by M. E. James
His face hardened. "Absolutely not."
She was shocked by his intense reaction. "And why not?"
"My brother, ugh, isn't exactly in a hospital," he admitted.
"Then where is he?" She raised an eyebrow.
"He's got himself in a spot of trouble," he said.
"A spot of trouble? There you go, being vague again."
He shrugged.
"Are you going to call the cops?" She gritted her teeth.
"Cops?" Sebastian shook his head. "I can't do that."
"Why not?" Oh God, he was into something illegal, wasn't he?
Sebastian's brows furrowed as if he was thinking hard. "My brother, ugh, has an interesting past."
Oh great, her baby's uncle had a criminal background. She sighed. No wonder he acted like he had so many secrets. Well, no matter what, they would be discussing this later.
"Okay." She ran her hand through her hair. "You have to explain everything when you get back, but, for now, go help your brother. I'll be okay without you for a couple of hours."
Despite her words, Sebastian didn't raise the phone to his ear.
"Well?" She stared at him expectantly.
He gritted his teeth. "I don't know about this."
"What other choice do you have?" It wasn't like he could be much help over the phone. "I'm not in danger right now. Your brother is. Go to him."
Groaning, Sebastian nodded. "Promise me that you'll be careful, sweetheart. Eat lunch in the bakery and make sure that you watch your back at all times."
"I will." She placed a protective hand on her stomach.
"And if I'm not back by tonight, have somebody walk you straight to your car. Don't dawdle. Drive straight back to your apartment. Understand?"
"It's crystal clear." She gave him a thumbs-up, trying to pretend that his intense instructions weren't giving her the heebie-jeebies.
"You are going to do what I say, right?" He gave her a hard stare. "I know I sound like an ass, but I'm just trying to protect you."
"My baby's well-being is at stake here." She nodded. "Of course I'm going to listen to what you say."
"Good." His eyes darkened. "Then I guess I'll go to my brother."
"It's where you need to be," she said, even as her nerves grew.
"You're an understanding woman." He gazed at her with adoration.
Before she knew what was happening, he seized her arm and pulled her against him. He tangled his hands in his hair, then forced his lips against hers. As he kissed her fiercely, he thrust his tongue into her mouth. While she gasped in shock, he ran his fingers along her lower back. She held onto him, digging her fingers into his shoulders and not wanting to let him go. A moment later, he broke free from the kiss. She swayed as she tried to recover from his intoxicating embrace.
"Be careful." He laid a kiss on her forehead.
She nodded. "Uh-huh."
Sebastian kissed the top of her stomach. "You be careful too, baby."
His concern for her and his unborn child warmed her heart. He's a good man, she thought, as he shot her once last concerned look before striding out the door with his phone pressed to his ear. She stared out the window long after he was gone.
****
Night came, but Sebastian hadn't returned. She kept looking out the window for him, but the man was nowhere to be seen. Still, she supposed that Jake hadn't shown up either, so she should have been counting her lucky stars. As she paced around the kitchen, she heard the door open. Donavon came inside in jeans and a T-shirt. She'd called him to ask if he would escort her to her car, and he'd come over despite the fact he wasn't scheduled for work.
"I'm at your service, milady." Donavon bowed at the hip.
She raised an eyebrow. "You're over the Batman act, I see."
"I was feeling more like a knight in shining armor today," he said.
"Well, then, I'm a lucky woman." She just couldn't bring herself to say the word damsel. "Do you want twenty bucks? You did drive all the way over here just to walk me to my car. I should give you something."
"Don't worry about it." Donavon waved away her offer. "This is the least I can do for my awesome boss."
"Awesome boss, huh?" She raised an eyebrow. "The others don't seem to think so."
"Who, Annabelle?" Donavon grinned. "Don't take her too seriously. I'm pretty sure she's been a bloodsucker since the moment she was born."
Okay, she was definitely giving Donavon a raise. "You're my favorite employee, do you know that?"
"Ah, shucks." He turned red.
Emmy smiled due to his bashful reaction and grabbed her purse. "Well, let's go. It's getting late, and I have to be up early tomorrow to start baking."
"I'm ready for duty." He saluted.
She studied him. "Are you a soldier or a knight in shining armor?"
He winced. "I'm not really sure."
"Well, loyal soldier or dazzling knight, let's go." She pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder.
Nodding, Donovan opened the backdoor for her. After she walked outside, she looked up. Thunder cackled and lightning whipped across the sky. She shivered in apprehension, but she quickly pushed away her bad feelings. A little rain wasn't a bad omen. It was Seattle, after all. Rain was constant. She headed over to her car and unlocked the door.
"Thanks again for helping me, Don." She climbed behind the wheel.
"No problem." Donovan nodded. "Let me know if you need anything else."
Boy, he was helpful.
"Don't you ever quit on me, you hear." She pointed at him. "Valuable employees like you are few and far between."
Even if he had a bad habit of mixing up salt and sugar.
"I'll stay at your bakery until I'm old and gray." He took a step back.
"Good." She nodded. "See you tomorrow."
"Bye."
She waved at him and then shut the door.
After she watched Donovan climb into his car, she pulled out of the parking lot and drove onto the main road. Rain came pouring down from the dark clouds, spattering the windshield. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel, cursing the god of rain. Tonight she was anxious enough without having to deal with the sheets of water pouring down from the clouds. Almost home…almost home…she chanted in her head as she placed her foot on the pedal.
She watched her headlights dance on the wet sheen of asphalt as she drove to her apartment. Just as she was heading down a secluded road, a person stepped right in front of the car. With a scream of horror, she stamped on the brake. The car screeched and careened.
As her car spun around, she wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to protect the baby within her. The car collided with a massive pine tree and came to a halt with a sickening crunch. For an awful moment, everything was still.
My baby! she thought, pressing her hand against her waist. Luckily, she was certain that her unborn child was fine. Her shoulders slumped with relief. Unfortunately, that was when she realized that she'd almost hit somebody. She peered in the rearview mirror and saw a figure standing in the rain. What was he, a guy on a suicide mission? It was one thing to endanger his own life by walking out in front of a car, but it was another thing entirely to hurt somebody else.
Both furious and concerned, she jumped out the door.
"What the hell is going on?" She stomped through the rain, heading toward the figure.
The man who'd stepped in front of her car turned toward her, and she recognized who it was at once. It was Jake. Oh God, she'd walked straight into his trap. She took a staggering step backward as his dark eyes turned a poisonous green. With a scream of terror, she slipped and fell to her knees. Jake took another step toward her as his face began to change.
His skin became covered in chestnut-colored fur. Soon his face elongated, revealing a thick snout. White fangs curved over dark lips. His back bent, and his bones let out loud cracking sounds. A dark tail sprung from his body, whipping through the sheets of rain.
Oh God, it was a…a…
"Werewolf!" she screamed.
And unfortunately, that was when he began to snarl. Even then, during what was the scariest moment of her life, her first thought was to protect her unborn child. If she died, then the baby would die too. She gasped and, with momentum startling for a woman that hadn't gone to the gym in the past five years, hurtled herself toward her car.
Flinging herself inside, she prayed that her engine still worked despite the fact that she'd run into a tree. She put the car in reverse and, thank God, the car rushed backward. There was a big bang and then a dull thud. Had she hit him? Not stopping to find out, she put the car into drive and hurtled down the road. When she glanced in the rearview mirror, she saw that Jake was in the middle of the road staring at her car.
Shit. She may have hit him, but he definitely wasn't dead.
Still, he couldn't catch her now, could he? As thoughts whirled in her head, fat tears of anguish poured down her face. She cried in fear and pain and confusion. What the hell had just happened? Werewolves weren't supposed to be real. Maybe she was having some sort of confusing dream related to pregnancy hormones. She pinched her leg and felt pain, but she didn't wake up from her nightmare. No, she had to face the facts that this was reality, and if this was reality, then that meant werewolves were real.
Double shit.
She let out a loud sob, certain that her life would never be the same again. At that moment, Sebastian's words echoed in her mind: "No, sweetheart, I'm saying that I'm a…a…werewolf." She was so horrified that she almost drove her car straight into a tree again. The only thing that held her back was the fact that she was certain that Jake was following behind her, and she didn't think that her car would survive another collision. After all, the scent of burning rubber already filled the car, reminding her of how lucky she was her vehicle was still running to begin with.
But if Sebastian was a werewolf, then what the hell did that mean? And worse yet, what did that mean for her baby? She stared down at her stomach in openmouthed horror, half expecting to hear growling coming from her womb. Her baby was a werewolf, which meant that it was monstrous like Jake. No, wait, she refused to think of her baby as a monster. It was her child. She couldn't do that.
Yet she couldn't say that she didn't think of Sebastian as a monster. Her fists tightened on the steering wheel as she thought of him. Boy, she was angry, and she thought she had the right to be. Sebastian had hidden so much from her. He may have been the father of her baby, but she knew nothing about him. He was a stranger. And worse yet, he was a dangerous stranger.
A stranger she had to escape from.
Chapter Seven
When Emmy pulled into the parking lot of her apartment building, she was bawling her eyes out. Cursing and weeping, she climbed out of the car. She glanced around, making sure that she didn't see Jake standing beneath the eaves of her building. When she didn't spot anyone, she crept inside and rushed up the stairs to her apartment. Her goal was to pack and then head straight to her parents' house. As far as she was aware, neither Jake nor Sebastian knew where her mom and dad lived. She would be safe there.
She was just in the middle of unlocking her apartment when Mary Lou stuck her head out her door. The woman was wearing a bright green face mask. Emmy jumped back in fright, half-worried that she was seeing a toad monster. Unfortunately, Mary Lou must have thought that she looked just as horrible because her mouth fell open in shock.
"What the hell happened to you?" Mary Lou stared at her rain-soaked appearance.
"No time to explain." Emmy managed to unlock her door. "I have to get out of here."
"What?" Mary Lou stepped toward her, her eyes wide with concern. "What's going on? Why are you acting like this?"
Emmy whirled around, shaking from head to foot. "I can't explain. Just get in your apartment and lock the door."
"But why?"
"Just lock the door!" Emmy screamed.
Mary Lou did a double take but then scampered back to her apartment.
Emmy rushed inside of her place and headed to her bedroom. She seized an overnight bag and stuffed clothes inside of it. Despite the fact that she was sure she had more pants than underwear, she didn't care. She swung her bag over her shoulder and was just about to head out the door when the thought of Sebastian made her pause. The guy would undoubtedly try to come after her. At the moment, she was willing to do anything in order to stop that from happening. She pulled a pen and paper from a drawer. Quickly, she scrawled a note on the piece of paper.
Sebastian,
I know you've been lying to me, so don't you dare try to figure out where I am. I don't want you in my life. You're too dangerous, and I can't trust you.
Emmy
She hesitated before placing the note on the counter, but then she remembered the frightening face of werewolf Jake. That was enough to make her set the note down and run out the door.
****
By the time Emmy made it to her parents' house, it was near eleven o'clock. Still, when she banged frantically on the door, she heard the sound of footsteps. Her mom opened the door and did a double take when she saw her. Emmy realized that she must have looked terrible. After all, she'd made her mom look horrified on more than one occasion, but she'd never seen the woman look quite so green.
"Emmy, what on earth?" Her mom blinked rapidly.
Emmy barged inside, getting her mom's frilly pink nightgown damp.
"Mom, I'm going to stay here for a while." Emmy dumped her overnight bag on the floor.
"What's wrong?" her mom asked, wringing her pudgy hands.
Instead of answering, Emmy stared at the woman.
"Oh my God, were you raped?" Her mom clapped her hand to her mouth.
"No, Mom, I wasn't raped." No one in her family had ever been raped, but her mom was ever vigilant. "I just need a break from Seattle."
"I told you that a big city was no place for a woman alone." Her mom tutted. "And you shouldn't have gone out in the rain."
Emmy shrugged, shaking from head to foot. But she wasn't shaking from cold. No, she was shaking because she kept thinking about Jake and Sebastian and her unborn baby. There was so much for her to be stressed about. Another tear trickled down her cheek before she could stop it.
At the sight of the tear, her mom's maternal instincts went into overdrive. "Oh, sweetie, don't cry."
"I'm not crying," she said through gritted teeth. The only thing she hated more than crying was crying in front of somebody else.
"Of course you're not." Her mom soothed her by running her hand over her arm. "Say, we have stuffed peppers left over from supper. Why don't I heat you a plate, huh?"
"Is there cake, too?" Emmy sniffled.
"Is there ever not cake in this house?" Her mom wrapped an arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the kitchen. "Come on, now."
She allowed herself to be led into the kitchen. The kitchen was adjoined with the dining room where her dad was drinking beer and reading the newspaper. When he saw her, he froze. Normally, her dad was calm, but at that moment, his face became red and his eyes narrowed. To her, he looked like a strange sort of bearded beet.
"What happened to you?" Her dad looked like he was itching to get his hand on his hunting gun.
"Nothing," Emmy said.
Her dad grunted. "You've never been a great liar."
Emmy sighed.
"Let's just get some food in you." Her mom escorted her over to the counter. "Then while you're eating, you can tell me everything."
That was her mom's way—comfort food and then communication. Not that Emmy had any intention of communicating beyond grunts.
"Okay," Emmy whispered.
After she leaned against the counter, her mom pulled a plate of stuffed peppers from the refrigerator. The woman stuck them in the microwave. Immediately, the smell of cooked beef filled the air. Something about the smells and the warmth of the kitchen made Emmy feel like a child again. Suddenly, her legs became weak as she longed to retre
at to her bedroom and cry.
Likely noticing her trembling, her mom ran her hand down Emmy's arm. Despite the fact that Emmy was an adult who'd always valued her independence, she melted against the woman and let out a heartbroken sob. Emmy couldn't believe what was happening. She had a stalker, and now there were werewolves, and…and…
Oh God.
No matter how many times she thought about werewolves, the truth was still hard to swallow. Luckily, her mom held her closer, comforting her by running her fingers through her hair. During that moment, Emmy longed to be calmed and loved. And more than anything, she wanted those stuffed peppers in the microwave. After all, a full belly always helped warm her heart.
"I'm hungry, Mom," she whispered as the microwave beeped.
Her mom patted her arm and handed her a fork. "Of course you are."
The woman pulled the plate of stuffed peppers out of the microwave. Emmy took the plate and shoved a bite of food in her mouth. The tangy mixture of ground beef, rice, and cheese was just what she needed. She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned, hoping that the food would fill the cracks in her heart like cement. A moment went by. No such luck. Oh well, the food was still good anyway.
After her mom watched her eat for a moment, she said, "Tell me what's going on."
"Like I said, it's nothing." Emmy spoke with her cheeks full of stuffed peppers.
Her mom's eyes narrowed in a frightening way that only an authoritative parent could manage. "Emmy."
"Really, nothing's wrong." She wrinkled her nose.
"Emmy Ellison, you tell me the truth this instant," her mom said.
To this, Emmy said nothing.
"You have to the count of five," her mom said. "One."
Emmy wondered what would happen when the woman got to five. Would the earth explode? Would she be sucked into an alternate dimension by some sort of hellish super power?
"Two." Her mom narrowed her eyes.
Emmy chewed her bottom lip but didn't speak.
"Three."
Okay, nervous sweat was forming on her forehead now.