by Jayne Hawke
I crowded into him and slashed at his increasingly bloody stomach. My wolf side was crying out for me to take his legs from under him, but he didn’t give me a chance. I was struggling to stop the frustration from clouding my mind and slowing me down. Hot sticky blood coated my arms. The smells of fear, fury, and fresh blood filled the air and coated my tongue. It felt incredible, which scared me.
Every time I went to move slightly to one side to sweep his legs out from under the elf, he pushed forward and slashed at my side. We worked in close proximity. His skin almost seemed to glow under the unnatural street light when we twisted as one to stand briefly within its light. I caught the glint of his sharp teeth as he smiled just before he pushed in close to me and almost managed to slip his knife between my ribs, aiming for my heart. I swept his arm to one side, leaving myself open for the briefest moment. It was a risk, but no greater than letting him stab me in the heart. Could a garou heal from that?
I was growing tired, and my thoughts were beginning to get cloudy. I leaned more heavily on my instincts to get me through this fight. I was hoping that the garou healing was substantial; I was going to need it. My arms were cut to ribbons, my ribs and stomach weren’t faring much better, but he was slowing down. Blood plastered his clothes to his skin. Sweat drenched his hair and made it cling to his otherwise-pretty face. The elf had a manic grin on his face. I saw my opportunity when he paused for a split second to enjoy what he thought was his victory after he got a deep cut into my lower abdomen. I slammed my foot down onto the arch of his foot, drove my knee into his lower abdomen and thrust my knife deep into the base of his neck. He gurgled and cursed as he fought against the injuries and tried to get away from me. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting him get out of there. The risk of his coming back to hurt Jake again was too great.
I shoved him back against the wall and ignored the increasing pain of his slashing at my ribs, trusting my garou healing would handle it. His hands flew up to wrap around my throat, but I sank my knife down into the base of his neck again and again until he went still. I stepped back covered in hot sticky blood, a lot of it mine. The elf trembled before he vanished in a puff of sparkles and glitter. Fae bodies always returned to Fae.
I turned to check on Jake, who was panting and coated in blood but standing. He rushed to me and gently ran his hands over me. I winced and whined when he hit the deepest injuries. The ravenous hunger was beginning to creep into the back of my mind where my body was burning through an obscene amount of calories to heal. It felt as though my stomach was trying to twist around and devour itself. The nausea that came with such hunger was close behind. I was ready to eat anything that anyone put in front of me. It didn’t matter if it was raw meat, or worse yet, mushrooms. I’d devour it before I even realised what it was.
“We’ll go home and order a ton of take out,” Jake said as he put his arm around my waist and led me down to the other end of the alley.
We rushed home as quickly as we could, sticking to the shadows and avoiding the gaze of any innocent passers-by.
“So, that whole ‘bind your magic and the fae won’t find you’ thing...” I said as I leaned back against the wall of the elevator.
Jake gave me a weak smile. He looked so much worse in the harsh artificial light. I didn’t want to know what I looked like. Dried blood coated his hands and his shirt clung to his skin with more drying blood. His face was pale beneath and smudges of dirt and sweat-coated hair that clung to his forehead. He looked as though he’d been at the heart of a massacre.
“I’m trying to find a witch to unbind me. The fae are already hunting me. We need to be better prepared,” Jake said tiredly.
I nodded in understanding, but my head was swimming. All I could think about was food. Glorious food. Anything would have done. A cold slice of pizza. A bowl of granola. My mind filled with all of the potential foods I could have been eating in that moment and my mouth watered.
“I want both Chinese and pizza,” I said as my stomach growled.
Jake laughed.
“Tomorrow will be better,” he said gently, guiding me out of the elevator.
“I don’t think it could be any worse,” I muttered.
15
Jake helped me into the bathroom, where he turned the shower up to scalding hot, my preferred temperature. I slumped down on the toilet and groaned as the room kept spinning and my vision turned a painful bright white.
“Your body’s burning through too many calories. I’m going to find you something to eat,” Jake said as he helped prop me up.
He ran out of the room. I heard rummaging in the kitchen and tried to remain conscious. This garou healing thing sucked. The few garou I’d dealt with made healing look easy. Maybe that was a downside of being turned. I really hoped not. Jake returned with a jar of peanut butter and some older cookies. My vision was far too bright to be able to see anything at that point. Jake dipped the cookies in the peanut butter and gently fed them to me until I could see again.
“You had me worried,” he said softly.
I grinned at him.
“It’s going to take more than a pesky elf to take me out.”
He snorted and shook his head.
“Come on, before we run out of hot water.”
He proceeded to help me peel off the blood-soaked clothes until I was down to my underwear. He was down to his boxers when I leaned on him under the hot water, and he gently ran his hands over me, cleaning the wounds. It hurt more than I could express, but he was tender and quiet as he did his best.
The water washed away the grime, and I focused on keeping myself upright. When the water ran icy cold, Jake helped me back out of the shower and gently towelled me down. I gave him a grateful smile.
“My hero, as always.”
He smiled and said nothing. We were siblings, maybe not on paper, but by choice.
Once I was bundled up in fresh clothes and securely seated on the couch with the rest of the peanut butter and cookies, Jake placed an order for a large heap of pizzas and Chinese food.
“It’ll be here soon.”
I leaned against him and tried to focus on the TV. Thinking wasn’t going so well. The peanut butter and cookies were keeping me conscious but nothing much more. That damn elf had really cut me to ribbons. I hadn’t realised how bad it was during the fight. The adrenaline had washed it away.
It had taken two large meat feast pizzas (with extra meat) and two portions of sweet and sour chicken to make me feel alive again.
“So, what now?” I said as I picked up the empty pizza boxes.
Jake was still healing. His magic was bound from his using it, but natural healing remained firmly intact.
“The Grim seems like a good starting place. We can see what people have seen and heard. You know gossip spreads like wildfire there.”
I sighed and dumped the boxes in the trash along with the Chinese cartons. There was another pizza and more sweet and sour chicken for breakfast the next morning. I wasn’t sure it would last that long. It was really good pizza and I might need a midnight snack.
“I don’t think I want to know what they’re saying.” I said with a sigh.
Jake pulled his laptop onto his lap and opened it up.
“I’m sure they’ll be talking about something else by now,” he said.
He opened up the Grimoire site, which was sleek and modern with clear and simple navigation. There was something about a furry meet-up on the front page just above an ad for a Wicca supply store. Jake ignored those and clicked through to the main supernatural group.
Right there at the top of the page was a meme with an awful cartoon of me being bitten by a rogue. The comments were increasingly biting as I skimmed down the page. Jake tried to click away, but he wasn’t quite quick enough.
“So much for talking about something else,” I muttered.
I knew that the community didn’t think much of me, but it still irritated me seeing the memes and comments. Mom and Callie,
Jake’s mom, had been very well thought of. A lot of people saw me as a big disappointment. The weight of that thought settled on me, and I really hoped I hadn’t let them down. They’d given me so much and brought so much happiness into my life.
“They’ll move on soon,” Jake said gently.
He was right, but the words still stung. It began with small jabs about how the rogue must have been desperate to bite something as pathetic as me. It descended into vicious commentary on my lack of ability in anything and how I was a waste of space. Someone said I was a complete joke and clearly too stupid to live.
Jake clicked through the other threads of posts looking for something mentioning garou, the rogue, or anything that might be relevant to us. There were a few general threads commenting on how a rogue hadn’t shown up in Wolf Ridge for over fifty years, and about how there was a nationwide low of rogues right now. Someone was complaining that they wanted to be turned but they’d failed the paperwork. There was nothing we could really use, though.
A post from a fae trying to rile up the other fae up in Ontario to rally around and claim territory as their own caught my eye. There were usually a couple of those posts. Fae had been trying to claim land and businesses on the earth plane for centuries. There were very strict laws about how much they could own and the amount of magic they could use. The rest of the supernatural community was all too aware of how quickly they’d take over if they were allowed. The fae needed to be kept on a tight leash.
16
I woke up to find the flat empty. I’d eaten the pizza and Jake had the sweet and sour chicken before we’d fallen into our separate beds. Stumbling into the kitchen, I found two boxes of the best flavour of Pop-Tarts: cookies and cream. Jake knew exactly how to start my day right. Sure, Pop-Tarts probably had zero useful calories in them, but they were my little addiction. I’d take on an army of elves to make sure that I could maintain my supply of Pop-Tarts.
Once I had four Pop-Tarts perfectly toasted, I slumped down on the couch and pulled my laptop over to me. The sweet pastries weren’t going to chase away the fact that I had a rogue to find. Sighing, I took an extra-large bite of the Pop-Tart and opened up the Grim.
As I feared, I was still the topic of the moment. I had to scroll past the top five posts, all of which came with increasingly ridiculous images of the rogue and me. Of course, I knew what the community thought of me, but seeing it all laid out like that was eye rolling. They must have had something more interesting going on in their lives. There were a few digs from people that I’d thought were supposed to be nice people. I made a mental note of their names for future reference. Once I was past that, I started digging around, looking for something of any use.
The Grim was a gold mine of information, you just needed to know what you were looking for. Everyone gossiped and traded information on that site. And there was no way in Hell that the rogue had been able to cover their tracks that thoroughly.
I started by looking for access to the garou sections of the site. No dice. They were giving me some line about needing to do some more paperwork. It was absolute crap, but I couldn’t do much of anything to fight it. I supposed I could have gone running to Cole, but that would only make everything worse. No, I’d find another way to get the information I needed.
The Grim wasn’t giving me much of anything, so I began digging around the wider internet trying to track down the garou archives. There would be information on previous rogues in there, I’d be able to see if some bloodlines were prone to it.
Time flew by as I tried every angle and search term I could think of, trying to get a hold of those archives. If, no, when the garou accepted me as one of them, I’d be able to get free access whenever I wanted. Until then, I was just going to have to bang my head against various notices saying I couldn’t get what I needed.
A knock came from the door as I stuffed the very last piece of Pop-Tart into my mouth. I dragged my hair back into a messy ponytail before I brushed the crumbs off my Dragon Age t-shirt. Had I have been paying attention, I’d have known that Cole was waiting on the other side of the door. Instead, I’d assumed that it was Jake carrying the grocery bags that he didn’t want to put down.
I opened the door with a grin expecting Jake and nice food. Cole looked me up and down in my t-shirt and little sleep shorts. I reflexively crossed my arms over my chest, feeling vulnerable and exposed. My usual bravado around him didn’t appear immediately. I felt small and unsure around him where he’d caught me off guard.
“It’s time for your next training session,” Cole said with that infuriating smirk.
“Not interested,” I said as I went to close the door.
I’d already had enough fighting with the elves, I really didn’t want to have to deal with him too. A training session sounded tedious; what was he training me in, anyway? I couldn’t shift until my first.
“Don’t care.” He held the door open.
His eyes were blazing, and my wolf rose to the challenge.
“You need to learn. If you don’t, there will be consequences,” he growled.
By consequences, he meant harm would come to Jake and my dad. The council didn’t screw around with stuff like this. I hated that he was pushing me around and I had no choice but to do as I was told. I wasn’t going to risk Jake and my dad. It really wasn’t fair on them.
“I’ll get some clothes on. I’ll see you by your car.”
With that, I did shut the door in his face. I took my sweet time getting dressed and was careful to choose looser jeans and a slightly baggy t-shirt to try and compensate for the view he’d gotten at the door. His mouth was pulled down into a deep scowl when I sauntered over to him.
He looked me up and down and raised his eyebrow in an unspoken question, asking what had taken so long. I gave him my sweetest smile and got into his car.
Cole’s fist almost collided with my cheek, but I saw it coming and shifted my weight, allowing me to avoid it while delivering a punishing blow to his ribs. My wolf side was getting riled and desperately wanted to draw blood, but Cole had said the entire point of this was to learn and maintain control.
“Your eyes are shifting,” he snarled.
Damn. That would give me away if I was fighting someone in the know, like the Blackthornes. The whole control thing had sounded so much easier on paper. It was easy to get into the fight, but the wolf side rose up, and it felt so damn good. It pushed me to fight harder and to push Cole down. He was an arrogant alpha, but I would kick his ass and claim his territory as my own.
I tried to find my inner calm and push that side of me down, but Cole swept my legs out from under me and pinned me against the dry earth beneath the mature trees. My wolf side was livid, but I continued to push it down. My life depended on my ability to pass as a human no matter how much stress I was under. My focus shifted to the feeling of his strong thighs against mine and his powerful hand pressing against my collarbone. His piercing golden-green eyes bored into mine, and I realised that I didn’t mind being pinned by him.
My wolf side, on the other hand, was ready to tear his throat out. I began subtly moving my weight to the left, which caused him to compensate, then I threw my weight to the right, thus getting him off me. I was back on my feet and ready to kick his ass in two short breaths. Unfortunately, so was he.
“You need to understand you are the wolf,” he growled while crossing his arms over his muscular chest.
I sighed, mostly at the fact that wasn’t advice I could do anything with, and partially because I was really enjoying fighting with him.
“Sure. I’m the wolf,” I said as I mirrored his pose.
It wasn’t as easy as just deciding that I was the wolf. This was a huge shift from my life to date, and it was taking time to shift my worldview and psyche so dramatically.
Cole glared at me, his pretty mouth tugged down at the corners, and I had to fight back a laugh. His deep scowl was becoming so familiar that it was almost adorable.
“Come insid
e and eat.”
I rolled my eyes at his command.
“Do you have anything more useful to say? Like how exactly I’m supposed to become one with my wolf?”
He exhaled slowly, and I knew that his mouth had pinched even though he had his back to me.
“You need to push aside the anger and really feel the wolf.”
“Sounds kind of kinky.”
He shook his head at me, but I noticed the slight smile in his eyes. Was he kinky?
I squeezed my eyes closed and the wolf side of me snarled. Thinking of Cole Loxwood that way would only lead to ruin.
17
Cole received a text that made a deep groove between his brows form while he ate the last of his Italian meat sandwich.
“Another body has shown up.”
He stood and looked at me expectantly.
“We need to get there before the humans do,” he said with a hand gesture towards the door.
I wasn’t really looking forward to poking at a dead body, but if I wanted to be a respected bounty hunter, I’d have to get over that ick factor. I shoved the last of my sandwich into my mouth and hurried after Cole, who was most of the way to the front door already. He unlocked his car with the keychain and didn’t even look at me as he closed the door. A growl formed in my throat. He should have been treating me with more respect.
He looked down at me with an eyebrow raised and his jaw tight. We stared each other down for a long moment before he exhaled slowly and walked towards the car. I took that as a victory. My wolf side wasn’t quite so satisfied.
The drive over to the far side of the forest didn’t take too long. Cole parked by the side of the road, and we walked through the forest. His footsteps were almost silent. I had to strain to hear him, and he was barely three feet away from me. I was quiet, but he was feline quiet.