Unleashed

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Unleashed Page 23

by Nancy Holder


  “Maybe,” Cordelia murmured.

  “Cordelia, that makes no sense. It doesn’t explain anything.” Katelyn had to struggle to keep her voice down, keep her frustration in check.

  Cordelia was silent for a long time and then she abruptly raised her head and tilted back her chin, gazing up at the skylight again. She exhaled as if she were a million years old, and then she looked at Katelyn.

  “Second: I told you the truth. I’m not sure what happened to you. I don’t know who or what attacked you. And you have to believe me.”

  Katelyn nodded slowly, disappointment flooding her. She’d thought this would be the moment that all the pieces would fall into place. But life wasn’t like that, was it?

  “We both agree it was an animal, right?” Katelyn said. Not a crazy person. Not a man with Alzheimer’s.

  “We do,” Cordelia said. Then added hesitantly, “Sort of.” She cleared her throat and continued in a stronger voice. “Even if you subtract my dad’s … condition, you might have noticed that my family is a little … odd.”

  “A little?” Katelyn said before she could stop herself.

  Cordelia didn’t smile. “Yes. And ours isn’t the only one. There are a few other families who live around here who are also odd.”

  “I’ve been told this place is odd,” Katelyn said, leaving it open for Cordelia to explain.

  The other girl reached out and gripped Katelyn’s hand tight. She leaned closer so that their foreheads were nearly touching. Then she opened her backpack and pulled out a framed color photograph. It was of a wolf—its fur a ruddy brown—with intelligent blue eyes that gazed directly at the camera. The image was eerie—as if somehow the photographer had captured its essence.

  Its soul.

  Katelyn went cold. What was it about wolves and this place?

  Cordelia turned the frame over and pushed away the flanges that held the black velvet backing in place. She lifted it off, revealing the other side of the photograph. There was strange writing in each corner, almost like some kind of ancient runes or something you’d see on tarot cards. Wordlessly, Cordelia held the picture out to Katelyn, who squinted, trying to make out the letters.

  “ ‘Cordelia, Hunter’s Moon,’ ” Cordelia translated. “And my lineage. Mother’s side, father’s side. But it’s all the same side.”

  It was as if Cordelia were speaking in a foreign language. Katelyn was lost. “I’m still not following,” Katelyn said very slowly.

  “But you are following,” Cordelia said in a low voice. “You know. You just don’t want to admit it.”

  “Know what?” Katelyn asked, but her mouth went dry, and the words cracked as she said them. Her mind was working and it felt as if things were changing from hazy to focused.

  Cordelia tapped the photograph. “What I am. What my family is. And what you might be now, too.”

  Katelyn shook her head, suddenly feeling faint. “No. I don’t understand.”

  She tried to pull away but Cordelia grasped her hand tight, crushing it. “It’s why we live in the middle of the forest, why my sisters act so weird. My cousin Jesse kisses you because that’s how … wolves … greet one another.”

  Katelyn’s insides were quaking. “Are you trying to say that you—you’re …”

  She tried to stand, but Cordelia held her fast with an incredibly powerful grip. Using her free hand, Cordelia pulled out more framed photographs.

  Of wolves.

  “Arial. Regan. My father.” The metal frames clanked against each other as Cordelia leaned in close, her breath brushing against Katelyn’s ear. “Werewolves, Kat. That’s what we are.”

  “No.” Katelyn shook her head fiercely. “That’s crazy.”

  “You know it’s not. You know.”

  With a burst of adrenaline, Katelyn jerked away from Cordelia and jumped to her feet. Dizzy, she reached out and touched the wall. Katelyn fought back tears. Cordelia was crazy. She had to get away from her. Her grandfather would know what to do.

  Cordelia threw her arms around her and Katelyn tried to push her away, but the other girl was too strong. “You know it’s true,” Cordelia whispered. “Wolves only have blue eyes when they’re pups. There’s no way that what you saw out in the woods and with Trick was just a regular wolf.”

  “But there must be some wolves—”

  “Only hybrids, or maybe, once in a great while, a genetic mutation. Adult wolves just don’t have blue eyes. But werewolves do. We keep the same eye color in both forms.”

  “What are you saying?” Katelyn asked, shuddering.

  “The sight, the heightened senses. They’re all part of it.”

  And then it struck Katelyn what Cordelia was saying. Heightened senses, like I’ve been experiencing. Her mind screamed in horror as she went back over the past few days for confirmation.

  “So now I’m a … I’m like that?” Katelyn asked hoarsely.

  “I don’t know,” Cordelia said, biting her lip.

  “How do you not know?” Katelyn asked, wanting to shake her.

  “I told you, I don’t know what bit you!” Cordelia said. Anger laced with fear flared in her eyes. Katelyn jerked, hard, even more afraid as she tried to grasp what Cordelia was … and what she herself might be.

  This can’t be happening. This can’t be real. Oh, my God. She was shaking so hard her bones began to ache.

  “Katelyn, I …,” Cordelia murmured.

  “But what happened to you?” Katelyn asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Who bit you?”

  Cordelia blinked. “No one. I was born a werewolf.”

  Katelyn was silent as she took that in. Hope flared inside her, because she, Katelyn, had not been born a … thing like that … and then terror, just as intense, just as white-hot. Cordelia could change into a wolf. She could attack her.

  “Werewolf parents have werewolf pups,” she said. “Katelyn, there are no humans in my family.”

  There are no humans in my family.

  “Justin,” Katelyn said, her stomach turning. She’d let him kiss her.

  “And Jesse, too,” Cordelia confirmed.

  Trembling as a chill ran down her spine, Katelyn covered her mouth. Cordelia wasn’t human. “And if you bite someone?” Her voice broke. “If you break the skin?”

  Cordelia let her go.

  “They change,” she said finally. “But I didn’t bite you. I swear it. I couldn’t have. I can’t change except on the full moon. I’m not mature enough. And you weren’t bitten on a full moon.”

  Katelyn went silent. She was shivering uncontrollably, from shock and disbelief. Then she forced herself to ask the next question.

  “Who have you done this to?”

  Cordelia shook her head. “Me personally? No one. But one of my pack mates was brought in with a bite. My brother-in-law Doug. He dated Regan all through high school. He was screened and tested and our alpha gave permission first.”

  “And who is the alpha?” Katelyn asked, hearing herself speaking, and feeling as if she’d totally lost her mind. It was insane.

  Cordelia exhaled slowly and bit her lower lip. “My father runs the pack. He’s served as alpha since the year before I was born.”

  “And he’s … getting demented,” Katelyn said, still struggling to grasp the reality.

  “Yes,” Cordelia said quietly.

  “And I wasn’t screened or tested, and he didn’t give his permission.”

  “No.”

  Katelyn slumped down on the bed, because she didn’t know what else to do. If she ran downstairs to tell her grandfather, he’d do what? Would he even believe her? And if it was true, what would Cordelia do to him? She leaned over for a moment, putting her head down as the room seemed to tilt and whirl around her.

  She felt Cordelia sit down next to her. She didn’t want to believe, but deep down she had to admit that she’d known something was very, very wrong. The way that wolf had tracked her. Her enhanced senses. Her nightmares, so
vivid. The way her wound had healed practically overnight.

  “You’ve known about me all along,” Katelyn said. “When I told you about my symptoms, you already knew.”

  “No.” Cordelia emphatically shook her head. “My dad bit Doug the night before the full moon. So there wasn’t time to really notice any changes before it happened. Doug changed on the full moon. I mean, we all naturally change on the full moon, but older wolves can change at will.”

  Katelyn hugged herself. “That means you kill everyone you attack.”

  Cordelia’s face transformed in shock. “No! We never attack people. It’s forbidden. That’s why this doesn’t make any sense. No one would do this. It would be like expecting that little stuffed bear you like so much to come alive and bite you.”

  Katelyn was bewildered. “But it happened. What else could it have been?”

  Cordelia took a deep breath. Then she mouthed a word with two syllables, one that Katelyn could not make out. Katelyn inched in closer, and Cordelia repeated herself.

  “Hellhound,” she whispered.

  Katelyn frowned. She sat back and looked at Cordelia. “Like in the story about the mine,” Katelyn said.

  Her friend’s face went stark white. She nodded.

  “But Cordelia, that’s just a story,” she began, then caught herself. Because until thirty seconds earlier, werewolves had just been stories, too.

  “My sisters used to tell me stories about the … about it when I was little, to scare me,” Cordelia said in a low, strained voice. “They tortured me with them. And it worked. I had horrible night terrors. There was one year that I hardly ever slept.”

  Katelyn just listened. Cordelia looked as if she might throw up. “When Haley was killed, I went to my dad and I asked him if he thought maybe that’s what attacked her. Justin overheard. And they both laughed at me.” She took a deep breath. “But I wasn’t fooled, Kat. They were afraid, too. Then, after Becky died, I heard my dad patrolling around outside our house, night after night. But he denied it.”

  “What’s going to happen to me?” Katelyn asked, disbelief passing and terror taking an even firmer grip on her. This could not be happening. But it was.

  “If it was … that, I don’t know. Change into one of his kind? Her kind?”

  “What kind is that?” Katelyn asked.

  Cordelia looked terrified. “A monster.”

  “What kind of monster?” Worse than you?

  “No one really knows what it looks like. There’s just stories, like the boogeyman, or the Candyman. Some folks say it can pass for one of us, but then it changes, and it’s hideous. Deformed.”

  Like the monster at Beau’s grandmother’s window? The one that gave her a stroke?

  Katelyn was going to lose it. She was on the verge of full-blown hysteria.

  “But if it was one of us … you’re going to change into a werewolf on the next full moon.” Cordelia took a deep breath. “Or maybe nothing will happen. Maybe a husky bit you. Or a mutant wolf. Maybe that’s why it attacked you. And that would explain the blue eyes.”

  “When is the next full moon?” Katelyn rasped.

  “A week after Halloween,” Cordelia said with hesitation.

  Her birthday week. And then life as she knew it might end.

  Cordelia took her hand again, more gently this time. “I’ll help you, Kat. I’ll stay with you—watch over you.”

  Katelyn’s stomach contracted. This couldn’t be happening. It was like some horrible joke.

  “And your father …,” Katelyn said.

  “On the full moon, we all meet for a ritual, then go on a hunt. But I could make an excuse—say I don’t feel good—and take you somewhere private. Watch you. It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s been too sick to go.”

  Katelyn closed her eyes. “But you’re saying we need to hide it from your father?”

  Cordelia hesitated, then nodded. “He’s so unpredictable, and it’s getting worse. Last night he woke me up to ask me questions about the Constitution. Then he called my sisters and tested them. It was about three a.m.” She wiped tears from her eyes.

  “Oh, Cordelia.” Katelyn stared at her. “But you said you never kill people. So he wouldn’t kill me. Right?”

  “If you’re … one of us, all bets are off,” Cordelia said, looking down. She stood and picked up the framed picture of her father. “He’s got to pick a new alpha soon, or someone will challenge him.” She let out a long, shaky breath.

  “Challenge him?”

  “Fight him. To the death, if necessary.”

  “Are you people crazy?” Katelyn swayed, and Cordelia ran back to the bed, supporting her, slipping an arm around her.

  “I’m sorry that it’s so scary. It’s all I’ve ever known. Except for my dad losing his mind. That’s why all the contests. He’s trying to pick one of us to be the new alpha.”

  “You … you and your sisters?” Katelyn asked, astounded. “But you’re only sixteen.”

  Cordelia didn’t speak for some time. Then she said, “I’m seventeen. I’m his favorite, but I’m the youngest and I’m not mated. Some days he thinks that’s great, because he can pick someone out for me, but other days, he tells me I’ll be so distracted that I won’t be a good leader.”

  She looked bereft. “And … some days he forgets who I am.” She sighed. “Since you were bitten without his permission—if it was one of us—he’ll be furious.”

  “Great,” Katelyn said weakly. “Is that why you told me to go back to L.A.?”

  Cordelia nodded. “I panicked. But you’d be all alone out there. That would be bad for you. And for L.A. A werewolf on the loose, alone …” She shook her head.

  “Then come with me,” Katelyn begged.

  “I can’t just pick up and leave,” Cordelia said. “I need permission. My father has already put all of us on notice that we have to stay close. Not just because of the succession. There’s been friction with other packs. It’s so important for us to look strong. If they found out that someone attacked a human on our territory and we didn’t know who it was, we’d look like huge fools.”

  “They?”

  “Dom’s pack. Our rivals.” She flushed and shook her head. “You don’t need to worry about all that right now. But it’s why I can’t leave.”

  “The guys you liked …” She caught her breath. “Your possibilities. They’re werewolves, too?”

  “Except for Bobby.” Cordelia touched Katelyn’s hair. “I asked to bring him in, but my dad said no. He wasn’t good enough.”

  For some reason, Mike’s face appeared in her mind. She had a terrible thought.

  “Are any of the other kids at school …?”

  “Not the high school,” Cordelia said. “But there are a couple in middle school, and in elementary school, and that’s a problem.” She sighed. “Our pack has gotten too big. Back in the old days, only the alpha pair would mate. That kept our population down. Then better birth control came along, and the alpha changed the rules, because we figured everyone would be careful. But people haven’t been careful enough. We’ve got over thirty pack mates, and that’s about twenty too many.”

  As Cordelia’s words rushed over her, Katelyn stood slowly. She walked to her dresser and looked at herself in the mirror.

  She hesitated. “Once we found out about the Hellhound, you didn’t want to research the silver mine.”

  “I never wanted to do the silver mine,” Cordelia said quietly. “Silver is toxic to us. It can kill us. So … say two packs weren’t getting along, and the alpha’s kid started looking for it for a school project.” In the mirror, the reflection of Cordelia’s features twisted, and Katelyn didn’t know how to read it. “My dad ordered me to keep working on it with you. That’s why I was all back and forth.”

  Katelyn gripped the top of the dresser, sensing there was more.

  “And then when you found out that the Hell …” Cordelia’s voice faltered. “Hellhound,” she said firmly. “That it lives in t
he Madre Vena, I begged him to let me stop working on it. He just laughed. Like he always has.”

  “He’s your father,” Katelyn said. “He wouldn’t make you do anything risky.”

  “Maybe … before,” Cordelia murmured. “But now, with his mind going …” She raised a shaking hand to her forehead. “The Hellhound goes after bad werewolves,” Cordelia said.

  “Bad?” Katelyn echoed uneasily.

  “Those of us who don’t follow the rules. Or”—she swallowed hard—“anyone who betrays our secret.” She looked at Katelyn with wide, stricken eyes. “Like me.”

  Katelyn thought a moment. “Have you ever told anyone else?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “But when Jesse and Justin showed up, I was so scared that Jesse would tell, I stopped having friends over.”

  “But you can’t control him.”

  “Exactly.” Cordelia took a ragged breath and looped her hair over her ears. “Nobody can. In my grandparents’ day, he wouldn’t have survived. They would have … He wouldn’t be here.”

  Katelyn stared at her. “Do you mean they would have killed him?” she whispered.

  Cordelia glanced anxiously at the closed bedroom door. “They would have left him in the forest when he was a newborn,” she said.

  Katelyn pursed her lips together; the idea of leaving Jesse in the woods to die was horrifying.

  “But we don’t do things like that anymore,” Cordelia assured her. “Too many people. Someone might see.”

  “Plus it’s wrong,” Katelyn pointed out.

  “Kat, you have to understand. We’re not human.”

  Katelyn didn’t know what to say. What to think.

  “Maybe the Hellhound has come because we’ve lost our path,” Cordelia said. “Justin says we’re trying too hard to be like people. That we should go back to the older ways.”

  “Justin?” After everything, the idea of Justin wanting to be less human only made it feel worse.

  “Now you know why I didn’t want to talk about it. So … we don’t need to talk about it now, right? Until we know.” She gazed hard at Katelyn.

  Until we know.

  “But it seems obvious that one of you—that a werewolf—bit me,” Katelyn insisted. “And that’s something we do need to talk about.”

 

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