Tessa, Vampire/Werewolf Romance, (Standalone) (Shadow Creek Shifters Book 3) (19 page)

Melody dragged Maxwell through streams, thicket, and weeds, weaving around trees until they entered a clearing.

“Would you stop pulling me like that? My leg is throbbing now.”

“What, you’d rather the full-bloods catch up to us?”

“No. It’s just th-that….”

Directly across the clearing was a man pointing into their direction. “Melody, move!” Maxwell shouted. “We need to shift now!”

Maxwell shuddered, lowering his head as he concentrated on the shift. His body shook until his skin parted way for thick fur. It wasn’t the most pleasant feeling in the world, but he was a much bigger wolf in shifted form than he was even six months before.

Melody stared wide-eyed at him. “I had no idea you were so big in shifted form.” She clapped her hands quietly.

Maxwell howled for her to hurry as more men appeared at the edge of the woods.

* * *

Melody stared up at the tops of the trees and moved to greet them, leaving behind her skin and clothing. She soared to the heights she had never known with confidence. Gone was the awkwardness of falling from the tops of the trees as she tried to learn to fly. It wasn’t overnight, but gradual and when it did happen, she was amazed at how it felt. She loved it more than her human form, almost. Hawks certainly couldn’t eat raspberry tarts; that was for sure.

Melody circled Maxwell and led the way in flight, stopping on branches if he fell behind. It was obvious that hawks could fly much faster than a wolf could run, which in a way gave Melody a level of satisfaction although she’d never tell Maxwell that. He was sensitive; too sensitive if you asked her. Sure he had a limp, but that didn’t set him back all that much. Sometimes she thought he focused on it a little too much. Yes, some of the other shifter children had made fun of him, but that particular boy left town with his mother.

Maxwell howled louder and only then did Melody see the men racing toward them. They were in human form, so surely they’d be able to outrun them. She led the way into the woods where she hoped they’d be able to lose the ones tailing them.

When they finally exited the woods, Melody had to swoop low to clear a branch and fell straight to the ground. She shook her head, flapping her wings briskly in an effort to try to right herself. She had almost made it back to her feet when whoosh, a net covered her, preventing her flight.

She was then scooped up with strong hands and held by a woman. “Got you, baby bird.”

Melody tried to keep flapping her wings, hoping she could free herself, but it hurt her wings so badly she had to stop. At that point, she wasn’t in the position to shift back. She was too constricted because of the way the net was pulled tightly over her.

A man came forward and Melody didn’t have time to react when she was pulled free of the net and placed into a birdcage.

There was no way she could escape. She was trapped.

* * *

Maxwell raced into the woods, barely catching sight of Melody flying high above him. When the trees were clumped together, he lost sight of her. Loud voices carried over to him and he hid behind a large tree when he wasn’t sure which way to go.
Where are the voices coming from? Where should I go next?

He trembled as he heard a branch snap and his heart beat harder as they drew closer and closer. He fell to the ground, hoping they would pass him by, but then he heard a voice call out to him. “Maxwell…Melody!”

It was his uncle’s voice!

Maxwell was up and on his way toward the sound. He heard the growl of a wolf behind him, but he didn’t stop. Branches and sticks crashed to the ground as something quite large was chasing him. When he rounded a large tree, Uncle Raphael and Seth were calling out their names.

He mustered all the strength he had and ran to his uncle, nearly jumping into his arms. Uncle Raphael pushed him behind him as the wolf-like beast came into view. It was the largest werewolf he had ever seen before. It stood nearly seven-foot with a huge mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, the smell of death and decay wafting over to him.

* * *

Get Maxwell out of here, Seth,” Raphael ordered.

Seth moved to pull Maxwell to safety, but as he did, the beast ran toward Raphael. With one swipe, Raphael was sailing to the ground and groaning. When the wolf went in for a deathblow, Seth tackled it from behind. The werewolf and Seth rolled to the ground together. Seth was struggling to keep the beast’s jaw from ripping his throat out when a vision came to him. Breaking through the window the night of the full moon, the awful pain hit him hard, like he was feeling right that moment. His arms and legs were being ripped to shreds, but when he looked down the wolf hadn’t made contact with him yet. He trembled and watched helplessly as the wolf made an aggressive move for his throat, but another wolf jumped on him. It was Raphael’s wolf form.

“Get out of here, Maxwell!” Seth yelled in excruciating pain. He watched in horror as the skin of his arms parted and rows of fur appeared beneath. He tried with all his might to crawl away. He reared up and his spine ripped out of his back as claws appeared from his fingertips, bursting out of his shoes, and tearing them to bits. He grabbed his head, feeling the flesh of his face was breached and a large wolf’s snout appeared out of the center. His limbs extended, growing much larger and when he finally scrambled to his feet, he towered above the other werewolf who was fighting with Raphael. He was losing ground fast, and it would only be a matter of time before he was killed by that beast.

With the pain gone, Seth raced forward and grabbed the other werewolf by the neck. He tossed it backward where it fell against a large tree, and a loud cracking sound was heard.

He didn’t let it stop there. Seth finished by tearing its throat out. Only then did he turn to face a terrified Maxwell and Raphael, back in human form, standing behind a bush.

“Seth?” Raphael started. “How? What?”

“I-Is that Seth?” Maxwell asked in awe.

“It would seem so.”

“He’s huge!” Maxwell exclaimed. “Good, we need a werewolf that size on our side. Melody’s in trouble, I think. The full-bloods must have taken her by now.”

Seth stared back to where Maxwell had come out of the woods and disappeared. He had no memory of shifting until then. He also did the night of the full moon. He could almost taste the sheep’s blood still on his tongue. He was the one who killed them, not Tessa or any of the full-bloods. What he didn’t understand was how or why this was happening to him. When the final memory came, he knew he’d have to find Tessa and soon, before Raphael did.

But all of that was unimportant right then. His daughter was out there somewhere and he had to find her before it was too late. He just hoped they’d see the value in keeping her alive. If they used her for leverage, she’d be kept alive, but he wouldn’t leave the woods without finding out where they were keeping her. Her life was in his hands and he would not let his little girl down.
Hold on, Melody. Daddy’s coming for you.

* * *

Tessa stared over to Paige. “So, how many other vampires are there besides us? And why would my bite be able to kill a full-blood?”

“What makes you think there are more?”

“The way Joy acted when I picked up my clothes, which I didn’t even know you ordered for me.”

“Yes, well, the other vampires aren’t anything like us and I wouldn’t say they exactly live all that near to Creeksboro. We can turn a human with one bite.”

“How can you be certain?”

“Well, I never turned any of them. There can’t be any more in the United States like us.”

“Didn’t you turn some back in California?”

“Yes, but that couldn’t have trickled down to here. It’s important that it hasn’t. I know for a fact a few vampires in Wyoming have bitten females before and they were not turned at all.”

Tessa just shook her head. “Lucky me.”

“Lucky you indeed. If you weren’t a vampire now, we’d never have known how deadly our bite really is to a full-blood, but we’ll need our shifters to help us out. Full-bloods are quite capable of taking off our heads with one bite. I’m not sure how this Mira didn’t kill you.”

“I wonder that, too. I guess I have a real determination to survive. Without my help, I’m not sure if they’ll be able to find the children and bring them home safe, so we better get going.”

Tessa led the way outside and sat in the front of the truck with Brendan at the helm.

“I’ll go in another truck and search another area. It would be better if we split up. That way if one of us is struck down, we won’t both die,” Paige said.

Chase slid in next to Tessa. The bed of the truck was full of shifters who were in the animal forms of mountain lions, foxes, and one bloodhound!

“I didn’t know there was a bloodhound shifter.”

Brendan smiled. “He comes in handy. He’s actually the pharmacist in town.”

“That’s interesting.”

Brendan pulled around and they were on their way. Over their heads were two red-tailed hawks. “Are those shifters, too?”

“Probably Carrie and her daughter, Ariel. There was no stopping her when she found out Melody went in search of Jason.”

A huge lump was in Tessa’s throat. That was the last thing she needed to hear. When she found Raphael, she’d fess up about what had happened in that cabin.

When Jerome rolled into town with a band of mighty shifters, people took notice even though they weren’t in shifted form. Sheriff Barnes and Clayton came out of the small sheriff’s office to greet them.

Jerome came out of the truck he had parked in the middle of the road. “We have trouble, Sheriff. Plenty of it, and it’s headed this way.”

“Is there a reason you’re parked in the middle of the street?”

“Yes. We need to call a town meeting right here and now. They deserve to know what’s about to happen since it affects them all.”

“Who are those men with you?”

“Shifters, but I’ll explain all of that when you get the town here.”

The fire whistle went off and the emergency text message came across Jerome’s cell phone, alerting everyone to meet in the center of town.

“This won’t be easy,” Jerome said to the shifters. “Humans barely accept us as it is. If they find out some band of werewolves is intent on attacking their town, I hardly think they’ll receive it well.”

“That’s about the way it would be in any town. Even back in Africa they don’t readily accept us. If it wasn’t for those damn safaris I’d still be there, but I can’t risk my family’s lives,” Ewan stated.

Another truck raced into town, filled with four men dressed in khaki pants and safari-style vests.

“Your sons, I presume?”

“Yes. Come along, boys, and introduce yourselves.”

One of the men stepped forward. “I’m Julian, and this is Ares, Bain, and Hunter.”

“Good to see you here, boys,” Jerome greeted them. “I’m Dr. Evans or Jerome. I doctor the shifters in town. I’m also a full-blood, just so you know. I’m hoping we can work together.”

Julian sighed. “How do we know he can be trusted?”

“Brendan seems to trust him, so we must, as well. But we need to be a united front. Here come the humans of the town.”

Sheriff Barnes was speaking to the throng of humans before they approached the shifters.

Julian motioned for them to move forward.

“Hello, everyone. I’m here to give it to you straight. There are a band of full-blood werewolves heading here. Not only do they want to take down all the shifters in the Creeksboro area, they also plan to kill all the humans,” Jerome explained.

Gasps split the air like nails on glass. “I told you we should never have trusted those damn shifters,” one man said.

“Calm down and let the man finish, would you,” Sheriff Barnes demanded.

“The full-bloods are coming from Montana and they certainly haven’t been here. The half-blooded werewolves at Silver Creek drove them from Wyoming long ago. Two of the children went in search of the person responsible for attacking Carrie, but it was a full-blood, and they’ll try to capture the children and use them to bring us to our knees.”

“What do we care what happens to them?” one woman asked.

“Because Maxwell will be alpha one day and will be the peacekeeper. For full-bloods, this will be the means to their end since they don’t want peace with either other shifters or humans. They’ll make war and ruin all the good that has happened with the shifters across the country. They are not us. We’re here to protect the residents of Creeksboro, but we’ll need help. We need to band together and save our town from their invasion.”

“Damn right, I will,” an old-timer said. “Let’s get our guns.”

“Before you do, know this: I’m also a full-blood and it would be nice if nobody shot me. We have Ewan and his four sons out of Africa who are lion shifters. Behind them we have werebears, mountain lion shifters, and the werewolves will come, too.”

“We’re right here,” Palina chimed in, walking up. She then stared in a truck. “Get out of there, Katlyn dear, and bring those babies. All women and children into the church. We want you out of the battle that will come. Men, get your guns and plan your strategy with the shifters. We’ll only be able to fend them off together.”

* * *

Four women who parked their car next to Jerome helped Katlyn with lugging her diaper bags into the church. She even allowed one of them to carry Elric, Brendan’s son. Inside the church, a woman brought in blankets and cots, and a red-faced preacher began a prayer.

“I know, Lord, you didn’t explain about shifters and such, but I pray for both us humans and shifters alike that we’ll be able to work together to thwart an attack. Amen.”

“Amen!” everyone in the church shouted.

Katlyn stared at the blonde-haired beauties surrounding her. “Who are you?”

“We’re Ewan’s mates,” the eldest of the group said.

“He has four mates?”

“Yes. In a pride, there is only one male with many females. We do all the hunting while he does the protecting, just like now.”

Katlyn laughed. “I have two mates that are both mountain lion shifters and I thought
that
was different.”

“I wouldn’t mind two men to satisfy me,” one of the human women said. “What?” she said when she received a few stern looks. “Don’t tell me none of you have ever wondered what it would be like.”

“That’s just wrong,” another woman stated.

“Oh, Betsy, don’t be so overdramatic.”

“Two men?” yet another woman said. “What if they were both assholes? I can barely stand one husband.” She laughed. “I admire your moxie, Katlyn.”

“Well, I do have twins, and four pairs of hands come in handy.”

“You mean they change diapers?” Betsy asked.

“Yes, and take their turns walking the twins if they get too fussy, even though they work the ranch all day. I don’t let them do it too often unless both babies are being fussy.”

* * *

“We need to set up a barricade,” Ewan said.

“What should we use?” Sheriff Barnes asked.

“How about cars?” Bain suggested. “The way this town has been built, all the structures are tight together so if we put enough cars parked end to end on both sides of the street, that might slow them down.”

“But they’ll jump right over them easily enough,” Ares said.

“That’s when
this
will come in handy,” the old-timer said, patting his rifle.

“Whatever you do, aim for their heads,” Ewan instructed.

“Sure will,” a much younger man said. “It sure works with zombies.”

The old man shook his head. “Sorry, that grandson of mine watches too much ‘Walking Dead’.”

“Walking Dead?” Ewan asked.

For the next ten minutes, the young man named Will went on telling them about the show and how they had to fight off zombies for survival.

“And that, boy, is exactly what I loved about Africa. None of these distractions, just watching the pride from my comfort under a tree,” Ewan stated.

“Is it true you make your woman folk do all the hunting while you males do nothing?”

“Now, Alfred, that’s not nice,” Sheriff Barnes said to the old-timer.

“We have our own roles back in Africa, but if you think it’s fun having to watch over the cubs while the women are off hunting, you’re way off-base.”

The men laughed as cars were put on either end of town just like they had planned. All they had to do after that was wait it out.

* * *

When Brendan parked, Tessa raced to the clearing where the cabin once was located. Raphael was quite naked and hunkering down in the dirt, making a map of sorts.

“Raphael, what happened?” She then spotted Maxwell and raced toward him, giving him a tight hug, but he pushed her away.

“They have Melody,” he told her.

Brendan shook his head. “That won’t do. Where is Seth?”

“He’s looking where they’re keeping Melody and I hope coming back for help,” Maxwell explained. “He’s a huge and scary werewolf like one of those full-bloods he killed over there.”

Brendan and Chase went to where Maxwell pointed and shook their heads in unison. “So, that’s what we’re dealing with?”

“Yes,” Raphael said. “I was shocked when Seth shifted. From the way he was screaming, he hasn’t been able to for all that long. It explains why he took off from Shadow Creek before night, and why there was broken glass in his room at the boarding house.”

Tessa felt bad suddenly. “I have to speak to you alone, Raphael. I have to come clean with you about something.”

“I already know you killed Jason and Earl. We found their remains.” He glowered at her. “Why didn’t you tell me before that you knew they were dead? If you had, we wouldn’t be in this situation and Melody would be safe at Silver Creek.”

“It’s all your fault Melody was taken!” Maxwell shouted, pummeling her with his fists.

“Calm down,” Brendan commanded, pulling the boy back. “How did that happen exactly, Tessa?”

Raphael wouldn’t even look at her, so she spoke to Brendan. “He doesn’t care anyway, but I came here the night of the full moon, intending to kill them. Earl caught me, chained me up, and hit me with a stun gun. He intended to rape me, but I was knocked out before it happened.”

Raphael turned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wasn’t sure how. When I woke up both Jason and Earl were dead, horribly mutilated. I wasn’t sure if I did it or not, although I had blood on me. I still had the chains around my wrists.”

“How did the cabin get burned down?” Raphael asked.

“I had to call Paige for help and she helped me clean it up. She had Angus burn the cabin.”

Brendan’s face reddened. “Dammit. Why didn’t anyone tell me? I could have helped. We should have all known Jason was dead. It would have made things so much easier.”

Tears trickled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, and Jason wanted no part of what Earl had planned to do to me. He even left the cabin. I just can’t remember what happened.”

“If it was a big enough jolt from a stun gun,” Chase started, “it would have made it impossible for her to get back up. She might have been out the entire time.”

“Seth could have done it,” Raphael suggested. “His werewolf form is big enough to do the damage I found to those corpses.”

“And also he might be the one who killed the sheep,” Brendan added.

“It’s not fair to put this on Seth when he’s not here,” Tessa countered. “I’m so sorry to have caused so much trouble.”

‘That wouldn’t have stopped the full-bloods from coming,” Brendan said.

“Mira was a full-blood, too,” Tessa stated.

“No, she wasn’t!” Maxwell pounded on Tessa again. “Take it back. I think she was my mother.”

“She can’t be,” Chase said. “Your mother is dead.”

“What!” Maxwell cried. “Why didn’t you tell me, Uncle Raphael?”

“I didn’t know. I knew Palina was hiding something.”

“Tell me, Chase,” Maxwell demanded. “What happened? I need to know.”

“After she gave birth to you, she had postpartum depression. Your father found her trying to drown you in a stream. They fought before she ran off into the road, where she was struck and killed.”

Maxwell fell to his knees. “Sh-She wanted me dead?”

“It wasn’t her fault,” Tessa consoled the boy. “Postpartum depression is like that. It temporarily makes a woman feel crazy and some do try to harm their babies.”

“Don’t talk to me, Tessa. I’m mad at you. What did you do to Mira?”

“She tried to kill me and I had to defend myself. I gained the upper hand, but I found out one very important thing: vampires like me and Paige are capable of killing a full-blood.”

“I hate you. She was nice to me.”

“I don’t blame you for feeling that way, but she meant to hand you over to the full-bloods. They planned to use you to get the shifters to hand the Creeksboro area over to them and kill all the humans. So hate me and be mad all you want, but I don’t regret killing Mira.”

“Why did you bring her to Silver Creek? She’s nothing but trouble,” Maxwell questioned his uncle.

He walked away from her and all Tessa could do was look over at him as Raphael followed. The truth was out for everyone to know. Her heart ached when she saw the look in Raphael’s eyes, and it killed her to know she caused Maxwell pain. Why wouldn’t Raphael let her speak to him in private?

She felt alone, utterly alone, and she’d potentially lost the one and only man she would ever love.