“Thanks,” I grumbled as I started toward the woods. Popping a squat was never fun. Guys had it is so dang easy.
I made my way through the thick foliage and slipped behind a big tree. Pulling down my jeans and panties, I popped a squat like my mom had taught me when I was little. My gaze drifted around the woods. Something dark red and crusty a few feet away captured my attention. After I drip dried and pulled my panties and jeans up, I headed over for a closer look. Was it blood? Deep scratches marred the ground in places, too. The closer I looked, the odder the scene seemed. There was blood speckled along some of the foliage. Had a struggle happened here?
Friday night.
The memory of the wolf I’d heard boomed through my mind. He’d sounded injured in his final howl. Was this from him? I thought for a moment. Was there anyone in the pack who’d recently been hurt? I couldn’t think of anyone. They would have come to Gran for one of her remedies if so. Maybe someone had taken an animal down. I glanced around, checking out the surrounding area.
There was nothing.
No carcass. Nothing. Wolves didn’t take down many animals—it wasn’t necessary for our survival like depicted in books and on TV—but when we did, something was always left behind.
What had happened here, then?
“You okay?” Becca asked from somewhere close. I hadn’t noticed she’d followed me into the woods.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just found a little blood on the ground. At least I think that’s what it is,” I said even though I knew.
Becca stepped to where I was. Her nose wrinkled when she spotted the area in question. “That’s definitely blood. Someone must’ve been hunting.”
“I didn’t think anything was in season, though.”
“That’s never stopped some of the guys around here. Especially not Shane and his brothers.”
This didn’t surprise me. I didn’t think Shane would be one to follow rules. Since the apple rarely fell too far from the tree, I imagined his entire family was the same.
My stomach knotted as a thought occurred to me.
“Do Shane and his family hunt here on Alec’s uncle’s property?”
“Year round even though Alec has asked them not to,” Becca said, causing my heart to beat faster. “Actually, I think him and his brothers were out here the other night.”
We started walking back toward the shaded area beside the track.
“How many brothers does he have?”
“He’s the youngest of three. His oldest brother is like twenty-eight and the other one is twenty-six.”
“Wow, that’s a big age gap between them and Shane.”
“I think that’s part of why he’s such a jerk most of the time. He’s attention hungry. Even though he’s not an only child, he sure does act like one.” She rolled her eyes.
“Does he get along with his brothers?” I wasn’t sure why I’d asked. What I really wanted to know was if Shane or his brothers had ever mentioned seeing wolves out here. Like maybe on Friday night?
“Oh yeah. Well, most of the time. It’s a weird relationship really. Shane is always feeling like he has to prove himself to his brothers. He strives too hard sometimes to make them proud of him. I think it’s because they were his father figures growing up. His dad died when Shane was a kid. Hunting accident. People said it was a bear mauling.”
“That’s awful.”
“Yeah. His mom was devastated. She still has lapses of depression from it all.”
We situated ourselves beneath the shady tree again. The boys were still racing around the track, oblivious to us.
“So, what do Shane and his brothers hunt out here?” I asked because I wanted to know more.
“Deer, wild turkeys, sometimes squirrels.”
“Is that all that’s out here?”
“Why?” Suspicion sifted through her eyes. My guard went up.
“I’ve never paid much attention I guess. I mean, are there still bears here?” It was the scariest, largest creature we’d mentioned in our conversation. I hoped it would be enough to curb her suspicion.
“I’m sure there are, but I haven’t seen any. I have seen wolves, though.”
I forced my face into a neutral expression and tried to play it cool as she watched me too closely. “Really? I’ve never seen any.”
“Yeah, well, these woods really aren’t that safe at night,” Becca said. Her words were stern. It wasn’t as though she was warning me about the wolves, but about something else. Her boyfriend, perhaps? Did Becca know more than she was letting on? A shiver slipped along my spine. I’d never been around a human who knew my kind existed. “But, you probably already knew that.”
I blinked and then opened my mouth to say something, but Alec cruised to a stop a few feet in front of us. He let the engine of his four-wheeler idle.
“I think we’re done for the day,” he yelled over the engine “It’s a little after five. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be sunburned all to hell, and this heat is starting to get to me.” It was the first time I’d noticed how pink his skin was.
“Man, it is hot out,” Benji shouted as he eased his four-wheeler onto Alec’s trailer. He wiped at his forehead with the edge of his T-shirt. “I’m gonna need to drink a gallon of my momma’s lemonade.”
“You’re always talking about her lemonade. It’s not like it’s homemade or anything. It's freaking Crystal Light,” Alec teased.
“Is too homemade. She makes it at home, don’t she?” Benji grinned like an idiot.
I laughed. I couldn’t help it.
“I should get going too,” Shane insisted. “We’re supposed to have a family dinner tonight.”
“Eating what you killed out here Friday night?” I said, unsure why the words propelled past my lips. I wished I could take them back the instant they’d slipped free.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Shane narrowed his eyes on me and worked his jaw back and forth. My stomach dropped to my toes.
“How did you know he caught something? Actually, how did you know he’d been hunting out here?” Alec asked. His gaze narrowed on me.
“Um, I went pee behind that tree over there,” I said, pointing to it. “There are signs of a struggle—blood on the ground, scratches. I showed it to Becca, and she said Shane and his brothers like to hunt here sometimes. Figured they must’ve caught something Friday night. Becca said they were here.”
“I thought I told you my uncle didn’t want you hunting here anymore,” Alec said, shifting his full attention to Shane.
“You did, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. We caught a couple rabbits; that’s it.”
Rabbits? Really? There was a heck of a lot more blood and destruction back there than what any rabbit I’d ever seen could do. Unless he’d killed the Easter bunny. I kept my mouth shut, though. It seemed like I’d already said enough.
“I don’t care. Neither does my uncle. He told me no one could hunt here anymore. I’ve been respectful of that. Benji has been respectful of that. Everyone I know has except you.” Alec hopped off his four-wheeler and started strapping it in place. His movements were jerky. “It’s not safe, and you know it.”
My breath caught in my throat. “Why is it not safe?”
I knew why they would think it might not be, but did they know the real reason?
Alec stopped what he was doing and directed his gaze toward me. His eyes bored into mine. I got the impression he wanted to tell me something, but wasn’t sure how to word it.
“You have to know about these woods. I mean, you live in Mirror Lake Trailer Park. You’ve lived in Mirror Lake your whole life. You probably know better than anyone what I’m talking about,” he said.
Was it me, or was there a certain level of softness hanging in his tone, almost as though he was sorry we were even having this conversation? My heart thundered against my rib cage. Did he think I was a wolf? What about my family?
“The wolves. You’ve heard about the wolves, right? All the rumors and theories
that fly around this town about everyone who lives in the trailer park,” Benji said. “Some people in town actually think y’all livin’ in the trailer park are werewolves. Freakin’ whack jobs,” Benji muttered as he strapped his four-wheeler down while shaking his head. It was clear he didn’t believe in the rumors.
“My uncle is not a whack job,” Alec snapped. I’d never seen him angry before. It was jarring. “He saw what he saw. I believe him.”
I licked my lips, unbelieving this conversation. “What did he see?”
“A wolf. It bit him,” Alec said. He was dead serious.
I didn’t know how I should react. Should I make a joke about his uncle becoming a werewolf now even though I knew it wasn’t a possibility? Should I act surprised? Scared?
“Since then, he doesn’t want anyone hunting here. Especially not at night or early morning,” Alec said.
“Why not during the day? Why does he let you use this piece of property to race your four-wheelers on if he’s worried about someone else getting attacked?” It seemed like the only logical question.
“Wolves don’t come out during the day. They’re night creatures,” Shane surprised me by saying. My gaze drifted to him. There was something glistening in his eyes I didn’t like. It was almost as though he enjoyed seeing me squirm. Maybe because he knew why?
Wolves didn’t hunt like he was insinuating, though. But I couldn’t tell them that. It would only make me sound crazy. Or worse, it would put me on Shane and his brother’s radar. I had a feeling they weren’t your average hunters. They knew werewolves existed, and they knew how to hunt them.
My mind reeled.
Who was missing from the pack? What had Shane and his brothers done with them?
I needed to go home.
Shane’s eyes were glued to me as he loaded his four-wheeler onto the trailer. Chill bumps erupted across my skin. I knew I didn’t like the guy, but now I had an even bigger reason.
“Here’s your strap,” Alec said, tossing one to him. “Tighten it up yourself.” He jumped off the trailer and headed straight for the cab of his truck. I picked up the trash near where we’d all been sitting, struggling to force my heart to slow its fast-paced rhythm and the tension to leak from my muscles. I needed to relax, but I couldn’t because I could feel Shane’s eyes boring into my back.
“Here, you can put that in this,” Becca said. She handed me a plastic grocery bag.
“Thanks.”
After I was finished picking up trash, I made my way to Alec’s truck and climbed in. Benji scooted in beside me.
“Good job out there today. You’re one hell of a racer,” he said as he flashed me a grin. Tiny pieces of dip were trapped between his bottom front teeth. It was disgusting.
“Thanks,” I said before motioning to his mouth. “And you’ve got a little something going on.”
Benji flipped down the visor and glanced in the mirror. He showed his teeth so that he could see what I was talking about. “What? You mean all this sexy shit stuck between my teeth?”
I laughed. “Yeah, that would be it.”
Alec chuckled as he cranked the engine of his truck and popped it into drive. “That’s disgusting, man.”
We all laughed as he pulled away from the track. An uneasy feeling still stirred in the pit of my stomach I couldn’t shake, though. I needed to get home. I needed to make sure each of the pack members was accounted for.
8
When I stepped through the front door, the scent of savory spices hit my nose. Gran was cooking, which also meant the trailer was one hundred degrees inside. Even without the oven being used.
“Made it back in one piece I see,” Gran said without looking at me as she continued stirring a large pot at the stove. The pork chops sizzled in one of her cast-iron skillets.
“Why wouldn’t she?” Dad asked.
He was on the couch. He shifted around, repositioning the heating pad against his lower back and propped his feet up on the coffee table. A glass of water sat near him, which was surprising, considering the time of day. Was it possible he hadn’t started drinking yet? I knew my answer without having to think too hard. The closer to a full moon we came, the less pain he was in. Gracie sat beside him, her nose buried in another paranormal book.
The entire scene looked so normal. It was slightly jarring.
“I went four-wheeling today,” I said as I started toward the fridge. My clothes were already sticking to me from my day in the sun, but the heat in here was making it worse. Something to drink was necessary.
“Who did you go four-wheeling with?” Dad asked.
I pulled a cup from the cabinet near the fridge and filled it with tap water. “Alec and some of his friends.”
“Was it all boys?” Dad asked with a grumble.
“No, there was another girl,” I said as I took a sip from my water and headed to the couch.
I passed the AC unit in the window. Warm air blew out of it instead of cold. It was time for a new one. Who knew when that would happen, though.
“As long as you weren’t in the middle of the woods with a group of damn boys,” Dad said as he adjusted his heating pad again. His face reddened. He reached for his bottle of painkillers on the table and dumped one or two in his hand.
“Even if it were all boys, it wouldn’t matter. I can handle myself,” I insisted.
“I know you can handle yourself, but I still worry.” He reached for his water and swallowed the pills. “You’re my daughter. I’ll always worry.”
It was the sweetest thing he’d said to me in months. In fact, it had me choking up a little. Moments like these were so few and far between.
“You got home just in time,” Gran called from the kitchen, and she pulled plates down from a cabinet. “Dinner is done. We’re eating early tonight. Come get it.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. This was my favorite meal. Even though I’d eaten a sandwich and bag of chips earlier, I still managed to work up an appetite for Gran’s cooking.
Once we were seated at the table, all I could think about was how long it had been since we’d eaten as a family. A meal where Dad hadn’t been shit-faced already.
When he stood and headed to the kitchen, I watched him carefully, hoping he was going for the salt or maybe even the pepper. Instead, he swung the fridge door open and grabbed a beer. My heart shrank in on itself as I watched him twist the cap off and take a long swig. He hadn’t even given his pills enough time to work before he reached for a damn bottle. Maybe if he had, he wouldn’t need to drink so much this close to the full moon.
No one said a word to him when he sat back down, but I knew we were all thinking the same thing.
“Where did you go four-wheeling at?” Gracie asked in an attempt to clear the air and start a conversation.
“Not far from here. Alec’s uncle owns a piece of land that butts up against the lake. They created a dirt track there,” I said as I stabbed at my black-eyed peas.
Images of the blood I’d seen and the scratch marks on the ground flashed through my mind. I wondered if Gran or my dad knew if anyone had gone missing from our pack or been hurt. Did they know Alec’s uncle had been bitten a while back? Did they know who did it?
“Alec? What’s his last name again?” Dad asked before I could voice any of my questions.
“Thomas.”
His face scrunched up in disapproval. “I’m not too keen on the Thomases.”
This surprised me. It was rare he ever said he wasn’t too keen on anyone. Generally, he liked everyone he met. Then again, maybe it was because he was a friendly drunk.
“Why not?” I asked around a mouthful of food. Gran glared at me, and I knew it was because she was chastising my table manners, or lack thereof.
“One night when Westley was out for a run he ran into David Thomas. I think he’s the uncle you’re talking about who owns that piece of land you were on today,” Dad said before taking another long swig from his beer. The bottle was nearly empty already.
He sure knew how to put them away. “Anyway, Westley was running around the lake, burning off some energy alone one night while that Thomas guy was camping on his property. It was during deer season. I guess he must’ve thought Westley was a deer or saw his wolf form and got scared. Either way, he shot at Westley. He missed and Westley took off like a bat out of hell, but it didn’t stop David from pursuing him. Chased him for miles he said. Shot at him numerous times, too. Until the asshole ran out of bullets, which also happened to be when he had Westley cornered. Westley did the only thing he could—he bit him on the arm to escape. I don’t blame him. I would’ve done a hell of a lot worse if it had been me. I think that Thomas guy got lucky.”
Westley, Eli’s dad, was who had attacked Alec’s uncle?
Eli’s dad was our Alpha. There was no way he would do anything to jeopardize our packs safety. I could only imagine how scared he must’ve felt to push himself to the point of biting a human. Alec had made it sound like his uncle was viciously attacked. I knew there were two sides to every story, but wow.
Was this why everyone didn’t like the idea of me dating Alec? I guess I could understand, but still. Alec wasn’t his uncle.
“The main point of that story is,” Gran said as serious as I’d ever heard her. “He was alone. Never go on a run alone.”
All of us nodded in agreement, knowing how much drilling the point into our minds meant to Gran. A decade ago, our grandfather had gone on a run alone. He never came back. A hunter shot him. His body was found at the edge of the woods the next day by a pack member. He was no longer in wolf form, but instead had transformed into his human form. This wasn’t uncommon. When injured while in wolf form, a werewolf always transformed into their human state to heal. Even if the wound happened to be fatal.
We cremated my grandpa later that afternoon and held a wake in celebration of his life. I’d been seven.
Since then Gran always stressed to everyone in the pack not to go on runs alone. She always said it was best to run with a buddy or wait until the full moon run and go with the pack.
Running with the pack during the full moon was safest. Not because there was safety in numbers, but because of the deal our pack had struck with the Caraway witches of Mirror Lake decades ago.
Mirror Lake Wolves 01 - Moon Kissed Page 8
