Boom, boom boom. Hell. No. “Emmy, hon, is Jack in there with you?”
I blinked. That was a tornado I couldn’t handle. I jerked back, the supposed magic between us snapped. I gasped as I held out my hands in front of me. I pushed him away.
Holy balls, I’m losing my mind… “Um yes, Mrs. Martin. Jack’s here. He wanted to, um…”
I glanced back over my shoulder to see that ridiculous magazine dumped out onto the floor. I couldn’t help but notice how low slung his jeans were, and how his feet were cute and bare. God, how did a guy have big, cute feet? I shook my head. Jack bent over and grabbed the magazine, tucking it back under his arms. Then when he stared back at me, that stupid grin was still plastered on his face. I wanted to kiss it and smack it at the same time. How could he be so calm and collected when his aunt was on the other side of the door?
I cleared my throat to try to maintain some sort of focus. Crap, I hadn’t even finished my sentence yet! “… borrow a magazine.”
I moved towards the door, whipping it open, my breath was out of control, and I could only hope my face wasn’t red.
Mrs. Martin stepped in, not even sparing me a glance as she spoke. “Jack, you know this is entirely inappropriate,” she shook her head, pulling him towards the hall, “You promised us, you promised him.” She grabbed his elbow. Jack, like always, was completely un-phased by her notions and words, and he laughed. A boyish, eat shit and die kind of laugh.
Her shoulders dropped and she blew out a breath. All obvious fight escaped her body.
I gaped at their interactions. My God, these people were nuts! How did I not see this craziness before?
“Jack, please, if this happens, you can’t…” Mrs. Martin paused, obviously forgetting that I was there. She stumbled with her words, staring back and forth between us. Then he walked away. I straightened my hair as she continued to glare at me.
What, did I really look that guilty?
“Get some sleep, Emmy. You have to go back to school tomorrow.”
I nodded at her obvious dismissal, but I couldn’t stop looking at Jack’s backside. Okay, I was so not the type of girl that swooned over boys, unless they were in my books of course. Holy, hot damn, I was totally going to break my own rules if I wasn’t careful around this guy.
“Emerly!” Mrs. Martin shouted. Exasperation covered her face while her hands clenched the front of her bathrobe. “Please, go to sleep!” She turned around with a huff, and the stomp of her bare foot, leaving me wondering what exactly turned her into such a rotten egg.
I loved Mrs. Martin so much better than my own mother, but she has no right to chastise me, especially when it had to do with my own personal choices in life. Besides, it was her son that left me, her son that broke my heart and crushed it into a million little tiny pieces. So if I want to ogle her nephew, then dammit, I was going to ogle the hell out of him. I smiled. Yeah and I’d enjoy every second of it too!
* * *
“Emmy, Emmy? Wake up baby.” A gentle voice attempted to rouse me from my heavy, and for once, dreamless slumber. I grunted, wishing that the morning would leave me alone for once. It was way too soon for my peaceful night to be interrupted by this early morning disturbance.
I cracked open my lids to see the voice that served as my alarm clock and then popped off my pillow with a gasp at the guy before me. Oh my God. This had to have been a dream.
“Zachary? Is that really you?”
“Emmy,” he whispered my name, all adoringly-like, “I don’t have much time, and I only wanted to check on you. If my parents knew I was here…”
I glanced towards the clock. Three a.m. Damn. This was way too early. Other than that maddening thing, I could only focus on the suddenly un-missing boy that sat before me. My heart practically jolted from my chest as I stared up at him. I didn’t know what to say…until, that is, my surprise turned into irritability.
“What? How? I thought you were…” he wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me close. I stiffened. Crap. This wasn’t right. At. All.
“I know Emmy, you’re okay,” he brushed a hand through my hair. Um, yeah, he apparently had taken my stiffness as something entirely different because I wasn’t crying, I was annoyed–shocked too–but mostly annoyed. I bit my lip and pulled away from his hold.
He cupped my cheeks, and I tried not to cringe. “I never thought you’d be sleeping in my bed, let alone sleeping in here and wearing only this.” His fingers skimmed the edge of my cami; his voice was low, seductive. I wasn’t in the mood to be seduced. At all. His knuckles brushed along my bare stomach. I shuddered–but it wasn’t the good kind. I heard the grin in his voice as he rubbed his face into my neck. The warmth was freaking me out. A lot.
“Um, well, I uh,” I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t have an emotion in my body other than the feeling of guilt. God, though, that was a whole other issue in itself because I had no idea what I had to feel guilty about…
“Ah Red, God, I’ve missed you so much.” His mouth was wet and he brushed it against my neck. I shuddered, but I couldn’t physically push him off of me due to the fact that this once lean and lightweight guy, just so happened to suddenly weigh a ton! “Emmy…” his voice trailed off as he leaned into me. Okay, he was totally becoming a creeper. I always loved him–but now–I really only wanted him gone.
“Zachary, I don’t think, I—”
“He was in here, wasn’t he?” Zachary stiffened and jumped off the bed, all Superman like. Wow, he was quick. I sat up, pulling my clothes down, and wrapping a blanket around my shoulders. I didn’t like his rage. Nor did I like his pissy attitude either.
“Damn it Emmy, answer me.” He moved forward, and pulled me up by my elbows, until I stood directly in front of him. I pursed my lips–oh no. He so did not turn psycho on me…did he?
“Jack was here, yes, is that who you meant?” I crossed my arms and pushed back away from him. I couldn’t look into his eyes.
“Son of a bitch–why are my parents letting him do this?”
“Letting him do what, Zachary?” I bit out, my toes curled in preparation to run for help if need be. He was seriously freaking me out.
He leaned over me though, gripping my shoulders tighter, smelling my neck again–in the exact same spot that Jack had done so earlier in the night. He growled and I grimaced in response. Okay, it was apparently time for some parental unit help. I turned with confidence and raced towards the door, fear racking my body.
“Don’t do it, Emerly.”
My hand hovered over the door. Shit. He was pulling out the full name. I took a slow breath and dropped my fingers to my sides, before circling back around to face him.
Zachary glowered hard at me. I gulped. Yeah, this was intense. Too intense.
“You let him didn’t you?”
My hands flexed at my sides, “Who Jack? The supposed best friend and cousin that you were attached at the hip to for,” I counted on fingers, “how many years? I didn’t let him do anything!” I lied–because well, let’s face it–lying was okay when it was a life or death circumstance. And this was almost one of those moments in my opinion…
“Best friend? Best friend? Shit Emmy, best friends don’t go back on promises. Best friends don’t steal what’s been promised to someone else.” His voice was low and menacing as he moved to stand directly in front of me. Luckily his hands and arms stayed stiff at his sides.
“Hey,” I uttered, moving to meet him halfway. I flipped on the small light that stood on the nightstand. The darkness was not helping with my nerves.
Maybe if I played my cards right, I’d get the full hand. In other words, I had to play up the good girlfriend routine if I wanted him to cool it. My entire body trembled. I hated feeling scared, hated feeling like I was always on an edge. I would never be ready to dive to my death over a cliff either. I’d do what I had to do to make it through, even if it felt wrong in the end.
I lifted my shaky palms and positioned them against his chest
. The feeling of his heart thumping fast under my fingertips was unreal, and my breath hitched as our gaze connected. His eyes were no longer hazel… They were gold.
I gaped, my lips parted, and before a word could slip from my mouth, he had me swept into his arms, pressed tightly to his fevered chest. Jesus–what was with this family and their scorching hot bodies? And then I was flat on my back on top of the bed–under him–he pinned my arms over my head.
Well crap, that hadn’t gone as planned.
“Zachary, please,” I cried, pressing my mouth together and letting my head fall to the side. That didn’t stop him. He went straight for my neck again. I shook my head, and then…I screamed as his mouth opened and his teeth began to press down over my jugular.
“Get away from her now! I’ll kill you!” The door burst open, Jack hissed–the sound was animalistic. Jack pulled him off of me. I sat up on the bed. My entire body shook over what Zachary had done–or almost done actually.
He seriously tried to bite me! What the hell? I pressed my hand against my neck, eyes wide as Jack threw Zachary against the wall.
“Jack stop!” I screamed, suddenly scrambling off the bed to stand between the two of them, getting nudged to the ground by someone’s random elbow as I did. Damn these two! I couldn’t have blood spilt on the floor tonight. I’d probably puke. And as much as I wanted to kick Zachary in his monkey balls, I knew that fighting wouldn’t help the situation.
Jack kicked him in the stomach. Zachary stood hunched over and rammed into Jack like a bull, but Jack stood strong. He never moved–his body was a brick wall. I pressed myself back against the closet door. Crap. This wasn’t happening! I pushed myself off the floor. Surely Mr. or Mrs. Martin would hear this! I stared at the pair, seeing gruesome amounts of blood pooling on the floor. Zachary was curled into a ball, looking completely and utterly defeated. He gazed over at me–tears were in his eyes. He mouthed words to me that I couldn’t comprehend, mainly due to the fact that his lips were so swollen.
I bit my own lip, my hand covered my mouth, and my entire body cringed as I stared morbidly at the blood dripping down his chin. My knees went weak. Oh boy, I would not pass out, I would not pass out.
“You can’t have her anymore, Zachary. It’s too late.”
At Jack’s words, a horrifying growl emitted from Zachary’s throat and he stood again. Jack stepped back and shook his head; a short, menacing laugh escaped his mouth.
Weirdly, I was drawn to the duel as it unfolded, like something otherworldly was passing in the air. Two steps, that’s all it took before Jack was in front of him again. This time he pressed a hand to his throat as he spoke, his voice went even lower. He obviously meant business.
“And she was never yours to begin with.” And then he dropped him, throwing his hands in the air. He turned towards me, reached forward and grabbed my wrist to pull me behind him. I dug my heels into the floor and shook my head. Oh no, I wasn’t going anywhere with either of these monsters.
There was no doubt in my mind that Jack had been referring to me. Was I really that girl they fought over almost two years ago? Or did they constantly have some sort of jealous competition thing going on between them that I was unaware of. It didn’t matter anyways. I was done–with the both of them.
“Let’s go Strawberry,” he growled at me. I bit my lip and stared down at his hand on my wrist.
“No,” I whispered, my voice nowhere near as powerful as my insides wanted it to be.
Not soon after, Mr. Martin came in, restraining Jack around his neck while pushing him back against the wall, and away from me. Mrs. Martin followed suit going after Zachary. She was an utterly angry mess–her hair was flying, her mouth was tight. Then she muttered something under her breath about having too many alphas under the same roof.
Alphas? What the hell? Had I stepped into one of my favorite books or something?
She leaned over and gripped Zachary under his arm, helping him into a standing position. Her frown was heavy–her eyes were bitching mad–narrowed, almost black looking. Whoa. She was not the nice sweet motherly lady anymore apparently. I gulped and shifted on my feet, trying not to lock my knees. The one thing I did notice was that she didn’t look a bit shocked that her son was there at four o’clock in the morning–all the way from Chicago–getting the shit beat out of him at that.
What. The. Hell?
I zeroed in on Zachary again. His eyes were still trained on me, but they also appeared torn. My gaze drifted between his face, and Jack’s, over and over again. I’m pretty sure I probably looked spastic–exorcist spastic–but you know what? I had every right to be.
“Emmy!” Mrs. Martin was suddenly in front of me. Her hands gripped my shoulder as she tried to pull in my attention, but I was disconnected from everything except for the boys in the room, and all that male grunting and growling. “Get your bags, sweet heart. I’m taking you to Kelsey’s house.”
I nodded at her, unable to question her as I moved towards the bed to grab my stuff. Zachary stood. His hands were behind his back–and against the wall on the opposite end of the bedroom. He was no longer focused on anything, even though his eyes seemed to still be pointed my direction. He was void–he wasn’t Zachary any longer.
Holy, shit.
His head bowed, his hands pressed into his thighs. A moan escaped his mouth, and I watched–panic and dread filled me as he fell to his knees. Tremors shook through his body. His eyes, the eyes that were only moments ago completely unfocused, were scrunched together–two tiny, golden slits.
“Shit, get him out of here Tammy. I can’t control them both if he shifts.” Mr. Martin yelled back over his shoulder at his wife.
My mouth fell open. Um, did he say the word shifts?
I sat on the edge of the bed–my entire body was in a time zone of nothingness. I was permanently frozen–an icicle of epic proportions. I wasn’t cold. I lifted a finger to touch my head feeling wetness. No, not cold. Cold people didn’t sweat. And I was sweating something fierce.
There’s this moment before panic actually hits–it’s brief–peaceful even, and that’s what I experienced before the dizziness took hold. The dizziness that was surely the beginning of a full-on panic attack.
“Emmy, stay with us, sweetie. I need to get you to your friend’s house.”
I nodded, or did I? Slowly, I turned and focused on Mrs. Martin’s frantic face, but it was momentary–nothing over two seconds.
Then my stomach started to churn, nausea was hitting me full on, as the scene became clearer. Just as Zachary’s tense form took on an entire other shape. Zachary, my normally hairless boyfriend, or whatever he was anymore, had hair. Everywhere. And it wasn’t on his head. It was spreading like wildfire all over his hands, his chin, and his arms. Everywhere he had skin.
Oh. Shit.
“Um, Mrs. Martin?” I cried and whispered at the same time. My fingers shuddered as I pointed towards her son.
His face–it wasn’t his own as he stared back up at me. And either I’d officially hit crazy town, or there really was a snout replacing his nose and his mouth. His ears were even shooting out from the side of his head–two pointed furry triangles replaced, what were once two perfectly rounded lobes.
“Oh. My. God. Is he…is that a…wolf?”
I slapped my hand over my forehead shaking my hand. The skin underneath my palm was clammy–damp even and fingers slipped easily down my face. I stood, determined to walk sideways towards the door, and avoid all the craziness that was almost consuming me. My hands were outstretched in front of me, but that sure as hell wouldn’t fix my shitty problem here.
Mrs. Martin landed at my side, but I couldn’t look at her–I couldn’t look at anything but the hairy beast on the floor ahead of me. I stumbled backwards, over something, losing my balance completely, only to land on my ass a second later. My wrists burned from breaking my fall, but nothing was going to keep me from now going full on, eye-to-eye with the rabid, wild human wolf thing that was only
a foot in front of me.
Sweet Jesus, this wasn’t happening. This has to have been another dream!
I blinked, hoping that maybe I was going delusional from my lack of sleep lately. That had to have been what was happening! But there, in the darkness of the bedroom was a wolf–A full-fledged, red and brown, golden eyed wolf-boy.
“Step away Zachary,” Mrs. Martin warned, her voice controlled as she moved herself in front of me. That didn’t stop him from pushing his nose against her knees.
Suddenly, I found myself giggling at the sight. His nose, her knees… Christ, why was I laughing again? This wasn’t funny–this was some serious shit and I was currently knee deep in it all.
The sound of his nails scratching against the wood floor had me freezing up again. This time, my knees locked up; which in turn didn’t set well with my already aching gut. Oh no, no-no-no! I would not pass out, I would not pass out!
My mantra didn’t work, and the last thing I heard before my head collided with the floor, before the darkness completely overtook me, was Mrs. Martin, the perfectly clean cut housewife, dropping the f-bomb.
Chapter Eight
“Emmy, you have got to eat something. You’re getting too skinny!” I froze. My fork was halfway to my mouth, and my lips were parted. Um, wasn’t that what I was doing?
Mrs. Orson’s nagging had been consistent, I’d give her that much. Every hour of the day she was on me about something. This was the third day of staying with Kelsey and her family, and let me say that I was more than ready to go home and deal with a drunken step-douche rather than deal with her persistent badgering. I loved this family, really I did. But being here, under their constant watchful eye and their never ending criticism, was getting beyond ridiculous.
“I’m not hungry anymore,” I sighed, setting my fork on the plate. Yep, my appetite was replaced by annoyance.
“The girl eats like a bird every day ma, so quit worrying.”
Resisting Fate (Predetermined) Page 8
