by Beth Wylde
“Is she going to be okay?” The genuine concern in Katie’s voice made Tinsel smile.
“Yeah, she will be as long as we can keep her away from the candy bars.”
Katie laughed lightly. “She always did like sweets, especially the Godiva chocolate. You can’t fault her for having good taste.”
“I know, but now that she’s diabetic, that good taste could kill her.”
“I hope she feels better.” Katie paused for a moment before steering the conversation back to her problem. “Now, about the reason why I called you. My sorority’s annual charity gala is tomorrow night and my date, Chuck, just called to tell me that he broke his leg today during a scrimmage game. He purposely waited until the last minute to tell me so that I didn’t have time to find a replacement. What am I going to do? I can’t have my date limping around on crutches and crushing my two-hundred-dollar Prada pumps and I cannot go alone! Either way my reputation will be ruined. You have to come help me. You have to!”
“I’ll see what I can do. I need to check on Grandma first, though. Then if she’s okay, I’ll pack a small overnight bag and head directly for your college.” Tinsel tried unsuccessfully to stifle her frustrated groan, but Katie picked up instantly on the depressing sound.
“What’s wrong, Red?”
She sighed audibly over the line, embarrassed to have to admit the dilemma, even to her best friend. “I’m a little short on cash right now. I got laid off from work recently.”
“That’s great. Now you don’t have to worry about asking for time off, besides, you know I’ll give you enough money to cover your expenses.”
“I don’t like to take your money.”
“Why not?”
Tinsel grimaced at the question. Over the last several years she’d tried to explain the need to be independent, only to have her best friend look at her like she’d lost her mind. “I’m trying to be self-sufficient. I’ve got my own apartment, a car that’s paid for, and, until recently, a steady job. When I manage to get some money saved up, I’m going to enroll in a few classes at the community college here.”
Kat’s squeal of horror was so loud Tinsel had to pull the phone away from her ear to avoid permanent damage. “Oh, my God! Tinsel, you’re living like a pauper. I don’t understand why you didn’t come with me to the university. Your grades were ten times better than mine and I got in.”
The sarcasm in her reply was unmistakable. “Yeah, and the outrageous tuition was just a drop in the bucket for your dad.”
“Daddy offered to pay for you to come with me.”
“Katie! You know why I refused. I could never have paid your father back all that money.”
Tinsel steadied herself for the reply she knew was coming. “But Daddy never asked you to pay him back. I wanted you here with me and Daddy always does what makes me happy. I hate the thought of you living in that one-room box you call an apartment and waiting tables in a bar like some lowly servant. Ewww! Just the thought of it makes me feel sick.”
“I’m okay, Kat, really. It feels good to pay my own bills.”
Kat went silent and Tinsel could just picture the look of revulsion on her friend’s face. “Stop it, Tinsel. You’re going to make me throw up. I’m under enough stress as it is.”
“Katie...”
“Seriously, all that walking in those cheap shoes to carry people drinks and food back and forth across a cement floor. And what about your hands? I’ll bet your nails are a disaster. Do you even have polish on them?” She continued before Tinsel could form a reply. “No, wait, don’t even answer that! I don’t think I can handle another crisis right now. We’ll get you fixed up and then we’ll figure out where I can find a last minute substitution for Chuck. It’s going to be tough to get everything done in the little bit of time we have, but we’ll manage somehow.”
Tinsel wasn’t sure if her friend was more concerned over her now-defective date or her lack of a manicure. Sometimes with Katie, it was hard to tell. She smiled over the misguided but well-meaning concern. It was nice to have a friend who cared so much.
The sound of a door opening and closing in the background made Kat gasp. “Oh, no, my sorority sisters are home. I have to go. I can’t let them find out about Chuck. I’ve got to go pull myself together. See you soon, Red. Bye!”
As Tinsel turned off her phone to avoid any more interruptions, the trees on the side of the road grew thicker and the driving got tougher. The interstate leading out of Raleigh was clear where it had been plowed and salted by the Department of Transportation, but remnants of the deep white powder still lingered on the winding country roads where the shade blocked the sun’s melting rays and the locals were left to plow their own way. The real danger, however, was the black ice. Those impossible-to-see spots of water that liquefied during the day and refroze at night in the below freezing weather.
Deeper into the woods, her car’s heater stopped working and within minutes, Tinsel was shivering. She hunched down in the driver’s seat, burrowing deeper into her thin sweater to try and stay warm. Ten minutes later, she was cursing at herself for being too cheap to buy a decent winter jacket.
As she went around a particularly sharp curve, her Honda slid suddenly to the right. Tinsel pulled the steering wheel to the left to try to correct the problem. She tugged too hard and the slide turned into a spin. She fought not to panic, pumping the brakes the way she’d been taught years ago in Driver’s Education. The vehicle responded by losing traction altogether and launching itself into the trees. Tinsel had just enough time to cover her face before she plowed into the snow bank. The white mound hid the embankment waiting on the other side and as she free fell down the steep hill, she started to scream.
The world flipped upside down and then right side up over and over again. Her car’s lack of a working seatbelt ensured that she received a brutal thrashing. After what seemed like an eternity, the car came to a grinding halt when it collided with a huge boulder. The sudden stop propelled Tinsel forward, flinging her through the windshield and out into the wilderness.
She landed in the heavy underbrush of the ravine, hitting the ground with a force so hard, she bounced. The taste of blood filled her mouth where her lip had split and she’d bitten her tongue. More of the red liquid oozed from the dozens of multiple cuts and lacerations that covered her skin. Her head throbbed, too, and her vision was blurry.
She turned slowly to her left side, trying to get a good look at her surroundings. She was rewarded with a rolling wave of nausea and a spell of body-wracking chills. The ground was ice cold, below freezing, in fact, and her body grew colder with every passing moment. It was during the aftermath of one of the shaking spells that Tinsel noticed her leg.
It was bent backwards at an impossible angle and she gasped as she realized how badly broken it had to be. She gritted her teeth in preparation for the staggering pain now that she’d discovered the injury, but none came. In fact, the leg was pleasantly numb.
Tinsel recognized the numbness as a bad sign, but she couldn’t remember why. All she knew was that she needed to get warm. She turned further sideways, curling into a fetal position to help conserve body heat. Her broken leg chose that moment to flare back to life with a stabbing pain so intense, she screamed. The whole situation was suddenly too overwhelming and she started to cry as she huddled into her ripped and all but useless clothing. It was impossible to generate warmth in the below-zero temperature.
Tinsel started to panic, knowing the ravine was too steep for her to climb with her injuries. She also knew the possibility of someone spotting the wreck from the road was slim to none. She feared freezing or bleeding to death before anyone could rescue her. She took a deep breath, thankful when her leg started to go numb again, and tried to form a plan of escape. She desperately needed to find help, but she didn’t remember spotting any houses close by. She was stuck in a virtually empty forest. The more Tinsel tried to focus on her problems, the harder it became to form a coherent thought. Her vision
was getting blurrier and her eyelids were suddenly too heavy to hold open. Just lifting her head off the ground made her head swim and gave her dry heaves. She finally gave up on trying to move, propping her neck on her outstretched arm and closing her eyes. As she allowed herself to drift off, she vowed just to rest long enough to build up some strength. Instead of catching a nap, she blacked out completely.
———
Lance shook his head as he headed into the woods with his teenage nephew. Jacob was already running ahead through the dense forest, leaping over the fallen trees as he disappeared from his uncle’s sight. A normal person would have called the boy back by now, but Lance just let him keep going. As long as he could scent Jacob on the wind, he knew that Jacob was all right. Lance sometimes wondered if werewolves had such a keen sense of smell so they could keep up with their offspring. He was pondering that thought when a new scent drifted to him on the breeze, one that signaled danger, and he hollered out to Jacob immediately.
“Jacob, stop where you are. Something’s wrong.”
The sound of the boy walking back towards him made him groan. “I said stay where you are!”
Jacob peered out from behind a prickly shrub. “I got worried, Uncle Lance. What’s wrong? Is it the hunter?”
His uncle sighed as he shook his head. “I don’t think so. This doesn’t smell like gunpowder, just a strong scent of something burning.” He inhaled deeply. “And it’s close by.”
Jacob nodded hesitantly. At fifteen, his werewolf senses were really making themselves known, which put his inner wolf at war with his human instincts. He wanted to be brave, like his father the Alpha, but he also carried the uncertainty all teenagers possessed. He didn’t understand the changes his body was going through and he shared his disgust of the situation freely with anyone who would listen.
“I don’t smell anything.”
“You’re still young. You haven’t had your first change yet, though I suspect it won’t be very long now before you do. Give yourself time to learn how to use your enhanced senses. You’ll get used to them in time.”
“I don’t want to get used to them. I never asked for any of this.”
“You didn’t have to ask. You were born with the genetic traits that make you a werewolf. We all were.” Lance huffed as he turned to track the scent’s origin. “I don’t know why I offered to take you hunting with me if you’re going to be so stubborn about everything. You should be proud to be what you are.”
“Why should I be proud to be an animal?”
Lance shook his head in exasperation. “Good lord, it’s a wonder your father hasn’t taken you out back and beaten you senseless. You’re dad’s the Alpha, and you’re his oldest child and son, which means you’ll take his place as the leader of the Den one day.”
“Mom says Dad’s getting too old to teach me what I need to know. She thinks I need a younger werewolf to show me the ropes.”
“Your mom’s young. Why doesn’t she take you out?”
“She’s too busy having babies to find the time to go out with me. Besides, Dad doesn’t like her to hunt without him.”
Lance grunted in irritation at the statement. “Ugh! I love your dad, but he is the epitome of an overbearing Alpha.” Lance paused and scented the wind, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled. ”The fire’s getting stronger and something or someone has been hurt pretty badly, too. I smell blood, and a lot of it.”
Lance took off running, his nephew following close behind. As his brain processed all of the odd scents nearby, his body took on a mind of its own, propelling him forward despite his reluctance. The smell was definitely human, definitely female, and definitely fertile. It was a scent that overpowered everything around him, even the burning stench of the fire. A fragrance like ripe fruit on the vine just waiting to be plucked and tasted. Just the thought had his cock rapidly expanding inside the tight confines of his worn jeans.
He knew his body’s reaction was a bad sign. He was a dominant adult male, the Alpha’s brother, which was close enough for it to be an issue. To make matters worse, he was unmated. It was an age-old instinct for a full grown male werewolf to claim a woman of his own, but he’d never encountered any Den females that interested him. The fact that he found himself more turned on by the scent of the human female he was ready to rescue than he’d ever been around women of his own kind disturbed him greatly. Lance wondered what he was about to walk into. He almost hoped the woman wasn’t alive, because if she was, her life and his were about to get really complicated. In light of recent events, his life didn’t need any more complications.
The pack was dwindling rapidly and hiding among the humans was getting tougher every day. His brother had already made emergency evacuation preparations in case any more Den families in the area were attacked.
Chapter Four
Lance knew the woman was close by. Along with the increasingly overwhelming scent of fruit and blood, he could see the first tendrils of smoke as they crept out from between the thick, viney undergrowth up ahead. The smell of fire and peaches grew stronger, newly tinged with a harsh chemical undertone, and he knew the scene was going to be a bad one. It was too late for him to turn his back on the woman, but he could still protect his nephew from the sight.
“Jacob, run home and tell your mom there’s been an accident. There’s a woman hurt. She’s human and bleeding badly. It may already be too late.”
The boy caught up, shaking his head vehemently. “I want to come with you.”
“No. You need to do what I tell you. Get your dad, too. Tell him there’s a fire. We can’t risk having someone call the fire department. A lot of people prowling around here at night wouldn’t be a good thing after what happened to the Collins family last month.”
Jacob was trying hard to hide the fact he was terrified, but Lance could smell the fear rolling off the adolescent in waves. “Don’t make me go back alone.”
Lance paused for only a moment to address the boy, knowing he needed to be firm but hating it all the same. “I said go home! Now, Jacob. RUN!” He despised himself for sounding so harsh, but it had taken the voice of authority to make the teen listen when he was so frightened.
Lance quickly regained his focus, listening intently for some sign of life. The lack of sound frightened him to the core of his soul. Panic rose swiftly inside him at the thought that she might already be dead and he cringed at the feeling. He did not need to bond with the woman before he even met her. His future was looking bleak enough as it was.
Lance moved faster, bursting into the ravine at a dead run. When he came upon the accident site, he stopped dead in his tracks. The woman looked like a corpse and, if not for the fact that up close his sensitive hearing could still detect her shallow breathing and the sluggish pump of blood through her veins, he might have started digging a grave instead of attempting a rescue. Based on what he saw, he knew burying her was still a possibility. Her chances for survival looked grim at best.
He shook off his gloomy thoughts and got down to business. At present, she was still alive and he needed her to stay that way. His inner wolf had already made his choice clear, so he needed to rescue her and quick. His first priority was getting her out of the cold and away from the steadily growing fire. He could smell gas now, too, which was a really bad sign. Gas and fire did not mix well, and he knew from recent experience that burnt werewolves smelled especially gross.
Lance bent down on one knee, noticing for the first time how critical the woman’s injuries actually were. She was completely unconscious and he had no idea how long she’d been that way. Her body lay motionless on the ground and where her skin was visible it was nearly bone white in color. Her lips were tinged blue and her broken leg was still oozing blood. Death seemed almost imminent.
His hands reached out, almost of their own will, needing to touch her in order to assure himself she was real and not just a figment of his imagination. As he smoothed the tangled mass of red hair back off of her forehead, he gasped. Sh
e was tiny and delicate and so damned beautiful it made his chest hurt. With her fiery red hair and alabaster skin, she looked like she’d stepped directly out of a children’s fairytale book. The image of her lying battered and broken on death’s doorstep made him want to howl in outrage.
The sudden sound of a deep male voice cut through the haze of Lance’s thoughts. “Lance! What’s going on?”
“Over here, Thomas. Hurry.”
Lance sighed with relief as his older brother stepped out of the trees. Even through there was almost fifteen years difference between them, the two men looked almost like twins. They were both tall and devastatingly handsome, and even though it was freezing outside, they were dressed in faded jeans and sleeveless T-shirts, as if the cold didn’t affect them at all. They each had the same amazingly long, golden blond hair and sharp cheekbones. Thomas’ golden mane was streaked through with gray, but instead of making him look aged, it lent him an air of distinction that fit perfectly with his title as the Alpha. Both brothers even had blue eyes, but Lance knew his were a startlingly odder shade, nearly aqua in color.
———
The sudden heat and feel of a man’s hand on her body startled Tinsel so much that she opened her eyes. She was busy staring up into cerulean orbs when the second man coughed to get the other’s attention.
“Hmmm, looks like she likes you, Lance.”
“Shut up, Thomas. This is serious. The car is on fire and we need to put it out before someone calls the police. Her leg is also broken and I’m afraid to move her before I get it splinted.”
“I’ll go find something suitable to use for her leg until we can get her back to the house. Dalenna is setting up the guest room with whatever medical supplies we might need.” Thomas paused long enough to give the injured woman another quick once over. “She’s shaking. She needs to be heated up fast or she’s not going to make it.”
Tinsel giggled as her blue-eyed Adonis leaned down and buried his face against her neck.