“Fox…get away from…me!” His voice sounded different, feral.
I didn’t want to leave, but my survival instinct kicked in. I got to my feet and found Narelle hunched over Laura’s fallen body sucking away at her throat.
“What the fuck have you done?” Jeff ran out of the shed, heading for Laura. “Get away from her, you bloodsucking monster!”
Narelle stopped drinking long enough to bare her fangs and crabwalk away.
Jeff turned his rage in my direction. “You ruined everything! It was all working out so well. We should’ve gotten rid of you first.”
“Others have tried, but failed.”
Jeff’s eyes lit up. “Ah, yeah, I hear a few of them did fail, but your ass is toast, bitch.”
I pulled my revolver—Smith & Wesson 642 loaded with five silver bullets—from my belt, aimed it at his chest and tightened my hand around the crimson trace laser grip. I cupped my other hand underneath and adjusted my aim until the red laser dot was on his chest. My shot was knocked off course when something slammed against my spine, sending the gun flying out of my hands.
“You fucking cunt! You shot me in the leg!” He limped close enough to slap me so hard my ears started to ring.
“Kill her!”
I didn’t know who he was talking to, but spun around to face the culprit. I couldn’t believe my eyes. “It had to be you.”
Vixen stalked from side to side like an animal relishing her capture. Even in her horrid black dog form I could see her grin.
Anger boiled deep inside my veins. Not only had she been an annoying bitch since the day we met and then a pest, but she’d bitten my sister. The only way to make sure the bite didn’t become a
Perro Negro
infection was to kill her.
I searched the ground to my left trying to find the revolver, then to my right. It wasn’t there. Oh well, I’d have to settle for my crossbow still loaded with silver bolts. I raised it, aimed and fired. It grazed her mutated shoulder and got stuck in the tree behind her.
Shit!
I was down to one, and no time to reload.
I held the crossbow steady in front of me, poised and ready to shoot. Taking a quick glance over my shoulder, I spotted Jeff checking out his leg. He was too shocked to bother with me right away. Papan was still on the ground, not fully shifted to wolf.
Vixen growled, so I turned my attention towards all the sharp teeth crowding inside her mouth, and the creepy red eyes. She tilted her head back and growled louder, longer. It echoed into the night and then she leaped off her hind legs.
I pointed and shot my last bolt, which hit hard enough for her to fall in midflight. I heard the yip as she landed awkwardly and kicked up dirt.
I stood rigid, waiting.
She struck when I wasn’t ready, smacked her thick paws against my chest and knocked me down. My spine impacted with the hard earth, and the crossbow slid from my fingers. I was winded, reminded of being caught underneath Mauricio too many times before his demise. My anger boiled over, hardening my resolve.
Vixen bared her ugly mouth in my face, the sharp teeth already stained with blood and heading for my neck. She bit my shoulder so viciously her canines passed through the fabric of my sweater. The wail burned my throat, but didn’t hurt as much as the mauling.
“Get. Off,” I said through gritted teeth, but she bit harder.
Both my arms were pinned close to my sides by her back legs and bulk. I bucked my hips but she was wedged too deep, and kept smothering me.
A shadow appeared above me. I couldn’t see who it was, but did hear a whip crack and smoke dissipate. Vixen removed her mouth from my throat, her spine curving as she whined. She swung a paw, but only struck air.
It gave me the opportunity to roll my hips from beneath her and get my arms free. Moonlight caught the familiar shine on the ground only a few feet from where I lay. As she surveyed the area looking for her invisible attacker, I pushed my hands against her chest and shoved her off.
Vixen—obviously disoriented—landed on her back.
I dug my fingers into the earth, using it to get to my hands and knees so I could crawl towards the weapon I thought I’d lost. I clenched my fingers around the revolver’s grip. It had never fit my hand so perfectly. As I struggled for purchase, hoping to get to my feet, one of Vixen’s paws slammed into my back.
My chest smacked the ground but I didn’t lose my grip on the Smith & Wesson.
I peered over my wounded shoulder and watched as she raised a paw for another strike. I rolled onto my back, and aimed the laser dot. I pulled the trigger, hardly feeling the recoil. The first silver bullet struck Vixen in the stomach, making her body jolt. The second hit her square in the chest, another in the gut, but for the killer shot I gripped my hands together, keeping the laser light just where I wanted it.
The bullet struck her between the eyes, the same shot that had killed Henry Sallas.
Vixen toppled over.
My ears rang and my pulse drummed so hard I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, so I lay back on the dirt to catch my breath. Blood dribbled down my side, but I knew it wasn’t enough to infect me. I hoped my sister’s wound had healed.
“Good job. Now watch out.” Saul’s voice echoed around me, and only a line of hazy smoke confirmed he’d ever been there.
Jeff appeared above me. He looked unsteady on his feet, glancing at Vixen’s dead body before pointing a handgun at my head. There was no way he’d miss. I was practically sprawled out beneath him.
“Why aren’t you dead yet?” he asked.
I raised my own weapon, even if I knew I was out of bullets. “I guess I’m harder to kill than most people think.” It was stupid to taunt him when he had a gun pointed at me, but if I was going down, might as well go down with fighting words.
“Not from where I’m standing,” he said, kicking my leg.
He was so physically different from his brother. They didn’t even look like they were related. Where Papan was tall and blond, Jeff was average height and dark-haired. His eyes were gray, and he was skinny rather than lean.
“I’ve got silver bullets,” I lied.
“So shoot me.” When I didn’t, he said, “You’re all out, but I’m not.” He pointed the barrel at my face and his finger closed over the trigger.
The snap of a whip caught Jeff in the back. He cried out but didn’t lose his stance.
I thought Saul was coming to my rescue. Until I remembered I could take care of myself just fine. Besides, I wanted some answers from this crazy asshole. “Why did you do it?”
His eyes darkened as he spread his legs over my body, pinning me to the spot. “What’re you talking about?”
“Why did you pretend to kill yourself?”
“It was the only way to escape and plot,” he answered, shrugging quickly. “Everything else came together later.”
“It’s not too late to walk away.”
Jeff glanced at his partner’s corpse. “Yeah, it is. For both of us.” He pulled the trigger but the bullet just missed my head, thrown off when the whip struck Jeff again. His spine curved and the firearm fell to the ground.
I tilted my head back and caught sight of Papan springing into the air, shifting into a blur of fur in mid-motion. He flew over me and slammed into Jeff with so much force they both ended up hitting a tree, buckling it. Branches tumbled around them.
Jeff straightened and shifted from man to animal so fast my eyes didn’t catch the movements. One second he was a wobbly man, the next his clothes ripped apart and he became a gray wolf.
The two brothers were as physically different as wolves as they’d been as men. The only thing they had in common was the ferociousness with which they attacked each other. They moved so swiftly I only managed to catch snouts and tails swirling around each other, until I wasn’t even sure who was on top.
I wanted to help, but knew Papan had to deal with this himself. His brother had challenged his inherited role as alpha, and he had no choice but to defeat him. Funny how Papan had fought so hard against being in this pack, yet now claiming the top position was the only way to ensure his freedom. I got to my feet and pulled from my pocket the five silver bullets I had left. With shaky fingers, I reloaded my revolver and shut the cylinder—I wouldn’t hesitate to kill Jeff.
“I can’t wait to taste the loser’s blood,” Narelle said, sidling up beside me.
I hated the way she appeared out of nowhere. “Where’s Willow?”
“She’s safe.”
“Is she still—”
“Don’t know what you did, but the little girl isn’t infected anymore.”
“How do you know for sure?”
Narelle licked her lips but the blood still stained her mouth and chin. “I can smell lycanthropy, and your sister was starting to smell like one. Then she didn’t.”
Papan yowled. Jeff had buried his snout into the cream-colored fur of Papan’s throat.
“No.” I took a step, my hand already closed over the gun’s laser grip.
“Let him deal with it.” Saul appeared on my other side, and I felt like the meat in a very creepy, supernatural sandwich.
“But he’s—”
“Dying…” Saul’s voice trailed off. “You still can’t interfere. This is his fight.”
I glared at him. “Just like you couldn’t interfere when Jeff had me pinned like a bug?”
“We each have our personal battles to face.” His eyes narrowed, as if challenging me to disagree.
I didn’t. I just looked away to focus on the werewolves.
Papan shook his brother off, spun around and plunged his muzzle into Jeff’s fur before his gaping mouth opened around the wolf’s neck, snapping it like a twig. The sickening sound reverberated through the night as the gray werewolf collapsed in a heap, leaving Papan breathing heavy and covered in blood.
Narelle took a step, licking her lips.
“No,” Saul said, and she stopped. “Jeff’s dead, but he’s not your prize to claim. Leave him where he is. We can’t move him. The pack has to find him.”
“We saw everything.” A middle-aged woman stepped out of the darkness, shortly followed by everyone I thought had been hiding safely in their houses. “We know who our alpha is. It’s also great to have you home, Saul.”
“Thank you, Martha.”
I didn’t know who this woman was. I left them all behind and approached the only wolf left standing. I wanted Papan to know I was here for him. He’d just inherited the role of Wilson Pack Alpha, and as much as I hated to think about what it meant for us…I knew he had no choice but to accept it.
These people needed him.
Maybe not as much as I do, but they still need him.
“Papan,” I said.
A growl rumbled deep in his throat before he peered over his furry shoulder, raising his snout to sniff the air between us.
“Papan,” I repeated. “Look at me.”
He turned his majestic body until he was facing me. For the first time since we’d admitted there was something good and real between us, I saw no recognition in his amber eyes. He didn’t know who I was and the thought terrified me. I knew how this story went because Conrad and Ebony were living it. But I refused to let the same thing happen to me, to us.
I won’t let him forget me.
“You have to
really
look at me,” I whispered. “You need to remember who I am.”
He didn’t move, seemed frozen to the spot.
I inched closer, ignoring Saul’s warning. He wanted me to turn away from the man I loved and I couldn’t do that. I would never let Papan slip away, not after everything we’d been through. Not now.
Not ever.
When he was close enough that if I extended a hand he could sniff it, I didn’t stop. I never lost sight of his eyes as they bled from amber to green. His nose pressed against my fingers, hot against my skin as he sniffed them.
“You know who I am.” It wasn’t a question, he
had
to know. I couldn’t deal with the consequences if he didn’t. I’d never given my heart to anyone as completely as I did to him, and I felt like I was freefalling without a parachute.
The wolf looked me in the eye then toppled onto his side. He shifted back to human and my chest constricted. Jeff had changed back as soon as he’d died.
I dropped to the grass, throwing my body over his because I didn’t want my worst suspicions to be true. When I pressed my cheek against his chest and felt a sluggish heartbeat, the tears slid down my face so fast the world blurred.
“I love you, Jason,” I whispered against his chest.
“Sierra, I love you too.”
I looked up, expecting a miracle, but his eyes were closed and he hadn’t moved.
Surely I hadn’t imagined his words.
“There’s no way I’m leaving him alone,” I said, pacing in front of Papan’s supine body. I refused to listen to any sense because I was caught in a very precarious spot. I wanted to stay with him but had to go. If I didn’t go home soon and get some real sleep, I wouldn’t be able to face the next challenge that lay ahead of me.
“He won’t be alone.” Saul’s eyes were shiny, begging me to listen.