Crawford butted in. “And because they don’t want your boyfriend around, they’ll do whatever it takes, including kidnap, hurt and possibly kill you, to get to him. Make more sense now?”
Jess stared at one and then the other, not sure if they were feeding her a line or not. “Why do they want to get rid of Ty?”
Crawford’s brow rose, and his gaze flicked to Ty. “She doesn’t know?”
“I don’t know what?”
Ty’s gaze burned, his mouth firm, but he remained stoic and silent.
“Your boyfriend is a Werewolf.”
Jess just stared, first at Ty, then at Crawford. Their jokes had really gone far enough. “If you’re done trying to make your stupid jokes, could one or the other of you take me to my brother? Now.”
Crawford’s mouth tipped up in the corner in amusement. “She doesn’t believe me.”
Ty relaxed a bit. “Hell, I wouldn’t believe you, either.”
Jess stood up again, powered by indignation. “Where’s the damn phone. I’m calling the police.”
Ty grabbed her about the wrist. “I’d rather you didn’t. That’s only going to cause more prob—”
“Shh!” Crawford hissed.
Jess moved to protest, but Ty’s hand suddenly clamped down tight over her mouth, cutting off her voice.
* * *
Ty let go of her and listened intently. Beyond the hard, pounding rhythm of Jess’s heart he could hear the movement of footfalls outside and the whisper of voices. He made eye contact with Crawford and mouthed silently, They’re back.
Crawford nodded.
He gripped Jess’s chin, forcing her to look up at him. Her eyes were wild with a mixture of fury and fear. He put his finger to her lips and she nodded, then he motioned her to get down low. Jess crouched down.
Slowly he and Crawford edged closer to the windows and, using the walls as cover, peered out. Six people milled about the square, sniffing the air and approaching the cabin. Four of them looked like kids from the local high school, in jeans, tennis shoes and hoodies, but the other two wore darker colors and black leather. Ty caught Crawford’s gaze and indicated with a quick hand gesture that he’d take the three on his side and Crawford could deal with the other three. Crawford nodded.
They burst into the square with a yell. Ty wasn’t interested in prisoners. He tore at whatever he could reach, trying to do as much damage as he could. One of the vampires kicked him in the lower back and Ty shouted as he went down on one knee. Two vampires jumped him, scoring his flesh with their fangs as he fought them back. He didn’t think; he just acted. This was battle. His form shifted swiftly, growing larger, his hands turning to paws the size of dinner plates with deadly black claws. He shook hard and the vampires clinging to him went flying.
Ty bit down hard on the leg of the nearest intruder and yanked him off his feet, shaking him hard until the bone gave a satisfying snap. The Thrall screamed in agony. Ty crushed his chest with one slam of his front paw and he went limp.
Behind him he heard Jess scream. Ty immediately dropped the nasty-tasting Thrall on the ground and bounded across the square and through the door of his cabin in three massive leaps. A man-size hole was splintered through the wall of his cabin and he could see the vampire running through the woods, Jess thrown over his shoulder like a sack of wood pellets.
Ty tore after the vampire, his paws digging deep and kicking up dirt and moss as he pounded the ground to get to her. He leaped and took the vampire and Jess down to the forest floor. He slapped the vampire away from Jess and, muscles coiling, he lunged for the vampire and ripped off its head with his massive jaws. The decapitated body sank to the ground, black ichor spreading out in an inky puddle that soaked into the ground. Ty flung the head into the underbrush and padded over to Jess.
She was unconscious, but still breathing. His worry and impatience made shifting back painful as bone and ligament rearranged themselves slower than he would have liked, his muzzle shrinking down to a human-shaped jaw and nose once more. Ty knelt beside her, lifting her from her slump on the damp ground.
Her lids fluttered and he exhaled a sigh of relief.
* * *
Jess groaned and pressed the heel of her hand to her throbbing temple. “I must have hit my head harder than I thought.”
“You seeing double? Vision blurred?”
“No—” she hesitated “—but I could have sworn I saw this huge wolf, seriously as big as a sixteen-hand-high horse, in this clearing right before I got thrown back. But there’s no sign of it now.”
Ty’s mouth drew down into a firm line. “Sounds like your vision is just fine to me.”
“How can you say that?” She held out a hand, shaking it at the forest as if somehow that would make the apparition she’d imagined reappear. “That wolf was huge! It couldn’t have just disappeared.”
“It didn’t.”
Jess speared him with a pointed glare. “Really? Then what’s your explanation?”
“I’m the wolf.”
Jess tilted her head back and laughed hysterically, but the throbbing made her tone it down. “You? That why you’re naked, too?”
He didn’t look amused. Or as if he was kidding. His eyes were deadly serious and so were the hard planes of his face. Stoic.
“What’s your game? Why even say something that ridiculous?”
For a second his face seemed to blur, then it shifted, his nose growing longer, his jaws extending and his face growing dark all over first with stubble, then with hair that grew long and gray.
“Holy smokes!” Jess skittered back, crab-like, away from Ty, leaves sticking to her hands and her clothes as she moved. Her whole body shook, not just from shock but from outright fear. “What the hell are you?”
Just as quickly as the hair had appeared, it receded. His face reformed back to what she considered his normal appearance in seconds, but the crunchy sound of bone reforming and crinkle of hair receding weren’t illusions. “I’m a Werewolf, just like Crawford said.”
Jess struggled to pull a decent breath into her lungs, her head buzzing and growing floaty from her shallow breathing. “You—you’re—what?”
“Werewolf.”
He reached out to touch her and Jess freaked, squealing a little as she dodged out of reach. “Don’t touch me!”
Angry heat simmered in his gaze. “Look. Just because you don’t understand it, that doesn’t mean who I am has changed. I’m still Ty.” His gaze bored into her, reaching into her chest and squeezing her heart. “I’m still the father of your child.”
Her belly twirled and thumped in response, as if her baby agreed. A sick sense of dread washed over her. Oh, Lord, her baby. What was it? Would it turn out to be a monster, like its father? Her hand splayed protectively over her stomach. What if it were somehow a malformation between Werewolf and human?
“You’re not going to eat me, or bite me, or whatever, are you?”
Ty sighed, the sound heavy with pain. “No. I want to protect you and the baby. Look. I know it’s a lot to take in, but let me give it to you straight. I’m human. Just as human as you or any of your brothers. The only difference is I can shift my shape.”
“How?”
He shook his head. His hair seemed shaggier than it had before, as if somehow the shift had made it grow a bit longer. “I don’t know exactly. The vampires in the Cascade Clan said something about a virus causing the change in our systems, but I don’t know the exact science behind it.”
“Virus?”
He nodded.
“Why are you really here?”
Ty piled his fingers through his dark hair, cupping the back of his skull. “All I’m trying to do is start over.”
“And all that crap about being part of a big family, was that even true?”
&n
bsp; He locked gazes with her. “Every word.”
Jess pulled in a long, shuddering gulp of cold, damp air. Deep down in her gut, she believed him. She didn’t know why, but she did.
“So what now?”
He sat back on his heels. “Good question. Whatever those things were, they weren’t normal vampires. They’re different somehow. Easier to kill, but they’re still deadly and after me and Riley and now...you.”
“How do we find out what they are?”
“We need to go to Crawford’s people at the Cascade Clan of vampires and see if we can get some answers.”
“Vampires? You mean those wannabe freaks in Seattle that were claiming to be real bloodsuckers?”
Ty chuckled at her choice of words. Already her thoughts aligned with his on the matter. She was born to be a Were alpha female, she just didn’t know it yet. “Oh, they’re real, honey. Just as real as Weres.”
Jess shuddered. “Ugh. Can you imagine having to drink blood to survive?”
Ty shook his head. “Nope.”
She struggled to a seated position and Ty held out a hand to help her up. Jess glanced at his hand for a moment, neither taking it nor shrinking away. The pause stretched like a growing rift between them that tore apart his heart. He wanted Jess. Needed her. Sure, it might have been a Mesmer that had led them together in the first place, but there was much more at stake now. Not only his child, but her safety, as well. The vampires weren’t going to stop coming for her or the baby until she or they were dead.
And he was going to make damn sure it was them, whatever it took. Even if that meant making a deal with the Cascade Clan vampires for his territory.
Reluctantly Jess slipped her hand into his. Her hands were icy from shock and from the damp cold of the air. “We need to get you somewhere warm.”
Behind him the decapitated body burst into flame. Jess shuddered. She gazed up into Ty’s face. “My life is never going to be normal again, is it?”
Chapter 11
Daylight was fading fast, casting the entire camp in shadows from the big trees that surrounded it. “What the hell did you knock them out with?” Ty grunted as he and Crawford hauled the two heavy, unconscious Thralls Crawford had trussed up into the bed of Ty’s truck.
“A little Dead Man’s Blood. I figure if they want to be vampires so bad, then they should get a taste of the not-so-fun aspects of it.”
Ty closed and locked the hard-shell tonneau cover that secured the truck bed. “That actually works?”
Crawford raised a brow. “They may not be full vampires, but they’ve got ichor in their veins all the same. It’ll knock ’em out for a while. You know for a Were, you sure don’t know much about your enemies’ weaknesses.”
Ty frowned. “Didn’t have much call to fight vampires until Donovan came along and disrupted the pack.” He climbed in the driver’s side while Crawford climbed in the passenger’s, leaving Jess wedged in the middle of the bench seat between them.
“Ooh. Is that a note of defensiveness I hear in your voice?” Crawford mocked.
Ty ground his teeth together, then changed the subject. “Any reason you can’t just haul them there by vampire hocus-pocus?”
“What, do I look like a pack animal to you? Two of them, two of you, I’d be outta juice for the rest of the day. Not worth it. Especially if Achilles wants to move on this by nightfall.”
“Who is Donovan?” Jess broke, literally, into the middle of their conversation.
Ty frowned. “He’s Alpha of the Wenatchee Were Pack.”
“Then why is he your enemy?”
Crawford snickered. “See, princess, what you don’t know is that Ty here was in line to be Were royalty. He was Beta of the pack, in line for the big kahuna’s spot whenever the old Alpha kicked off. Only Donovan shows up, the Alpha’s prodigal son, and your lover boy here gets shafted. Instead of staying Beta to Donovan, he opted out and went on his own. Kind of unusual for a Were. They don’t tend to last long out on their own.”
And awkward silence settled in between them as they traveled down the gravel road. Once they hit the highway, Ty listened to the hum of the tires on the pavement.
“Can we listen to the radio?”
Ty picked a country station and Crawford grunted. “Would have been better if we left it off.”
“What’s wrong, Crawford? Afraid you might like it?” Ty flung back at him.
Ty could feel the heat of her gaze on his profile, but he kept looking out the front window of the truck at the bumper of the car in front of him as they waited to board the ferry. He didn’t trust himself not to crack. Especially around her.
The cars started moving, like ants trickling in orderly lines, onto the ferry decks. Once they were in position, Ty put the truck in Park. “Well, we can either sit here and wait or walk around the deck. What do you want to do?” Frankly, he wanted the fresh air after all the shit Crawford had stirred up.
“Walk,” Jess said without hesitation. While she seemed to have taken the idea of sitting between a vampire and a Werewolf in stride, Ty had no doubt that she was still nervous and uncertain. She’d just about nibbled all her fingernails down to the quick during the ride to the ferry dock.
“No reason for us to stay here, unless you want to keep an eye on the Thralls?”
Crawford shrugged. “Your call, man. They aren’t going anywhere.”
They climbed out of the truck and then up the narrow set of metal stairs in the center of the vessel leading from the parking decks to the passenger seating up on top of the car ferry. Jess didn’t stay indoors and instead headed straight to the very front of the boat. The briny wind was sharp and strong, pulling her hair back in pale ribbons behind her head and bringing pink into her cheeks. Ty thought he’d never seen anything so beautiful. He wanted to touch her, but held himself in check.
Overhead gulls wheeled, their cries mingling with the thrum of the ferry engines that vibrated the deck beneath their feet. He stood beside her, not exactly sure what to say. Her reaction to the news he was a Were hadn’t been unexpected, but her instant withdrawal from him had stung all the same.
He’d always believed a Mesmer worked both ways, cementing the bond between life mates. But maybe it didn’t. Maybe it just made a Were stupid beyond all recourse and devoted to a woman he couldn’t have. It would certainly explain why Mesmers were considered dangerous.
Jess turned her head, her blue gaze riveting on him. “How dangerous are those things in the back of the truck?” She shivered. The wind was cold and she didn’t have a jacket on besides her hoodie.
“The Thralls? If what Crawford’s seen of them is consistent, very.” Ty shucked out of his jacket and put it over her shoulders. Her hand brushed his and was icy to the touch. Maybe he ought to urge her to move indoors.
“But they’re still human?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Crawford interjected. Ty was getting kind of tired of Crawford hanging around as a third wheel. Since the night they’d been together, the only time he’d truly been alone with Jess had been their lunch at the school, and he’d been on edge the entire time, wondering when someone might walk in and interrupt them. There were so many things he wanted—needed—to say to her. Things he didn’t feel comfortable having Crawford overhear.
“And you’re still human?” she said even as her gaze probed him, looking for some evidence of his wolf shape.
“In a manner of speaking,” Crawford said again, giving a snort.
“Don’t you have someone else to annoy?” Ty’s suggestion wasn’t meant as one, and they both knew it.
“Sunlight’s bugging me anyway. I’m going inside for a coffee from the snack bar.”
“Coffee?” The shimmer of hope in her voice reassured Ty she wasn’t nearly as flustered as he thought.
�
�Get her one with about four sugars and three shots of half and half. It’ll help warm her up.”
Crawford gave him one curt nod, then spun on his boot heel and headed inside. Jess turned to Ty, a soft smile making her lips look far too damn kissable. “You remembered how I like my coffee.”
Of course he did. He shrugged. It wasn’t that big of a deal, just one of those details about her that was imprinted on his brain like the texture of her skin in the hollow right below her ear against his mouth or the soft sounds she made when she came undone in his arms. “Yeah, so?”
“You only saw me drink it once.”
Ty gave her a devastating smile that could make any red-blooded woman weak and winked at her. “Maybe once is all it takes.”
Damn, did he have that right. A curl of desire spiraled through her. Jess sucked in a breath of salty air to steady herself and instead got a whiff of the scents of cedar, fir and clean male from his jacket. She needed to keep her distance until she understood exactly what she was dealing with.
He was a Werewolf. An honest-to-God, I-have-a-tail Werewolf. That was enough to process. Her initial shock had subsided into a state of disbelief. It was only after sitting in the truck for a while that she’d reached the stage of trying to rationalize her fears and understand what it all meant.
The Seattle skyline was coming into view, the skyscrapers and Space Needle hugging the edge of the water. They’d be getting off the ferry in less than thirty minutes. She could certainly hold her own for that long. She slid Ty’s jacket off her shoulders and handed it back to him. “Here’s your jacket back. I’m fine now.”
“Are you sure? That hoodie isn’t much protection against the wind. By the way, that color looks really good on you.”
His offhand comment startled her out of her thoughts. Jess glanced down at her red hoodie and plucked at the soft cotton fabric with her fingertips. “You can’t be serious.”
A sparkle in his brown eyes joined his killer smile. “I’ve got a thing for red.”
One Night With the Shifter Page 13
