Howling at the Moon: The Complete Series (9 page)

If only he knew that was my last objective. I had no intention of getting into that lake. Seeing Katina and killing her was all I wanted to do.

“C’mon. Let’s get going and get back here,” he said, getting out and walking towards the woods.

I followed him, walking and looking around as we made our way into the shade of the trees, stomping on leaves, and discarded branches.

“Shhh... try not to be too loud. I don’t want them to hear us.”

I wasn’t sure how I could do that. I wasn’t exactly equipped with paws yet. But I did as Warren asked me to.

I walked more slowly and tried to make sure that I didn’t step on anything that made too much noise.

It felt like we walked forever and were still getting nowhere until Warren put his hand up for me to stop. He pointed, and I saw her: Katina, laying on the ground like she had no cares in the world.

That bitch had on my hat—the straw hat that I wore the day Mo seduced me—and I wanted it back. She wore a bikini, basking at the lake as if she was waiting for Warren and I to show up.

“What do we do?” I whispered, crouching down on the ground beside him. He sniffed, his nose twitching as if he smelled something. I didn’t see Mo, but I was sure that Warren had picked up his scent.

“Stay here. I’m going to walk through the trees and see if I can find him. Whistle if you run into trouble.” He kissed me as if it would be the last time our lips touched. “And if it gets too crazy, just run into the lake then get out of here.”

I nodded again, afraid to whisper for fear that I might be heard.

With a wink, Warren was gone, walking into the wilderness and unbuttoning his shirt as he walked. He must have been getting ready to shift at any time just in case Mo was waiting.

Laying on a beach towel in the lake sand was, Katina wearing sunglasses and my hat. I hated her. Just looking at her smug face made me mad.

“Mo, they’re here,” I heard her yell, taking off her sunglasses and glaring through the woods at me.

Shit! She saw us the whole time—maybe smelled us, for all I knew. Warren told me to run if things got too bad, but I had no intention of doing that.

I heard howling and barks from Warren. Looking through the trees, I saw him running. There were more howls that sounded like those of Mo, as well. Growling and yells from Katina made it clear what was happening. She would have Mo kill Warren, and she would kill me. That was it; I wasn’t going down without a fight.

Warren was mine, and I needed to let Katina know that. I stood up, matching her gaze.

****

A
s Mo and Warren fought, I saw my perfect opportunity to catch Katina. Stepping out of the safety of the forest, she saw me and growled.

“So, you want to try to stay human? You’ll only get to that lake over my dead body,” Katina screamed at me, her fangs showing, and all I could think of was how the bitch was wearing my hat. She laughed as if I were the crazed idiot.

“He still loves me, you know,” She snarled. My body felt like a volcano of anger as she kept yelling and taunting me. All of this over a man I met only a few days ago, yet I was disrespected by this beast named Katina.

I saw Mo and Warren fighting through the trees. Their huge, fur-ridden bodies surfaced from the foliage on occasion, lunging at each other’s throats. Their growls filled the air, but I remembered Warren’s instructions to get to the lake. Too bad Katina was in my way.

“You’re an idiot to think you can satisfy him, and he’s an idiot for wanting you over me.” She rubbed her hands down her body. She was a stick figure and didn’t have much of a body to rub.

I wanted to hurt her. At that moment, I wanted to taste her blood and rip out her vocal cords.

At least ten feet separated me from Katina, and fifteen feet from her to the lake. She must have thought I was here to dive into the water; instead, I was diving into her.

My chest flexed out my. I made fists with my hands, thinking of every possible thing that pissed me off.

I glanced back towards the forest as Mo and Warren jumped through the trees, viciously snarling and snapping at each other.

“Warren isn’t strong enough. He’ll never beat Mo,” she heckled me, taking my straw hat and tossing it on her beach towel.

Katina unlatched her bikini top, slowly throwing it down to the ground. She smiled at me, winking as she pulled down the bottom and showing her well-manicured snatch and perky B-cups.

“I’m going to enjoy killing you,” she said, but my change had already begun to manifest.

Warren howled and I could almost hear my name through his animal how, but it was too late. Pain was already shooting through my body, radiating from my head down to my fingers and toes.

The pain got worse, burrowing deeper and filling my entire body. It spread like wildfire and slowed like ice creeping across me. I wanted to rage, scream, cry, and whimper at the same time.

I tried to lunge towards Katina, but she backed away. She looked as if she wanted to turn as well, but was caught up looking at my transformation.

My body was all wrong. Too tall, too big. Way too long.

I heard heavy breathing coming from my nostrils that sounded like some huge animal; it couldn’t have been from me. Looking down at my fur-covered paws that used to be my hands, I knew for sure that this was real.

As I shifted, my screams became a howl that shook the leaves of the forest. I was gone.

*****

I
nstincts kicked in as if I were meant to be a werewolf my entire life.

I jumped higher than I ever had before. I felt weightless as my legs bounded towards her quick as lightning before she had the chance to scream. She tried to run, but she tripped on the sand and I was right there over the top of her. I snarled in her face and bit at her, trying to take out a chunk out of her skin.

I could see she was trying to shift, but I was too close, too fast. If she shifted, I would kill her right here.

There came howling from behind me, not from Warren, but from Mo; a wounded howl as if he was hurt. I turned to look, some nosy instinct of mine. The glare of the sun momentarily blinded me, casting shadows over what looked like two piles of fur, one laying on the ground and the other standing above him.

Warren was the winner, and that's when I felt it; hard and sharp in my chest. When I looked down Katina had shifted, snarling and thrashing on the ground. She was biting me.

Whimpering, I backed away, my body feeling the same pain as when I shifted. I looked down and saw that my furry paws were now slowly changing back to the color of flesh.

I tried to bite at her, warning her to back away, but Katina got closer, her fangs dripping in my blood. Her growling howl shook me to my soul. I wasn’t fooling anyone; I was no real werewolf, just a victim of circumstance and old enchantments.

I closed my eyes, ready to die there in Hillston at the lake that my grandma had used to try to save me.

Then the gnawing of teeth and a wild thrashing burst into my ears.

Warren was on the ground in his wolf state, his jaws fastened around Katina’s neck. I was back in my human form, naked and bleeding and staring at him in shock. Warren shook Katrina’s neck like a rag doll, spinning her until her body stopped moving. Once she was limp in his mouth, he let her go. Her body crumpled to on the sand, blood gushing from her fur.

Blinking I saw Warren back in human form in front of me.

“Can you hear me?” he asked, but I couldn’t speak. I could only nod, my chest hurting so badly, but the pain seemed to subside as the world around me blurred. My eyelids were so heavy; all I wanted to do was sleep.

******

B
eeping and announcements over a PA system woke me from my dream—or what I thought was a dream.

When I saw Warren asleep in a chair next to my bed, I knew it was real. IV wires coiled from my arms, and an unbelievable pain like what I experienced at the lake crept through my chest.

I moved, trying to assess my wounds. My arm was in a cast, and I couldn’t see them, but I felt there were bandages around my chest.

“Jaime...” Warren’s voice was soft as he called my name. He kissed my hand, tears shimmering in his golden eyes.

“I didn’t think you were going to make it,” he admitted, squeezing my hand in his. I wanted to confess that I didn’t think I was going to make it, either. I had welcomed death; in a way I was tired of living. Things seemed so hard and at times, I didn’t feel like going through it anymore.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

What did he mean? We had just met. Why was being so nice to me?

“Oh, you’re awake,” the nurse said, sashaying into the room in her blue scrubs and checking my vitals.

“You’re a lucky woman, dear. We thought we might lose you, and your boyfriend here hasn’t left since you came in a week ago.”

A week?! I wanted to scream.

“Are you okay? Are you in any pain?” the nurse asked, her face filled with concern for me. I wasn’t sure what to do or say to Warren. What had made him stay here with me for an entire week?

“I’ll get the doctor,” she said when I didn’t respond. “He’ll explain everything.”

Warren waited until the nurse had left before speaking to me again.

“They said you had a punctured lung—a broken arm, too. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you.” He looked ready to cry. I touched his head, shaking mine at him.

“Warren... I’m alive because of you.”

“I killed her. She’s gone.” He gave me news that I already assumed.

“I’m sorry you had to do that.” I didn’t know her that well, and I knew he had a history with Katina.

“No need to be sorry. She had to go,” he said, looking away and wiping his eyes, probably clearing away tears before they fell.

“What about Mo?” I didn’t care about him; I just wanted to know what became of him.

“He’s still alive, but he won’t bother us. He’ll probably move on to another area.” Warren seemed sure of this, sticking out his chest when he spoke of his frienemy.

I had a million questions, as usual. I wanted to get up and walk, move around, go outside. But what was I going to do now?

I was about to part my lips when Warren laid everything out for me.

“I will take care of you. You are mine, and I will make sure you get healed.” I remembered he said he would protect me and that I was his from the beginning. I didn’t listen then, but I heard him loud and clear now.

“So we just live together, you and I?” I asked, looking into his eyes.

“Yes, we live. You here with me.”

Those were the best words I had heard in a long time. I finally belonged to someone. It just happened to be a werewolf.

*****

T
his was never a fairy tale. After the day at the lake, our lives were never the same.

A year had passed since then, and I had never once regretted becoming who I turned out to be.

Sitting in the darkness watching the bonfire as a dozen people milled around the field, I felt at peace. We were at the Hillston town fair, and I felt like everyone here was a family, a far cry from where I was a year ago.

I looked up as an old friend greeted me on her walk back from the restroom.

“Hey, Jaime! Where’s the baby?” Sue from The Spoon asked, disturbing my thoughts.

I smiled, looking around for Warren. I spotted him sitting at a bench talking to a few people. In his arms was Deanna, our daughter.

“Aw, I’ll have to hold her before the night is over.” She smiled at me, her comforting demeanor just like my grandma. “And look at you! No one would know you just had a baby a few months ago.”

I laughed at her compliment. I was still curvy; my hips and thighs were still intact and a little fuller since the baby.

“Thanks, Sue.” I got up and started to walk away from her, heading towards Warren and the baby, but Sue grabbed my hand.

“I know about everything that happened,” she began, and the same seriousness filled her face as the very first time I saw her at The Spoon. “I just want to let you know that I made the same decision as you did, and I have never regretted it.”

I felt like she really knew me today. Since everything had happened, there was no one that I could completely confide in but Warren.

“Enjoy your family,” she said. “And make sure I’m invited to the wedding!”

I smiled, hugging her tight as if she really were my grandma.

Releasing me from our embrace, she smiled, then left to mix in with the crowd. I felt the presence of my grandma, like Sue was her living spirit. I followed her with my eyes, watched as she moved through the crowd and finally disappeared.

“Who was that?” Warren asked me as he appeared at my side. Deanna was laughing. I smiled at her black hair and golden eyes. Looking at her was like looking at Warren.

Taking her in my arms, I looked for Sue, but she had already disappeared into the crowd of people.

“That was Sue from The Spoon,” I told him. I was sure he knew who she was, but the look on his face was pure confusion.

“You know—the waitress at The Spoon? The older lady.” I tried to describe her to him, but Warren had no idea who she was.

“I’ve never met her before, babe. I only know Stephanie and Robert, the cook. Maybe she’s new.”

Now I knew that wasn’t true. Sue was there at The Spoon the first day I went into town. It was her; I knew it. Grandma had found some way to reach out to me.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” I murmured as Warren kissed me on the cheek.

“You ready to go home?” he asked, pinching Deanna’s chubby little cheeks and making her giggle.

I nodded, trying to keep from crying. I blinked away the tears so Warren wouldn’t see as we walked through the crowd at the fair, my daughter in my arms and the love of my life at my side.

Walking with my family confirmed it: coming to Hillston was the best decision I ever made.