Chapter 10

10

Short barks reverberated from the greenbelt, rising over the rumble of freeway traffic. They were the vocalizations of wolves hot on the heels of their prey, wolves confident that they would capture and take down their prey.

Frustration bubbled within me, and I regretted that I hadn’t let the magic take hold and change me. If I’d joined Duncan, we might have been able to fight off my relatives. Two against three could have been doable, especially since Augustus was already injured.

But, with the immediate personal threat past, my blood had cooled, and I no longer felt the tingle of lupine power. In the old days, with the full moon so near, I could have summoned the wolf at will, but the magic would have had to overcome the lingering effects of my last dose of the potion. It had mostly but not entirely worn off.

A cry of pain wafted out of the woods. Duncan?

I slammed the butcher knife down on the table by the door, wishing I had a rifle. The power of the slam made Duncan’s keys tremble, almost sliding to the floor. I’d forgotten he’d left them and the case for his magic detector by the door. His van had those huge tires. Could it handle driving off road? Maybe there was a gun or other decent weapon inside too, something I could use to help him.

My stomach churned at the idea of attacking my own family—and the repercussions that might result—but they’d started it. My cousin had been trying to kill me.

I snatched up the keys and ran toward the parking lot, ignoring a tenant leaning over the balcony railing above. As she looked toward the woods, she spoke rapidly into her phone. Talking to Animal Control, no doubt. I hoped they would tell her to call back the next day during office hours.

The van door wasn’t locked, and I sprang into the driver’s seat. The first key I tried turned in the ignition, and the Roadtrek roared to life.

I drove straight at the curb. The big tires cheerfully rolled over it and across the sidewalk and into the grass. I headed toward a trail that led into the woods, a dog-poop station and garbage can next to it. I knew the paths through the greenbelt well; what I didn’t know was if the van would fit on any but the main route through the center. Even on that one, the branches would hit the sides; they might block the way entirely.

“I just have to get close,” I muttered, finding the headlights.

If I could throw open the side door and yell at Duncan to jump inside, we could drive off. Even a magical wolf couldn’t keep up with an automobile, not once we got out on the paved streets.

The headlamp beams slashed into the woods, highlighting autumn leaves and dried needles on the ground and moss dangling from bare branches. They also caught a dark-gray wolf crouched between two firs in the distance. A pair of eyes turned toward me, shining an eerie red as they reflected the headlights. Augustus .

I drove toward him, but he darted into the brush and out of view.

As I’d predicted, the branches scraped at the sides of the van, the awful noise making me cringe. Hopefully, the old Roadtrek could take a few hits.

A dark lump to the side of the trail prompted me to lift up off the accelerator. Had they already gotten Duncan?

No, it was a solid gray wolf, one of the two males who’d run across the lawn. He wasn’t moving. Was he dead?

I swallowed, thoughts of repercussions again coming to mind.

As I slowed the van, the wolf lifted his head. Okay, not dead. Good.

Injured, he pushed himself to his paws. I tensed, worried he would attack the van, but he shambled away from the trail. Accusing eyes looked back at me before he disappeared from view. I was fairly certain that was another cousin that I hadn’t seen since our youth.

I drove further, turning onto a side path that wasn’t large enough for a vehicle. But it was in the direction Augustus had gone.

Wood snapped as the van broke branches, the headlight beams wobbling wildly as I drove over roots that tilted them left and right. The big tires flattened a fern, then rolled into a hole that almost kept me from continuing. I pushed on the accelerator, and the engine groaned as it climbed out.

I was contemplating retreating back to the main path when a huge cedar came into view. Duncan, still in his wolf form, had his rump to the tree, his hackles up as he snapped at Augustus and a lighter-gray wolf with a black tip on his tail. Augustus was injured, but the other wolf wasn’t.

He leaped in, snapping his jaws at Duncan, then skittered back to Augustus’s side before Duncan could retaliate. He couldn’t fight both at once. And, damn it, was he injured too? Yes, he slumped back against the cedar, and I could make out deep bloody gashes in his side where fangs had raked him like claws.

His uninjured attacker glanced toward the van, sharp teeth bared, annoyance flashing in golden eyes. Despite my approach, the wolf sprang at Duncan again. Trying to finish him off before help arrived?

I stomped on the accelerator. It startled Augustus, and he looked back, then slid sideways a few steps.

The van hit a root, and I almost pitched out of the seat. I cranked the wheel hard to avoid veering into a tree. Branches slapped the windshield, evergreen needles flying.

Duncan, left facing only one enemy, and perhaps not as injured as he’d led them—and me—to believe, leaped out to meet the gray wolf’s charge. They butted chests as their jaws snapped toward each other’s throats. Duncan must have weighed more, or put more behind his charge, because he knocked his foe back. The gray wolf bumped against a tree trunk, then stumbled into the path of the van. I accelerated.

The wolf heard the engine and knew I was coming. He crouched to spring away, but I clipped him. He didn’t cry out in pain, but I felt the thud as the fender rammed him. He flew, rolling through the ferns before getting his paws under him.

After a glare at me and then Duncan, the gray wolf ran off into the night. Augustus had already disappeared. I glanced in the side mirrors, looking for the injured wolf I’d passed on the way in, but he’d slunk off too.

Relieved, I turned off the van and slid out. The windshield hadn’t cracked under the branch assault, but I’d put the giant tires to the test. Snapped twigs, needles, and leaves stuck out of every vent and crack, and fur and blood darkened the fender.

Still in his wolf form, Duncan slumped against the cedar, then collapsed completely, legs crumpling underneath him. Maybe he hadn’t been feigning his injuries after all. He’d simply gathered himself for a last charge.

I rushed to his side and knelt, resting a hand on his back, careful to avoid his wounds. In addition to the gashes, one of his pointed ears was ripped, and blood dribbled from a split lip.

“Are you okay?” I knew from experience that he would understand me, but the words would take longer to process when his animal instincts were in control. Duncan would hear them, as if through a haze. “Do you want me to take you to… uhm, the vet?”

It was a dumb question, and he leveled a frank look at me. I almost laughed, imagining him saying something indignant and adding my lady to the end.

His gaze shifted toward the van.

“I hope you don’t mind that I borrowed your keys. I thought it would be a better weapon than anything in my toolkit.”

Duncan lowered his head between his paws, his eyes closing. I didn’t think his injuries were grave enough that I needed to worry about him dying, but I did want to get him back to my apartment for a better look. With the battle past, his magic ought to fade soon. He would turn back into his human form.

“You can rest now,” I said softly and stroked his thick fur.

Though he’d closed his eyes, he was still conscious, and he leaned into my touch. When his weight settled against me, it almost knocked me over. As I’d noticed before, he was large, even for a werewolf. My family had been foolish to start a fight with him around. Maybe they hadn’t realized he would jump to my defense. I hadn’t realized that.

“Thank you for your help, Duncan. I’m not sure why you helped, but…” I looked off into the dark woods. The pack had disappeared, but I imagined I could still see Augustus’s hard eyes, the determination in them, the desire to kill me. Why he wanted me dead after all these years, I didn’t know, but I didn’t doubt that he did. “I’m not sure why you helped,” I repeated, still stroking Duncan’s back, “but it’s clear that you did.”

He sighed with contentment at the strokes, now seeming more like a hound dog than a wild animal. He even rolled over, legs crooking in the air, inviting a belly rub.

“That’s a little intimate, don’t you think?” I might have likened him to a hound, but I knew wolf behavior well—these were the kinds of actions one displayed toward one’s mate.

His jaws parted, tongue lolling out, and his eyes opened, glinting with humor or something like it. With the headlights still on and providing illumination, I noticed bands of white fur near his paws. They were about an inch wide and encircled all four limbs.

“What happened there?” I asked quietly, touching one. Then I remembered the scars on his wrists that I’d seen when he’d been human. “Did you… spend time in jail?”

I imagined handcuffs, but those wouldn’t have been this wide. And even if he had been in jail, it wasn’t as if inmates spent their days in handcuffs, right?

Duncan didn’t give any indication that he’d heard the question. The magic that had changed him into a wolf was starting to fade. This close, I could sense it leaving his body. I leaned back, but I continued to kneel beside him, feeling protective. It was possible the pack hadn’t gone that far, and werewolves were always vulnerable when they changed.

His body morphed, fur disappearing as his wolf limbs and torso transformed into those of a man. He still lay on his back, but now I knelt beside human Duncan. Naked human Duncan. I got an eyeful of his anatomy before looking away.

“This is a lot intimate,” I corrected my earlier statement.

His eyes had closed again, and he didn’t respond.

I looked into the woods and vowed to watch over him until he woke.