Paranormal After Dark

by Rebecca Hamilton

  "Hold that thought." Fen's words were suddenly closer, whispering into my ear. A hard object slipped into my hand—the cell phone. Then my best friend Chase's voice was rising from the speaker.

  "...dog...oxytocin...."

  I wasn't able to fully understand what I was hearing at first. But then I focused with horrified fascination as my milk brother explained how dogs and humans had coevolved to share a hormonal response based on eye contact. In other words, while shifters and wolves challenged each other with our gazes, looking into a dog's eyes caused humans to fall in love.

  And perhaps gazing into Alexis's eyes did the same to every nearby male werewolf?

  Being blocked off from the pack princess's sight and scent was already clearing the brain cloud that I'd been drifting beneath all night, and I could now put my own actions into perspective. I'd ignored Fen's intuition, had run off in the wrong direction with no plan, and had fucked a pack princess without foreplay on the wet December leaves.

  In short, I'd acted like an animal.

  My head fell into my hands as I slumped down in defeat. Yep, this time I'd royally screwed up.

  Chapter 6

  "YOU’RE NOT REALLY going to let this pup's imaginative storytelling throw you off your stride, are you?"

  Alexis's words weren't nearly as sweet now that I didn't have the misdirection of her gaze to contend with. Instead, they sounded shrill, grating against my ears.

  In fact, the first impulse garnered from my newfound clarity was to simply walk away, to get my pack mates to safety as quickly as possible. But, despite Alexis's misdirection, I was still the one who'd acted like a cad an hour earlier. So I figured I owed the pack princess an argument if she really wanted to get into it here and now.

  She couldn't have picked a worse venue, I thought, shivering. The clouds had cleared and the forest was now chilling by the minute. Plus, we were losing hunting time as we stood around and I could feel Chase's concern through the now silent phone dropped by my feet.

  But I kept my voice level when I spoke. "Was Chief Wilder really so threatened by two teenagers and a bloodling that he had to send a parasite to take us down?"

  "Take you down?" Now Alexis laughed, but the sound was nowhere near musical. "As I recall, there wasn't any going down at all. That was the saddest excuse for a girlfriend experience I've ever seen."

  Beside me, Wade's body jerked in distress. Don't you realize there are kids present? I almost said, biting my tongue at the last moment. Not only would both Wade and Fen be mortified if I referred to them as children, but the cat was already out of the bag. Might as well move on to damage control.

  Before I could find my tongue, though, Fen broke the ice. "Don't worry. I already smelled it," the girl said coldly, but she slipped a reassuring hand onto my shoulder at the same time. Chances were good she hadn't smelled the rich, sexual aroma wafting through the air since she was a halfie hosting the world's weakest wolf. But the youngster was an accomplished actress, and she was also far more loyal than I deserved.

  My pack mate's spunk gave me the boost I needed to strike back at the pack princess with words. "You do realize you just called yourself a prostitute, right? Is that really what you want to do with your life?"

  "Look me in the eye and call me that again," the female challenged. "I dare you."

  * * *

  MY HAND WAS on the blindfold before Fen could stop me. And Alexis's fruity aroma pushed its way back into my nostrils and brain when I'd barely touched the fabric.

  But I knew the deluge was coming this time, so I was able to fight against the nearly overwhelming impulses her mere presence created. Persimmons are bitter, puckery fruit when they're not ripe, I reminded myself. And Alexis is far from ripe.

  The human words helped me master the scent, so I slipped the blindfold the rest of the way off and moved on to sight. The moon hadn't yet risen, but I could tell it was pushing against the horizon now because the sky had very subtly lightened in the few minutes I'd been out of action. In the gloaming, I stood and took two steps forward until I formed a barrier between the parasite and my pack mates. Then I reached out and tilted Alexis's chin upwards until our eyes locked.

  Even with my brain unclouded, I could see that she was gorgeous. Her eyes were as wide as those of a manga heroine, her nose the tiniest pert protrusion between rosy cheeks. She bit her lips and the organs in question blossomed into arousal before my very eyes.

  On the other hand, her irises, once so warm, looked cold and dark. The parasite was doing her best to lure me back in, but the effect was like a magic-eye puzzle—once you picked out the hidden image for the first time, it was impossible to go back to your previous state of ignorance.

  "Kiss me," she demanded, not realizing her rabbit had slipped the snare. So I obliged, bending my neck down and pushing her lips apart with my own.

  Her tongue teased me, slipping in and out of my mouth. But my body remained passionless. There was nothing less enticing than a pack princess reveling in her own power.

  And when her hands slipped toward my flaccid manhood, I bit down on her lower lip. Not gently either. I could smell the subtle addition of blood to the air as the female pushed me away.

  Or, rather, as she pushed herself in the opposite direction by assaulting my broad chest. I remained unmoved by the effort and the pack princess growled in a manner unbecoming of a lady.

  Then she slapped me. Gritting my teeth against the sudden burn, I let her express her anger. If this is what it took for the girl to find her true power, then I could handle a bit of pain.

  Because I was coming to realize that Alexis must not have tried to seduce me for her own ends, not when my reputation as a bloodling alpha had reached the ears of every shifter at All-Pack long ago. Pack princesses teased me with glances when flanked by their guards, but only the very bravest women pulled me into the trees to see if my skills in the sack lived up to my skills as an alpha.

  And Alexis was anything but brave. No, I could feel her fear in the air, her worries that Chief Wilder would do her even more harm than I would if she failed at this task.

  Still, when the young woman raised her arm for a second strike, I encircled both of her wrists in a single fist. "Enough."

  Fen and Wade stood inches behind me now, seeking comfort from the proximity of their pack leader in a strange situation that must have felt thoroughly out of their control. In fact, I'd heard the former's gasp of disbelief when Alexis and I had kissed, but Fen trusted me enough this time to let the farce continue.

  Wade, I assumed, was still blindfolded and had no clue what was going on. I didn't blame him. I'd barely been able to fight off Alexis's compulsion using the full force of my alpha personality, and I didn't think the weaker shifter stood a chance. So, even though he wasn't moving forward, I shot an arm out to the side as an order for both pack mates to hold their ground.

  I knew the smart move now would be to turn away from Alexis and herd my companions out of danger while I had the chance. But as I gazed at the parasite one last time, I couldn't help feeling sorry for her. She wasn't exactly a pack princess, I now realized as I peered more closely. Not a pure-blood werewolf at all, in fact.

  No, if I didn't miss my guess, Alexis was a halfie just like the teenager who had saved my hide a few minutes earlier with her quick thinking. But the hybridization of human and shifter blood, in Alexis's case, had resulted in something entirely new and different rather than creating the usual shifter with an abnormally weak wolf.

  No wonder halfies were treated with contempt in every pack except my own. Alexis probably wasn't the first parasite to come out of the mix. And most shifters would find it safer to throw the baby out with the bathwater rather than risking being manipulated by a half-wolf like the one who'd wrapped me around her little finger tonight.

  Yet more data to support my hypothesis that Alexis had been forced to accept Chief Wilder's protection—and commands—out of desperation. Which meant that I was honor bound to offer her a
way out of her dilemma instead of simply plunging her back into the fire.

  There's that ornery honor again.

  But I didn't express my reluctance with words. Instead I said, "We can find a way to let you join our pack if you want to."

  My mind was already running through possible methods I could use to block Alexis's strange effects on nearby shifters. Perhaps perfume and sunglasses? Or, better yet, a scent-absorbing charcoal lining to her clothes. If the female was willing, we'd definitely be able to come up with a compromise between her needs and the needs of my clan.

  But Alexis, apparently, had no inclination to become part of a normal pack. Instead, she laughed in my face. "Why should I relinquish my powers when I'm stronger than you can ever dream of becoming?" she demanded.

  "Because Chief Wilder will punish you for failing," Fen answered, taking a step forward to stand by my side. The kid was obviously right. My own alpha behavior aside, most pack leaders wouldn't let such an obvious failure go undisciplined.

  Alexis didn't answer immediately. Instead, she seemed to will more persimmon odor into the air, and I had to scrunch my eyes shut for a split second in order to clear my brain. By the time I was able to see straight again, the parasitic halfie was behind my back, ripping the blindfold away from Wade's eyes and bringing the teenager back under her spell.

  "I'll just move on to another pack then," she answered. "But I won't go alone."

  Chapter 7

  "INCOMING!" FEN SHRIEKED.

  I cocked my head, watching the drama unfold around me. At his pack mate's words, Wade had immediately dropped to the ground, hands shielding his head as if responding to a bomb threat. The shifter's nose was in the earth, his eyes squinted shut.

  And his quick reflexes seemed to have done the trick, effectively breaking Alexis's compulsion. Because the beguiler had to resort to prodding him with one foot, her dainty nose wrinkling up in annoyance at his lack of response. Then, when my pack mate gave no further reaction, the parasite tried gazing into my eyes one last time.

  "No dice," I told myself as much as her. It took effort, but I was able to keep my tone and stance as cold as my opponents'.

  Shrugging, she turned away smoothly. I'd expected a tantrum at the end of her game of wills and lies. But, instead, it was as if the failure meant no more to her than if she'd lost a game of monopoly.

  "Whatever," the young woman muttered. "There are other packs."

  Then she sank down onto four paws and slunk off into the night. And despite my better sense, I stared hard into the trees until the last flash of white fur was long gone.

  No, I wasn't making sure the threat had been truly snuffed out. I was simply unable to take my eyes off the enticing temptress when even now I ached to don fur and lope away to join her.

  When all that remained was black shadows beneath winter-bare trees, I finally returned my attention to my pack mates. "What was that?" I asked, hoping that hearing Fen or Wade speak would keep me from turning wolf and bristling at the sudden emptiness of the forest. The air felt thin and cold without Alexis's persimmon aroma clogging my nostrils.

  And I still yearned to run after the parasite and beg to join her.

  "Safe word," Wade replied around a mouthful of dirt. "We practiced the whole time we were tracking you down. Is she gone?"

  "Yep," Fen responded. Unaffected by Alexis's absence, the cocky fourteen-year-old walked forward now to give her compatriot a hand up, patting a few dried grass blades off his shoulder in the process. "You done good, kid," she added, her words a near perfect imitation of my own frequently used term of approval.

  And just like that, the spell was broken.

  We did it. Relief that we were all alive and unchanged made laughter bubble up out of my chest and explode from my lips. It was the first honest sentiment I'd felt since the Chief saddled us with his lackey, so I fell into the emotion and let all of my angst dissipate into gales of laughter.

  Fen looked abashed for a split second. But then she joined in until we were both clutching each other's shoulders to keep from falling down. It felt good to be the only inhabitant in my head once again.

  "Not to break up the fun," Wade said at last, when our mirth was finally winding down. "But the moon's gonna rise in thirty minutes." He held up the smart phone I'd long since dropped, weather data shining toward me from the lit screen. "I texted Chase to let him know you're okay. But if we want a chance of winning Wilder support, we need to get a move on."

  "I guess we didn't find you soon enough." Fen's face went from happy to sad in an instant, and I tousled her hair in reassurance. The kid had saved the day, and now she was upset for not buying a new territory for our entire pack in the process. She was something else.

  "You found me just fast enough," I promised. Then, before slipping into wolf skin, I added, "We still have time to catch the rat. He's not far away."

  * * *

  WILDER’S TRAIL HAD confused me when I noticed it earlier, and not just because Alexis's overwhelming persimmon aroma overlaid his subtler scent. The Chief had also gone to the trouble of finding a skunk to spray the clothes he'd donned after returning to human form, effectively blocking his trail from shifter noses. Because while wolves enjoy strong smells, skunks held little allure to our sensitive nostrils. No wonder everyone—me included—had turned aside after catching a whiff of the skunky aroma.

  But the other alpha had been too lazy—or too particular—to coat his skin and hair with the same musk. As a result, his personal aroma was still present in the air, albeit only faintly discernible beneath the other species' protective spray.

  Now that my brain was clear enough to think straight, it was easy to guess at the Chief's plan and to track the skunk scent to its source. Well, easy mentally if not physically. In the end, we had to hunt down our quarry in human form because his lair was located halfway up a cliff where wolf paws couldn't tread.

  We tried to climb in silence, but I was sure Wilder knew we were coming by smell if nothing else. So I half expected to find a puddle of clothes as I crested the ledge, wolf escaped. Surely a wily old shifter like Crazy Wilder would have selected a cave with a bolt hole out the back?

  Nope. The wolf bristling and growling before me had been cornered by his own overconfidence.

  Which isn't to say he was defenseless. Instead, Wilder's eyes bored into mine with the exact opposite effect of the compulsion I'd experienced just thirty minutes earlier. Alexis's gaze had melted me into a lovesick fool, while Wilder's eyes threatened to push me off the rock face through sheer force of will.

  I wanted to wave Wade and Fen back down the cliff so I could handle our opponent alone. After all, despite being adults by shifter standards, the duo seemed so much younger than my twenty-four years.

  But they'd been the ones who'd seen through Alexis's chicanery while I'd fallen into her trap with blind confidence. Not much different from Crazy Wilder after all, now am I?

  So when Fen clawed her way up the rocks behind me, I offered a hand to pull her to her feet and waited as she gave Wade the same boost up. Still, I kept my broader form between the other alpha and the teenagers. If anyone was going to be attacked by the grizzled pack leader, I wanted it to be me.

  We all stood poised for a long moment as the thin sliver of a waning moon gently drifted up above the tree line below us. Despite his defensive posture, I still held out hope that our opponent might cede gracefully. After all, I'd sometimes felt that the older shifter looked upon me with as much affection as a cold-hearted bastard could muster.

  But Crazy Wilder had no intention of going down without a fight. Instead, he leapt forward without warning, his sheer bulk pushing me into the ground mere inches from the edge between rock and open air. His teeth snapped together around my human arm, and I expected at any moment to hear a crack as skin pierced and bone broke.

  Which is when Fen pulled the next item out of her bag of tricks. One Taser later, the Chief lay groggily in human form at our feet, thoroughly vanquish
ed.

  Chapter 8

  "YOU COULD’VE WAITED to shock him until we were back on solid ground," Wade carped at the younger girl as he accepted the inert form of Chief Wilder that I was lowering from ledge to earth. "He weighs a ton."

  In response, Fen stepped forward to add her own grip to the man's hairy legs just as he slipped out of my hands. Like a well-oiled team, the pair eased our opponent gently onto the leaf litter, bantering all the while. "He'd attacked Wolfie," Fen countered, as if the words explained everything.

  I smiled indulgently. Despite my opponent's bite, I thought I probably would have done okay against a shifter twice my age without any help from human technology. But I let my pack mate's explanation slide. After all, Fen had saved my ass enough times this evening to make it clear she should trust her own judgment.

  And, honestly, I didn't have any particular plan about how to get an unwilling Chief Wilder back to the All-Pack clearing without benefit of rope or handcuffs. So it was just as well my pack mate had turned our problem into a dead weight.

  I ended the bickering the easy way. "I'll carry him," I intervened, hopping straight down then hoisting the other alpha across one shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Let's go."

  * * *

  THE RETURN JOURNEY felt longer but also far more pleasant than our initial run through the Wilder woods. When I'd been following in Alexis's wake, I'd thought I was drifting in a sea of pure bliss. But now I saw how distant I'd been from the present moment as I noticed entire turns in the trail I'd blanked out the first time around. I usually built an internal map as I explored new terrain, but I figured it was a good thing Fen's phone had GPS functionality or we might have been backtracking half the day before reaching camp.