I complied in a daze. “Hey, Sheriff Kep.”
The sheriff leaned forward and aimed his flashlight around the interior of the car, illuminating the shattered remnants of my windows. “Jeez, what happened?”
I sat on my hands to keep them from shaking. My mouth was drier than the Taphouse’s fried chicken. “I think I just steamrolled a guy with my car a mile back.”
Kepler chuckled. “Honey, I saw that on the way over. You ran over a wolf. Splatted it real good, by the looks of it.”
A wolf?
I rubbed my temples. “No, Sheriff. There were two people. They jumped me in the Taphouse parking lot and chased me down. I ran over one of them with my car just back there.”
Kepler shone his flashlight into my eyes, and I looked away, using my hand to shield them. “Have you been drinking?” he asked. “Taking any substances?”
Heat lined my jaw. “No, sir. And don’t talk to me like that. You know me, and I know what I saw. I was attacked.”
The sheriff sighed. “All right. Tell you what, I’ll call Randy’s Towing to pick up your car, cause it sure as heck looks like it needs fixing. You and I can take a ride, and I’ll show you what happened. Then I’ll drop you back at your place. Okay?”
I nodded, shut the car off, and stepped out.
My head spun as I got a good look at the vehicle. The Gran Fury looked like it had been through hell and back. In addition to the broken window and the steam rising from the engine, huge claw marks streaked across the door, hood, and roof.
Holy hell.
The sheriff hung up his phone. “Randy’s on his way. Just leave the keys in the glovebox. You can head over tomorrow morning to get things sorted out.”
“Thanks,” I murmured as I hid the keys.
I took one last look at my precious, wounded car and climbed into Kep’s cruiser. How was I ever going to pay for all this?
Kepler made a U-turn, and we headed back to the scene of the accident. A mile down the way, his headlights illuminated a dark lump in the middle of the road. The sheriff pulled over and turned on his flashers.
Pulse racing, I climbed out and followed him across the road to the body. The beam of his flashlight swept over the crumpled form, and I froze.
A dead wolf. A giant, dead wolf.
“You’re lucky you hit this animal straight on and didn’t swerve into a tree,” Kepler said. “A lot of people kill themselves trying to miss an animal.”
Nausea caught me off guard, and I staggered over to the side of the road and threw up on the grass. Thankfully, I hadn’t eaten before my shift, so most of what came up was iced tea.
Kepler laid a couple flares beside the wolf’s body and joined me when the heaving finished. “You okay?” he asked, handing me a stick of gum.
I got off my knees, scraped the gravel out of my palms, and popped the gum in my mouth. “Yeah, just in shock.”
“I’m sure. It’s a hell of a sight. But it’s good that it’s dead, really. I was just over at the Taphouse responding to the attack there when I got your dispatch. This beastie mauled one of the customers pretty good. The man’s all tore up and in a coma, but the paramedics think he’ll live.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I was there. He wasn’t attacked by a wolf. It was a man and a woman!”
Kepler tilted his head. “Savannah, you’ve been watching too much TV. The poor fellow was mauled by an animal.” He kicked the corpse of the wolf with his boot. “This animal.”
I started to protest when a pair of headlights swept over us. A truck rumbled around the bend and slowly pulled to a stop. The headlights stayed on, and a car door slammed.
The sheriff held one hand up to shield his eyes and put the other on his holster. “Hold on, there. Identify yourself.”
A gruff baritone voice came out of the darkness. “Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. I see you have a dead wolf on your hands. Permission to approach?”
The voice was thick and rich, like honey, and made my skin tingle.
“DNR?” the sheriff asked. “Amazing you were alerted so fast.”
“We were in the area. Been a lot of wolf activity,” the voice said from the darkness.
“Well, come look at this thing, then. It’s a monster.”
A powerfully built man stepped into the beam of the headlights.
The man from the bar. What was he doing here?
My breath caught. It was one thing to see him walking into the crowded confines of the Taphouse. It was another to see him emerge from the darkness of the barren highway with only the sheriff at my side.
Unease coiled around me.
Backlit against the lights, the man was like a statue carved from obsidian. His long shadow swept over us as he approached. Light crept around the corners of his face, highlighting the edges of his strong features. I shouldn’t have been able to see his eyes, but for a second, I thought there was a flash of honey gold in the dark. Then it was gone.
He stopped by the corpse of the wolf and looked down. “Big animal. What happened?”
His voice was practically a growl. My heart strained against my chest, and every fiber in my body urged me to bolt.
“This young lady ran it down,” the sheriff offered.
I opened my mouth to speak but stopped short when I heard a truck door shut gently. I couldn’t see anything beyond the glaring headlights. Had there been someone else with him? Why was DNR even on the scene at this time of night?
Something wasn’t right.
The man stepped close, looming over me. Ruggedly handsome would be an understatement. Breathtaking was more like it. He was six-six at least, and his proximity made the hair on my neck stand on end. “You killed the wolf? What’s your name?”
“Savannah Caine.”
“You from around here?”
I crossed my arms. “Yes. Belmont.”
“Grow up here?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What’s with the interrogation? These are funny questions for someone from DNR.”
His eyes glinted. “Just wondering if you’re familiar with the local wildlife. We have a lot of wolves in these parts—keystone species. They’ve been acting erratic lately. Can you tell me what happened?”
Hey, Mr. Hot Wildlife Guy. I was just attacked by two people with savage claw hands and red eyes. They chased me down at forty-five miles an hour, and I ran them over with my car. Now there’s just a dead wolf where the body should be.
Nope, that wouldn’t sound crazy at all.
I glanced at the sheriff, suddenly doubting myself.
The DNR man followed my eyes, and he cleared his throat. “Sheriff, why don’t you let us chat in private for a minute?”
Trepidation tugged at my chest. “I don’t wa—”
The mysterious man’s eyes flashed gold. “Give us a few minutes, Sheriff.”
His deep voice vibrated with command, and a sense of his complete power and authority washed over me.
“Yes, of course.” The sheriff nodded and stepped toward his cruiser.
What the hell was going on?
Run, the small voice in the back of my head shouted. I started to turn, but the DNR man locked me in place with his intense, unnatural gaze. “Don’t worry, you’re safe. I just need you to speak freely.”
Inexplicably, the tension drained from my body, and I suddenly knew he was being honest. My godmother always said that I had a nose for the truth, but this was something else entirely.
“Tell me exactly what happened. Every detail, no matter how strange.” His voice was low, like the roar of a distant waterfall. His eerie power washed over me again, but differently this time. All I wanted was to obey, to comply, to please him.
I tried to argue, but as soon as I opened my mouth, my story flooded out. I told him everything that I could remember about the attackers: the minute details of their appearance, their savage claws, unbelievable speed, and haunting crimson eyes. Eyes like his, but reddish orange, not honey gold…
; The thought sent a shudder through me, and my mind cleared for a second. Was I really telling him all this?
“Please continue, Ms. Caine.”
I clamped my mouth shut in resistance, but the man’s pupils dilated, and I again succumbed to his will. I told him how I’d escaped, fled down the road, and finally run over the tattooed monster of a man, again and again.
At last, the pressure in the air eased up, and horror filled me.
Oh, God. Had I just confessed to vehicular manslaughter? Had I just ranted on and on about people with claws for hands? I shook my head, as if waking from a dream, and knew I needed to backpedal. “You must think I’m crazy. I mean, it’s just a wolf here, lying in the middle of the road.”
The mysterious man crossed his arms. “I don’t think you’re crazy. I think you were attacked, just as you described.”
His eyes were a deep brown. Had I imagined the gold?
“What about…” I gestured to the bloody mess in the middle of the highway.
“It’s a dead wolf.”
“But…”
The man’s posture softened. “Sometimes, during traumatic events, our mind mixes up memories. You were attacked. You fled and ran over a wolf. The cocktail of chemicals in your brain jumbled the events—it’s called False Memory Syndrome. It’s quite common.”
I bit my lip and read his face. His smile was warm, confident, and inviting.
And he was lying. I could almost smell it. “But that’s not what happened, is it?”
His smile wavered.
I knew it.
My skin turned cold and clammy as doubt crept in.
I’d heard a car door shut moments ago. Had someone else been in his truck? Or had someone else gotten in? Maybe the woman with the barbed wire tattoo? Her body hadn’t been by the side of the road. And she’d had eyes kind of like the DNR man’s, just a different shade.
I started to back up. “Who are you, anyway? There’s no way you’re from DNR. Are you in league with those people who attacked me? Is this a coverup?”
“No.” His voice was so deep and guttural, it was close to a growl. My skin prickled. I could almost smell his sudden rage at the suggestion.
Truth.
The man’s eyes flooded with honey. “Savannah, many things about tonight will seem strange. Impossible. Even our conversation. It’s a byproduct of the attack and not real, do you understand?”
His presence surrounded me, soothing my doubts and fears.
“Yes.” I nodded.
“As to who I am…” He handed me a black card with Jaxson Laurent in bold white letters. I flipped it over. Just a black phone number on white. “I’m investigating the recent abductions, and I think you were targeted. Call me anytime, day or night, if you remember something more. Any detail, no matter how strange. The authorities aren’t taking this seriously, but we are.”
My head spun with what the man—whoever the heck he was—had confirmed. My attack was linked to the abductions.
“Who are you? A Fed?”
The man just smiled and looked down at the wolf. “I’m sure it’s been a long night, and you must be exhausted.” He turned and waved Sheriff Kepler over. “I think it’s time to get Ms. Caine home.”
“Wait,” I hissed, “can’t you tell me anything more? Why was I attacked? Why did they target me?”
He stepped back. “I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to disclose the details of the case.”
Lie.
“I need to know.”
“Good night, Ms. Caine.”
My fists clenched. I deserved to know what was going on. I was the damn victim, after all.
Screw the creepy government man and his black truck. If he wasn’t going to tell me why people were hunting me, then I’d figure it out on my own—even if I had to call every law enforcement agency in the state to get the details.
As I turned to leave, Jaxson caught my arm, and I gasped as a spark of electricity ran through my body. He jerked his hand back, and his expression darkened, then shifted toward surprise. “A word of advice, Ms. Caine: don’t leave town. And don’t talk about this to anyone. For your own good.”
His eyes sparkled with gold, and his presence washed over me again. Somehow, the overwhelming sensation delivered a clear, unmistakable message: Obey.
3
Jaxson
Savannah Caine turned on her heel and strode back toward the sheriff’s cruiser. Her bittersweet orange hair swayed back and forth hypnotically, and the way her long, pale legs disappeared into her high cutoff jean shorts amplified the alluring effect.
Heat raced up my neck, and I drank deeply of her lingering scent.
The red-haired woman with a tattoo on her left shoulder.
There was no doubt that Savannah was the woman the seer had sent me to find. The fortune teller’s words still burned in my mind: Your adversaries hunt her, too. If you do not stop them, she will be dead before the full moon rises, and with her, the future of your pack.
I looked up at the moon-mother shining high overhead. Five days before full, and they’d nearly gotten to her before I had.
She was lucky. The abductors had attacked seven people so far. Forty-eight hours ago, I’d seen what happened to one of those who resisted. Utter carnage.
Yet Savannah had survived. Although she was Magica—a person who had magic in their veins—the woman obviously had no idea what she was or how to use her magic, or that werewolves were real. But despite all odds, she’d managed to kill one of the wolves that ambushed her without using weapons or spells.
It was damned impressive. We were very difficult to kill.
Unfortunately, Savannah had slain only one of her attackers. The woman she’d described was still out there—a wounded she-wolf, judging by her scent.
Hopefully, Regina would catch her. My second in command was one of the best trackers in our pack. She’d slipped out of the truck to chase our prey while I’d distracted the cop and the woman. If we couldn’t catch the she-wolf, there’d be blood. Savannah was wolf-marked now, and the she-wolf would hunt her until one of them was dead.
I motioned to the sheriff. He sauntered over and stuck out his hand. “Seems I’m lucky the DNR had people in the area tonight. This is one hell of a mess.”
Rather than return the smile, I locked him in place with a cold stare. He froze like a deer caught in the headlights. His subconscious knew that I was in charge here, and that I could snap his arm like a twig.
I shook his hand for appearances. “The DNR will handle things from here, Sheriff. The woman ran over a wolf, that’s all. The attack at the Lakeside Taphouse was an animal attack, too. Neither incident needs further investigation.”
I let my alpha presence drown him into compliance. It wasn’t mind control, just the force of raw, uncontestable authority. More than anything, most people just wanted to be told what to do, and this man would believe anything to make the monsters go away.
The befuddled sheriff nodded. “Of course, that’s what I was thinking. Just an animal attack.”
“And Sheriff, bury the report. We don’t want the locals going around town with guns half-cocked, looking for stray wolves.”
He shook my hand vigorously. “Of course. Happy to help. Can’t have people around here all riled up. It’s still the height of tourist season.”
The man would do exactly what I’d told him to. He barely had a choice.
I released his hand. “Most importantly, make sure that woman gets home safely.”
He rubbed his palm. “Of course.”
The sheriff climbed in his SUV and started the engine. He switched off his flashers, did a U-turn, and headed back toward town. Savannah watched me suspiciously from the passenger-side window.
The red-haired woman with a tattoo on her left shoulder.
Why had the fortune teller sent me to her? How would she help me bring these killers to justice?
I picked up my phone and called Billy, my top enforcer and brother-in-law. “
The county sheriff is headed your way. Follow him discreetly with your vehicle. A woman survived the attack, and he’s dropping her off at home. Take two teams and stake out the place overnight. She’s the first break we’ve gotten, and I’m betting that they’ll come for her again. Make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”
I hung up and shoved my phone in my pocket, then headed toward the battered wolf lying on the asphalt. He’d been wolfborn like me. The wolf was our true form, and we shifted back at death. Not all shifters were like that. I knelt and examined the corpse.
Dane. I thought I had recognized the scent. I’d exiled him from the Dockside pack for inciting violence after my sister’s death.
We needed to ditch the body and destroy the evidence. If we didn’t, we were going to be fucked. Another former pack member had already been implicated in one of the earlier abductions, though he’d never been found. Rumors were flying, and the Order of Magica—the body that governed all supernatural species—had threatened to revoke our pack’s extralegal status unless we brought an end to the abductions. If this got out, we could lose our independence. It would be the end of pack law.
I stood and wiped my hands. Dane had been a cancer, and now he was roadkill. His actions had threatened our pack, and I had no pity for the bastard.
Regina stepped out of the woods, still half-dressed from shifting. Some shifters transformed clothes and all, but as wolfborn, Regina and I could not. We did it the real way—the original way—with snapping bones and growing claws.
From the expression on her face, she’d come up short. I asked anyway. “Any luck?”
She pulled her shirt back over her head. “None. I followed the she-wolf’s trail to that crappy restaurant, but there were too many smells to track her closely. I’m betting she grabbed their car. Sorry.”
“Did she smell like someone from our pack?”
Regina’s eyes dilated in surprise. “No. Why?”
I nodded to the dead wolf lying on the side of the road. She crouched down and turned its head to the side. “Fuck, it’s Dane.”
Wolf Marked (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 1) Page 2