The stars and moon reappeared. Tess took a breath and let it out slowly, listening for anything that might explain what had happened. She looked to the west, the direction the Were had taken after leaving her earlier that night, wondering if he had been responsible for what she had just experienced. The rolling blackness had moved off in that direction...toward her neighbor’s place and the wolf who had taken up temporary residence there.
“It’s coming,” she said, feeling silly for thinking the Were she had been hip to hip with a couple of hours ago would be able hear a warning he might not need.
And why would she warn him, anyway?
Tess cleared her throat and repeated the warning, concerned about why she would care what happened to a creature she was going to take down anyway when the next full moon came if he hadn’t caused that blackout.
I’m here to keep something very bad from happening, the Lycan had told her. Promise me you’ll let me do what I need to do here without interference, and that you’ll give me time to take care of the thing I came here to do. That’s all I ask.
A small shiver of incomprehension ran through Tess as she remembered those words. For the life of her, she could not imagine a greater threat than having a werewolf next door. But somehow she sensed that was about to change.
Chapter 6
Jonas smiled at his sister. “Sorry, Gwen. Did I wake you?”
She eyed him thoughtfully.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You can rest.”
Gwen didn’t move from the doorway. Her gaze moved past him, heading for the window.
Jonas looked out. “Has something else disturbed you?”
He felt the quake that ran through his sister from where he stood and turned to look at her.
“What is it? What do you see?”
If ever there was a time for Gwen to speak, Jonas would have liked that time to be now. But she didn’t oblige and continued to stare at the window as if expecting someone to show up.
He didn’t like this. Didn’t like the lack of expression on Gwen’s young face as she waited for whatever she thought was out there to come knocking.
Gwen might be tapping into other special powers that he had no knowledge of, but would that include an awareness of the presence of things no one else could see?
Chills dripped down Jonas’s back, taking their time, hitting every vertebra one by one. He had a really bad feeling.
“I can’t read your mind,” he said. “You’ll need to tell me what I need to know.”
When Gwen’s head tilted to the side as if she were listening to sounds other than his latest request, a cascade of pale hair slipped to cover half of her face. Her hair had been brown once, like his, before the attack that had rendered her speechless. Brown, straight and shiny. Massive injuries had instigated the change in this pretty teen and nothing could alter that.
Gwen was disturbed as she looked outside, and her inner distress was contagious. Jonas liked to believe he was still close enough to his sister to understand a few things, but until she decided to speak, he needed another way to find out what was going on.
“Gwen,” he said, hoping to get her attention. “I’m trying to protect you. Please help me do that.”
Her gaze traveled to him before again bypassing him in favor of the window. Feeling helpless, Jonas placed himself in front of the glass.
“What do you see?” he asked, his concern growing. Gwen’s skin had begun to ripple the way his skin did when a shape-shift was imminent.
Jonas held up a hand. “No. Stop, Gwen. Now isn’t the time. It isn’t safe. We aren’t alone out here. Our neighbor knows what we are.”
That last statement was only partially true, Jonas amended inwardly. Tess might know about him, but as for Gwen...
Gwen was something Tess Owens had no idea existed and would label a nightmare if she did.
His sister now had claws—ten short white claws nearly as colorless as her hair. She had become hyperaware of an issue she considered a problem and couldn’t fill him in.
“Shit,” Jonas muttered without daring to go to her, fearing that too much protesting might set her off in ways he wouldn’t be able to corral.
Gwen sidestepped him with a graceful move and joined him at the window. She pressed her face to the glass and ran her claws down the wooden frame hard enough to leave visible tracks in the finish.
Jonas took hold of one of her wrists and turned Gwen around to face him. He adopted a stern tone when repeating his last warning, hoping a repeat of the same stuff would get through to her.
“No, Gwen. Now isn’t the time.”
She raised her chin and looked directly into his eyes. What Jonas saw in those eyes frightened him more than the idea of what might eventually be out there somewhere.
And then he heard what Gwen must have heard: the echo of a distant voice.
“Whatever the hell this thing was is heading your way.”
The effort of absorbing that warning required Jonas to turn for the door.
* * *
Though she hadn’t meant to move, Tess found herself running.
Curiosity had gotten the better of her as to what that engulfing blackness had been, and yet she wasn’t a fool. Her property line would be the stalling point in going after it. She just wanted to see that thing again to make sure she hadn’t made it up. After all, not much about tonight had been usual. The wolf next door had seen to that.
And okay, maybe she was a fool for falling for his line about being needed elsewhere and about being a good guy. She found it difficult to explain the leniency of her actions and his. The damn Lycan’s face had been painted in her mind ever since.
It was in her mind now as she sprinted over the rocky ground in her bare feet, ignoring the discomfort, feeling lighter without her boots. The flimsy tank and shorts she slept in wouldn’t help her fend off claws if she bumped into that Lycan and his friends, but she didn’t think she would meet them. There was no sense of that Were’s closeness in spite of all that imagined telepathic mumbo jumbo. She just needed a better view of the fields.
Nevertheless, her heart hammered inside her chest, pushing adrenaline to the right places to fuel her muscles. The chill she had felt several minutes ago melted away as rising body heat took over.
It didn’t take her long to reached the crest of the hill where she had encountered the Were. Stopping, Tess waited in silence with her eyes trained on the valley beneath the rocky ledge. No new anomaly stood out as far as she could see, and yet she couldn’t shake the return of an inexplicable undercurrent of dread.
And then she saw something down there. It wasn’t a moving black curtain or the Were she had encountered earlier. This thing moved like the wind, like a white missile, close to the ground and heading straight for Tess’s home turf.
It was the white wolf. The Lycan’s pet.
Without hesitating to watch that ghostly apparition in action, Tess turned and retraced her steps, heading for home, clutching the knife in her hand and hoping to beat that animal there.
When she got to her fence, she found the place quiet. Nothing moved or jumped out at her, but she still felt a wolf’s presence. Inching toward the gate by walking backward, Tess scanned the yard.
“I know you’re here.”
Those words had become her mantra lately and seemed terribly inadequate for tonight’s level of activity.
“Cat got your tongue?” she asked with her heart banging against her ribs.
Cool air swirled around her as she waited. No big, hunky Lycan stepped out of the shadows. No rolling mass of darkness descended. Her only visitor could be the four-legged animal she had seen running in the valley—the real wolf she had seen loping along in the Lycan’s wake.
“No use hiding,” she said, hoping to lure that wolf out of the shadows, though it was, she supposed, silly to
think that an animal could understand human speech.
The wolf emerged from beneath the trees as if it had understood her request, moving just far enough out of the shadows for Tess to see the brilliance of its silver-white coat in the moonlight.
“I have no problems with wolves. Real ones,” Tess said, speaking more for herself than for that animal.
As soon as she had spoken those words, however, Tess began to comprehend that this was no mere wolf after all. The vibes coming from it were altogether new and different. And honestly, she was getting sick of things being so far out of the norm.
The white wolf’s muzzle lifted as it sniffed the air. Tess couldn’t see its eyes or determine the animal’s actual size. After seeing the animal’s head, she guessed this visitor was a lot larger than any other wolf she’d seen in the wild. Twice as big, maybe more.
“This place is protected from the likes of you,” Tess said, moving toward the gate that would seal her off from immediate harm.
Her knife dangled from her hand.
“Try it, wolf. Take me on and see what kind of skills I have developed to ward off claws.”
Her dare was punctuated by a rustling sound in the brush. Tess couldn’t look there. Dividing her attention could amount to suicide.
Her heart could not have pounded harder. The fingers holding her knife were turning white due to the tightness of her grip on the hilt.
Damn it... There was another visitor. His approach hit her hard. Coming up against this particular presence was like running into a familiar wall.
“Tess,” the Were said, as if they were friends.
She refused to look for the speaker, already knowing who it was. No one else said her name like that, in the tone of a caress.
“Is that wolf with you?” she demanded with her gaze fixed on the white wolf.
“This wasn’t planned,” the Lycan said. “I’m sorry you were disturbed.”
Tess rallied. “This is the second time you’ve come here and gotten too close to where you aren’t welcome.”
The white wolf growled in response to Tess’s clipped tone. Tess raised the hand holding the knife.
“It’s all right,” the strange Were said in a placating whisper that reached Tess from a short distance. “I’ll take her home.”
Her?
Hell, Tess didn’t want to know what a werewolf might do with a female animal like this one. She was sorry she had believed this guy to be truthful and handsome. His looks might have been exceptional, but werewolves were still monsters in disguise. Being handsome and convincing didn’t mean he was exempt from her reaching current goals.
“We’ll go,” he said with the adamancy of a promise. “Turn your back, Tess, and we will be gone.”
“What sort of an idiot do you take me for?” Tess returned.
“She won’t hurt you. I won’t let her.”
“Do you have a leash? The beast keeps a beast for a pet?”
The white wolf growled again, forcing more of Tess’s attention there.
“She doesn’t like trouble,” the Lycan said.
“Then why is she here?”
“She sensed trouble and came to investigate.”
“Then she knows about me?” Tess asked.
“Yes, in theory.”
Tess turned toward the direction his voice had hailed from. “Because you told her, and she understands English?”
The problematic Lycan didn’t take on that question.
Catching a hint of movement in the brush, Tess backed again toward the gate with the knife raised and ready. Her sworn enemy didn’t make an appearance, and it looked like he wasn’t going to.
She heard him speak in soft tones to someone else. He had to be addressing the white wolf. But that wolf didn’t budge.
“Perhaps you’ve lost some of your power of persuasion,” Tess suggested nervously.
There was a lull before he spoke again.
“She believes trouble is near,” he said.
“I’ll second that,” Tess muttered.
“Maybe you can tell her it’s okay,” he suggested.
Unbelievable...
“Am I to invite her in and offer tea and cookies, too?” Tess fired back.
“I’m pretty sure that won’t be necessary. However, if you want her to go, you’ll need to let her see that there’s no cause for concern.”
“Because there isn’t?”
“Not from us. Not from me. Not from her. Not tonight.”
Tess thought back to their earlier encounter. “Is this wolf part of the reason you let me go without a fight? She is one of the things you’re protecting?”
It seemed that no replies to those questions were forthcoming, so she tried again. “Do you hold yourself up as some kind of wolf warden?”
“No,” he replied. “Nothing like that.”
The white muzzle shifted slightly before one silvery leg appeared. Slowly, that wolf left the shadows, and the sight of this animal robbed Tess of more breath.
The largest real wolf Tess had ever seen moved toward her with a growl rolling in its throat.
Chapter 7
Jonas lunged forward just as Gwen glided through full moonlight to reach Tess. He barked a command that Gwen ignored. His sister was interested in Tess. Whether that reason was a bad one that involved seriously twisted intentions, Jonas couldn’t tell.
He reached Tess seconds before Gwen did. Gwen butted her head against his thighs as if she would go right through him, but Jonas held steady and barked a stream of protests in return.
The moon was overhead, and he was standing beneath it. His claws popped before he had time to stop them. Neck muscles began to spasm. “No, Gwen,” he said with the last vestiges of a voice everyone here would understand. “Not today.”
He could see that Tess was both fearful and annoyed by his interference. Jonas sensed the silver blade she held without having to see it, remembering the way it had burned into his flesh. That knife would hurt Gwen when she had already suffered enough. He had to keep Tess from using it.
Tess’s hands were like fire on his back when she tried to push him away. Gwen growled again, letting him know that she also wanted him to move. Maybe this is the fight Tess had anticipated tonight...not with a rogue werewolf, but something more. Something priceless to the Were world. His sister.
He could not let that fight happen.
When Gwen hurled herself at him, he caught her by the fur on the back of her neck. Tugging hard, he maneuvered his sister to the side as his Were genes, triggered by the light, fully kicked in.
He heard Tess’s surprised intake of breath as he tightened his grip on Gwen’s fur and spun the white wolf around. Tess sprang forward with her knife in her hand. Gwen panted and growled, showing treacherously sharp teeth as she struggled to get free. But he was far stronger than either of these characters. He proved it now by lifting Gwen’s front paws off the ground until his sister and Tess Owens stood eye-to-eye with a distance of only six inches between them.
Tess froze. Gwen stopped growling. It was a scene straight out of a horror movie and yet as the hunter and the very special white wolf eyed each other, Gwen began to whimper. Hearing that, Tess, who seemed to be equally as stunned, lowered her blade.
Jonas hoped that Tess had seen something human in Gwen’s eyes that wasn’t obvious in the form his sister was able to take. He hoped his sister would accept the temporary truce of Tess’s lowered blade and take the opportunity to disappear.
He could have cut through the tension in the air with that damn blade in Tess’s lowered hand.
With the lull in aggression, however temporary it might have been, Jonas raised his face. He let loose a howl directed at the instigator of this current round of trouble. The moon. Then he hauled his sister back, gave Tess a quick bark of warning to stay b
ack and led Gwen away from the big bad wolf hunter, who for some reason hadn’t been at her best tonight.
Lesson learned, Tess. Some of us truly are different.
He kept hold of Gwen by digging his fingers into the scruff of her neck fur, careful not to let his claws do any real damage. After her initial reluctance, Gwen allowed him to lead her away from the Owenses’ front yard.
Jonas had no idea what his sister might have been thinking by coming here. Lycans of her caliber had thought-blocking techniques probably unknown to every other Were, and that was damnably inconvenient.
On some level, he realized that Gwen had been as surprised as he had been by coming face-to-face with Tess. One close look at the hunter and Gwen had made sounds he’d only recently heard her make—sounds shockingly similar to the groans she’d uttered during the difficulty of her recovery from the injuries she had accrued on the night of her attack.
When standing eye-to-eye, she and Tess both had been privy to a sudden wave of insight that had quelled their urge to fight, at least for the time being. Jonas had no idea what that might have been but was thankful for the respite.
Show-and-tell time was over. Introductions between these two had been made. Tess didn’t know that the white wolf was a Were in wolf form, or that she was his sister. Full-wolf shape-shifts, so rare these days, would be new to Tess, since they were virtually unheard of outside of a sanctioned few elders and the families that lived with these rare beings.
If Tess setting eyes on Gwen wasn’t bad enough, the Owens woman had seen him shape-shift twice in a single night and might be wondering about that as well.
He wanted to know why Gwen had come here and if it could have been nothing more than a desire to meet the neighbor.
Perhaps Gwen had scented the hunter in the same way he had, and her instincts for survival had taken over. Maybe the strange DNA in Gwen’s makeup retained memories of hunters from times in the past.
Those thoughts were legitimate ones. Nevertheless, Jonas had a hunch the reason for Gwen’s visit could be blamed on neither of those things. Warning flags in his mind were waving. Gwen wasn’t struggling half as hard against his hold as he thought she might. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.
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