by A. D. Ryan
My heart swelled that he even remembered after all this time, and I nodded. “It has.”
His grin widened. “Tell you what, then. How about I run into the city and pick something up? It’ll only take about an hour.”
After giving Nick a list of our favorite dishes, I walked him out to his truck while my parents stayed inside. We stood next to the driver’s side door for a minute before I stood up on the tips of my toes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” I whispered. “This is the best gift you could have given me.”
He sighed, his heavy breath turning into a dense fog on the cool night air, and cradled my face in his hand. For the first time in days, his eyes held a glimmer of hope. “I just wanted to see you happy again. Give you something to hold onto and remind you of who you are.”
I brought my hands up and wrapped them around his wrists as his thumbs moved over my cheeks. He tilted my face up and lightly pressed his lips to mine. “I’ll be back in an hour. I’m also going to try and stop by the Manor in the morning to pick up some food so we can try to prepare an actual Christmas dinner for your parents tomorrow night.”
I nodded, running my hands over Nick’s forearms and then down his sides until they rested on his hips. “Drive safe.”
He kissed my forehead before opening his door. “Always.”
As his taillights faded into the night, I headed back inside to be with my parents. It was weird, the longer I sat with them, the more it felt like no time had passed since we’d last been together.
“How long are you guys in town for?” I asked, knowing that this wasn’t a permanent arrangement—unfortunately.
“Till just after the new year,” Dad explained. Hearing this made me a little nervous, given how close the next full moon was to New Year’s Eve, but I knew Nick wouldn’t put me—us—in a potentially dangerous situation.
Just the brief thought of the next full moon invited that familiar tension in my muscles, the dull ache in my belly, and the tingle in my veins. The wolf twitched beneath the surface. Even though I still had over a week until that happened, my body anticipated that night more than feared it, which was an interesting change for me. I welcomed it in hopes it meant I was that much closer to accepting her fully.
I’d been curious about how things at the precinct were going—primarily the investigation—but I knew I couldn’t ask in front of my mother. When she excused herself to use the washroom before Nick got back with our dinner, I jumped on the opportunity.
“How are the guys?” I asked, curious about how O’Malley and Keaton were holding up with half their team gone. “Still working on that case?”
Frustration filled Dad’s expression as he ran a hand over his weary face. “The investigation is still active, but it’s no longer a priority. Everything about it has come to a dead end.”
“That’s too bad,” I said, my sympathy genuine, even though I already knew the truth behind the murders.
Dad fell eerily silent for a second, his eyes trained on me. Curiosity gleamed in them as he took a pull from his mug. “There is one thing I’m curious about, though.”
Something told me I should be nervous about the tone in his voice—there was a niggle in the back of my mind—but his expression contradicted this feeling. “Oh?”
He nodded. “Your house has been cleaned and released as a crime scene.”
“That’s great,” I said, pouring myself some more hot water and placing a tea bag in it. “I’ll place an ad on one of the rental sites in the New Year.”
“You might want to get the hardwood looked at beforehand.”
A lead weight dropped into my stomach when I realized where this conversation was going.
“There are scratches in the finish. Some deeper than others,” he went on to say. “I didn’t notice them before that night…not in light of everything that had happened.” I remained silent, taking a sip from my mug, praying it would calm my nerves the way tea was supposed to. It didn’t. “There were traces of DNA retrieved from some of the deeper ones.”
I sputtered and choked. My heart raced in my chest. “Th-there were?” I wasn’t familiar enough with the wolf side of myself to know what a DNA test would prove. Would it be equal parts human and animal? All me?
I tried telling myself that if my DNA showed up at all, that I would have been asked to come back to Scottsdale when the realization was made.
“It looks like there was an animal in there. Possibly a large dog.” His eyes remained locked on mine. “But the DNA also showed markers similar to yours.”
I swallowed thickly, taking deep breaths in hopes of calming my thundering heart.
My dad opened his mouth to say something else, but before a sound came out, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the house. I was on my feet in a second, skin tight, muscles tensed, and eyes alert.
Something was here. I could sense its presence before I smelled traces of it seeping into the house.
Chapter 29 | trespass
My ears strained as my father raced from the living room and toward the stairs. I was hot on his trail, and we’d made it halfway up the stairs when my mom appeared and ran down to meet us. She flew into my father’s arms, her terror infusing the air around us. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
“I was just grabbing a sweater from our room,” Mom said through the frightened sobs. “There was a shadow…a-a man, I think.” She shook her head as she lifted it from my father’s shoulder and looked at me. “Whoever it was, was down in the yard, so I didn’t get a good look.” She shuddered. “Except for his eyes. The way he stared up at me was…he looked positively evil. Predatory.”
Suppressing the snarl that was slowly building in my gut, I turned and headed for the front door. Behind me, I heard my dad calling my name, but he sounded distant as the wolf fought to take over. It clawed and tore its way to the front of my consciousness, snapping and salivating at the opportunity to take over, but I had to keep a leash on it. My parents were here, and I knew I couldn’t lose control in front of them.
My control was slowly slipping away as I ripped the front door open and stole away into the night. Breathing hard, I could feel the tightness all over my body as the change started.
“No,” I whispered. Steam rose off my body as my temperature continued to soar. “Not now.” My hands trembled, so I clenched them tight, hoping to quell the shake. My stomach rolled as my abdominal wall tensed, and my knees threatened to give out on me. I was within fifty feet of the open front door, and I knew there was a high probability my parents would see what was about to happen. Or worse, come after me. In an effort to keep that from happening, I closed my eyes and inhaled slowly and deeply, just like Nick had taught me early on.
That didn’t help. The wolf only leapt forward, wiping my concentration out until giving in to it was all I could focus on. Eventually, it was all I wanted.
Somewhere in the darkness that shrouded me, tires skidded to a stop. I sensed the vehicle was close when gravel beneath the snow was kicked up around my feet. A door flew open. Heavy footfalls sped toward me. I heard a voice, but was too deep in my own head, concentrating.
It was his smell that grounded me first, and when he wrapped his hands around my upper arms and shook me, my vision cleared. “Nick?” My voice was hoarse.
His eyes were wide, flitting around as if focusing on something in the distance. He looked panicked; he could smell it… No. He could smell them. There were several of them out here. I could smell them, too.
Nick’s hands moved to my face, holding it firmly and locking eyes with me. “Brooke, you need to calm down.” It was when his eyes narrowed in on something behind me that I remembered my parents were within earshot.
My instincts for self-preservation and protecting our secret took over once more. I glanced back at their worried expressions. My mother still looked out of her mind with terror, and I turned to Nick. “They’re here,” I whispered. “I don’t know how many—”
“Four…maybe
five,” Nick interrupted, looking around the dark yard with his eyes narrowed. “Their scent is fading, which means they’re likely retreating. They probably just wanted to get our attention.”
“Well it worked,” I snarled quietly, clenching my hands at my sides. I looked up at Nick. “It was my mom who saw one of them while she was in her room changing.”
Nick must have picked up on my anxiety rising again, because his hands fell to my arms and he rubbed them up and down. “I’m here now. Come on,” he gently urged. “Your parents look like they’re freaking out. Let’s go tell them everything is fine, and then I’ll do a quick perimeter check and call Marcus.”
I nodded, and Nick turned to grab the brown paper bags of food from his truck. “You can’t go out without protection,” I warned, and he arched an eyebrow, looking at me like I had gone completely mental. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “I know you don’t need a weapon, but unless you plan to tell my parents about your superhuman strength and ability to change into a large wolf, they’re going to question it.”
We started toward the house while Nick spoke quietly. “Vince is an avid ball player,” he explained. “I think he’s got a couple of bats in the front closet. Would that appease your parents and keep the questions to a minimum?”
I nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”
I wasn’t sure what else to say as I followed him into the house, so I decided to let him take the lead when it came to talking to my parents.
“Sorry about that, Mr. and Mrs. Leighton,” he said, handing the bags of food off to me. “Brooke tells me you saw someone outside?”
Mom nodded. “Out back.”
Nick opened the front closet and rifled through it until he retrieved the baseball bat he’d told me about. “Why don’t the three of you head back into the living room and get started on dinner. I’ll run a quick sweep of the yard and join you. It was probably just a neighbor or a hunter…sometimes their dogs run off and they follow them onto private property before anyone can get too upset.”
It surprised me just how quick he was to come up with an answer to our trespassers, but it surprised me even more that my parents bought it so easily.
“I’ll come with you,” my dad offered, but Nick quickly shot him down.
“No. Go enjoy your time with your family. I’ve got this.”
Dad seemed uncomfortable letting Nick do this alone, but he nodded his assent and protectively wrapped his arm around my mother again.
Before he left, I turned to Nick and looked up at him pleadingly. “Be careful,” I whispered. “If you find it, do what you have to do and get the hell out of there. Don’t antagonize it.”
Nick smirked crookedly. “Baby, please. It’s like you don’t even know me.” Before I could retort, he was gone, and I was left in the entryway, holding two giant bags of Chinese food.
“Oh, I know you,” I mumbled, closing the door with my foot and turning toward my parents.
The three of us headed for the dining room where I emptied the bags onto the large oak table. Unlike the dining room table at the manor, this one was only set up to seat a maximum of six people. I hadn’t even gone to the kitchen in search of plates and cutlery before the front door opened and Nick joined us.
“Couldn’t find anyone on the property. Found some tracks, but they looked like they came and went, likely in search of a runaway dog, like I suggested.” He looked to me, his expression telling me we’d discuss his actual findings at length in private.
After offering to grab the plates from the kitchen, Nick joined us at the table, and we enjoyed a traditional Christmas Eve dinner together. When dinner was finished, we all enjoyed some wine by the fire until almost midnight. Logically, I knew it was time for sleep, but my body was still wound up from earlier. Couple that with the full moon in a little over a week, and I wasn’t sleeping any time soon.
Nick and I followed my parents upstairs where we said goodnight. After my parents’ bedroom door closed, Nick turned to me and led me down the hall to another bedroom. Like the rest of the house, it was decorated with rustic furniture and colors, very much how I would expect a traditional log cabin of this degree to be furnished. The four-poster bed along the far wall had sheer white curtains pulled back and fastened at the head. At the end of the bed was a bench, and on it was the bag Nick had packed for me. The blankets on the king-size were thick and inviting, embroidered with warm colors, and there were more pillows than I would even know what to do with. I wanted to jump on it and see just how deep into it I would sink.
“I’ll be just down the hall,” Nick said, surprising me. He picked up on my confusion. “I figured with your parents here, it might not be wise for us to maintain our sleeping arrangements from the manor. Besides, there’s no one here to fool anymore.”
He turned to walk away, but I grabbed his wrist. “Nick…” His eyes locked on mine. “I don’t want you to go.”
Slowly, his lips curled into a smile. “What about your parents?”
“I’m a big girl who can make grown up decisions.” I paused. “But if you’re really that concerned, you can sneak out of my room before dawn. Perhaps through that very large window over there.”
“You’re sure?”
I nodded and pulled him through the door, closing it behind us.
After changing, I sat on the bed, crossing my legs in front of me; it was as soft as I imagined, but it didn’t relax me the way I’d hoped it would. I still wasn’t tired. In fact, I felt a little jittery; like I was ready to jump out of my skin.
“You all right?” Nick asked, emerging from the small ensuite washroom in his black sweats and nothing else.
“Just wired, I guess. Our visitors earlier made me a bit twitchy.”
Nodding, Nick settled onto the bed behind me. I could feel the heat from his body even before his hands encased my shoulders. I groaned when his thumbs began kneading my muscles. “You stopped a shift from happening. The adrenaline is still hot in your veins.”
I’d never been offered an explanation for this feeling before, but I recognized it from the last few times Nick had helped me avoid an accidental shift. It made so much sense.
“Plus, the full moon is almost upon us. This is going to intensify what you’re feeling tenfold.” The low vibrato of his voice pulsed under my skin, warming me, relaxing me.
My head fell forward as his hands moved down my back, working each and every knot loose. His thumbs dipped just below the waistband of my shorts, pressing against my lower back muscles. I could feel a whisper of his warm breath as it fanned across my neck, and I swear his lips ghosted across the skin of my right shoulder. Goosebumps rippled down my arms, and I shivered as a wave of calm poured over me. Any anxiety I had felt earlier seemed to be melting away with each passing second.
“That’s better,” he whispered, kissing my shoulder lightly before pulling away. I looked back to find him crawling under the comforter. With a smile, I joined him, tossing three of the over-stuffed pillows to the floor and resting on my side to face him.
We stared at each other in silence for a moment, and I sighed when Nick reached out and pushed a strand of hair off my cheek. His fingers lingered on my shoulder before he trailed his hand down my arm.
“Are we ever going to talk about what happened earlier?” he asked quietly, his voice low and gravelly.
My gaze flitted away from his for a brief moment before capturing it again. “I don’t know. My mom was scared, and then I just sensed danger. I lost control. I didn’t mean to.”
“Hey,” he soothed. “I’m not placing blame or angry. Shit happens. The important thing is you were able to keep it from happening.”
“Barely,” I muttered. “If you hadn’t shown up when you did—”
“But I did,” Nick interjected gently.
I sighed. “What did you find?”
“Nothing more than tracks, like I said. I called Marcus and let him know, and he suggested having a couple of the guys patrol the perimeter at night.�
�� My eyes widened. “I told him no. I couldn’t risk your parents spotting one of them and asking questions about the mutant Canadian wolves.”
I laughed softly, trying to keep the nervous lilt from it. With everything going on, now was not the time to worry Nick with my dad’s suspicions. They could wait.
“As long as your parents don’t venture outside after nightfall, they’re safe here. The coven is just trying to scare us. Ruffle our coats.” I rolled my eyes at his play on words. “We can’t let them. We can’t give them power over us.” With one last reassuring smile, he pressed his lips to mine. “Now, let’s get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”
It wasn’t easy, but eventually the rhythmic strokes of Nick’s fingers along my spine lulled me to sleep.
Chapter 30 | resolution
Christmas day came and went without a peep from our trespassers the night before. Nick had snuck out of my room sometime before seven when I woke up. There was a note on my pillow from him, telling me he’d gone so I wouldn’t worry. I may or may not have stared at it a while before forcing myself out of bed.
The smell of fresh-brewed coffee lured me from my room. Mom and Dad were still in bed; I could hear their steady breathing and knew they were still asleep. In the kitchen, Nick had started on breakfast, and by the time it was all cooked, Mom and Dad had joined us.
The four of us sitting around the kitchen table reminded me of simpler times…happier times. It was nice to feel something other than the confusion, anger, and sadness that had plagued me for months. In this one moment, I was Brooke. I wasn’t grieving the loss of the man I loved. I wasn’t a wolf. I was just me.
Marcus and Miranda stopped by around noon. They brought a turkey and a bag of fresh produce with them for us to cook for dinner. Mom and Dad were thrilled to meet two of the people I considered friends, and in the few minutes they spent talking to them, they seemed to finally accept my decision to stay here.