Other trailer doors were opening and people were coming out. In moments there were five of them, including Hank, surrounding her. The redhead sniffed the air before saying, “You made it.”
“I think she’s fine,” Hank said.
“What? Of course I’m fine,” Crystal mumbled.
The oldest man in the group, complete with a salt-and-pepper beard worthy of a family member of the Duck Dynasty reality show, stepped up to her and reached out. He cupped Crystal’s chin in his rough hands and lifted her face up to meet his eyes. Crystal’s heart fluttered in her chest fast enough to give a hummingbird a run for its money.
The redheaded woman leaned in again until her face was only a few inches from Crystal’s. Crystal heard her inhale loudly. She wanted to push her back or at least move away, but she felt paralyzed by the old man’s gaze. His eyes were light gray, reminding her of storm clouds that hadn’t gotten angry enough yet to rain.
“She’s tainted,” the redheaded woman claimed.
The bearded man let go of her chin and grunted, “Were you hurt?” She could pick out a touch of a strange accent that she’d never heard before.
“She was fine when I left her,” Hank said.
The older man’s eyes flicked to Hank and then back to her. “Either you were hurt, or you went back and got hurt. Which is it?”
“I didn’t go back!” Crystal said. “I haven’t been by that bridge since then. What was that thing, a rabid dog or something?”
“Answer the question!” the redhead scolded in a voice just shy of being a scream.
Crystal jerked and turned to glance at her and then Hank. He offered an apologetic shrug. “Crystal, meet Ember,” he said.
“I’m Guntar,” the old man offered. He gestured at the platinum blond beside him. “This is Gwen, my mate.”
Gwen offered her a smile. Her outfit was similar to Ember’s, right down to the lack of shoes. The difference was the silver necklace with a half-moon pendant on it she wore.
“I’m Adrian,” the final man said. He wore faded jeans and a Harley-Davidson t-shirt.
Crystal checked Adrian’s feet and saw he had riding boots on, but they were barely tied. Was he in a rush to meet her and didn’t bother tightening them?
“You’d better answer my question before Ember gets too riled up,” Guntar reminded her.
Crystal tilted her head. Was it some kind of Russian accent? Maybe German? She couldn’t figure it out. “I fell and bruised my knee and shoulder,” she said.
“And your face,” Hank reminded her.
Crystal turned and saw Ember close enough to kiss. The redhead sniffed as Crystal jerked her head back. “What’s wrong with you?” she snapped.
Ember snarled, baring her teeth. Teeth that looked uncomfortably sharp. “You should be more worried about what’s wrong with you!”
“Hank, um, I think I’d like to go home now.”
Ember laughed.
Guntar shook his head. “Tell me, child, were you hurt by the Beast? Not from the fall, but the Beast itself. Don’t lie to us—you’ll only be doing yourself a disservice.”
“You mean that thing? Um, I don’t know. I fell down because it grabbed my shoe. Ripped it off my foot. Why, what was it?”
“I need to see it,” Guntar said.
“My shoe? Or my foot?”
Guntar took in a deep breath and let it out. His chest swelled until it was nearly as large as Hank’s. “Young lady, this may seem strange and foolish to you, but I am not a twisted old man with a foot fetish. Let. Me. See. Your. Foot!”
Crystal gulped and nodded. She knelt down and untied her sneaker before standing up and kicking it off. She pulled her sock off and stood on one leg. “Um, this is awkward.”
Ember dropped to her hands and knees, startling Crystal. She crawled a step forward and sniffed Crystal’s raised foot.
“Okay, this went from awkward to weird,” Crystal muttered.
Ember looked up at Guntar and nodded. She climbed to her feet and flashed her teeth at Crystal. Was it a twisted smile or did the redhead just snarl at her?
Guntar knelt down on one knee and took Crystal’s foot in his hand. She yelped, surprised, and turned from the bizarre woman to look down at the old man. He twisted her foot gently but firmly, studying it. His fingers traced the faded scars on her foot, tickling her. She fought the urge to jerk her foot back and lost her balance.
Hank’s steady hands caught her and kept her in place until Guntar set her foot down. He sighed and rose up. “You were bitten.”
“Okay,” Crystal said. “What does that mean? Do I need a rabies shot or something? My mom’s a nurse. I can just go to the hospital.”
“Do not go to the hospital!” Guntar growled. He offered her a thin smile and spoke in a calmer voice. “They can’t help you.”
“Help me? Help me with what? What’s going on?”
“You will die,” Ember hissed. “It’s only a matter of time.”
Crystal gasped and spun to face Hank. Her lips parted but no words came out.
“There are medicines,” Guntar said.
“Let her,” Ember snarled. “We should have let the Beast have her. Then Caden would still be with us.”
Crystal looked at all of them. She hadn’t met a Caden yet. There had been five bikes. She glanced at the trailers and counted five of them. But Gwen had been riding behind Guntar.
“Oh my God! You mean somebody died fighting that—that thing?”
Ember bared her teeth and took a step forward but Guntar barked her name and stopped her. She glared for a moment and then backed up and bowed her head.
“What is going on?” Crystal whimpered. She turned to Hank. “What the hell is going on? Am I in some kind of trouble? Because dying sounds like a lot of trouble.”
Hank lifted his eyes from hers and looked at Guntar. “She’s young and strong. I think she can fight it off.”
“What is it?” Crystal’s voice rose as she started to panic. “You guys are all freaking me out! Hank, take me home. I don’t want to—”
Guntar twisted her around and held her in arms that felt like steel. “There are things in this world you don’t understand,” he said in a menacing voice. “You’ve been marked. The Beast tasted your flesh. He’ll want more and he won’t wait.”
“Wait for what?” she whimpered.
“For you to die.”
“Oh God!”
Ember cackled from the side. “God has nothing to do with this.”
“You hungry?” Hank asked after Ember’s snide remark led to an uncomfortable silence.
“What?” Crystal spun to face him. “Hungry? How can I be hungry after all of that?”
Hank shrugged. “You gotta eat.”
Gwen’s laugh was an earthy whisper that made Crystal think of the wind blowing through a field. “He’s right, you need to eat. To fight the…infection.”
“Infection?” Crystal asked. “Is that what this is? Why can’t I get some antibiotics? My mom—”
“Your mother can’t help you,” Guntar said again. “You’ve been bitten by a beast with a bloodline that is so old, it comes from a time before time was recorded.”
“A time before time? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“School girl,” Ember snapped, drawing her attention.
Crystal’s head whipped around to look at the smirking redhead. She opened her mouth and then closed it when Ember unbuttoned her vest and let it slide down her shoulders. Crystal’s widening eyes were drawn to her bare chest even as Ember released the hidden clasp on her skirt and let it flutter to the ground. Before she fell forward, Crystal noted she wore the same undergarments below the belt as above them—none.
Her shock reached a new level when Ember landed on her hands and…feet? Furry feet. With claws. Where she’d fallen stood a sleek and dangerous-looking charcoal and dark red wolf with her lip curled up to bare her teeth. It bore a striking resemblance to Ember’s smirk.
�
��Oh hell,” Guntar growled. “Damn it, Ember!”
Crystal stumbled back and fell into Hank. She looked up at him, her lips parted, and saw the unnatural bright blue color of his eyes. “Calm down,” he said.
Crystal screamed.
Chapter 8
Crystal sat on the small couch in Hank’s trailer with her arms crossed tight against her belly. They’d tricked her. Drugged her with something, maybe. There was no way she’d seen what she’d seen. It wasn’t possible. There was no way that Ember could turn into a wolf and then run off into the woods.
The door opened and Gwen stepped in with a plate of steaming meat on it. She smiled at Crystal and stepped in to offer her the plate. “You need to eat, sweetie,” Gwen said.
Crystal shook her head even as her stomach rumbled. She could smell the roasted meat and it looked really juicy, even if she was screaming at herself to not touch anything these people gave her. Her hands trembled as she reached out and accepted it.
“Hank, how about you give us some time to talk?” Gwen asked the big man.
Hank looked at Crystal, one bold eyebrow raised to seek her approval. Crystal heard her breath whistle in her throat. Was she whimpering? She glanced around the small trailer and nodded. It was almost too small for the three of them to be in anyhow. Unless Gwen sat down next to her.
Hank climbed to his feet and offered her a smile before he disappeared out the door.
Gwen took his seat and waited. Crystal put the plate on the cushion beside her and stared back. “What?” she asked the older woman.
“You should eat,” Gwen said. “I seasoned yours with some herbs that will help.”
“Help? Help what? Screw my head up and make me see more crazy stuff going on?”
Gwen shook her head. “Crystal, Ember’s inappropriate behavior showed you what we are. Why would we drug you?”
“What you are?” Crystal asked. She swallowed, unwilling to accept that they could all do that. Her eyes dropped to Gwen’s vest and skirt. They were similar enough to Ember’s that she could do the same thing. She could rip them off and pounce on her before Crystal could get off the couch. “Oh God!”
“We’re not as bad as you think,” Gwen said. “Even Ember. And by the way, she said she’s sorry for scaring you like that.”
“She—she did?”
Gwen opened her mouth and hesitated. She sighed. “No, she didn’t. She wouldn’t dream of doing that. But we’re working on her.”
Crystal bit her lip to keep herself from crying again. She glanced around, hoping for some escape. The trailer was clean enough, but it was dark and it smelled musty. There was a half-open door beside the couch that she’d spied a bed in when she came in. A small kitchen with random pieces of junk in the tiny sink was behind Gwen’s chair. Her house wasn’t the greatest, but it beat Hank’s trailer by a long shot!
Crystal’s eyes went back to Gwen and found her smiling at her. The smile made her stomach twist and grumble.
“Please, Crystal, eat.”
“I’m not hungry,” Crystal lied.
“Yes, you are.”
Crystal ignored the rebuke and stared at her. “You’re like her, aren’t you?”
Gwen tilted her head. “Ember?”
“Yes.”
Gwen smiled. “I’m like you, too.”
“I’m not—”
Gwen held up a hand, stopping her. “We’re women, and that means we’re difficult.”
“No, I’m not,” Crystal argued. “And that’s not what I meant.”
“Oh?” Gwen asked with a lightness to her tone. “What did you mean?”
“The thing where she—you know, she took off her clothes and…”
Gwen nodded. “And she turned into a wolf.”
“Oh my God,” Crystal breathed out in a rush.
Gwen nodded at the plate of food. “You should eat. Ember tracked that deer down so we’d have enough for all of us.”
Crystal’s head jerked to the side as she processed Gwen’s words. It didn’t look like the kind of meat she was used to. It smelled different too, and that wasn’t just the green and brown herbs sprinkled on it. Those had their own scents that she could pick out.
“Holy crap,” Crystal whispered as she realized what she was doing. “I can smell the, uh, the meat and stuff.”
Gwen nodded.
“Ember, um, did this? She caught a deer?”
“She’s our best tracker,” the blond woman said. “We all can, but Ember has the best nose.”
Crystal stiffened. “She really was sniffing me!”
“Yes.”
“What’s going to happen? Am I going to die? Here, I mean?”
“I hope not,” Gwen said. “We’ve already lost someone. We don’t want his death to be for nothing.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Gwen shrugged. “We saved you the other night and you haven’t thanked us yet. It’s only because Henry is smitten with you, and I’m trying to remind myself that you’re scared and clueless, that we haven’t given up on you.”
“Thanked you? For saving me?” Crystal gulped and remembered when she’d ridden home with the large man. “Um, I thanked Hank.”
“So you should know we aren’t going to hurt you.”
Crystal frowned. She couldn’t deny what Gwen was telling her but that didn’t make it any easier to accept. “Okay, um, thank you. But now what?”
“Now you should eat.”
“Enough with the damn eating!” Crystal blurted. “I’m kind of freaked out here. Food’s not my number one priority!”
“If you want to know more, you’ll have to eat first.”
“Fine!” Crystal snapped and picked up the plate. It had cooled but she could still feel the heat on the bottom of the ceramic. She glanced up at Gwen when she realized there was no fork or knife with it. Gwen nodded for her to go ahead. Crystal sighed and picked up one of the thin strips of cooked meat and bit into it.
The flavor exploded in her mouth, stinging her tongue and overwhelming her senses for a moment. She tore it off and chewed on the morsel, savoring the juice that she squeezed out of it before she swallowed it down. She tore off another piece and followed that with the third and final bite. After she swallowed it, she saw two more strips remained. She devoured them and licked the flavor off her fingers and lips before she remembered Gwen was watching her.
Crystal looked up at her, intent on playing it cool. Gwen’s grin told her the woman knew her secret. She’d love the crude meal more than the most expensive dinner she’d ever eaten. She ignored her smile and said, “There, I ate.”
“Do you want more?”
Crystal forced herself to shake her head. “I’m fine.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“Whatever.”
Gwen shook her head. “We don’t lie to one another, young lady. That’s the first rule you need to learn.”
“I’m not one of you,” Crystal protested. “I’m just a kid in high school!”
Gwen frowned. “You’re right and you’re wrong.”
“All right, you seem to know so much—you tell me what’s going on.”
“The Beast that bit you got your scent and tasted your blood. He won’t stop until he has you and makes you his.”
“You mean kills me and eats me?”
“Probably,” Gwen said matter-of-factly. “But that’s only if you can’t survive being bred.”
Crystal’s jaw fell open.
Gwen nodded. “He’s not like us.”
“What’s he like then?”
Gwen smiled. “A beast. Cunning, strong, and deadly, but not like us. He can’t shift, like we can.”
“Shift? You mean, um, like what Ember did?”
“Yes.”
“So wait, you mean that thing under the bridge—the Beast—it’s always like that?”
“Yes.”
“What about all this talk about being poisoned?”
She nodded. “It will weaken you aft
er a while, make you easier to find. That way he can find you and—”
“And breed me?” Crystal whispered.
Gwen nodded. “Unless you’re too weak. Then he’ll just kill you.”
“So I’m screwed any way you look at it.”
Gwen winced.
Crystal frowned and realized her choice of words. She groaned. “That’s not what I meant, but I guess it’s true.”
“Yes,” Gwen agreed.
“But you said I could fight it?”
“We have to kill him,” Gwen said. “Then he’ll stop hunting you. We hurt him the other night but he’ll be recovered soon, if not already.”
“Won’t I still be poisoned?”
“Yes, but we’ll try to help you beat the poison. It’s been done before.”
“Oh, cool. Um, okay. What do I have to do?”
“Spend as much time with us as you can. You’ll need our strength and knowledge and protection.”
“What about school? And my mom? And thanks, but as cool as Hank is, I’m not going to just start staying here with him.”
Gwen sighed. “Ember will stay with you then.”
“What?” Crystal said while shaking her head. Maybe the trailer wouldn’t be so bad. She could almost stretch out on the loveseat…
“She won’t be happy about it either,” Gwen agreed. “Would you like to reconsider?”
Crystal groaned. “No. but how’s she going to go to school with me? And my mom’s not going to be happy having some strange girl hanging out. Especially one who dresses like she does!”
“You’ll have to figure it out,” Gwen said. “Or we can just leave you to—”
“No!” Crystal blurted. “I’ll, um, I’ll figure something out. Jesus, this is messed up!”
Gwen smiled and stood up. “You should come out with me. You need to be there when I tell the others.”
“I thought Guntar was the leader?”
“He is,” Gwen said with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Is he going to agree to all of this?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m his mate.”
“Oh,” Crystal said, even though she didn’t understand. “Um, what if he doesn’t want to do it that way?”
Claimed by the Beast Bundle Page 4