13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Julie, Amelia’s wolf nanny, was shorter than her at roughly five-two.

“Change.” The rifle Julie was holding pointed at Amelia’s head. “Or she gets two in the head. Bang…bang.”

Amelia changed and was delighted to see she was still wearing her leggings and long tee. She was going to have to thank the goddess Luna tonight. The last thing she wanted to be was naked around her wolf nanny, who wasn’t all there. The female had to be off her rocker, right?

“I don’t understand.” This wolf helped her father raise her for six years. She’d heard the stories of how she was her mom’s best friend. Why was she gunning for her? Did she think Amelia was an abomination?

“Change.” Julie’s voice was deeper this time, and it was obvious she was talking to Rome. “I will kill her. I’m going to kill her, but I’ll do it now if you don’t change.”

Rome went from wolf to male. He was still wearing his nicely pressed pants that made him look like a movie star and his button-down shirt.

“Abominations, the both of you. Animals are naked when they change to the human form, because they are not human!” she screamed, saliva spewing from her mouth.

“Why?” Amelia asked again. Julie was going to die, but she needed answers first. When she caught that slight scent of wolf in the air, she’d thought it was James. The beta who would be alpha. It made more sense to her than it being Julie, a woman she hadn’t seen since she was six.

“I didn’t always used to be this dirty, foul creature.” Her eyes went over her body, sneering at herself.

“I. Am. A. Hunter.” There was pride in every exaggerated word she said. “One day, the goddess of the Dark Night gave us a hint to where the next abomination would be born. Connor honored me with killing the omega to make our world better.” She paced, still keeping the rifle in her hands, pointed at Amelia.

“I found your pack nearly hidden in the small woods and realized nobody in town knew you were there. I spied on the pack, never getting too close and that’s how I saw your mother for the first time. She was playing tag with your father in the woods. They were changing from human to wolf as he chased her. I knew then that the only way to get close to you or your mother was to become one of you.”

Julie was lost in her thoughts, but she still kept her rifle aimed at Amelia.

“I met a man, one I still mourn. He was one of you and I convinced him to make me into what you are. We could get married, I told him, and have a family. That dream may have been mine if not for you.” She spewed a wad of spit at Amelia’s feet.

“You ruined my life. When he changed me and taught me what I needed to know, I killed him, watching the dream of a family die in his eyes. Maybe I wouldn’t have killed him or become an animal with him. I’ll never know. I pledged my life to the hunters’ cause to kill the abominations being born.” She shook her head like she was putting the past in the past.

“I met your mother in town. We became fast friends and when she realized I didn’t belong to a pack. Mine had kicked me out, she invited me to become part of her pack. Your father was reluctant, but he wanted his pregnant mate to be happy. I found out later she wasn’t from that pack. She’d married into it. We spent a lot of time together, your mother and me. The pack would groan when they saw us coming, knowing we were up to something. I will say the love between your mother and her mate made me insanely jealous. I didn’t know two animals could love like that. The night she went into labor, I knew it was all over.”

“Your mother may have been my best friend, but she had to die. I couldn’t allow her to have any more abominations. It was so easy. I made a cup of tea to help her with the contractions. She drank it and hugged me, tears in her eyes. It should have killed you both, but you were born before it took effect, killing your mother, my best friend. You were sick and may have died, but your father brought in a witch to heal you.” She began talking to herself, jumbled words came out making no sense.

Julie killed everyone in her life. The people who meant something to her. She may have even loved them. That was what drove her to lose touch with reality.

“Your father suspected foul play, but he never expected me. I helped him take care of you for six years, pretending that I loved you. Then I did something wrong. Somehow, I slipped, and he realized that I hated you and saw you as an abomination. That’s when he began suspecting that I had a hand in his wife’s death. There was no way to prove it. Too much time had passed. He had suspicions, but they weren’t enough to oust me from the pack. He could, and did, make sure I never came in contact with you again. I moved to the outskirts of the pack, watching you from afar, waiting until the time was right. Like a coward, you escaped in the middle of the night. I came after you, knowing you had to die. Why am I just finding you? I needed to wait until those foolish wolves came back, having failed in their sacred duty.”

Julie growled, her wolf coming to the surface. “My life has been a lie because of you. I’ve lived without friends or love. All of this madness because an abomination was born into the world. I know what you do. How you kill women, men, and children and then feast on their dead bodies. Only to rest and do it again. Who have you killed? How many families have been destroyed at your hands? How many people have I failed to keep safe?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Ew, that’s gross.” Amelia was lost. Did Julie think that she killed and ate humans? Her stomach rebelled at the thought. “Julie, I don’t eat the flesh or drink the blood of humans. I stick to cows, give me a steak please medium-rare.”

“Liar! They told us all about you as children. Beating it into our heads and hearts, what happens if one of you is allowed to live. Visions of the bloody massacre that would occur because I didn’t stop you has plagued me all my life. Now, you will die. There will be no more killing.” The heartbreak on Julie’s face fought with the horror and the fear she was feeling.

“It doesn’t matter,” Amelia said, feeling deflated. “Nothing I or anyone else says to her will get through. They programmed her from birth to become a heartless hunter. Julie killed her mate and her best friend to carry out their orders. She won’t stop, simply because I say I’m not the creature in the night they warned her about.” She was talking to herself, but also to Rome. Maybe she wanted to give herself an out or to build her defense for court.

“I know,” Rome told her, agreeing.

“What! Am I not here?” Julie was spewing venom. Her eyes changed to her wolf’s. They were brown with specks of green, but they were wild looking. Brown fur covered her arms. “No, you crazy wolf, stay away. I will kill her and then… whatever happens, happens.”

She raised the rifle and shot Amelia point-blank twice in the head. Rome was waiting for her to make her move. He jumped, moving faster than the eye could see, knocking Amelia down and taking both shots in his back.

Amelia screamed; it turned into a howl as her wolf pushed her way to the surface. Fury washed through her. Julie killed her mate.

Julie fell to the ground, her brown wolf raising her voice in a mournful howl. Amelia refused to allow the wolf’s sorrow to save them. She ran at Julie, who ran away from her. A sense of wanting to live buried deep inside of Julie kept her running.

Amelia chased Julie while she and her wolf were working out where the mad wolf was going. Her car, she was trying to get to freedom. Amelia took her human form and scaled a tree. From that high, she could see the jeep. Jumping, she changed on the way down and took a different path that would get her to the jeep first.

Amelia was casually leaning against the jeep when Julie got there. She stopped, and her wolf receded as she stood naked in front of Amelia, having shredded her clothes, when she changed.

“That’s another sign that you’re an abomination.” Julie was calm now. She’d sunk deep enough into the illusion of what needed to be done that she was scary. The look of determination on her face sent a sense of dread through Amelia. It was kill, or be killed.

“I didn’t mean to kill your mate. How do you deserve a mate when I had to kill mine?” Julie kneeled down in the ankle- high grass, scratching at the dirt. When she stood, there was a beautiful dagger in her hand. “This is the gift we receive when we graduate to full hunters.”

“It’s beautiful.” The dagger was black from tip to handle. There were rubies and emeralds embedded in the handle and scrollwork along the blade.

“It is, but not beautiful enough to justify a life lived without a mate and a best friend.” There was nothing Amelia could say to that.

“Die Abomination.” Julie ran at her, attacking her with the knife. They fought, rolling in the grass while Julie cut Amelia across her ribs and thighs.

Amelia wasn’t sure what she was waiting for. Was it for Julie to repent, to see the error of her ways? To realize she wasted her life? She punched her in the stomach and kneed her in the groin when she rolled Amelia on her back.

There was a decision to be made. Julie switched her grip on the knife and placed it against Amelia’s throat. A manic grin twisted her lips.

“You’re dead,” her words slurred. “Finally, I will get vengeance.”

Amelia’s hands shot up into the air, shifting into paws with wicked claws. She tore out Julie’s throat before the knife could dig deeper into her own throat. Julie’s dead body fell onto her, and she hoped that in death she could find the peace she hadn’t found in life.

She tossed Julie’s body off her as tears for her mate poured down her face. It took a will of iron to stop the tears. She needed to get him home before she could lose it. Her future felt black. What was there now that Rome was dead?

“Crying for Julie?” She looked up to see Rome standing at the edge of the tree line, looking well and whole.

“Rome?” Was it her imagination? Then he opened his arms.

She ran, not stopping to think. When she got close enough, she leaped, and he caught her, hugging her tight. Tears poured out, soaking his shirt. He was alive. As impossible as it was, her mate was alive.

The intense feelings of loss and fear, the feeling of being bereft and clinging to the last bit of sanity. Then there was the joy that overwhelmed her when she realized he was alive and holding her. Together, it all combined to throw her into her heat. She needed him now.