She Wolf

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

  “We’ve talked about this.”

  Little Wolf shrugged. “Yeah, but you know a girl’s gotta have fun.”

  “This kind of fun is going to get us all killed.”

  “Are you kidding me? Who the hell is going to be able to stand up against us?”

  The young and the foolish. “The Jägers.”

  “You sent those dumbasses to Spokane last night, remember?”

  “I tried. It’s too early to tell if it worked, and this,” she waved her hand toward the bloody mess in the barn, “is going to complicate things.”

  Little Wolf leaned against the open door and considered her handiwork. “You’ll take care of it.” Was it boredom she heard in her voice?

  Rage boiled up inside Bellona. Little Wolf’s enthusiasm was morphing into arrogance, and that she wouldn’t stand for. In the werewolf world, just as in the canine world, the alpha’s word was law. She was the alpha. It was time to bring this to an end. She whirled, fully intending to put Little Wolf down, but as she did, Eve walked up.

  “Hi.” Her smile was bright and innocent.

  If Little Wolf was the worst in them all, then Eve was the best. She wouldn’t do this in front of one who retained such a kind and gentle nature. Bellona stepped back and put an arm around Eve’s shoulders, turning back in the direction of the house. “Hi, my precious one.” She kissed the top of her head. “Let’s go have a soda.”

  She looked back over her shoulder at Little Wolf. “Clean up that mess.”

  Little Wolf laughed and almost skipped into the barn. “No problem, boss.”

  Back in the house, she sat Eve at the table and poured her a glass of soda. As a general rule, she abhorred the sugary beverages. In Eve’s case she made an exception. The young woman seemed to delight in it, and it became very clear to Bellona, very quickly, that she would indulge Eve her whims. The lightness she brought to their makeshift family was in direct contrast to what Little Wolf was doing to them.

  Tonight was the full moon, and she was worried. If Little Wolf was this far out of control now, she was going to be unstoppable in a few hours. It didn’t matter which way she came at it, Little Wolf had to be stopped.

  That, however, was only part of the problem. She was good at running and could extricate herself from any situation that threatened harm. One couldn’t survive as long as she had without superior skills. She was the last in her family, and she intended to stay that way for many more years.

  Tonight, she would have to take Little Wolf down, and if that was all she had to do, she could then be on her way. Her plans for a long life here with a new family would be chalked up to a miscalculation in picking a mate. But what should she do with Adam and Eve? Adam had such promise. He was strong and young and smart. She could envision him at her side for years. She could show him the world.

  Eve was a more delicate situation. She would be hard to run with and equally hard to leave behind. Her only hope would be to see how Eve did on this full moon. Perhaps it would give her enough strength and power that the three of them could make their way out of this town and on to greener pastures, as the saying went.

  “I like you,” Eve said as she held her glass of soda. “You’re nice and you’re pretty.” She patted Bellona on the cheek.

  No, there would be no leaving Eve behind.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Lily hadn’t wanted to believe Senn, hadn’t wanted to believe that Taria, her sister of the heart, was the one who took away her life. Even as she’d told the story to Jayne, a voice in the back of her mind had whispered “not true.” Now she was face-to-face with a truth she could no longer deny.

  In the outstretched palm of the deputy sheriff lay a golden necklace, old and intricately inlaid with sparkling rubies, identical to hers. Slowly she brought her gaze up from the deputy’s hand and to Jayne’s face. In her eyes she saw the recognition.

  “Taria,” she whispered. “Dear God, it’s Taria’s necklace.”

  Jayne took a small plastic bag out of her desk and held it open for the deputy. He dropped the necklace into the bag. “Thanks, Bill. I’ll take care of this.” The deputy turned and left.

  “I can’t believe it.” Despite her words, she very much believed it. Taria was here. Only three of these necklaces had ever existed, and she’d personally witnessed Alexia’s go to the grave with her. That left only two: the one currently around her neck and Taria’s.

  “Senn was right. It has to be Taria.”

  “So you know her?”

  “I thought I did.” There was a time, and not so distantly, when she’d have sworn she knew Taria as well as she knew herself. Today she’d learned how wrong she was. She didn’t know her girlhood friend at all, and maybe she didn’t know herself either. Time had allowed her to learn many things. Obviously there wasn’t enough time to truly know oneself.

  “You know enough to be able to track her down?”

  Leave it to Jayne to cut through the self-pitying crap and get to the heart of the matter. “Yes, I do, and I will bring a stop to this. Tonight.”

  All of a sudden she understood everything she’d been feeling since she came here: the whispers that swirled around her, the prickles that crawled up her spine, the sense of being in touch with another who remained just out of her line of sight. It all made sickening sense.

  Her eyes drifted to the window, where snow was beginning to lightly fall outside. The sky was gray and cloudy, the trees swaying in the wind. She thought of another time when she’d watched the snow blanket the landscape. As if it had happened only yesterday, she remembered the cold brought on by the incoming storm and the dread that had filled her for what she was going to have to do. On that night, she’d been thinking about the man she was to marry on the coming day and of the life she would be forced to smile about and endure. On this day, she was thinking about the woman who was once her best friend and of the life she would be forced to end.

  As she watched the snow drift to the ground, she realized, with sudden clarity, that she’d come full circle.

  *

  “Are you sure about this?” It wasn’t that Kyle didn’t trust Ava, because he did. He trusted her with his life. It was more the feeling of spiders crawling up his spine that had him questioning whether this was a good idea.

  “I believe we can do it.” Her earnestness showed in her words and in her eyes as well. She didn’t lack confidence at the moment.

  So far she hadn’t led him down a wrong path. Not in this hunt and not in their previous hunt. “Okay.”

  He decided to ignore the spiders and the boulder rolling around in the pit of his stomach. He would put his hands in those of the woman he was in love with and pray that the same god or gods that saw fit to give him this gift wouldn’t fail him now.

  “I’ll call on the power of the Old Ones,” she said, her eyes intent on his. “We’ll see how far we can take this. Together, I believe we can open a window on whatever has been eluding us.”

  A werewolf had been eluding them, and it was a very much alive werewolf that was exceptionally careful about making sure no one saw his human face. Made it really hard to track him down. Or her.

  Ava was certain they could make this work, even if he wasn’t. He called to the dead, not to the living, so he wasn’t sure how this was even going to help. He shivered as a cold wind kicked up, blowing snow into his face. Too bad they couldn’t part the veil inside, but Ava insisted they needed to be surrounded by nature. They stood only a hundred or so yards from the river, its cold waters smooth and glassy, as though the currents below weren’t running at all. Like the world around them, the currents were deceptively powerful, not seen by the naked eye and yet there just the same. It was those unseen powers he and Ava were going to tap into now.

  Once she had everything in place, they stood face-to-face, and she took his hands in hers. Despite the cold air and the falling snow, her touch was warm, and it sent that warmth right into his heart. Her words were quiet, and he could barely mak
e them out. It only took a few seconds before he no longer heard Ava and the world around them began to waver.

  “Come.” The woman was tall and painfully thin. Her short black hair was standing up on end, her pale face marred by deep gouges. “She’ll be back soon.”

  “Come,” said another voice, and Kyle turned to see a second woman. She too was covered in blood, her shirt ripped and her arm dangling useless at her side. “We don’t have much time.”

  “Who are you?”

  Both women ignored him as they turned and hurried out of the tree cover. His only choice was to follow them across a field because they weren’t waiting for him. They ducked through a barbed-wire fence and, again, he followed. The field was sizeable, and in the distance he made out a large house as well as a number of outbuildings. The moon overhead was full, and its light was shining down to illuminate the field as though they were in a baseball stadium.

  He stumbled on a rock and nearly went down. The two women never lost stride, and, righting himself, he hurried to catch up. A thin layer of snow covered the field, and he stumbled again, unable to see the rocks that poked up from the ground that had been plowed before the cold weather set in. He was the only one having trouble staying on his feet on the nearly frozen ground.

  At first he thought they were leading him to the big house. It was huge and beautiful, and he had a vague sense he’d seen it during their travels through the county, either when he and Ava had made their way to Jayne’s house or as Jayne took them to various places around Colville. He just couldn’t place when or where.

  It wasn’t the house they hurried to but the big red barn. This wasn’t the typical run-down rural barn on a hardworking farm. Rather it was large, with fresh paint and elaborate doors. This barn might be on a working farm, but it was a farm where money wasn’t an issue. Not unusual in places like this, where families were here for decades and, if successful in their endeavors, passed it down from generation to generation.

  As they neared the side of the massive structure, both women came in close, and each put a finger to her mouth. When he was next to them, the taller woman whispered, “Don’t let her see or hear you.”

  “Who?” Besides the two women, he’d seen no one else.

  The shorter woman nodded in the direction of the window. “Her.”

  He rose on his toes to peer through the high-placed window. Inside a woman in blue jeans and a hoodie paced. She was talking to herself, though he couldn’t make out the words. Something about her struck him as familiar. Staring to try to place her, he failed. He couldn’t figure out what it was about her that he might have seen before. Besides, he hadn’t been here long enough to really know anybody.

  He dropped back down flat on his feet. “Who is it?”

  “The wolf.” The tall woman began to cry.

  They might not realize it, but he knew the truth. Both of these women were already dead. It was cruel to make them stand against the barn wall and be frightened when it wasn’t necessary. The time was now to release them from the bonds keeping them here. “You have to go,” he said in a calm and gentle voice.

  The smaller woman reached out to take the other one’s hand. Her whole body was trembling. “We have to help you.”

  He nodded solemnly. “And so you have. I will take it from here. Please, they’re waiting for you.”

  The light that was behind him wasn’t something he could see, yet he knew it was there just the same. It was there for these two souls who’d risked eternity to come to him. Ava was right. He’d have never been able to reach these two without her. Together they could do miraculous things. “Go now,” he said softly.

  And they did.

  When they were gone, he once more raised himself up on his feet. Inside the barn the woman still had her back to him, but now she was naked, the blue jeans and hoodie tossed carelessly to the side. Her head was back and her howl was loud, even through the barn walls. Again he was struck by a sense of familiarity. When she turned he understood why, and as he gasped, the woman changed.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  The sun was starting to fade by the time Jayne pulled into her driveway. Lily was nervous, and Jayne suspected she had a plan she didn’t want to share with her. Too bad, because by the time they left the station they had two more missing persons reports. The werewolf might have tried to redirect their efforts to Spokane, but it was a poor job and time was up.

  “What do you need me to do?” Jayne felt certain Lily knew exactly what she wanted to do. What she didn’t realize was she wasn’t going to let her do it alone.

  Lily shook her head as she unbuckled her seat belt. “You can’t help me with this.”

  “Bullshit. This is my town. I was born and raised here. I might have left for a while, but that doesn’t make it any less my town.”

  “This isn’t about loyalty or whose town it is. This is about a werewolf gone feral.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  Lily turned in her seat and took Jayne’s hand. “For hundreds of years she has traveled the globe and managed to keep her identity secret. Hell, Jayne, she was my best friend, and I had no idea about her and her family’s secret. She attacked me and changed me, and still I didn’t know. Something had to have changed for her to do the things she’s done here. She’s sick, she’s mental, she’s something, and the only one, the only thing, that’s going to stop her is me.”

  “You mean another werewolf.” Jayne could read between the lines. This was to be a fight to the death, as though they were two wolves fighting for alpha. “I can just shoot her.”

  Lily shook her head. “Is your gun loaded with silver bullets?”

  “I figured that was a folk legend.”

  Lily raised a single eyebrow. “Folk legends all have a basis in reality. In this case, it is a very accurate basis. A regular bullet is annoying but not life-threatening. It takes silver to end it.”

  “I can slow her down at least.”

  Again she shook her head. “That might be true for a new one, a recently turned werewolf, but not so much for those my age. As we age, our powers grow. We heal incredibly fast from what might kill you.”

  “So how can you stop her?”

  “By tearing out her throat.”

  Jayne’s hand tightened on Lily’s, and not because she was repulsed by what she’d just told her. The other possibility that statement suggested sent ice racing up her spine. “She could do the same to you.”

  “It’s a possibility.”

  “I can’t let you risk that.” Jesus, she’d just found Lily, and by doing so realized that a piece of her heart had been missing for a long time. She wasn’t about to lose her now, and certainly not to some bloodthirsty dog. Although comparing this bloodthirsty killer to a dog was insulting to the species.

  “It is not your decision, Jayne.”

  “It’s my county, my investigation.”

  “And your bosses brought me in specifically for this reason.”

  “Fuck my bosses.”

  Lily leaned across the console and put her arms around Jayne. “I know what you’re feeling,” she said into her ear. “I feel it too.”

  “Then don’t do this.”

  “It’s my destiny.”

  “It’s fucked up.”

  “Destiny often is.”

  Before Jayne could argue any more, Ava came racing out the front door. “Hurry.” She waved her arms at them, motioning for them to come. “Something’s wrong with Kyle.”

  *

  The day just got better and better. Or, more accurately, worse and worse. She’d made up her mind about Little Wolf. She had to be put down for the safety of the rest of the family. She’d planned to do it after dark and before their run. She didn’t want Little Wolf ruining Adam and Eve’s first full moon.

  What she hadn’t anticipated was Little Wolf’s almost psychic touch. Bellona had been in the living room thinking through where she’d go next, when Little Wolf came sauntering in. She looked as e
nticing as ever, which put a little quaver in Bellona’s resolve. At least until she opened her mouth.

  “You know you’re stuck with me.”

  “Where did that come from?” She hadn’t said a word about her plans.

  “I know what you’re thinking. You want me out. You think I’m dangerous. I’m not, at least not to the pack, but you also have no idea how powerful I am.”

  “You’re a new wolf. All newbies believe they’re invincible.” She’d seen it a hundred times or more, and they all had the same attitude. She hadn’t been an exception, but she’d had plenty of elders around to put her firmly in her place. In time she’d paid them back for those harsh lessons. Little Wolf wasn’t going to have the same opportunity.

  “You need time. True power comes from experience.”

  Little Wolf smiled, and for the first time Bellona saw something in her that gave her chills. How had she missed that before? “True power is in the blood. I’ve always had it. You gave me a boost. Kind of like a steroid injection. It’s amazing.”

  The chill she’d felt earlier went glacial. “What do you mean?”

  “My family lineage is long. This farm isn’t just the result of years of successful farming. We had a little help.” She winked at Bellona.

  “I’m not following.”

  “Nobody else has either, and that’s what has made it so fucking awesome. We’re witches, you dumb bitch. Black witches.”

  Bellona thought she might throw up. How could she have made such a colossal mistake? This was a disaster. “You’re lying.” Good gods, she prayed it was a lie.

  “You think your showing up here was an accident? You just picked this stupid little town by accident? I called you here. I called you!”