The Shepard's Agony (10 page)

She combed her fingers through her hair and looked at herself in a broken piece of metal.

“
This is as good as it gets,” s
he said to her big eyed, alien-like face.

She took a breath, put her fingers through the hole in the
door
, and stepped
out
. Her looks didn’t stop John from throwing his arms around her and lifting her into the air in a bone crushing hug.

Shepard stood back, seething. Gwen gushed her concern over his missing
ear
and Shepard jealously hoped it would get infected and render the wolf too sick to ever lay his eyes on Gwen ever again.

Gwen
saw
the
trouble brewing
in his eyes
over John’s shoulder, but was too relieved to see him unharmed to pay much attention to what her senses were telling her.

While running to Evey’s
house
, her heart had been in her throat. She couldn’t run fast enough to see if he was alright or hear if John had killed him. Thinking of the latter made her
shudder
.
But
, he was safe and she didn’t need to worry anymore.

Unfortunately,
she did worry. Even now while she watched him stare at her in another man’s
arms
, she
worried
. Felt
guilty
, even. This was wrong. She didn’t want to be there with John, she wanted to be with
David
. She still loved him.
As much
as
the
realization
pained her
,
it was true
.

T
here was still the nagging question of whether or not he still felt the same for her. Taking her away from her pack and kissing her those times on the bed didn’t necessarily mean anything.
So
, she continued to hug John and tried to act happy when Dianna held her and said how worried she
was
.
All
the while, on the inside, she felt like crying.

“You sure you lost them?” John asked.

She nodded. “Positive.”

When she finally
reached the
rundown
, little house she wouldn’t even let John or Di speak to her in her head. She wanted to be dressed and have some cold water to splash against her face to help keep her alert and get all the dirt off.
Now
, she found herself free from one dangerous situation just to walk right into an awkward one.

She would have
preferred the danger to standing there, knowing that they all knew this particular hunter was the one who’d broken her heart.

When she looked at him
again
, he was leaning against the far
window
, his attention turned elsewhere after being ignored for so long.

***

Ignoring her wasn’t his
intention
. In fact, even with his eyes staring at anything but the scene in front of him, he was completely aware of her.

Shepard clenched a fist. He could even feel the smug aura coming from the man. Was
this what it was like being a werewolf? Being so aware of everything?

He tilted his head to get a look at what was happening. John put Gwen back on her
feet
. She looked awkward as she rubbed her arm, avoiding eye contact with
him
. Shepard felt a prick of hope.

Without thinking, he went to her and stood between the two.

John bristled like a cat. “What are you—
?”

“
Excuse me,” he said without looking at
him
. Before Gwen could react beyond the confusion on her face, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into a kiss.

He felt her knees
almost give out from under her when she bobbed and clutched his shoulders to keep from falling. He had to fight the proud smirk from ruining his kiss. He wanted to possess her, right there in front of the man she’d kissed earlier that day.

Shepard touched her lips with his tongue and felt her open her mouth, but was tackled to the floor by John. A cloud of dust rising around them before fist
s
started
to pummel his face.

He heard Gwen scream in shock
, and Di in fear, but concentrated on knocking the werewolf above him in the head while keeping him from getting a good one in before the three girls could pull them away.

Evey and Gwen each grabbed one of John’s arms and tried to yank him
off
. Even with their combined strength, it was a fight to remove him. They only succeeded because John got up himself and walked away.

Gwen offered Shepard her hand, but he
stood on his own. She looked at the scratch on his arm curiously before turning to John.

“
Are you out of your
mind
?!”

“
Me! You were
letting
him kiss you!”

Shepard had something between a smirk and a grin on his face. He couldn’t help it, he liked hearing Gwen give the cocky wolf
hell
.
It being
over a kiss he’d given and she’d enjoyed, made it that much better.

“
What I do is none of your
business
! Stop smirking!” She’d turned and yelled at
him
. Shepard sputtered. He’d forgotten she could sense emotions.

Di went to stand beside John for support
. When he ignored
her
, Shepard felt enough pity for her to forget the situation.

John was scowling something fierce at Gwen, his arms shaking and fists clenched.

“You know what? Fine. If you want the hunter you can have him.”

“John,”

“
Don’t talk to
me
.” He turned away from her and stood at the other end of the room. Di followed him
and
,
again
, he ignored her.

Gwen
sighed
. Shepard could see her chin trembling
but
, before he could say
anything
, she took a deep breath and faced him.

He thought she would chew him out for kissing
her
;
instead
, she eyed the scratch on his arm again and asked, “When did he turn you?”

He should’ve known she would figure it out so
quickly
. He was about to answer, but his ears perked. It was the sound of a gun being loaded outside, a bright little red dot appearing between Gwen’s eyes.

He dove for her and pushed her out of the way before the shot was
fired
. When the bullet missed, more rained in on the cabin. Everyone else ducked and covered their heads as wood chips, pieces of old wallpaper, and dust rained down on them.

Shepard threw a protective arm around Gwen, praying she wasn’t hit. No one moved until the shooting stopped. Shepard was the first to his feet.

“
They’re reloading their
guns
. We need to go, now!”

“
I hear one of them sneaking through the bushes to the back, the other is still in the
front
,” Di said, shaking slightly but trying to act as though almost getting killed hadn’t affected her.

Evey answered her. “Then we should hurry.”

Shepard took Gwen’s arm and helped her to her feet. “You alright?”
he asked, looking her over as they hurried to the back door, ignoring John’s growling.

“
I’m fine,” s
he said, suddenly yanking her arm out of his hand.

“
Sorry,” s
he said at his confused look. “You were hurting me.” It wasn’t just that, she felt guilty about leading the hunters to Evey’s house, which was now more destroyed than ever. She was sure she’d covered her tracks, how did they find her?

“Oh
.” Shepard didn’t
have
time to feel like an
idiot
.
Suddenly
, the door burst open and Jimmy came inside with his gun in hand. The second he saw Shepard, he froze.

“
What are you doing here?” he asked,
gun still up and pointed right at him.

Shepard could have sworn that his brothers had seen him on the side of the road
earlier
. Maybe they thought he was some random hitchhiker.

John took the moment of confusion to grab a long piece of hard wood from Evey’s floor and hit
Jimmy in the head with it. The hunter’s eyes glazed
over
before he
fell
. Shepard caught him before he could hit the floor and possible injure himself.

“
Are you insane!”
he yelled, angered that his brother was now hurt. He hoped there wouldn’t be any permanent damage, but he also knew that if there was, the Were had most likely inflicted it on purpose.

Evey came forward, her fangs extending.

“
Come any closer and I’ll stake you!” He didn’t happen to have a wooden stake on
him, but the threat was enough for her to back off. “No one is killing any of my brothers,” he said.

John bristled at the command. “Why you—”

“
He’s
right
,” Gwen said quickly. “We need to get out of here right now, there’s no time for this.” She then turned to the only vampire in the room. “Evey, if we leave him here, you won’t bite him if you come back and he’s still unconscious, right?”

Shepard liked that idea. He didn’t want to take Jimmy with him and turn him into a hostage like he was, but leaving him in the house of a vampire also worried him. Being a new Were and having Gwen’s support on his side helped, but realistically he was still their captive and had no say in
anything
. If they didn’t listen to
her
, his brothers were done for.

The vampire sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Please?” Gwen begged.

“
Fine,” she hissed. “
But
, I’m not taking him to a
hospital
if he’s injured.”

Shepard sighed, it was good enough for him. He took off his shirt and made a makeshift pillow out of it before leaving with the others and sneaking around the back. Gwen had a hard time not openly staring at his chest, something John noticed and wasn’t pleased with.

***

Allen was beginning to worry when Jimmy didn’t call back to
him
. With his gun raised, he took a few steps toward the house.

“
Jim?”
he called, looking under the car to be sure no Weres were
hiding
. A flashlight taped to his shotgun made sure he could see that there weren’t.

He looked up in time to see David’s fist slamming him in the eye. White stars flashed and he went down.

“Sorry
, bro, didn’t want to do that,” David said, pulling him closer to the house, away from where John might “accidentally” run him over with the car. It seemed he was hitting Allen a lot lately, hopefully his brother would forgive him for it one day.

“
Nice hit, hunter,” John goaded, knowing that he really didn’t want to hurt
him
. Shepard would rather punch Allen himself than let John do it. Him taking out Jimmy was bad enough.

“
The Shepards are having a really bad
day
,” Dianna said. Shepard glared at her and she turned away.

“
Alright, they’re both taken care
of
,” Evey said, the guns that Jimmy and Allen had been using in her hands. “Where are we going now?”

“
To the
hospital
,” Gwen said quickly.

“Why?” Dianna asked.

“
Well, we need to have Doc look at Davi
d because someone turned him,” she said with a sneer on her face, angered by the idea that either Dianna or John changed David so close to the full
moon
. Probably John, she would need to talk with him about it later. “
Plus
, for some reason my dad thought you two were taking me home.”

Dianna looked away at her glare, but John stood his ground. “We were just trying to k
eep him from worrying about you,” he said. “What do you think he would have done if he found out you were taken by some lowlife hunter?”

“
Watch it,
” Shepard hissed.

“Can we just talk about this in the car?” Gwen said before a fight broke out.

“
Di, you sit up front with
John
,” Gwen said, much to John’s
shock
. He’d assumed Gwen would be sitting with him to get away from the man who’d stolen her. He had to remind himself that she wasn’t a prisoner when she was with the hunter. She gone with him willingly, not because of some cruel blackmailing scheme. This was the man she’d cried her eyes out over, whom she still loved, worried about, and had wanted to wait for rather than be with him.

John had to fight back his rising
jealousy
, it didn’t
matter
. The hunter was turning and the full moon was in fifteen hours. If he didn’t kill
him
, the strain of his first change would.

It was a side effect from not allowing the body to adjust to the changes that came with being a Were before turnin
g for the first time.
Soon
, the hunter would be out of the picture and he would be there to comfort Gwen.

When they were all in the car, Di noticed him looking in the rearview mirror, glowering at Shepard who was sitting close and whispering to Gwen
. Di put her hand on his shoulder.