“No, you won’t,” I argue, pulling away from her and cupping her face in my hands. “I’m glad you didn’t this time.”
“But if I had fought, he wouldn’t have seen you. If I’d been brave or smart, I would have gone to the car or a neighbor’s house, and he would have never seen you.”
“You did fine. But you’re not going out alone ever again.”
“Maybe you should go home. I’m just a stupid human. I can’t protect you, even with the charms everywhere.”
“I’m not going anywhere. And I’m definitely not leaving you alone.”
“But...”
“No buts. Even if I’m gone, she’ll come after you.”
“But he said she didn’t want me.”
At her words, it fully hits me that Mave is working with the weres. Mom pops in, startling us both, and gasps when she sees what a bloody mess we are. Her instincts make her rush to me first, but I stop her. “It’s Abby. She was scratched by a were.”
“A were,” Mom shouts.
“Does this mean I’ll turn into a were?” Abby asks, as fresh tears spill down her cheek.
“No,” I say and wipe her face clean.
“What kind of were?” Mom asks, examining Abby’s wound. Dad and Devan pop into the room.
“Wolf by the smell,” I answer.
“A werewolf was here?” my dad asks.
“Yeah. Not five minutes ago. He caught Abby outside alone. Apparently, they are working with Mave. This means they know I’m here, not with the pack, and weak.”
“They are going to try to use you to get their hunting land back,” Abby states, keeping her eyes locked on mine and not on what Mom is doing to her. Understanding washes over us all.
“Looks like,” Dimitri says. “What they don’t know is that Mave wants my head on a stick. We have another problem. The wolf now wants Abby as a consolation prize for getting me. He doesn’t know that Mave wants her. Maybe we can use his need for her as a way of keeping her alive,” I say, leaving her with my mom to discuss the matter with my father.
“You’re not going to give me to him,” Abby asks after a moment, fear shadowing her face.
The panic in her eyes makes me forget everyone else in the room. I rush back to her side and take her in my arms again as Mom finishes cleaning the area. She wraps her good arm around my waist and buries her face in my bare chest. “No. I will never let them have you. I promise. I’ll kill them all before they can lay a finger on you,” I say into the top of her head where I’ve buried my face and without thinking kiss her hair. Her hand presses harder into my back as if she is trying to push me closer to her.
I meet my mother’s gaze and see happiness and sadness in her eyes. She is figuring out what I already know. I love this woman with everything in me, and I would die before letting anything happen to her.
I hold her close while Mom gives her a local and begins stitching her up. Dad and Devan discuss the situation after Abby tells them everything the were said.
“When did you shift?” Mom asks me.
“Shortly after he arrived. I tried to force a shift as soon as I saw him, but it wasn’t until he made a move for Abby that I shifted on my own.”
“You’re shifting more and more aren’t you?” she asks.
I nod. I am now that Abby knows about me. The closer I get to her, the more I need her, the more I shift. Of course, the shifts happen mostly at night because that is when I feel the sexual need for her the most, but that bit of information is staying secret.
“We’ll send Sam over and set up around the clock surveillance on Abby and the house,” my dad says, as Mom begins packing up her medical kit.
I nod, but Abby jerks her head up. “Um... I don’t think that is a good idea.”
“Why not?” I ask harshly.
“Because if my sister or neighbors or friends catch sight of any of them there will be problems.”
“Okay,” I say. “How about this, you get your sister or your friends to go with you whenever you go out…and I mean whenever. You only check the mail when one of them is here. You only answer the door when one of them is here or I am in human form.”
“She still needs guards,” my father says.
“How about I start spending time around here. We can say we’re dating and...” Devan suggests.
“No,” she and I exclaim at the same time.
“I’m not saying it is a bad idea, Mr. Sullivan,” she says to my father in a calmer tone. “Because it’s a good one. If the wolves think I’m dating one of you, they will be less likely to confront me, but I don’t want Devan.”
The idea is a good one, in more ways than one. If Mave thinks she is dating one of my pack members, she might leave her alone. My father nods in understanding. Even though I agree, I can’t help but look disappointed. A look my father seems to notice.
“Why not me?” Devan demands.
“Do you really want me to tell your parents how much of an ass you are?” she snaps at him. “Besides it won’t be very believable.”
“How’s that sweetie?” my mom asks.
“Devan and I wouldn’t make a believable couple. If we are going to go that route, you need to pick some who is actually likely to ask me out on a date.”
That pisses me off. I jump up off the sofa and make to lunge for Devan. My father grabs me around the chest and pulls me into the hallway.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asks in a whisper so low that only the shifters in the building could hear him if they tried.
“Devan. She’s been down on herself ever since he first showed up. He flirted with her, asked her out, and betrayed her. She deserves better than that. I want to kill him every time she has a negative thought. She’s too beautiful for that. Too...”
“You love her don’t you?” he interrupts.
“I do.”
“Does she know?”
“No. She barely knows me. I can’t go dropping something like that in her lap. Besides, after Devan, I doubt she would believe me. She’d probably think I was playing her.”
“You have your work cut out for you. Who do you suggest we send?”
“I don’t want you to send anyone. I don’t want another man in this house.”
“I know you don’t, but we have to send someone.”
“Then send Carlos. If she won’t approve of Devan, then she won’t approve of him, but he is the only one I trust not to try anything with her. Well, he will, but she will see right through him in a heartbeat.” Carlos is the closest thing to a best friend I have. The only one I trust to respect my wishes.
“All right. We should get back home to let the others know. Sam will be here shortly,” he said, going back into the living room.
Devan glares at me with his arms crossed when we reenter the room but doesn’t say anything.
“You sure I’m not going to turn into a werewolf at the next full moon?” she asks once my parents are gone.
“I’m sure. Only their saliva is venomous…and only when they are in wolf form. He only scratched you with partially extended claws. And if you were to change, you could change anytime, not just at a full moon.”
“So, Devan’s saliva isn’t venomous in human form?”
“No,” I snap, causing her to flinch. “No, shifters aren’t venomous. If he was, you would have shifted months ago.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...” she says, though, her expression tells me she isn’t exactly sure why she is apologizing.
“You can’t help who you like,” I reply, getting up to go to the kitchen.
“Hey, wait,” she says, reaching up and grabbing my arm with her good one. I don’t turn around, so she stands and moves in front of me. “I don’t like your brother. I didn’t tell your parents that I didn’t want him around because I still had feelings for him. I asked because he thinks he has feelings for me, or maybe he’s just trying to make it up to me. Either way, I don’t want him here. And I know you aren’t your brother.”
“I’m not going to betray you. I’m not going to let Mave get you. I’m not going to turn you over to the wolves. I’m not...” I say a bit angrily.
“I know, Dimitri. I know,” she says, squeezing my arm. “I trust you. Now let me make us some lunch.”
At that moment, inconveniently, my body shifts, and when my clothes hit the floor she turns to look down at me. “Damn it,” she says, reaching over, grabbing her phone off the counter, and calling Devan to tell him not to bring Sam.
Chapter 23
~~~Abby~~~
This is the first time in over two weeks that Dimitri has been human long enough and at a decent enough hour to have Sam over. I instantly disliked the woman when she appeared. She is tall. Amazonian tall. Beautiful. Her dark auburn hair is long and curly. Her eyes are big and brown. Her body curves in the all the right places and doesn’t curve in all the right places.
I excuse myself shortly after she arrives and watch them secretly from the kitchen while I pretend to cook supper. I take longer than normal to cook a simple pot of spaghetti noodles, brown some ground beef, open a jar of Ragu, and place buttered cheese bread in the oven. Every time Sam laughs, I look their way. Every time Dimitri laughs, I look their way. Every time I hear the slightest noise, I look their way. The fact that I don’t overcook the noodles or burn the bread is amazing.
The only times I feel ashamed of myself for spying is when Dimitri catches me looking, and he catches me nearly every time I turn my head in their direction. He gives me a smile that seems to say he is simply humoring the other woman when I catch him laughing at something she says. I don’t know if he really is or not, but they seem awful close to me. I know she’s a friend of the family and all, but something about their interaction says that they’ve dated or they’re working up to it. I especially see it in the way she touches his body while examining it for spell marks. He refuses to get naked in front of her, despite her insistence that she needs to check everywhere. This makes me happy, but I worry about the bulge in his boxers. In my mind, I have an image of how big he is, so the bulge could just be his normal size. But then I wonder if my image of it is correct. If it isn’t, then her hands on his skin has him a little too excited. Either way, the bulge is too huge to ignore, and I know Sam isn’t ignoring it.
Eventually, Sam says her goodbyes. When she does, I am taking the bread out of the oven. I feign disappointment and offer her dinner, praying she will not accept. She doesn’t, making some skinny girl statement about how the carbs will ruin her figure, and a minute later Devan pops in to take her home. Sam is a witch with massive power, but teleportation, or whatever it is the shifters do, isn’t her forte.
Dimitri has explained to me over time that not all shapeshifters are magical and not all magical creatures have the same powers. His family comes from a long line of shifters who have married witches or other magical beings. A large number of different shifter communities stay away from witches and the like. The animal part of them wants only the company of their own kind and nothing more.
Not Dimitri’s pack though. Thousands of years ago, they struck an alliance with the magical community. The alliance was a product of a Romeo and Juliet type situation. Instead of letting their children die over their prejudices, they came to an arrangement that worked out to their mutual benefit.
“Does she have an idea as to what Mave did to you?” I ask, getting out plates and cups.
“It’s a curse of some kind, obviously. A strong curse, but, as we know, not a permanent one. Most likely one of Mave’s own creation. A verbal spell. Sam says we’ll have to wait until it wears off. That shouldn’t be too long. I’m shifting into a human more often. My powers are nearly fully charged. I’ll be out of your hair any day now.”
His body is turned away from me when he says this, which is a good thing because the news hits me like a physical blow to the stomach, taking my breath away.
“You all right?” he asks as I nearly double over from the pain his words cause me.
I recover quickly and say, “I’m fine. That will be nice for you. Getting to go home. You can get back to Sam and your family.”
“Sam?” He is standing next to me now, reaching for our plates to put the noodles on them. “Why would I be ready to get back to Sam?”
“She’s your... I mean it seems like...”
“She’s a friend,” he says, reaching toward my face, lifting my chin so that I look him in the eye. “Nothing more. I was only joking about getting out of your hair. I’m not leaving here until I know you’re safe.”
“But once you’re back to normal, Mave won’t want me anymore.”
“Oh, she will want you,” he says, lowering his head slightly toward mine. I freeze. My heart begins pounding in my chest. Is he going to kiss me? No, surely not. Why would he want to kiss me, but not want Sam? Hell, Sam is so hot a part of me wants her.
“She’ll want you as long as I...” He doesn’t get to finish that sentence or kiss me. At that moment, a knock comes at the front door. We both jerk, then laugh.
“I’ll get the door. You hide,” I say.
“Wait, what if it is Mave or one of the wolves?”
“It is probably Carlos. He is due any minute now.” Ever since the werewolf attack, I’ve been pretending to date one of Dmitri’s pack mates, Carlos. He comes by three or four times a week for dinner or to visit. I haven’t told Carrie, which Dimitri says I should do to keep the weres from getting suspicious, but I can’t. She’ll get too excited and when this is all over, she’ll be too disappointed.
“He usually pops in to say he is on his way when he gets ready to come. No, I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Dimitri says.
“All the more reason for you to hide. If it is the weres and they see you, then they will know you are still here. If it is the wolves that see you, and they try anything, call for help, then come after me. Most likely, though, it’s Carlos or my sister. Whoever it is, I’ll try to get rid of them quick so we can...” I don’t know where to go with that sentence. I want to say, so that we could get back to that kiss he was about to give me, but I’m not positive he was about to kiss me. The knock comes again, saving me from having to finish.
“All right,” he says, nodding toward the door while stepping back into the shadows of the kitchen and to the door that leads to the basement.
I peep through the hole to find a petite young woman standing on my doorstep. She is tiny in every since of the word. From a distance, she would have looked like a child, but even through the distortion of the hole, I can see she is a young woman who has seen the world and it wasn’t pretty. Cautiously, and a bit confused as to why she would be on my doorstep, I open the door a few inches with a, “Can I help you?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I was out walking my dog, and he took off. He’s a big dog, and as you can see, I’m not that strong. He spotted a cat, and off he went. Normally I make, Ray—he’s my boyfriend—walk him, but Ray had to work a double shift, and if Buster shits on the floor, Ray blames me.”
The girl is talking fast and shakily. She is making her story up as she goes along and is only pretending to be scared. I’m not sure why I automatically assume this. I normally don’t judge people so quickly, but something in me tells me she is lying. She is off somehow. Wrong.
Dimitri must have sensed it, because before I can stop the young woman’s incessant babbling, he steps into the living room, and she goes stone cold.
“She’s a were,” I say not looking away from the woman.
“I know.”
“Well, aren’t you a wise bitch?” the female were spits at me, her voice losing its rapid-fireness.
“Can weres be crack whores?” I ask Dimitri, pretending I haven’t heard the woman’s comment. I know I probably shouldn’t anger her, but I am pissed that they would dare send someone straight to my door.
“Apparently,” Dimitri replies, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “What do you want?” he asks the growling were.
“No, he’s still a cat. I’m one of his brothers. What do you want?” he snaps.
“She has a bounty on her head,” she says, nodding to me. “And I’ve come to claim it. Hand her over.”
“Not likely.”
“Just hand her and the cat over,” she demands her head nodding to Sebastian. Mave hasn’t told this woman anything. Or is the she-wolf freelancing?
Dimitri comes up beside me and pulls me behind him. Sebastian hisses, and the woman jerks her head and growls at him. “If you want her, you’ll have to come and get her. I’m not giving her up,” Dimitri says.
“Why, she’s nothing to you. Give her to me, and I’ll let you keep your brother…for now.”
“Go to hell,” he says and tries to slam the door.
She sticks her leg out and catches the door before it can fully close.
I am in mid-run, heading to my bedroom to call for help when I feel a sharp pain in my left shoulder blade. I hit the floor in a heap, waves of nausea overcoming me. A warm liquid begins to coat my back.
The harsh sounds of a fight come from behind me, and I try to turn over to see if Dimitri is all right. All I manage to do is turn my head in their direction. I can’t see much, mostly the bottom halves of bodies scuffling around my living room. Knick-knacks break. A chair topples over, then everything goes quiet, and the woman’s body hits the floor a foot from me, her head twisted at an angle God never meant for it to go.
It takes everything I have not to pass out. A second after the woman hits the floor, the living room door slams, and Dimitri is standing over me, telling me everything is going to be all right and yelling for his family to come. People pop in everywhere. Frantic voices shout questions, most of which Dimitri ignores as he helps his mother lift me from the floor and place me on the kitchen table.
I go in and out of consciousness after that. The wolf had managed to get off two shots before Dimitri grabbed her. I hadn’t felt the second one because of the first. My brain shuts off all contact to my body. Both shots were in nearly the same spot. Apparently, I ran right into her range of vision when she stopped the door. I took both shots in the shoulder area. The first got me dead center, but luckily, the second barely grazed my underarm.
Shifter Page 18
