Monster

by Jennifer Blackstream

  I almost told her about how he’d undermined Mia, taken credit for other people’s work whenever he could. But I didn’t. It didn’t matter now.

  “Anyway, one night I got a call to break up a bar fight. This was before I transferred here to the rangers. It was Oliver. He’d started an all-out brawl with some college football kid, gave him a broken nose and three bruised ribs. Oliver’s dad had died a few weeks before, and I…” Her voice grew even quieter. “I talked the kid out of pressing charges.”

  Stephen stepped closer, not touching her, but offering support. Emma fisted her hands and took a determined breath.

  “I tried to help him. I thought if I could show him I was still his friend, then maybe he would let me in. Maybe he would understand he wasn’t alone.”

  “So you helped him out. Got him out of trouble.” I pushed away thoughts of how many other victims she might have talked out of pressing charges. How many people Oliver had hurt and gotten away with it.

  She wrapped her arms around herself. “It was a mistake.”

  “Tell me what happened,” Liam said.

  She stared into the distance. “When Anthony told me Oliver was in the forest looking for his dog, I knew he had a right to be scared. I had to confiscate his gun and send him home, because I knew if he found Oliver…” She shook her head. “I knew what he’d probably find. And I was right. When I found Oliver, he was holding on to Gypsy’s leash, watching her choke to death. I shouted at him to stop.”

  Her voice broke. Stephen eased closer, making sure she knew he was there, that she felt him.

  “He started to lower her to the ground, but then he turned, saw it was me.” Her eyes took on a haunted look, showing too much white. “He… He laughed. He said I wouldn’t stop him. I never stopped him. I pointed my gun at him, ordered him to stop again. He… He said I’d never choose a dog’s life over his. Then he pulled on the leash. All I could hear was poor Gypsy, gagging, trying to breathe.” Her voice rose. “I shot him. I shot him. I had to stop him; it was my responsibility to stop him. If I hadn’t helped him before, if I hadn’t let him get away with… I knew he was escalating!”

  Her voice rose in pitch, more panic thinning her voice.

  “His blood sprayed over Gypsy,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “He dropped her and she fell.”

  Emma nodded, swiping at her tears. “She was hurt. And Oliver was dead. I didn’t know what to do. I called Stephen.”

  Stephen lifted his chin. “I told her to take Gypsy to the animal hospital. I made her promise not to tell anyone, to pretend she found Gypsy with her leash caught. I warned her not to say anything about Oliver.”

  “You ate the body to hide the gunshot wound,” Blake guessed. His body language changed, became defensive. Ready for a fight.

  “Yeah.” Stephen shrugged. “I thought I could find another predator to finish the body off.”

  “To hide the evidence of your saliva on the body.” Vincent nodded. “And you didn’t wash the blood off your own face because you were trying to draw out predators.”

  “But you didn’t count on the kid returning to look for the dog,” Liam said. “He found the body and called it in. Then I arrived before you found a predator to take the fall.”

  Stephen nodded. “I swear, I thought it was time for that barghest to feed again.”

  A low growl crawled out of Liam’s throat. “Stupid,” he spat. “You almost lost your life over this. Do you understand that? The Vanguard would have arrested you.”

  “I couldn’t let Emma go to jail because she shot that bastard,” Stephen said, his voice low with the edge of a snarl.

  “There were other ways! She could have pled down. Extenuating circumstances, defense of another life—”

  “A dog’s life,” Stephen snapped. “Even with extenuating circumstances, she would have gone to jail for five years, minimum. She doesn’t deserve that.”

  “And now she’ll go for longer because she covered it up!”

  Stephen slid an arm around Emma and pulled her against him. Emma stared into space as if watching a replay of that night, watching it all happen again.

  “No,” Stephen said. “You can’t turn her in to the humans. There’s no explaining what happened.”

  “You and I both know they’ll chalk the predation up to a coyote or some such nonsense,” Liam said flatly. “Reports will be adjusted. Nothing about the original crime is too hard to explain.”

  “She’s one of ours,” Stephen said, his voice gruff. “Shifter or not, she’s pack.”

  Liam shoved a hand through his hair. He looked at Emma, and there was real sorrow in his eyes. “I know it feels that way. But she’s human. She’s out of my jurisdiction.”

  Stephen tightened his hold. “No. This isn’t right. She wanted to confess. I wouldn’t let her.”

  “I know.” Liam shook his head. “You know how this has to end.”

  Emma nodded. “I’m ready.”

  I felt like I would throw up. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. She didn’t deserve this. Neither of them did.

  Emma took a step forward, then stopped. “Stephen is free to go now, right?” She looked at me. “The collar?”

  “Stephen will answer for lying.” Liam let out a deep breath and nodded at me. “But you can remove the collar. I don’t need help to discipline him for this.”

  The cold inside me radiated out, as if my body had turned brittle and would splinter into a thousand pieces. This was not what I wanted. Not what I’d expected. I shuffled over to Stephen and touched the collar, unlocking it with a press of magic. “Salvo.”

  The collar clicked and fell into my waiting hand. Stephen’s aura roared over me, all that fury writhing like a pit of snakes, hot enough that I stumbled back a step. I unzipped my pouch and shoved the collar inside, seeing images of throwing the wretched piece of metal and leather into Mother Hazel’s face the next time I saw her.

  As I backed away, Stephen breathed something into Emma’s ear. She tensed, but said nothing.

  “Come on, Emma,” Liam said. “Stephen will be fine, I promise.”

  Emma hissed as if in pain, pressing harder against Stephen as his arms tightened around her. Blake and Liam jerked, their nostrils flaring. My heart skipped a beat. We all darted forward as one, but we were too late.

  We all knew we were too late.

  Chapter 19

  Liam snarled.

  Emma’s shoulder was bleeding. Sweat beaded on her temples and her breathing grew ragged. I grabbed her, pulling her away from Stephen. He let me take her, defiance shining the jut of his chin. A jaw that extended farther and was full of more teeth than a human should have. An image from a nightmare.

  Liam snatched Stephen’s shoulder, the muscles in his forearm flexing as he shook him like a rag doll. “What have you done?” he demanded.

  Stephen stared at his alpha, eyes shining with the gold of his beast. His fingertips had sprouted claws, but he kept his hands at his sides. “She’s pack now. She’s not going anywhere.”

  I shut them out and put all my focus on Emma. My heart pounded in my ears, my thoughts a chaotic mess that defied logic. “Emma, look at me. Do you understand what he did?”

  Emma trembled, but there was no fear in her voice when she said, “Yes.” Her skin looked waxen, and blood stained the collar of her uniform.

  I clenched my teeth, my brain offering flashes of what the future held in store for her. Learning to balance two natures was no simple task, not something to enter into lightly. As bad a decision as it was, I didn’t think it was one that had been made in the spur of the moment. “You talked about this with him. Before tonight.”

  “Yes.” She touched the wound and hissed lightly.

  I nodded. “Is this what you want?”

  She met my gaze, and her eyes were too bright. The fever was already taking her, her body temperature rising as her beast came alive inside her. “I want to stay with Stephen.”

  “You’re a witch,�
� Liam snapped. “Can’t you stop this?”

  I looked at him over Emma’s bowed body, letting the truth show in my eyes. “You know I can’t.”

  The alpha turned his glare to Vincent, but the wizard raised his hands. “If she won’t fight it, I can’t fight it for her.”

  Liam swore a blue streak and shook Stephen again, harder this time. Blake stood beside Stephen as if ready to restrain him, but Stephen stared at Liam with a triumphant look he would have been smarter to hide. “She’s pack,” he said again. “She’s not going anywhere.”

  It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how young Stephen really was. Not in age, but in maturity. I pulled Emma closer, dragging her back with me as, all at once, a change came over Liam.

  Not anger. More like…resignation. A quiet resignation born out of frustration and anger that had nowhere to go. He stared at Stephen as if reading something written on the back of his skull, or maybe across his soul. Finally, he nodded. He let go of Stephen and walked away. Slowly, he began unbuttoning his shirt.

  “I was wrong about you,” he said. “I was very, very wrong. It’s my fault we arrived at this point.” He shrugged out of the uniform shirt and draped it over the back of the couch. “I’m going to rectify the situation now.”

  Stephen didn’t look away, and barely moved. Emma tried to take a step toward him, but Sonar moved in front of her, blocking her way. The German shepherd glamour she wore changed her size and coloring, but the expression on her wolfish face was clear. Grim determination. Peasblossom hugged my neck, and I knew she felt something coming. I patted her back between her wings.

  “All this time, I thought what you needed was encouragement and guidance.” Liam grabbed the hem of his white undershirt and pulled it over his head. “You were naturally good at so many things, and when you didn’t press for more, didn’t work to get to that next level, I thought you just needed someone to show you how much more you could be with a little more effort. A little more dedication.”

  Liam had the body of a forty-five-year-old man. A forty-five-year-old man who used his desk chair for extra storage, who spent most of his life outdoors walking as a man or running as a wolf. Now that I wasn’t half-dead, I couldn’t help but notice the toned lines of his muscles, the solid outline of his pecs, and the smooth swells of his biceps. Not gym muscles. Work muscles. He had an alpha’s body.

  The hot auras of the agitated shifters pressed against my skin, and the sight of the half-naked alpha drove that heat a little deeper into my body. This time it wasn’t just the warm, fuzzy comfort that drew me. It was arousal. And I didn’t bother to fight it. It was a welcome distraction from the tension. The knowledge that something bad was coming. Something very bad.

  “Blake, stand outside,” Liam said. “Make sure no one interferes.”

  Blake nodded. Without looking at Stephen or Emma, he retreated. A beta wolf, the alpha’s stallari, leading by example. Obeying the word of the kongur.

  Blake’s attitude seemed to drive home Stephen’s realization of what was happening. He set his jaw and grabbed his shirt, tearing it from his body as easily as if it were made of tissue paper. Emma’s breathing quickened. I looked down, but her reaction wasn’t driven by arousal. It was panic.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice too high. “Sergeant?”

  Liam never took his eyes off Stephen. “I misjudged you. Your problem isn’t that you don’t want more. It’s not that you’re content to stay an officer, stay a mid-ranking member of the pack.” His eyes flashed with a hint of gold. “It’s that you think more will fall into your lap. You think you’re already good enough to be alpha, to be kongur. You think as soon as you decide to try for it, you’ll win. You’ll just decide to start your own pack and people will fall into line behind you. Because everything else has come easily to you, so why not?” He laughed, and again, there was no humor in it. “It seems you and Oliver share that flaw.”

  My jaw dropped, but I snapped it closed. It was a fair point.

  Stephen’s eyes burned brightly, a savage gold that promised violence. But to his credit, he didn’t rise to the bait. “Emma is staying with me,” he said, his voice low, almost a growl.

  Liam’s mouth tilted up at the corner, a sad amusement that shoved all thoughts of his muscular body from my mind. I’d guessed what he was doing, where this was going. But that quirk of his mouth, that amusement that was more sadness than humor, stole my breath. I’d seen that look two months ago. On the face of a father whose son had been arrested—again—on drug-related charges. He’d finally decided enough was enough. He wouldn’t bail his son out again, wouldn’t save him from the consequences of his choices. I’d sat with him three nights in a row after his son went to jail. Listening to stories about his son as a young boy. Offering silent support for his decision. A shoulder to cry on. It wasn’t until I saw that look on Liam’s face that I truly understood what it meant to be alpha.

  “All this time, I’ve been encouraging you,” Liam said softly. “When what I should have been doing was showing you just how far you have to go.”

  “No time like the present,” Stephen said. “That is, if you’re done with the speech?”

  Stephen had already shucked out of his pants, and now he stood naked and burning with adrenaline-infused energy. I could feel his aura from across the room, feel how ready he was to fight. He looked at Emma and smiled. Reassuring. Confident. He thought he was going to win.

  I looked at that sadness in Liam’s face, and I knew Stephen was wrong.

  By the time Liam took his pants off, I was no longer in a state to appreciate his body, to let my arousal protect me from the chaos on the horizon. I wanted to leave. Now.

  “We need to get her out of here,” I told Sonar, gesturing to Emma.

  “No,” Liam said.

  I snapped my attention back to him. His voice was quiet, but firm, and he’d wiped the emotion from his face. His blue eyes were gone, burned away by the sizzling gold I saw now.

  “What?” I asked.

  “She needs to stay,” Liam said. “She needs to understand what Stephen has done. The reality of the consequences of her decision.”

  “Bastard,” Stephen said, hands curling into fists at his sides. “You’re being cruel.”

  Liam didn’t justify his decision, didn’t explain himself. He was alpha. Kongur. He didn’t have to.

  Sonar shifted her weight, settling on four heavy brown paws as if preparing to stop Emma from bolting. I didn’t think she meant to stop her from running out of the house, so much as she would stop Emma from going to Stephen. Trying to help him.

  “If it’s all right,” I said softly, “I’ll stay as well. To…explain.” I kept my eyes firmly on the floor. Submissive, asking his permission. The room burned with shifter energy, and this was not the time to challenge Liam’s authority, even in a small way.

  Liam never took his eyes from Stephen. “You may stay.”

  He didn’t warn me not to interfere. It was probably the most respect he’d shown me since I met him.

  “What’s happening?” Emma demanded. She tried to stand up straight, but winced and folded again. Sweat poured down her forehead. I put a hand on her back, rubbing up and down her spine. She would change soon, full moon or not. With this much energy in the room, she’d have changed already if this wasn’t her first time. Her body didn’t know how to do it yet, and it would take a while for her flesh to figure it out. But it would figure it out soon.

  Stephen changed first. He closed his hands into fists and dove into his shift. Fur washed back over his body, covering carved muscles with smooth brown fur. Muscles and bones popped and reformed beneath his skin. The sound made my stomach turn, but he didn’t appear to be in pain. He landed hard on all fours, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he regained his breath, golden eyes locked on his alpha.

  “Stephen disobeyed his alpha,” I said, trying to sound calm, informative, not emotional. “Packs have a strict hierarchy. Liam is
more relaxed than some alphas, but his authority is still absolute. Stephen lied to him, then he turned you without permission.” I swallowed hard. “Then he openly defied an order.”

  Stephen’s shift had been impressive, well executed and smooth. The sign of a lycanthrope who’d found harmony between his human half and his wolf. Liam was right. Someday Stephen would have made a strong alpha.

  Liam’s shift made it look like choppy scene from a low-budget horror movie.

  The alpha of the Rocky River pack didn’t shift into wolf form—he became a wolf. One minute he was standing on two feet, and the next, his weight fell toward the ground, re-forming on four legs with such natural grace that my eyes never saw the process. Silver fur spread over his body, flaring out around his neck and shoulders. Just like that, he stood facing Stephen, regal, full of cold confidence that came not from his own estimation of his abilities, but from experience.

  Lots and lots of experience.

  “So now they’re going to fight?” Emma stared at me, then back at Stephen and Liam. I saw the urge to stop them, the urge to tell them this wasn’t how humans settled things.

  I put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t interfere,” I said quietly. “It has to be this way.” I clenched my teeth to avoid trying to explain it further. Dammit, Stephen should have told her all this. She should have understood more about what it meant to be pack before she gave permission for what he’d done.

  Stephen lowered his head and took a step forward, eyes searching Liam for some sign of weakness, the best opportunity for attack. Liam pulled his lips back to expose his teeth and let out a low growl. A warning.

  It didn’t have the desired effect. Stephen crept to the side, his weight balanced on all four paws, ready to spring in whatever direction provided the best angle for attack. Liam stood still, watching, letting Stephen make the first move.