Wolf Moon (34 page)

C
hristmas day came and went without a peep from our trespassers the
night before. Nick had snuck out of my room sometime before seven when I woke
up. There was a note on my pillow from him, telling me he’d gone so I wouldn’t
worry. I may or may not have stared at it a while before forcing myself out of
bed.

The smell of fresh-brewed
coffee lured me from my room. Mom and Dad were still in bed; I could hear their
steady breathing and knew they were still asleep. In the kitchen, Nick had
started on breakfast, and by the time it was all cooked, Mom and Dad had joined
us.

The four of us sitting
around the kitchen table reminded me of simpler times…happier times. It was
nice to feel something other than the confusion, anger, and sadness that had
plagued me for months. In this one moment, I was Brooke. I wasn’t grieving the
loss of the man I loved. I wasn’t a wolf. I was just
me
.

Marcus and Miranda
stopped by around noon. They brought a turkey and a bag of fresh produce with
them for us to cook for dinner. Mom and Dad were thrilled to meet two of the
people I considered friends, and in the few minutes they spent talking to them,
they seemed to finally accept my decision to stay here.

Dropping off the food
wasn’t the only reason Marcus and Miranda stopped by, though. While Miranda and
I put the food in the kitchen, Nick and Marcus went for a walk. When they returned,
I pulled Nick aside and he informed me that Marcus was checking in to see if
we’d had any more problems. He was relieved to hear the rest of our evening was
uneventful, but he still wanted to send the guys over to patrol after sunset.
Nick refused, saying he’d call if we needed the help.

Until then, we decided to
have a normal Christmas—or as close to normal as we could get.

Because I didn’t know my
parents would be visiting, I hadn’t been able to buy them a gift yet. I hadn’t
bought anyone a gift, to be brutally honest. After everything that happened
with Karl, shopping was the last thing on my mind.

My parents dismissed my
apology as they handed me a small gift-wrapped box, telling me that Nick flying
them out to spend the holidays with their daughter was the perfect gift. The
charm bracelet inside was absolutely beautiful, and they’d taken the liberty of
adding three charms. The first represented family; the second was the zodiac
symbol for Scorpio, which was my and Bobby’s sign; and the last one was a cactus,
probably intended to remind me of the arid heat of Arizona. It was touching,
and I found it hard not to get emotional as Nick helped to fasten it around my
wrist.

Mom and I spent the
afternoon in the kitchen preparing the food that Marcus and Miranda had given
us. We chatted over a bottle of wine while we cooked, and Nick kept my father
company. What they talked about, I had no idea. It had to be innocent enough
since Nick was still walking by the time we put dinner on the table.

Having my parents stay
with us definitely brought back happy memories, but with every day that passed,
I still grew more and more anxious. I worried about plummeting backward in all
the progress I’d made recently. These feelings were only made more prominent as
the moon slowly rounded out. I had five days until the next full moon, and I
could feel the wolf growing stronger and more dominant with each passing day. I
could keep her in check, but she wanted out.
And soon.

With an hour until we
rang in the New Year, Nick, my parents, and I were hanging out in the living
room, drinking our second bottle of champagne. The sky outside was clear, millions
of bright stars shining against the black backdrop, the almost full moon
lighting the mountains below. It was incredibly serene and absolutely beautiful.

Mom and Dad were set to
fly back to Arizona the morning of the forth, which was cutting it pretty damn
close to the full moon, but I chose to think of it as a test of my control. I
was confident I could manage my urges until then…as long as nothing took me by
surprise.

Before tonight, I hadn’t
given much thought to what my resolution might be, but after everything I’d
been through over the last few months, I decided to embrace this life. Seeing
my parents, I knew they were adjusting to life without me nearby, and it
offered me solace. They seemed happy for now, having witnessed me in this new
environment.

I’d fought the wolf for
far too long, and it kept me from experiencing the full potential of its power.
I was tired of living moment to moment, constantly in fear of what could
possibly go wrong. Too many times I’d tried to accept what had happened to me
only to be punched in the gut when something even worse would transpire. After
almost a decade of this happening, I was beginning to think that happiness
always came with some dark price.

Well, no more. That ended
now. Life was what you made of it, and I was tired of letting the darkness win.
It was time I took control of my life.

A warm hand touched the
small of my back, and I smiled fondly as I caught Nick’s reflection in the
large window in front of me. I glanced up at him, admiring his crooked grin.

“Penny for your thoughts,
beautiful?” he inquired, his thumb moving idly over the satin of the dress I
wore the night of my birthday; it was all I had, and even though it was only
the four of us, I wanted tonight to be special.

Likewise, Nick was
dressed in dark jeans and a crisp, white button down shirt. He forewent a tie,
instead leaving the top two buttons undone, and his hair was as tamed as it
ever would be. Mom and Dad were also dressed in casual-dressy attire. Mom wore
a simple little black dress that fit her upper body and flared out into a
knee-length A-line skirt while Dad was dressed in a nice gray suit. They were
both over by the fire, talking and laughing while I had stolen away for a
moment of quiet contemplation.

My third glass of
champagne had made its way into my bloodstream. I was still quite aware, but
that warm tingle had started moving through my limbs. I hummed contentedly,
leaning into his touch a little too openly. “Just…anticipating what’s to come
and coming to terms with everything we’ve been through,” I replied honestly
before turning to him. “I’m ready for this. It’s time for me to fully accept
what happened to me the night Jackson bit me.”

The smile faded from
Nick’s face, and he took my champagne flute from me, setting it on a
neighboring table before gripping my hands in his. His expression grew somber,
and it worried me. Something was wrong; I could sense it as it shot through my
veins, and I felt it as the tiny hairs all over my body stood on end.

“I need to tell you
something,” he began. “I don’t want there to be any secrets between us going
into the New Year.”

I inhaled deeply,
preparing myself for whatever Nick was about to say, and that was when I
realized I was sensing something else entirely. Cautiously, my gaze drifted
back toward the window, and awareness rippled up my spine until alarms blared
loudly in my head. There was a flash of movement in the darkness and then a
loud crash as the floor-to-ceiling window shattered beside us.

Mom screamed, and Dad
shouted a profanity as Nick threw his arms around me to shelter me from the
falling glass. Tiny shards sliced my skin, but the pain was forgotten the
second I heard the laughter and caught a whiff of
them.
Nick released me and darted toward the broken window, both of
us having spotted the five figures running off into the night.

“Nick, wait!” I cried.
“We can’t go after them alone. That’s what they want.”

“
We’re
not,” he responded. “
I
am.
You stay here with your parents and keep them safe. I’ll call for help on my
way.”

I was torn. My stomach
churned with the decision to stay with my parents or to back Nick up. Both made
sense. On the one hand, my parents needed to be kept safe, on the other, Nick’s
five-to-one odds didn’t look good, and at least five-to-two was better.

As Nick hopped the low
rail of the patio, my parents flanked me, both of them pulling me from the
window as I watched helplessly. Less than a minute passed before I heard a
familiar howl echo through the night, and something inside me stirred: the
wolf. She wanted out. She craved the kill at the end of this fight. It grew
more and more anxious with every second.

Even though it went
against every instinct I had, I kept her restrained, but my senses remained
sharp. I strained my ears and listened for the Pack. Nothing. Either they
didn’t hear Nick or they took an alternate route to get to him. I tried
convincing myself that it was the latter because it was the only thing keeping
my feet firmly rooted to the floor.

Then I heard it: a long
yowl of pain that carried on the cold winter air and sent a chill straight down
my spine. It was Nick. I could feel his pain as though we were somehow tethered
to one another. Was it because of our history or because we’d grown closer
lately and were part of the same pack? Whatever it was, it was unsettling, and
I couldn’t wait here any longer.

It wasn’t until my Dad
yanked back on my arm that I even realized I was trying to go after Nick.

“Brooke, where do you
think you’re going?” he demanded, eyes wide.

“I need to make sure he’s
okay,” I explained. “I’ll be fine, I promise. I used to do this sort of thing
all the time on the job, remember?”

He hesitated, but I could
see him trying to justify it in his mind. He shook it off, maybe sensing something
wasn’t quite right with this entire situation. “No. He told us to stay here.”

“Dad,” I argued, my voice
shaking. “There are five of them and one of him. He needs backup.”

Again, he contemplated
this. He opened his mouth, likely to argue with me again when I caught the
scent of the Pack outside before hearing their frantic footfalls and panicked
sniffing. I pulled away from my parents and ran for the broken window. I leapt
over the broken shards of glass with ease, landing safely on the snow-covered
patio before kicking off the low-heeled shoes I wore and catching the attention
of a wolfed-out Colby and Zach hidden in the shadows.

“Where are the others?” I
asked them.

Colby blinked up at me
before releasing an annoyed snort and tossing her head toward the darkness. She
was pissed, and I could only assume it was because Marcus ordered her and Zach
to guard the house.

I glanced back at my
parents, who remained in the middle of the living room, watching me, and then
down at Zach and Colby. “Stay with them. Protect them,” I ordered in a low
voice. “Nick needs my help.”

I was certain she wasn’t
happy about it, but she nodded her acquiescence and I hopped over the railing.

“Brooke!” my parents
cried after me, but I couldn’t stop. My feet moved as if I was no longer in
control of them.

My skin blazed against
the cold air, and the snow melted quickly beneath my feet as my temperature
climbed rapidly. I could feel the beginning transitions in my body—my
muscles tensing, everything inside me shifting in preparation of my
change—but this time, it didn’t send me to my knees; I wouldn’t let it.
My body continued to propel forward, my strides longer and more graceful than
ever before. I covered almost twice as much ground in half the time. Reaching
behind me as I ran, I unzipped my dress and lifted it over my head as my skin
burned with heat. The wolf was just below the surface, salivating and looking
forward to her release. I welcomed her; invited her to take over.

My bones cracked,
momentarily making me stumble. But I pushed through it and carried on running.
Just like every transformation before, I felt everything; I felt my bones break
and realign, my claws cutting through the ends of my fingers and toes. I cried
out in agony, forcing myself to accept the pain as part of what I was. If I denied
the pain, I would black out. I knew this. I needed to be in control. The wolf
and I needed to work together if we were going to get to Nick in time.

My skin continued to
crawl as red fur started to cover my entire body, and the one final snap of my
spine forced me to the ground. I rolled through the snow a couple of times before
standing up and shaking it off. That was when I realized I was on all fours. I
didn’t revel in the realization for long before I launched forward and howled
to signal that I was on my way.

I caught his scent within
seconds and increased my speed. I caught subtle hints of the rest of the Pack,
but Nick’s was closer. Maybe they’d run into their own trouble or maybe they
hadn’t reached him yet. Whatever the reason, I kept moving. The scent of death
was strong.

Another yelp and a
whimper in the distance, and I growled. My hackles rose as I slipped beneath a
low-hanging branch on a tree and weaved between some bare-branched bushes.
There was a clearing up ahead, and near the center of it were the vampires.
They had Nick surrounded, and I could smell his blood. He’d been hurt. As I got
closer, I noticed one of his front legs wasn’t touching the ground, the paw dangling
almost lifelessly above the snow as red dripped onto the white snow.

One of the vampires
reached for Nick, and he snapped in response. He caught the bloodsucker by the
forearm and started to shake him, trying to dislocate his shoulder. Because
Nick was so focused on this task, he didn’t sense one of the others as they
grabbed him around the torso and lifted him off the ground.