“Seriously, though,” Deanna continued with a wet laugh as the second wolf seemed to move directly toward her. “I wish we’d planned this better. I mean, I want to meet your family and all, but right now I look like shit.”
Jamie’s tail gave a soft twitch, as if she were trying to wag it, and Deanna’s heart clenched painfully.
Halfway between her and crywolf, the new wolf paused long enough to go through the odd crumpling transformation. Fur slid from its body until a person rose, naked, and continued to walk toward them.
Now Deanna could see that he was male and hastily averted her eyes. She wondered if this would be one of those weird stories she could tell her and Jamie’s grandchildren one day: I met your uncle’s junk before I knew his name!
“How is she?” the guy called as he neared. Deanna risked looking up again, careful to keep her eyes above his waist. He had the same tan skin and dark hair as Jamie, with a full beard that surrounded a generous mouth.
“I don’t know.” Deanna looked at Jamie, trying not to let her worry overwhelm her: Jamie’s wolf eyes had gone glassy and unfocused. “He hit her so hard. She’ll heal, though, right?” She couldn’t keep the quaver out of her voice.
“It’s likely,” the man reassured her, his voice calm. He bent to run a gentle hand down Jamie’s side. “She’s strong and still breathing. But we need to get out of here.” He looked at where the two other wolves remained locked together, the low growl of the gray one just reaching their ears. “Your friend already called the cops. We can’t be here when they show up.”
“No, I know.” Her words were thick with tears, and Deanna tried to brush them away, forgetting that both of her hands were covered in blood until she felt it wet and thick against her face.
“You’ll say it was an animal.” The man forced her to meet his steady eyes. “You don’t know what kind. You saw it flee into the woods as you came upon the others.” He nodded to where Nathan knelt between them.
Deanna nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
The man cupped his hand firmly against the side of Jamie’s neck. Something in Jamie seemed to relax at the contact, and her eyes fell shut; her great furred body was suddenly lax against Deanna. As though the touch triggered something, Jamie’s limp body gave a slow shudder and, more gently than in any of the transformations Deanna had seen, sort of rolled back into Jamie’s human form.
Deanna pressed a soft kiss to Jamie’s forehead before the man gathered her up in his arms, lifting Jamie from the ground with an inhuman ease and then striding across the clearing toward the two wolves at its edge. The new wolf snapped at crywolf when he tried to move away and, a decidedly unkind air, herded him into the woods.
Deanna rose, watching until the group disappeared into the woods, and then she turned to help Nathan.
Chapter Eighteen |
Deanna wasn’t sure when she’d finally fallen asleep. Back at her apartment, she, Nathan and Arthur were too wired to sleep. Exhaustion felt like a physical weight on Deanna’s shoulders, but her concern for Jamie overwhelmed anything else.
The evening didn’t feel real. If it hadn’t been for their bloodstained clothes, Deanna might have thought that she and Nathan had ingested a powerful hallucinogen and gone on a terrible trip. Nathan had had a worse time than she had—after all, Deanna’d had time to get used to the idea of werewolves before she’d seen the damage they could do. Nathan had found everything out in a single evening, and had spent the few hours after they’d returned to Deanna’s in a state of hoarse shock before he finally fell asleep.
He’d stopped talking—the rasp of his words had dried up, and Deanna saw his head nod back against the couch; he’d been asleep before he finished his sentence. Deanna gathered up their wet towels and hung them to dry. Then she curled up in the armchair and worried uselessly at the corner of a throw pillow until she drifted off as well.
It wasn’t until she heard the gentle knock at her front door that she woke up; her stiff body protested frantically as she shot off the chair. Nathan and Arthur were both curled up on the couch. Nathan’s arm was tucked firmly around Arthur’s middle, and Arthur merely gave a slow wag of his tail as the knock sounded again.
Deanna pushed her disheveled curls from her face and crossed the room. She carefully checked the peephole. Seeing Jamie’s pale face through the small window, Deanna wasn’t sure what to expect once she opened the door, but the bone-crushing hug Jamie enveloped her in left her weak-kneed with relief.
“You’re alive,” she said, her voice muffled against Jamie’s collarbone. She felt Jamie nod above her, and Deanna hitched her arms tighter around Jamie’s ribs.
“How are you?” Jamie pulled back, cupping her hand around Deanna’s cheek so she could tilt Deanna’s head up.
“I’m okay,” Deanna answered. Her neck hurt from the awkward position she’d slept in, and her calves were so sore from their breakneck run through the woods that every step was agony. She had an embarrassing number of scratches down her arms, and one along her cheek that Jamie was looking at with worried eyes, but otherwise, she was good. She felt good.
“You shouldn’t have come back.” Now that she had established that Deanna was alive and well, Jamie’s anger from the previous night returned. “That was stupid.”
“Maybe it was,” Deanna agreed. “But I’d do it again.”
“So would I.” Deanna hadn’t heard him move, but she felt Nathan’s solid presence at her back. “We saved those kids’ lives.”
“That’s not the point—” Jamie began hotly, but Nathan interrupted her with an exaggerated sigh.
“That’s exactly the point. We helped. And we were badass. I mean, did you see Dee with that baseball bat?”
Despite herself, Jamie found her lips curling in a grin. “My cousin Cole said you two looked like idiots.”
“Well, Cole can bite me,” Nathan said, affronted. “We were hardcore. And while I appreciate him and whoever else coming in at the last minute to save the day—which, really, flair for the dramatic much?—I think we’d have given crywolf a thing or two to think about.”
“Yeah, right before he ate you,” Jamie rolled her eyes, but the heat of her anger had dissipated.
“What did you do to him?” Deanna caught her bottom lip in her teeth, unsure if she wanted to know the answer but needing to ask.
“They didn’t kill him.” Jamie’s tone implied that she didn’t agree with that course of action. “But he won’t be allowed to hurt anyone again.”
Deanna smiled. “That’s good.”
She wasn’t sure how she’d have felt if Jamie’s pack had killed crywolf. Not that she didn’t believe he deserved it, and not that it wouldn’t have made her think he’d paid for killing the other woman, but she didn’t like the thought of Jamie falling to his level. They were better than crywolf, and they had proved that last night. After all, none of them—well, maybe Nathan, but only because he didn’t understand what he was getting involved in—had thought they’d be able to take down crywolf on their own. They’d known going in that they might not come back out, but they’d gone in anyway. With that thought, Deanna realized something, and with a sharp shock of fury whirled on Jamie.
“Wait, you knew they were coming, right? When you showed up at the Moon Revel, you knew your pack would come?”
The guilty look on Jamie’s face told her all she needed to know, and with a wordless sound of anger Deanna gave Jamie a solid punch on her shoulder. Jamie, perhaps predictably, didn’t so much as wince.
“You stupid, self-sacrificing, moron!” Deanna punctuated her words with punches until Nathan caught her hand and pulled her back.
“She didn’t do anything we didn’t,” he pointed out, far too reasonably for Deanna’s comfort. “She was at least playing in the same league as crywolf—we had no business being there, Dee, and you know it. So don’t get mad at Jamie for doing e
xactly the same thing we did.”
Deanna narrowed her eyes but shut her mouth, knowing he was right but still unhappy about what Jamie had done, which, she decided with a sigh, was probably exactly how Jamie was feeling about her.
“Anyway,” Nathan yawned, “Thank you for the couch. And thank you,” he crouched to give Arthur a solid rub, “for the cuddle. But I want to get back to my own place and my own bed.” Rising, he pulled Deanna close to press a soft kiss to her temple, and, to Jamie’s flustered pleasure, gave her one as well.
“Get some sleep, some real sleep,” he told them. “The ‘talk’ or whatever can wait.”
“Thank you, Nathan,” Jamie said dryly, closing the door behind him before she turned back to Deanna with her hand still on the knob. A question hung unspoken.
Deanna glanced at the clock on her wall. She and Nathan had gotten back to her place well into the early hours of the morning, and though it was now nearing noon, she hadn’t slept well enough to make up for the night they’d had. A small part of her wanted to point out to Jamie that it was awfully confident of her to assume Deanna would ask her to stay, but a larger part wanted nothing more in the entire world than to curl up with Jamie, warm and safe in her arms.
“All right,” she agreed. “I’ll have to take Arthur out first though.”
Jamie shook her head. “Let me take him.”
As though he’d understood the conversation, Arthur leaned his side into Jamie, and sighed happily when she dropped a hand to scratch behind his ears.
Deanna raised her hands in defeat and stepped back to let Jamie and Arthur through the door. When it closed, she locked it and then stood in the small entryway of her small apartment.
As much as she loved Arthur, having him meant that she was rarely alone. The emptiness of the apartment was soothing in a way Deanna hadn’t realized she needed; after the insanity that the last few days had been, the stillness was a balm. In the bathroom, she rinsed her face with cool water, washed the sleep from her eyes and touched the scrape on her cheek delicately. It was long, but shallow, and Deanna figured it would heal in a matter of days.
Then she began to pull the cushions from the couch, setting them to the side so that she could unfurl the mattress. The sight of her bed made her aware of the exhaustion that had settled into her bones. It was hard to believe that less than twenty-four hours had passed since crywolf had appeared on her computer screen. So much had happened since then that Deanna could have sworn it had been days.
After pulling her pillows and comforter from the cupboard, Deanna made up the bed and tidied the room. As she put the dishes from last night in the sink she heard Jamie’s key in the lock, and came out of the kitchen to meet her and Arthur.
Arthur seemed to feel the same level of exhaustion as the rest of them because, with a slow wag of his tail for Deanna, he headed straight for his bed, curled up into a tight ball and groaned heavily with contentment before he closed his eyes and immediately dozed off.
Deanna held out her hand to Jamie, and with a smile Jamie took it, slotting her fingers between Deanna’s. Deanna drew Jamie close and let out a shuddering sigh when Jamie simply held her. There was none of the forceful urgency of their last hug, and Deanna pressed her face into Jamie’s neck, breathing in the soap-clean scent of her. Jamie’s chest moved slowly and steadily and Deanna felt her own breathing fall into the same rhythm.
Deanna knew Nathan had chided them about having a talk, but standing in the middle of her apartment with Jamie’s arms around her, Deanna couldn’t think of anything that needed to be said. They’d both been stupid, and reckless, and somehow, miraculously, they had both survived. Though they could hash out their various mistakes later on, Deanna thought they probably wouldn’t.
“Come on.” Deanna pulled away, but kept her hand in Jamie’s as she made her way toward the bed. Jamie paused at the edge to slip off her jeans, and Deanna pulled off her clothes. She crawled naked and comfortable into the bed as Jamie slid under the covers in her tank top and underwear.
When Jamie settled back against the pillows, Deanna leaned down, her hair curtaining them both as she found Jamie’s lips with hers. The kiss was warm and sweet, a gentle affirmation of happiness and trust, and when Deanna settled down to curl around Jamie, she knew there was no place she’d rather be.
Chapter Nineteen |
Deanna pushed open the door to Jamie’s apartment with her shoulder. She was glad no one had closed it tightly when she’d gone downstairs to bring up more wine glasses. Though Jamie’s apartment was much bigger than hers, the sight and sound of over a dozen people, including two small children and one golden retriever, made it feel almost as small.
“Let me help.” One of Jamie’s cousins pushed herself out of the fray and took several of the delicate glasses. “You should have said something; one of us would have come down with you,” she reproached gruffly.
“It was really no trouble,” Deanna assured her, winding her way through to the kitchen. Kiara set the glasses on the counter before she leaned back against it with a smirk.
“You needed to escape the madness for a minute, didn’t you?”
Deanna laughed, glancing past the bar to where Jamie’s family—Jamie’s pack—sat, and stood, and in the case of one of the kids rolled happily beside Arthur on the floor in the living room. Jamie had been apologetic when she told Deanna about their impending arrival, explaining that it wouldn’t be her entire family, but still a number of them. She’d told Deanna that she didn’t expect her to meet all of them, though Jamie would like it if they could have dinner with her parents.
Deanna had tried not to feel offended that Jamie had thought she’d want to do anything other than meet as many of Jamie’s relatives as possible, reminding herself that her intelligent, gorgeous, turns-into-a-wolf-on-occasion girlfriend was also still an introvert; and that, far more than the werewolf thing, required understanding and accommodation from an extrovert.
“Absolutely not,” Deanna said with a grin, opening the fridge to grab one of the bottles of rosé she’d stashed. “I’m just trying to get all of you—the adults, anyway—as drunk as possible so you’ll be sure to like me.”
“I’d say that’s not necessary, but I won’t turn down a drink.” Kiara took one of the glasses and held it out so Deanna could pour.
Deanna poured herself a glass as well and snagged a tortilla chip from the bowl on the kitchen table. She’d spent most of the day helping Jamie get ready for her visiting family, and the jalapeño dip was Nathan’s recipe.
“I wanted to say thank you again,” Deanna said. “You and Cole saved our asses.” She gestured at the living room, where Nathan perched on the arm of the couch beside Jamie’s father. He gestured wildly as he explained the premise of Wolf’s Run.
Kiara’s lips thinned into a hard line. “He was one of us. I’m only sorry we didn’t get him sooner.”
In, well, person, Kiara didn’t much resemble the sleek gray wolf who had burst from the woods with her brother to come to their rescue. She had the same dark hair as her brother and Jamie, cropped to the shoulder with a sharp line of bangs above her eyes. She and Cole were both shorter than Jamie, but while Cole was solid with muscle, Kiara was downright tiny. It would have been easy to dismiss her, save for her eyes, which were honey-gold and startlingly fierce. If Jamie was right, Kiara was in line to be the pack’s next alpha. Deanna didn’t want to play favorites with Jamie’s relatives, but Kiara might be hers.
“Though,” Kiara added, “Cole might be regretting saving your friend.”
Deanna looked back into the living room to see Nathan on his feet, his outstretched arms clearly attempting to demonstrate what he had taken to calling his “last stand” with the tree branch and the flare as they’d faced down crywolf. Standing in the corner of the room, the second small child perched gleefully on his shoulders, Cole watched the re-enactment with a raised eyebro
w. Deanna hid her grin with her wine glass. To his credit, Nathan had faithfully refrained from telling anyone else about their heroics. Well, the part where they came across the two teenagers and called 911, yes, but he’d been more than circumspect about the werewolf bit. Deanna wouldn’t deny him the opportunity to brag among people who were already in the know.
“He has that effect on people,” Deanna said cheerfully. She could understand Cole’s exasperation—the way Nathan was telling the story, you’d think he’d singlehandedly saved the entire human race without breaking a sweat. The part she knew Nathan was careful not to share was that he still woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, dreaming of blood on his hands and an advancing pair of orange eyes.
Deanna spent more nights at Jamie’s than not, now. When she woke up scared and shaking, she had someone to wrap long arms around her. As though Jamie could tell Deanna was thinking about her, she looked up from where she’d been talking to Michael, her uncle and the pack’s alpha, and smiled. Deanna smiled back. The lightness in her chest made her think she might float into the air at any second.
Kiara saw the look on Deanna’s face. “Any awkward werewolf questions you can’t ask Jamie that you want to get out of the way?”
“What?” Deanna turned back to Kiara, puzzled. “Should I have some?”
Kiara shrugged. “You know, ‘Will we have puppies?’ That’s what her dad asked her mom. No joke.”
Deanna’s jaw dropped, and before she could stop herself she looked at Erica, who had her family’s whiskey-gold eyes and was setting up an elaborate-looking board game with her brother Trevor.
The Better To Kiss You With Page 14
