Ember crossed her arms in front of her belly and stared at her.
Crystal looked up and her eyes widened in shock. “Holy crap! You’re naked!”
Ember glanced down at herself and shrugged. “Told you I sleep naked.”
“Well…you’re not sleeping anymore! Put some clothes on!”
Ember rolled her eyes and turned away. She walked into her bedroom and rummaged around a moment before she came back out wearing leather pants and a camouflage print tank top with nothing underneath it to stop it from poking out. Crystal shook her head and looked away. “Let me guess, you were a fashion model before you were changed?”
Ember looked down at herself and frowned. “What’s wrong with this?”
“Uh, nothing. Ignore me, fat girl talking.”
“You’re not fat anymore,” Ember said. “You’ve turned into a girl with the right curves in the right places. You just don’t know how to use them.”
“What?”
Ember shrugged. “You can be sexy. Sexy as fuck. Good hips, skinny waist, big boobs.”
“Wow,” Crystal said while shaking her head. “And my boobs are not big. I mean they are, but without a bra it’s not pretty.”
“That’s not what I heard.”
“What?” Crystal squeaked. She held up her hand and shook her head. She didn’t want to know. “Never mind. How did this get turned around? I was asking you about Stephanie.”
Ember smirked. “Steph’s your fault.”
Ember was calling her Steph, not Stephanie? Crystal pushed the thought aside and asked, “My fault?”
“You’re the one who made out with her and rocked her world.”
“Oh my God! Rocked her world?” Crystal buried her face in her hands again. “That was so stupid.”
“Pretty much,” Ember agreed. “And now I’ve got to keep her busy so she doesn’t obsess over you worse than she already is.”
Crystal groaned and then looked up as Ember’s words sank in. “Obsess over me?”
Ember nodded. “She’s got it bad.”
Crystal gawked, unable to form words or even thoughts.
Ember chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’m sure some of it has to do with you being in heat. Once you get over that, she’ll back off.”
“But—but—she’s a girl!”
Ember shrugged. “Don’t ask me. You did this to her.”
“No I—”
Ember pushed her lips out and made kissing noises, disrupting Crystal and making her squeal in frustration. She buried her face in her hands again.
“Crys, it’s the twenty-first century. We have gay celebrities and legalized gay marriage in more and more states. Girls liking girls isn’t a big deal anymore.”
“It is to me! I’m not a lesbian!”
Ember scowled at her. “Nobody’s asking you to be.”
“Stephanie—”
“I’m taking care of her, remember?”
Crystal stared at Ember until the words began to fall in place and she realized what the redhead was saying. “Oh my God! You’re—”
Ember’s eyes narrowed and she picked her chin up to stare a challenge at Crystal. “What?”
“I didn’t think—I mean, you said I wasn’t your type. But, um, are you, um, gay?”
Ember snorted and shook her head. She chuckled and turned her head enough to see out the window of her trailer. She stopped and stared and then glanced back at Crystal. “They’re getting ready. You should too.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
“Absolutely. You’re part of the pack; we take care of our own.”
“Sounds like you’re taking care of more than just pack issues.”
“I’m taking care of it, but it’s your issue.”
“My issue?”
“Besides, she’s cute.”
“Oh my God!”
Ember turned away, her shoulders shaking as she laughed at Crystal.
Crystal looked away from Ember and found her purse on the floor next to the bed. She had a hairbrush in it but no toothbrush. She frowned and looked up to ask Ember if she had a spare and then almost laughed at herself. Why would Ember have an extra toothbrush? She lived alone and even at that, they all seemed to eat together. She barely had enough for herself.
Unless, of course, she kept something tucked away in case somebody special stayed over. Like Stephanie.
Crystal shook her head again. She had to get that out of her head! “Hey, um, tell me about yourself.”
Ember stuck her head out of her bedroom. “What?”
“Yeah, if I’m one of the, um, pack, I should get to know you, right?”
“We’re not dating.”
Crystal bit back the obvious retort and went with her second choice. “You’re not my type. Still, I want to know more about everyone. It’s bad enough I feel stupid and useless and so totally in debt to you guys.”
Ember sighed and walked back out with her boots now on. “What do you want to know?”
Crystal shrugged. “How did you get changed? You told me when, but you never told me how.”
Ember stopped and tilted her head. She shrugged after a moment and said, “I was a freshmen in college and I went to a party with a sorority sister. Things got a little crazy.”
“Crazy?”
“Yeah, alcohol, ecstasy, weed…you know, crazy.”
“And that turned you into a werewolf?”
Ember chuckled. “No, I was trying to find my my friend but couldn't. I went looking for her and heard that she'd left with a bunch of frat guys. Frat guys with a reputation.”
“A bunch? Oh my God!”
“Yeah, I had a hunch she wasn’t going to be cool with it and I went crazy. Bad crazy.”
Crystal leaned forward and stared at the redhead. “What happened?”
Ember shrugged and glanced out the window again. She turned back and sighed. “It wasn’t good. I drove all over hell and back looking for them. I heard they went camping, but there was a lot of campgrounds. Plus for what they had planned I knew it wouldn't be a public one. I ended up finding them, but I was too late."
"Too late? Oh no!"
Ember grinned. "Wrong kind of too late. They were already dead. Worse than dead, they were torn apart."
"Holy shit! By what? You're friend?"
Ember shrugged. "I don't know. Probably. There was a pack of wolves feeding. A big grey one seemed to be in charge at first but it was the others that were on me. I ran, but they caught me."
"Oh my God!"
Ember nodded. "Tore me up good, but a black wolf stopped them. That wolf, the black one, was a female. She ended up being the alpha, but I had no idea at the time. She fought back the others she sniffed me up and down and then licked me. Not there, you sick bitch, I meant my wounds. She stared at me and I couldn't help but think she looked sad. Then they turned and left me alone."
"Gone? Just like that? Was that your friend?"
Ember shrugged. "I never found out. I was bleeding bad and I tried to crawl back to my car where my phone was, but I passed out. I don’t remember much after that, except for an animal sniffing and touching me. I had enough fight left in me I freaked out and bit it.”
“It was a wolf, wasn’t it? Another one of them?"
"Different pack," Ember said. "Which is amazing. There aren't that many of us and travel a lot, but almost never run into each other."
"So it was one of your pack. I guess that makes sense. Who was it?”
“Guntar,” she said. “He cut me up even worse trying to get away and that’s how I got his blood.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, wow,” Ember said. She shrugged. “Beats the alternative.”
“What alternative?”
“If they hadn’t found me, I would have chased after my friend.”
“Your friend, what was her name?”
Ember’s nose wrinkled and then relaxed. “Ally. Why?”
Crystal smiled. “I’m sorry about her.”
; Ember turned to the window. “Not your fault. You got nothing to be sorry about.”
“Was she, um, special?”
“She was, um, my Beth,” Ember whispered. She cleared her throat and glanced sharply at Crystal.
Crystal understood what she meant, but didn’t know how—or if—she should explain that her relationship with Beth wasn’t like that anymore. At least not for her.
“And no, I wasn’t sleeping with her. We were just friends. I’m not a full-time lesbian or anything.”
Crystal gawked. “I wasn’t—I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ember interrupted her. “Grab your shit. It’s time to go.”
Crystal snatched her purse up. “This is all I’ve got, but I need to brush my hair and teeth.”
“No you don’t.”
Crystal frowned and opened her mouth to insist but a loud pounding on the door stopped her. A moment later, the door opened and Guntar looked in. “Good, you’re ready.”
“No, I—”
“Let’s go,” he barked without listening to her.
Chapter 6
Crystal followed Ember out of the trailer and saw everyone was either on their bikes or standing next to them. Hank smiled and waved from beside his bike and Crystal started towards him. She let out a yelp when Ember grabbed her hand and stopped her so fast she almost fell.
“Uh uh,” Ember said. She grinned and winked at her. “You’re riding with me, sweet cheeks.”
Crystal yelped again when Ember’s hand slapped her on the butt. She spun, hands going to her stinging injury. Ember was already heading towards her bike. Crystal whipped her head around and saw Hank staring with his eyes wide open. She shook her head and held up her hands but didn’t know what to say.
Ember had her sunglasses on and was sitting on her bike. She reached back to pat the seat behind her. “Come on, you’re riding bitch.”
Crystal spun. “What?”
“Just get on.”
“Got a helmet?”
“Nope.”
Crystal frowned. “If my mom finds out—”
“She can bitch me out,” Ember said. “That’s if you make it back from seeing Clover.”
Crystal clamped her teeth together. She’d done a good job repressing the memory of what was happening today. With the blatant reminder in her face, she walked over and stuffed her purse into the saddlebag before climbing onto the back of Ember’s bike.
“Hold on,” Ember said. “And don’t try anything funny.”
Crystal let the joke pass. Her thoughts were on what was at the end of the ride. Adrian’s bike fired up and then Guntar’s and Hank’s. Ember turned her motorcycle on, making the engine rumble beneath them. Ember shimmied in her seat and turned her head back to grin at Crystal. Her smile faded when she saw Crystal wasn’t amused.
“Hey, lighten up,” the redhead said. “One way or another, you’re going to learn something today.”
“Can’t wait.”
Ember stared at her a moment longer and then turned when Adrian honked. “Hold on,” Ember said again and then started the bike forward. She turned slowly and followed the others out. Hank rolled out behind them, bringing up the rear of the pack.
They drove along the outskirts of town, stopping when they hit a red light at Main Street. Ember turned her face and tilted her head, blocking the rising sun that was in their eyes and on their left. Crystal felt her stiffen and lift her head. She turned to see what had startled Ember as the woman said, “Oh, shit.”
It was Stephanie, driving towards them in her pink Camaro with the top down. She turned and stared at them as she drove past. Her brake lights flared once she was through the light. The bike lurched forward beneath Crystal, startling a yelp out of her and making her clamp her hands down on Ember’s sides. The light was green and they were moving.
They drove out of town and picked up speed, causing Ember’s ponytail to blow in her face and tickle her nose. She leaned back and wrinkled her nose to keep from sneezing. Mid-way through the fight, she heard the first honk behind her. She turned and felt the bike shift under her, making her jerk her head back and lean the other way.
The horn of a car blared again. She tried to look again, compensating for shifting her balance. Stephanie’s pink Camaro was pulling up next to them. The bike shifted again under her, making her spin back around. It leaned and she heard Ember curse. She fell forward as the bike slowed, slamming her face into the back of Ember’s head.
The bike started jumping and bouncing beneath her. Her feet slipped off the pegs and she jammed them out, trying to break her fall. Ember’s ponytail was in her eyes, stinging them and making it impossible to see. The bike leaned and jerked and something hit her foot. Crystal screamed as she saw the blue sky go tilting past and then the green grass and brown dirt beside the road. It took more time to think about throwing her arms out to catch herself than it did for the ground to reach up and kiss her.
Crystal bounced and rolled, losing track of everything except the need to try to protect herself. She pulled her arms against her chest and squeezed her eyes shut. Her head bounced off the ground and she slid along the grass until she rolled into the ditch beside the road. Her leg slammed into a hard object that refused to move. She flipped up and came down on her chest and face in a trickle of water that ran through the drainage ditch.
She lay still in the ditch, afraid to move. She hurt everywhere and she was afraid of what that meant. Her leg was throbbing and her face was on fire in spite of the water half her face was resting in. The rest of her body, aside from the stinging scrapes and aches where she’d hit something, felt loose and tingled.
“Crystal!”
Hank. That sounded like Hank. Crystal smiled and felt a tooth shift against her split lips. She smelled blood and dirt. Her blood.
“Crystal!”
Stephanie?
“That was stupid!”
Ember.
Crystal almost smiled again. She tried to move her arm and found it still worked. She reached out and pushed against the ground, trying to roll herself back out of the spring runoff. Something heavy slammed into the ground beside her and blocked out the sunshine.
“Hank?” she breathed.
“Don’t move,” he growled. He knelt down and touched her face. His fingers were large and strong, but gentle. “How bad?”
“I don’t know,” Crystal said. Somebody else ran into the ditch beside her. She sniffed and smelled Ember’s scent along with the blood, dirt, Hank, and burnt rubber. Burnt rubber? “Did you crash?”
“No,” Ember said as she fell to her knees in the mud next to Crystal’s head. She reached down and cleaned some dirt and hair off Crystal’s face. “Damn it, you’re a wreck.”
“You didn’t crash?” Crystal asked again. She blinked and lifted her eyes to see Ember, albeit upside down. “Then why did I?”
“You panicked and didn’t keep your legs on the bike,” Hank told her. “She dipped off the road and you went flying.”
“Now you know—when you’ve got the chance, keep your legs wrapped around me.”
“Oh my God,” Crystal mumbled. She tried to roll again and winced. “Sumbitch!”
“Crystal! Are you okay? Ember, is she—”
Ember rolled her eyes. She glared at Crystal. “Your fault,” she hissed before she rose up. She turned and intercepted Stephanie on her way down the shoulder. “Give her some room. She’s shaken up but I think she’s all right. She got lucky.”
“I’m broken,” Crystal groaned.
Hank turned and looked up and down her body before he focused on her face again. He smiled. “You’re a mess, but you’re going to live.”
“How? We had to be going ninety!”
“Ember slowed down to less than twenty before she went off the pavement and gave it some gas.”
“Gave it some gas? Is she crazy?”
“That’s how you stabilize a bike. Keep the weight on the rear tire,” Hank explained.
“Don’t ever take a job as a stuntwoman.”
Crystal grimaced as she felt something shift in her leg. A searing pain shot up her leg and then it faded. “Something happened.”
Hank’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“My leg,” she said.
Hank turned and reached down. She felt his fingers against her skin and jerked in surprise. Her jeans should have been there. He grunted and then turned away as Guntar, Gwen, and Adrian jogged up to join them. “Her leg,” Hank said and then stopped.
Crystal craned her neck and saw Adrian glaring at him. Gwen met her eyes and turned to head towards Ember and Stephanie. Adrian and Guntar came closer and knelt down around her. “Hi,” she said.
“It just reset itself,” Hank said in a hushed rumble. He glanced down at her thigh. “Her pants are torn up where she hit something but there’s hardly any blood.”
“I can see it healing!” Adrian whispered and leaned closer to her. “Amazing.”
Guntar grunted and turned his attention to Crystal’s face. “You make it through this weekend and you’re taking riding lessons.”
“I’m sorry,” Crystal said. Her eyes began to water. “I didn’t mean to do anything stupid; it’s just what I do. I always screw things up.”
“Crystal, stop,” Hank said.
Guntar nodded. “He’s right. Stop talking. You’re going to be fine.”
She blinked the tears from her eyes and felt the hot liquid roll down her cheeks and cool against her face. Her stomach rumbled and she suddenly felt warm. She shuddered as the heat inside of her made the water soaking half her body send chills down her spine.
“Did you see that!” Guntar asked.
Adrian grunted. “I did. I don’t know what it was, but I saw it.”
“What?” Crystal whimpered.
Adrian and Guntar looked at each other but Hank met her troubled eyes. “Your skin just rippled. That usually doesn’t happen until the change. That, or for someone who’s already changed and has learned to control the hunter they can heal themselves quickly.”
“Is that good?”
Claimed by the Beast Bundle Page 18