SNAKE

by Leal, Samantha

  “Come over for dinner,” Betsy said. “I’d like to thank you and Jonah for being there for me when I needed you the most.”

  Lyla was about to refuse, but somehow, she couldn’t. Not only did she want to see Jonah again, but the idea of disappointing Betsy after spending so much of the day lying to her felt terrible.

  “All right,” Lyla said. “I’d love to.”

  It was another lie, but really, she couldn’t think of a way she would be able to naturally confront Jonah again. As weird as it was going to be, it was nothing compared to how much worse it might be if they saw one another again accidentally. At least, with Betsy there, they wouldn’t have to talk about what had happened.

  “Great,” Betsy said. “You call Randy to come out and look at your car yet?”

  Lyla nodded.

  “Yeah, he replaced the windshield sometime late last night while I was sleeping.”

  “Good. Let’s go then.”

  Lyla agreed and they headed out. As they drove through the dark streets of Stonybrooke, Lyla couldn’t help but feel nervous. The last time she was driving at night, she had been attacked by the bear hybrid. And now, she just couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. Because of her ancestry, she knew her senses were sharp enough that they wouldn’t lie to her, and right now, they were telling her that somebody was out there. What did the bear clan want from her?

  She was deeply relieved when they finally made it to the Lucas household, and Betsy invited her inside. The phone rang almost as soon as they stepped through the door and Betsy’s face lit up in a way that Lyla had never seen. Betsy rushed upstairs, for some reason bypassing the phone beside the door, and disappeared into the bedroom.

  Lyla showed herself into the living room and poured herself a drink.

  “Hello again,” Jonah said, his deep voice filling the room around her. Lyla’s heart thudded hard and she turned to face him.

  “Jonah,” she said. “I don’t know why I’m surprised to see you. You live here.”

  They both laughed quietly.

  “It’s good to see you,” Jonah said, his handsome face still and serious. “How are you feeling?”

  “How am I feeling?” Lyla asked. “I’m not the one who got all torn up-”

  “Shh,” Jonah said, his dark eyes flickering to the staircase where his sister had disappeared. “Betsy doesn’t need to know anything about that. It would only worry her.”

  “All right,” Lyla said, looking down at her hands. “I understand. I’m sorry.”

  Suddenly, Jonah was standing right in front of her, his strong hands on her shoulders and his eyes peering down into hers intently. “Don’t apologize for things that aren’t your fault. It shows weakness.”

  Lyla opened and closed her mouth, unsure of what to say as a reply, but before she could, they heard the stairs creak as Betsy made her way down. She was grinning privately to herself and walked into the kitchen without even acknowledging Jonah.

  “That’s strange,” Lyla said. “Something’s going on with her.”

  “Are you kidding? It’s Betsy!” Jonah said. “She’s always strange.”

  They followed Betsy into the kitchen and Lyla laughed.

  “Spoken like a true little brother.”

  13.

  Jonah watched Lyla from across the table. He had been just an arm’s length away from her all day. It was surprisingly difficult for him to stay hidden when all he wanted to do was go to her. Somehow, she always managed to make him want to be near her; to bask under the radiance of her smiling eyes and just be.

  That was alarming. Never in his life had he wanted to stay still. He had always been the type to go, go, go. Betsy was the one who liked to stay in one place and keep the home a home. Being around Lyla was dangerous. She almost made him wish he wouldn’t have joined an organization that kept him roaming the world in search of the next most dangerous thing he could possibly get himself into. Still, he wouldn’t trade his job for anything.

  “So what were you up to all day, Jonah?” Betsy asked as she began to serve dinner.

  Jonah was caught off guard. He hadn’t come up with a reason he had been gone. In fact, all he could think about was Lyla.

  “I thought I’d just…walk around. See the sights. It’s been a while, you know.”

  It was vague enough that Betsy accepted it. It hadn’t been a lie. He had been walking around. And god was Lyla a sight to see.

  “Everybody was asking for you at the office,” Betsy said. “I think you’ve single-handedly improved Shifters United by showing up.”

  “Oh please, this place is just a big rumor mill. Everyone just wants the gossip,” Jonah said. “It would have been the same way if you had gotten Old Sal to do the speech.”

  “Fat chance getting him out of his house,” Lyla muttered.

  Jonah grinned and Betsy laughed. “That may just be true.”

  The phone rang again and the smile immediately left Betsy’s face. “Excuse me,” she said, running back up the stairs to answer the phone.

  Jonah and Lyla exchanged looks.

  “She’s acting weird,” Lyla said.

  Jonah nodded. In all of his days, he had never seen his sister get up from the dinner table to answer the phone. She was an old fashioned sort of girl who believed in eating at the same time every day, and that family should be the center of the conversation. Their father had refused to answer phones or even doorbells during the dinner hour. And Betsy had supported him one hundred percent.

  “I have half a mind to listen in on the conversation,” Jonah said, though he knew he wouldn’t. He respected his sister more than he could ever say. He would give her the privacy she so obviously desired, no matter how confounding it happened to be to him. At least it gave him a few precious moments alone with Lyla. He wouldn’t be able to justify having many more of these. Not when he had a job to do.

  “I wonder who it could be,” Lyla asked, shaking her head slowly. But Jonah didn’t have an answer. He had barely spoken with his sister in three whole years. It could be anyone talking to her about anything.

  “If it’s important enough, she’ll tell us,” Jonah said decidedly. He couldn’t afford to worry about anything else right now. At the moment, Nichols and the mission that Gregors had sent him on was on his mind. Jonah wouldn’t know how it had gone until that night, when he was going to call Nichols to make sure nothing had gone wrong. If he couldn’t get in touch with him, it would mean backup was needed.

  “I’m back,” Betsy said, her voice a surprising sing-song.

  Jonah watched his sister as she walked cheerfully through the dining room and took her place, her head clearly a million miles away. It was strange. It really was. But somehow, he knew better than to stick his nose in where it didn’t belong. If she wanted him included, she would include him.

  “Shall we eat?” Betsy asked, as if confused by Lyla and Jonah’s silence.

  Lyla and Jonah exchanged a privately amused look, and Lyla’s heart-stopping smile shone out over the dinner table.

  “Let’s,” she said, her radiant voice electrifying Jonah. The wolf wanted her. But more alarming was the fact that he wanted her too.

  Jonah sighed inwardly. No matter what happened, he was going to have to stay focused. Falling for the first pretty girl he saw after deployment was absolutely not the way to do that.

  As if on cue, his phone rang and Jonah’s heart lurched.

  “Excuse me, Bets,” Jonah said, ignoring Lyla’s concerned eyes as they followed him from the room. He knew Betsy wouldn’t act on the disapproval she was so obviously feeling about Jonah leaving the dinner table, but considering she had done the same herself, he was able to get out of the house without any questions.

  “What’s going on?” Jonah asked when he answered the phone.

  “Lucas, we need some backup down here,” Nichols said. He was out of breath, and in the background he could hear shouting and the deep growls of angry bear shifters.

&
nbsp; “I’m on my way,” Jonah said. Gregors had been doing his best to make sure Jonah had enough time with his family to convince them nothing was going on, but it would do nobody any good if he lost any members of his team.

  Jonah didn’t think twice about leaving; he just found himself running full speed in his wolf form until he caught the scent of Nichols and his boys. He found himself in a dimly lit cave that smelled strongly of fresh earth and bear. A roar echoed throughout the cave and Jonah’s hackles rose. It was unmistakably Nichols’ voice.

  Jonah bounded into the dark, and arrived just in time for a bear’s limp body to narrowly miss slamming into him. Nichols met his eye and glanced to the left, where one last bear was striding toward them. Jonah scanned the area until he spotted Nichols’ partner, a wolf shifter named Erik. He looked mildly injured, but was starting to get to his feet.

  Wordlessly, he signaled to Nichols, and a pleased gleam in his eye signaled to Jonah that he was ready.

  On three, the three men charged the bear that was still standing, tearing into him until he was forced back into his human form.

  “Don’t kill!” Jonah commanded, shifting back into his human form as well. Nichols and Erik followed Jonah’s lead, and soon, they were all standing over the man, who was shuddering in fear, blood pouring out of his body.

  “Let me go!” the man shouted. “Please! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

  “You don’t think mining on our turf counts as wrong?” Jonah growled.

  The bear shifter winced, cowering away from Jonah’s powerful form. “What are you doing here? And if I were you, I would be as specific as possible.”

  The man hesitated, but Nichols began to growl and shift back into his bear form.

  “All right! We’re just digging, man.”

  “Digging?” Jonah laughed. “This looks a little elaborate for ‘just digging’. And you’re forgetting the most important part. This is our territory.”

  “Well, you know…” the shifter said uncomfortably. “It’s just what Thames is telling us to do.”

  “Thames?”

  Jonah exchanged a look with Nichols. They were familiar with Thames. He was one of the most dangerous bear shifters in the world. And he had taken quite a shining to Stonybrooke.

  “Yeah. He told us we had to dig this big hole or he’d kill our families and make us watch,” the man said, his tone almost bored as he recited what he’d been told. “So we’re digging.”

  Jonah looked to Nichols. He was the one he always looked to when dealing with the bear shifters. He could tell if another bear shifter was lying or if they were telling the truth. Nichols nodded and Jonah sighed.

  “What do you know about the hybrids?”

  “Heh,” the man said, an unkind glint in his eye. “They think they’re the cock’s walk, but they’re not that much stronger than bears. They’re just for covert missions. We managed to use the stone’s power to breed them a while back.”

  “How did you manage that?” Jonah asked, confused. “It’s been in Stonybrooke for decades.”

  “Trade secret,” the man said smugly.

  Nichols and Erik started for the man and Jonah held his hand up.

  “Stand down,” he muttered, letting the injured bear shifter get to his feet. “Where is Thames now?”

  “Well, I think he figured to use the mine as a distraction, because he took off with the stone.”

  “What?!”

  Jonah’s growling voice startled everyone in the mine as it echoed around them, and the bear shifter tsked and shook his head.

  “Take it easy, man. You think it’s safe being in a giant-ass hole like this?” he asked. “You want the place to cave in?!”

  Jonah sighed. “Where did Thames take off to?”

  “He didn’t say.”

  “Nichols?” Jonah growled.

  Nichols sighed, back in his human form again now that he knew the man posed no threat.

  “He doesn’t know shit,” Nichols said. “He’s totally useless.”

  “Hey!” the other bear said, incensed.

  “We should finish him off,” Erik said from behind the man. “He almost killed me. And he’d do it again.”

  “Yeah,” Nichols agreed. “He’s obviously just a mindless puppet. Thames will be able to use him again if he gets the chance.”

  Jonah sighed and turned his back on the men.

  “You guys do what you need to do. I’ve got to get back.”

  “Right,” Nichols said, though Jonah could tell he was surprised. Frankly, Jonah rarely left before everything was all said and done. And normally he wouldn’t, except that he had left right in the middle of dinner. He couldn’t imagine how Betsy must feel. And Lyla…

  Jonah groaned inwardly as he shifted back into his wolf form. The idea of disappointing Lyla made him feel awful, and he hated himself more and more for letting her interfere with his work. But she was something special. The night they had spent together had been hot on his mind, making it nearly impossible for him to think about anything else. They clearly couldn’t do anything like that again. Not with the mission so damn urgent. He would get home and give Gregors a call. And then, he vowed, he would go about his life doing his best to ignore Lyla and his feelings for her.

  14.

  Betsy seemed surprisingly fine when Jonah disappeared. Lyla, however, was a little bit of a wreck. She knew the bear shifters were causing trouble, and the way he had disappeared meant only one thing in her mind. Something was going on, and Jonah’s life could be in danger.

  “This is delicious,” Lyla said, taking a bite of the pie Betsy had baked for Lyla and Jonah to thank them for the auction.

  “It’s an old family recipe,” Betsy said dismissively. Lyla grinned privately. Betsy sure was acting funny lately. Normally, she would rant and rave about her pie and how she had made it, but there was a faraway look in her eyes that told Lyla that whoever had been on the phone had Betsy distracted.

  “Spill it,” Lyla said. “Something is going on with you. And as your best friend, I feel like I have the right to know.”

  Betsy didn’t seem to hear her at first. When the words sunk in though, Betsy couldn’t hide the guilty grin on her face.

  “There’s nothing going on with me,” Betsy lied.

  “Are you sure about that?” Lyla asked, raising an eyebrow. Betsy shrugged mysteriously. Lyla was about to pursue the subject further, but a sudden wave of nausea struck her.

  She stood up and made it to the downstairs bathroom just in time to vomit into the toilet.

  She heard Betsy’s soft footsteps coming after her and locked the door before she could come in.

  When Lyla was finished, she washed her face and rinsed her mouth out before finally returning to the living room, where Betsy was sitting on the couch, wringing her hands nervously.

  “Are you all right?” Betsy asked, her eyes wide with concern.

  “I’m fine,” Lyla said. “Really. But I should probably get home. If it’s contagious, I wouldn’t forgive myself for getting you and Jonah sick.”

  “Oh please,” Betsy said with a soft laugh. “We’re built like tanks. Jonah’s never even had a cold.”

  “Of course he hasn’t,” Lyla said, bemused.

  “Please just stay here tonight. We can make sure you’re all right.”

  “I couldn’t possibly,” Lyla said, attempting to walk to the door. “It’s a huge imposition.”

  “No, really. At least, this way, it won’t be a surprise to me if you don’t show up at work tomorrow,” Betsy joked.

  Lyla sighed. She wasn’t going to get anywhere with Betsy there, hovering over her to make sure she was all right. Normally, she would be flattered by that and feel comforted and safe, but the idea of spending the night in the same house as Jonah, with Betsy right down the hall, made another surge of nausea course through her.

  “I’d love to stay, but really, a sick person is just no fun to be around. I would feel too bad having you waiting on me.�
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  Betsy frowned, and Lyla’s heart constricted as she walked out onto the porch. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lyla said, though when the words came out of her mouth, they felt hollow for some reason. Maybe she didn’t fully believe that.

  “All right, Lyla,” Betsy said quietly. “I’ll see you soon then.”

  Lyla suddenly felt overcome with emotion and turned away before Betsy could see her cry. Why did it feel like they were saying goodbye forever? It was ridiculous. They only lived about fifteen minutes away from each other, by car. That was no reason for her to react this way.

  Lyla sighed and slung her purse over her shoulder as she walked out to cross the vast front lawn that led to the driveway where her car was parked.

  She stopped suddenly, sensing she was being watched. Lyle furrowed her brow and looked around, her heart panging painfully as she watched Jonah, stark naked in the moonlight, crossing the backyard toward the house. His eyes were intent upon her, but neither of them spoke. Before she had the chance, Jonah disappeared into the house, and she dissolved into tears as soon as she heard the screen door slam shut behind him.

  ***

  The next morning when Lyla woke up, another powerful surge of nausea overwhelmed her. She barely made it to the bathroom before she had lost what was left in her stomach from the night before.

  Lyla showered groggily, her entire body feeling sore, and she almost felt more tired from it than when she had gotten into the shower. She had never felt so terrible in her life.

  “Bets?”

  “God, Lyla, are you all right? I’ve been worried sick!”

  “I’m just not feeling well,” Lyla said. “I don’t know if I can come in today.”

  “Lord, honey, I didn’t expect you to!” Betsy exclaimed. “I’d like you to see a doctor.”

  “I don’t need to see a doctor,” Lyla mumbled.

  “Lyla…I won’t accept you taking a day off without a doctor’s note,” Betsy said. And then, quietly, as if she knew something that Lyla didn’t, “You’ll thank me for it later.”