Intertwined (11 page)

“She’s…you…”

“I’m not the father, I swear! I’m not ready to have kids.”

His words sank in, as did acceptance. Penny really was pregnant. And Tucker had slept with her. He hadn’t said, “There’s no way I can be the father because I never touched her.” Just that he wasn’t the dad because he didn’t want to be.

Slightly light-headed, she covered her mouth with her hand. The fact that Tucker had cheated on her embarrassed her to her very soul, yes. Had everyone but her known? Had they laughed at her behind her back? But what hurt her most, what cut like a knife, what utterly destroyed her, was Penny’s betrayal. Penny, whom she loved. Penny, whom she trusted.

“How long?” she asked quietly. It couldn’t have been too long ago, because she and Tucker had only been dating a few months. “How many times were you together?
When
were you together?” She couldn’t stop the questions from lashing from her.

Wolf nudged her leg with his nose, and her hand automatically sought the warmth of his fur. There was comfort in the action, comfort from simply stroking him.

Tucker shifted uncomfortably. “Like I said, none of that is important.”

“Tell me! Or
I
swear we’ll never be friends.” They wouldn’t be anyway, but he didn’t need to know that right now.

She’d thought him pale before, but he became chalk-white, the blue lines in his forehead visible. “Just once, I swear. Not that long after we started dating. I came over but you weren’t home, so I popped over to her house to ask where you were since you weren’t answering my calls. If only you’d answered
my calls…” He shook his head, pulling himself from his “regrets.” “We started talking and things just happened. It didn’t mean anything, you have to believe me, Mar.”

It hadn’t meant anything to him. Oh, well, that made everything better and negated what he and Penny had done. She wanted to shake him. What they’d done shredded her, left her raw. Of course it meant something.

“You need to go,” she croaked past the lump in her throat.

“We can work this out.” Expression once more beseeching, he moved toward her. “I know we can. You just have to—”

Wolf snarled as she shouted, “Go!”

A muscle in Tucker’s jaw clenched. For a long while, he did nothing but peer over at her. Finally, Wolf grew tired of waiting and stalked forward, sharp teeth bared.

Tucker squealed like a toddler and danced a wide circle around the animal before running for his truck. Which was parked in Penny’s driveway, she realized. Had the two spoken before he’d come here? Had they had sex, then laughed about Mary Ann’s prudishness?

Wolf nudged her leg again.

“You need to go, too,” she said softly. Yeah, she’d wanted him to stay earlier, but she didn’t think she could withstand company right now.

Her hand was shaking as she unlocked her front door. Hinges squeaked as it opened. Wolf soared past her. He’d never done that before, and any other time, she would have welcomed him.

“Wolf,” she called through clenched teeth. “Now isn’t the time for this.”

He paced through the house, sniffing the furniture.
If you think you can force two hundred pounds of animal to leave, be my guest.

“Talking to me again? Lucky me.” She tossed up her hands. “Fine. Do what you want. Don’t be surprised if my dad takes out his .44 when he sees you.” A lie, but he wouldn’t know that. “And don’t pee on the rug.” The last was mean, but the last five minutes of her life had eaten away at her nice-girl filter.

She pounded up the stairs, into her bedroom, and dropped her backpack on the floor. Usually she hung it in her closet, taking pride in the neatness of her personal space. Just then, she didn’t care about her routine. Tears burning her eyes, she threw herself on the bed and rolled to her side. She clutched her pillow to her chest. The shock was wearing off, replaced by a burning sickness in her veins.

She could have called Penny, screamed, ranted, cried, but she didn’t. That wasn’t how she wanted to handle this. Actually, she didn’t know
how
she wanted to handle it. Except maybe to go back in time, race past Tucker so he couldn’t tell her what had happened and she could continue on, unaware and happy.

Had she truly been happy, though?

Wolf suddenly jumped onto the bed, the mattress bouncing, and snuggled up next to her, soft and oh, so warm. His breath trekked over the back of her neck.
Look at me.

“Go away.”

Look at me.

“Can’t you do anything I ask you? Anything at all?”

Please.

It was the first time he’d ever asked her for something nicely.

Absently, she rolled to her back, then her other side, and petted his neck. One of her tears spilled over, and she fought the rest back. No reason to add “sobbing like a baby” to her list of embarrassments today.

I’m sorry you’re hurting, but I can’t say I’m sorry he’s out of your life. You were too good for him.

“Him, I’ll get over.” Her voice shook, the vibrations affecting her chin. The trembling then spread to her jaw.

It’s the girl, then. Penny. She’s your friend?

“Was. Was my friend. My best friend.” Oh, God. So many years of love and trust, now ruined.

Why not still? People make mistakes, Mary Ann.

That was only the second time he’d said her name. She liked the way he said it, drawing out the A’s. “I know they make mistakes. I’m studying to be a psychologist, you know. I’m highly aware that some impulses are harder to ignore than others. I’m aware that fear of consequences causes us to guard our secrets. But it’s our actions when faced with temptation that define who we are. It’s our courage in admitting what we’ve done wrong that makes us forgivable. She slept with my boyfriend, and then pretended it never happened.”

And you’re perfect? You’ve never made the wrong decision? Never tried to hide your actions from your father?

She stiffened against him. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. But I have never lied to Penny or taken something from her.”

Wolf snorted.
And what did she take? A piece of trash, that’s what. You should thank her, and then pity her, because she’s the one who’s now stuck with him.

“That doesn’t make it right.”

I know. You have been hurt and your sense of betrayal is warranted. But was the boy truly yours to begin with? The entire time I’ve watched you, you kept him at a distance. You were happier away from him.

Maybe he was right, but that didn’t lessen the pain of what had been done. “Penny should have told me.”

Did you give her the chance to confess? Not once have I seen you seek her out. And when she approached you, you dismissed her, other things on your mind.

Mary Ann slammed her fist against the mattress. “You are so irritating! You sound just like my dad and I—”

I am not your dad,
he growled, planting his front paws on her shoulders and shoving her to her back. Those green eyes glared down at her.

She didn’t push him off; she didn’t want to. His shoulders were so wide he enveloped her, almost like a curtain that shielded her from all the world’s hurt. Dangerous as he clearly was, such a sensation amazed her.

“How do I know?” she threw at him. “You won’t show yourself. You could be anyone.”

There was a heavy pause.
I can’t show you.
He sounded as tortured as Aden had looked while making his confession that day in the forest.
Were I to shift now, I would be naked.

“Oh.” Wolf, naked in human form. She’d never wanted to see Tucker that way, but Wolf…Would he be tall and muscled? Lean? Handsome?

Did it matter? What would she do with a naked boy in her bed? A naked boy who fascinated her? A naked boy who had helped ease her torment over what had happened, she realized, the ache now only a dull throb in her chest.
Time to change the subject or he just might satisfy your curiosity.

“Why haven’t you spoken to me like this all week?”

The more I talk to you, the more I want to do so. And I think about you enough as it is.

“Oh,” she said again, a thrill of excitement blazing through her. Wolf actually thought about her. Yes, but what were his thoughts? she wondered, excitement draining.

“Mary Ann,” her dad suddenly called. The front door shut with a click that reverberated through the house. “I’m home.”

A gasp of surprise left her. What was he doing home so early?

“Mary Ann?”

“Uh, hi, Dad,” she called, cringing at the way her voice trembled. Much as he hated animals, he would probably call the pound at the first sight of Wolf.

“Hide,” she whispered, squirming out from under him. Frantic, she jolted upright. The mattress bounced her to her feet. She raced out of her bedroom to the staircase banister, where she peered down. Her dad had his head buried in a stack of mail.

“Why aren’t you at work?” Great. Now she sounded breathless.

“My last patient of the day called and canceled. I was thinking we could go out for dinner.”

“No! No,” she repeated more calmly. “I’m, uh, studying.”
Please just retire to your office. Oh, please, please, please
.

His gaze lifted, latched onto her, and he frowned. “You study too much, honey, and I don’t want you looking back on these teenage years, wishing you’d had more excitement. We’ve talked about this. So go get dressed in something fancy and we’ll go to the city.” He tossed the envelopes on the cherrywood wall table beside him and headed for the stairs. “I’ll shower and we can be out the door and stuffing our faces within the hour. Maybe we can even catch a movie.”

Of all the days to want to spend with her. She couldn’t get out of it, not without hurting his feelings. “Okay, sure.” No, no, no! “Yeah, that’ll be fun.”

His frown intensified and he paused, hand resting on the rail. “Are you all right? You seem jumpy.”

“I’m fine. Just eager to go get ready.” Without another word, she rushed back into her bedroom and shut the door, pressing against it and trying to breathe. “You have to—”

Wolf was nowhere to be seen.

“Wolf?”

No response.

Frowning herself, she raced through the room, searching for him. He wasn’t in the closet or the bathroom and was too big to be under the bed. The window was open—it had been shut before—the drapes wisping in the breeze. She hurried
to it and peered out. And there he was, sitting in her lawn and staring up at her.

He nodded briefly when he saw her, then turned and headed back toward the woods.

A
DEN SAT
at his makeshift desk and stared down at his homework, an English paper about why William Shakespeare’s plays were still relevant in modern society, wondering why he’d fought so hard to attend public school. He wasn’t spending any extra time with Mary Ann, he was no closer to finding a way to get the souls out of his mind and into bodies of their own, and he was more confused than ever about Shannon and the wolf, whether they were one and the same or separate entities entirely.

Since that afternoon in the forest, when Aden had bitten the werewolf’s leg, Shannon had been avoiding him, even glared and snarled at him despite their first-day-of-school truce—proof he had to be the angry shape-shifter. But Shannon hadn’t once walked with a limp—proof he couldn’t possibly be the shape-shifter.

Quite simply, Aden was confused and miserable. His teachers weren’t exactly fond of him, but he hadn’t made any
new friends and the only one he had was currently avoiding him. There was no time to talk at school and she raced away from him and into the forest the moment the last bell rang.

He knew why, too. She feared him. She feared what he was, what he could do. How could she not? He was a freak.

He shouldn’t have trusted her.

Perhaps following Mary Ann that day in the cemetery had been a mistake. Elijah had warned him.

You should ignore her
, Caleb said, sensing the direction of his thoughts.
Treat her like crap. That’s what really gets a girl’s attention
.

Don’t listen to him. He was a lecher in another life, I just know it
. Disgust practically dripped from Eve’s voice.
Girls respect boys who treat them well
.

“Still think you know her?” He dropped his head in his upraised palms, Shakespeare forgotten.

I’m sure of it. I have a few ideas percolating about when we might have seen her, but I’m not yet ready to talk about them.

Aden caught the hidden meaning to her words and moaned. Eve was planning to take him back, to travel into a younger version of himself—today’s mind in yesterday’s body—so that he could revisit the past with this new knowledge. The only reason she hadn’t already done so, he suspected, was that she hadn’t decided on a specific day. That’s what was “percolating,” he was sure.

“Eve,” he began, then stopped himself. Stubborn as she was, she might take him back in time
tonight
if he irritated her enough.

She hadn’t forced him to time travel in years, and they were all grateful. He’d just have to solve Eve’s mystery for her.
Before
she resorted to using her “gift.”

“Lights out,” Dan suddenly called.

Grunts and groans filled the hallways, followed by the shuffle of feet. Sighing, Aden pushed to a stand and switched off his lamp. Darkness flooded his bedroom. He didn’t kick off his shoes but lay in bed just as he was. He was tired yet restless. As always. Part of him expected Dan to peek inside the room and check on him, and he waited several hours, the covers drawn to his chin to hide his clothing. Those hours dragged by, alone and uninterrupted.

Silver lining: his companions fell asleep from boredom.

Finally, when he was confident the others in the bunkhouse were sleeping, he moved to his window and climbed outside. The nights were getting cooler, fall well on its way. Sophia and the other dogs slept inside with Dan and Meg, so he didn’t have to worry about their barking waking the entire ranch.

As he’d done every night for the past week, he maneuvered through the forest toward the clearing Victoria had led him into. Lack of sleep was making him cranky, but he’d rather have the chance of seeing her again than the promise of slumber. Where was she? Why hadn’t she returned to him?

Despite the fact that she drank blood—and
would
drink his—and despite the fact that she could turn humans into blood-slaves, whatever those were, he wanted to see her again.
Needed
to see her.

Gradually he became aware of a murmur of voices—and
for once they weren’t coming from inside his mind. The closer he came to the clearing, the louder they became. Excitement hit—had he finally found her?

He positioned himself behind a thick stump and listened. One speaker was male, one was female; their actual words, however, were too muffled to decipher. But he soon realized that the female wasn’t Victoria. This one’s voice was too high.

Excitement gave way to disappointment. He would have left them to their business, whoever they were and whatever they were doing, if he hadn’t known a vampire female liked to traverse the area. They could be vampire hunters, for all he knew, planning to kill her.

He didn’t know if people like that truly existed, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He slinked out of the shadows and edged closer.

One of them might have said, “Kill.” Perhaps, “Pill.” The other might have replied, “I could.” Perhaps, “I’m good.” Either way, they weren’t out there planting roses.

Just a little closer
…A twig snapped under his boot. He froze. Waited, not even daring to breathe. The voices tapered to quiet.

What should he do? He couldn’t leave until they did, just in case Victoria showed up. And he couldn’t—

Someone tackled him from behind, sending him face-first into a bed of brittle leaves. The impact startled him, but he was able to roll to his back, then roll again, pinning his attacker under him. He punched the brute in the stomach.

There was a grunt of pain, a whoosh of air. Aden jumped
to his feet, intending to grab his daggers, but as he peered down, he saw who had rammed him and froze. “Ozzie?”

“Stone?” Ozzie stood, spit out a mouthful of dirt. “You’re following me now? What, are you trying to get me booted from the ranch? Well, good luck with that, ’cause I won’t go quietly.” Without any other warning, he kicked Aden between the legs.

Utter pain radiated through him, hunching him over, making his skin feel like fire and his blood like ice. He wanted to vomit. Dear…God…

As he gasped and sweated and combated the nausea, rage boiled inside him. Low blow. Low freaking blow. When he was able to breathe again, Ozzie was going to be sorry.

“Let’s see how well you can tattle on me without any teeth.” Ozzie pounded his fist into Aden’s eye. Bad aim? Then his lip. Okay, not so bad.

His head spun. His rage intensified, spilled over, filled him up and gave him wings. With a growl, he launched forward and grabbed the boy around the waist, propelling them both to the ground.
Crack.
Ozzie’s skull connected with a large rock, stunning him.

Aden propped himself on his knees and just started swinging.
Boom
, one fist slammed into a cheekbone. “That’s for my first T-shirt.”
Boom
, his other fist connected with an eye socket. “That’s for the others.”
Boom
, he connected with Ozzie’s chin. Blood sprayed. He didn’t care, was lost to the rage, determined to inflict as much pain as possible. “That’s for my nuts!”

Snarling, Ozzie pulled his legs from under Aden, bending
and anchoring them on Aden’s chest. A hard push had him flying backward. He hit a tree and sank to the ground. A pile of leaves softened the impact.

What’s going on?
Eve suddenly demanded, groggy but loud.

Doing his best to ignore her, he hopped up and once more launched forward. He slammed his head into Ozzie’s throat. As Ozzie hunched over, gurgling, Aden kicked him in the stomach without a second’s thought. One thing he’d learned over the years was that there was no honor in fighting. You did whatever was necessary to win, even kick someone when they were down—especially when they were down—or you suffered.

He joined his hands and bashed them into Ozzie’s temple. Ozzie swung to the side, dropped to his knees. A plastic bag fell from his pocket. His head remained bowed, one hand clutching his middle, the other covering his face to protect it.

“Get up! Fight me! Isn’t that what you wanted?” This had been a long time coming, and now that they were punching it out, Dan not here to intervene, Aden couldn’t stop himself. He settled his weight on one leg, leaned forward and slammed his fist into Ozzie’s jaw. “Come on!”

Again, the impact sent him flying. Ozzie quickly righted himself and came up swinging. “Yeah, it’s what I wanted. What I’ll
do
.”

Aden ducked, jabbing the dreg in the stomach yet again and forcing more of that needed oxygen out of his mouth. He raised his leg to do it again.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

The female voice was followed by the click of a gun. Slowly he lowered his leg and turned halfway, not letting Ozzie out of his sights but eyeing as much of the girl as he could. She was shorter than him by at least a foot, slight and trembling. And she was aiming a pistol right at him.

He could take her, even panting and sweating as he was. No longer was he in pain, his adrenaline simply too high. Hurting a girl, though, was not a prospect he enjoyed.

Because it’s wrong
, Eve said, as if reading his mind.

He won’t have to hurt her
, Elijah said.
This is going to be okay.

How is a chick with an obviously itchy trigger finger gonna turn out okay?
Caleb shouted.

Run, Aden
, Julian commanded.
Just start running
.

Aden stepped backward.

Stay still!
Elijah growled, and he froze.

Run,
Julian commanded again, and he took another step.

Stop.

“Quiet!” he shouted, covering his ears.

“
You
be quiet! And move another inch, and I swear to God you’ll be eating every one of these bullets. Now who the hell are you?” the girl snarled. She was cute, despite the gun, with a short cap of blond hair. Her bottom lip was cut, as if she, too, had recently been in a fight.

“It’s okay, Casey,” Ozzie said, surprisingly calm as he stood. His words were slightly slurred, his jaw already swelling. “He’s from the ranch.”

She didn’t lower the gun. “You always tear into the guys you live with?”

“Yeah, I do.” Ozzie bent down and swiped up the plastic Baggies he’d dropped. “He’s not a cop, and he’s not gonna narc. He knows I’d stab him in his sleep if he tried.”

Aden knew a dime bag when he saw one. So Ozzie and the gun-wielding Casey were here for drugs. “For someone who just lost, you sure sound confident about what you can do to me.”

Ozzie stiffened. Casey straightened her aim.

Maybe he should have kept his mouth closed. But from the corner of his eye, he’d caught a glimpse of Victoria, gliding toward them, silent as a ghost, and the words had slipped out.

Neither Ozzie nor Casey even glanced in her direction.

Aden would have known she was there even if he hadn’t spotted her. Power radiated from her, enveloping the area, charging the air so much it crackled. As she closed the distance, her skin seemed whiter than ever. So white it glowed. Her dark robe was swaying in the breeze.

Told you it would be okay,
Elijah said, smug.

Another gut feeling proven to be valid. At this rate, Elijah would soon be able to predict
everything.

“You will not shoot him,” the vampire said in that raspy voice of hers, suddenly in front of Casey. She waved a hand near the girl’s face, opal ring catching beams of moonlight and casting rainbow shards in every direction.

Casey froze, so still Aden couldn’t even see her breathing.

“You will drop the gun and leave, your memory wiped clean of this event.”

There was no hesitation as Casey obeyed. The gun plopped
harmlessly to the ground; she turned and walked away, never once glancing back. Aden was both in awe and embarrassed. Victoria’s powers were greater than he’d realized. And he’d just been saved by a girl.
He
should be the one doing the saving.

“What the—” Ozzie began.

“You, too, will leave, your memory wiped clean of this event.”

The dreg’s eyes glazed over and he, too, turned and walked away.

“I need him to remember,” Aden said. Otherwise, when they both awoke with bruised and battered faces, Ozzie would know they had to have fought, but wouldn’t know he’d lost to Aden. Aden wanted him to have that knowledge. To be afraid of coming after him. Afraid of retaliation.

Reluctant, Victoria nodded. “Very well. I shall return his memory to him by morning.”

“Thank you. For everything.” Aden’s gaze slid over her. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and the long, thick length of it hung over her shoulder. Her lips were pink rather than their usual red. “How’d you find me?”

“You’re bleeding,” she said rather than answering. Or maybe that was the answer. As she spoke, her eyes began to darken, black pupils overshadowing blue irises. Closer and closer she floated to him. But she stopped herself just before reaching him and backtracked. Looked away. “I shouldn’t have revealed myself.”

“I’m glad you did.”

Her gaze returned to him. Or rather, to the blood trickling from the bleeding cut on his lips. “I can stop the bleeding, if
you’d like.” Her tongue flicked over her sharpening fangs. “It…it won’t mean anything. It’s just something I can do.”

He wasn’t sure how she planned to stop it, but he found himself nodding.

“I won’t…will try not to…hurt you. I’ll be gentle. Won’t be an animal.”

He wasn’t sure whether the words were meant for him or herself, but once again she approached him. And then her mouth met his, pressing softly, gently, utterly warm, her tongue once again flicking out and wiping the crimson beads away.

He stood very still, savoring the feel of her, that honeysuckle scent. He had to fist his hands at his sides to keep from grabbing her and holding on forever. Where she licked, he tingled…ached…but it was a good ache. Don’t stop, he thought. Never stop.

But stop she did. She raised her head, eyelids at half-mast, expression blissful. “Delicious.”

“You can have more if you want it,” he croaked out, tilting his head to reveal more of his neck. If this was how he would feel when she bit him, he was ready.