by Regan Ure
“He was here,” I heard Cade say angrily and then I heard something growl. I clutched at Blake’s arms at the sound of the animal growling.
“It’s okay, you’re safe,” he assured me gently. The pain in my chest worsened and I groaned. I felt his gentle hands as he began to check my injuries.
“How did you guys know I had an accident?” I asked Blake when the realization set in that we were too far away from Cade’s house for them to have heard it, so how had they known?
“Where does it hurt?” he asked softly, ignoring my question as I felt his fingers brush over my temple.
“My chest,” I gasped as he lifted my shirt to check, but my hands held it. “Go and get a cheap thrill somewhere else, Blake.”
He let out a sigh.
“I’m trying to check your injury,” he assured me. I looked at him without his image spinning and I could see the concern in his eyes.
“Fine,” I relented and I released the hold on my shirt.
He lifted it and I felt his fingers brush over the right side of my chest where it hurt the most. I nearly hit him when he pushed down gently along my rib and I felt the pain flare again.
“It’s bruising already, but I don’t think you’ve broken anything,” he informed me.
“Thanks,” I muttered, because even though I hadn’t broken anything, it still hurt.
“We need to get her back to my house,” Cade said with concern as he knelt beside me. Even lying on the road in pain, I couldn’t help the flutter when I looked into his eyes.
Damn the jerk!
“We need to call the cops,” I insisted. How could they want to take me away from the scene of a crime?
“We can’t, we need to get you back to Cade’s house,” Blake insisted.
“I just hit someone. They could be lying injured or they could be…” I said. I couldn’t say the word.
“The person you hit isn’t dead,” said Cade with steeliness in his voice as his eyes looked toward the dark forest.
“How do you know that?” I asked. The more time I spent around these two, the more I was convinced they were crazy.
“I just do.” His eyes settled back on me. I could see it was pointless trying to argue with him.
“What about my car?” I continued to argue.
“I’ll send someone to come and get it,” Cade assured me.
“But—” I tried to argue.
“You need to trust us,” Cade said, cutting me off with a hard look. I was in pain and still shaking, not exactly in a state to fight him on this.
Blake’s hands slid under me and he lifted me up into his arms. I winced and held my right side as it ached.
Cade hurried to the passenger side of a black Grand Cherokee that was parked a few feet away and opened the door. Blake slid me onto the back seat and I bit down on my lip to stop me from screaming out in pain.
Once I was in, the door was closed and Cade got into the driver side and Blake slid into the passenger side. The trip back to Cade’s house felt like forever because every jostle of the car ripped through me and I bit down to keep from crying out.
When we pulled up in front of Cade’s house, he and Blake got out of the car. I tried to shift out of the backseat, but it hurt too much.
“Is she okay?” I heard an unknown voice ask and I looked up to see the blond guy who always seemed to be with Cade.
The door opened and Blake climbed into the back seat and helped shift me out while the blond guy held my legs. Once I was out of the car, the blond guy lifted me effortlessly into his arms and carried me into the house with Blake following closely behind us.
Cade was already in the house when we entered and halfway up the stairs. The blond guy carried me up the stairs as Blake followed.
I wasn’t exactly heavy, but I was surprised when the blond guy didn’t seem to strain at all when he carried me up the stairs and to a bedroom.
The bedroom was huge and decorated similarly to the rest of the house. The bed, table and chairs were all antique furniture.
Cade pulled back the comforter as the blond guy gently put me down. I winced and then I slumped backward onto the pillow, feeling emotionally and physically exhausted.
“Jake, go and get Ross to help you get Scarlett’s car,” Cade ordered the blond guy to which he gave a brief nod and disappeared from the room. So, the blond guy’s name was Jake.
Cade disappeared into the adjoining bathroom and returned with a box that looked like a medical kit. He opened it up and got some cotton out. He put some liquid onto it and then began to clean my head wound. I winced when the liquid burned the cut.
Once he was finished, he took the stuff back into the bathroom and reappeared back in the room moments later.
“I think the two of you have some explaining to do,” I suggested as I looked up to Cade and Blake. They shared a look for a moment. I could see Cade was the one who was reluctant to tell me, but he let out a sigh.
“You have to keep an open mind and promise me you’re not going to freak out,” he told me as his eyes pierced mine. I gave him a brief nod.
What could be so bad?
“We’re more than human,” he began.
Yeah, they were idiots. I couldn’t help but giggle. Cade glared at me and I stopped. I felt like a little kid who had just been put into my place and I pouted. Blake just shook his head at the two of us.
“We are supernatural creatures,” he explained while he held my gaze. I blinked and then I looked at Blake. He wasn’t laughing; he looked as serious as Cade did and I thought they were both crazy.
“We are werewolves,” he stated. They both watched me as I processed what he’d told me. I began to look around the room.
“What are you looking for?” Blake asked, a little confused at my behavior.
“The cameras,” I replied.
“What are you talking about?” Cade asked as he threw his hands up in the air. He was exasperated with me.
“This has got to be some sort of joke,” I replied, still looking for the cameras, but I couldn’t see any. Maybe they were built into the roof with only a small hole to capture what they needed to. These guys were good.
“It’s not a joke,” Cade said angrily. I could see he was about to lose his temper.
“I think you guys have been reading too many teen-girl books,” I remarked, trying to sit up, but my chest hurt too much. Blake leaned forward and helped me sit up without jarring the injury.
“Thank you,” I said to him.
Cade turned to glare at Blake and then he stalked off to the one side of the room and leaned against the wall. His eyes darkened with anger as he crossed his arms.
“We’re not joking,” Blake tried to explain to me as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Do you guys honestly think I’d believe that rubbish? Do I look that gullible?”
I didn’t know what their deal was. Why did they keep talking about crazy, unbelievable stuff?
“We’re telling you the truth,” Blake insisted again.
“We’re wasting our time with words, we’re going to have to show her,” Cade said to Blake as he pushed off the wall and walked closer to the bed.
“Yay!” I remarked sarcastically while clapping my hands like a little kid.
“Show me the big, scary werewolf.” I cheered enthusiastically.
Cade disappeared with a growl and in his place stood a massive black wolf with amber eyes. It growled as it stepped closer to the foot of the bed.
My eyes remained glued to the impossible image in front of me. There was no disputing it—there was a massive wolf standing on all fours growling at me.
CHAPTER SIX
Scarlett
My eyes traveled over the massive beast that watched me with its unusual amber eyes. Its teeth were bared but it had stopped growling. Blake sat calmly at the edge of the bed, watching my reaction.
I laughed and clutched my side when the pain shot through me. Despite the pain, I continued to laugh u
ntil I had tears running down my face.
Blake looked at me like I was crazy and shifted closer.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he gripped me by the arms.
“Yeah… I’m fine…” I tried to tell him in between my laughter. “I just can’t believe… my hallucination would… be this good.”
“You’re not hallucinating,” he insisted.
Finally, I managed to stop the laughter and I turned to face him, wiping the tears of laughter from my face.
“I bumped my head pretty good,” I argued with him.
“You didn’t hit it hard enough to start seeing things,” he assured me, shaking his head.
“But if I’m not hallucinating, then…” I paused for a moment as my eyes shifted back to the wolf watching us. “It’s real.”
Holy crap! The wolf is real.
Blake watched me closely as my eyes remained on the massive beast at the foot of the bed. After I got over the initial shock, I peered closer and realized it was the same wolf that had been watching me the previous night.
I sucked in a breath as the realization hit me that Cade had been stalking me in wolf form and my anger began to grow. Common sense would dictate I’d be more concerned with the fact that Cade had turned into a wolf in front of my eyes, but the only thing that my mind would concentrate on was that Cade had invaded my privacy.
“You,” I said angrily as I pointed an accusing finger at the now-growling wolf in front of me. Feeling my blood boil with anger, I slipped out of the bed, holding my injured side as I stepped closer to the wolf.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” warned Blake but I ignored him as I stepped closer to the wolf, whose amber eyes watched me closely.
“You were watching me,” I stated angrily. The hilarious thing was that I was talking to a werewolf like it wasn’t something out of the ordinary. Clearly, I needed my head examined.
“You came onto my property and you were watching me,” I accused as I stood a few feet away from Cade—well, wolf-form Cade. The growling stopped as his amber eyes held mine.
“We were watching you.” The explanation came from Blake.
“Why?” I turned to face Blake, who was standing beside the bed. He ran a hand through his hair.
“You need to sit down and we’ll explain,” he suggested as he flickered a glance to the wolf and then back to me.
“Don’t treat me like I’m fragile, I can handle it,” I assured him, feeling that independent streak rise up in me. I’d worked hard to make sure I didn’t have to depend on anyone, even Gary.
Whatever these two threw at me, I would be able to handle. In my short life I’d experienced some dark times and I’d managed to get through them. Those moments had made me stronger and they’d made me the person I was.
“I don’t think you’re fragile, trust me,” he said cryptically. “But the explanation might take a while and no matter how tough you’re trying to be, you’re injured.”
He had a point, and sometimes I was too stubborn for my own good.
“Fine,” I relented and sat down on a nearby chair that faced toward Blake and Cade, the massive black wolf.
“You can change back,” Blake said to the wolf.
In the second it took me to blink, the wolf disappeared and Cade stood tall, dark and domineering. Amber eyes were replaced with his signature turquoise eyes. Thank goodness he was fully clothed when he shifted back into human form.
I was annoyed when I felt the flutter again inside my stomach at the sight of Cade. I hated how I felt around him. Maybe it was one of the reasons I went out of my way to annoy him. He made me feel things no one else had ever made me feel, and I had no idea how to deal with it.
“Spill,” I instructed Blake.
“You’re in danger,” Cade spoke. My eyes shifted back to him and he held my gaze. I couldn’t help a tiny bit of fear that soaked into me at his words. From the time my parents had died I’d been looking over my shoulder expecting the same thing to happen to me. It was one of the reasons I trained like I did.
“Why would I be in danger?” I asked, trying to mask the fear I felt, but my voice wavered for a split second.
“Let’s start from the beginning,” Blake said with his arms folded over his chest.
I looked at him expectantly as I tapped my foot against the carpet. These two took forever to get to the point and I was running out of patience.
“When I asked you what pack you were from, you told me you had no idea what I was talking about,” he reminded me.
“Yes, I remember.”
These guys had said a lot that didn’t make sense. Then the penny dropped; he asked me what pack I’d belonged to—pack, as in a pack of wolves.
“I’m not one of you,” I stated fiercely.
They remained quiet.
“I’m not a werewolf,” I added as I stood up, wincing when pain shot up the side of me.
“Take it easy,” Blake said as he came forward and tried to gently push me back down into the chair. When I glared at him, he dropped his hands and stepped back.
“Stop arguing,” Cade said fiercely as he stepped in front of me. “You’re one of us whether you like it or not, and arguing about it isn’t going to change that.”
“But how is that possible?” I asked out loud, taking a step back. I felt the chair at the back of my knees and I sank into it.
A werewolf.
“Both, or at least one, of your parents are werewolves,” Cade informed me.
“My parents were murdered when I was ten,” I revealed to them. At least one of my parents must have been a werewolf and that thought was hard to wrap my mind around.
“So that explains why you have no idea what you are,” muttered Blake.
“How were your parents murdered?” asked Cade gently. It was the first time he’d spoken to me without sounding angry or exasperated. My eyes flickered to him.
“Initially, the coroner had ruled it an animal attack but later he’d changed it to unknown,” I mumbled, still trying to process what they were telling me.
Even deep in my own thoughts I didn’t miss the look Blake and Cade shared. They knew something.
“What?” I asked, frowning at them.
“It sounds like they were killed by another werewolf.” My head reeled at that thought. A werewolf had killed my parents? Why? I couldn’t stop an image of a fierce, massive werewolf tearing into my parents with its sharp razor-like teeth. I closed my eyes briefly, trying to push the image from my mind.
“I don’t understand,” I said, looking at the two of them to explain it for me.
“Most werewolves stay in a pack, some larger than others. The werewolves that don’t belong to packs are called rogues.”
“Am I a rogue?” I asked softly. Clearly, I didn’t belong to a pack.
“Yes, but technically you weren’t forced from your pack or left it of your own free will,” Cade informed me. “Your situation is different. Until five minutes ago, you didn’t even know you were a werewolf.”
“Rogue werewolves are usually werewolves that struggle to fit into a pack. They have issues with following rules and commands. Humans that break the law are put into prison; werewolves that break the law are forced from the pack and made to live on their own,” Blake explained.
“So you think my parents were killed by a rogue werewolf?” I asked after a few minutes’ silence.
“Yes,” answered Cade.
“But why?” I asked softly. Having to bring up the memories of my parents and their violent deaths left a lump in my throat and a sting of tears in my eyes. It was hard to keep it together.
In front of me, Blake bent down on one knee to bring his eyes level with mine.
“We’re not sure,” he said as he looked at me with sympathy.
“All of this still doesn’t explain why I’m in danger,” I reminded them.
“To explain properly, I need to give you a bit of information about werewolves,” said Blake as he stood up. He
grabbed a nearby chair and angled it toward me before sitting down in it. Cade remained where he was, sitting on the edge of the bed with his legs stretched out in front of him.
“Most werewolves are born and raised within a pack. Up to the age of sixteen, werewolves are pretty much human. From the time a male werewolf turns sixteen, their senses strengthen and they are able to shift into wolves. But when female werewolves turn sixteen, only their senses strengthen—they are not able to shift into a wolf.”
He allowed me a moment to digest the information.
“So that explains why I started developing stronger senses after I turned sixteen,” I murmured.
Blake and Cade nodded their heads at me.
“Only from the time the werewolf turns sixteen can it be smelled and identified by other werewolves. It’s a way to keep young werewolves safe from rogue werewolves until they get to an age where they are able to protect themselves,” Blake explained further.
Smelled and identified. I realized the distinct smells I’d smelled since I’d gotten here were the different werewolves. If I’d been a part of a pack, I would have known what the distinct smells meant.
“Why do some werewolves smell like forest and some smell like fresh rain?” I asked the question that had been bugging me for a while.
“The werewolves that smell like fresh rain belong to the storm pack and the others belong to the silver moon pack,” Blake explained.
“So if werewolves have scents according to their packs, what do I smell like?” I asked.
“Like wild daisies,” said Cade, looking a little uncomfortable. Blake threw him a look and smiled.
Flowers were good; it could be worse, I could smell like old shoes.
“So if I had to join a pack, would my scent change to that of the pack?” I asked. Cade raised an eyebrow and I rolled my eyes at him.
“It’s a hypothetical question. I don’t want to join either of your packs,” I stated heatedly.
“Yes,” answered Blake.
“I don’t know much about werewolves. The only stuff I do know is what I’ve read about in teen books or learned from movies like Twilight. But aren’t werewolves too territorial to have two packs so close together?” I questioned. Questions were forming in my head faster than they would be able to answer them.
