She Wolf

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

  Particularly at the stranger they had yet to track down. That was the only promising lead they’d come across so far, and it wasn’t much. They needed to watch this apparent change in killing pattern closely, but she wasn’t quite ready to pack up and head south. “I need to make a call.”

  She walked far enough away from Jayne, Kyle, and Ava to give herself some privacy. It would be early evening back home. Senn picked up on the first ring. “What is it? Have you put the wolf down?”

  “Sadly, no.”

  “I thought you’d have it done by now.” There was no accusation in his voice—only a statement.

  “So did I.”

  “What’s the problem?” Senn was a true leader. He was great at taking the facts and helping find a solution.

  “I can’t get a fix on it. Something feels really off here, Senn. Last night two bodies were left miles away from Chewelah, as if the wolf was moving toward Spokane. Going to the city for easier hunting.”

  “You’re not following that path, are you?”

  He knew her so well. “No. I still feel its spirit in Chewelah. I get the sense it wants us to believe it’s moving south, but it’s more of a game. Ring a bell with you?”

  For a heartbeat he said nothing, though she could hear the click of keys as he typed into his computer. “Damn,” he muttered. “I was afraid of that.”

  “Afraid of what? Come on, Senn. We’d appreciate a little help here.”

  Again there was a big pause. “There’s something we never told you.”

  For a second she wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. “Not possible. I’ve been Jägers for too long for there to be any secrets.” She wasn’t bragging. She had simply been in the order so long that she’d been around for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Her relationship with Senn had been the closest with another person since her two best friends. They didn’t have any secrets between them.

  “I wish that were true, though I always knew this day would come.”

  Lily ran a hand through her hair as a pounding began behind her right eye. Yes, something definitely not right here. She was starting to get a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Senn…”

  “You understand about the link between the werewolf and their maker.”

  It wasn’t a question, because everyone in the Jägers understood that basic. When a werewolf was near their maker, an invisible bond existed between them, a link only broken when the alpha was dead. What that had to do with her, she had no clue. Her maker had been destroyed centuries ago.

  “She must be there.”

  “She, who? Senn, you’re not making any sense and I don’t have time for your puzzles.”

  “Your maker.”

  For a second she thought she’d heard him wrong. “My maker died the night I was attacked. You told me that yourself.”

  “I lied.”

  *

  A surge of energy roared through Kyle. Seeing what the werewolf had done to the woman who’d come to his bedroom asking for help made him want to scream. Even more than that, it spurred him to action. There had to be something more they could do. This son of a bitch had to be stopped today.

  What frightened him a little was how ineffectual they’d been so far. Tiny bits of info here and there hadn’t gotten them far, and two more had died because of it. If this was the best he could do, the last thing he should be was a Jägers.

  Ava took his hand and pulled him back toward the SUV. “Come on,” she said as she opened the back door. “We can’t do anything more here.”

  “I haven’t done anything at all,” he muttered as he climbed into the backseat of the rig right next to Ava. Talk about feeling like a total failure.

  With her hands on his face, Ava stared into his eyes. “You’ve done more than you realize. You’ve guided lost souls into the light, and you’ve brought help to these people discarded along the road as though they were garbage. You gave them dignity. That, my very handsome necromancer, is a great deal.”

  “I’m just so damned frustrated.” Again he felt like screaming. There was a lot to be said for childish tantrums. He’d give anything to throw one right now.

  “As am I.”

  He dropped back against the seat and rubbed his hands over his eyes. If only he could come up with something to get them closer to the killer. Then he had a thought. “What if we combine our powers again? We opened one door. Maybe we can open another. We’ve got to do something to get us ahead of this bastard.”

  She twisted in her seat and stared at him. “That’s an excellent suggestion. You do realize this is new for me too.”

  “I didn’t. I thought you could do just about anything you wanted.”

  Ava leaned into him and put her head on his shoulder. “I inherited much from the women who came before me. They passed down powers through the blood and, more importantly, passed down the knowledge of how to use those powers. I’ve been taught how to be one with the universe, to respect the laws of threefold.”

  “You have an amazing family.” He thought about his own grandmother. If not for her, he’d have gone crazy. Unlike Ava, though, those with his kind of power were unique in the family, not the norm. Even his parents didn’t really understand. They tried and they were kind, but they simply couldn’t relate.

  “Yes,” she murmured. “I’m blessed, as are you.”

  His laugh lacked humor. “I never really thought of it as being blessed. I just tried to figure out something to do with it so I didn’t lose my mind. People aren’t exactly lining up to hang out with the guy who talks to dead people.”

  “You found a place where you fit in and, even better, you found me. You might not realize it, but I do.”

  “Realize what?”

  She snuggled in closer. “Together we’re dynamic.”

  Now that was something she didn’t have to tell him twice. He put an arm around her and let her nearness fill him with peace. Yes, together the two of them were more. The Jägers filled his life with purpose, but Ava filled his heart with love. They were definitely dynamic.

  Out the front windshield he could watch what was happening beyond. Lily was off to the side talking on her cell phone, and he had the impression she wasn’t crazy about what she was hearing because her face was filled with darkness. Jayne was working with others near the car, where the body of the woman he’d alerted them to was now covered to protect her from the gaze of passing motorists. He and Ava were alone for the time being. No one to see them; no one to overhear their conversation.

  He continued to stare out the window as he said, “You know I’m in love with you.”

  At first she said nothing, and he feared he’d gone too far. Probably should have kept his pining-heart declarations to himself. When he chanced a sideways glance, he was surprised to see a small smile on her lips.

  “I know.”

  “And?”

  “And I’m glad.”

  His chest felt as though a three-hundred-pound man had just rolled off it. “Really?”

  “Really. I believe it’s the reason we’re able to do what we do together. If I’d tried that spell with someone else, I seriously doubt it would have worked. With you, with us together, who knows what we can do.”

  She was right, and the only thing that bothered him was what she didn’t say. By uttering those three words, he’d bared his soul to her. She hadn’t turned away or laughed, but she hadn’t said she loved him too.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Jayne went on autopilot once they arrived at the crime scene and directed her staff like the professional she was. It was easier than letting herself think about what this could be. What it probably was.

  Damn it, but Lily, Kyle, and Ava had made a believer out of her. Instead of being pissed at the council for bringing this team in, she was glad they were here, and she was glad they were in her home. She was glad they all had her back.

  Was she losing her mind?

  Jayne turned and looked at Lily standing near the trees tal
king on her phone. No, she wasn’t going crazy. Some people were special, and Lily was one of those people. That the attraction was mutual between them was heartwarming. In an odd way she felt as though they’d known each other for a lifetime instead of a few days.

  She was trying to concentrate on what was going on around her, and her mind wandered down the path of choices. In her life she’d made many that caused her to wonder at the time why she’d made them. Each one took her down a path that altered her life just a little. As she studied the scene around her and the people who were 27 ( all a part of her life today, she realized how each decision had brought her to this place. More importantly, had brought her to this woman. Gave new meaning to the term “big picture.”

  It was noon before they got back to Colville. By the time she walked into her office she felt as though she’d been at work for days. Five dead and two missing, and if Lily was correct, a full moon to crank things up even more. Great, just fucking great.

  For what was beginning to feel like business as usual, Lily joined her in her office. They looked at each other and words weren’t necessary. If she were a betting woman, she’d put odds on Lily thinking the same thing she was: they were running out of time.

  Lily, it occurred to her, had said very little since she ended her call out at the crime scene. Even since coming into the office, she’d been quiet. Whatever had been said on that call weighed heavy on her mind. This wasn’t the woman she woke up next to this morning.

  “Are you all right?”

  Lily’s dark eyes met hers. “Yes.”

  “You don’t seem okay.”

  “I’d tell you everything is perfect, but I’m relatively certain you wouldn’t believe me.”

  “Tell me how I can help.” The shadows in Lily’s face concerned her.

  Shaking her head, Lily’s gaze went somewhere beyond Jayne. “I don’t even know how to process what I just found out, let alone tell you how to help.”

  “Try me. I’m a professional, you know.”

  A ghost of a smile flitted across Lily’s face. “Yes, you are. I like that about you. This, however, will take a professional of a different type.”

  Jayne took an educated guess. “Your type?”

  “Yes, most definitely my type of professional.”

  “So tell me anyway.”

  Lily began to finger the lovely ruby necklace at her neck. “I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under my feet. I know it’s a stupid saying, but it’s how I feel. As it turns out, everything I thought I knew is a lie.”

  Jayne leaned across the desk and took Lily’s hands. “Tell me what you mean.”

  “You wouldn’t believe me.”

  Twenty-four hours ago that might have been true. Today, she had a completely different mindset. “Try me.”

  Lily’s hands dropped away from her throat, and she folded them in her lap. She studied them so intently Jayne wondered what she was thinking. Finally she looked up and her eyes met Jayne’s. Pain filled them, the kind that could tear the heart apart. “I was born in Danzig in 1579. My parents were Prussian royalty.”

  Jayne wasn’t exactly sure what she was expecting Lily to say, but she did know that wasn’t it. “Get out of here.”

  The smile that flickered across Lily’s face was not full of warmth. “Oh, I’m not kidding you, Sheriff. You’re sitting across from a real-life princess.”

  “But you look younger than me.” She looked not only younger but incredibly attractive. If what she said was true, no fucking way should she be that beautiful.

  “What I am now changes all the rules. Once I was as human as you are. I was preparing to be wed to a wealthy nobleman. I was a privileged young woman in a revered family.”

  That stopped Jayne. Not the part about her royal family. No, given what they’d done last night, hearing that Lily was to marry a man still shocked her. “But I thought…”

  “You thought correctly.” This time the smile was warm. “It didn’t matter how I felt. Not in my time. I was told what to do and who to do it with. Love or desire had nothing to do with the realities of my life. I was pretty, I was young, and I was nobility. A prime catch for any number of high-born.”

  “That had to suck.” So when exactly did she buy into Lily being hundreds of years old?

  “Indeed it did. On the eve of my wedding everything changed. My two best friends came to see me, and one of them brought this.” She held out the necklace. “One for each of us. We’d grown up together and were like sisters. It was the last time we would be together before our lives changed. Two of us were on our way to becoming dutiful wives. As it turned it out, it was the last time I would ever see either one of my best friends. I’ve never stopped missing them.”

  The faraway look that came into Lily’s eyes spoke to the truth of her words. “I’m sorry about your friends.”

  “It is the way of my kind. Until that night, however, I was as human as you. I was attacked by what I thought was a wolf. Only later did I learn it was no ordinary wolf.”

  “A werewolf.”

  Lily nodded. “My parents had no idea and were devastated. Not so much by the attack but by what it did to me. The wolf had sliced open my face. The beautiful daughter they had essentially sold off was no longer the highly sought-after darling. Aldrich backed out of the marriage agreement. My family was humiliated. I had become a liability instead of an asset.”

  “That’s so wrong.”

  She shrugged, remembering the world she’d left behind. “It was the way of our time, good or bad. My family was relieved when I died.”

  Jayne’s head snapped up. Died? She could testify to the fact that Lily was very much flesh-and-blood. “You don’t seem very dead to me.”

  “As I told you before, it was the Jägers who came for me. It was easy enough to convince my family I had expired as a result of my injuries. It was the perfect solution for them. No longer was it whispered that Aldrich turned his back on me. Instead, Aldrich and my family were treated with great sympathy for my too-young demise. Everyone came out a winner in that scenario.”

  “Doesn’t seem right somehow.”

  “It was the right thing for me. Without the Jägers I would become the very thing we’re hunting. They saved my life.”

  That wasn’t much of an explanation, given she’d told her a few minutes ago that everything she knew was a lie. “What part is the lie?”

  This time Lily closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them again, tears glistened. “The Jägers gave me a home. They gave me the serum I need to control what I am. They taught me to be a warrior. They gave me a family to replace the one I’d lost. They were, they are, my everything, yet I just found out they lied to me. All these years. When I had recovered back then, I was terrified of being attacked again. The Jägers assured me the werewolf that attacked me was a rogue they tracked down and destroyed. The knowledge gave me peace and the will to go forward with my altered reality.”

  “It wasn’t true, the part about the werewolf being tracked and killed?”

  She shook her head. “No. Some werewolves are born. Some are made. I was made. The one who did that to me was born, only I didn’t know that until today. I also didn’t know she was one of my best friends.”

  “What?” She was shocked, and she wasn’t the one this had all happened to.

  “Pretty much my reaction too when Senn just told me.”

  “They’ve known this all along?”

  “In their defense, not exactly. They only discovered her true identify about a hundred years after the attack on me. They had known of a family and had spent decades trying to find out who they were, but this family hadn’t survived for centuries without developing exceptional skills. In short, they spent much of their time hiding in plain sight.” Her fingers drifted to the necklace once more.

  “I still don’t understand why they’re bothering to tell you now if they’ve kept this information from you all this time. You have enough going on here without being
sidetracked by something this huge.”

  “Because this family was well-known for their tactics.”

  For a second it didn’t hit, and when it did, it was like a lightbulb hitting a hundred watts. “Like those we’re seeing here.”

  “Yes. Senn believes the werewolf that attacked me on the night before my wedding is here in Stevens County.”

  “Son of a bitch.” A knock on her door startled her. “Yes?” It was one of her deputies, Bill Bower.

  “Sorry to bother you.” He held something in his hand. “My wife was at the grocery store and found this on the ground. She said a lady, someone she’d never seen before, must have dropped it because it was right next to where her car pulled out. You’d mentioned keeping our eyes out for people we didn’t know so figured I’d run this by you.” He opened his hand.

  Lily gasped at the sparkling ruby necklace.

  *

  Bellona stood in the open doorway to the barn and wanted to scream. Damn that woman. Out of control didn’t even begin to describe what was happening with Little Wolf. Such promise, and it was going down the drain in a hurry. It seemed that if Bellona didn’t have her eyes on Little Wolf, she was causing problems.

  Excuses for her behavior were no longer viable. It made Bellona sad because she found Little Wolf exciting. She’d had such high hopes for her and for starting a new life in this beautiful place. Adam and Eve were delightful. So many pieces fit into the puzzle that comprised a family, except Little Wolf kept pulling them apart no matter how she tried to rein her in.

  The two bodies scattered on the barn floor were beyond help. Bloody and ravaged, they showed that Little Wolf had enjoyed herself. Her taste for blood was something she hadn’t seen in a very long time. Reminded her of her cousin Ralston. He too had been out of control. Fun but totally uncontrollable and fearless. He’d put the entire family at risk, and in the end, she’d dealt with him just as she had the others. Above all else, Bellona protected herself.

  “Sorry,” Little Wolf said as she came up behind her. She had a chicken breast in one hand and was nibbling on it. She wasn’t surprised. Given what she’d been doing night after night, she had to be ravenous. This kind of activity burned calories like crazy. “I went for a little run while you were out on the highway last night. This just sorta happened.”