Half Wolf

by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

  He had to get as far as he could on all fours first.

  He loped through the open doors and down the first corridor, sensing Kaitlin’s presence as if she’d magically appear if he looked hard enough. If she had been there, he would have pushed her against a wall and kissed her stupid for taking so many chances with a precious life that had been given a second chance.

  He would also have done more than that.

  Michael! Panic laced Kaitlin’s call.

  He pushed through an office door, scaring an elderly woman who was leaving. He spied a desk and a man’s jacket hanging on the back of a chair.

  Ignoring the woman, who had quickly exited, probably to call the police or animal control, he morphed back to a more acceptable shape, sweating, breathing harder than usual. His internal heat level was at a record high and left the wolf, safely tucked inside again, whining to again be free.

  Grabbing the coat, shoving his arms into the sleeves, Michael raced back to the hallway figuring that being half dressed was the only option open to him and better than nothing when a life was at stake.

  He lucked out again. A forgotten backpack leaned against a wall beneath a bulletin-board. He snatched it as he ran, finding a pair of jeans rolled up inside. Pausing only seconds, he pulled them on.

  Kaitlin. I’m on my way.

  I’m sorry were the words she sent back that stoked the fires allowing him to pick up more speed.

  He found the stairs Kaitlin had used. Following her scent, grimacing over the odor of what was chasing her, Michael took those stairs three at a time.

  Kaitlin was leading her shadow on a crooked path with hopes of ditching the beast, oblivious to the scent of the creep’s bloodlust that saturated the slightly stale library air. Michael found it hard to believe that a bloodsucker had dared to enter this building. Did that mean bloodsuckers were evolving?

  He could not allow this one to be seen. He had to kill it. End it.

  Hold tight, Kate.

  He had said those words to her before, on that first night, wondering if she would survive. Michael repeated them again now, as much for his own peace of mind as for hers.

  Hold tight, little wolf.

  He reached the mezzanine without drawing too much attention to himself. Luckily, this old library didn’t have many students lingering at its scattered desks. The few who were present were deep in their studies.

  Kaitlin’s scent grew stronger as Michael rushed toward the shelves leading to a back wall, where the stink of what was chasing her hovered. He nearly stopped to consider the shock of that smell.

  The thing pursuing her wasn’t a vampire.

  He saw her. Kaitlin’s fear got stronger with each step the thing that chased her took, and yet that fear hadn’t crippled her. He was moved by that show of bravery.

  The thing focusing on Kaitlin hadn’t expected him, and didn’t bother to turn as Michael approached from behind. Taking hold of the creature’s shirt, he spun the short, tightly muscled body around with a twitch of his arm and stared into a dark, expressionless face.

  It was a Were he held onto. A Were in man form that carried in its scent the foul odors of a bloodsucker because it was covered in ash.

  There was no time to deal with the ramifications of that.

  “Out of your league, my furry friend,” he said with a harsh half growl. “And much too far from whatever hole you crawled out of.”

  Without struggling too much, the Were hissed one word, “Her,” with a breath that smelled of dead fish.

  Since the Were’s gaze was glued to Kaitlin, there was no doubt about who the beast meant. Her. Michael didn’t like this. What was a lone wolf doing in Clement? Why hadn’t his pack gotten wind of it before this? Why hadn’t he?

  The creature’s response left him with the sinking feeling that it had one specific goal tonight, and that goal was Kaitlin Davies. No one else. Just Kaitlin. He had thought the same thing about the vampires.

  Why would that be true, if it were?

  “Who are you? Who sent you? Plenty of others weren’t lucky tonight when they faced us,” he said.

  The Were didn’t even pretend to fight Michael’s hold. It stood there with its red-rimmed eyes locked on Kaitlin as if mesmerized by her.

  This was both creepy and surreal. If this creature was crazed, the scents drifting upward from those students had to be working on the demented Were’s mind. Yet it didn’t seem to notice.

  “Leave this Were to me,” he said to Kaitlin. “Go now. Wait for me in the hallway. Don’t go outside alone in case there are more of these guys.”

  Bless her, she nodded and said, “Should I get the other people out? There aren’t many students here.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “There’s a fire alarm on every floor.”

  He nodded. “Use one.”

  When she turned, the Were in his grip began to struggle. It wanted to go after Kaitlin. The short male Were was strong, but unsteady on its feet, as if weakened by sickness. Sweat gleamed on a face that was as pale as a vampire’s. Muscles that should have been taut quivered. This Were might have wanted to hurt someone tonight, yet wasn’t strong enough to best an Alpha who had made Kaitlin’s safety a personal mission.

  Kaitlin didn’t take long to find that fire alarm. The shrill sound streaked through the building like the roar of a tweaked nerve. He heard students leave their seats and head for the door, grumbling about being disturbed by what could have been an overused prank.

  The Were in his grasp strained against Michael’s hold, snapping its human teeth the way vampires snapped theirs, possibly recognizing what the alarm bell meant. No one liked fire. However, this Were’s mind had to be severely muddled for it to believe there was a fire without scenting a single wisp of smoke.

  Michael had to try to get this wolf out of the building and into the open, where he could explore the reason for its unannounced presence. But the Were twisted suddenly as if just regaining its wits, and was stronger than it looked.

  Michael had never enjoyed fighting. He detested unnecessary violence. His family had been decimated by his mother’s murder. Nevertheless, keeping secrets was paramount, so getting this Were out, and away from humans, was at the top of his list.

  He tried to drag the flailing werewolf to the stairs. The Were had a punch like a prize fighter, and several of those punches in a row threatened to knock the wind out of Michael. He tasted blood, ditched the idea of getting this guy out of the building peacefully and rallied with a right cross of his own that managed to stop the Were long enough to try to get a better look at him.

  The rogue wasn’t going to submit to closer observation or be taken anywhere. The eyes were black, wide, wild. There wasn’t much human left in that face, though the Were could not transition inside the building or outside without a full moon. Nevertheless, this guy’s body was trying to do just that, and trapped in the inferno of mutating cells.

  The fire alarm had been going off for a few minutes too long already. There would be a response soon. They had to get out.

  “Why?” Michael asked, managing to pin the Were’s arms to its sides after receiving another blow to the stomach that temporarily turned his vision red.

  The Were spat in Michael’s face and again tried to bite.

  “I don’t know what you’re thinking, my friend.” Michael wrestled with the beast. “Or what you’ve done to smell so bad, and what you’re up to.”

  He tried again to drag the Were to the stairs. The wolf shook him off, jumped over the railing and hit the floor below with an audible crack to several leg bones. The maimed creature howled as it lunged through a window, breaking the glass, spreading shards in all directions.

  Michael stared, too surprised to move.

  “Michael?”

  His attention snapped back to the floor beneath the mezzanine. Cade was there, looking up.

  “You might want to come down here,” Cade said. “Pronto.”

  Damn it. There were so man
y reasons why he didn’t like that remark.

  *

  Kaitlin watched the few people in the library leave. She stayed just inside the door in the shadows, hoping she wouldn’t be seen.

  In spite of the fear and the anger she was feeling, she was determined to remain human, even though her body was telling her it wanted to change. Energy was sparking within her, as if her nerves had become live wires. She flinched with each inaudible zap of white-hot electricity, shocked by those sensations, feeling as though she had been electrocuted.

  Half her body was chilled. The other half was extremely hot. There seemed to be a line down the center of her body to separate the two temperatures, just as there were going to be two sides of her physically when the full moon showed up.

  Light-headedness was a side effect for having passed in and out of shock for the past few days, she supposed. The miracle was that she no longer felt sick to her stomach.

  Her skin was twitchy. Her scalp tingled. She imagined moonlight playing on her skin, though she was indoors. None of those reactions hurt her. They were scary, new, weird.

  Although Michael had encouraged her to wait for him, Kaitlin wasn’t sure she should. She would be relatively safe in a crowd and there were plenty of students and university staff members surrounding her. When those people dispersed, she would have to find someplace safe to hide from both vampires and wolves until she got her wits back.

  Peace was what she craved. Peace, quiet and everything having to do with the term normal. In her mind were echoes of explosions that had been vampires turned to ash. If that wasn’t incredible enough, her mind also churned up an image of one central figure standing in all that ash like a mythical phoenix rising from the flames.

  Guess who.

  Michael’s presence always gave her a whole new series of shudders and quakes, followed by an unusual pressure on her eardrums. He was now her Alpha. What kind of power did Alphas actually wield over their packs? Maybe her attraction to him was part of that.

  Michael wasn’t much older than the other Weres she had seen tonight. Cade was larger. Rena was sassier. Together, they formed a tight family unit that seemed to easily read each other, and willingly traded verbal barbs and clothes. This was going to be her new second family. She would graduate from the university with an advanced degree soon, and then what? Would she leave this pack behind? Did that happen?

  Damn it. Explaining these new connections to the family she already had was going to be a bitch.

  Obviously, some Weres weren’t as nice as Michael’s pack. Case in point, the Were in the library that had tried to kill her.

  Sirens in the distance were getting closer, the sound underscored by the ongoing shriek of the fire alarm.

  After discovering this alarm was false, firemen would depart and everyone would go back to their routines. Everything would be as usual, with the exception of the possible broken chairs and shelves on the mezzanine, the result of Michael dealing with a beast that was like him on the outside, but seemed to be very different on the inside.

  Michael hadn’t reappeared. She’d heard something break on the mezzanine when she took the stairs to the main floor. Who would explain the destruction in this building if there was any? Who was going to question it?

  She couldn’t wait around to see. With the building clearing out, she had to appear to be as surprised as anyone else by the sound of the alarm. She had to go outside, but she wouldn’t go far.

  The night assailed Kaitlin when she marched tentatively down the steps. Onlookers had gathered on the lawn to see what had happened. Kaitlin walked through them, catching sight of a gleam of black hair in the lights. Her heart sputtered, though she reasoned this wasn’t Michael, because she had left him behind.

  It was Rena.

  “Brava, Kaitlin.” Rena stepped forward to meet her. “If your hand tripped that alarm, you’re fairly wily.”

  “I feel like hell,” Kaitlin confessed, looking over her shoulder for Michael.

  “Welcome to the club. I feel that way half the time I’m awake,” Rena said.

  “Really?”

  “Nope. That’s just my first and maybe final attempt to bond with a new pack-mate.”

  Kaitlin took a moment before speaking again, wanting her voice to be steady, refusing to show the extent of her frustration with tonight’s events to a wolf who possibly wouldn’t have the same take on things.

  “What now? Can I go home? Is it safe?” She didn’t see anything in this crowd that resembled a raving lunatic. What she needed right then was a hot shower and her bed. She was going to cover her head with as many blankets as possible and hope the world would go away.

  “If he thinks it’s safe,” Rena replied.

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Then Michael will try to pawn you off on me, me being the only other female in this pack.”

  “I’d be sorry to put you out.”

  Rena tilted her head. “Really?”

  “No. Just trying to bond with a potential pack-mate.”

  Rena’s bark of laughter ended with a smile. No blood stained the she-wolf’s clothes. There was no ash in her hair or other evidence of having fought vampires tonight. Rena looked calm on the surface, though Kaitlin doubted this female ever embodied the word calm.

  She wondered what they all did when they weren’t prowling for bad guys. Fight each other for sport?

  As Rena’s eyes slid past Kaitlin, the she-wolf’s smile faded. “The king approaches,” she said. “Prepare to bow.”

  Chapter 11

  A heat wave preceded Michael, the kind of warmth that combated the chills icing half of Kaitlin’s spine.

  Being in close proximity to Michael meant moving toward his species one internal trick at a time. Refusing to look at him was not an option, though. The sheer magnificence of Michael striding toward them stirred up feelings that moved Kaitlin way down deep.

  Even after being chased by vampires and fighting off round after round of chills caused by the threat of gaining a whole new identity, Kaitlin wanted Michael. Badly.

  Michael’s eyes were on her as he came up alongside. Those eyes were like green flames. Concern for her registered within his gaze, and also something of a deeper, more personal nature. Whatever it was elicited tingling sensations on the back of her neck. Every glance, look, gaze, snapped their bond tighter.

  “Good play with the alarm.” He spoke without turning his fiery gaze down a notch, and in a voice that resonated as half gravel, half growl. Kaitlin wanted to return that growl, and choked off the sound by closing a hand around her throat.

  “You sent that vampire back to whatever the opposite of heaven’s pearly gates might be?” Rena asked, interrupting the shared heat of the moment.

  “This wasn’t a vampire.” Michael’s tone was tentative and thoughtful.

  “What?” Rena asked, as if she hadn’t heard that right.

  “Wolf,” Michael said. “And he got away.”

  Cade, standing quietly behind Michael, spoke. “That might explain what I wanted you to see. You do see it—the thing that I see?”

  Michael said, “Yes. Beyond the trees.”

  “Oh.” Kaitlin groaned, sure more bloodsuckers were showing up and that there was going to be an endless supply of them before she noticed that the Weres were purposefully avoiding staring directly at those trees. They had not locked on to that spot the way she’d seen them lock on to vampires. Their wolf radar was humming.

  “Trespasser,” Rena muttered. “Is that the one that got away, Michael?”

  He shook his head. “That sucker was a mindless beast.”

  “This one’s Lycan,” Cade said. “I can feel the vibe from here. He feels a lot like you, Michael.”

  “Friend or foe, that wolf should know better than to show up unannounced,” Rena remarked.

  Wolf. They were talking about a wolf, not a vampire, and the Weres’ apprehension was contagious. It had been a rogue wolf chasing her into a corner in the librar
y. These Weres called all unwelcome, unexpected guests rogues. Mindless beasts, Michael had said.

  She was about to look for the source of their newest concern when Michael laid a hand on her arm without addressing her.

  “Cade,” he said to the big Were.

  “I’ll watch her,” Cade was quick to reply, possibly hearing Michael’s silent command.

  “I’m going with you.” Rena took a step in the direction of the trees after Michael did.

  Michael gestured for Rena to wait. “This is my job. If that wolf has bad intentions, we would have known by now. Besides, he smells good. How many bad guys can you say that about?”

  Michael’s levity didn’t lighten the mood. Kaitlin got it—the fact that wolves didn’t cross another pack’s boundaries without permission, and that more than one of them had obviously done so tonight. She was learning the rules one at a time.

  When Michael strode toward the trees, Cade’s hand replaced Michael’s on her arm. “Pack business,” he said.

  “Really bad timing,” Rena added. “The area still reeks of vampire dust, and now this.”

  “There aren’t any other packs around here?” Kaitlin looked from Cade to Rena.

  “None close,” another as yet nameless Were said, coming through the crowd to stop in front of Kaitlin. “Name’s Devlin.”

  He eyed her rudely. Nearly as tall as Michael, and leaner than either Michael or Cade, this Were had straight chin-length brown hair that hid half his face. He was dressed like the others in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Unlike the others, he wasn’t tidy. His shirttail was out, and he had missed a few buttons. Bits of ash clung to his right shoulder—the remains of the vampires, singular or plural, that he had slain tonight.

  “Now isn’t the time to flirt,” Rena chastised. “Get a grip on your libido, Dev. Strange shit is coming down.”

  Devlin ignored her. “I’m Irish. You’re Irish,” he said to Kaitlin, leaning closer to her, invading her personal space. “Right?”