by Michelle Fox
“What happened?” I handed him back the glass.
“Hey, you’re awake.”
I looked past Colt at Jericho. He smiled, crossed the room and sat on the other side of the bed. Same thing, took my hand, held me as if I was made of fine china.
“She wants to know what happened.”
I wasn’t that out of it that I didn’t catch the glance between the guys. There was a long moment of weighted silence. Jericho finally blew out a sigh.
“Yeah. Okay. It’s complicated. I don’t know what Weatherly told you… And you should probably eat something first. You’ve been out for days…you’re weak.”
“I’ll eat in a bit,” I replied. Right now I needed to know what happened, and why I felt so different.
“He said a lot of stuff about you guys, none made much sense though. I got the feeling he thought you two had something he wanted. And then…” The feel of the knife was back, the pressure, the non-pain of the cut. “He wanted me, but then he didn’t.” I shrugged, at a loss to really explain anything else. Colt nodded.
“Weatherly’s been after us for a long time. We live here, on family land…Jericho’s family to be honest; the land that’s not part of the park. I was raised on the other side of Black Wolf. The mountain’s named after my clan. But shifters lead a very dangerous life, even on land that’s pretty inaccessible. Weatherly’s from north of here. Long story short, clan rivalry, clan betrayal. Jericho and I teamed up; Weatherly decided he’d rather be the proverbial lone wolf, than join a clan that’s not his.”
“So he’s…was…a shifter too?” I was relieved that I used the right term this time.
“Yeah. We’re all that’s left of three different clans. I think being alone took a toll on Weatherly, sent him off the deep end, into some dark place that he couldn’t get out of. There was some really nasty stuff that happened in his clan, near the end. It wasn’t good, from what we heard.”
“What happened to your families?” It hurt to talk, but there were questions I wanted answers to. “You’re the last of your clans?”
Jericho nodded “Yeah. We’re it. We decided a long time ago that two against the world was better odds than going it alone. This land…my clan’s land…has never been part of the park. It goes back a long, long way in my family, further than even Colt’s claim to his lands. The deed’s structured in a way that whoever occupies the cabin, as long as they can prove they’re part of the family, owns the land. Someone was smart, a long time ago.” He gave me a crooked smile. “Smarter than the average wolf, I guess. Colt wasn’t so lucky though. Or Weatherly.”
“My family’s land ended up being taken over by the state. Eminent domain. Turned Black Wolf into a park. I still think of it as my land, even though it’s full of hikers and backpackers. Ruffles my fur to see them, present company excluded.” He squeezed my hand and smiled at me, and I squeezed back.
“Thanks for that. So he’s been after you just because…”
“Because he could, because he’d gone round the bend? Because he was jealous, wanted something he thought was better than what he had? Who knows? Weatherly was just plain crazy, either from isolation or because he drove himself there, on his own. The man was full of hate.” Colt shifted on the bed so he was sitting beside me. I moved a little, sharing the pillows. Jericho took the cue and sat on the other side. Sandwiched between them, I felt safe and warm and less out of my body than I had. But something was still off.
“So Weatherly tried to kill me, right? With a knife?”
“Yeah,” Colt said. “We got there too late…”
“And saying we’re sorry is never going to make that better.” Jericho squeezed me, hard enough to almost pull me over. “We messed up, big time. But we’ll never do that again.”
“You didn’t get there too late. You got there in time, or I wouldn’t be here, right?” I touched my neck again. “You saved me.”
From the silence between them, I knew there was more to the story. Colt was the first to say anything.
“About that…you’re right…we saved you. It wasn’t exactly what we’d planned, but it was the only way to save your life.”
Something inside of me clicked, words that Weatherly had said coming back to me.
“He said he was going to bite me…bite me, mark me, make me his.” It sounded like a demented chant. “What did he mean?”
“Red…” Colt coughed, started again. “Red, to make someone who isn’t a shifter into one, we bite them. Bite them while we’re shifted. It…does more than just make you one of us. It also can save someone. Like you.”
“Save me? From Weatherly?”
“No. Save you from dying. Weatherly cut your throat. You were bleeding to death when we got there. The only way to save you was to change you.”
I twisted around, ignoring protests from both of them. I faced Colt. “You bit me? In that shack?”
I’d never had anyone look at me like Colt did. There was a hopelessness to that look, but there was something beneath that, a stubbornness that said he’d do it again, given the chance. And a lift to his chin that dared me to challenge what he’d done.
“You saved my life.” Not a question about it. No challenge to his actions. His face relaxed, his smile returning. “I’m one of you now. A shifter?”
“Yeah. I did. You are.”
I looked at Jericho. “I’m part of his clan, right? Not yours. Does that change anything between us?”
Jericho shook his head, and chuckled. I could see the look of surprise and relief on his face that of all possible questions, that was my main one. “It doesn’t have to. I really don’t mind. I just want to be with you…I don’t care about anything else.” He looked a little confused. “You seem awfully calm for someone who’s just been told she’s been bitten by, mated to, and turned into a shifter. Most people, from what I’ve heard, tend to be a little more…agitated, maybe…with that much information.”
I sat for a minute, looking out the window. I could see trees and what I thought was probably the top of Black Wolf. It was nice, this room, this view. I could do worse.
“Red? You okay?”
I looked back at Colt and Jericho. The guys I’d met yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that. I wasn’t sure when, really. My head hurt, worse than any migraine I’d ever had. But I knew they’d risked their life for me, and they’d taken it on faith that doing what they did was the best thing for me. It seemed only logical that I take it on faith that it was the right thing.
“If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m not like most girls.” That got a laugh from Colt, and a sound from Jericho that just made me shake my head.
“Could be that I’m a writer. I’ve written stuff that’s stranger than fiction. Although this is right up there with strange. But I’ve thought about what other kinds of lives would be like. Obviously I thought they were all fictitious, just stuff I made up. This is like finding out the fairy tale is real.”
I sank back against the pillows. Exhaustion swept through me like a summer breeze. I yawned, a rather inelegant gesture, considering.
“I’m tired. Is that normal?”
Jericho slid out from beside me. “Yeah. You lost a lot of blood. And Colt’s bite was on the aggressive side.”
“Hey…I’ve never done this before. And it wasn’t under ideal circumstances.” Colt replied, defensively. He sat up, easing me back onto the pillows. I sank into them, breathing out a sigh. I could feel consciousness dissolving, sleep taking over.
“Are you able to eat something? We can make you some soup.” Jericho asked, clearly concerned about me. “I’d rather you eat before you go to sleep again.”
“I can’t eat right yet… I’m just so tired. I’ll eat when I wake up. Please don’t worry. I just need to sleep a little longer, and then I’ll be good as new.”
“Just rest, Red. We’ll be around, checking on you. If you need anything, just let us know.” Colt’s voice was deep and soothing, and I found myse
lf drifting off quickly.
“How will you hear me?” I closed my eyes. Hands tucked the blankets around me, pulled the curtains, and doused the bedside light.
“Red, we’re wolves. We can hear you breathing.” Jericho replied.
I smiled, imagining them sitting somewhere close by in the dark, counting my breaths, my heartbeats. It put my mind and heart at ease, and I fell asleep knowing I was safe.
Chapter Seven
There were noises…crashing...things breaking. The scent of rotten wood, splinters in my fingers. Splinters in my neck. Clawing to get them out…someone cutting them out with a knife. My Dad used tweezers…when I was a kid…
Everything hurts…my neck…my body. I want Colt…Jericho…teeth.
I thought I was awake. Or that I was dreaming.
I screamed. And again. And then fell into something not really close to sleep, but further away from death than I had been.
* * *
The next time I woke up—really woke up—it was dark. Someone was sitting in the chair in the corner, snoring softly.
“Jericho?”
“Hey…” He sat up, the chair creaking. “How do you feel?”
“Tired. But better. Not so wiped out though. My head is all fuzzy. I think I had a bad dream.”
“You mumbled a lot, screamed sometimes. We’ve been taking turns sitting with you, to wake you up. But you were really out of it.”
I nodded. Out of it was a pretty good description.
“Are you hungry yet?”
I sat up, adjusting the pillows. Jericho turned on the lamp beside his chair. There were dark circles under his eyes, and I wondered how long he’d been sitting there, watching me sleep.
“Starving. What time is it?”
“Late…not far off dawn, I think. I lost track of time. I do know you’ve been sleeping for the better part of twenty-four hours.”
I stretched, easing the kinks out of my shoulders and neck. “You know how you feel when you go to the movies in the afternoon, and it’s dark when you come out? Kind of disoriented? I feel like that.”
Jericho laughed, stood up and crossed the room. “Yeah. It’s been a long time since I’ve been off the mountain, but I know what you mean.”
“Can you get Colt? I want to talk to you guys. Together.”
“Yeah, sure. But then you need to let me make something for you to eat.”
I sat in the dim light, listening to Jericho going downstairs, then outside, to his and Colt’s voices. I could hear them, from up here. The guys came in, and then there were footsteps on the stairs, louder as they came down the hall.
“Red. You okay?”
“I could hear you, hear almost everything you said, even outside.”
Colt broke into a big grin. “See? You are one of us now.”
I started shaking uncontrollably, my mind spinning. “One of you? I thought…that was all true? I thought I dreamed all of that…stuff about being bitten…being changed.”
Jericho sat on the edge of the bed. “It’s true, all of it. Do you remember the rest of it? Weatherly…”
“Yeah. I remember him…the knife…blood…” I touched my neck. There was a bandage…really just a big bandage, nothing like I thought I remembered. There had been something bigger around my neck.
“And Colt biting you?”
I stared at Colt. “Yes…” Teeth…
“Yes. You bit me after Weatherly…”
“Tried to kill you. With a knife.” Jericho said the words so carefully, as if saying them again would actually hurt me. Tears welled up in my eyes.
“Yeah…he did. Then there was a lot of crashing…”
“Colt broke down the door.”
…splinters…
“As a wolf. And you were there…” I reached for Jericho’s hand. “But not as a wolf.”
“No. I didn’t shift, in case we needed to get you back here. Which is what happened.”
“You killed Weatherly.”
Colt was still standing in the doorway. I held out my hand and he crossed the room, dropping onto the bed beside me, taking my hand.
“Yeah. I killed Weatherly.” His voice was low, almost inaudible. “I’ve never killed anyone before.”
His hand trembled, and I squeezed back. “Thank you. You saved my life.”
“He saved your life by biting you. By making you one of us.”
I glanced at Jericho. “That’s the part where I lost the thread. The part that I thought I dreamed. But that’s true?”
“It is. I bit you…it was the only way to save you. You’d lost so much blood. We thought we were too late. It was the only thing we could do. You can’t know how hard it was…knowing that you didn’t have a chance to decide yourself. That we decided your fate.”
“But you saved my life. I can’t be angry over that. I can be confused—and I am—but I can’t be angry.”
Colt squeezed my hand, then slid his arm around me, pulling me against his chest. “You’re one of us now. Part of the clan.”
I let him hold me. Jericho rubbed the spot between my shoulders, and we stayed like that, all wrapped up in each other, until my mind started coming up with more questions. I pushed away from Colt.
“And I’m part of Colt’s clan, right? I remember asking you this already, but I feel like I need to make sure that I understand.”
Colt nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”
I turned to Jericho. “And you’re sure we’re okay?” Just days ago these two men were complete strangers, and now it felt as though they were the most important people in my life. The thought of being away from them made me panic.
Jericho nodded, his lips curved into a bright smile. “You’re a shifter, a wolf…right now that’s all that matters. Your blood line isn’t pure anyway, since you were created, not born to this.” He shrugged. “Frankly, the least of my worries is if Colt bit you or I did. The only thing I…and he…care about is that you’re alive and in one piece.”
“Weatherly called it, a what? A bite to make me his?”
“Mating mark. And you’re mine, if you want to get technical.” Colt leaned back, the sexy half-smile I loved turning up the corner of his mouth.
“But I’m not one to get too hung up on technicalities.”
I punched Colt lightly on the shoulder. We sat for a long time, watching the darkness outside, me hearing things I’d never heard before. I was getting sleepy again, a good kind of sleepy, not the zoned out feeling I’d had before.
But there were things that needed to be figured out, at least for me. I was changed, marked…a radically different girl than the one who had arrived to spend the weekend doing yoga. I was a completely different animal now. But I was an animal who didn’t know where she belonged.
Finally Colt gave words to the thoughts running around in my head like a caged squirrel.
“You’re welcome to stay, if you want. I want you to stay.”
I punched him harder this time. “You said you don’t use mind control.”
“I don’t.” He rubbed his arm, winking. “But I can read them. You don’t know where to go…what to do. Stay here, think about it.”
“Like Colt said, you’re welcome here. For as long as you can stand us. Hopefully that’s longer than just the rest of the weekend.”
Then the important thing finally surfaced. Maggie. “What day is this?”
“Sunday. Or it will be when the sun comes up.”
“I’m supposed to go home today. If I don’t…people will worry. My best friend…she will be frantic.” I kicked aside the sheets, but there was too much masculinity holding them down. “I need to call…”
“Settle down. You shouldn’t get up yet. Besides, it’s not even light yet. Lay back, think about what you want to tell her. You’ve got time.”
“Can I get cell reception up here?” The thought of hiking to my car, then driving down that damned bumpy road to somewhere civilized seemed too exhausting to even contemplate. Plus there was my
stuff, my gear… my tent.
“Whoa…slow down.” Jericho set a hand on my shoulder, pushing me back against the pillows. “One step at a time. First, what are you going to tell her?”
“I’m going to tell her…” What the hell was I going to tell her? That I decided to just up and move in with a couple guys I happened to have sex with? Oh, and by the way, I’m a wolf?
“I can’t tell her the whole truth. You don’t want others…her…to know about this, do you?”
There was a moment of silence. Even though I couldn’t actually read their minds, it was pretty clear there was no debate on the answer to that question. A big fat no.
“Yeah…I thought so. No. So I won’t tell Maggie the why.”
“Wait. You’ve decided to stay?” There was a little more than a hint of surprise in Jericho’s voice. He sat up, turning to face me. Colt was in a similar state of shock apparently. I glanced at him, almost laughed at look on his face, but didn’t have the heart.
“Did you really think I’d leave now?”
“Red…you gotta admit this all happened to you so quickly. We don’t expect you to stay…we want you to…but…”
“It’s a lot to ask.” Colt finished Jericho’s sentence.
“But you did ask. And I accepted.” I heard my voice speaking the words, and wondered what I had just agreed to. It was totally off the wall, totally out of character for me, but then again, nothing about my former life seemed to fit anymore. I was a completely different person – half woman, half wolf – and I knew there was no possible way that I could return to life as it once was.
This is where I belonged. With Colt and Jericho. Between two wolves.
“There’s nothing conventional about my life. I work from home, I write strange stories. I don’t have any family…not that no one would miss me, but still. I can work from anywhere…as long as I have some kind of Internet access at some point. There are ways to work around that…”
“Hey, take a breath.” Jericho reached over, putting his hand over my mouth. “One thing at a time. You’ll stay?”