Animal Attraction (8 page)

His eyes went wide. “You what?”

“Well…actually, only one of them tried to attack me… The other one was more interested in fighting the first wolf… But the important thing is that there were two really big wolves hanging around only a few blocks from the house where that man was killed.”

Newman frowned. “What the heck were you doing in the warehouse district?”

“I… Well…” She hesitated. “I thought I saw something, so I decided to check it out. Reporter’s curiosity, I guess.”

“That was foolish,” he said. “You could have gotten yourself killed, Ms. Bradley.”

Though she knew he was right, Eliza still felt herself bristle at his words. She lifted her chin. “I’m a reporter, Detective. Sometimes taking a risk is the only way to get a story.”

He shook his head. “I’m going to need you to show me where these wolves tried to attack you.”

Her brow furrowed. “Only one of them tried to attack me. And does it need to be now?” She glanced at her watch to see that it was almost five o’clock. “I have plans tonight.”

“It won’t take long,” Newman said.

Eliza sighed. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so she might as well just give in and go over to the warehouses with him. The faster she got done with him, the faster she could get back to the hotel.

Outside, Eliza automatically started for her car, but Newman said it would be easier if she drove with him. So much for having time to stop by the hotel before going to see Hunter.

“So, why am I showing you where I saw the wolves?” Eliza asked as Newman pulled out onto the street.

He glanced at her. “Because the attacks on those hikers took place in the woods not too far from that area. It’s possible the wolves could live around there. I’m hoping you’ll be able to give us a clue where that might be.”

Eliza’s brow furrowed at that. According to Hunter, a pack wouldn’t make its den so close to people. Then again, two wolves probably didn’t really comprise a pack.
So, what did it make them, then? Rivals, maybe?

It was almost dark by the time she and Detective Newman got to the warehouse area, and it took her awhile to get her bearings. It didn’t help that all the buildings looked the same to her, but as they drove up and down the streets, several of them were starting to look familiar.

“This looks like…” Eliza started to say, but the rest of the words trailed off as she spotted two huge wolves fighting each other at the far end of the street. Even in the dim light, she could tell they were the same ones she’d seen the night before.

Beside her, Newman swore under his breath as he stopped the car. Putting it into park, he glanced at her. “Stay here,” he ordered.

Eliza watched in amazement as the detective opened his door and got out of the car.
What the heck is he doing?
Then her eyes widened in realization as she saw him take his gun from his holster. Oh God, he was going to shoot the wolves! For some reason, that idea both shocked and upset her, and she held her breath as he slowly approached the wolves.

Even as the wolves fought, she swore she could see the gray wolf turn his head to look in Newman’s direction. Eliza felt her pulse skip a beat as the animal’s yellow eyes caught the light. For a moment, she was transported back to last night, and the wolf was standing in front of her as she lay on the ground trembling. She didn’t know why, but that gray wolf had saved her life. If Detective Newman shot at them, it was just as likely that he could hit the gray wolf as easily as the black one. She couldn’t let that happen. Before she realized what she was even doing, Eliza reached for the door handle.

Just then, a shot rang out.

Eliza jumped, startled not as much by the sound of the gunshot as she was by the howl of pain that accompanied it. Frozen, she watched in horror as the two wolves broke apart and ran off.
Oh God, which one of them had Newman hit?

For a moment, she was half afraid that the detective would try to go after them on foot, and she let out a sigh of relief when he shoved his gun into its holster and headed back to the car.

“Were those the two wolves you saw last night?” he asked as he got in.

Still too stunned by what she had just seen, Eliza could only nod her head. All she could think about was whether the gray wolf had been hit.

“Well, I clipped one of them, at least, which means we’ve finally got a trail to follow,” Newman said. “I’ll get you back to the station, then get some hounds up here and see if we can’t track the bastards down.”

Eliza said nothing. God, she hoped it wasn’t the gray wolf that had gotten shot. The animal had saved her life last night. Surely, that meant he wasn’t a threat. She wondered if she should mention that to Detective Newman, but then decided he probably wouldn’t listen anyway. Suddenly, she needed to talk to Hunter, and she was glad when the detective finally pulled into the parking lot of the police station.

Mumbling something she hoped sounded intelligible to Newman, Eliza hurried over to her car and got in. The drive to Hunter’s place seemed to take hours and when she got there, she was relieved to see the garage door open and his SUV inside. Grabbing her purse off the seat beside her, she practically ran into the garage, only to slow when something on the floor caught her attention.

For a moment, Eliza just stared at the dark red droplets in confusion.
Blood. But what would it be doing here?

Following the trail of blood with her gaze, she was horrified to see that it led straight into the house. Even more alarming, though, were the bloody handprints smeared all over the knob and the doorjamb. Her heart in her throat, Eliza slowly walked toward the door.

Chapter 6

The door was slightly ajar and Eliza cautiously pushed it open the rest of the way. “Hunter,” she called softly.

No answer.

Swallowing hard, she stepped into the kitchen, careful to avoid the blood on the floor. “Hunter,” she called again, a little louder this time.

Still no answer.

Maybe she should call the cops. But instead of pulling out her cell phone, she ventured farther into the room. Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from the direction of the downstairs bathroom. That had to be Hunter, she knew it. But why hadn’t he answered her? He must be hurt. Her heart settling into the pit of her stomach, she slowly crept across the kitchen. As she neared the bathroom, she heard the noise again, and she quickened her step.

Terrified of what she would find, Eliza paused outside the door for a moment. Chewing nervously on her lower lip, she slowly stepped into the bathroom.

What she saw made her gasp. Hunter stood in front of the mirror, blood dripping from his shoulder and down his bare chest. In his hand, he held a pair of pliers.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed, rushing into the bathroom. “Hunter, what happened?!”

Hunter jerked his head up to look at her, clearly stunned by her presence. “Eliza,” he said, his voice hoarse. Reaching for the towel that was on the counter, he quickly pressed it to his bloody shoulder. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

She dropped her purse on the floor and moved closer to him. “I’m not surprised. What happened?”

He shook his head, avoiding her gaze. “Nothing. It’s a scratch.”

“A scratch!” Eliza frowned. “Hunter, that is definitely not a scratch! What happened? Here, let me see.”

Hunter’s hand tightened on the towel, trying to hold it in place even as she reached for it, and Eliza had to practically jerk it away from him. Now that some of the blood had been absorbed by the towel, she could see where it was coming from, and her eyes went wide at the sight of the hole in his shoulder.

“Oh my God, you’ve been shot!” she cried. “We have to get you to the hospital!”

“No hospital,” Hunter said.

Eliza blinked in confusion. “What do you mean, no hospital? Of course, you have to go to the hospital! Hunter, you’ve been shot!”

He shook his head. “I’ll be fine once I get the bullet out.”

She stared at the long slender pliers in his hand, realization suddenly dawning on her.
He couldn’t be serious!
“Are you crazy?” she said. “You can’t take the bullet out yourself! I’m taking you to the hospital!”

He must be in shock. That had to be it, because no one in their right mind would try to take a bullet out of their own shoulder with a pair of pliers!
Dragging her gaze away from his shoulder, Eliza reached down for her purse, but Hunter caught her arm.

“I can’t go to the hospital, Eliza,” he told her again, his voice firm.

Her brow furrowed. “Why not?”

His mouth tightened. “I can’t go into that right now. But if I don’t get this bullet out soon, the wound is going to close, and then I’ll really be in trouble. I was going to do it myself, but actually, it’d be easier if you do it.”

Her eyes went wide. “Me? What are you talking about? I can’t take a bullet out of you! There’s no way!”

Hunter pressed the pliers into her hand. “Yes, you can,” he said. “You have to. Besides, it doesn’t feel like it’s in very deep, so it should be easy.”

Eliza’s mind was whirling and she felt faint from the sight of all the blood. Hunter must be delusional from the pain or something. That was the only thing that would explain why he’d want her to take out the bullet with a pair of pliers.

She took the pliers from him and set them down on the counter. “Hunter, you have to stop this! You have to let me take you to the hospital. You could die if I don’t.”

“I’m not going to die from the bullet,” he told her. “But I will be in for a whole lot of pain if you don’t get it out. Eliza, I need you to trust me on this. Everything will be fine if you just follow my directions. If you won’t do it, then I’ll have to.” He picked up the pliers and held them out to her.

Eliza stared at the pliers. He couldn’t be serious. But from the expression on his face, it was obvious he was. She wanted to refuse, to insist that he go to the hospital, but she knew that if she did, Hunter would only try to dig the bullet out himself, and she wasn’t big enough to stop him. Without being able to see what he was doing, he would just end up making a mess of it. But still…

Hunter gently cupped her cheek. “You can do this, Eliza. I know you can.”

She gazed up into his gold eyes, saw the trust in them reflected back at her. Oh God, she couldn’t believe she was really going to do this. Shrugging out of her coat, she tossed it on the vanity, and then reached for the pliers.

“Shouldn’t we sterilize these or something?” she asked.

He gave her a wry smile. “I don’t think it matters. It’s not like the bullet was sterilized.”

That was true. She took a deep breath and stepped closer to him. Without the towel there to stop it, blood had started to run down his chest again.

“Even if I do manage to get the bullet out, you’re still going to need stitches, you know,” she said. “And I’m telling you right now, there is no way I’m going to stitch you up. I completely flunked the sewing portion of home economics in school.”

His mouth quirked. “Stitches won’t be necessary.”

Eliza wasn’t sure what he meant by that, and right then, she was almost afraid to ask. Placing a trembling hand on his chest to steady herself, she lifted the pliers, but then hesitated. What the heck was she doing? She didn’t know the first thing about removing a bullet!

The wound was blackened and ragged around the edges; just looking at it made her feel queasy. It made her think back to that frog in biology class. She’d been lousy at that subject, too.

When she hesitated, Hunter wrapped his hand around hers and guided it toward the gunshot wound. “Just go straight in. You’ll find it.”

Calling herself all kinds of stupid for doing this, Eliza slowly slid the tips of the pliers into the opening of the wound. The moment she did, the jagged hole began to bleed more freely. Hunter flinched, but only gritted his teeth.

Her eyes flew to his face. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re doing great,” he said. “Keep going. And don’t forget to open the pliers up or you’ll just push the bullet deeper. It’s not far now.”

His definition of “not far” was obviously different than hers because it seemed like it took forever for her to find the bullet. She already had the pliers in almost to the joint and the wound was bleeding fiercely now. Oh God, she was going to be sick!

“Just a little farther,” he said softly.

She glanced up at him. “A little farther? Are you crazy? How do you even know where it is?”

He grimaced. “Trust me, I know. You’re close.”

She was about to protest, but just then she felt the tips of the pliers touch something. She swore she could almost hear them clink against something metallic.

“That’s it,” Hunter said.

Eliza hesitated. “Are you sure?” she said. “What if it’s something else? Something important?”
Like bone.

He clenched his jaw. “It’s not. Just close down carefully and pull back.”

She did as he told her, her head starting to swim as more blood gushed out. But the pliers slid out a lot faster than they had gone in, and a moment later she was standing there staring at the misshapen bullet gripped in the tips.

Hunter let out a breath. “I told you that you could do it.”

Abruptly realizing that he was still bleeding, Eliza set the pliers down on the counter and hastily grabbed the towel, holding it tightly against the wound. “You’re going to bleed to death. We still need to get you to a hospital.”

But he shook his head. “No, we don’t. It’ll be fine.”

“Fine?” Eliza cried. “Hunter, I may have gotten the bullet out, but it is nowhere near fine!”

Eager to prove her point, she jerked the towel away from his shoulder, only to go deathly still at what she saw. Where before the wound had been practically gushing with blood, now it wasn’t bleeding at all. Even as she watched, the jagged hole seemed like it was closing up. And as she continued to gaze at it, the hole kept getting smaller and smaller until it was completely closed over.

Eliza stared at the scar. If she hadn’t just taken the bullet out with her own two hands, she’d think the scar was days old. In awe, she reached out and gently ran the tips of her fingers over the newly formed skin.

For some reason, she was reminded of the scars she’d seen on Hunter’s shoulder the night before, and she automatically shifted her gaze to look at them. She frowned when she realized that the marks that had been there that morning weren’t just smaller, they were barely visible at all. Her hand moved higher, her fingers tracing the faint lines.

“These were darker this morning, I’m sure of it,” she murmured. Realization suddenly dawned on her. It was too impossible to even think it, but she couldn’t keep her mind from connecting the dots. “Last night, the wolf that saved my life got scratched right on his shoulder just like this.”

“Eliza…” Hunter began, but she ignored him as she continued.

“Then tonight, Detective Newman took a shot at the wolves, and when I got here, you had a bullet wound in your shoulder.”

She tried to tell herself that it was a coincidence and nothing more. She might actually believe that if she hadn’t just seen the bullet wound heal up right before her eyes.

Eliza slowly lifted her head to look at Hunter. “Oh God…you’re a…a…werewolf!”

“Eliza…”

But she shook her head. “But you don’t have excessive body hair or a unibrow or…”

Hunter frowned down at her in obvious confusion. “What?”

“The classic signs,” she explained. “You know, excessive body hair, overly long fingernails, one of those unibrow things, a violent temper…”

He sighed. “Eliza, I think we need to talk.”

She shook her head, looking at him incredulously. “Talk? I just accused you of being a werewolf and you want to talk?”

He nodded. “Yes, we need to talk. Let’s go into the kitchen and I’ll make you some tea.”

Eliza had an urge for something stronger than tea, but she said nothing as Hunter took her hand and led her out of the bathroom. At the sight of the blood on the kitchen floor, however, she hesitated in the doorway.

Hunter must have sensed her discomfort because he said, “Wait here while I clean that up.”

She did as he suggested, waiting while he grabbed some paper towels off the rack and wiped up the floor before finally venturing into the kitchen, and then it was to lean against the counter with her arms wrapped around herself. Her head was spinning. She didn’t honestly believe Hunter was a werewolf, did she? There had to be another explanation, right? Werewolves didn’t exist. But then why hadn’t he denied it?

“So,” she said softly, “are you a werewolf or not?”

He was silent as he set two mugs out on the counter. “Yes,” he finally said, not looking at her.

Eliza’s jaw dropped open. Oh God. This so wasn’t happening. Hunter simply could not be a werewolf. Maybe she was dreaming this whole thing. That made sense. She had come up to Alaska to do a story on a werewolf, after all. But something told her this wasn’t a dream. Hunter really was a werewolf.

“Were you bitten by a werewolf like in the movies?” she asked, not knowing what else to say.

He glanced up from the box of tea bags to give her a look that was half amused. “No. Though a person will become one if they’re bitten. I’m what we call a hereditary werewolf.”

They never mentioned that in the movies. “Your parents are werewolves then?”

Hunter shook his head. “Just my father. The gene is passed down through his side of the family.”

She thought about that for a moment. This was too insane for words. “Does your mother know?”

A pained expression crossed his face. “Yes. It was kind of hard for my brother and me to hide it from her. We couldn’t control it when it first started.”

Eliza blinked. “Your brother is a werewolf, too?”

He nodded as he poured hot water into the mugs.

They were both silent for a moment as they waited for the tea to steep, but then she frowned in confusion. “Well, wait a minute. If your father is one, too, why didn’t your mother figure it out earlier?”

“Because he kept it hidden from her,” Hunter explained. “He was afraid of how she would react, so he never told her. He’d hoped they would get lucky and that the trait would end up skipping a generation.”

“It does that?”

He shrugged. “Sometimes. It’s a recessive gene.”

“Recessive?” she said, thinking back to what she’d learned in her high school biology class about recessive genes. “You mean like red hair or something?”

He nodded. “Exactly like that, actually.”