Once Bitten_Wolves of Hemlock Hollow

by Heather McCorkle

  “Why?” I couldn’t keep the suspicion from my voice, and I didn’t try.

  Eyes locked on the long hallway ahead, he answered, “Three packs inhabit the town and right now they are…at odds. Your creation has only amplified the tension. You need to be at your full strength before meeting any of them.”

  Three packs. I wasn’t sure which bothered me more: knowing there were that many, or hearing them called packs. It made it all feel like a fantasy. But fantasies didn’t sprout fangs that were all too real, fangs that were pushing at my lips right now. “Why do I need to be at full strength?”

  Though we had reached the end of the hall, he stared at the elevator. From the distant sound and the vibrations coming through the floor, it was clearly several floors down. Still, he stared at the closed steel doors and did not answer. I grabbed his rock-hard biceps, and with a show of strength that surprised me, turned him toward me. If I was going to take the trip to crazy town, I had to know more.

  “Why?” I demanded.

  His chest collapsed inward a bit as a long breath blew from him. “The answer will infuriate you, and being newly bitten, that could force you to change. I will tell you, I promise, but not until you have had a chance to get more control over your wolf. It is not safe.”

  Whoa. My mind conjured up every horror movie I’d ever seen in which a werewolf changed violently and painfully. I so wasn’t ready for anything remotely close to that. The answer wasn’t worth it, not yet. The elevator arrived with a hollow ding, opening to an empty chamber. We stepped inside and leaned against opposite walls, staring at each other.

  My anger receded enough that the burning beneath my skin cooled and the ache in my jaws faded. “Will I look like something out of a horror movie, or just like a wolf?”

  “A wolf, unless you count the fangs and claws you can grow while in human form.”

  Pushing away the panic, I thought about that for a moment. “If I can control it, those could be useful.”

  His lips turned up into the beginning of a grin, and he nodded. The elevator settled on the lobby floor with a jolt that wrenched my gaze from his captivating eyes. Part of me wanted to know if the pull I felt toward him was a werewolf thing, but I didn’t dare ask in case it was something far more basic. With a nod and a look, he invited me to exit the elevator first. Gentlemanly though it may be, it once again exposed my back to him and made my skin crawl. Attraction aside, I wasn’t ready to trust him. Hell, after Raul I wasn’t sure I’d trust anyone ever again.

  He walked straight for the exit. The desk clerk didn’t even look up as we passed.

  “Already settled the bill?” I asked as we reached the doors.

  A full—oh-so-handsome—grin dimpled both of his cheeks. Seeing it made me ache on a level I didn’t want to think about. “Yep. This one’s on Raul.”

  Laughter spilled from me as we stepped out into the bright morning. Served him right. He had that and so much more coming. The scents of concrete and exhaust fumes assaulted my nose. And was that garbage I could smell? Crinkling my nose up and attempting to breathe through my mouth, I led the way toward the parking garage.

  “Wow, this city smells bad,” I said.

  Stepping up beside me as we entered the shade of the many-tiered garage, Ty nodded. “That is the verða. Your sense of smell is stronger than it has ever been, and it will get stronger still.”

  Voices drifted to me, along with the sounds of keys jingling and luggage being dropped into a trunk. Though the people were nowhere in sight, I could almost swear I heard the groan of the car’s shocks as they got in it.

  “Right, the canine thing,” I said softly.

  If a lot of werewolves occupied this Hemlock Hollow, I could see how I might be at a disadvantage. “How many…” I searched my memory for the Icelandic word he had used, in case anyone overheard us, “…varúlfur are there in Hemlock Hollow?”

  “Just under fifteen hundred.”

  The morning suddenly felt far too warm. I unlocked the passenger door of the Jeep for him with a shaking hand before going around to the back to throw in my bag. “How many people are in the town?”

  “Just under fifteen hundred.”

  Shock reverberated through me as if I were a tuning fork. For several seconds I couldn’t breathe. The Jeep shook a bit from the impact of the tailgate slamming shut too hard. “Sorry, baby,” I muttered as I walked around to the driver’s side.

  As I settled into the seat, started the Jeep, and shifted into reverse I couldn’t speak. Foot still on the brake, I looked over at Ty filling up my passenger seat like a wall of muscle. That wasn’t fair, I supposed, but everything about him made me nervous, muscle included. Nervous and hotter than I had any right to be after the monumental mistake I’d made by trusting Raul. The sight of him was a reminder of how deep over my head I was in. Finally, I found my voice.

  “So where are we going until the full moon?” I asked.

  “My place outside of Missoula.”

  “Don’t you have a car?” I asked.

  One hand on the side of his seat, I turned to look behind me and backed out of the parking space. Heat radiated off his body as if he were a furnace set on slow burn. I wanted to reach into that heat and see if it would burn me. The temptation was so strong I almost let my hand slide down onto his shoulder. As I shifted into first gear, I quickly withdrew my hand with a silent vow to keep all my body parts on my side of the vehicle.

  “Not here. A friend brought me,” he said.

  Was that a touch of humor I heard in his voice? My teeth clenched at the idea that the bastard might know the effect he had on me.

  “You were that confident that I’d leave with you?” I asked.

  He dipped his head to the side in a sort of shrug. “That hopeful. And I knew if you did, you would likely not want to leave your own vehicle behind.”

  Thoughtful and hot. Was it too much to ask for this guy to have a few flaws?

  “So packs, huh?” As my shock subsided, a deep need to know everything filled its place.

  He made an affirmative noise. Sunlight reduced my eyes to slits as I pulled from the parking garage onto the street. Ty touched my arm, nearly making me jump. I glanced over to see him handing me my sunglasses that had been hung over the passenger grab bar.

  My skin burned in a nipple-hardening way where his fingers brushed mine. “Thank you. Tell me about the packs,” I said, feigning an indifference I didn’t feel.

  His smile faded and his attention moved to the road. “How about we save that for when we get to my place? You will not like what I have to say about Raul’s pack. We cannot have you losing your temper while driving.”

  I ground my teeth together—an act made more difficult by the fangs that had extended. The damn fangs made it hard to argue the point. “Fine. In that case, I’m turning the radio on because just about everything I want to ask you is likely going to piss me off or freak me out.”

  Zen as a damn monk, he crossed his arms over his chest and settled back into his seat. “That is probably a good idea.”

  Reaching for the stereo, I started making a mental list of all the things I would demand to know the moment we pulled up to his place. The soulful voice of Buddy Guy began to wail from my speakers, soothing my irritation instantly. Swaying my head to the music, I bit my bottom lip to keep from singing along. Ty’s eyes settled on me with a weight I couldn’t ignore.

  “What?” I asked.

  Eyebrows rising, he shook his head slowly. “Blues. I would not have guessed that you liked the blues.”

  I gave him as hard a look as one can through one’s peripheral vision. “If you don’t like blues, I’m afraid you’re going to have to get out of my vehicle right now.”

  Laughing, he threw his hands up in the air. “I love blues. It surprises me that you do.”

  Part of that was hot, and part of it pissed me off. Was he surprised because he didn’t think I was cultured enough to enjoy great music? “And why is that?”

>   Tight lines formed around his lips as he smiled, almost as though it pained him. “You surprise me, that is all.”

  Tired of the lack of forthcoming answers, I shook my head, turned up the stereo, and focused on the road. Regardless of what was happening to me, I began to wonder at the wisdom of what I was doing. A strange guy in my car leading me to a strange place where no one knew I was going was a monumentally bad idea. No matter how I fought it, though, something about Ty put me at ease. I loved and hated it. Craved and wanted nothing to do with it.

  Less than ten minutes later, my growling stomach shattered any plans of silently enduring the drive. With the way it felt like it was trying to eat me from the inside out, there wasn’t a chance I was going to make it without stopping for food, no matter how close his place was. As if to strengthen the point, my vision began to swim. I reached up and turned the stereo down.

  “I’m starving,” I said.

  Ty nodded. “The verða is making your body burn through fuel at an accelerated rate. There is a diner a few miles ahead.”

  I rolled my window down, the motion of the old-style hand crank only making things sway worse. Before me, the road blurred. Cool air rushed in, driving back the dizziness that threatened to overtake me.

  “Raul is not known for choosing women with depth. That is why you surprise me so much,” Ty said out of the blue.

  The very mention of Raul’s name sent a shard of anger shooting through me. My vision cleared. “Yeah, well, I’m not known for choosing guys like him. I had a moment of weakness,” I snapped.

  For some reason, the idea of Ty thinking badly of me because I had been so close to inviting Raul into my apartment rubbed me all kinds of wrong. Maybe because what I had said had been such a blatant lie. I was known for choosing guys like Raul. Not werewolves, of course, but bad boys that you didn’t take home to the family. Though it wasn’t as if I had a family to take one home to. The thought of Ty knowing that about me stung. He was the first person in many years to reach out and try to help me. Despite the fact that I didn’t trust him, I didn’t want to mess that up like I did everything else.

  “I am not judging. I know Raul. He could probably charm the pants off a nun.”

  Laughter erupted from my lips, surprising me, helping me focus. Grinning, Ty guided me off the main road and into the parking lot of a diner with a few directions. I let out a long breath as I shut the Jeep off, then met his gaze.

  “Thank you for helping me focus. I was pretty close to passing out back there,” I said.

  Brows pinched together, he nodded and looked down as if the seatbelt required his full attention. “I know, I am sorry. I should not have let you leave the hotel without eating.”

  Hand on the door handle, I paused to give him a hard look. “I’m a grown woman. I should have said something earlier about being hungry.” I didn’t want to admit that I liked the idea of him looking out for me.

  “Fair enough.”

  The warm morning air filled with scents of the city wrapped around me as I climbed from the Jeep. So many smells mingled together that it was overwhelming: the unpleasant acidic asphalt, sickly sweet garbage mingled with the metallic tang of a dumpster, warm steel of car engines, all beneath the seductiveness of eggs, meat, and hot cooking oil. One hand held over my nose, I tried not to gag as I made my way to the sidewalk in front of the diner. You would think the overwhelming scents would have stolen away my appetite, but my stomach growled even more fiercely than before.

  “Do not worry. You will be able to control your sense of smell eventually. Try breathing through your mouth and concentrating on one scent,” Ty said.

  Partially because he was the closest thing, and partially because he smelled amazing, I focused on him. Beneath the scents of soap and shampoo were those of fresh pine, river water, and a very pleasant musk. I leaned into him a bit as we walked. The urge to rub along him, against all that tattooed flesh, made me step closer. My breast brushed his arm as he reached up to open the door. Nipples standing at attention as they were, I was suddenly very glad for the layers I wore. Shaking my head to clear it, I entered the diner. Perhaps his scent wasn’t the best thing to focus on.

  The quiet din of a hundred conversations punctuated by the clashing of dishes distracted me almost as much as all the wonderful odors of different foods. To his credit, the host behind the desk showed us immediately to a booth in a far corner and hustled off with the promise to return with coffee. Moments later I had the wonderful aroma of coffee to focus on so that I didn’t get drawn in by Ty’s scent. For an entirely different reason, I leaned across the table.

  “Do I have to shift every full moon?”

  He leaned onto the table as well, almost intimately close. “Not after the first time, but the full moon makes the need stronger. If you resist too long, you will shift on the full moon, hence the stories,” he answered in a hushed voice.

  The doctor side of my brain started to wonder. “How…?” I wasn’t quite sure how to finish the thought so I let it drift off.

  He stayed leaned over the table, close enough that we probably looked like lovers having an intimate conversation. “Everything is made up of atoms. We are different from normal people in that ours can change and reform into a wolf. The change is fluid and easy, like pouring liquid from one container into another.”

  One corner of my mouth rose. “So it isn’t like the old movies, bones popping and snapping?”

  “No.”

  Picking up my coffee cup, I sat back against the booth seat. “Thanks for being so patient with me.”

  “You are welcome.”

  The guarded tone of his voice piqued my curiosity. “How did you come to be a kennari?”

  Creases formed at the corners of his eyes and they pinched together so tightly it almost looked painful. The stormy look passed as quickly as if a gale force wind had swept it away. “I am a professor at the University of Montana. It came naturally to me.”

  The promise of stormy skies lingering in his eyes told me there was much more to that story, but it also warned me not to press in the wrong direction. “Let me guess, English?”

  Sipping his own coffee, he relaxed a bit. “History, but I do have a strong love for languages.”

  My breath nearly caught at the mental image of his muscular frame packed into a suit and tie, pacing the podium as he lectured. He would fill out a suit oh so well. Muscles that had nothing to do with shapeshifting tightened low in my body, and suddenly I was forced to stare deep into the depths of my coffee.

  “Obviously. Your English is impeccable,” I grumbled.

  Even his eyes seemed to smile as they caught mine. “Only because it is my second language and I am a bit of a perfectionist in that aspect. Until I reached twelve years old, I only spoke Icelandic. My parents wanted to make sure our ancestors’ language was my native tongue.”

  Sexy as hell and cultured. Damn, I was in for it.

  Thankfully our waitress—who smelled like she bathed in some overly flowery perfume—arrived with our food, saving me from having to try and speak. Cute as she was, Ty didn’t spare her a glance, even when she giggled seductively at his compliment on the sight of the food. Perhaps he played for the other team. I could count on one hand the straight guys I’d met who would pass up a chance to flirt with an attractive woman. In the male species’ defense, I did have a way of meeting all the wrong kind of guys. Then it occurred to me that Ty could be involved with someone. Stomach dropping, my eyes flicked involuntarily to his ring finger. It was bare of a ring or even a tan line from one.

  Fork in one hand, knife in the other, I decided not to care. I had more important things to think about, like the mountain of food before me that my body screamed for. We ate in silence, waving away the waitress from time to time as she dropped by to flirt with Ty. I hardly noticed, let alone cared. Right.

  In truth, the mediocre food captivated me. Food had never been overly important to me. Having grown up poor white trash, I wasn’t used t
o eating much and didn’t need much. Until now. The omelet, ham, hash browns, and toast went so fast I scarcely tasted them. When I found myself staring at the toast left on Ty’s plate, he surprised me by ordering another side of ham and toast for me. I wanted to kiss him for it. The petite waitress gave him a sympathetic look, then glared at me like I was an embarrassment to all of womankind. She was so not getting a good tip.

  Before she had even walked far enough away to be out of hearing range, Ty waved a hand. “Ignore her. The verða takes a lot out of you. During it you have to eat and rest a lot.”

  Without so much as a comment, I inhaled the ham and toast before the waitress could even bring back our check. I reached for it but Ty got to it first.

  Shaking my head, I grabbed his hand and did my best to ignore the sparks that flew inside me at the contact. “No way. As much as I ate, I’ll pay.”

  Humor sparkled in his eyes. “This one is on Raul.”

  “What’d you do, mug him?” I asked. Imagining it brought me far more pleasure than it should have.

  Ty laughed. “In a way, I suppose. I snagged his wallet and pocketed it when I took him down because I knew it might hold some clues.” His smile grew. “It held more than that. And the man owes you.”

  I let go of him. “I won’t argue with that,” I said through a huge grin of my own.

  The moment I stood my knees went weak. Ty was at my side in an instant, an arm around my waist, supporting me before I could fall. His hard body felt oh so good against me.

  “Whoa,” was all I could manage to say.

  “That would be the second essential part of the verða, the way it draws energy from you, and it is not voluntary. I hope you are okay with me driving.”

  It took a monumental amount of effort to lift my arm high enough to go around his waist. Hooking my fingers through a belt loop on his jeans was all that kept it there. Exhaustion dragged at me as though it were an anvil tied to my soul. It was a good thing it did, considering how tempting being this close to him was.