Wolves at the Door (10 page)

But you said I could s
pend extra time with her
, Zack told him, his hands gripping my waist a little too tightly.
Tell them you messed up
.

Cold rage replaced
Charles’s amiable smile.
I will do no such thing. What’s done is done. You’ll work it out
. He turned to leave.

“You can’t take him early!” I shouted. “It’s not fair. You made the mistake.
You
fix it!”

Slowly, Charles pivoted, eyes spearing mine. “And how is it possible
for a human to hear our conversation?”

My stomach knotted as terror gripped me. I’d just given myself away to a werewolf. Worse, we’d been making out
and breaking a law that carried the death penalty.

Dead girl walking. And since Zack was consorting with a shape-shifter, he wouldn’t fare any better.

Zack squeezed my hand. “She’s human, but she reads minds.”

“A witch?” The scout tilted his head, narrowing his eyes. “Or she’s something else… like a shape-shifter. Maybe you were really coming here to morph.” He took a step toward me, but I couldn’t back up since I was already against the car.

Zack moved in front of me. “She’s human.”

Charles smiled. “If that’s the case, allow me to confirm it.”

“Suit yourself.” Zack moved aside and waved a hand toward me. He appeared unruffled, but I sensed an undercurrent. I could also hear his heart pounding wildly. I’d bet anything that Charles could hear it too. He’d know Zack was scared… and lying.

“Thank you. I will.” Charles reached out and brushed my hair away, exposing my neck. He leaned in and inched toward me. As he inhaled deeply, the amusement faded from his eyes and they darkened.

Busted.

Zack doesn’t know,
I told Charles silently, hoping if he thought I was to blame, it would keep Zack safe and give him time to run. Two fledglings could never take down a mature werewolf who was possibly hundreds of years older.
He hasn’t learned about shape-shifters or their scent. He thinks I’m human which is perfectly legal
.
Punish me, not him
.

Charles returned his attention to his recruit. “Your girlfriend just informed me that you’re ignorant of the fact that she’s a shape-shifter. And that
she
is the one who should be punished, not you.”

Zack’s eyes grew wide as he stared at me.
What the hell are you doing?

I opened my mouth to keep him from spilling the truth to Charles. Either way, I was toast. At least this way, one of us might live.

Charles shot us both a crooked smile. “It’s unfortunate both of you will need to be eliminated.”

“Why? Zack didn’t know about me until you told him!” I hissed.

“If he’s too weak and stupid to detect a shifter, he has no value to the king. No point in keeping him alive.”

I didn’t think. All I knew was that Zack’s life was in danger. Adrenaline roared through my body like water through a fire hose and an instant later, I exploded into a grizzly bear. The force of my morph spiraled Charles backward and he crashed into the thick tree trunk. Before
he had a chance to reorient himself, I was on top of him, my paws on his chest and my teeth at his throat.

He morphed into a brown wolf and his ancient-strong jaws slashed my flank and side.
Despite catching him by surprise, I was no match for him. Pain burned through my middle and my power waned.

~~~

Chapter Nine

Just as my eyes started to lose focus, Zack appeared at my side, his fangs at
Charles’s throat, paws holding Charles down. I pushed my full weight into the brown wolf, mashing him into the soft topsoil as I swatted him with my massive paws until his teeth rattled.

Zack had once said that in our animal form, some things became unimportant — like baths and blood. We wouldn’t kill an animal or hunt humans just for the hell of it, but the act of killing when it needed to be done wasn’t abhorrent to us.

He wasn’t kidding. On instinct, I went wild — my jaws snapping and tearing at Charles’s flesh. His blood splashed into my mouth and I reveled in the kill. I opened wider and fit his skull in my mouth, then bore down, jerking my head side to side. Blood drained from Charles’s flaccid body and pooled onto the uneven ground. Hot delicious blood.

Autumn! Enough! He’s dead
, Zack shouted into my head, still in his wolf form.

The words, human words, coursed through my mind bringing my thoughts into focus. Slowly, I released
Charles’s head, a new burst of energy flowing through my veins. I glanced down at my side where his teeth had sliced into me. The bleeding had stopped and the wound was nearly closed.

Don’t turn human yet until we clean
up. Otherwise, when your clothes morph back with you, they’ll be ruined. We won’t be able to explain all the blood to the mortals
.

I shook my fur like a dog after a bath — not to remove the blood but to pull myself out of the frenzied rage I’d plunged into. I shook again and blood droplets exploded into the air.
Charles’s blood.

Rearing up on my hind legs, I extended my snout high into the air.
I smell water to the left.
I glanced over at the scout.
Are you sure he’s dead?

You ripped out his intestines and crushed his skull. He looks pretty dead to me.

I glanced down at what remained of Charles. If I’d ripped out his insides, where did they go?

Zack looked at me, his eyes cautious.
So how does werewolf taste?
Anything like chicken?

Looking at the wolf’s carcass, I realized more than his guts were missing — a foot, a chunk out of his
arm and shoulder. Possibly more, but he was so mangled it was difficult to tell. And those body parts were all weighing in my happy stomach. Maybe I’d feel some sort of revulsion later when I became human again, but right now, I felt well-fed and smug.

I stretched my furry muzzle into what I hoped resembled a smile.
Pretty tasty, actually
.

Zack made a strange noise, like a cross between a gag and a cough. I hoped he was amused, but the grimace said slightly horrified.

Since he died in wolf form, he’ll stay that way. Anyone will just assume a bear killed him. Which is exactly what happened. We’ll leave everything exactly as it is
.
Let’s go.

† † †

After we’d cleaned up, Zack drove. I trembled as I snuggled against him, resting my head on his shoulder. I couldn’t think about the fact that I’d just killed a man and werewolves were bound to come looking for him. I needed to concentrate on Zack and that he was safe.

Just as
the tremors in my limbs subsided, Zack sighed heavily. Now what?

“You promised you wouldn’t do that.”

I lifted my head off his shoulder to look at him. “Do what?”

He glanced down at me, frowning, then returned his eyes to the road. “Make deals with a werewolf to save my life.”

Crap. I’d forgotten what a fit Zack had thrown the last time I’d tried to save him by negotiating with my psycho ex-boyfriend Daniel.

“Your life was at stake, Zack. I had to do something.”

“But your life in exchange for mine isn’t something you can decide for me.” He reached for my hand and laced his fingers through mine.

“I wasn’t
exchanging
my life for yours. He was going to kill me either way. But I hoped that maybe I could save
you
.” I absentmindedly skimmed my fingernails down his arm and smiled when he shivered.

The image of Charles
dead body assaulted me again and I wished I could morph and stay that way, so the act of murder wouldn’t bother me.

“Hey. We’re safe now.” Zack’s thumb brushed my finger.

“I know he’ll stay a wolf now that he’s dead, but what if another werewolf recognizes him and they do DNA testing and figure out it was me? I could get arrested.”

He slowed for a red light. “You’re overreacting. Even if—”

“I ended someone’s life, Zack. He’s dead. It’s impossible to overreact to something like that.”

“I was there, too. I helped you kill him and I’m freaked out too.” He growled, casting a quick glance my way before making a turn. “I’m really trying not to think about it. And we’re not going to get caught. Even if someone realizes he’s a werewolf, they’d never match grizzly DNA to you.”

But I’d still know I did it. Charles was never coming back and that was because of me.

I shuddered.

“Autumn, he was going to kill us both. You did what you had to do.”

Yeah, I did. And I’d do it again. Most likely, it would come to that sooner or later. God, I really needed to think about something else. “Your family is pretty tolerant about me sleeping in your room, considering what they think we’re doing.”

He laughed softly. “We’re both over eighteen and they know they can’t stop us. And they still remember what it was like to be our age. My mom and Aunt Cara can try to sway me in my choices, but in the end, that’s all they can do — try. I guess they figure so long as we make our mistakes under their roof, they’ll be there to help us fix it.”

“So you could have a beer or
do some shots of—”

Zack scoffed. “Nothing illegal. That’s where I’m sure they’d draw the line.”

He pulled the car against the curb in front of his house and, suddenly, my limbs were too drained to move another inch.

“Let’s get you into a bath and to bed. You’ve had a big night.” He brushed his lips against my temple. “You were magnificent.”

Yes, I was. And now, Charles would never bother us again. The part about me partially consuming him still hadn’t sunk in. Maybe it never would.

† † †

Following the smell of coffee, I crept out of Zack’s room, still a bit loopy from lack of sleep. Momentarily blinded by the bright light in the hallway, I jolted as Trevor’s youngest brother slammed into me. He must have been moving at warp speed because his head felt like a bowling ball crashing into my ribs. My hands shot out to his shoulders to steady him and I quickly scanned him for injuries. He looked totally fine.

“Oh. Hi Autumn,” he said, as if it were any other day.

“Good morning, Patrick.” I glanced away, hoping he wouldn’t wonder why I was at their house so early — in my pajamas.

“You slept in Zack’s room?” he asked, startling me out of what remained of my daze. His light brown hair stuck out in every direction.

“Hey.” Zack snaked around me and ruffled the boy’s hair. It looked exactly the same afterward. “We were out late last night so instead of driving home when she was tired, we had a sleepover.”

Zack could’ve explained that Cara had invited me to stay in the small room, but he’d obviously forgotten about that. Watching him dance around it was more entertaining anyway. I held back a nervous giggle.

“Like a slumber party? Is Maya here too?”

“No. It was just the two of us,” Zack said with a straight face.

“After we visit Auntie, we’re going to Legoland,” Patrick said and I breathed a sigh of relief for children’s short attention span. “Are you coming too?”

“Nah.” Zack mussed Patrick’s hair again. “We have things to do, hopefully bringing your Auntie home.”

“Okay.” Patrick disappeared around the corner.

“Finally, someone who sees it as innocent as it really is.” I beamed at Zack, thankful Patrick didn’t know I only lived a block away or he might have seen through Zack’s thin excuse. Apparently, I’d worried for nothing about being a bad influence on the boy.

“That’s because he’s only six. But Brian might be a different story. He’s ten.”

“Oh.” A little more time to bask in my triumph would’ve been nice.

“I want to get to the hospital early.” Zack jerked his head toward his bedroom door and I followed him in. “I’ll be ready in just a minute.”

Sitting at the foot of his bed as he stripped off his sweats, I pretended I wasn’t staring. Boxers weren’t all that different than shorts though. I sagged in disappointment. At least I got to gawk at his washboard abs once he’d peeled off his
T-shirt.