Claimed by the Beast Bundle (16 page)

Chapter 14

Beth slowed the car to a stop and looked at the four people gathering in the middle of the small ring of trailers. She swallowed and turned to face Crystal. “They don’t look happy.”

Crystal chuckled. “They weren’t expecting guests.”

“Oh,” Crystal’s friend said. “Um, well, I have to work tonight so I can’t stay very long.”

“It’s cool,” Crystal said. “I can get a ride home.”

“Crys—”

“Beth, it’s cool. These are good people. They are my friends.”

“You said you thought one of them was at Stephanie’s?” Beth turned and stared at the four people and frowned. “Where’s Ember?”

Crystal nodded. “That’s what I plan on finding out.”

Beth frowned and stared at her. “Are you not telling me something?”

Crystal forced herself to laugh. “Go to work. Get a promotion so you can afford a nice apartment for us to move to when we go to college.”

“Is that even a possibility anymore?” Beth asked.

Crystal smiled and reached over to hug her friend. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Beth wrinkled her nose and waited for Crystal to climb out of the car. Crystal shut the door and waved before turning to face the others.

“Somebody cleaned up,” Gwen said as Crystal walked up to them.

Crystal grinned and then turned to watch as Beth backed into a three-point turn and headed back down the driveway. Once she was out of sight, she turned back. “This is as good as it gets. All my other clothes are fat girl clothes.”

“Fat girl clothes?” Hank asked.

Crystal chewed on her lip and looked at him. He was wearing a ribbed t-shirt that looked like it was going to split open over his chest and arms if he moved wrong. That and a pair of jeans made her knees weak. “Yes,” Crystal breathed. “Dark and baggy stuff, to hide in.”

“You’re not fat,” he declared.

“Duh,” she teased. “Not now—before.”

“Not then either,” he said.

She looked at him and felt her chest tighten and her heart swell. Without thinking first, she blurted out, “I am so going to rock your world.”

Hank stiffened and blushed. He grinned in spite of the reddening skin beneath his scruff and turned to glance at the others. Gwen laughed while Guntar glanced away. Adrian scowled and it was that scowl that brought reason to Crystal’s mind. Her hand flew to her mouth.

“Oh my God! I’m sorry, I didn’t—Why do I get like this whenever I’m around you?”

“It’s because you’re in heat,” Adrian growled. “Try to pull your head out of the gutter, though. It’s not doing you any good.”

“No—I mean, yes, I believe you, but it’s not just that. I got a ride home from a guy who wanted to sleep with me last night and I felt nothing for him. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I’m here.”

Hank took a half step forward before Gwen touched his arm with her hand and stopped him. He snorted and stepped back. Crystal smiled at him. He was so damn cute—she was definitely going to rock his world!

“You’re not an animal, sweetie,” Gwen chided her. “And even if you were, haven’t you seen the complex mating rituals animals have? The females of any species don’t just let anyone impregnate them.”

Crystal’s eyes widened at Gwen’s choice of words. “Uh, that’s good, I guess.”

Gwen nodded. “We have our standards, from chipmunk to human. Our mates must be good enough to be worthy of us.”

Crystal risked a glance at a blushing Hank and felt her own cheeks heat up. She couldn’t imagine him failing any tests she gave him. Then again, maybe that’s why she was so desperate to make him her first, and last, lover.

Guntar coughed and asked, “So what happened with this guy?”

“Well, um, he tried to get me back to his place and I told him to stop. So he did. Stopped so fast I hit the dash.”

Hank took a step closer and growled, “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Crystal said and smiled at him. “Had a bloody nose and my fingers got smashed into the dashboard, but they were fine a few seconds later.”

Adrian shook his head and muttered something she couldn’t make out.

Guntar nodded but didn’t offer an explanation.

“So that’s it?” Gwen asked.

“Well…not exactly.” Crystal hesitated. She sighed and shrugged. “He came at me today at lunch and was yelling about how I had to pay for the damages to his car. Guess it got scratches and dents on the door and the dash is cracked or something.”

“Where you hit it?” Hank asked.

“The dash? Yes. I didn’t do the door, though, I swear! I slammed it shut, but that was it. I couldn’t scratch it.”

“Are you sure?” Gwen asked.

“Of course I’m sure,” Crystal said. She held up her hand. “No keys or anything, just my hand. My nails aren’t even fake! No way I could scratch his car, let alone dent it.”

Gwen frowned and turned to Guntar and Adrian. The historian of the pack sighed. “This is beyond me. We need help.”

“Help? What are you talking about?” Crystal asked.

“They don’t know what to do with you,” Hank said. “I’m not worried about that. Who was the kid who pulled this stunt?”

“Crystal!” Gwen snapped before she could respond. “Do not tell that to Hank!”

“What? Why?”

“Because none of us will be able to stop him from making your friend have a very bad accident.”

Crystal gasped and turned her attention on Hank. He shrugged and glanced at the ground. The heat in her belly doubled and spread lower in her abdomen. She started towards him and almost reached him when Gwen cleared her throat loudly.

“I’m not telling him,” Crystal sulked. “I just wanted to thank him for wanting to protect me.”

Guntar chuckled again and Gwen snorted. “Finish the story.”

“The story? Oh! You mean about—about that guy. Right. Sorry. I got up to leave and he grabbed my arm. I got mad. I mean really, really mad. Everything was red and I was so hot. When I could see again, he was on the ground and covered in food.”

“What did you do?” Adrian snarled.

“I slapped him, that’s all!”

Hank took a step and reached out to grab her hand.

She felt him and had to fight to resist the urge to melt into him. To keep herself distracted, she kept talking. “I got detention for it. Otherwise, I’d have been here sooner.”

“Knocked him down with a slap?” Guntar asked.

Hank’s chuckle rumbled in his chest beside her.

Hearing him made her breath quicken. “Yes,” she said. “And he’s a jock too, not a little guy. Beth covered for me; she said I’ve been exercising a lot lately to lose some weight.”

“This is happening too fast,” Adrian said. “We need to take her soon.”

“Take me? Where?”

“We need Ember,” Guntar said. “We’ll do it this weekend.”

“Every day could be a day too late,” Adrian warned.

“Ember!” Crystal said while looking around. “Where is she? I thought I saw her this morning outside my house.”

“She hasn’t been back since yesterday,” Gwen said.

“You mean when you told her to go take care of Stephanie?”

Gwen nodded again.

Crystal groaned. “Her bike is at Stephanie’s house then. That must be who gave her a ride this morning! I wonder if that’s why she was so different today.”

“She? She who? Ember?” Gwen asked.

“Sorry, Stephanie,” Crystal clarified. “Did Ember do something to her?”

“She’d better not,” Adrian said.

“Not much she can do. We don’t have any way to make people behave different.”

Crystal nodded. “Okay. Um. Well, there was one other thing.”

Adrian growled deep in his throat.

“Stephanie tried to give me a necklace but it felt wrong. It made my hand itch really bad as soon as I touched it. She said it was silver.”

Guntar frowned. “Silver? Already? After a week?”

“A week!” Adrian hissed. “Has it even been a week? Is this weekend going to be too long?”

“What are you guys talking about?” Crystal demanded.

Hank pulled her to him and wrapped his other arm around her shoulders. She burrowed against him, forgetting for a moment everything except smelling and touching him. When he spoke, it made her jerk in surprise. “We’re going to see Clover.”

“Clover? Like, the stuff that grows in fields?”

Guntar chuckled. “Hardly. This Clover is in the swamp.”

“Hope it’s got four leaves—I could use some luck,” Crystal murmured as she started to lose herself in Hank’s presence again. She didn’t really care, though; as long as she was next to Hank, she’d be willing to endure anything.

“You will need luck,” Adrian barked. “Clover’s a witch.”

###

**Part Three**

Chapter 1

“A witch named Clover?”

Crystal glanced around the lunchroom to make sure no one was paying attention and then nodded. “She’s in the swamp.”

Beth gawked at her and then recovered. “The swamp? You mean, downriver?”

“Yes.”

“And her name is Clover?”

“Beth!” Crystal hissed.

“Sorry, it just doesn’t sound like a witchy name.”

Crystal smirked in spite of herself. “Witchy?”

Her friend shrugged and opened her mouth to say more. Her eyes flicked up and she clamped her mouth shut. Crystal turned her head and saw Stephanie approaching wearing a tight-fitting black miniskirt and a pink scoop neck shirt with silver sparkles on it. The sparkles matched her smile as she walked towards them.

“Hi,” Stephanie said before she slid into the chair at the round table next to Crystal. “I looked for you guys this morning. You should really get here a little earlier so we can hang out.”

“Hang out?” Beth asked.

Stephanie turned and smiled at her. The smile reached her eyes when she saw Beth was wearing the silver necklace she’d given her the day before. “Yes, that’s part of everything. You have to be seen and it’s important who you’re seen with.”

“This is giving me a headache.” Beth groaned.

Stephanie laughed and turned as Rachel, another of the elite, walked up to them and took the chair at the table opposite her. Crystal leaned back, surprised at Rachel’s confidence, and looked at Beth. The four-person table seemed very full all of a sudden.

“Hey,” Rachel said to Crystal and Beth. She grinned and said, “Has anyone seen Chad today?”

Stephanie burst into giggles. Beth looked back and forth. “No, why? I don’t get it.”

Rachel laughed harder while Stephanie explained. “No way to hide those scratches on his face. He probably figured it was better to stay home than face everyone.”

“Or maybe he figured you’d slap the other side,” Rachel whispered.

Crystal smiled with them and wondered if that was really it. She’d been embarrassed tons of times at school—most often by the blond sitting next to her. She’d never taken a day off because of it. Could there be more to it? Had she made him sick? Like what the Beast had done to her when he staked his claim on her with a bite? Except she hadn’t bitten him. He should be safe.

“Ow!” Rachel hissed as she chewed on a vegetable. She made a face and rolled her eyes before she reached up and put her finger between her lips and then pulled it out. “I don’t believe it! I just bit my lip!”

Crystal stared at the red on Rachel’s finger. Blood. She realized she was sniffing after doing it and forced herself to stop. Blood. Her friends had told her the curse or gift or whatever they called it was in the blood. The Beast had poisoned her with his bites, but she was changing because she’d gotten their blood mixed with hers. And she’d had a nosebleed in Chad’s car and probably gotten some on his seat.

“What are you doing?” Beth asked as Crystal rose to her feet.

Crystal hesitated and glanced around.

“Are you all right?” Stephanie asked.

Beth’s eyes went to Rachel and then back to Crystal.

“Yeah, uh…” Crystal paused. “No, I’m feeling a little weird. I’m going to go splash some water on my face.”

“I’ve got some emergency makeup in my purse. I’ll help,” Stephanie offered.

“No—I’m okay. I mean, I’ll be okay. It’s waterproof.”

Stephanie relaxed back into her seat and nodded. “Okay, well, let us know how you’re doing. If you need a ride home, I can give you a ride if Beth can’t.”

“Um, yeah, me too,” Rachel offered.

Crystal nodded and offered a weak smile. Beth stared at her, her eyes boring into Crystal’s. Crystal tried to look apologetic without giving anything away and then turned and headed out of the lunchroom.

She stopped by the girls’ restroom and stared into the mirror for a long moment. Her eyes always caught her attention first. They seemed brighter, with more and more gold flecks every day. Her cheeks had thinned out as though her baby fat was melting away. She was hardly a baby, but she couldn’t think of any other way to describe it.

Her neck was thinner too. She could make out the tendons and muscles where before her neck looked round and smooth. Her collarbones where visible and the hollow at the base of her throat was more pronounced than it had ever been. Her weight was down twenty-four pounds this morning.

Crystal bowed her head and took a deep breath. She fought back the pressure in her chest and struggled to breathe. Crystal squeezed her eyes shut, willing the tears to go away. She heard the door to the restroom open, making her gasp and grab her purse. She spun to head for a stall.

“Crys, wait!” Beth said.

Crystal stopped and stared at her friend. Beth looked at her for a long moment and then rushed over and hugged her. Crystal stood strong for a moment and then the trembling in her soul spread to her arms and legs, and she all but fell onto her smaller friend.

“Oof,” Beth said, her voice muffled by Crystal’s shoulder. “For losing so much weight you sure are heavy.”

Crystal sniffed and laughed. “Still a water-retaining sea cow.”

“Stop it,” Beth said. She stepped back from Crystal and smiled. “You’re more beautiful than ever.”

“My best friend, the lesbian.”

“I am not!”

“You said you’re in love with me,” Crystal reminded her. She waved it away. “That’s cool, I don’t care. I mean I do care. I just don’t—”

“Crys, shut up,” Beth said. “I know what you mean. And you know I don’t want to sleep with you. I just love you like a sister. More than a sister.”

Crystal nodded. “I’m worried about Chad.”

“What? That asshole wanted to rape you!”

“Well, I’m not worried about that.”

“You should be!”

Crystal shook her head. “I have a feeling he’d be a lot worse off if he’d tried any harder. I mean, I don’t know what I can do, but I’m afraid to find out.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

Crystal sighed. “Tell me about it. Even Adrian doesn’t know what to make of me.”

“Adrian, that’s the guy who doesn’t like you?”

“I don’t think it’s like that. I think he just doesn’t like not knowing what’s going on. Apparently whatever is going on with me they’ve never heard of before.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I thought it was either you were sick and going to die, you were going to turn into something like whatever it was that attacked you—in which case you’ll die because they’ll kill you—or you were going to turn into a werewolf, which means you might die if you can’t handle it.”

“You have a great way of cheering me up,” Crystal muttered.

Beth shrugged. “Any way it happens, I’m with you. But with all this scary shit going on, why are you worried about that creep?”

“You heard them tell me about how all this paranormal crap is in the blood, right?”

“So? You’re not a vampire.” Beth stopped and stared at her. “Holy shit! Werewolves are real—do you think that means vampires are too? That could be so cool!”

Crystal frowned. “I don’t know. I hope not. I’ve got enough to worry about.”

“Oh, right. Sorry. Still—”

“Beth, enough, okay?”

Beth pressed her lips together and pulled her finger across them as though she was zipping them shut.

Crystal rolled her eyes. “Anyhow, when I had a nosebleed in Chad’s car, I bled on his seat. Probably his dash too. What if he got some of that blood in a cut or something?”

Beth blinked and then her eyes darted around the room as she considered what Crystal had said. “Can you change somebody? I mean, you’re not even changed yet yourself, right? I thought—no, never mind. I guess I don’t know what to think. You know more than I do and if you’re confused, then what good am I?”

Crystal smiled and gave her a quick hug. “You’re the best,” she said.

“Thanks, but warn me if you’re getting hungry.”

“A few minutes ago you were hoping I’d eat you—now you’re afraid?”

Beth gasped. “That’s wrong!”

Crystal nodded but couldn’t stop herself from smiling at her own joke. “It is, but I’ll take what I can get.”

“All right, Wolf-girl, so what do we do about Chad?”

“You? Nothing. Last thing I could deal with is if you got hurt because of all this.”

“You’re in it up to your ponytail, so I am too.”

“I’m not wearing a ponytail.”

“Don’t get catty with me. Ooh, can I even say that? Catty?”

Crystal glared at her and shook her head. “Whatever. Look, I need to talk to my friends about this. I’m going to—”

“To finish school. You’ve missed too much lately and you’re going to get in trouble.”

“Really? Like that matters? If I’m going to die, are a few skipped classes a big deal?”

“It is if you don’t. You always expect the worst. Try planning for the best sometime.”

Crystal frowned and then nodded. “All right, but after school I have to go and see them.”

“I’ll drop you off,” Beth promised.

Crystal gave her another quick hug. “You’re the best.”

“Took you long enough to realize it!”