by Jackie May
“I respectfully decline the position,” Wulf says calmly.
Alpha Toth frowns, disappointed, but not the least bit surprised. “You won the challenge, Wulf. The position is yours automatically.”
Wulf groans, as if he’s being inconvenienced in the worst possible way. “I have no interest in being a pack beta.”
“Then you shouldn’t have fought—”
“I had no choice. The asshole jumped me without warning.”
Alpha Toth’s jaw clenches, and he glares at Jeffrey. Jeffrey glares back, standing proud and puffing up his chest. “He’s not pack! He wasn’t supposed to be here.”
Alpha Toth sighs and throws a hand over his face, rubbing his eyes. “He had permission,” he says tiredly. “He was bringing someone dear to our pack to visit.” He removes his hand from his face and waves it my direction. “Everyone, meet Nora Jacobs, the brave human who rescued Maya and the others last month.”
The crowd gasps and erupts into cheers, clapping and whistling for me. I’m a bit shocked by the reception, and flash an awkward wave.
“I had hoped to introduce her as an honored guest at the pack social next weekend, but now that we’ve bloodied her escort, I’m not sure she’ll want to come.”
“A little fight isn’t going to scare her off,” calls a familiar voice.
I scan the crowd for the face I know is out there, and grin when I spot it. “Hey, Maya.”
“Hey, girl!” Maya flashes me a wolfish grin. She looks a lot healthier than the last time I saw her. I almost don’t recognize her. “Welcome to the compound. It’s good to see you again.”
“You too.”
“You’re still going to come to the social, right?”
“Sure. Sounds like a hell of a party. I’m not so sure Wulf will want to come now, though.”
Maya grins, but this time she’s looking at Wulf. She slings her arm over his shoulder and says to me, “He’ll have to. It’s mandatory for the pack. They’ll introduce him officially as our new beta. There’s a little ceremony for it and everything.”
“No!” Wulf groans again. “No ceremony. I’m not joining the pack. I have no desire to be anyone’s beta.” He casts Alpha Toth a serious gaze and adds, “Or anyone’s alpha. Which is what my wolf would demand, if I rejoined.”
The crowd gasps, and Alpha Toth stiffens. “Is that a challenge?” he growls. I’m surprised he’s so angry. I got the impression he really liked Wulf.
“No! It’s not a damn challenge. I hate werewolf politics. GAH.” Wolf fists his hair with both hands as he groans at the sky. “You see?” he says to me. “This is why I never come back. I’m a lone wolf, Nora. I’d be a crappy leader, only my wolf is too dominant to be anything but.” He gives Alpha Toth what is meant to be a pleading expression. “I’m sorry. I have to decline the position of beta. I mean no disrespect, but I can’t join your pack. I only came today because Nora needs training.”
Alpha Toth looks at me, then back at Wulf, before sighing helplessly. “I’m sorry, friend. Your cause is noble, but we can’t have a lone wolf in pack territory. It’ll cause too many problems within the pack. Thank you for introducing me to Nora, but I’m afraid if you don’t join, you can’t be allowed back.”
My heart sinks. I understand where Alpha Toth is coming from—we’ve been here an hour, and Wulf’s already been in a fight with the pack’s beta—but I’m still disappointed. Wulf, on the other hand, is beaming. “That’s okay,” he says, smiling bigger than I’ve ever seen him. He nods his head toward his brother. “Rook can train her.”
“What?” I shout. “You’re passing me off after one lesson?”
“I won’t, if you don’t want me to,” he says, still grinning, “but the only other place I have to work with you is my place, and we’d be alone there, which I know you don’t want.” I blush, because he’s right, but I didn’t need the whole pack hearing that and assuming things. “Besides,” he continues, “Rook is much better at fighting in human form than me. I’m more of a go-at-it-on-all-fours kind of guy.”
“I noticed,” I say flatly. “Fine. But did you even ask Rook? Are you sure he would even want to help me?”
“Oh, he doesn’t mind. Do you, big brother?”
When he grins at Rook, it’s so devious I almost laugh. I don’t know why, but he did this on purpose. He wanted Rook to teach me from the start. Rook knows it, too, and though he’s both shocked and annoyed, he’s also trying not to laugh. “That’s what you’re up to?” Rook asks, shaking his head. “Thirty years? You don’t come home for thirty years, and when you do, it’s to bring me a girl?”
My mouth falls open. No freaking way. This is about me? And his brother? Like, as in, together?
“Nora’s not just a girl,” Wulf says. He winks at me and adds, “And I’m right, anyway, aren’t I? I mean, you stole her from me like five minutes after I got here, and you still haven’t let her go.”
He means that literally, because Rook’s arm is still around me. I know he was only protecting me during the fight, but now it looks like he’s holding me, or staking a claim on me. My eyes bulge, and I scramble out of Rook’s grip. “You were setting me up?” I shout at Wulf. “Are you freaking kidding me? You brought me here to set me up?”
The crowd laughs, making my cheeks flame again. I glare at Wulf, but he doesn’t look the least bit repentant. In fact, when he shrugs at me, it’s the cockiest I’ve ever seen him. “You’d be good for each other, since you both refuse to date.”
Rook’s head whips in my direction. His brows are raised in a question. “It’s true,” I tell him. “I don’t date.”
“Neither does Rook,” Wulf promises. “So just give the friends thing a try for a while. Let him train you, Nora. Talk. Hang out.” He steps closer to me and lowers his voice to barely a whisper. “You both have traumatic pasts,” he says softly. “Maybe you two can help each other heal.”
I want to kill him, but he’s being so sweet. He’s really just looking out for his brother. And, I have to admit, I’m a lot more intrigued now that I know Rook doesn’t date and that he has some kind of traumatic past.
Wulf smiles when he sees he’s won me over. I sigh and glance at Rook to find him eyeing me just as curiously. “You don’t have to train me, if you don’t want to,” I say. “I’m sorry Wulf put you on the spot like this.” I step back and fold my arms across my chest. I give Wulf a stink-eye and add, “I had no idea he was so meddlesome.”
Every wolf within earshot cracks up laughing.
“That’s a werewolf trait, girl,” Maya calls to me. “We’re all that way. Better get used to it.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I mutter under my breath.
This time, only Rook laughs. I look at him, and he raises a brow at me. “I don’t mind training you. If you think you can handle hanging out here with us meddling wolves three times a week.”
“There’s nothing to meddle in—I truly don’t date—so as long as you keep your paws to yourself, then yes, thank you, I’d love to train with you.”
The crowd laughs again, and Rook grins. He holds his hand out to me. “Deal.” I give it a quick shake and laugh when his only thought is something about needing to kill his damned meddling brother.
“Great,” I say, and then force a smile at my rather large audience. “Well, as awesome as this visit has been, I need to get to work pretty soon. So I think it’s time I take my lone wolf back to the city.”
Sunday night at the club isn’t quite as busy as Saturday was, but it’s still loud, chaotic, and exhausting. I’m glad for it, because it doesn’t give Wulf much time to hound me about Rook. Oh, he finds time when he can, just not as much. “Honey, I’m not saying you have to mate with the guy. Just hang out with him. He needs to not be scared of women anymore, and you, pip-squeak, are the least scary woman on the planet.”
I punch him in the arm for that, as hard as I can. He laughs at my efforts and winks at me before turning his flirty smile on some woman at the bar,
showing more cleavage than the Swiss have Alps.
I roll my eyes and pour a small, grumpy dwarf his fourth shot of absinthe. “If you’re so worried about Rook,” I call down the bar to Wulf, “why not just find him a good she-wolf to date?”
“Because all she-wolves are just trying to snag mates.” Wulf shivers in horror. “Rook would never give one the chance to get close.”
“So I’m supposed to go in all undercover-like, disguised as a nonthreatening female who just wants to be friends?”
“And then win his heart without him realizing it? Yeah. Basically.”
“Human! Hey, human! Girl! What’s a guy have to do to get a drink around here?”
I shake my head at Wulf one more time and then smile at the elf man waiting to be served. The condescending asshole—elves are the worst when it comes to respecting my human status—orders his drink, and as he saunters off, that intuition of mine hits me like lightning, nearly making my knees buckle. Tingles shoot down my neck and into my whole body, making me feel alive and alert, and yet paralyzing me at the same time. Dread washes over me so strong that I gasp and grip the counter to keep from falling. Whoever my gift is warning me about is close by, and they mean business. Death is on my doorstep. “Wulf!”
Even though it’s loud and busy, Wulf is at my side in an instant. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone here is going to try and kill me.”
Wulf doesn’t like that comment. He snarls, and his eyes glow as he lets his wolf come to the surface. “How do you know?”
“How do I do any of the things I do?” I glare at him, but it’s mostly my anxiety making me lose control. “I just know. I can feel it.”
Wulf shoves me behind him and glares at the crowd around us. “Who? Where?”
“I don’t know. It’s only a warning.”
“Well, that’s helpful.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
He harrumphs and pulls out his cell phone, ignoring all the annoyed customers shouting for drinks. “I’m texting Terrance. Tell me if you see anyone suspicious.”
I’m in a club full of supernatural monsters. Right now, they all look suspicious. It’s especially impossible to tell if anyone means me harm right now, because both Wulf and I have stopped serving drinks and people are starting to get pissed.
“Come on.” Wulf grunts, gruffly grabbing my arm and dragging me toward the end of the bar. “Terrance says to take you to his private suite. It doubles as a panic room.”
He refuses to let go of me as he drags me away from the bar, yelling at his other bartender to hold down the fort until he gets back. We push through the crowd toward the back of the club, where a stairway leads to a set of rooms on the second floor. The hallway is open to the large room, but Terrance’s suite is toward the end of the row.
I can’t help feeling like heading upstairs is a mistake. The dread in my stomach is getting heavier, not lighter. “Are you sure we should be going upstairs? Have you ever seen a horror movie, Wulf?”
“It’s a panic room, Nora. It’s the safest place for you in the club while Terrance and I figure out who wants to hurt you.”
“You’re going to leave me alone, too? You really don’t watch horror.”
“You’ll be fine.”
We reach Terrance’s office, and as Wulf pulls out his keys, a tall, skinny woman arrives out of nowhere and grabs Wulf’s face. “Go back to the bar,” she says, staring into his eyes. “Nora is fine.”
Oh. Nora is so not fine. The woman is a vampire, and she’s just compelled Wulf. He actually smiles as he passes me, heading back for the stairs. I scream his name and grab his arm, but he keeps walking. I try to run after him, but the vampire lady grabs me. I scream Terrance’s name at the top of my lungs, while the woman drags me into the nearest room and throws me to the ground.
Stars burst in my vision as my head hits the ground, but the woman slams my head again for good measure. “Shut up!” she hisses.
When I scream for Terrance again, she hits me so hard across the mouth that my jaw shatters. Pain explodes through me like roaring fire. I can’t scream now. I whimper, and tears leak from the corners of my eyes.
“I don’t know how you bewitched my sire,” she says, “but I’m going to save him from your wretched curse.”
The woman is a stranger to me, but I know she’s talking about Henry Stadther. Henry is the master of the largest vampire clan in Michigan. He’s also completely obsessed with me. The FUA warned him to leave me alone, but he doesn’t do a good job of it. I guess his vampire whores are getting as tired of his infatuation as I am.
This crazy vamp-bitch is out for blood. Her eyes are red, and her fangs are on full display. Hopefully Terrance heard me and gets up here fast, otherwise I’m dead.
“I used to be Henry’s favorite, you know. He was mine until you came along, and now he doesn’t even remember I exist. All he cares about is his precious Nora.” She gives me an evil smile. “We’ll see how long he cares about you once you’re dead. I’m going to enjoy drinking you dry.”
“NNNOOOORRRAAA!” Terrance bellows, shaking the entire club. His voice is completely guttural. I’ve only heard it like that once before—when I’d been kidnapped and he found me chained and bleeding on a sorcerer’s altar. He’s totally in raging troll mode.
I can’t speak, or smirk, so I narrow my eyes at the shocked woman. That’s right, bitch. You’ve done it now. I’m his clan, and you’re a dead woman.
As if she can see the smugness in my eyes, the woman growls at me. “I was planning to make you hurt for a bit first, but I guess I’ll just have to make this quick.” She lifts my wrist but pauses before biting me and smiles again. “Still. I can make you suffer a little.” She looks into my eyes and whispers, “Fear me.”
Immediately, I’m overcome with terror so strong I can’t breathe or think. I try to squirm and thrash to escape, even though every move causes my jaw more pain. I get one more command before she begins to drink. “You will feel pain instead of pleasure.”
Agony tears through my whole body when her fangs pierce my skin, and she begins to pull the blood from me one swallow at a time. I’m on fire from the inside out. I thrash, but it does me no good. Pain and fear, that’s all I know. It’s all I feel. There is nothing else.
I can’t tell how long it goes on. It feels like an eternity. And then it stops. Just as my vision fades, my massive angry troll friend rips the woman away from me. He grabs her and tears her head from her body. Blood flies everywhere, splattering us both, and that’s the last thing I remember.
. . . . .
When I come to, my mind is foggy, but not enough that I don’t remember what happened. I’m still lying on the floor where I passed out, and I’m still a bloody mess. My jaw is healed but really stiff, and I know I must have been drained nearly dry of blood because I’m so weak I can’t move.
The shaman kneeling over me is one I recognize. He’s a freelance healer that is usually on call for the FUA. He’s healed me several times before. “Enzo,” I croak. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”
He gives me a pained smile. “Just lie still, Miss Nora.”
I pass out again, and I’m kind of glad, because I still hurt like a bitch.
When I wake up the second time, I feel a lot better—weak still, but not like I’m on death’s door. I’m also not still lying on the floor splattered in vamp blood, which is nice. I’ve been moved to a large, comfortable bed in a smallish but lavishly decorated room. I’ve also been wiped down, and someone has changed my clothes. Enzo is sitting by my side in a folding chair, looking pale as a ghost and exhausted, but he smiles when he notices I’m awake. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better. Thank you.”
I try to sit up and quickly rethink that decision. “Okay, only a little better. But still, thank you.”
He gives me a humble bow. “You’re welcome, Miss Nora. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”
Is he kidding? “Hey
. I’m alive. I’m sure that’s thanks to you. You are, once again, my favorite underworlder.”
I love making him blush. It’s so easy.
Over half a dozen other faces cram into the room when they hear us talking. Wulf, my best friend Oliver, Nick Gorgeous, Parker, Cecile, two unfamiliar men, and Terrance all crowd into the small room, hovering behind Enzo with worried expressions.
Terrance pushes everyone out of the way and crashes to his knees beside my bed with a thump that rattles the room. “Hey,” I say softly, recognizing that while he might not still be lost to his rage, he’s not entirely calm yet, either. “You saved my life. Thanks, T-man.”
Terrance grumbles something unintelligible while he rakes his thick fingers through my hair.
“I’m okay now, Terrance. Promise.”
He grunts and walks out of the room to resume his furious pacing in the hall. So…he’s going to brood a while, then. “All right. Where am I?” I ask everyone else in the room. “Whose clothes are these? Please tell me Cecile changed me. And what are you all doing here?”
Cecile flashes me a smile. “You’re still in the club. This is my private suite. Those are my clothes, and don’t worry, I cleaned you up and changed you. I even kicked all the men out first—Terrance excluded. I couldn’t get him to go anywhere, but he turned his back.”
I let out a breath of relief. “Thanks.” Again, my gaze circles the room. “And you guys?”
Oliver makes a face like duh. “I was worried about you. I left work as soon as I heard what happened.”
I give him a smile to let him know I’m grateful.
“I’m just checking in on my favorite human,” Nick says. His favorite human? I’m probably his only human. Not that I’m his. You know what I mean. As if he can tell what I’m thinking, he flashes me a grin that could light up a room and shows me his badge. “I’m also here on official business. When stuff happens between the different factions, they send in the FUA. I’ll need to get a statement from you.” He points a thumb at Parker and the two strangers. “Since the vamp was a member of Henry’s clan, his enforcers were also called in as a courtesy to him.”