by A. J. Downey
“Back home, before we left. You said there were other people looking for me, and that they weren’t as nice as you. Are they who you were talking about?”
I nodded even though I couldn’t be sure if she could see it. Her eyes were locked onto the road, as if the highway’s centerline were a goddamn lifeline, pulling her through the darkness. “Yeah. My brothers aren’t exactly the most stable of individuals. I may threaten you, but they don’t bother with making threats, they would just break your bones or slice your tendons so you couldn’t run. They would drag you along by your hair, kicking and screaming for real.” Subtle? Perhaps not. But I wanted to make sure she understood exactly the danger I had saved her from by kidnapping her. There was a method to my madness after all, even if it hadn’t been altruistic at the start.
She didn’t say anything for a few more minutes but when she did finally speak she was in better control of herself. Some more of the fire I saw before was growing back and she was less the broken girl I’d had to deal with yesterday. For some reason, that made me feel a little better.
“Answer me this, and no more fucking bullshit William, what the fuck have you gotten me into?”
“Honestly?”
“No,” she snapped, acidly. “Lie to me, I really like that. Turns me on like you wouldn’t believe.”
I bit back a chuckle, “I haven’t gotten you into anything, Sugar. Your dad did.” She opened her mouth, probably to yell at me but I waved her off before she could get going. “I know you don’t get that, I know you don’t understand or believe me but just bear with me, this is going to take a little bit of an explanation.”
She settled back in her seat, shoulders hunched angrily and knuckles white on the steering wheel but she didn’t look like she was going to start screaming at me any time soon so I took a deep breath and launched into it.
“It’s going to sound like something out of a movie or a TV show but I promise that what I’m telling you now is the absolute truth. There are wolf-kind in the world. Werewolves, loup-garu, whatever you want to call us. There are a lot of us, actually. Far more than you would guess. I’d be willing to bet that you’ve probably met a few in your life and never even knew it. By no means do we equal the human population, but there are a handful of us in just about every human community.
“Like real wolves, we tend to group into Packs. Most Packs are small, family units. Mom, dad, kids, uncles and aunts, that kind of thing. But occasionally, you get a large Pack. Large Packs are dangerous because the more of us there are, the more damage we can do if the Pack decides to get violent.”
“Who makes that decision?”
“The Alpha.” She gave me a sideways glance at that so I pushed on, “Again, like with real wolves, there’s always an Alpha. One of us rules the Pack. All decisions and actions that may, in any way, impact the lives of the Pack must be vetted and approved by the Alpha. My father was the Alpha of our Pack and ours is the largest Pack in all of North America, including Canada.”
“And you think my father killed yours?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is what the Pack thinks. A weapon was left behind. A weapon only your father is known to use and he was travelling last week yeah? On business.” I could see her turning that one over in her head. She dodged the question though.
“Why would my dad know anything about… wolf-kind?” She stumbled a bit over the name but I was somewhat pleased she didn’t just call us werewolves, most Hunters went straight for the derogatory terms. They were assholes like that.
“Because he’s a member of a different organization. The Hunters,” I explained. She snorted out a laugh there but otherwise didn’t interrupt. “I know. It sounds ridiculous. But wolf-kind have always been persecuted and hunted, wherever we’ve lived. Hunters find us and kill us without any thought for mercy or discrimination. Your father is one of the best in the business and is rather highly placed within the Hunters’ ranks. We don’t know exactly how high as no one has ever been able to penetrate their organization. They have tests to identify my kind.”
“Multiple choice or short essay?” she quipped. I liked the sarcastic Chloe, she was funny. Now wasn’t the time though, especially not about something so serious.
“Silver,” I snapped with a frown furrowing my brow. “This isn’t a joke, Chloe. I know it’s incredible and sounds insane but it’s the truth. Your dad killed mine. Or if he didn’t, someone is trying to frame him. I’m inclined to think that it really was him. I think he’s been trying to build up to something. There hasn’t been a full forced hunt for wolf-kind in a long time. We don’t know why. It’s been kept to small skirmishes for the last few decades. I think your dad is trying to galvanize the organization into an all-out war with us.”
She became strangely silent for a few minutes and suddenly hit the turn signal and rocketed off the next exit at speeds that even I found to be a bit reckless.
“What the–!”
“Shut up,” she snapped. She turned onto a street and then into a gas station parking lot, slid the car into a space and pulled the brake after shifting into park.
“I’m not sure if this is going to make things better or worse,” she started. “But I think there’s something I should tell you.” I said nothing but simply arched an eyebrow and waved one hand in a motion for her to continue.
“I’ve seen your brothers before.”
That certainly got my attention.
“That’s not possible.”
“My dad works as a CPA. He really does, William, don’t give me that fucking look. I’ve seen his work files, I’ve met a bunch of his clients. Whether he’s a Hunter, or not, the man has to have a day job, right?”
“I guess,” I dragged out the word, somewhat disbelieving.
“Well I’ve seen the twins before. They came to my house, some months ago. Clients of my dad’s. But at the time he introduced them as Roman and Remy Dulcet.”
You ever have a suspicion about something? Someone is lying to you? Your boyfriend or your girlfriend is cheating on you? Something like that? And when you finally have your suspicions confirmed your entire world is rocked to its core, even though you were kind of expecting it?
That’s a bit how I felt at that moment. That’s when the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. It wasn’t the Hunters that wanted a war. It was my brothers, what the fuck were they up to? Was Alpha seriously so important to them they would jeopardize the entire fucking Pack to get it? I felt sick.
“Remus came up with those names, years ago. Romulus and Remus aren’t exactly common or popular names, you know? People would find their names amusing and Romulus always had the worst temper of the two of them. So Remus suggested something a little less unusual so that we could keep Rom’s temper down when dealing with people.”
“So what does that mean?”
“It means my brothers have conspired with your dad to kill the Alpha, so one of them could become the new Alpha and drag the entire Pack into a war. If either one of them becomes Alpha, their natures won’t let them do anything but destroy the entire Pack.”
“What do you mean?”
I groaned and raked my hands back through my hair. I’d never had to explain this to anyone before and I was finding it a lot more difficult than I had expected. “There are two types of wolf-kind. Moon Forged and Blood Born,” I explained carefully. “The Moon Forged are wolves that were human first and turned by being bitten by a wolf-kind in their full wolf state. Not the hybrid form you saw earlier.”
She considered that for a moment before she nodded once, sharply. “And the Blood Born?” she asked.
“Blood Born are ones that were born from one or more wolf-kind parents. They were never actually human. The Blood Born are also far more mentally unstable as a general rule. Blood Born are responsible for all the old legends of crazed, blood thirsty monsters that you hear of in regards to werewolf stories. The Blood Born are more animalistic. Their rage is harder to control, the
wolf is stronger, tougher. At first I started this needing to be Alpha just to stop one of them from destroying the Pack because I thought they wouldn’t be able to help themselves. I thought their bloodthirsty nature would propel them into dragging the Pack into chaos. But if they really did work with your dad to kill my father, then this isn’t just their animal nature acting up. This is cold blooded murder and there is no way in hell I can let either of them become the new Alpha.”
We fell into silence again after that. I don’t know what was going on in Chloe’s head, but my mind was spinning. If I could only prove that the twins were involved in the plot to kill father. If I could bring evidence of it to the Pack…
“I’m hungry,” I said suddenly, startling Chloe out of her own thoughts. “And tired. We need food and we need to sleep.”
“What are we going to do about all this William?” she asked. “We have bigger things to worry about than the bottomless pit you call a stomach right at the moment, don’t we?”
“Right now, I need to eat,” I said, firmly. “The hybrid transformation burns up a lot of calories. If I don’t get some food into me I could go feral and you would start to look pretty damn tasty right about then.” I sighed at the terrified look on her face. “Look, Chloe. I’m sorry that you’ve been dragged into this mess. I really am. But do you see now that I’m not the bad guy here? Yes, I kidnapped you, and I’ll apologize now for my tactics, but in the long run I saved you from something much worse.”
She didn’t say anything. I’m sure she had plenty to think about and I couldn’t blame her for it. Her entire world had just been flipped upside down for the second time in nearly as many days. But we were running out of time and we really needed to keep moving.
“You turned east when we got on the freeway, didn’t you?” I asked and she nodded distractedly. “The twins will more than likely have continued west, expecting us to keep moving toward the coast. If we get some food, and get some rest we should be okay and we can get back on the road tomorrow.”
She looked out the window at the barely rising sun. “It’s not even day time yet,” she said.
“Are you well rested and ready for a day of travel?” I asked and she shook her head.
“I rest my case. Food. Rest. In that order.”
“Then you drive.” She got out of the car before I could say anything but I slid over as she walked around and climbed back in on the other side. I think she was finally figuring out that I was definitely the lesser of two evils under the circumstances.
Nothing more was said for a while. We filled up, found a McDonalds and loaded up on hash browns and breakfast sandwiches and ate on the drive. I hit the freeway again, heading west toward Seattle and after thirty miles or so pulled off the freeway, taking winding surface streets toward the trees until I could pull off into a wooded area.
The car was easy enough to conceal. I simply broke off large branches from the trees and used them to cover it. It wouldn’t hide it from anybody that happened to walk by but from the freeway it wouldn’t be visible.
“What are we doing here?” Chloe asked. “I thought you wanted to rest.”
“I do. But I don’t like the idea of bringing them to any more populated areas, if they happen to come back this way so quickly. I don’t think they will, but better to be safe than sorry. And here we’ll be able to get some rest without them being able to sneak up on us so easily.”
I walked over to her and stood next to her. When we stopped for food she’d changed into some better clothes, warmer, thankfully. I can’t imagine getting any rest the way I planned if she was still wearing that nightgown.
“Trust me?” I asked and she let out an explosive sigh.
“Do I have much choice?”
She let out a surprised squawk as I suddenly scooped her into my arms. She barely weighed anything, feeling light as a feather and for a moment I worried that she was losing weight. Stress and fear could do that to a person easily enough.
Before she could say anything I bent my knees and leaped. The muscles of my thighs bunched tight, like steel springs then suddenly snapped out as they propelled me, and my attractive cargo, up and into the trees.
She screamed that time and her arms latched around my neck, holding on for dear life as the wind rushed past us and my bare feet landed lightly on a branch high up and as thick as my thigh. Two more jumps had us half way up the tree in a nice crook of branches that would suit my purposes.
I carefully set her down and made myself comfortable back against the trunk, legs drifting to either side of the limb I sat on, there was no way I would fall out. I’d done this, slept like this, a thousand times back home.
“What the hell are we doing up here?” she asked voice pitched loud and high.
I winced, “Good God, please stop screeching like that, it really hurts my ears.”
“Answer me William,” she snapped, voice high and tight with panic.
“We’re going to sleep up here. It’ll be harder for the twins to catch our scent at first and up here I can hear for miles, we’ll hear them coming long before they get here. Now come here and settle down.” She stood awkwardly, holding onto the nearest branches around us with a death grip as she shook and trembled, almost violently, her breath coming rapidly and for a moment I was afraid she might hyperventilate and pass out.
“I can’t sleep in a bloody tree, William,” she cried, “I’ll fall!”
“No,” I argued. “You won’t.” I reached up and grabbed her wrist. A quick tug and a bit of a twist to her upper body she fell into place, her back to my front and I got my arms around her. Before she realized what was happening she was sitting, her back against my chest, her head tucked just beneath my chin. I did my very best to ignore the length of her body pressing against me, so warm and supple, so soft.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered and wrapped my arms securely around her, careful to avoid the bruising on her stomach. “Now sleep.”
She shook slightly and I felt something damp touch my hand. I breathed deep, the tang of salt touching the back of my tongue. I scented the air again to make sure, but then she shook, and it was unmistakable, she was crying.
“I just want to go home, William,” she moaned.
“I know,” I whispered again. I couldn’t imagine the fear she felt. “But you can’t, not right now. It’s dangerous and there are still too many questions that haven’t been answered. I need you, Chloe Young.”
I took her hand, lacing our fingers together and gave it a squeeze. “I need you to save my Pack.” I hesitated for a moment. “And I’m not sure that’s even possible, not with the twins involved. And I don’t know how, but if I can, I’ll do my best to save your father. If this is the work of the twins, I’ll do what I can. But to do that I have to be the new Alpha.”
She said nothing else after that. Simply lay against me, shaking slightly. Eventually the shudders subsided, her tears dried up, and she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
Not once did she let go of my hand.
Chapter 8
Chloe
“Chloe…” A deep sigh that caused me to rise and fall with it, my eyes snapped open. I sucked in a tremulous breath and held very still, blinking in the late afternoon light that filtered through the branches. Branches, oh God! I stiffened.
“Shh, shh, shh, I’ve got you,” William’s arms tightened around me and I closed my eyes.
“Just get me down!” I snapped, I didn’t mean to, it’s just, I’ve never been a fan of heights. “Sorry, I’m sorry!” I blurted immediately and he chuckled.
“I’m batting a thousand with you, huh Sugar? Didn’t know you were afraid of heights,” I felt my chest rise and fall in short, sharp breaths and tried not to panic too much.
“Please, just get us down?” I pleaded, completely failing at putting forward any kind of front of assurance.
“Can you turn? Put your arms around me?” he asked.
Oh great. Getting into this position had been easy, he
’d done all the work, now I had to try and turn around and that was gonna be all me, baby! And I didn’t want to do it. Mm-mm no way, no how. Oh Jesus!
“Deep breath, Chloe. Breathe, don’t panic; just breathe. I’ve got you,” I closed my eyes and tried very hard not to look down.
“Okay, okay, I’ve got this, I’ve got this, just promise me no more trees after this, no more heights.” William laughed, and I stiffened, I turned, twisting my upper body and smacked him in the chest.
“Look, you Asshole! I don’t think it’s…” I didn’t get to finish, lightning fast he snatched my arms around his neck and crushed my upper body to his, his arm a steel band against my back. He stood in one fluid motion, my feet dangling, lower body twisting around. He smiled a decidedly smart-assed grin at me and caught me up behind the knees with his other arm, lifting me, balanced easily on the wide branch we’d resided on.
“Wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked me and I felt my eyebrows shoot up into my hair line as I felt him start to shift and I suddenly knew what he was going to do.
“William don’t!” but it was too late. He leapt and we plummeted and I bit my lips together to keep from shrieking, because I knew he hated that, that it hurt his ears and – oh holy hell just please don’t drop me! I prayed.
“Open your eyes, Chloe.” William’s voice was both gentle and chiding at the same time. I clung to him, rigid in his arms, face pressed into the side of his neck. I unclenched my muscle groups one by one and drew back slowly, opening my eyes. We were on the ground.
“I really hate you,” I said but I didn’t, at least not really. Right now, he’d gotten me back on the ground. I really wanted to kiss him for that. The easy smile that made him go from handsome to just plain hot, slipped a little as he tried to decide if I were joking or not. He stood, frozen, me dangling from his arms as he looked me over and the smile faded into nothing.
“Don’t suppose I really blame you,” he said setting me down carefully.
“I was just giving you a hard time,” I muttered, cheeks flaming, as I tugged the sweater down over my dark blue jeans. It was my last pair, he’d thrown a seriously weird mix of clothes into the bag. I don’t think he’d really been looking. I had enough bras and underwear for days upon days, he’d thrown in a light and a dark pair of jeans. Two skirts, three dresses… a random selection of shirts, a sweater, and a jacket… I mean, it was a mess.
