, that she dreaded coming here and dreaded going back home to friends who didn’t understand her disappearances. Joseph saw potential in her as she matured, though, and saw how she hated her divided life. He invited her to move here permanently.”
I can’t help wincing. “Like a mate?”
Violet nods. “Joseph didn’t want her as his mate, personally, but he wanted her to be someone’s. To bring her outside bloodline in to mix with theirs, to see what her pure-blooded werewolf offspring might be like. When it didn’t work out, when she flat-out refused to keep trying, he let her go to the dogs.” She frowns. “So to speak. She had so much potential in other ways. She was strong, she had leadership ability, she defended herself and outsmarted anyone who tried to trample her spirit and make her feel ashamed of what she was. But he couldn’t see past what he wanted her to be. He let her fall to the bottom of the pecking order and ignored her and any other female who came in. Sabrina here was the second. Others followed, and we all disappointed him.”
The little cabin is still and silent until Sabrina shuffles closer and puts her head in Violet’s lap.
“Disappointed him meaning you couldn’t… Oh.” I understand the answer before the question is out. Given what she’s told me, it seems like no female werewolf could possibly maintain a pregnancy through her shifts. Wolf blood wouldn’t sustain human life, and a human woman’s body wouldn’t hold a litter of pups. The fetus wouldn’t shift with the mother—not if the change doesn’t come until later in life. And the shocking, brutal change I saw Sasha undergo could happen twenty times over the course of a human pregnancy.
And that’s assuming being pregnant and raising a child was a sacrifice she wanted to choose to begin with. Not an assumption I’d make about anyone, but one it seems Joseph was perfectly comfortable jumping on.
Asshole.
Violet strokes Sabrina’s head. “The value of any individual lies in the life that burns within them, and we enjoy that life to the fullest extent we can, trapped as we are in the life vampires have imposed on us. We shelter and embrace the girls who come so rarely to join us, and now they never have to face what the first females did. We’re a family. They’re the daughters of our hearts, fleeing from a world that doesn’t understand them. Everything is as it’s meant to be, how we’ve chosen to make it. But Joseph was mighty disappointed.” Sabrina snorts at the apparent understatement, and Violet smiles sadly. “If you look at the files on his pack, you’ll see that most of them have kids. His goal is keeping our species alive, so to him, we’re as good as worthless.”
“God, Violet. That’s horrible. Not just the way he thinks, but the way they treated you.”
She shrugs. “I got off pretty easy. There were a few very bad seeds in the pack, but by the time I came there were also several strong females around, and males who were sick of the bullshit.”
Sabrina rolls her eyes, and Violet chuckles. “Not sick enough of it to leave at that point, no. Anyway, Sabrina here took more than one beating to save my ass before I learned how to hold my own against them.” Violet rubs her friend’s ear, and the wolf sighs contentedly. Violet smiles. “And then we left. It took a lot of guts for Irene to choose that. But like I said, she’s always been strong and smart enough to lead. I think Joseph saw that, and that’s why he did what he could to keep her—and us—in line. All she needed was numbers. No one knows why, but we females have been turning up more and more frequently. Joseph says something must be out of balance in the energy here on the island, maybe in the world. I don’t think it’s such a bad thing, myself.”
Sabrina gets up and stretches, fluffy ass in the air, tail wagging.
“I know,” Violet says. “You want me to stay?”
Sabrina shakes her head slowly from side to side. She wants to change. Of course.
“Thank you,” I tell them both. “For sharing the pack’s story.” My voice is a little rough at the thought of what they went through. And more than that, of what they’ve become. They’ve made beauty out of what others see as their weakness, discovered their purpose where others saw failings, slipped free of the noose of their society’s expectations.
If only I could imagine doing the same.
Sabrina bumps me with her nose, and I lay my hand gently on her head, stretching my fingers across the warm curve of her big skull. She steps forward, and my hand trails down her neck and back, where the fur becomes longer and coarser. I smile. Our powers are still pushing back against each other, but if she feels it as I do, she’s choosing to ignore it.
I’d like to be friends with them. Having them as suspects in a murder investigation might make that hard. My vampire instincts and training are screaming at me not to trust either of them. Even if this story is true, one of them could still be the killer.
I can’t let my guard down with anyone. Especially those who might try to take me in with kindness, as Violet thinks Joseph has.
But this is a start.
Chapter Fourteen
Everything is going to hell, and I’m riding shotgun.
I burst into the compound and close the door from the garage firmly behind me. Paul still hasn’t changed the fucking locks, and his bullshit apathy is driving me insane. Until this evening it was my biggest concern, aside from the killings. Now it seems like a minor inconvenience compared to what I found when I went to Delvin’s to feed tonight.
Paul is in the office, filing papers. It takes me a minute to figure out what he’s doing. I haven’t seen him do it before. Everything’s always just in piles on his desk.
“They’re gone,”
I say, and lean against the doorframe. I feel out of breath, though that’s impossible. I am shaken, though, weak and unsatisfied.
“Eh? Who’s gone?”
“Jeff and Clara. Delvin said they were getting threats from people in Bloody Bight, so they went home.”
Paul grunts. “Not surprising. They’re not too happy about the wolves, and I’d say it’s common knowledge that Delvin is wrapped up in whatever we do. I always figured they assumed it was weird sex stuff.” He looks up at last. “Maybe they still think that.”
“Not the point, Paul. Delvin let me feed, but he’s tapped out. He can’t sustain us.”
“No.” He leans back in his chair, apparently unperturbed. “They won’t be sending more, either. Not with a wolf or two out there ripping throats out. Can’t let the stock get hurt.”
“And you don’t care?”
“Nope.” He pats the landline phone receiver that he’s unearthed from beneath his stacks of paper. “Got a call from the D.U.R. They want to meet with me, so I’m going to head on in to town.”
I’m not sure how to respond. I understand what he’s saying, but it makes no sense. “You’re leaving now?”
“Things have been quiet since the mayor died. Haven’t heard a peep out of any wolves this week.”
“That’s not a good sign, Paul. There was more than a week between the first two killings, too. This means nothing.”
He raises an eyebrow. “You don’t think they’re done?”
“Why would you think they are?”
Paul considers this. “I think going in to St. John’s to meet with the heads of the department might get us the help we need, so I’m going to go. Maybe we’ll resolve things with the wolves, too.” He sighs. “They did say you could come with me back to town if you want to, if you don’t want to stay here alone.”
I cross my arms and frown at him. I’m beginning to feel like the only responsible adult here, a scolding schoolmarm watching over a slacker student. “And leave the place unattended? We’re coming up on the full moon again. We’ve got males leaving, females coming, and maybe another person due to die in town if they keep up the pattern.” This is killing me. It reminds me of hunting the rogues back in St. John’s, when there was nothing we could do but wait for the next murder and hope someone would slip up and leave evidence. I don’t like sitting on my ass and twiddling my thumbs, but once again I’ve had no choice.
