by Jayne Hawke
My wolf side was displeased at climbing the tree. I got the distinct feeling that I was supposed to keep both feet firmly on the ground. Maybe Cole had been right. I should have been a feline shifter. I’d been climbing trees since I was a little girl and made quick work of climbing up between the strong boughs.
The jump over to the building was a bit further than I’d anticipated, but I was up the tree by then. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself before I did it. My fingertips scrabbled on the ledge, but I pulled myself up and crouched on the small section of roof next to the window. The cool air played with my hair while I listened, thinking I’d heard tyres. Once I was sure there was nothing, I set about wiggling the latch loose.
It was far noisier than I’d hoped, but after ten minutes of wriggling I was in. I slipped into the window and left it open so I could make a quick escape if I needed to. The house had a feeling of death hanging over it that I hadn’t noticed before. A cold chill ran through me as I crept out of the spare bedroom I’d climbed into and began looking for the master bedroom or office.
Valentin’s tastes were simple and modern with clean blocks of colour on feature walls in otherwise plain and bright rooms. His silk bedding was rumpled from a night of tossing and turning. I rummaged around in his sock drawer and came up with nothing. There weren’t many drawers or spaces to hide something in his bedroom. The walk-in wardrobe was clean and organised by colour and season. Unfortunately, there weren’t any little hidey holes or witch artifacts.
The office wasn’t much better. It was just as clean and simple as the other rooms with a small desk and a few ownership papers for properties in Virginia. This definitely wasn’t going as smoothly as it did in the movies. Heading to the bathroom next for those hairs, I paused and listened again. A faint creak from somewhere within the house made me freeze and listen intently. Nothing more came of it, but I did pick up the pace.
A comb sitting on the glass shelf over the sink provided the hairs that I needed. Amy hadn’t said how long the spell would take to activate. I pushed the hairs into the vial and put the stopper back on while looking around the bathroom. Everything felt sparse, somehow. There were the bare essentials and nothing much else.
I glanced down at the vial as I left the bathroom, and my heart sank when I saw it was neon yellow. I’d been quietly hoping that we were wrong and the bond with Valentin was something more real. Sighing, I tucked the vial in the pocket of my jacket and jogged down the stairs. There on the kitchen table was a small ornate wooden box that looked exactly like the images Amy had shown me. Old blood filled some of the grooves. I snatched it up and ran back up the stairs before I scrambled out onto the roof and closed the window.
There were definitely car tyres this time. I leapt into the tree, almost losing my balance when I landed. I swayed back and forth, fighting to remain on the tree limb before I ran along the branch. The car was getting close now. Going against my wolf instincts, I remained up in the trees and moved through the thick foliage, hiding from the driveway.
Valentin’s car passed me by, and I bit my bottom lip. Would he catch my scent and know it was me?
54
I TOOK A PHOTO OF THE vial and sent it along with ‘have proof it’s Valentin’ to Amy, Cole, and Jake. I’d parked my car by the side of the road a mile away from Valentin’s place. By some miracle, the old Mustang started first time, and I tore off down the road heading to Cole’s. It seemed natural to go there. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. I concluded it was because he was a councilman and handing him the proof Valentin was the rogue was sensible.
Valentin came out of nowhere. He cut me off at an intersection, forcing me to slam my brakes on and skid to a halt. My heart hammered in my chest. I grabbed my big knife, got out of the car, and prepared for a fight.
Valentin’s car blocked the road. He approached me down the road with his arms wide as though he were coming in for a hug.
“Rosalyn, listen to me. For just a moment.” He stopped a few feet in front of me and tucked his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Let me explain everything.”
I stopped and kept a firm grip on my knife.
“Talk,” I growled.
The bond between us was still present. I wanted to give him a chance to explain all of this away.
“This all started two years ago. I was a fool.” I felt myself slipping into the relaxed state of trust and fought against it. “I was desperate to help my kind, our kind. We are at the bottom of the pile. We are not respected within the supernatural community. I wanted to change that. There was a small group of powerful witches. Aztec blood witches.” He looked away and sighed softly. “I struck a bargain with them. I know now it was a stupid thing to do, but it had seemed like the perfect solution at the time. They would give me all that I needed to make our kind great and respected. In return for this, I had to give them blood. So much blood.”
He took a step closer to me. I growled, warning him to stay where he was. Surprise ghosted over his face, but he was quick to return to the repentant puppy act.
“They said that if I gave them one strong pack, it would be enough to raise the entire garou population of our state.” He closed his eyes. “I handed them the Loxwood pack. They were supposed to take the entire pack, and they almost did. Cole, however, escaped.” He looked at me with a fierce intensity. “He is the reason I’m like this. I owe the witches a blood debt that my wolf is trying to repay. Every drop of blood from the people I’ve killed since has gone to them, and it’s never enough. But you, Rosalyn, you’re special.” There was a pleading edge to his voice now. “I’d always thought guardians were myths until I saw you in the bakery. I saw it, I felt it within you. Of course I turned you when I had the chance. You wouldn’t have been able to fulfil your destiny as a simple human.” He took another step closer. “You make me whole again, Rosalyn. When I’m around you, I feel like my real self. When I’m forced to be away from you, my wolf side is wild and uncontrollable. My human side slips away, leaving behind a savage shell of what I was. I can give you a good life, Rosalyn. I can make sure you never want for anything, and I’m sure you’d come to love me over time.”
“Valentin Devaux, I am taking you to the council on the charge of being a rogue and slaughtering the Loxwood pack.”
He closed the space between us in the blink of an eye. His hands were around my throat, and he drove me to the ground. I plunged my knife into his side again and again while he tried to choke the life out of me. Hot sticky blood pooled around my hand, but his grip never lessened.
The edge of my vision was starting to blur. I struggled with everything I had and tried to slice into his throat. The blade grazed him, and it was enough to loosen his grip. I bucked him off and forced myself to my feet, coughing and gasping for air as I did so. The charming composed man was gone. What was left behind was a savage husk with dark gold eyes and sharp teeth that were aiming to tear me apart.
It felt as though a thread broke within me. Whatever trust and safety I’d felt around Valentin was gone. A cold gaping hole formed in its place. I choked down a sob as an intense sadness washed over me. It wasn’t the time to be suffering with such intense emotions. Valentin was a dangerous predator. I needed to pull myself together.
He hunched forward as though he was going to go down onto all fours. Dark fur began to erupt along his neck and arms. His hands twisted, with his fingers shrinking back and sprouting short black claws. They didn’t quite finish the transformation into paws, though. He was stuck between man and wolf in a grotesque beast with a warped hunched back and a face that jutted outwards to wrap around sharp teeth.
The blood on his side where I had stabbed him congealed, but the wound didn’t look as though it had fully healed, not that that stopped him. A part of me didn’t want to hurt him. A quiet part of the wolf within desperately wanted him to be pack. I didn’t want to lose him. The cold void needed to be filled somehow, and if I could just return him to the charming man he had been it would be.
Valentin lunged at me. I side-stepped and kicked at the injury on his side. He let out a cry of fury and agony as he stumbled sideways. I dug deep for the rage at the games he’d played with my head. He had used me. He had offered me things he no intention of giving me, and he had stolen away my dreams. All for his own selfish gain. The idea that I would stay in his gilt cage fuelled the inferno within me and I wrapped myself in it like burning armour.
I allowed my rage to fuel me as I shot forward and stabbed him everywhere I could reach in a relentless rain of pain and blood. Bones broke, blood splattered my clammy skin, and I pushed on harder. He lashed out, raking his claws down my legs and trying to sink his teeth into my torso. The pain barely registered above my intense need to end his life. After everything he had done to me, I needed to feel his life force ebb away. I kicked him away and stomped down on the side of his knee while he was on the ground.
He was panting and coated in blood. Still he fought on, determined to end me. It was me or him, and I was going to take on Cole Loxwood and claim that territory as mine. I was going to show the supernatural world that I was a force to be reckoned with, not some fragile little flower. For years, I had been mocked and teased. In that moment, I pulled on all of that pain and pushed it into my determination to kill Valentin Devaux.
Valentin was slowing. He tried to swipe my legs out from under me, but he didn’t have the reflexes to pull it off. I slashed his upper thigh and pushed forward to stab him in the stomach. I was toying with him. I should have ended it quickly, but I wanted him to suffer the way he’d made me suffer. I wanted him to feel himself dying inch by inch.
He bit down into my shoulder. Agony blinded me temporarily. There was nothing beyond the pain that blossomed in my shoulder. The world cleared when he began to release me. Hot blood streamed down my chest and back. My breath came in short sharp pants, but I wasn’t going to be beaten. I held onto the determination to end this, using it as an anchor to push through.
He grinned at me with blood stained teeth. My blood. I drove the knife up through the bottom of his jaw into his brain. He died with his eyes wide open in shock.
I dropped to my knees and sobbed as I felt the bond slip away, leaving me with an uncontrollable, all-consuming loneliness and excruciating pain. My body was trembling and shaking from the effort of healing the wounds I’d suffered at his claws and teeth.
It was over. The rogue was dead.
55
I’M NOT SURE HOW LONG I remained in the middle of the road kneeling next to the corpse of the garou that had turned me. He wasn’t Valentin any more. He was simply a husk of a broken beast, something that had torn my old life away from me. The sound of an engine snapped me out of the shock, and I began scrambling to drag the corpse into the nearby woods. Blood streaked the asphalt, leaving a clear line to the body. The humans wouldn’t have any problems following that and finding proof of our existence. Valentin remained in his corrupted half wolf form even in death. His teeth were canine-sharp, his hands were deformed halfway to paws. The black hair over his arms was clearly wolf fur. The council would make me wish for death.
The car pulled to a stop, and I rushed back to the road while trying to think of a reasonable story. I hit a deer. That was plausible.
Cole ran up to me and pulled me into his arms.
“Are you ok? I felt your fear down the shadow bond.”
I leaned into him and used his strong physical presence to ground myself. Feeling him close filled some of the void and made me feel a little warmth again. I hadn’t realised how cold I was. It felt as though ice was crawling through my veins. My hands were painful verging on numb. Everything about me felt numb, but Cole was bringing me back.
“Yea. I killed Valentin. He turned into some deranged monster,” I said flatly, barely recognising my own voice.
Cole put his hands on my upper arms.
“Go to my car. There’s jerky and other protein on the passenger seat. I’ll handle Valentin’s body.”
“Thanks.”
I couldn’t think what else I was supposed to say. It wasn’t as if I’d killed a rogue before, or had to handle a dead body. Should I have taken some trophy for the council? Would Cole be enough for that?
I turned and headed towards Cole’s car. I needed food before my body began to shut down. My head was beginning to clear, and I felt like myself again. The hole still remained somewhere inside of me, and I wasn’t sure if it would ever be filled. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to be. I opened the door to Cole’s car and found a backpack full of various meat products. I tore through them like I hadn’t eaten in a month. When I was halfway through the food, I grabbed a handful of jerky and went to see if I could help Cole.
He had wrapped Valentin’s corpse in a sheet and slung it over his shoulder. His face was full of grim determination.
“Can you drive his car out of the way?”
I nodded and tried to ignore the weird coldness that filled me when I approached Valentin’s car. I’d killed him. It was self-defence, but I’d still never taken a life before.
Valentin’s scent filled the car, and it brought back the warmth and security that I’d felt when I was close to him. I’d never share that with him again. The anger bubbled up, replacing the pining. I focused on what he was and used that to get through the situation.
The car was easy to drive and started first time, which wasn’t something I was used to. I pulled it out of the way and left it by the side of the road. Remembering everything I’d seen on CSI, I wiped the steering wheel and handles down to remove my fingerprints. The last thing I needed was the human police arresting me for murder.
I joined Cole in his car.
“What now?”
“Now, we go and get your paycheque.”
I realised that I still had the hex breaker in my car. I rushed over and picked it up. Amy needed to know.
I pulled out my phone. “Amy? I have the hex breaker. Can you pick it up later?”
“Was it at Valentin’s?”
“Yea, it was. I have some council business, can you come to mine to grab it in a couple of hours?”
“Of course. Text me when.”
“Will do.”
Cole gave me a warm smile.
“You did fantastically. It was reckless and stubborn, but many garou would have died in a fight against a rogue like that.”
I beamed with pride and tried to focus on that warmth rather than the small orb of coldness that sat in my stomach. I’d never be the same again.
Wolf Howl
Wolf Ridge 2
By
Jayne Hawke
1
IT WAS TAKING EVERYTHING I had to stop myself from tapping my foot. The slight upturn at the corner of Cole’s mouth told me he knew that and he was taking his sweet time specifically for that reason. The moon was rising and I could feel the bristle of my fur just beneath my skin. We were supposed to be going for a run together, but Cole had insisted on finishing up his paperwork first. I was sure it was some alpha power play. Over the month since the Valentin incident we’d spent a lot of time together. I was slowly adjusting to the idea of his being pack, but I refused to accept him as my superior.
My reading on guardians said that I would be the alpha to rule over all alphas, which explained why my wolf side bared its teeth every time Cole tried to assert his position over me. There wasn’t much written about guardians, but it looked like a lot of pressure. They—we—were supposed to watch over the beings of our kind within a huge territory that often covered multiple states. How was I supposed to help protect garou in Virginia!?
Cole looked up from the great swathe of papers before him, he allowed the black pen to drop from his elegant fingers and raised his eyes without looking at me. He stretched, his powerful arms slowly stretching up above his head before he began to arch his back and his eyes half-closed in bliss. I watched the way the soft black fabric of his t-shirt pulled tight over his strong chest and lifted a little to reveal the s
oft curve and valley of his hard, toned abs. I had to admit that he was nice to look at. The problem was, he knew it. A smirk flickered across his pretty mouth and he stood looking at me expectantly. One eyebrow was half cocked, and his lips began to purse tight as though he’d been waiting an age for me.
“Well?” he said.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
“I’ve been ready for an over an hour,” I said with a huff.
He looked me up and down. A slow assessment of every inch of me. I reflexively went to cover my bare stomach, summer was getting into full swing and I was in a small sports bra and little shorts. His gaze was predatory, and I didn’t enjoy being made to feel like prey. Still, I held strong and kept my arms casually at my sides. It was nothing he hadn’t seen many times before.
He made a little dismissive sound that made me want to growl but I held it in. I was working hard on holding myself in check and refusing to show him just how badly he got under my skin. If he saw the impact he had on me, then he’d won. This was one game I was not going to lose.
Cole strode to the back door with large powerful strides and casually took his shirt off, tossing it on the kitchen counter. The shirt sat as a chaotic heap of fabric amid the almost obsessively neat and tidy kitchen. The pitch-black ink of his dragon tattoo sprawled across his broad shoulders begging me to trace the sharp lines with my fingertips. Its claws looked as though they sank down deep into his muscle, and I knew the head reached around to sink its fangs into his heart. I resisted the urge to run my fingertips over it, but the temptation grew every time I saw it.