Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles #2) (11 page)

“So, big news,” Kimi said. “My mom told me to tell you that she met a family court judge at Pilates who said she’d sign off on your emancipation papers if the case came before her. Which, hell, yeah.”

Katelyn was stunned. Before she had flown out to Wolf Springs, Kimi had been lobbying for her to file for emancipation so Katelyn could stay there and live with Kimi’s family. Kimi’s mom was an attorney and she’d been willing to present the case and assure the judge she would provide Katelyn a home. Until that moment, though, Katelyn hadn’t been convinced it could actually work.

“Making deals outside of court like that, isn’t that illegal or something?” Katelyn asked, as butterflies danced in her stomach. Another chance to leave Wolf Springs dropped into her lap?

She ticked a glance in Trick’s direction to find that he was still looking at her, and she turned her head slightly and cupped her mouth.

“If you could offer some proof about why Wolf Springs is a bad living environment, that would seal the deal,” Kimi continued.

“Well, there was a murder recently.”

“Right on! I mean, oh, how awful and sad. Anyone you know? Or knew?”

“I guess she was in some of my classes, but no, I didn’t. And my history teacher is missing.”

“Jeez. Is there a guy running around with a chainsaw, too?” Kimi asked, and Katelyn snorted.

If only I could tell you what’s really going on
, she thought.
You wouldn’t believe any of it
.

Then she inhaled the mingled scents of soap and leather. Not Justin. Trick. Up close, she could see the stubble on his cheeks and chin, and the flecks of blue in his green eyes. Without warning, her vision telescoped and she felt as if she were falling into his eyes, into their depths, and she felt incredibly dizzy. Then she blinked to try to pull herself out of it.

“The missing teacher is a nice addition,” Kimi said. “I’ll tell my mom.” Then she added, “Are you okay? I mean, were you close to him or anything?”

“Close,” Katelyn ventured, testing out the idea. Then she gave her head a sharp shake. “Kimi, I need to go. I’ll call you when I get home.”

“From the cabin in the woods, wa ha ha,” Kimi said. “Kiss kiss. You’ll be home before you know it.”

“Mwah. Sounds
poifect
,” Katelyn said, and hung up. She closed her eyes and pressed her finger against the bridge of her nose. She inhaled slowly, then exhaled, then opened her eyes again.

The telescoping was gone. But Trick was standing right there, in living color.

“Yes?” she said.

“I’m coming over to your house after school,” he informed her. “I’m going to help your grandfather chop wood for the winter.”

“Quaint. I’ll be home later. I’m going to Cordelia’s house again, just for a little bit.” She almost added,
I’m going swimming
, but she doubted that Justin had been serious. It was practically sleeting outside.

“No, you aren’t,” he said. When she frowned at him, he added, “It’s not Cordelia’s house anymore, is it?” He wasn’t asking. He knew.

“Trick, I don’t have to explain myself to you.” The words came out more sharply than she had intended. How did he know?

“Your pappy told me to watch out for you.” He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips in displeasure. “He’s trouble, Katelyn. You’re new here. You don’t know about his past.”

“I think I know who you mean, and trust me when I say this, Trick. He has a girlfriend. They’re practically engaged.”

“That’s never stopped him before,” Trick retorted.

Her cheeks went hot.

“Are you okay?” he asked, and she nodded. “You don’t look okay.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted.

“Don’t go over there this afternoon. There is absolutely no good reason for you to go.”

“Got it,” she said, and she took a big bite out of her apple. He shifted his weight on his hip, upset and pissed off, and she took another bite. Clenching his teeth, he turned on his heel and walked away. She stared at his retreating back — okay, his butt — and smiled.

I’ll get out of here
, she mentally told him.
I’ll take you with me
.

She devoured her apple like it was a rabbit.

~

Afternoon.

Katelyn walked to the end of the high-dive and stared down at Justin. Treading water in the steamy pool, he was bobbing in the water. His hair was slicked back, accentuating the planes and angles in his face, and she felt awkward in the swimsuit he had brought for her. She wondered if it was Cordelia’s — likely, since it was so baggy on her. Cordelia was taller than she was.

“Just jump,” Justin said. “You’re not afraid, are you?”

He had no idea who he was dealing with. She backed up, ran, then sprang off the board. She executed several axial twists before she slid into the water without a splash. When she came back up, he was staring at her open-mouthed.

They were at the Y, where her grandfather had found her gymnastics lessons, and while it was almost as bad as Trick had said, there was a woman on staff who had been a gymnastics coach at Cal State Long Beach, and taught private lessons. She wasn’t in, but Katelyn took her card.

Justin had rationalized the swimming by emphasizing the need to stay in shape. Whatever condition you were in as a human directly affected your strength and stamina as a wolf.

“What about your mental health?” she had asked him, and he’d clouded over.

“You mean Lee? He’s just as unpredictable in wolf form as human,” he said shortly. “Something’s got to be done, and soon.”

She told herself that she didn’t care about any of that. It wasn’t her business. All she had to do was steer clear of Lee Fenner.

And wait until midnight, and see what happened next.

~

The hours dragged by. Her grandfather asked her if something was wrong and then offered to play a game of Scrabble. Her heart was only half in it, but when he won by 400 points she had to admire his skill. When she went upstairs she passed the time by reading more of Cordelia’s diary. After Cordelia’s first transformation, they had had a party, like a werewolf bat mitzvah, orchestrated well away from the kids who hadn’t yet changed.

Cordelia had once had her daydreams and crushes, and even tried to get her father to accept a human boy into the pack. She had been told to break up with him and wait for a mate to be selected.
Selected?
Cordelia had wanted to date and have a boyfriend, but it turned out werewolf teenagers — or at least the daughters of the alpha — lived much more circumspect lives than Cali girls. Or pretty much any other girl, period. Boys, too, since they were also half of the equation. So maybe Justin didn’t love Lucy. Maybe it was simply that they were facing an arranged marriage. Maybe love was supposed to come in time.

I don’t care
, she told herself.
I don’t want him
.

Katelyn was afraid she’d fall asleep in her room — she had to get up so early every morning to drive to Wolf Springs High — so she put the diary down and did some stretching exercises. She wondered where Cordelia was. She wondered if the Fenners were watching her right now.

And what would happen to her tonight.

Finally, at five minutes to midnight, a text came in:
I am coming. Porch
.

She grabbed her purse, crept downstairs, and tiptoed out onto the porch. Anxiously shifting her weight back and forth, she sucked in her breath when a black BMW crept up the drive.

The passenger window rolled down and a handsome younger man who resembled Dom Gaudin silently gestured for her to approach. The door opened. She got in and shut the door, sitting beside him. The Beemer drove away.

“I’m Luc Gaudin,” he said. He was all crazy red-blond curls, heavy eyebrows, and deep-set brown eyes. “I’m Dom’s younger brother.”

“The Fenners—”

“Are not a problem,” he said smoothly.

“Where are we going?”

“There’s a warming hut,” he said. “Ma’amselle Fenner took shelter there.”

“Is it far?”

“Far enough. Are you hungry? Thirsty?” He peered at her. “Nervous?”

“I’m freaking,” she said honestly.

“You didn’t pack any of your belongings,” he observed.

She gaped at him. It hadn’t even dawned on her. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to her that they would leave immediately. But why would they stick around?

She fell silent. He looked at her kindly and said, “Cordelia told us what happened to you. That someone attacked you.”

Maybe one of the Gaudins had done it, to make Mr. Fenner look bad. Maybe Luc himself. But no, he had brown eyes. The werewolf that had bitten her had blue eyes, and werewolves didn’t change eye color when they transformed.

“Yeah, I’m supposed to be all joyous about it,” she said. “No offense, but I’m not.”

He cocked his head. “A great shock,
non
?”

“That’s putting it mildly.” She blew air out of her cheeks. “Is she okay? I mean, was she hurt, or—”

“I don’t know,” he said. “You must understand. For us Gaudins, being banished from the pack is a fate worse than death. I would rather have my heart torn out than suffer what she has suffered.”

She nodded, but she couldn’t imagine wanting to be a member of the Fenner pack. From what little she had seen of the Gaudins, the Fenners were kind of like the loser werewolves.

“Do you know if there’s a cure for being a werewolf?” she asked him hopefully.

He cocked his head. “Ah, I am sorry. We don’t have one. But we’ve never looked.”

She leaned her head on the back of the seat. “Why are you helping us?” she asked and then regretted it. “I mean, there’ve been hints that there’s not exactly — that maybe there’s bad blood—”

He sighed heavily. “When first our two packs settled in this country there was already a rivalry. We wanted to protect our borders, our hunting grounds. It is no different than our wild brothers or even the lion packs of Africa. And to complicate things we are human as well. We have nothing in common with one another but the fact that we change. Our culture, our heritage, our way of life are different. Over the years a thousand slights or discourtesies created more and more friction. For our part, we avoided them at all costs.”

“What happened?” Katelyn asked, sensing that there was more to the story.

“More people settled on both our territories, clearing the forests, decreasing our lands and the animals we take sustenance from. The packs have grown larger but the resources smaller. And then, about eighty or ninety years ago, before you and I were even born, some terrible things happened around here.”

Katelyn sat up straighter, sensing the importance of what was coming next.

Luc cleared his throat. “Even worse,
forty
years ago, it happened again: there was a string of murders among the people here. Savage. Brutal. The Fenners accused us, but we knew none of us could be responsible. Then, when we were having a pack meeting and all members were present, three more murders were committed, but this time they were on our lands. The Fenners had a rogue werewolf and it was killing, threatening the safety of all.”

She felt cold all over, as if someone had just walked over her grave. The Fenners had lied to her. Even Justin.

Unless he’s been lied to, too
.

“Who was it?” she asked.

“Which Fenner? We don’t know.”

“Well, what made it stop?”

“That was the strangest part. It just did. A short while later we were informed that Lee Fenner was the new alpha and we hoped that the pack had sorted it out, and that he could keep his people in check in the future. But the intrusions onto our land had only just begun,” Luc said, his voice hardening. “They began to poison our streams with silver. As I’m sure you know, a werewolf may touch silver, though it is painful, but it must not pierce the skin and enter the bloodstream or one becomes incredibly sick and will probably die. We learned the hard way that drinking the silver would also kill us. I will never forget the day that I watched my sister die, screaming, as silver in our water burned her from the inside.”

Katelyn shuddered. “That’s awful,” she whispered.

Luc nodded. “My brother, he wishes for peace, not war. He once thought that a union between him and Cordelia could end the suffering. But now those dreams are gone.”

Which meant there was nothing else standing in the way of war, Katelyn realized. Dejected, afraid, she crossed her arms and looked out the window.

“You still haven’t answered my question. Why are you helping us?” she asked.

Luc flashed her a smile. “Why does any man do anything?”

“I don’t know.”

“Love, cher. Dom is in love with Cordelia and he would not see her come to harm.”

After countless twists and turns, the car pulled to a stop, and Luc smiled at her.

“We’re here.”

Katelyn undid her seat belt and jumped out, racing toward a narrow A-frame building sided with shingles. Smoke was pouring out of a chimney. There were no windows.

The door of the hut flew open and Cordelia stood framed in the doorway. Katelyn ran over and began to throw her arms around her, then stopped. Cordelia’s face was puffy with crying, and she looked as if she hadn’t eaten or slept in days.

“Hey,” Katelyn said awkwardly, then raised her head as Dom came up behind Cordelia and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Ma’amselle Katelyn McBride,” Dom said. “A pleasure to meet you in the flesh.”

“Thank you for finding her,” Katelyn replied.

“She found us.” He gave her shoulder another squeeze. “I’ll leave you two to talk.”

Cordelia stepped out of the hut so he could get around her. She gave her head a little bob and he inclined his head rather imperiously. He looked at Katelyn.

“You need to lower your head to me,” he said.

“Oh.” She tucked in her chin and mentally rolled her eyes. God, if Kimi or any of her old friends could see her now . . . But in her encounters with other packmates, she’d seen lower-ranked were-boys go all Geisha like this, too. Turned out you had to behave a certain way according to your rank, not your gender—aside from a certain amount of human-woman tending of the male ego that seemed more common in Wolf Springs.