Inking the Wolf: A wolf shifter paranormal romance (Wolves of Crookshollow Book 3)

by Steffanie Holmes

  Knock knock.

  Just go away. Please go away.

  Why had I even decided to make this place an art house, anyway? The last thing I needed right now was some smelly poet begging for a room.

  Knock knock.

  Fuck them, they can stay out in the cold. I just lost the first business I built up from scratch, the one thing I loved doing even more than shagging.

  “Who didn’t lock this door?” Caleb’s voice echoed through the hall. “Bianca, it’s me. Are you here?”

  “Back here,” I called out, swallowing the last of my drink. I had to focus hard to set down the bottle and my glass on the table without dropping them.

  Caleb burst through the drawing room, with Eric right behind him. Caleb wrapped his arms around me. “Elinor told me everything. I’m so fucking pissed this happened to you. We’ll get the bastard, I promise.”

  “Thanks, mate.” I accepted the hug, grateful I had these guys in my life. At least when you were surrounded by werewolves with super strength, you feel at least a tiny bit invincible.

  After a final squeeze, Caleb and Eric sank into the chairs opposite me.

  “Elinor and I talked to the police,” Eric said. “They’re pretty stumped. They definitely seem to think it was a wild animal. Of course, they’re connecting it to the creature who sometimes attacks people in the forest.” He gave me a small smile. Every time there was an incident involving shifters in Crookshollow – which frequently involved members of our pack – the police would write it off as a rabid dog or some other kind of animal attack. It was better than them stumbling on to the existence of shifters, but still seemed ridiculous given the facts. In this case, the “Crookshollow monster” was a scapegoat. It meant that the police wouldn’t do any more work into investigating who trashed Resurrection Ink.

  “You can imagine the press are having a field day.” Caleb rubbed his temple. “They’re starting to put together all the different incidents. We’re creating an urban legend. I saw a headline in the Crookshollow Chronicle about ‘The Monster of Crookshollow Forest’.”

  “Even that woman from the London Underground was hanging out taking pictures,” Ryan said. “I thought she’d have gone back to the city by now.”

  “Serenity? She wanted a tattoo first,” I said. “I’ve just got a bit of colouring to finish on her sleeve piece. Although,” I frowned, “I guess that’s not going to happen now.”

  “Elinor’s been on the phone with the insurance company all afternoon.” Eric grabbed the scotch from the table and pouring a dram for Caleb and himself. “She’ll have your money in no time, and you’ll be back up and running before you know it.”

  “Is Robbie around?” Caleb asked, glancing toward the entrance hall. I thought he looked a little nervous, but then my vision blurred and it was gone. I rubbed my temples. The alcohol was already making my brain all fuzzy. Good. I wanted to erase this horrible day, and if alcohol could get me there, so be it.

  “I haven’t seen him since we got back. He thinks Rolf did it, so he’s gone into the forest to try and find him. He was mumbling something about following Rolf’s trail from last night. You should probably send someone after them. Robbie and Rolf have some kind of intense rivalry going on, and I’m not sure how long your alliance will hold up when Robbie’s through with him.”

  Caleb and Eric exchanged a look.

  “What?” I drowned my glass and slammed it down on the table. “I know Rolf didn’t do it, okay? It would be stupid given your alliance.”

  Caleb knitted his fingers together.

  “Fuck.” I reached for the bottle. “Do you think Rolf did it?”

  Caleb shook his head. “No. Rolf would be risking too much. Besides, he was with me and Irvine and the rest of the pack at Tir Na Nog last night. I can’t say for a fact I watched him every second, but I doubt he would have had time to duck out, trash the store, and get back without anyone noticing.”

  I remembered Rolf’s text to me last night. I hadn’t realised the rest of the pack had been there, too. “How come you didn’t invite Robbie and I along?”

  “Because Robbie has made it clear he can’t stand Rolf, and I didn’t want it to be difficult for him.”

  So Rolf had been telling the truth. Caleb really was losing faith in Robbie. I met Caleb’s eyes, pouring my rage into my words. “I want you to find the person who did this. I want them to pay.”

  “The police will—”

  “The police,” I growled, “will do sweet fuck-all, and you know it. As you pointed out, they’re gonna pin it on the ‘Crookshollow Monster’ so they can go back to stuffing their faces with doughnuts. I want the kind of justice the Lowe pack dishes out. I want you and Luke and Robbie to get this prick and tear his throat out.”

  “That’s what I came here to talk to you about.” Caleb picked up a backpack he’d dropped beside the floor. He pulled a piece of fabric from the bag, and handed it to me. “Do you recognise this?”

  I took the fabric in my hands and turned it over. It was a black v-necked jumper, a £1 sticker from the charity shop still stuck to the washing instructions. “Yeah. It’s Robbie’s. Why?”

  “We found it at the shop,” Eric said.

  I frowned at the jumper, my foggy mind struggling to understand. “He must’ve left it there the last time he came by—”

  Eric leaned forward. “Bianca, I was out last night, around midnight, getting some takeaways from the shop across the road from Resurrection. You know how Elinor gets after drinking – she was begging for a greasy burger. I saw Robbie behind the rubbish bins, in his wolf form. He even waved at me.”

  “Robbie was there last night? He never said anything about going out.” My head throbbed. The alcohol burned in my veins. All the strings of these clues dangled in front of me, but I couldn’t seem to grab them and put them together. “He must’ve gone for a run in the forest after I was asleep. It is near the full moon—”

  “Bianca.” Caleb set his drink down. His face was grave. “Eric and I think … we’re worried that Robbie might’ve done this.”

  “What? Why would he have—”

  “That’s what we were hoping you might be able to tell us.” Caleb said. “There are only two wolf scents by the shop – Rolf and Robbie. We know Rolf was there getting inked by you during the day, but we have no evidence he was there last night.”

  My heart pounded in my ears. It can’t be true. Robbie loves me. He wouldn’t do this to me.

  And yet …

  Robbie has been so jealous of Rolf. He hated Rolf being at The Prim. He’d been unable to control his shift when he’d seen me kiss Willow, and his rage over Rolf was so much more intense. If he’d thought I’d been giving Rolf a chance, what would he do to …

  My heart broke. The pain gripped my chest like a vice, tearing at my skin, ripping through sinew and bone.

  Robbie did this. He destroyed my shop. He did this to control me, just like my parents tried to destroy me so they could control me.

  “Bianca?” Caleb leaned forward, placing his hand on mine. “Are you okay?”

  I should’ve know this was too good to be true. I should’ve seen that it would end with Robbie betraying me and me being alone. No one does anything for love. It’s all about control.

  “I have to go,” I whispered.

  Caleb reached over to squeeze my arm, but I yanked it away. I tried to stand, but my vision swam, and I lost my balance, toppling back against my couch. Tears sprang in my eyes.

  “Stay here with her,” Caleb told Eric. “Call Elinor. I’ll go find Robbie. We need to sort this out—”

  Caleb’s voice faded away, replaced by a loud ringing in my ears. The room spun, the drab wallpaper bleeding into a dark cloud that drew up around me like a fog. Strong hands gripped me under the arms as I fell into a void of black despair.

  28

  Robbie

  Caleb found me stalking through a remote corner of Crookshollow forest, my nose to the ground, so intent on Rolf’s
scent that I didn’t even notice him approach until he leapt out in front of me.

  What are you doing out here? His gravelly voice fell into my head. Bianca’s upset. She could use you now.

  I am helping, I shot back, pawing the ground. I’m looking for Rolf. That bastard destroyed her shop and now he’s trying to run back to his pack. Look, his trail from last night leads all the way out here. He’s had a decent head start, but if I keep going, I’ll—

  Rolf isn’t running away, Robbie. He’s hiding from you, because I told him to.

  What? Why would you—

  Caleb’s lips pulled back around his teeth. He stood with his paws wide apart, a stance of power. Because I’ve noticed you becoming more and more obsessed with him and his presence, and I was worried about his safety. Now I know that my concern was completely justified. Look at you, you’re ready to tear him to pieces. I can’t have you destroying the alliance, not when we’re so close.

  Dammit, I don’t care about the alliance! I don’t even want to have an alliance with the Wulfrics—

  Careful, Robbie, Caleb growled. I know you’re angry, but don’t say anything you can’t take back.

  I snarled, but dropped onto my stomach, showing Caleb that I was acknowledging his superior status. He hurt Bianca, and you just let him get away.

  Of course not. I will speak to him soon. If he did this, which I don’t believe he did, I will find out, and I promise I will punish him for disrespecting our pack. But that is my role as alpha, not yours.

  I need to do something.

  Exactly. You need to return to The Prim with me. You need to be with Bianca. She needs you now. As her mate, you should sense that. There are some things she needs to discuss with you.

  I slumped down in the dirt, the rage in my veins cooling as his words sank in. I hated the fact that Caleb was right, but he was. Bianca was my first priority. I never should have left her like that, all alone with the pain of losing her shop.

  Caleb trotted over, nudging my cheek with his muzzle. Get going.

  I ran with Caleb back to The Prim. He didn’t say much else along the way, and I noticed he walked much closer to me than was normal, at many times brushing his shoulder against mine. Usually, an alpha would walk at the front, setting the pace, and it would be up to me to catch up with him. But it seemed as if Caleb didn’t want to leave my side.

  A nervous jitter crept through my veins. Was something up? Was Bianca in trouble? Was that why Caleb was marching me back here like a naughty child?

  We emerged at the back of The Prim’s garden, surrounded by the delicate primrose bushes that spread beneath the trees. I glanced up at the house, the white weatherboards luminous in the grey glow of the overcast sky. Lights were on in the downstairs rooms, as well as in Serenity’s bedroom, but Bianca’s turret was dark. Caleb escorted me right to the porch.

  As soon as I entered the house, I forced my shift, my bones snapping and my fur retreating into my skin and I transformed back into my human form. Behind me, Caleb did the same thing, blocking the front door with his naked body.

  I picked myself up off the floor, not even worrying about the fact I had no clothes on. I raced across the entrance hall and called out, “Bianca, I’m home. I’m so sorry I ran away.”

  “I’m in here, Robbie.” Her voice slurred from the drawing room. I cursed myself for my selfishness. You ran away and she’s been drinking alone all afternoon. She needed you.

  I raced into the drawing room. Bianca was sprawled in a chair beside the fire, an empty scotch glass in her hand. Her head snapped up when I entered, and the flare in her eyes stopped me in my tracks. She didn’t look upset. She looked pissed as hell.

  “Bianca, I—”

  Bianca threw a black object down on the table in front of her. “Recognise this?”

  “Hey, that’s my sweater. I thought I’d lost it in the laundry—”

  “No, Robbie. You didn’t. You left it in the shop last night while you were there trashing it.”

  It took a few moments for her words to sink in. “You can’t possibly think that I—”

  “We know it was you.” Her eyes flashed. “You lose control when you feel threatened. You showed me that when you shifted at our wedding. And now you felt threatened by Rolf, so you planted those flowers so I would think he was obsessed with me and then trashed my shop so I’d think it was him.”

  “I didn’t do either of those things!”

  “Well, Rolf swears he didn’t either. He had no idea about the flowers, and he was out all night with Caleb and the others, so how could he have trashed the shop? But you were there. Eric saw you. And you knew that Rolf was coming to get his tattoo done in the afternoon, so his scent would be all over everything.”

  Shit. I’d completely forgotten about seeing Eric. “Yeah, I was there. I needed to go for a run in the forest and clear my head. I caught a weird scent trail from Rolf, so I followed it to the shop. I just wanted to find the guy, learn what he was playing at. That’s all, honest—”

  “And it’s just a big coincidence that you’re seen at the store around the exact time it was trashed? You were in the house too when the flowers were put on my bed, if they even were.”

  “They were. I saw them!”

  “You’re the only one who saw them!” Bianca screamed, leaping to her feet, her hands balled into fists. “Because you were the one who put them there. You.”

  “Bianca, you don’t know what you’re saying …”

  She slammed her hands against my chest and shoved me toward the door.

  “Get out of this house,” she growled at me. “I don’t want to see you ever again.”

  29

  Bianca

  I watched from the window of my bedroom as Robbie packed his boxes into the back of his car, his shoulders hunched. He glanced up at the house, and for a moment, his stricken face captured me. My arms ached to slide around him, to feel his warmth against my chest. I hugged myself, willing back the tears that threatened to spill down my cheeks.

  I can’t believe it’s over.

  I’d been so ready to let my guard down, so certain that if anyone would be able to convince me a happily-ever-after was possible, it would be Robbie. But it had all been a lie, of course. It was always a lie.

  A hand landed on my shoulder. I jumped, whirling around in fright. It was just Elinor. She gave me a sad smile, and passed me a drink. “I’m so sorry. I really thought he was right for you.”

  I sniffed, wiping at my eyes with my sleeve. “Where did you come from?”

  “Eric told me to come over. Apparently, Caleb confronted Robbie in the forest today, and told him to come back here. I guess he figured there was no worse punishment than seeing how much he hurt you.” She cast a gaze over to the window, as Robbie’s car pulled out of the drive. “From the looks of it, he wasn’t wrong.”

  I sipped the drink, the alcohol burning my stinging throat. Add a heavy dose of heartache on top of a day of depressed drinking, and you ended up with me – an empty shell of a person who felt as though her whole body had been attacked by a giant potato masher.

  “You don’t have to stay. I’m not exactly great company right now.”

  Elinor shook her head furiously. “That's not how this friendship thing works. You were there for me when I thought I’d lost Eric, remember?”

  “You were so drunk that night,” I said. “So drunk and angry. The bartender at Tir Na Nog asked you if you wanted ice in your G&T and you gave him a ten-minute lecture about why he should never date a ghost.”

  “Exactly. And you held my hair while I threw up in the pub toilets, and possibly in the taxi, too. So consider us even.”

  I stared out the window. Robbie’s car disappeared down the road. My chest split down the middle as a deep wound opened up inside of me. Beside the gazebo was a pile of junk – all bits and bobs from the house Robbie had been using to make his “sculpture.”

  I turned away from the window, squeezing my eyes shut. I couldn�
�t bear to think about it. Thinking made the wound sting hot, like I was pouring acid into my chest. There was only one thing that would make it better. Oblivion.

  I raised my glass to my lips, and toasted Elinor. “Here’s to true love,” I spat. “Here’s to family.”

  30

  Robbie

  I met up with the M1 outside of Crookshollow, and followed it for a little way before turning off into some backwater village. I drove and drove until the roads blurred into one endless stream of black measuring tape stretching out in front of me.

  I lost Bianca.

  Raw fury beat out the hopelessness of Bianca’s final words to me. Of all the things that could have split us up, of all the crazy fucked-up pieces of our past that could have come back to haunt us, of all the stupid things that could have split us up, why did it have to be this?

  I didn’t do it. If you really knew me, you’d know I would never do it. If you’re willing to believe Rolf over me, then you two deserve each other.

  My hands tightened around the wheel. I wanted so badly to believe there was some way to fix it, but I couldn’t see how. Even if I could come up with some convincing proof that it wasn’t me – and I didn’t see how – and I convinced Bianca and Caleb to take me back, I wasn’t sure I could ever go back, not now, not when they’d thrown everything they claimed to love about me back into my face.

  The road narrowed, and I rounded the corner, and came to a dead end. Roaring with frustration, I slammed on the brakes, halting the car in the middle of the road. Fuck it, it’s not like anyone was coming.

  I’m completely alone.

  I slammed my head against the steering wheel, jumping as the horn honked. Howling with frustration, I drew my fist back and punched the dashboard, cracking the plastic shell and sending a sharp pain through my knuckles.