My vision darkened and just when I thought I was close to passing out, he loosened his grip around my neck. I gasped as oxygen rushed into my lungs.
“Be a good girl now.” His lips descended toward mine.
“Daniel,” I heard Zack growl.
Oh, thank God. I’d never been so happy to see Zack.
“You need to leave.” Daniel scowled over his shoulder at the intruder. “Getting rid of me won’t be so easy this time.”
“Hang on a sec.” Zack held up his hands, palms out. “You’re right. Things aren’t like they were before.”
“I said, get out,” Daniel hissed.
“Not gonna happen.” Zack kept his voice calm and even. “You’d put up a bigger fight, but I’d still win. I’m like you, but I’ve been this way a lot longer. The older you are, the stronger you get. Didn’t the guy who made you tell you that?”
“You’re bluffing,” Daniel said.
“You don’t believe I’m like you?”
Daniel snorted. “That’s not what I meant, moron. I don’t think you can take me.”
Zack nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t think you could take me. I guess we’ll have to find out. But what if I’m telling you the truth and I beat you? No matter who wins, a couple guys like us fighting in a small space like this, we’d trash the place and reveal our true nature.”
Our true nature? What did that mean?
Daniel laughed again and his grip loosened, then he turned to me, sneering. “He’s only delaying the inevitable. We’ll be together again soon. I promise.” He kissed me on the mouth, mashing my lips against my teeth. Finally, he broke contact. Then, without taking his eyes off Zack, he slipped out the door, which closed behind him.
I squeezed my eyes shut, a light tremor invading my body. “I tried, but he had me pinned. He was too strong.”
In a flash, Zack wrapped his arms around me.
I circled his waist and clung to him as I laid my head against his shoulder. The heat from his body washed over me, comforted me.
“It’s okay now,” he said. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to meet you. Gina got a hold of me and I’ll bet Daniel put her up to it.”
My eyes pooled, but I refused to let the tears fall. If I cried, Daniel would’ve won in a small way. I couldn’t allow that.
“Better?” Zack pressed his lips to my forehead, then he moved to my temple where he dropped a feather-light kiss.
His lips almost made me forget how Daniel had freaked me out. “Yeah.” I sighed, a faint moan escaping me.
Zack stiffened against me and let one of his arms fall to his side. “We should go.”
Yeah, away from Daniel. But in case he was still lurking, I needed to pull myself together. Chin high, I nodded and led the way.
Daniel’s Audi still sat in the parking lot and I involuntarily shivered and glanced around the courtyard for him.
Zack opened the passenger door and I climbed in. After rounding the Jeep, he fired it up and backed out. “You can’t let him get you alone like that again. You’re not strong enough to stop him if he…”
I froze, the implication of Zack’s words making me feel like I needed a shower. “You mean if he tries to rape me?”
Zack’s voice steeled as he peeled out of the school parking lot. “He could get away with it if he said you’d given yourself willingly, which wouldn’t be hard for others to believe since you guys were together.”
My breath left my body in a whoosh. My eyes burned and I felt strangely uncomfortable in my skin. “We dated, yes, but I never slept with him. Ever.” The entire event had been horrific and I felt sufficiently violated. Explaining my situation only added to the humiliation. I started shaking uncontrollably and all I wanted was to run it off. “Pull over and let me out.”
“I can’t. We need to get you home.” He spared me a glance. “Autumn, stay with me. You can’t morph now. Focus on me, Autumn.”
Morph? What the hell? I stared at my arms that were vibrating into a blur. What was happening to me?
“Autumn, look at me.” He squeezed my hand, pulling my attention to him. “If you just relax, it’ll be okay,” he murmured.
It took every ounce of my will to stay with Zack and push thoughts of Daniel, and how he’d nearly assaulted me, out of my mind. My body had an odd floating sensation, but the tremors had stopped.
“I didn’t sleep with him.” A sob burst from me. I didn’t think Zack cared about my sex life, but I still wanted everyone to know that I hadn’t done that with him.
“I believe you. Hang on.” Zack kept a hold of my hand while negotiating a turn. Seconds later, he pulled into the driveway of my house and killed the engine.
I sat there, numb and unable to move. My lids were heavy, and I fought to keep them open. Why was I so tired?
“My first almost-morph wiped me out too.” He slid an arm under my knees and the other around my back, scooping me up.
I didn’t think I’d asked out loud why I was so tired. But with the fuzz in my head, I couldn’t know for sure. I yawned. And what did he say about morphing?
At the front door, he put me down so I could rummage through my purse for the keys. In a fog, I handed them to him and he let us in, then I staggered to the sofa and collapsed.
“What’s happening to me, Zack? What happened to Daniel?” I had so many more questions, but was too spent to stay awake for the answers.
† † †
Heavy paws pounded through the forest as the pack chased me, gaining ground. My heart slammed against my ribcage as I ducked through the brush, only to come face-to-face with a wall of rock. Their growls sounded behind me.
I sucked in air to scream, bolting upright. My heart pounded and adrenaline roared through my veins. Slowly, the room came into focus and I realized I was home. There were no wolves hunting me.
Zack sat on the sofa at my feet. He placed a warm hand on my ankle. “Bad dream?”
“Yeah.” I reached a hand to my forehead. “When I was younger, I used to have nightmares about wolves. It’s odd I’m having them again.”
“Autumn, don’t you know why you were shaking so much in the car?”
“No. Do you?” As much as I liked Zack touching me, I sat up straight and dropped my feet to the floor.
“How can you not know?” He narrowed his eyes as if willing me to say what he wanted to hear.
“Because I don’t. But apparently you do, so why don’t you clue me in?”
“I’ll do my best.” He rose and held out a hand for me. “But we’d better get to the bank first.”
“What time is it? How long have I been sleeping?” I stretched and stood, feeling much better.
“Half hour or so. We still have time, but we should get going. When we get back, I’ll answer all your questions.”
“Okay.” Locating my purse, I made sure I had my ID and reached for the doorknob.
“Wait.” He moved some strands of hair from my face.
My eyes lingered on his lips as I stood rooted to the floor. The other night, I’d thought Zack would kiss me, but I’d opened my mouth and ruined it. In the class room earlier after Daniel left, Zack had been holding me. When I’d sighed, he’d withdrawn. Maybe this time, if I didn’t make a peep, I wouldn’t interrupt him from kissing me.
Alas, Zack spun around, picked up my keys and opened the door.
Giving in to my feelings for Zack was a terrible idea anyway. Obviously, he was emotionally unavailable. I mean, he’d had so many opportunities to hook up with me and hadn’t. I needed to face facts that Zack just didn’t feel that way about me.
At the bank, I handed the teller my ID, Zack by my side. After studying my picture, she handed my ID back to me with a smile. “Happy birthday.”
“Thank you.” I returned her smile, but inside I couldn’t believe that once Maya had presented me with the nail polish at lunch, I’d completely forgotten it was my birthday. Not that it mattered since my parents were gone and we hadn’t planned a party.
>
As we left the bank, cashier’s check in hand for fourteen grand, my stomach protested. I wanted a burger. “I’m hungry.”
“Me too.”
“Uhm, I think I’ll go back to being a vegetarian though.”
“Why would you do a thing like that?”
Why, indeed? It was nearly unthinkable. “I don’t like what it does to me. It’s weird losing control over food.”
He chortled. “But you enjoy it so much.”
“Whatever. I’ve survived my whole life without meat.” I groaned anyway.
Zack laughed. “Atta girl.”
I ordered a bean and cheese burrito while Zack got tacos. I did my damnedest to ignore the aroma of the beef while we ate. After we made the exchange with Mr. Peters, we headed to my house, me in the Mustang and Zack in his Jeep.
The top was still down and the breeze whipped around me. It felt almost as good as my nightly runs, free and unchained. I lovingly steered my beloved car into the driveway and Zack pulled in right behind me. Locking the Mustang, I tossed the keys into his waiting hands. As I walked with him to the front stoop, his eyes scanned the area. For Daniel, I assumed.
Once inside the house, I dropped my purse. “Thank you for everything today. You keep rescuing me.” I tilted my head and shifted my weight from one leg to the other, my gaze meeting his. “Except for John, I’ve never been friends with a guy who didn’t hit on me.”
Zack’s lips curved. “Who says we’re friends?”
Irritation crept up on me. I opened my mouth to tell him how right he was and that we weren’t friends, but he cut me off by holding up a hand. “Just kidding. Speaking of hitting on you, whatever possessed you to date a guy like Daniel?”
Backing up, I sat on the couch and took off my shoes, folding my legs under my butt. “Daniel could be charming when he wanted to be.”
“There’s nothing charming about him now.” Zack sat on the other end and turned to face me.
“Agreed.” I pursed my lips in thought. “So, why are you helping me?”
“When I went through this, I was alone and it sucked.”
“Went through what?” I asked.
“What you’re going through. You’re changing. You’re stronger, your senses are heightened and you heal almost instantly. Right?”
“Yes,” I whispered, wondering how he knew. “Why did I change? In the library, you told Daniel that you and he were the same. I’m like you guys?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Then what am I?”
He sighed. “I’m not a hundred percent sure. But you’re definitely not like us.”
Great. He didn’t know what I was. But he knew what he was and he knew about the black wolf. I wanted my theory ruled out once and for all. “What are you?” I held my breath.
His gaze fixed on me. “I already told you the other day.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
He’d said he was a werewolf. If he was just messing with me, I didn’t want him to think I half believed him. I narrowed my eyes. “Tell me again.”
Zack glanced at the window. “It’s dark. Let’s go for a walk.”
“Why?”
“So I can show you.” He rose from the sofa.
We left the house together and I walked with him in silence, trying not to think about the reason for our outing. Why was I even going with him into the woods when the whole idea was absurd?
He led me to my spot in the clearing and stopped in the center. How did he know where to go? The little hairs on my arm stood at attention as chills swept over my body. No, it couldn’t be. “How did you know I was changing?”
Zack bent one leg with the other bearing his weight, hands in his pocket. “For days, I kept catching a hint of something extra when I got really close to you, something not human. Since it was so faint, I kept thinking it was my imagination. I found myself following you, just to see if maybe I could catch you doing something superhuman.”
That explained why Zack always seemed to be everywhere. He’d been watching, but not because he liked me. He’d probably never like me. My throat tightened.
Oblivious, as usual, to my inner turmoil, Zack continued. “Every time I tried to go in for a better whiff, you were onto me. I couldn’t satisfy my nose without you thinking I was a perv. So when I walked you home after dinner last night, I poked around while you went upstairs. Your sweater was draped over the couch, so I sniffed that and anything else I could find. I still wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling. Like, I just knew.”
“Knew what?”
“You’re not human.”
Considering my strength and other abilities, not being human wasn’t a stretch. I took a shaky breath. “And you’re not human either?”
“No. I told you about that our first day of car shopping.” The corners of his mouth lifted. “But you didn’t believe me.”
“Of course I didn’t believe you.” Werewolf. Werewolf. Werewolf. The word echoed in my head, but the idea was too crazy for me to fully let it in.
“Oh, and I forgive you for laughing at me,” he said dryly. “But, in all fairness, you looked way hot that night and I’m still a guy.” He gave me a lopsided smile.
Right. I’d told the wolf about Zack stuttering when he’d seen me.
“You’re the black wolf,” I said, trying to make myself believe what I’d just said. I covered my face and squeezed my eyes shut, disappointed that the connection I felt with the wolf probably wasn’t felt by Zack. Wait, was I going to buy into this and believe in werewolves? I took a step back. “This is getting out of hand. I’m not sure about this whole supernatural thing. It’s too much. I think… I think I need to go.”
“You want to see me change into a wolf?”
No, because then it would be real. “Y-yes.”
“Damn.” He pointed to his pants. “When I morph, I’ll leave a pile of clothes. When I turn back, I’ll be naked. Before I become human again, I’ll bark twice so you can turn around.”
“You’re going to morph right now?”
He closed his eyes and spread his arms like wings, his body shimmering. Then he disappeared. That lasted a split second before the black wolf stood on all fours, a pile of clothes at his paws.
There he was. My wolf. With his beautiful green eyes. I had to be losing my mind. But Zack just changed into a freaking wolf, which meant werewolves existed and I was perfectly sane. How was that possible?
He barked, but I only stared. He barked two more times. Still, I couldn’t move.
The wolf locked the pants in his teeth and dragged them into a clump of bushes. A moment later, Zack emerged wearing them, still naked from the waist up. Since his boxers were still on the ground, I knew they weren’t on him. At a time like this, I really didn’t need to know he was going commando.
A spattering of hairs over Zack’s chest made a narrow trail leading into the waist of his jeans. His chest was well-defined; above his hips, the muscles at his sides flared up and out. I swallowed. At that moment, I couldn’t think of anything more beautiful than him.
Plucking his boxers off the grass, Zack shoved them into his back pocket, then slipped his arms through the shirt, leaving the front unbuttoned. “You were supposed to turn around.”
His voice distracted me from his washboard stomach and brought me to the present.
Oh. My. God. Zack was a werewolf. It had been him, the black wolf, every night in the woods. The werewolf theory fit with Jeff’s story that Daniel had been dragged away by a wolf, before Daniel’s drastic change.
“We ran together. I talked to you as a wolf. Trusted you. All this time, you knew and I didn’t. You should’ve told me.” I glared at him. “You sneaky—”
“I couldn’t tell you.” His voice rose, matching mine in volume, his hands balled into fists. “You were a human.”
“According to you, I’m not human.”
“I didn’t know that at the time. Besides,” his muscles relaxed, a smile forming, “I did tell you.”
“You were joking and knew I wouldn’t believe it.” We were getting nowhere and I was no closer to finding out about myself than before.
“We don’t reveal ourselves to mortals. The penalty is death. When I realized you weren’t human, I tried to tell you, but you shut me down. You weren’t ready.”
I searched my memory for anytime he’d hinted, then gasped in disgust.
“Informing me that I stunk was your way of telling me you were a werewolf? Are you kidding me?” I breathed deeply to keep from slapping him.
He opened his mouth, but shut it when I held up a hand.
“Never mind.” I squeezed my eyes shut for an instant in an effort to wipe away the frustration. Now was the time for prying information from Zack, not arguing. “Let’s move on. You said we can’t reveal ourselves to mortals. Where does your mom fit into all this? Does she know?”
“No. At first, I thought I was coming down with something and didn’t want to worry her. By the time I figured it out, I didn’t want to burden her with all the things that went with it. Then I learned some werewolf law and realized I couldn’t tell her because she’s human.” He gave a quick laugh as he bent down to put on his socks and shoes. “All this time, I haven’t been able to tell anyone.”
He’d been all alone in his weirdness, unless… “So someone bit you? Is that how you turned?”
“No, my mom had no clue she was marrying a werewolf.”
Which of my parents were supernatural? Did the other know? Maybe it wasn’t hereditary in my case. For all I knew, they could be human and I would be alone in this, too. Except for Zack, but he wasn’t exactly a friend. More like he was just fulfilling a duty.
So what was I? My head spun with too many questions that weren’t going to get answered tonight. Suddenly, my limbs sagged and I just wanted to crawl into bed. “Do you ever wish you were just a normal person?”
“It is what it is. I deal.” He slipped on a shoe and glanced up at me. “And so will you.”
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