Mirror Lake Wolves 01 - Moon Kissed

by Jennifer Snyder

  “Is that so?”

  I nodded. “I can’t believe you ever thought you had a shot with her.”

  “Never said I thought I had a shot with her. All I said was that I used to have a thing for her.” Eli reached into the bag of chips and pulled out another handful of crumbs. “If you don’t picture me with someone high maintenance and hoity-toity, as you put it, then who do you picture me with?”

  My mouth grew dry. He’d put me on the spot. Who did I picture Eli with? Honestly?

  Me.

  I was the first person to come to mind when I thought of him being with anyone. It was wrong of me, so wrong of me, but it didn’t change the truth to it.

  What the hell? Where was all that distance I used to keep between us? How could I be having thoughts like that about him?

  “I, uh,” I fumbled for words as I tried to think of anyone who might be a decent match for him. No one came to mind.

  “Someone like you maybe?” His lips curled into a half smile.

  My heart thundered against my rib cage, making it hard for me to breathe. He had to hear it. It was so loud it was the only thing I could hear.

  “No.” I squeezed my eyes shut. My voice was too breathy sounding. It caused my heart to pound so hard my fingertips tingled. “I don’t know. All I’m saying is that Candace isn’t your type.”

  “Glad you know my type so much better than I do,” he said. His words weren’t harsh, but they still had an effect on me. I opened my eyes to glance at him. He held the bag of chips out. “Want some?”

  “If you had guacamole, yeah. I can’t eat them plain like that, though. It’s gross.” My nose wrinkled with disgust, but secretly, I was glad we were talking about something else. The conversation had steered into dangerous territory.

  “How is it gross? It’s salted chips,” Eli said. He stared at me as though I’d grown two heads.

  “Anyway,” I dragged the word out and reached for the jar of moonshine. “I have a hunch about what might have happened to Glenn.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’ve got a feeling Alec’s friend, Shane, and his brothers took him,” I said before placing the jar to my lips. It didn’t burn nearly as bad this time. In fact, it went down smoothly. Apple pie moonshine was all right. “I told you they hunt there year-round. Becca said they were out there Friday night, the same night I heard a wolf in the woods and the same night Taryn and Glenn fought.”

  Eli reached for the moonshine; his fingertips brushed against mine in the process. Warmth bloomed through my lower stomach. I blamed it on the alcohol kicking in, but knew that wasn’t entirely true.

  “I hate people who hunt year-round,” he said.

  “I hate Taryn is having to go through this.”

  Eli glanced at me. “We should do something about it.”

  “Like what?”

  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do something; it was that I wasn’t sure what we could do. Contacting the police had already been done. Letting the Alpha of the pack know what was going on had already been done. Wasn’t that all you were supposed to do in a situation like this? It wasn’t as though I could head to the police station and tell them Glenn changed into a wolf from time to time, and I thought Shane and his brothers might have kidnapped him last Friday night during one of his shifts. They’d think I was nuts. On the other hand, I couldn’t barge into Eli’s dad’s place and demand he do something to help either.

  “We should head to the woods and search for clues,” Eli said as he took another swig of moonshine. “It’s our duty, don’t you think? I mean, after all, we know more than the police at this point and my father is busy with other things. Maybe we need to take this situation into our own hands. After all, it is pack related.”

  I thought about what he was saying for a minute. “I think you’re right.”

  “Damn.” Eli chuckled. “I never thought I’d hear you say those words to me.”

  I slapped him on the shoulder. Moonshine splashed on the kitchen floor when I jostled him. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make me laugh.

  “What’s so funny? That’s alcohol abuse. I should totally cut you off,” Eli insisted with a grin.

  “It is alcohol abuse, but it’s funny because the only thing I could think about was how that’s probably the cleanest spot on your floor. That moonshine is so potent it could kill anything it comes in contact with.”

  “You’re probably right.” Eli chuckled.

  While I wasn’t smashed, I was feeling tipsy. Eli had to be, too. I could tell from the glossy sheen to his eyes.

  “You ready to take a hike through the woods and crack this case?” he asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “Yeah,” I said, slipping off the counter. I landed on my feet and a puff of white floated up from the floor. Drywall dust was everywhere. I wiped off my bottom, sending more flying through the air. The countertop was covered in it. “Great, my butt is probably all chalky.”

  “Turn around, let me see,” Eli said as he spun his index finger around in the air, signaling me to do as he said.

  “Not a chance.” I knew he was only using the moment as an excuse to check out my ass. It sent a shiver through me that was hard to ignore, but I managed. “Come on; let me show you where I found the blood.”

  Eli slipped off the counter without worrying about dusting his bottom off. “Whoa there, let’s get some supplies first.”

  “Supplies? Like what?”

  “Well, I for one don’t plan on using the flashlight on my cell phone. We’ll cover more ground if we have something with a wider range to it.”

  “What are you planning on using, a freaking lighthouse?” The flashlight on my cell was perfect. I didn’t need anything else.

  “No, but I have a good flashlight we can use. Plus, I should probably change into something else. You too,” he said, taking in what I was wearing.

  The feel of his eyes on me had my stomach flip-flopping again. I glanced at my clothes, hoping to take my mind off the way he was looking at me. I had on my favorite pair of cut-off shorts and a white tank top with messy hair don’t care printed in black cursive lettering on the front. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

  “You’re going to stick out like a sore thumb in the dark.”

  “What are you suggesting? I go home and change into something black so we can hit the woods in ninja mode?”

  “Something like that, minus the you heading home part.” He started toward the back of his trailer. My gaze drifted to his dust-covered bottom. Lord, he was good-looking. “Come on. Let me see if I have anything black you can wear.”

  I trailed behind Eli, heading down the narrow hallway with excitement sparking through my system at the thought of being in his bedroom. Immediately, I scolded myself for thinking that way. This was pack business. Even though I wasn’t Moon Kissed, this was still my pack. It always would be. No matter what. I wasn’t going into Eli’s bedroom to make out with him and do the dirty. I was going to prepare for a mission. I’d take him to the spot I saw the blood and we’d look for clues that might help us find Glenn. Nothing more, nothing less.

  13

  Moonlight filtered through the cloudy sky. It illuminated sections of the woods around us, but not enough for me to see without the help of added light. Even so, I knew finding my way to the track wouldn’t be hard. Usually, I went straight from the trailer park to the lake along the path I’d carved out years ago, but I remembered the track being to the right of my usual path.

  “It shouldn’t be too much farther,” I whispered to Eli. He walked beside me, dressed in all black.

  “Really? That’s too close to home for me.”

  My stomach churned. I’d never thought about how Alec’s uncle’s piece of property was so close to where we lived. That meant Shane and his brothers had been hunting in our backyard for who knew how long. The other night might not have been their first abduction, or kill, however you wanted to look at it.

  Gran’s warni
ng of never running alone echoed through my mind. Would Glenn still have been abducted if he’d been with someone else that night? Would he have been shot? I wasn’t sure. All I knew was, if I became Moon Kissed, there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d be caught running through these woods alone in wolf form.

  “I know,” I whispered. My throat was dry, causing my voice to sound hoarse as I swiped a low-hanging tree branch out of my way. It slipped from my grip and shot back, popping me in the arm and snagging the sleeve of Eli’s T-shirt he’d loaned me for this expedition. It was only a work shirt, but it was soft and smelled of him. I didn’t want it ruined for those reasons alone.

  Eli’s hand gripped my forearm. The warmth of his touch jolted each of my nerve endings to life. “Hold on a second,” he whispered.

  I paused and held my breath, unsure what had garnered his attention. “What is it?”

  “Shhh,” he insisted, placing a finger to his lips. “Cut your flashlight off and listen.”

  I swiped the flashlight on my cell off and strained my ears to hear what he did. There was nothing there. At least to my ears. Eli’s hearing might be a smidgen better than mine, but not much. Not in this form. Only in his wolf form would he be able to hear exceptionally well.

  Leaves rustled from a few feet away. The fine hairs at the nape of my neck and along my arms lifted as I jerked my attention toward the noise. My heart thundered against my rib cage as it grew closer. What if it was Shane, or one of his brothers? What if they shot us for snooping? I knew it wasn’t their property, but I also knew that hadn’t stopped them from shooting things here before.

  “Just a rabbit,” Eli whispered as he pointed to a thorny bush to my left. A brown rabbit lunged inside it, disappearing beneath its prickly branches.

  I clasped my chest, hoping to slow the erratic beating of my heart. “Just a heart attack waiting to happen, Jesus.”

  “You okay?” Amusement laced his words. I didn’t have to see his face to know a ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

  “I’m fine.” I flipped my flashlight back on and continued walking, this time paying more attention to my surroundings. We had to be close. Seriously, how could we miss a giant dirt track in the middle of the woods? Maybe that wasn’t the best question to ask, considering I’d done so for years. “It should be here.”

  “I think you’re right,” Eli surprised me by saying. I thought he’d have razzed me for getting him lost in the woods, but he hadn’t.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I can see it,” he insisted, pointing straight ahead. “If you weren’t so vertically challenged, you might be able to see it from the top of this hill too.”

  “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see me.

  A few more steps forward and the dirt track came into view. Moonlight glinted over the man-made hills and valleys.

  “You rode around this track on a four-wheeler?” Eli asked. I didn’t miss the shock lacing his words.

  “Yeah,” I said as I placed a hand on my hip and shifted to glare at him, proud of myself. “Quite a few times actually.”

  “By yourself?”

  “Yep.”

  “Huh, I never would have pictured you as a four-wheeling kind of girl.”

  “What kind of girl did you picture me as?” I asked before I’d had a chance to think the words through.

  “Not the four-wheeling type, more like hike through nature or rock climbing. You’ve never crossed me as one of those adrenaline junkies who get off on four-wheeling, dirt biking, or skydiving.”

  I’d never pictured myself as that type of girl either. Then again, I’d never had the opportunity to do any of those things. So, who knew, I might be that girl after all.

  “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought you did,” I said as I started toward the tree I remembered seeing the blood behind.

  “Maybe, but I doubt it,” I heard Eli mutter as he followed me through the brush.

  There was such confidence in his voice that baffled me. How could a person think they knew someone else so well?

  “This is the tree,” I said as I shined my light on it. “The blood was behind it.”

  I swept my flashlight across the ground as I stepped around the tree. The ground was still roughed up from signs of a struggle, but the darkened splotches of crimson captured my attention. Now that I knew whom they potentially belonged to, bile crept up the back of my throat.

  “That’s definitely blood.” Eli stepped into my light and bent down. I inched forward and watched as he touched the blood on one of the leaves. It flaked off and fell to the ground. He pointed to the claw marks and paw prints in the dirt. “And these are definitely from a wolf. I think you’re right. Something bad did go down here.”

  Normally, I’d enjoy being right. This wasn’t one of those times. I’d hoped Glenn had been blowing off steam still and would come home on his own, but it was clear that wasn’t the case. While we didn’t have any proof Glenn was the wolf taken by Shane and his brothers, the evidence was leaning toward it.

  Eli stood and spun around to survey the area. “It’s obvious they took him somewhere. There isn’t a body. Glenn would have transformed into his human state once he was wounded, and it’s safe to say from the amount of blood here, he was severely wounded. Since we know the guys you mentioned are hunters, I’m willing to bet it was a gunshot wound. Did you hear a gun go off that night?”

  I licked my lips and thought back. “No.”

  I couldn’t be sure, though. I’d been preoccupied with Alec. Had there been a shot fired?

  “Maybe they used a silencer,” Eli said.

  The thought terrified me. It meant you would never hear the shot coming.

  Eli shifted to face me. “If Shane and his brothers were the ones who did this to Glenn, then it means they know about us. Not that they suspect, but that they know. They would have proof of our existence. This isn’t good.” He smoothed his hands over his short-cropped hair.

  “I know.” I bit my bottom lip.

  “It means Shane might know about you,” Eli insisted. I could feel his eyes on me, but I couldn’t bring myself to meet his gaze. Instead, I continued to stare at the last place Glenn was probably seen. “This is just another reason I think you should stay away from Alec.” The way he said his name sounded as though it left a bad taste in his mouth.

  I glanced at him. His jaw worked back and forth as he held my gaze, worry festering in his eyes.

  “I’m serious,” he spat. “I think it’s time you tell that boy goodbye for good. No more screwing around.”

  My temper flared. Who did he think he was telling me I needed to say goodbye to someone? Who was he to say I was screwing with anyone either? He didn’t know the specifics of how I felt about Alec. “He has nothing to do with this.”

  “Maybe, but his best friend did. That says a lot about him, don’t you think? I mean, haven’t you ever heard the term guilty by association?”

  “It doesn’t apply to this situation. Alec is nothing like Shane.” I meant it. Eli must’ve understood as much, or at the very least he knew I wouldn’t budge on it, because his lips pressed into a thin line and he looked away.

  “Fine, whatever. I’m not going to argue with you about this. I’ve said my peace. You can either listen or don’t. It’s up to you. Just promise me you’ll be careful when you’re around him. I don’t want to end up out here searching for you and finding another scene like this.” He gestured to the blood and scratched up ground, and flashed me a pained stare that tugged at my heartstrings.

  “Okay,” I said even though I didn’t think Alec would do anything to hurt me. I was merely touched that Eli seemed to care so much about me.

  Footfalls rustling through leaves in the distance had me on high alert. Eli placed his index finger to his lips and moved to position himself in front of me.

  “Turn your flashlight off and get down,” he insisted.

  Voices traveled through
the woods. My chest tightened as my breathing accelerated. I fumbled with the flashlight on my cell, unable to get it to switch off fast enough. Eli took it from me and killed the light. I closed my eyes and released the breath I’d been holding. Another murmur of voices floated to me. I couldn’t make out what was said, but I could distinguish the voices were male.

  Shit. Was it Shane and his brothers back for another round of shoot, snatch, and run?

  “We should get out of here before someone mistakes us for an animal and shoots.” My voice shook as I whispered the words to Eli.

  We were dressed in black, hiding behind brush—we were practically begging for a trigger-happy hunter to shoot us.

  “One minute,” Eli muttered, keeping his eyes trained forward. “Maybe we can get some clues about what they did with Glenn, or if it was intentional, by listening to them.”

  I had no doubt it was intentional. Eli didn’t know Shane like I did. In fact, he didn’t know him at all. Maybe this was where I should put my foot down and get us the hell out of here.

  “I don’t think sticking around is a good idea,” I whispered.

  He pretended he didn’t hear me. At least that’s what I thought he was doing, because he damn sure didn’t turn around and acknowledge I’d spoken.

  “Honestly, Drew, I don’t know why you’re dragging me out here tonight. Peter didn’t ask for another one. He already has the filthy werewolf we bagged the other night. He doesn’t need another,” the guy’s familiar voice sent chills creeping along my spine.

  It was Shane. There was no doubt in my mind.

  “Chill out. I don’t know why I even brought you tonight. You’re such a damn wuss,” Drew said in a sharp tone. I assumed he was one of Shane’s older brothers.

  “I’m not a wuss. I’m here, aren’t I? I was here the other night and the times before that, too. And these aren’t freaking wolves. They’re werewolves. There’s a damn difference,” Shane said. He sounded closer. We were truly at risk of being shot if we didn’t get out of here soon.