by Renee Carr
She handed me my phone, and I looked at all the missed calls. My brothers, both Eric and Christian, had been calling me all night long. Apparently, they had been calling me ever since I was at the bar, but I had silenced my phone when I went into the woods. I had been so freaked out right afterward that I probably wouldn’t have answered the call. At that point, all I could seem to think about was Lily anyway, so I was considering holding off on calling them. But as I went to set my phone down, I caught a glimpse of a patch of wolf fur stuck to my arm and the realization that everything was real came flooding back to me.
I sat up in the bed and rubbed my face, trying to stay as calm as I could. The weight of Lily’s hand on my leg garnered my attention, but it also calmed my breathing. “You should call them back. They’re the ones who are going to have answers for you. While you were asleep, I went over to my grandmother’s house and borrowed some of my grandfather’s clothes. They’re pretty simple, just a pair of his work pants and a button-up, blue and white shirt. Probably not your style considering he was about 85 years old, but it’s better than walking around naked.”
Looking over at the chair, I found my boots which I was glad hadn’t been split apart by my wolf the night before since I had taken them off when I came into the house. On the chair next to them were the folded clothes she talked about. I rubbed my hand down her arm and smiled. “Thank you. I’ll be out in just a little bit.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded before leaving the room. I took in a deep breath, feeling my phone vibrate yet again. Did they have me on autodial or something? I reluctantly answered the call. “I’m pretty sure I got the idea that you wanted to call me after the seventy-two missed calls from last night. Unfortunately, I was too busy grooming my paws and trying on new collars. What do you think would go best with a blue collar? A long black leash or a heavy chain one?”
Christian cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I’m so glad to hear your voice. I know you’re angry and confused; I’ve been there. Come over to the house. Eric’s here, and we will explain everything to you.”
I could feel the anger run across my shoulders, but I tried to keep it at bay. Christian sounded extremely worried and very concerned about my well-being. I couldn’t for a second think that he purposely let me get hurt. “I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”
Remembering that I parked my car at the bar, I hurried up and got dressed and headed down the stairs. Lily poked her head out of the living room, her eyes twinkling. “They fit you. I thought you were about the same size as my grandfather was. Are you going to see your brothers?”
I nodded, walking over to her and taking her hands in mine. “I have to hurry—my car’s parked out at the bar. But don’t make any plans tonight. I want to come by later and bring you dinner. It’s the least that I can do.”
She handed me a piece of paper and kissed me on the cheek. “It’s my phone number. Call me later and remember, if your brothers know how you feel, then you’re not alone in this.”
It was really hard to leave her, but I had to know what was going on with me, and the wolf, and everything that had happened the night before. I felt like I should be freaking out a lot more than I was, but it was almost as if feeling my wolf inside of me was comforting. Walking outside, the sun was bright and the air was cool and crisp. I rolled my shoulders, feeling as if my body had been revived with energy after a long night’s sleep.
Glancing at the time, I hurried down the driveway and onto the sidewalk, before picking up my pace and jogging toward the bar. I was always in good shape, but when it came to running, I was terrible. But that morning, I felt like I could run a marathon and not even break a sweat. I tested it a little bit, picking up my pace to a full sprint. As I raced toward the bar, a small kid ran out in front of me. Without even thinking, I leaped high, pulling my legs up close to my body and then landing on the other side. The little boy looked at me with wide eyes, and I realized just how high I had jumped. I could’ve jumped over a car.
I gave him a clenched-teeth grin and slowed my pace, figuring I should probably get used to whatever was going on before I started doing acrobatics in the middle of the street. As I approached my car, I dug in my pockets, trying to find my keys, but they weren’t there. When I left, I had forgotten that my keys were probably thrown somewhere when my clothes were ripped off of me.
“Looking for these?” a familiar voice said over the dangling of my keys.
I looked up, stopping dead in my tracks and tilting my head to the side. Standing at my car with a grin on her face was Lily. I took a step forward and she tossed me the keys, laughing. “I guess you’re not as fast as you thought.”
She walked past me, patting me on the shoulder, but didn’t stop to talk. My mouth fell open and I turned around, watching her walk away. I had no explanation for how she got from her house to my car before I did, and as much as I wanted to know how she did that, I needed to talk to my brothers. I put the thought in the back of my head and jumped in the car, heading toward Christian’s house.
Christian lived not that far out of town, down the beaten path in an old farmhouse he had renovated. Now that I knew what he was, I realized it was probably best that he lived out there. I was curious to find out how he and Eric managed their daily lives while having their wolves inside of them. Even more so, I was curious to find out what in the hell had happened to me. How in the world were enormous wolves real, and why did their pack attack me?
Pulling up the driveway, I saw both of my brothers standing in front of the house, their arms crossed as they waited for me. I parked the car and got out, remembering to breathe so as not to blow up on either one of them. It wasn’t necessarily to avoid a fight, but I was afraid that if my emotions got out of hand, so would my wolf.
I walked up to them, putting my hand up before either one of them could talk. “I want to say for the record that this isn’t something you should have hidden from me.”
Eric sighed. “We know, man, but we knew it was dangerous to tell you. We just didn’t want to see you get hurt.”
Christian narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you wearing?”
I looked down at my clothes, realizing they did have a bit of an old man look to them. I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I need you to start talking, telling me exactly what happened and what’s going on. Maybe starting with why one of your people attacked me.”
Christian shook his head. “It wasn’t on purpose. I knew I smelled our family scent but one of the other guys thought you were hunting us. So he took off after you. Eric is fast, so he caught up and managed to knock the guy in the stream before he ripped your throat out. By the time we calmed that situation, you were gone. I followed the blood trail to the edge of the woods but we got a call and had to go.”
I blinked wildly at them. “Did you just say family scent? And you got a call? Like you’re renegade wolf cops?”
Eric puffed out his cheeks and walked over to me, flinging his arm over my shoulder. “Come on, let’s sit down. This is gonna take a while to explain.”
I sat listening to the whole thing, from our family heritage to the kidnapping of my brothers’ wives, and the magical wolves running around the forest. Suffice it to say, things were a lot weirder than I had anticipated.
10
Lily
“Is your friend feeling better?” my grandmother asked me as I dusted off the shelves.
I shrugged. “I hope so. He went to see his brothers this morning and he said he’d call me later. When you get that sick, it’s probably not that easy to just get over.”
My grandmother smacked me on the butt as she walked past. “I don’t know, you’d be surprised what people can bounce back from. I’m going to go pick up my prescription. If I miss you before I come back, I love you and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I smiled as my grandmother kissed me on the cheek and walked out of the room. My smile faded quickly, though, my thoughts clinging to Brighton, wondering how he was doing and wha
t he had found out from his brothers. I had checked my phone about a million times that day, but I didn’t want to text him first. I knew he was busy and I knew he would text me when he found out whatever it was that was going on. It just felt like the hours were creeping by and the fact that I had to do work like dusting and organizing didn’t help. There was no thought needed for that kind of stuff and all it left me was time to think.
It was crazy how I felt. When he was right there with me, and I could watch him and keep him comfortable, I wasn’t worrying like I was now, constantly thinking of him, wondering how he was doing. There was something about him that drew me in, that made me face the wild animal in him with bravery and caring. Part of me wondered if that was how my grandmother felt about my grandfather. She had always said that from the first moment they met, there was a connection, like they were meant to be.
I stopped dusting for a moment, staring out the window as several children ran by laughing and playing. I couldn’t get my hopes up like that. There was a good chance that I’d never hear from him again. It wasn’t like he had anything to worry about. Even if I did tell somebody that he turned into a wolf in my living room, who would actually believe me?
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I scrambled a bit too eagerly to get it out. It was a text message from Brighton, which immediately sent butterflies spiraling through my stomach. I smiled to myself as I read the message. “Finished with my brothers. Have a lot to tell you. Going to grab some dinner and head over to your place. If you’re busy, just let me know.”
I laughed out loud as I texted him back. Who in the world would say no? Even if I didn’t have feelings for him, like the animalistic emotions raging through me, I would still want to know what his brother said. He turned into a freaking wolf in my living room; that’s not something someone easily forgets.
“I’ll be there! I hope you’re feeling a little bit better,” I texted back.
The front door opened, and I poked my head out of the bedroom where I was dusting, seeing my grandmother hurrying back through the door. “Is everything okay, Grandma?”
She looked up at me with a smile and pulled a small bag from behind her back. “I keep forgetting to give this to you. It’s a present for graduating college. I’m sorry I couldn’t come to your graduation ceremony. That was right when I fell. I wanted to make sure to give it to you today. I felt like you needed it.”
With a small smirk on my lips and my brow furrowed, I walked toward her, wondering what in the world could be in the bag. I reached inside and pulled out a black velvet box about the size of the palm of my hand. Glancing up at her in excitement, I opened it up and stared down at the charm delicately placed inside the box.
“Do you like it?” she asked, reaching over and flipping the charm upside down. “It has your initials on the back, and I know wolves are special to you—to all of us, really. I got one just like it when I was a little girl, well, not a little girl, but around eighteen. Your grandfather had given it to me. I still have it, but I don’t wear it often because I don’t want to accidentally lose it. It’s funny how much more precious things seem when the person that gave them to you is gone.”
I looked at her with tears in my eyes and nodded my head, pulling the bracelet from the box and putting it on. I ran my finger over the wolf charm, wondering how my grandmother managed to do things just perfectly. “I love it. It’s the best gift I’ve ever gotten. Thank you so much.”
My grandmother hugged me tightly and turned toward the door. “All right, I gotta get going. It’s bridge night and I’m pretty sure Helen is going to forget to bring the dip again. The woman’s mind is worse than mine.”
I watched as my grandma stopped at the door, putting the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically. “Oh, to be immortal, the things I could do. Oh well. See you tomorrow. And be careful.”
I waved at her and shook my head, looking down at my bracelet. Sometimes I was pretty sure my grandmother could read my mind. Excited about dinner, I packed up everything and locked my grandmother’s house before I left. While I didn’t lock my house in Galena, my grandmother never got out of the habit of it. I guess for her, growing up in Maryland and seeing how much it had changed over the course of fifty years, she wasn’t taking any chances, even in the small quaint town of Galena, Illinois.
When I got home, I raced in and got in the shower, cleaning up excitedly and then picking one of my cute sundresses that I had brought with me, layering a cardigan over it since it was cold. I hadn’t been that excited to hang out with a guy since I was a teenager and had no idea what I was doing. Not that I had any idea of what I was doing now, but at least I figured the night couldn’t get much weirder than the one before. As soon as I was done, there was a knock on the door and I opened it up to find Brighton with his adorable smile, holding a bag of take-out in one hand, and a case of beer in the other.
I opened up the door and let him in, finding that he had changed his clothes and taken a shower since the last time I saw him. I had almost forgotten how nice he looked in his own things. When I first met him, he smelled like dirt and twigs, but now he smelled like cologne and soap. It made me want to get closer to him.
“I hope you like Chinese and Heineken,” he laughed as we sat down in the living room and opened up the different containers.
I took in a deep breath, smelling the delicious buffet set out in front of us. He had pretty much gotten one of everything. “It’s perfect. I haven’t had Chinese food in forever. The really good place by my house in Maryland closed down, and the other one was questionable, so to avoid food poisoning, I stayed away from it.”
As he handed me the container of fried rice, his eyes froze on my wrist, staring at the bracelet. “How long have you had that?”
I chuckled, realizing that he was probably thinking that I went all crazy psycho girl on him and got a wolf charm for him. “Oh, you know, since you didn’t ask my last name last night, I figured it was safe to bring out my psycho killer tendencies.”
He shook his chopstick at me and I laughed. “No, actually, my grandmother gave it to me today as a graduation gift. It’s got my initials on the back of it.”
I turned it over, showing him the engravings. He lifted both eyebrows. “I think I’ve had enough coincidences and strange happenings to last me the rest of my life.”
I nodded my head dramatically. “I second that.”
“So,” he said as he shoveled in a mouthful of rice, “my brothers told me everything.”
“Mmm,” I grunted through my own mouthful. “Yes, tell me. I’ve been curious all day.”
He rolled his shoulders and settled into his seat on the floor. “It started with my brother Christian, the one that got scratched by a wolf in the woods about two years ago and almost died from it. Apparently, the wolf that scratched him was his future wife’s dad, who had been missing for several years. They told me that there are some wolves that aren’t like us. They call them dark wolves, and according to my brothers, they have magical abilities. They said that most of them are in hiding right now, but they’ve been having more and more occurrences and attacks lately. The dark wolves apparently don’t like to play by the rules and they really hate humans.”
I sat there with wide eyes, listening to him talk as I shoveled spoonful after spoonful of rice into my mouth. It had been a long time since I had heard the term dark wolf. “What about your other brother?”
“My other brother’s a photographer, and apparently he heard about this wolf, and went out searching for it to get a picture. This was about a year ago, give or take. Apparently, while he was out there, one of the dark wolves scratched him and he turned into a wolf as well. In both occurrences, a dark wolf kidnapped their significant others.” Brighton looked at me nervously. “They managed to rescue them and in the end, they were fine. It’s just all so crazy.”
I swallowed my bite of rice and held up my chopsticks. “So, what are all the other wolves doing here? Where did they come from?”
Getting frustrated with his chopsticks, Brighton stabbed one of his pieces of orange chicken with the end of it and shoved it in his mouth. “I guess because the dark wolves are becoming more prevalent, and because they’re attacking us, other wolves have been coming from all over the country, sensing it. They’ve all gathered together and they kind of look to my brothers as leaders. They get together as often as possible and go fight the dark wolves, trying to either eradicate them or drive them out. My brother thinks a war is coming. He said that he thinks that the dark wolves are going to come out of hiding. If you kill the dark wolves’ leader, the rest of them disperse and it takes generations before a new leader is found or born. The rest of them are just kind of rogue, hiding in the woods, going back to their human lives, or scrounging for whatever they can get.”
Grimacing, I shook my head. “That sounds miserable. So, how are you feeling about everything?”
He shrugged. “Not really sure how I feel. It’s scary, but at the same time, there’s this soothing feeling that comes from inside. I think it’s my wolf. My brother said that I need to connect with it before I can do anything else. We have to be able to work as one.”
“Are you going to change back into your wolf anytime soon?” I asked.
He chuckled. “Hopefully, but considering I ruined our date last night, I was kind of hoping to not do it tonight.”
With a tip of my eyebrow and a smirk, I nodded. “That would be appreciated. I’m not really sure I’ll go out with you a third time if you slobber on my floor again. And I’m all out of hotdogs.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and threw a fortune cookie at my head. The mood lightened almost instantly, and what had started as a tense and dramatic situation had finally started to ease into what was feeling like a pretty good date.
11
Brighton