Mirror Lake Wolves 02 - Moon Hunted

by Jennifer Snyder

  “Yeah.” Eli shut the door to his trailer behind him, without locking it, and started down the steps.

  No one ever locked their trailers here. Break-ins were rare in Mirror Lake Trailer Park. Those of us who lived here were respectful of others. We were a tight community. Those who didn’t live within the park wouldn’t dare rob one of us for a fear of what might happen to them, considering the rumors about us always floating around.

  I started around Eli’s truck, making my way to the passenger side. Eli climbed behind the steering wheel and wasted no time cranking the engine. It roared to life without trouble.

  “All right, let’s head to Wilmont Avenue,” Eli said as he shifted into reverse and backed out of his driveway.

  I stared out the passenger window, trying to calm the frantic racing of my heart. It felt as though it might explode. I reached out and turned up the volume on the radio, hoping to drown out the sound of my heart’s erratic rhythm and my incessant thoughts. An oldies song I recognized drifted through the stuffy cab. It was one my mom used to sing.

  An image of her standing in our kitchen, washing dishes by hand while moving her hips to the beat, flickered through my head. She knew all the words and wasn’t half bad at singing either. The memory had my heart settling into a steady beat and the corners of my lips twisting into the ghost of a smile.

  God, I missed her sometimes.

  I leaned my head against the seat and listened to the lyrics of the song while gazing at the star-speckled sky through the passenger window. The stars blurred together as Eli continued toward Wilmont Avenue.

  Roughly thirty minutes passed before we came to the street we were looking for. During that time, I somehow had found a mellow state of Zen. Once Eli turned onto Wilmont Avenue all of my Zen disappeared. My mouth grew dry, and my hands became clammy. We were minutes away from stepping onto enemy grounds.

  Anything could happen.

  I wiped my palms across my shorts and leaned forward in my seat, searching for the house number Eli had mentioned earlier.

  “Is that it right there?” Eli asked. He leaned over the steering wheel, his eyes squinting like an old man’s.

  “Can you not see that far?”

  “I can. I’m just double checking.” He came to a slow creep. “Tell me if it’s the right number,” he said as he passed me the scrap of paper he’d wrote Drew’s address on.

  “If you can’t see that far, I’m scared to be riding in this vehicle with you,” I said as I glanced at the scrap of paper. The numbers on the mailbox were a perfect match. “Yup, that’s the place.”

  A shiver slipped up my spine. We were in the middle of nowhere. Nothing surrounded us except miles of woods in every direction.

  This would be a great place for werewolves to run, or for someone to hide them.

  “I’m going to find somewhere to pull over and park that’s out of the way. Then we’ll walk to Drew’s,” Eli insisted as he passed his driveway.

  I didn’t object. It seemed like a solid plan. In movies, that’s what people did when they were trying to be inconspicuous. They didn’t pull up to the house and hop out ready to kick ass; they played it safe.

  I was totally okay with playing it safe, given the situation.

  “Right there might be good.” I pointed to a dirt road with a semicircle off to the side. It looked like a great place to do doughnuts. From the circle tracks across its surface, it seemed as though somebody had practiced some recently.

  “Perfect,” Eli said as he cut a right onto the dirt road. “Good eye.”

  “Thank you.”

  Eli killed the engine of his truck and switched the headlights off. I heard him exhale a long breath before he reached for the handle on his door. “Let’s do this.” He popped the driver side door open and slipped out. “Go ahead and strip.”

  I swung my gaze around to meet his. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me,” he said as the wiry hint of a smile curled at the corners of his lips. “I said to go ahead and strip. Did you think we’d be walking up to Drew’s house without shifting first?”

  My cheeks heated. “Oh. Right. That might not be the smartest thing.”

  In wolf form, we would have better vision and hearing, plus more speed. We would also be able to pick up Violet and Glenn’s scent.

  A thought occurred to me as I reached for the handle of the passenger door.

  “Why did you have me wear black? What I was wearing before would’ve been fine if we were going to shift once we got here anyway.”

  “Maybe I wanted my scent on you.” Eli’s words pulled the breath from my lungs and forced my gaze to him again.

  Was he serious? My throat grew dry as his lips hooked into a half grin barely visible. I licked my lips and climbed out of his truck, pretending I hadn’t heard him.

  I reached for the edges of the t-shirt he’d loaned me and lifted it over my head. The heat of his gaze skimmed along the bare skin of my abdomen as soon as I shed the shirt. Butterflies burst into flight through my lower stomach, and I found myself fighting against the desire to cover myself. I liked my body—that wasn’t the issue. The issue was the way Eli’s gaze felt across my skin. It made me tremble in reaction. My bones melted and tiny flickers of lust sparked through my system.

  All of which was inappropriate given the nature of our current situation.

  I swallowed hard, ignoring every sensation his stare had awoken within my body and unbuttoned my shorts. Eli’s gaze remained on me as I shimmied out of them. When I reached around to unhook my bra, I risked a glance at him. He watched me with a hungry gaze that sent lust sweeping through me. When his tongue moistened his lips as he continued to stare, I thought he might make a move toward me. Part of me wanted him to. It begged for it. The sexual tension rippling off him in waves was mind-numbing, but I refused to give in.

  “This isn’t a striptease show for you,” I said with more attitude than I felt.

  He cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

  His gaze drifted to the bench seat of his truck as his fingers fumbled with the brass button on his jeans. The sound of his zipper echoed through the cab. It had my heart pounding a thousand times harder than it should. I forced myself to look away, to look anywhere besides him. The dark section of woods in front of his truck became interesting as my fingers fumbled with the hook on my bra. Once I managed to get it undone, I tossed it onto my pile of clothes and removed my panties. My silver jewelry came next.

  I didn’t wait for Eli to say anything about shifting. Instead, I gave in to the change the only way I knew how—by closing my eyes, lifting my head to the sky, and taking slow breaths while thinking of my beautiful wolf. I could picture her in my mind. Her big hazel eyes. Her soft, fluffy fur. Her tiny stature but fierce spirit.

  She was my exact match.

  I called out to her with my mind, willing her to come to me when she was ready. Unlike the movies portrayed this moment, there was no painful shifting of bones or grotesque popping noises. There was no sensation of muscles and joints fusing together.

  The change was pure magic.

  The air around me warmed, the old wolf magic coming to the surface. It blew across my skin, ruffling my hair and sending it flying from my bun. A smile spread across my face as I lifted my arms high above my head. Strands of hair tickled my nose, but I ignored them. Instead, I waited for my wolf to come to me. When a chill slipped along my spine and goose bumps sprouted across my bare skin, I knew the goddess of the moon was near. Her magic danced through the air, calling to the wolf inside me. My wolf howled in response to her. It was a beautiful noise.

  Lightness and loving warmth ignited through my veins as the change intensified. The sensations spread throughout me until an overall sense of weightlessness became all I could feel.

  I was air. I was light as a feather. I was free.

  Pure love flooded my mind as the cold touch of the moon goddess disappeared from my spine to be replaced by an embrace from my wolf. Warmth and the s
ensation of being grounded and one with the earth trickled through my extremities.

  We were one, my wolf and I.

  The sounds of the night serenaded me to the present, and I made my way around Eli’s truck, searching for him. His presence was strong. It pulsed within my veins, calling to me in an unexplainable way. Comfort washed over me once I spotted him. My wolf felt a special connection with Eli, too. She understood he was from her pack and his ranking, but he was also something more. Whatever it was, it rested just beneath the surface of everything within me.

  Eli stepped closer in his wolf form, his familiar green eyes locked with mine. His snout nuzzled my neck and a rush of warmth swept through me from the gesture. The intimacy he was showing caught me off guard. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to react, so I let my wolf do what she wanted. She pressed against him, returning the nuzzle. Seeming satisfied, Eli stepped back and started toward the road. I followed him, heading straight for Drew’s house.

  13

  I stayed close to Eli as we worked our way up the gravel driveway. My gaze drifted to the woods every other step, searching for threats that might lurk there. Remain alert. It was what my wolf wanted me to do.

  When Drew’s house came into view, I hunkered down low while I continued walking. My gaze swept over the house as we grew closer. It was falling apart and older than I’d imagined. White paint chipped away from it in places and sections of rotted wood ran along the porch. A bloated gutter filled with debris hung at an odd angle along the roof line and the porch was small. A worn porch swing and a pair of muddy work boots were the only things occupying the space. Was Drew the type who made people take their shoes off before stepping inside?

  I had a hard time believing so due to the rundown condition of the place.

  Lights were on inside and the sound of a TV blaring filtered through the screen door, but I paid it no mind. Instead I scoped out the surrounding area.

  The house was situated on a large piece of wooded property with no neighbors in either direction. This was good and bad. It made the house a perfect place to hide someone you’d kidnapped, but it also made it hard for anyone to hear their cries for help. It was too secluded.

  Eli disappeared around the side of the house, and I followed. I wasn’t sure what strategy he wanted to apply to the situation—we probably should have discussed things in depth before shifting—but I was willing to roll with whatever he chose. It was too late to do anything else now.

  There was nothing along this stretch of the house besides dark windows, a rake propped against the place, and a dry-rotted garden hose tossed haphazardly in the yard. Weeds of various heights and overgrown bushes made it hard to see if there were any basement windows. There didn’t appear to be a cellar door either.

  However, there was a small shed when we rounded the corner to the back of the house.

  Eli crept toward it without me having to suggest we check it out. It must be a new addition to the property because it was in a better shape than the rest of the house.

  Eli sniffed at the ground, searching for a scent from one of our pack members. I bent my head and did the same, putting all my faith in my wolf’s abilities.

  Nothing.

  Eli must have found the same because he started back to the house seconds later. The part of me that had hoped we’d be able to find them both without having to step inside the house deflated. I wasn’t sure what I’d been thinking. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

  When we rounded to the other side of the house, the screen door at the front squeaked open and then banged shut.

  Drew had stepped outside.

  I hunkered down lower, hoping to blend in with the shadows as I strained my ears to listen to where he was in relation to me. Had he spotted us? I didn’t see how. Unless he had game cameras set up. Lots of hunters had them set up around their properties.

  I wished we’d thought of that before.

  My heart pounded as all the horrible ways this moment could play out circled through my head. Were we about to get shot?

  “Yeah, well like I said, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all damn day.” Drew’s voice filtered through the humid air, floating straight to my ears. He was on the phone with someone. From the sound of it, he wasn’t happy with whoever he was speaking to. Not only that, but he sounded drunk. His words slurred together the way my father’s did after he’d downed his seventh beer. “Sorry. I know. I’m just pissed. You said you wanted one, and I got it. I can’t keep this thing lying around my house forever. It’s creepy as hell knowing it’s here.”

  Thing? Was he talking about Violet? She wasn’t a thing.

  My lips curled as a low growl built in my throat. Violet was a member of my pack. She was a sixteen-year-old girl he’d abducted not a thing.

  Eli nudge me from the side. His eyes told me I needed to calm myself. I sighed but reined myself in as best I could.

  “I can meet you whenever,” Drew slurred. “I hoped we would tonight, but it ain’t happening, is it? Fine. Pick the place and time then.”

  I shifted around on my paws as a lightness built in my chest. Violet was still here. She hadn’t been sold yet.

  “Tomorrow night works. Yeah. I’ll be there,” Drew muttered. “I’ll remember. I haven’t had that many. I’m fine. I won’t forget.” His words were drawn-out, weighed down by alcohol and irritation.

  I held my breath, hoping he would repeat the place and time for whoever he was on the phone with, but he never did.

  “Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” Drew muttered before the sound of the screen door swinging open again cut through the night. It slammed shut behind him as he entered the house.

  A light flicked on close to where Eli and I were, illuminating the window above us. It was cracked a few inches, which allowed us the pleasure of hearing Drew fart while peeing. Eli started forward again and I followed, wondering what he planned to do now. Impatience burned through my veins. I wanted to get Violet now. She was here. We needed to grab her and go.

  The tiny porch came into view as we rounded the front of the house. Eli made his way up the rickety steps and headed for the door. I froze. What was he thinking? He couldn’t open that door. Not in wolf form.

  I watched him nuzzle the door with his snout. Somehow, he was able to wedge it open enough to slip inside. I let out a yelp of astonishment and crept up the porch steps to follow after him.

  There was no way I could let him go in alone.

  I slipped past Eli and stepped into Drew’s living room. The strong scent of beer and stale cigarettes permeated the air, souring my stomach. The farther into the house I stepped, the more potent the stench became. It coated the back of my throat, making me want to gag. The door closed behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder. We were both inside, which meant we were one step closer to rescuing Violet—and hopefully Glenn—and then getting the hell out of here.

  A toilet flushed somewhere in the back of the house. We needed to get out of sight, but it was hard to do with the layout of the place.

  It was what Gran called a shotgun house. Rectangular in shape and built in a way that from the front door you could see through the house straight out the back door. Gran said it was so a person could fire their gun from the front door, and it would travel to the back door without hitting a wall.

  This made hiding from Drew more difficult.

  If he was anything like my father, the chances were steep he’d head to the fridge and grab another beer before moving to the living room. Even from the kitchen, he would be able to see us with the layout of the house. We needed to get out of sight. I slipped out of the living room and into the first room I spotted. Eli followed without hesitation.

  The room was small, possibly meant to be a bedroom, but Drew didn’t use it as one. Shelves of ammunition lined one wall. A card table sat in the center, a broken-down gun taking up the bulk of it. Along the far wall, there was a gun cabinet large enough to provide weapons for an army.

  Drew was a gun colle
ctor.

  Great.

  Eli peeked his head out the door and gazed into the living room. Keeping tabs on where Drew was inside the house was important. When the sound of a fridge opening made its way to my ears, amusement trickled through me. I’d been right in guessing where he would go after leaving the bathroom.

  I peeked around Eli, unable to help myself. Curiosity was getting the best of me, and I wanted to see if he was reaching for another beer. Drew’s back faced me. I couldn’t see what he was reaching for, but I could guess. Eli didn’t wait around to find out. Instead he took advantage of the moment and darted from the gun room. He headed through the living room and cut down the hall. I followed close behind without him having to ask.

  The fridge shut with a bang and the sound of a can opening echoed through the kitchen the instant we were both hidden in the hall. Loud footfalls passed where we were. They vibrated the floorboards beneath my paws and had my breath hitching in my throat. I prayed Drew wouldn’t detour to the hall, but instead would continue to the living room. The last thing we needed was for him to spot us. There was no doubt in my mind he had a gun strapped to his hip. Not with his obvious love of guns.

  Hearing stations switching on the TV a few hurried heartbeats later had me relaxing. Eli nudged my side, and I glanced at him. He seemed to be ready to move now that we’d skated past the danger zone.

  My gaze left him to travel down the length of the hall. Four doors lined it. Two of them were closed, and two were open. Eli started for the nearest one. It happened to be one that was open. The sharp scent of urine drifted from the room as we neared it. Apparently, Drew had no aim. At least not when he was hammered anyway. My snout wrinkled with disgust as we crept past the filthy bathroom.

  The next door was closed. Eli tried to nudge it with his snout like he had the screen door, but he didn’t have any luck. There was no way he’d be able to get it open in this form. Knowing this, he dipped his head and sniffed along the floor trying to pick up either missing pack member’s scent. When he shook his head, I knew he hadn’t picked up anything. We moved to the next door. It was open, but Eli didn’t step inside. Instead, he paused at the threshold and sniffed the air.