First Bite (The Dark Wolf Series)

by Dani Harper

  “Oh, yes, my dear, darling little sister. And don’t bother trying that again, I’ll just finish strangling him and save us both a lot of trouble later.”

  “Let him go, Meredith. It’s me you want, isn’t it? Aren’t I at the center of some grand plan of yours? You don’t need him.”

  “Au contraire, ma soeur chérie, I need him very much, because he means something to you. It’s just like when you had a doll you liked and I came and took it away from you. I didn’t want it, you know. I didn’t ever want your silly things. I just got such a kick out of seeing how upset it made you.”

  “I already knew that. You like getting a reaction out of me. That’s what you always want, isn’t it?”

  Meredith walked in a circle around him, but Travis only knew that by the sound. He couldn’t see her. His vision had tunneled down to the size of a nickel, as if he was looking in the wrong end of a telescope. Christ, he was going to pass out, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. Most of all, there was nothing he could do to help Neva.

  At that moment, however, Meredith snapped her fingers, and two things happened. One, the cord loosened from around his neck, and two, as he sucked in welcome air, he began to Change. Connecting with his wolf at last should have been a good thing, except it was nothing like the shape-shifting he was accustomed to. His body contorted violently as if resisting the transformation, as if he’d never done it before in his life. And it was painfully, agonizingly slow, taking long minutes to accomplish what was normally instantaneous. Goddammit, what the hell is happening?

  “Stop it,” Neva yelled.

  Her twin clapped her hands. “See? Some things never change. I still love getting a rise out of you.”

  “You sick, twisted bitch! All you do is use people to amuse yourself. Let him go.”

  Gasping, Travis hunched on the floor as his spine rearranged itself, his fingernails tearing up chunks of the expensive carpet and underlay—until his fingers shortened into toes. Don’t piss her off, Neva, he warned, focusing his thoughts narrowly in spite of the searing pain that was exploding throughout his system. She’s not stable.

  Jeez, ya think? I told you that a long time ago. Are you okay?

  Sure, fine. Gimme a few minutes and I’ll come up with a heroic plan to save us.

  In other words, I’m on my own.

  Unaware of the silent conversation, Meredith only laughed at her twin. “You’ve seen how things work around here, Geneva. I’m in charge, and that means I do whatever I like. Of course I use people. I tell my pack when to walk on two legs and when to walk on four. And I’ve decided that I’d like your boyfriend better in a fur coat.

  “Mind you,” she pretended to muse, “I could decide he looks better without balls, too. You know, I’d never have believed it if I hadn’t gone to the woods myself—imagine my baby sister mated for life to a werewolf she hardly knows.”

  “Cut the crap, Meredith. First of all, being born ten minutes ahead of me doesn’t make you older, and it sure as hell doesn’t make you any wiser.”

  “No? Then why do I know things about this man that you don’t? You’ve never been impulsive in your life. Always playing by the rules. Never taking a risk. Never really living at all, so what do you know about anything? Oh, and you’re so squeamish about spilling blood and taking lives.” Meredith shook her finger at her. “You’ve judged me very, very harshly because I dare to do these things. So imagine how hurt I felt when I discovered you’d suddenly mated with a murderer!”

  Travis’s Change was slowly nearing completion, but a brand-new pain knifed his heart. Christ, he’d known the bitch would use his accidental confession against him. Neva, don’t listen. Please, please don’t listen. He couldn’t tell if he was talking mind to mind or just praying like hell. It felt about the same.

  “Uh-huh, sure, sis.” Neva folded her arms and regarded her twin. “Like I’m going to take your word for it.”

  “You don’t have to take my word, darling Geneva. Ask him about it sometime. Ask how he slaughtered seven helpless humans, young and old. Tore them into little tiny bloody pieces.” She knelt and put an unwelcome arm around his neck, but he couldn’t control his body yet, couldn’t stop her. “My, my, just look at these big teeth,” Meredith said as she struck a provocative pose, stroking his giant fangs with a manicured finger.

  Keep it up, Travis thought to himself, furious and frustrated that the Change was taking so goddamn long. Stay right there until I’m fully wolf, and I’ll enjoy chewing you into tiny pieces.

  “These are the very ivories that bit and slashed without an ounce of mercy—” She cut her fingertip on the razor edge of one of his giant carnassials, the meat-shearing teeth that all wolves possessed. “Oopsie.” She giggled. A normal human being would pop their finger in their mouth and suck on it, or run for a Band-Aid. Or both. Instead, the bitch had it poised over Travis’s tongue and was milking drops of her vile blood into his mouth. He fought to get away, even to just close his jaws—hell, he didn’t care if he bit his own tongue off in the process—anything to get away from that foul substance. But his body still wasn’t listening to him. He couldn’t be more paralyzed if he was frozen in a block of ice.

  For some crazy-ass reason, the memory of his grandfather popped into his head. Make your thoughts quiet, he had instructed. See. Hear. Feel.

  I’m not exactly able to do anything else right now. Travis forced himself to relax, to let go, to reach out with his senses, and just feel. He certainly felt something dark and evil—that had to be Meredith. He felt something oily and almost venomous on his tongue—her blood, for sure. But then there was something else, something that pulsed like a live thing, vibrating as powerfully as his grandfather’s crystal had vibrated in his hands all those years ago…

  Suddenly something large and heavy struck Meredith in the side of the face, jarring her from her loathsome task and smearing her ever-perfect lipstick. She shrieked as a second object hit her squarely in the head. Neva was standing over by the bookshelves, hefting a third volume in her hand. “That’s the trouble with spells, dear sister,” she said. “They’re very, very specific. You’ve put up a shield against me, but apparently not against these.” Neva fired off the book, and this time her twin ducked.

  Meredith rose up in a fury, forgetting Travis completely and turning her back to him. “You’re protecting this killer?” she shouted, putting up her hands, palms out, to ward off any more projectiles. “How fair is it that you love him, and you don’t love me?”

  Neva threw another book, but cursed as it bounced off an invisible shield without even striking her twin’s hands. “First of all, I never said I loved the guy, and second of all, you’ve done nothing but make my life a living hell since I was born. You called me, remember? I came here in good faith, Meredith, hoping you were serious about reconnecting and making a new start, but you lied. Like you always lie. I can’t love a liar or a killer, and you’re both.”

  The devastating words fell on Travis’s heart like sledgehammer blows. You did this, he said to his wolf. I told you we would never have a mate.

  His alter ego, maddeningly practical as always, simply addressed the situation at hand. Wolf here. Cord gone.

  Travis looked down. Distracted, Meredith had let go of her end of the cord—and it had simply fallen off during his transformation. With the Change complete and his body finally under his control, he used each of his paws in turn to push the jumble of scarlet coils behind him and under the bed. The bedcovers fell back in place as if they had never moved. Next, Travis subtly gathered himself as he trained his attention on the back of Meredith’s neck, where the dark ponytail swung from side to side as she spoke.

  “There’s no such word as can’t around here, Geneva. I can make you love me. Just like all my wolves love me. You’re going to stay right here with me, and either be my adoring little sister or my obedient little sidekick,” Meredith hissed, and fisted her hands, her voice gaining volume until it bounced from the walls
all around them. “You’re going to worship the ground I walk on right up until it’s time to visit my spell-crafting room. And then you’ll thank me for allowing your blood to be part of—”

  Travis sprang.

  TWENTY-SIX

  The great golden wolf knocked Meredith down with such force that her face slammed against the floor, stunning her. Neva gasped as his enormous jaws snapped shut at the back of her twin’s neck. There was no blood and no bite, however, and the big animal didn’t linger. Within a nanosecond of his teeth ringing together, his powerful hind feet pushed off of Meredith’s body, driving the air from her lungs as he launched himself for the door. Travis’s voice filled Neva’s mind with a single word:

  Run!

  Startled, Neva spun and shifted to wolfen form, then raced beside Travis down the long hallway. I know a way out. That is, as long as Sonje had been telling her the truth, or this would be a damn short trip…In her mind she could hear her twin screaming for her pack to stop them. Meredith’s voice increased in volume and power, a stabbing, twisting knife in the head, and Neva felt sorry for the wolves who could not resist such a painful compulsion.

  As the terrible voice ceased, she couldn’t help but be glad that Meredith wasn’t going to lower herself to chase them herself. Of course, it also meant she had total confidence that they couldn’t escape.

  Neva veered to the right, straight into the grand reception room where Meredith had once held a fake party in her honor—and instead, had changed her life forever. This time, however, she wasn’t hanging around for her deranged twin to grab her. Running full-out, she crossed the expansive floor in a handful of bounds and lowered her head to ram the glass doors leading to the patio. Travis was there a heartbeat ahead of her and broke the glass for both of them. It exploded into a shower of beads that clung to their fur, but they didn’t slow down. This way, Neva said as she ran to the edge of the stone balcony—

  And leaped over the side.

  Sonje had been right about the roof that lay directly below. Of course, now Neva remembered that the white wolf had said to run along to the left, not straight down. Because no other roof jutted out beneath this particular area.

  Neva scrabbled with her claws to gain purchase on the sloping surface. Travis dropped down beside her and likewise struggled to keep from sliding. She could see the other two roofs, about a hundred feet away, which would act almost as stair steps if they could make their way over there. If she fell off this spot, however, it was a sheer drop of forty feet or so to a flagstone patio—and she didn’t want to find out if werewolves bounced.

  Lie down flat! Travis dropped to his belly. Now!

  She followed suit and was relieved that the skidding and sliding stopped immediately.

  Get your head down—we need to be invisible.

  Neva dropped her chin between her paws and even flattened her ears. She made sure that her tail was stretched out along the shingles as well before she followed Travis’s gaze.

  Crap. Dozens of wolves seemed to pouring in from the outer walls, other buildings, courtyards, and gardens, all converging on the mansion. Meredith had obviously called for all hands on deck. But that wasn’t necessarily bad. Neva shared her thoughts with Travis. She thinks we’re still in the building.

  It won’t take long for a search party that big to figure out we’re not. Are we heading for those rooftops over there?

  Yup. And we do a one-and-a-half gainer into the pool from the last one.

  Not very quiet, but at least we won’t break our necks. Okay, be ready to move. As soon as those wolves are close to the house, we’re leaving.

  Do you think we can avoid being seen?

  Not a chance in hell. But we’re going anyway.

  They watched, not daring to move until the last stragglers disappeared from their line of sight. Neva was first to get to her feet—if it could be called that. She elected to slink along with her belly almost touching the shingles. She didn’t look back to see if Travis was following suit. Knowing him, he was probably trotting along as if it was a ground-level sidewalk. She jumped down to the next roof and then the next, hoping that it wasn’t making a huge amount of noise indoors. She crept along to the side of the roof that overhung one of the sparkling blue pools. Travis pulled up beside her as she contemplated the drop. Water or not, it was still a long way down from here.

  Do it this way, he said, placing his front feet far beyond his nose. Just like a human, point your arms—your front legs—out ahead of your face. Tuck your head.

  It doesn’t look deep enough for a dive.

  Trust me, there’s lots of water. And this way, we’ll keep the splash down—this is the wrong time to do a cannonball. Without any further warning, Travis launched himself.

  The splash was minimal, just as he promised. It seemed to take awhile for him to come back up, but then she spotted him swimming along the bottom, staying under the water—and out of sight—as long as possible. Neva took a deep breath, then another. Truthfully, she was afraid to make the leap herself, but it was all relative. Jumping into a goddamn active volcano would be less scary than being recaptured by her psychotic twin.

  Forgetting to tuck her head, Neva hit the surface awkwardly, sending chlorinated water jetting into her sinuses as she arrowed straight to the bottom. At the last moment, she managed to pull up before she smacked into the bright-blue tiles, and floundered her way along. Swimming underwater in a lupine body was nothing like swimming as a human—and she wasn’t particularly good at that, either. She flailed in an approximation of a sideways dog paddle until she reached the big golden wolf and came up coughing.

  Quiet! He’d been waiting for her in the shaded shallows, where tiled steps led up and out to the patio. Every part of him was submerged but for his nose and eyes. Somehow he’d folded his ears to keep them below the waterline, too.

  She thought she’d strangle as she attempted to suppress her sputters and coughs, and settled for exposing her nose and snorting out as much water as possible.

  Where do we go from here? He glanced toward the house, watchful for any sign they’d been discovered.

  She hadn’t asked Sonje that particular question, but it wasn’t hard to decide on a plan. Neva knew the layout of the grounds—and she remembered exactly where she’d managed to get over the wall herself. On the west side, behind the greenhouse. We can get there in short runs so we have cover—from the pool house to the stand of cedars, along the rose hedge and west of the garage.

  Kind of like a covert military operation.

  She snorted some more. Maybe they’ll make a movie out of it. On three…

  They mounted the steps until they were on dry land—or rather, dry tile—but they didn’t take the time to shake the water from their pelts. Nor did they move like wolves. Instead, they crept, panther-like, from point to point, as fast as they dared, keeping close to the foliage or in it. Everything went smoothly until they wriggled between the junipers and the brick wall of the enormous multicar garage. A howl sounded long and loud from the mansion steps and was taken up by a multitude of voices around it. Neva could hear the excited yips and barks of the pack as it spread swiftly over the grounds. They’re hunting us. Should they lie low or run for it? They were well hidden where they were, but—

  Travis had already thought it through. They’re just going to pick up our scent if we stay here. We have to make a run for it now.

  They loped along the side of the garage under the protection of the prickly junipers, then bolted across the short open space to the greenhouse area. Neat nursery rows of tall, ornamental trees and thick rosebushes surrounded the big glass building, providing replacements for gardens and beds all over the estate—and welcome cover for the two fugitives.

  Neva led Travis around the back, where a pallet of mulch had once helped her climb up and over the high stone wall that surrounded the grounds. Except the pallet wasn’t there anymore. Crap!

  We don’t need it.

  What? Are you kidding? T
hat wall has to be a dozen feet tall, maybe more. And the top is about two feet across.

  Did you climb over it on two legs or four?

  Two, of course.

  Exactly. Now that you’re a Changeling, you can jump this, easy. You just need a running start. Come on.

  Neva wasn’t sure about that at all. He’d said the swimming would be easy, too, and she was still leaking water from her sinuses, but she followed him anyway. A long row of red-flowered rhododendron shrubs ran perpendicular to the wall, and Travis crept all the way back to the very last bush. That’s about a hundred feet of runway. More than enough to give you momentum if you run as hard as you can. He checked to see if anyone was looking in their direction. We’re clear if we go now.

  But I—

  Just do what I do. You’ll be fine. He launched himself like a sprinter, and for a moment she was mesmerized by the sheer power of the big wolf. Muscles bunched beneath the golden pelt, and legs gathered and released in long flying strides, his tail a banner behind him. Neva caught her breath as he was suddenly airborne, up and up, front legs tucked high. As he passed the top of the wall, he kicked off it powerfully with his hind legs and disappeared from sight.

  Over there!

  The words were loud in her mind, but it wasn’t Travis. Neva turned to see a group of wolves heading straight for her, ears flattened and teeth bared. Jesus. She ran for her life, straight for the wall. Certain she was following Travis’s example to the letter, she launched herself upward—only to discover that she’d leaped a couple of strides too soon. Her chest hit the top edge of the wall hard, knocking the breath from her. Still, she clung with her front feet while her hind claws scrabbled for purchase on the vertical stone. She could hear the pack approaching, but wolfen paws had no fingers, and she couldn’t get enough of a grip to pull herself up and over. Help! Just as she thought she was going to tumble backward, a familiar tawny figure appeared on the edge of the wall and ran to her.

  Neva didn’t know what she was expecting. Maybe that Travis would shift to human form and grab her with his big strong hands. Instead, he simply closed his massive jaws tightly on the thick ruff and the tender underlying skin between her neck and her shoulders, and pulled. Ow, dammit! No, wait, don’t—