by Codi Gary
“Thank you. We were more like acquaintances, but she was great. She didn’t deserve to go out like that.”
“Nobody does,” he murmured.
Desperate to get off the subject she smiled and reached into her purse. “Buy you a beer?”
“Naw, I’m good. Why is this place called Howlers?”
Greer grinned. “Cause tonight your howling at the moon and tomorrow, you’re scowling at the room.”
“You’re not serious?” he said.
“No.”
“Funny.”
“I like to think so,” she said.
“Well, I guess I should take off.”
He didn’t look like he wanted to leave and she really wished he would stay. “Right, you said you were meeting friends. What do they look like? Maybe I’ve seen them.”
“One’s a young woman about five foot nine with red hair and hazel eyes and the other is a tall Native American man with a tribal tattoo on his left bicep.”
Greer cocked her head, amused. “That’s a pretty clinical description, but Jill’s talking to a guy that sounds like your friend.”
Xander whipped away from her, turning his head frantically. “Where?”
“Well, they were right…” she trailed off when she realized that they had disappeared. “Crap, I lost her. Damn it, this is so typical. I told her not to run off without telling me…hey, where are you going?”
Xander was pushing his way toward the front of Howlers, and Greer followed behind.
“Xander, what is going on?”
He didn’t answer as he launched out the door. Once she was outside, the cold air blasted her face and arms, but she didn’t have time to go back inside for her jacket. She stepped through a cloud of cigarette smoke before she caught up with him rounding the corner. She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him to a stop, but he just dragged her along.
“You’re scaring me! I thought the guy was your friend?”
“I lied, okay? He’s a bad dude and if we don’t find Jill, there’s going to be another dead body in the morning.”
“What?” she choked.
He looked like he was going to say more, but a blood-curdling scream ripped through the night.
It was Jill.
Chapter Ten
“Jill!” Greer screamed, and when she started to run toward the sound, he pulled her back.
“I’m going first.”
Xander didn’t wait for her to argue, he just took off, wishing he could shield Greer from what she was about to see, but how could he stop her? Besides, she was safer with him than standing out front or going back inside. Dakota could easily be waiting to get her alone just to punish him.
To his surprise, they came around the back to find Jill stumbling around. Her jacket hung off one arm and her hand gripped her exposed shoulder. The golden light over the back door illuminated her pale complexion, and wide, shocked eyes.
“Jill,” Greer cried, racing passed him to her friend. She put her arm around Jill’s waist, rattling off questions rapidly. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“I…” Jill winced, as though it hurt to talk. Xander smelled the blood before he saw it oozing beneath her hand, trailing down her collarbone. The light blue halter top she wore had dark trails down her chest where the blood ran.
He tipped his head up and took a deep breath. Along with the bitter, metallic scent of blood was the familiar musk of Pax.
“Jill, the man that attacked you…did he change?”
Jill turned his way, her expression completely befuddled. “Change? Into what?”
“An animal?” he said.
Greer gasped, while Jill shook her head. “I…I didn’t see. He was behind me and then, I felt this excruciating pain. It was awful.”
“Do you know where he went?” he insisted.
Jill’s voice was clogged with fear, the scent permeating the air around her. “No, I screamed and he took off into the dark.”
“He bit you?” Xander asked impatiently.
“Bit her?” Greer said shrilly.
Jill moved her hand, showing the clear puncture wounds from Pax’s teeth.
“Oh, my God, Jill!”
Xander watched Greer embrace Jill tenderly. Pax hadn’t killed Jill like the others. Instead, he’d bitten her. Changed her into a shifter.
“Greer, you need to step back,” Xander said, calmly.
Greer pulled back, shooting him a look of bewilderment. “What are you talking about?”
How in the hell could he explain to her that stressing Jill out could only make her transition faster without revealing who and what he was?
“She’s been bitten by a were-cougar. We need to keep her calm so she doesn’t shift.”
Dazed Jill was replaced by a woman with wide frightened eyes and a shrill voice. “Shift? I’m going to shift?”
“Sooner rather than later. I need to get you somewhere safe so no one sees you. It can be a very painful process, and not all humans are shifter friendly.”
“How did you know he was a were-cougar?”
Xander faced Greer, seeing the suspicion in her eyes.
“I’ll explain everything once we get her to safety.”
Greer nodded and led Jill around the corner. Several of the smokers had come back to investigate.
“Is she okay?” one asked.
“Yeah, she just cut herself. We’re taking her to the hospital,” Greer said.
“On her neck?” Xander could tell they were suspicious. A guy who appeared to be in his early twenties spoke directly to Jill. “Do you want me to call an ambulance?”
“No, I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.”
Greer kept her arm around Jill’s waist as they moved past and he followed behind them.
“I don’t think that girl was okay, man,” one of the smokers said.
“Should we call the cops?”
“Naw, the one girl seemed to be helping her. Let’s go back in.”
Xander shook his head at the exchange. For all they knew, they could have been abducting Jill, but they were obviously more concerned with partying.
No wonder Greer had been so surprised by his help before. Chivalry really was dead.
Xander listened intently to their surroundings as they weaved through the parked cars. He needed to be ready in case Pax or Dakota jumped out of the shadows and attack them.
Not that he thought they had stuck around. Whatever their little game was, they obviously wanted Jill alive and him twisting.
But he had no connection to Jill, except through Greer, so why was she targeted?
He helped Jill into the back and when Greer would have joined her, Xander stalled her with a hand on her shoulder. “You’re up front.”
“The hell I am, she’s my friend.”
“And if she shifts, I want you away from the action.”
Greer’s mouth turned mulish and her chin jutted. He was afraid that she would argue with him and he’d be forced to pick her up and lift her into the front.
“Fine, but only because you owe me an explanation.”
He closed the door on Jill and opened the passenger side for Greer, who didn’t even look at him as she climbed inside.
When he finally got into the cab and turned the key, Jill started hyperventilating. “Oh my God. Oh my God.”
“What’s wrong?” Greer asked.
“The bite! The bite’s gone.”
If she was already healing then it was just a matter of time before she turned.
He peeled out of the parking lot, heading back to his place.
“Tell me what’s going on Xander!” Greer shouted.
“Shifters, Greer. Paranormal creatures. That is what is going on. I’ve been tracking two of them for five years, and I followed them here. The man, Pax Steel, he is the one who bit your friend.”
“Why did he bite her?”
“I don’t know but it’s nothing good.” He hesitated, afraid to tell her everything. “They killed Kelsey
and Sam.”
Greer’s voice was barely over a whisper. “Sam?”
“Yeah, I found him this morning on my way into town. The police haven’t discovered his body yet.”
“How did you find him? Were you hiking again or something?” she asked.
Xander knew he was burying himself, and putting a whole lot of trust in her, but he couldn’t lie. She needed to know everything. “I smelled him.”
“You…smelled him?”
“Jill, you doing okay back there?” Xander asked as he sped back up the mountain road.
“No, I’m far from freaking…oh, crap…I…I think I’m going to pass out.”
The cab went quiet and he glanced over his shoulder quickly to make sure she was okay. “Thank God.”
“Is she going to be alright?”
“I think so. It’s always an adjustment, especially if it’s not a consensual bite.”
Greer scoffed. “People actually consent to being bitten and turned?”
He turned to her briefly, the incredulous expression on her face tying his guts up in knots. “When two people choose to be mated, yes.”
He saw her swallow and he would have given a pound of flesh to know what she was thinking.
“You said you smelled Sam. Was he close to the road or something?”
“No, he was about a half a mile into the woods. I was driving with the windows down and I smelled his dead body.”
“How…Oh my God. What are you?”
The horror in her voice stabbed him in the chest.
“I’m a werewolf.”
Chapter Eleven
Twenty minutes later, Greer paced Xander’s living room, trying to put everything together. Jill was resting in the spare bedroom and Xander was in the kitchen making coffee.
How in the hell was she supposed to wrap her brain around all this? Jill had been bitten by a shifter and Xander, the guy she’d thought she could trust, was one too. Her ex was dead, Kelsey was dead, and she still had a butt load of questions Xander needed to answer.
“So, are you like a shifter bounty hunter or something?”
Xander didn’t even look up from his task as he answered. “No, I’m not a bounty hunter or a cop.”
“Okay. Then why were you following them here?”
He stopped pouring the coffee to meet her gaze. “They killed my family. Came through and slaughtered them while they were sleeping.”
“Oh, Xander, I am so sorry.” The way he said it, flat and emotionless, made her want to reach out and hold him.
He ignored her condolences, which didn’t surprise her. When she’d lost her parents in a car accident three years ago, she didn’t want to talk about them at first. It was too painful.
“That’s why I was in the woods when you fell. I was following their scent and I saw Pax watching you. I ran after him, planning on ending it there, but when you collapsed, I couldn’t leave you.”
She had no idea why it had taken her so long, but the pieces finally clicked. “You were the wolf.”
“Yes.”
“I just…I feel like my head is going to explode.”
“You knew shifters were real, right?”
He sounded almost impatient with her and it rankled her. “Well, yeah, but—
“Then you shouldn’t be so surprised.”
The muscle in her jaw tightened. “Okay, fine, but all of the news stories paint you as warm and fuzzy toward humans. Why are they attacking us?”
“Most shifters are pro-human, but there is the occasional issue with shifters killing other shifters and even humans. There are bad guys in the paranormal world, too, just like with humans.”
“Why are they doing this then? Why Kelsey, Sam, and Jill?”
Xander finished pouring the coffee and handed her a cup. “To punish me. After they murdered my family, I have tracked them down one by one, making sure they would never hurt anyone else. There were originally seven. Now there is only five.”
“You mean you’ve been killing them.”
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“Still doesn’t explain why they killed Kelsey, and Sam. You had no connection to them.”
“It’s you. Somehow they must have seen me with you and thought that I might…feel something for you.”
Greer’s heart slammed in her chest, beating a tattoo against her breast bone. “Do you?”
“Does it matter? You think I’m a monster, right?”
Did she? She was scared shitless, no doubt about it, but not of Xander. That voice in her head that had told her to trust him before was still there, still convinced he was a good guy. A good guy vigilante who just happened to be a werewolf.
She set her mug down on the coffee table, and then stepped closer to him. “I don’t think you’re a monster. I…I can’t explain it, but I care for you too. I believe you would never hurt me.”
Tears slid over her eyelids, trailing down her cheeks as the reality of what was happening crashed over her. Kelsey was dead. Sam, too, and now, Jill’s life was completely turned upside down.
And two dangerous supernatural creatures had her in their sights.
Without asking her permission, Xander reached out and gently hauled her into his arms. He held her against his chest, rocking her back and forth. His lips brushed the top of her hair and she leaned into him, squeezing his waist tight as she cried out. Sobs wracked her body as she completely lost it, breaking down like a freaking basket case because she could.
Because Xander, a man she barely knew, was letting her.
He rubbed his hand over her back, murmuring low and soothingly. “It’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you or Jill. You have my word.”
Finally, she got a hold of herself. She smoothed her hand over the wet spots on his chest where her tears had soaked his t-shirt. “Sorry for losing my shit all over you.”
His hand came up and he trailed his fingers down her cheek. She tipped her head back to meet his gaze, his electric blue eyes boring into hers.
“You needed it and I’ll be here anytime you do. Anything to get you into my arms.”
It was a line and maybe under normal circumstances, she would have called him out for being cheesy, but she just smiled as she laid her cheek against his chest. The steady thump of his heart kicked up and she wondered if it was because of her proximity. Did she really get to him the way he did her?
“Is it crazy that I just want to stay here with you and push all the bad stuff away?”
“Not at all. If it was up to me, I’d keep you here with me forever.”
To her surprise, the word forever coming from Xander didn’t send her into a blind panic.
“As much as I’d love that, we have some serious problems and I need to know where we go from here. Do we call the police?”
Xander’s grip on her tightened. “No. No cops, of any kind.”
“But isn’t there a branch of paranormal law enforcement that can catch them.”
“I don’t want them caught.”
Greer pulled away as his meaning sunk in. “You want to kill them too.”
“They deserve it, Greer. You don’t know all they did.”
Her palm cupped his cheek. “Tell me. Make me understand.”
Xander’s expression clouded and he cupped her hand, moving it away from his skin.
“I can’t.”
Chapter Twelve
Xander stood outside his bedroom, listening to Greer’s breathing as she slept. After he’d denied her the details of his family’s murder, she’d pulled away, wanting to get some rest. He’d let her take his bed, and offered to bunk on the couch. He couldn’t blame her for being pissed at him. Although she’d only known him a few days, he’d done nothing but lie to her. Now, when she begged him to open up and let her in, to make her understand his world and his reasoning, he’d told her no.
He wouldn’t be surprised if she never wanted to see him again.
But it was too late for that. She needed him now and
he had to protect her. To keep her safe. Once Pax and Dakota were dead, he would do whatever she needed, even if that meant walking away from her.
Until that moment though, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.
He went downstairs and dialed Clyde. He needed a safe place for Jill while she adjusted to being a shifter, someone who could show her how to live.
“Hey, there’s my boy! How’s the weather up there?”
“Storms a brewing, actually.”
“Uh oh, what kind of trouble have you gotten into now?”
That was just one of the things that Xander loved about Clyde. He didn’t bullshit and pussy foot around a topic, he jumped right into it.
“Pax and Dakota have started targeting the locals as a way to get to me. I need to finish this now, before more people die, but there’s a…complication.”
“Are we talking about a girl?” Xander could hear the smile in Clyde’s voice. Barbara Wolfe wasn’t the only parent who liked matchmaking.
“Actually, we’re talking about the girl’s friend. Pax bit her.”
Clyde cursed. “Is she alright?”
“Freaked at first, but she passed out. I just can’t deal with holding her hand through her transition and fighting Dakota and Pax.”
“We’ll take off tomorrow and give you a hand.”
Xander didn’t want Clyde and his family getting in the way of what he needed to do. “Dakota and Pax are mine, Clyde.”
“Easy there, boy wonder, I mean we’ll come up to take care of the girl. But you know if you need some backup, we’ve got you covered. I love you like a son. No sense in you dying because you were too damn stubborn to accept our help.”
“This is not about pride. This is about me finishing what I started.”
“Boy, you took on each of those shifters one on one. Pax and his bitch don’t strike me as the type to play by the rules.”
“I can handle it.”
He heard Clyde sigh. “I hope so. We’ll see you tomorrow. Try not to get yourself killed before I can give you a hug, alright?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all I can ask. Night, son.”
