by Laken Cane
It was going to be a hard road ahead, getting the pack to accept me. It dimmed the joy of my coming shift, but it’d be okay. Eventually, after Jared officially welcomed me into the pack, they’d see me as one of them. Maybe.
I didn’t want to think about the fact that Jared had never told me I’d be one of his pack. He’d said only that he’d free my wolf. But Lennon had promised—or warned—that his freeing me would mean I was his. I’d believed her.
Jared might have other ideas. I was not confident enough to ask him. Not yet.
When we’d returned to the pack there was instant chaos as the wolves became aware of our run-in with the killer. They wanted to know what he was, if their alpha was harmed, had the creature escaped, and on and on.
When Jared had approached me, I remembered his words in the woods and cut him off before he could command me to undress and show him my boo boos. My wolf was giddy at the attention from an alpha and the coming possibilities, but my woman brain took over and demanded quite sternly that I calm the hell down before I got myself hurt. I’d learned early to guard my heart—especially from wolves.
After I’d stowed my various belts and weapons in my car, I’d stood beside him as he assured his pack he was fine and told them the creature had escaped. He’d also assured them that we would catch the bastard. We were the first wolves to have seen it, survived it, and returned to talk about it.
“It seems it can only hurt you if you’re shifted,” he told them, “so until we bring the bastard down, you cannot shift.”
The doctor and his nurse arrived as the wolves were going back to their homes. After he had a murmured conversation with them that I wasn’t privy to, Jared took my arm and led me to the admin center, which housed not only meeting rooms and offices, but a small doctor’s office and clinic, as well.
“What about you?” I asked him, trying to ignore the way the warmth of his hand sank through the fabric of my jacket and made my skin tingle. It was difficult to resist something I’d craved for so long—the touch of another wolf. I blamed my poor hobbled wolf for that need, but it wasn’t all her. “The creature had you for a few seconds. Do you feel any effects from that?”
“You no longer hate me,” he said, ignoring my question.
I swallowed, then shrugged. “My wolf is making that hard to do. She’s too happy about your promise to free her.” I grinned, going for casual and completely unaffected. I wasn’t entirely sure I was successful. “I guess she sees you as her savior.”
He glared. “I am no one’s savior, Ms. Silver.”
I already noticed how he called me “Ms. Silver,” when he was displeased or upset with me. “To my wolf, you’re a god, Alpha. She doesn’t agree with me that you’re a coldhearted asshole.”
He glared harder, but I saw Eli turn his head to hide a smile. “Eli,” he barked, likely having noticed the smirk as well, “get Lennon and bring her to my office. We need to figure out what this creature is. She should be able to see something now that I’ve gotten a look at it.”
“I know what it is,” I told him. “At least, I’m pretty sure I do. I’ll do some research to dig up everything I can, but hopefully when I’m finished, we’ll know how to kill it.”
“Tell me,” he ordered, as we strode into his office.
I gestured at the computer on his desk. “Can I use your computer? I’ll show you.”
He nodded, and I sat down in his comfortable chair, shivering slightly when he leaned over me to look at the monitor. “Just bring it up. I’ll read while the doctor looks at you.”
“I told you I’m good,” I said.
“You were injured working for me. It won’t hurt to be examined.”
I sighed, then gave in. “Fine.” I clicked the keys, scrolled through the results, and finally brought up what I was looking for. “This,” I said. “This is the creature we’re up against.”
The images were only illustrations, but there was no doubt it was the creature haunting the woods and killing the wolves.
“Exsoloup,” he muttered. “These images do look similar to the creature in the woods. I heard stories when I was a child, but never thought they were real.”
“Apparently they’re extremely rare,” I told him. “The wolf’s bogeyman.”
His shoulder brushed mine as he leaned closer, and as I tried to concentrate on the exsoloup’s story, I was distracted by the realization that if I turned my head just a little, I could slide out my tongue and taste the alpha’s skin.
I’d lost my mind, apparently.
I glared at the screen, forcing myself to remember how I’d felt when Jared had stood at his father’s side and watched my mother and me being pelted with rocks and forced from Gray Shadow land.
It did help. I stiffened and moved a little away from him, and I know he noticed. He said nothing, however, just silently read the story of the exsoloup’s origination.
It was believed to have originated in France. The creature was a wolf who’d begun a relationship with a sorceress. The sorceress fell in love with him, got pregnant, and when she went to him with the joyful news, she found him with another. He spurned her, telling her he’d never intended for her to be his one and only.
“A little stupid to fuck with a sorceress that way,” I murmured.
“Maybe he didn’t know she was a sorceress,” he replied.
She lost the child she carried—whether deliberately or from the shock was unclear—and as the months went by, she became obsessed with her lost love. She grew more and more bitter, stopped seeing people, stopped taking care of herself…nothing mattered to her but the wolf.
And getting revenge.
I shuddered when I read that bit, commiserating with the sorceress. I, too, had dreamed of revenge, though it was locked up tight in a dark corner of my mind.
The sorceress had cooked up a spell—a curse, really—and when it was ready, she’d sneaked up on the wolf as he lay sleeping, or so the story went, and hit him with the curse. It took his shift. He would always long to shift, but he was cursed to live the rest of his long life as a human. A human with a shifter’s needs, desires, wants.
Shit. Now I felt sorry for the fucking wolf. I well knew the agony of a wolf losing its shift.
But in a surprising twist, the wolf’s mother was as full of magic as the sorceress. She was a witchwolf, and in her grief at her son’s pain and loss, she gave him the ability to take what he couldn't have. When he sucked the life force from a wolf, he became a wolf for a little while, able to find his shift and run until the power wore off—then he was back to the monster.
He became like the creature we’d seen, hiding in the shadows, sucking life from wolves, alone, despairing, unable to shift but full of the agonizing need to do so, and his only relief came from killing others.
He took it, the selfish son of a bitch.
Who knew how the rest of the exsoloups came to be? There were only two theories in the article. One of them said the creature had raped one of his victims but let her live. Another said he’d fallen in love with one of his victims, gotten her pregnant, and they lived happily ever after.
But I knew monsters didn’t get a happy ever after.
Anyway, an exsoloup had come to Clinton County, and it had found the wolves. I imagined the creature traveled the world looking for victims. Wolves weren’t that numerous, really, but our county happened to have two packs. A veritable feast was at his fingertips.
“I’ll have to kill him,” I said.
“If this article is to be believed,” the alpha said, stepping back, “you can’t kill it.”
I frowned and peered at the rest of the text. Only a demon possessed the power to kill an exsoloup. The original sorceress had apparently put that into the curse as a way not to give the wolf relief in death, but to give the wolves reprieve should he become too powerful.
“Not a good plan, sister,” I muttered. Then I blew out a tired breath. “That explains why you didn’t kill him despite stabbing him a doze
n times.” I looked at him. “And quite viciously, might I add.”
Someone tapped on the door and then the nurse who’d arrived with the doctor stuck her head into the room. “He has surgery in two hours, Jared.”
Jared pulled me to my feet. “Go with Belinda. They’ll make sure you’re all right.”
I didn’t argue. I wanted to think about the exsoloup and how we might possibly kill it. I had a demon on my ass, but I didn’t see a way of convincing him to kill the creature for me.
I stopped to look back at Jared as I reached the door. “It’s just a tale, you know. I’m not going to stop chasing the creature just because an article tells me I can’t kill him. There has to be something, some weakness. If I can’t kill him, I’ll catch and imprison him so he can’t do any harm. I can take his head, wrap him in silver, and bury him in the ground like we do rogue vampires.”
I didn’t want him or his pack thinking I was a failure. Also, he’d already paid me, and I wanted to be sure he got his money’s worth. I was suddenly concerned about what the alpha and the pack thought of me. I didn’t like it, but it was true.
“Kaitlyn,” he said, his voice low and smooth, “I know you’ll do your job.”
I frowned and walked away with the nurse, wondering why his words really didn’t make me feel any better.
Chapter Thirteen
The perplexed doctor stared at the scars on my body, even as he helped his nurse—Belinda—wipe away the blood from the new ones. I’d gotten injuries I’d ignored from my encounter with the exsoloup, but none as bad as the stab wound. Funny thing was, the smaller wounds were the ones causing me trouble.
Just as when the demon cut me, the injury from the demon blade was nearly healed. It was as though my blade could not hurt me. All that remained of the stab wound was a rapidly closing hole. It would leave a small scar, as the slash across my chest had left a thin line, but even that might go away eventually.
He wasn’t paying much attention to that scratch, though he had to wonder where all the blood was coming from. He was confused about the old scars that hadn’t healed.
“Wolves shift,” he murmured, his white brows low over his kind brown eyes, “and they heal. You should not have such scars.”
I realized then that the doctor knew nothing about me. He couldn’t know that I healed slower or that, while I was not as vulnerable as a human I was not nearly as strong as a shifter. He didn’t know who I was.
“I’m a shifter,” I said blandly, “but my alpha hobbled my wolf when I was fourteen years old. I’ve never had a chance to shift.”
Both he and the nurse stilled their hands and gaped at me in horror. Finally, Belinda busied herself smoothing bandages over cleaned scrapes and dabbing balms over bruises and angry welts, her stare flitting from me to the doctor and back again.
The doctor shook his head, his stare just a little colder. “I have known Jared since he was born. He would never sentence someone to such a shocking fate. You are obviously one of his warriors. Why are you—”
“Doc,” I interrupted, before he could work himself into loyalty-induced rage, “Jared is not my alpha.”
It seemed to take a few seconds for my words to sink in. When they did, his cheeks infused with color and he took a step back, pity and regret chasing each other across his face. “My dear,” he finally murmured. “I apologize for jumping to conclusions. I am appalled by your hobbling. Surely your advocates can speak with your alpha on your behalf and convince him to reverse such an awful sentence. Why would he do this thing to a child?”
“My name is Kait Silver,” I said evenly. “My father was Daniel Silver. I’m sure you’ve heard of him.”
“Oh,” he said. “Oh, I see.” But he didn’t look at me with disgust or contempt. He patted my hand. “You were a child. What your father did had nothing to do with you and your mother. I never agreed with Adam Thorne’s tactics when it came to dealing with his pack. Awful leader, that one. Just awful.”
“Well,” I said dryly, “I did step in and try to kill him.”
He snorted. “You were a child with a blade. He was the alpha. You were never going to kill him.”
“No,” I murmured, finally. “I guess I never was. But he was enraged that I would dare try.”
His stare sharpened. “His arrogance is astounding, true, but there is more to his reaction, Kait. There would have to be.”
I only nodded.
“Because of the obvious unfairness of the punishment,” he continued, “perhaps he would be inclined to end it now that the years have passed. I would be happy to petition him on your behalf, as I’m sure Jared would.”
I curled my lip. “Jared has known about my problem for twelve years. He was never inclined to help me.” And just like that, my anger at the Gray Shadow Pack alpha returned.
Then Belinda murmured, “Adam Thorne detests our alpha, Ben. He would only be moved to hurt her further if Jared intervened.”
“Ah.” The doctor nodded. “You are right, of course. Still, there must be something we can do.”
“He can’t hurt me now,” I told them. “He banished my mother and me from the pack.”
Belinda disagreed. “It doesn’t matter if he banished you. In his mind you still belong to him, and if he decides to send wolves after you so he can bring you back and hurt you, he will definitely do so.”
She was right. Also, she seemed to know Adam Thorne pretty well. Or maybe, like most people, she simply knew his reputation.
“Jared believes he can free my wolf,” I said reluctantly. “He felt her when he came to ask for my help catching the creature attacking his wolves.”
“Amazing,” the doctor roared, seemingly as thrilled about the pending freedom as I was. “There you are, then.” Then he frowned. “But if he can feel your wolf enough to free her, wouldn’t that mean—”
“Doctor Hayes,” Belinda interrupted hastily, “let’s finish up with Ms. Silver so she can go home and get some rest.”
“Yes, of course,” he said, then smiled and patted my hand again. “You’ll be fine. I will be on standby for when you achieve your shift. I’m quite sure you’ll need me. I’ll tell Jared to let me know when the time arrives. After being hobbled for so long, your wolf will certainly be—”
“Doctor Hayes,” Belinda said, a little desperate. “Look at this contusion. Do you think we need pictures?”
I laughed, well aware of what problems I might face when my wolf was finally freed. “It’s fine,” I said. “I don’t need x-rays.” I smiled at her. “And I’m not afraid of what’s to come.”
When I finally escaped the doctor’s office, I didn’t attempt to find Jared to let him know I was leaving. We both had a lot to think about, and I was sure he and Lennon would be in contact if they found anything new about the exsoloup. I’d left all my information on the form I’d been given to complete.
In the meantime, I’d catch up on some sleep, eat enormous amounts of food, and return to the Gray Shadow Pack tomorrow night to try again to capture or kill the creature.
Jared was right. I would absolutely do my job.
But before I got into my car, something made me turn around and peer into the shadows, and I saw the alpha leaning against a tree, watching me go. Just making sure no one harassed me as I left his land, most likely.
Neither of us spoke. For a few seconds I stared at his shadowy form, motionless, unsure. I didn’t know what I was unsure about, though.
“Goodnight, Kaitlyn,” he called, finally, his deep voice wafting through the darkness.
I shivered. “Goodnight, Jared.”
And then I climbed into my car and got the hell out of there.
Chapter Fourteen
By the time I got home, my stomach was roaring at me, but a shower and change of clothing would come before I ate. I was a very dirty girl—in a gross and bloody way.
Even before I left my car, I could smell food coming from inside my house, and I knew Lucille had cooked me up a feast. I would
devour every morsel.
But when I lifted my kill kit from my car and climbed the porch steps, company was waiting. I didn’t carry a gun as humans weren’t a problem for me and supernaturals didn’t care about a gun. I did wish I hadn’t taken off my various belts and sheaths, as I was currently without holy water, stakes, or even salt.
I did, however, still have my trusty and wonderful demon blade. I gently placed my kit on the floor against the wall. Without saying a word or taking my stare from the shadowy figure at the end of the porch, and I drew my blade.
It came out with a sexy snick that gave me goosebumps, and once again I wondered at the strange attachment I had for the knife. I faced my silent visitor. “What do you want?”
He said nothing but moved forward, and it was only when I saw the air sort of wrinkle and shimmer that I realized he was only a spirit. I blew out a hard breath and slid my blade back into its sheath. Sometimes I’d see a dozen “ghosts” a day, and sometimes I wouldn’t see one for a week.
Some of them tried hard to talk, but some of them seemed to have lost their capacity for understanding what speech even was. This man seemed to be in the latter category. He simply stared, frowning ferociously, aware I could see him but upset that I didn’t know what was wrong. I should feel it, I was sure he believed, this poor dead soul.
“I’m sorry,” I said gently, “I can’t hear you. But I’ll help you. Do you know why you’re here?”
He stared at me for a few seconds, then slowly nodded his head.
“Sometimes we get lost and need help to find our way. Is that what happened to you?” I didn’t wait to see if he’d nod, shake his head, or ignore me. I dug my keys from my jacket pocket, unlocked the door, and picked up my kit. “Come inside,” I told the dead man.
The heavenly aroma of juicy meat and spices hit me hard when I opened the door, and I groaned. I was going to have to help this guy find his paradise soon or I honestly feared I might starve to death. Damn, I was hungry.