by Michelle Fox
Well, so much for werewolf superpowers.
Tao came rushing over a second later, his expression anxious. “Everything okay, Audrey?”
Her mouth worked for a moment as she tried to speak but couldn’t decide on the words. Some mad werewolf had marked her as his territory, there was a wolf with her strawberry blonde hair running around in her head, and, apparently, she wasn’t going to be alone in her predicament.
The adrenaline surge that had carried her thus far dissipated with no warning. Her knees went weak and sagged, causing her to stumble.
Tao was there in an instant, a strong, steady hand under her elbow, his other arm wrapping around her shoulders. He led her off the street and to a weathered bench by the restaurant entrance. “What happened?”
Audrey shook her head as tears pooled in her eyes. “Nick was here.”
“Are you all right? Tell me everything.” His voice was terse and his eyes tracked her every movement with anxious intensity.
She put a hand to her lips, feeling violated. “He kissed me. I didn’t want to, but he made me do it.”
“What did he say?”
“That I was going to be his mate.” Audrey looked up at Tao. “He’s going to bite more people. It’s not just me.”
Her breath caught and no matter how she strained, she couldn’t take in any air. All she could manage were shallow little sips that came faster and faster. Audrey put a hand to her chest as she fought to breathe.
“You’re hyperventilating. Calm down. It’s going to be okay.” Tao’s voice was soothing and he rubbed her back, trying to help, but her breathing was still way too fast.
Tao put a finger to her chin and forced her to look at him. “You have to slow down your breathing. Focus, Audrey. You can do it.”
She frowned at him and tried to talk, but her attempt at ‘easy for you to say’ came out sounding like a really breathy foreign language from another planet. Tao shook his head and then leaned in.
Before Audrey knew it, his lips covered hers. His warm, spicy musk clouded her senses. She decided it must be all pheromones or something because Tao’s scent made her head spin and her nether regions tremble. The man undid her with just a smell. Throw in the kiss and desire exploded in her like illegal fireworks.
Tao explored her mouth with a demanding sweep of his tongue. His lips nibbled hers and just before he ended the kiss, he sucked the whole of her bottom lip into his mouth.
Audrey blinked dumbly as he pulled away. The horrible pressure in her lungs had eased somewhat, allowing her to finally take a deep breath. She put her hands to her lips again. Unlike Nick, she missed the feel of Tao against her skin. The thought startled her. Tao was a stranger in a strange situation, and yet, he’d just kissed her like a man starved of air himself.
She looked at him with wonder. “Why did you kiss me?”
“It was either kiss or slap you.” Tao smiled at her, but his eyes were uneasy as if he wasn’t sure of his reception. “You were losing it and you need to keep your wits about you.”
“Oh.” Audrey continued to run her fingers over her lips. Wits? What are those? She felt stunned and somewhat senseless. She’d been kissed before, many times, but Tao’s kiss was the first one that ever mattered. It was the only kiss that had ever been real. She had no idea what that meant, but the truth of it stupefied her.
“You okay?” Tao’s rich baritone broke her train of thought. The man had a beautiful voice...among other things. A picture of him naked the day she’d found him in the cage flashed through her mind once again. It was amazing to think Tao and Nick were brothers. One repelled her, the other tempted her with desires she didn’t dare put in words.
She gave a slow nod. “Yes. I think so. What’s next?” She could breathe now at least, but everything else was still a mess.
His expression grew serious. “We have to find Nick.”
“I’ll call the sheriff and the park ranger station.” She nodded toward the shoreline, its blue edges visible even from town. Glen Vine sat just a couple hundred feet from the lake, which was what made it such an attractive vacation destination. “We need to get people off the trails and beaches.” Audrey shuddered at the thought of Nick attacking more innocent people. Most of them were tourists and would be home when the full moon came. If this werewolf thing was for real, they would turn hairy alone with no one to help them. Thank God, I have Tao to help me make sense of this.
***
Tao watched Audrey and did his best to hide his concern. Somehow, Nick had snuck up on him. Tao hadn’t even smelled his brother coming.
What was his brother up to? Threatening Audrey and running off to make more wolves was crazy. Surely Nick knew the pack wouldn’t allow it. The attacks put them all at risk. The world didn’t need to know werewolves were anything but legends.
Audrey had been so terrified, the scent of her fear had filled the air. He’d started to run the second he knew something was wrong. When she hyperventilated, he did the only thing that made any sense, he’d kissed her. He just hadn’t expected to enjoy it so much.
She was soft, so soft and her lips were delectable. Her mouth tasted like mint and sugar. It had taken all his self-control not to scoop her up into his arms and take her someplace private to properly ravish her. His groin ached with the need to plunge her depths, to take her as his own.
He clenched his fists. I can’t have these feelings for her. I can’t. What if I have to kill her?
“Tell the sheriff to kill him if they can.” His words were clipped, he had to force them out through a clenched jaw. He was at war with himself, full of conflicting feelings. What did he owe his pack? His brother? Audrey? What did he owe himself?
“Are you sure?” She gave him a confused look.
Tao felt his mouth thin into a grim line as he nodded. “Tell them he has rabies.”
“But…he’s your brother.” Her expression went from confused to completely lost.
“If there’s going to be blood on my hands, let it be his, not the blood of innocents like you.”
“Oh God, Tao,” she breathed, now fully aware of the awful choice he had just made. “I’m so sorry.” She rubbed his arm, but he jerked away from her.
“I’m going to hunt for him.” Maybe if I find him first, I can end this without any more bloodshed. Although the last time he’d tried to talk sense into his brother hadn’t gone so well, but he had to try. He couldn’t give up on his brother. Not yet.
“I’ll tell the sheriff not to shoot you.”
“Maybe it would be better if he did.” Tao couldn’t stop the words from coming out and Audrey’s jaw dropped in shock.
“Is there anything I can do to help? Anything at all. Just tell me.” Her tone was anxious and he regretted his bitterness. He shouldn’t be adding to her worries.
“I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “It’s not your fight.”
“It became my fight the second your brother bit me,” she said quietly. “If you need my help, I’m here.”
Tao shook his head. “You saw how Nick played you. I take you out with me and he’ll do it again, only against me.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” She looked worried again and he almost ducked his head to kiss her a second time, but dug his nails into his palms to keep himself in check.
“Go home. Lock your doors. I’ll be there when I can.”
Chapter Seven
Audrey quickly settled the bill at Antonio’s Tavern, grateful that Lori had changed their order to take-out without being asked. She felt awful for Tao and the situation with his brother. She’d grown up as an only child, desperate for a sibling who never materialized. Her parents had loved her and had been wonderful, but they couldn’t fill up the loneliness.
Growing up, her best friend, Mary, lived across the street with three brothers and three sisters. Audrey tried to spend the night as much as possible, loving the feeling of being embraced in a big family. Once she asked her frien
d what it was like, and Mary said, “We’re pieces of the same heart. Our hearts don’t just beat for us, but for each other.” It had been poignant even with her child’s understanding of the world. Looking back on that exchange as an adult, Mary’s response carried even more weight.
Now Tao was going to carve out a piece of his heart and shatter something that had to mean the world to him. While she’d never had a sibling, she knew how much it hurt to never have that connection. Tao’s pain would probably be ten times worse just losing his brother, but if he had to actually take his life, too? She couldn’t imagine what that would do to someone.
Audrey bit her lip. How did someone come back from that?
Maybe there’s a way to save Nick. Maybe there’s a way to make this better.
She headed out to her truck, takeout bag in one hand, her jaw set with determination. I’m going to help him. No one should face something like this alone.
She called the sheriff on her way home. “Sheriff Martin, it’s me, Audrey, from the park service.”
“Make it quick,” came his terse response. “I’m on my way to a head-on collision on route twenty.”
“There’s a rabid wolf running along the beach and in the dunes. I wanted to let you know the park rangers will be closing the park. If you see the wolf, shoot on sight.”
“What’s he look like?”
“Bigger than a Great Dane and blond as a Norwegian.”
The sheriff gave a low whistle. “That’s a big wolf with some very light hair. Do I need to know something?”
“I suspect it’s an albino and maybe has a growth disorder, making it over large.” As seat-of-her-pants science went, Audrey felt she’d concocted a believable lie.
“Gigantism in wolves? Is that even possible?”
“Well, you shoot him and I’ll do an autopsy to find out, sheriff.”
“All right, I’ll let the guys know if we run into him. I think I have a few cars I can send out to patrol the dunes and beaches to help you guys out. Anything else?”
“I’ve got a casting of his tracks,” Audrey lied again. “His paws are big enough to be what marked Bob’s door.” She figured that would get a response. They needed all the help they could get to track down Nick, and nothing would motivate law enforcement like the opportunity to solve a murder. At least, she hoped that was the case.
“So this might be the animal that killed the old kook?” The sheriff did sound a little more interested than before.
“Yep.” She nodded even though he couldn’t see her.
“Okay, this changes things. Once we process this accident, I’m putting all units out on the search. We need to put this wolf down before he kills anyone else.”
“My sentiments exactly, sheriff. We’ll have rangers out too looking for him.”
“Thanks for the heads up.”
“No problem. Good luck out there.” Audrey hung up, finishing her call with the sheriff as she pulled into her driveway.
Rushing into her house, she slammed the door behind her, sighing with relief when the lock clicked home. She dropped her purse on the entry way table, and marched into the kitchen as she dialed her boss. When the call went to voicemail, she hung up and called the main number instead.
Christine picked up on the first ring. “National Parks Service. How may I help?”
“Hey Chris, it’s me, Audrey. Can you get me Jay?”
“I think he’s on the phone.”
“Tell him to hang up. It’s urgent.”
“Something go wrong with that wolf of yours?” Christine asked, her tone concerned.
“Just get me Jay. It’s an emergency.” When Christine hesitated, Audrey growled a loud, “Now,” into her phone.
“Okay, okay. Geez. Calm down. I’ll go get him.”
The phone line switched to music as Christine put her on hold. A second later, Jay picked up the line.
“Audrey, what’s going on?” He sounded frazzled. “I’m a little busy here.”
She didn’t waste any time getting down to business. “There’s a rabid wolf out in the parks. We need to shut down the parks and get the tourists off the beach and dunes.”
“What? How do you know this? You’re not even scheduled to work today.”
“I know. Listen, I spotted the wolf that attacked me at Glen Vine this morning. I tracked him down to the lake and lost him, but he’s headed toward the public beach.” She paused, thinking fast. What would Jay respond to? “He was foaming at the mouth and acting aggressive.”
“Oh.” Jay fell silent. “All right. I’ll lock it down and send out the troops.”
“We should set up traps, too.” Nick was no ordinary wolf, but it didn’t hurt to try to capture him. Maybe he could be tricked into a cage. Sometimes animals—not to mention people--would do things in a panic that they would never do under normal circumstances.
“I know how to do my job, Audrey,” he said, his tone full of reproach.
“Sorry. I just don’t want anyone to get hurt.” She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. When they’d dated, Jay always complained she was too bossy and it had become a sore point even in their working relationship. Everyone had told her it was a bad idea to date her boss, but a girl like her couldn’t be choosy. So she’d taken the chance, and while things weren’t exactly easy between them, she didn’t feel the need to go look for another job. Not yet, anyway. “I notified the sheriff too. This wolf is probably the one that killed Bob.”
“It got Conspiracy Bob? No kidding.” Jay whistled, impressed. “You don’t say.”
“Yeah. The sheriff is going to send some units to help with the search. They’re going to shoot to kill since he’s suspected of attacking humans.” She hesitated, and thinking of Tao added, “There’s another wolf out there too. Same huge size, but black as night. It’s not rabid as far as I can tell. If you spot it, don’t worry about it.”
“You’ve been seeing a lot of wolves lately.”
She gave a nervous laugh. Jay didn’t know the half of it. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s been a weird week.”
“So are you coming in to help with the wolf hunt? I need all hands on deck for something of this magnitude.”
Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to think of a graceful way to say no. She happened to agree with Tao that she should be hiding out. The last thing anyone needed was for Nick to find her and start pulling the puppet strings. She would become a weapon, unable to deny his commands.
At her long silence, he said, “I was more telling than asking. You’re the wildlife specialist. You kind of have to be here, Audrey. It’s your job.” He sounded petulant and she grit her teeth. Maybe she was bossy, but Jay whined. A lot. Although that hadn’t been what broke them up.
“I know,” she said. “I’ll be there as soon as I change my clothes.”
“Great. Since you saw him last, I’ll let you determine where we’re going to search.”
He hung up and Audrey hurried to find a clean uniform, trying not to think too hard about how dangerous it was for her to leave the house. If I see Nick, I’ll just have to shoot him before he says anything. That’s all.
Except if he could talk, that would mean he was in human form and she would be committing a murder no one would understand.
Chapter Eight
Tao ditched his clothes under a tree in the forest that ran along Lake Michigan. With a sweep of his leg, he covered everything with the leaves and sticks littering the ground. Satisfied no one would spot his belongings and filch his wallet, he shifted into his wolf.
Immediately, his sense of smell heightened. He caught the scent of the pine trees, the faint sweetness of maple, the nearby lake, the birds above and the multitudes of small animals that had frozen in place once they realized a predator prowled among them. Their tiny heartbeats pounded in his ears, fluttering at such a rapid pace he sometimes wondered if the little guys ever passed out or had heart attacks. If they would’ve understood him, he would’ve shifted back and said, �
�Hey, I’m not here to eat anybody and most of you are too small to bother with anyway. So, relax before your hearts explode.’
Remembering Audrey’s reaction to his hunting, he snorted and shook his head. A vegetarian werewolf? He’d never heard of such a thing. Tao bet she would change her mind once her wolf nature came to the fore. Wolves had no moral qualms about eating other animals in cold blood. Their thoughts were linear. If they were hungry, they ate whatever they could hunt. Wolves didn’t second guess or dither, they acted. And if Audrey didn’t compromise her principles? Well, she was a stronger wolf than he was.
Tao lifted his nose and sniffed, testing the air.
Nothing new filled his nose. The scent of his brother was absent, which made him give a short, testy bark. Even in human form, Tao had been able to track Nick through town and to the spot where he’d ducked into the woods, but then somehow his brother’s scent had disappeared, leaving him to wander in circles. Now that he was in his more sensitive form, Tao hoped he could pick up Nick’s trail again.
So far, though, that wasn’t happening. He tossed his head and snorted in irritation. Nick’s ability was the bite of the wolf, not hiding. That was more Leo’s provenance. His brother, named for the leonine color of his coat, could creep up on anyone, even other wolves. He had a subtle scent that made him hard to smell. His mother had often said Leo would make a great spy, but the wolf had an honest heart. As far as Tao knew, he’d never lied, not even as a kid. If Leo ate all the cookies, he would own up to it, which is probably why their mother never punished him.
Tao, on the other hand, would eat all the cookies and then stay in the woods until his mom gave up on getting him back into the house, let alone punishing him. Kai, the runt of their litter, always followed the rules. Seriously, the guy never got into trouble. Nick, on the other hand, would eat his fill and be sure to sprinkle the crumbs in one of his brother’s beds so that they would get in trouble instead of him.
Now that he thought about it, Nick had always been wily and prone to devious tricks. Tao just never anticipated it would come to this.
