Once Bitten_Wolves of Hemlock Hollow

by Heather McCorkle

  The thoughtful, surprised look in his eyes suggested maybe he had felt the tug, too. I lifted my chin and crossed my arms beneath my breasts. His left hand opened and for a second I thought he was going to reach out to me, but then his arm dropped to his side.

  “Aside from the fangs, your senses are also stronger—smell, hearing.”

  Though it wasn’t a question, I nodded. The fact that he went on while I was so obviously close to losing my shit made me like him even more. A guy that respected a lady’s wishes even if he didn’t agree with them couldn’t be all bad.

  “Did he tell you anything? Did he ask your permission?”

  In the shadows it was difficult to tell, but his expression looked serious, as though my answers held a lot of weight. Suddenly that weight pressed down on me as I realized the unfathomable depths of what I had gotten myself into. I had an overwhelming feeling that the world—mine in particular—was about to get far more complicated and interesting.

  I had to take a long breath that shuddered through my chest before I could go on. “Not much. He said he wanted to see the world, travel, and that I seemed like someone he could do it with. As for permission, why the hell would I give him permission to bite me? I’m not into that kinky shit.”

  Sighing, Ty ran his hand through his hair. “So he did not tell you anything about what the bite meant? He did not ask you if you wanted it?” The precise way he worded things told me the answer would be important.

  Blood scorched its way up to my face. Normally I wasn’t one to blush, but the flashback of Raul’s body pressed against mine, hands all over me as he asked me if I wanted it, was too much. Or maybe it was the hot mountain of a man standing next to me asking about it that really did it. I turned my own gaze out over the slow-moving water so I wouldn’t have to face him. The attraction to Ty was starting to bug me. Sure, Raul had left me far from satisfied, but I wasn’t one to drool after a man because he was hot as Hades.

  “No, he didn’t ask if he could bite me, or if I wanted him to. And he definitely didn’t say anything about what it would do to me.”

  A low, rumbling growl unlike anything I’d ever heard come from a human throat issued from Ty. The glow of the distant streetlights was barely enough to gleam off the edge of what I thought might be fangs exposed by his curled upper lip. Knees growing weak, I stumbled back heavily against a tree. Part of me wanted to get as far away from all this craziness—and Ty—as fast as I could, while a much bigger part wanted right back in his arms. Whatever was wrong with me, was wrong with Ty as well. It made me afraid of him and drawn to him at the same time. Hell, I was kidding myself and it was getting old.

  “That bite changed me into something, something both you and Raul are, didn’t it?” I asked. Voicing it made it hard to breathe. I became light-headed and things began to blur and sway.

  From behind a fringe of blond hair that reached below eyes filled with concern, Ty’s piercing blue gaze found me. He smiled, the hint of fangs gone save for a few pointy canines. “Yes, you are in the process of changing. You seem to be taking this rather well.”

  “Sure, if you consider being on the verge of a panic attack well.” My voice shook as much as I did. I sucked in a deep breath to give my brain some air so I could think. “I’ve seen a lot of things as a med student, some that couldn’t be explained away. And I’m not naive. I know even more exists in this world than I have seen with my own eyes.”

  The reality of that statement made it easier to breathe and stopped things from swaying a bit. Some part of me had always known there were worlds within worlds, things that couldn’t be explained away with logic. The self-preserving instinct in me made me hold my tongue about my dad. I didn’t know this guy from Raul, so there was no way I was going to tell him that my dad had told me stories about Viking werewolves my whole childhood. He didn’t need to know my dad had believed the stories, talked about Loki and his wolf-child, Fenrir, as if they were real. If Ty knew something about my dad, I wanted him to be the one to say it. I wasn’t about to give him any information about me he didn’t need.

  Ty made that low, rumbling sound again that vibrated through my core in a very pleasant way. “Hmm, wise and beautiful. No wonder he chose you.”

  Stifling the feeling both the rumble and his words awakened, I fought the impulse to turn away. Such feelings were what had gotten me into this mess in the first place. Well, not quite. With Raul it had been more about how terribly long it had been since I’d had sex. That and his slippery charms, if I was going to be completely honest with myself. I opened my mouth to ask my next question but promptly shut it when I heard footsteps on the bridge. A glance back toward the parking area revealed a couple stepping onto the bridge some fifty feet away.

  “Shall we walk over to the park where we can find more privacy?” Ty asked.

  With a nod, I shoved my fisted hands into my pockets to keep from looking like I was itching for a fight—which I was at this point—and followed him. What can I say, it was a defense mechanism of mine that reared its ugly head when I got stressed. The questions burning a hole through my tongue had to wait as we walked farther down the path and wove our way through couples and a few families. After walking beside a bend in the widening river, we veered off onto one of the paved paths that led deeper into the trees. Soon we were shrouded in shadows even the distant streetlamps didn’t reach. Ty stopped and sat down on a bench that looked out over the river, inviting me to sit beside him with a wave of his hand. Getting as far to the opposite end of it as I could, I sat, turning sideways with one leg pulled up partially beneath me. The position not only gave me a good view of his nice profile, but would help launch me to my feet faster should I need to run.

  “What do you mean ‘in the process,’ and what am I changing into?” I asked. The world started to close in again. Recognizing the signs this time, I took several deep breaths to stave off the tunnel vision that came before a panic attack. It worked, a little. The dark tunnel trying to close around me opened up.

  Even in the dim light I could see the calculating look in his eyes as they met my gaze. He stretched an arm up onto the back of the bench, fingers just barely brushing my shoulder. The light touch banished my panic far better than a few calculated breaths ever could. “Your DNA is changing; that takes time. You are changing into a varúlfur, but you will still be you, only enhanced.”

  “Wait, I’m changing into a…varúlfur? What is that, even?” Coming out of my throat it sounded like a completely different word.

  Half of his mouth quirked up into what I had to admit was a handsome grin. “Varúlfur, or in English…” He paused and stared hard at me before finishing. “A werewolf.”

  Though I had been expecting something like it, the words hit me like a hard slap. It explained the fangs, and it meant some of my dad’s old stories were true. I’d always written them off as the ramblings of an overly religious man. One of a peculiar religion, admittedly, but a zealot nevertheless. Head dropping into my hands, I leaned forward until my elbows rested on my knees. It was too much. Could my dad’s stories seriously have been true?

  It had never bothered him that I didn’t embrace his religion. He always said I’d understand someday. More than anything, I wished I could talk to him again. Tears began to drip between my fingers. Jeans brushed against steel as Ty slid over next to me. His arm came to rest on my shoulders, warm and heavy. He didn’t pull me in against his chest this time, but I wanted him to, oh how I wanted him to.

  That was twice tonight I had let a practical stranger see me weak. I leaped to my feet and began to pace before the bench.

  “That bastard. I should have realized him calling his nitro-addicted friends his ‘pack’ wasn’t a way of being original. Dammit!” It served me right for being attracted to a man with a fast car. Whether all this shit was true or not, and I wasn’t sure it was yet, that I had made a colossal mistake with Raul was clear.

  Spinning on Ty, I fixed him with a hard look. It might not be his fa
ult, but he was the only one I had on hand to focus my anger on. “Why would he do this to me?”

  Sadness filled Ty’s eyes. “To make you his.”

  A feral-sounding growl tore from my throat, frightening me almost as much as the fangs that sprang forth. Now I really, really wanted to hurt this bastard. Moisture stung my eyes. I looked down before Ty could notice. Pinecones and goose droppings littered the sidewalk but I was able to avoid them by mostly smell alone. This fact only disturbed me more. My mind searched for conditions and disorders that heightened senses, but everything I came up with was almost as improbable as becoming a werewolf. I kicked hard at one of the pinecones, sending it flying off into the night. It took a lot of deep breaths to get my fangs to go away.

  Fangs. Fucking hell.

  In mid-pace, I stopped before Ty. “I’m going to turn into a monster on the full moon?”

  He shook his head. “You will still be who you are. If you are not a monster now, neither you nor your wolf self will be a monster. Forget the legends. Very little of them are true.”

  Resuming my pacing, I took a few strides to breathe before asking my next question. “So I won’t feel the overwhelming urge to eat people?”

  Laughter erupted from Ty, the deep kind that vibrated along muscles at my apex. “Gods, no. Can you imagine how bad humans must taste? With all the garbage they put into their bodies?”

  I was not convinced. “No overwhelming urge to feed every full moon? You’re sure?”

  “Do you have an eating disorder now?”

  “No,” I snapped.

  Was this a game to him? The touch of humor in his voice suggested it might be. Just when I thought this might all be some big joke, my teeth began to ache again. “What about these fangs growing every time I get mad?”

  He shrugged one broad shoulder. “Emotions evoke instincts in your wolf. You must simply learn to control them.”

  I ran a hand through my hair, forcing myself not to clutch at the long black locks and pull. It wasn’t easy. The struggle made me remember something he said. “You said you were here to be my kennari. What does that mean?”

  “Roughly, it means teacher. I am here to help you through the verða—becoming—then to take you to Raul’s trial, if you wish to go.” The guarded tone in his voice made me stop and take a long, hard look at him.

  My mind spun with a million different thoughts, questions. Even though I had suspected such creatures existed for years, it was too much to take in. Too impossible. “I take it there’s no cure.”

  “No.”

  Hands gripping my hair, I sat down on the bench—hard—and rested my elbows on my knees. “Of course there isn’t. Just my luck.”

  No tears would come, though it felt like I should lament the life stolen from me. Crying wasn’t working so there was no point. Screaming…now that I really wanted to do, and was close to it.

  “So much for being a doctor,” I mumbled.

  “You wanted to be a doctor, like a surgeon?” Ty asked, eyes wide.

  My own gaze hardened. Why did people always find that so hard to believe? “Yes, and I was close, dammit. One more year of med school…”

  “A surgeon. Truly?”

  “At first, yeah. But after so long in med school I’m more interested in the inside of a person, mentally. But none of that matters now.”

  Ty leaned a bit closer but didn’t reach out to me. “I am sorry this was forced upon you. Such things are not done anymore. Raul was out of line and will be punished. You can still have a normal life after this is over.”

  Bones ached as fangs grew within my mouth. Normal, yeah right. Only if crazy was the new normal. “I want to be the one to punish him.”

  To my surprise, Ty nodded. “That is your right. You will be given the opportunity to do so after his sentencing, but the punishment itself will be decided upon by the Council.”

  Anger spread out from my center as if riding on my very blood itself. The sensation reminded me of hard whiskey burning all the way down to one’s stomach, only in reverse. My skin crawled as if the tiny hairs along it had been stirred by a breeze. Sitting back against the bench, I rubbed my arms. The crawling magnified, turned into a burning, as if that breeze were now brushing against sunburned skin.

  “Easy, there, easy,” Ty soothed, a hand reaching out to touch my arm.

  His cool fingers helped ground me, bring me back to myself a bit. That glacial gaze of his pulled me back from the brink of rage so completely I found myself leaning toward him as if those eyes were magnetic. But it had to be more than that because he began to lean toward me as well.

  “It is best not to focus on anything that makes you angry for the first week or so,” he said, breaking the spell.

  Inches from his face, I leaned away quickly, feeling utterly foolish. “What if I don’t want your help with the becoming?”

  His big fingers wove through each other as if he needed to keep his hands busy. “That part is not an option. Every new varúlfur must be guided through the verða by a kennari. That is the law, and for good reason. There is a lot to learn that will keep not only you, but those around you, alive.”

  I sat up straighter, palms pointed skyward. “So I will feel compelled to kill people?”

  Blond hair light as wheat flashed in the light bouncing off the river as he shook his head. “No. But your emotions are heightened and they will be harder to control. If you get angry and lose that control…” His voice trailed off as he shrugged.

  Sighing, I nodded as I tried to take it all in. “I get it. So I can control this thing with help. Will I actually turn into a wolf?” My voice dropped to a whisper on the last part.

  A gentleness entered his eyes, softening them like spring melt. Oh damn, now his pretty eyes had me thinking all poetic. “Yes, but it isn’t like the movies or books. You will be able to change at will. Emotions will be heightened during the full moon, but it will not force you to change. You will want to that much more.”

  Hell, why not dive head first into the crazy? “Will it hurt?” I was no stranger to pain and a hard life had given me a high threshold, but I wasn’t looking forward to more.

  “Only if you fight it, like how your jaws ache when you try to hold back the fangs. I will teach you to control your emotions, and that will help curb the instinct to shift.”

  The fact that he knew about that made it seem more real, more plausible that he wasn’t pulling my leg. Obviously, he wasn’t. The fangs made that clear. But still, part of my mind couldn’t let go of the possibility that this was all a hoax. Sadly, that part grew smaller by the moment. The breath in my lungs eased out. There was one more thing I had to know sooner rather than later.

  “You said something about being sorry you didn’t get to Raul before he bit me. Did you know he was going to do this?”

  He shook his head. “I suspected he was searching for a woman to bite in to be his mate, and since I knew he didn’t have the Council’s permission, I was following him to keep an eye on him. I had no idea he’d go to the extreme of biting someone in without their permission and knowledge.”

  After a long moment he stood and offered me his hand.

  “I have overwhelmed you enough for one day. What do you say we get you something to eat, then let you rest?”

  My stomach growled at the words. The bag of food I had filled from my pathetically stocked kitchen had run out and it had been hours since I’d eaten. Even then, that had been a granola bar. I accepted his hand and let him help me to my feet. The warmth of his rough palm felt amazing, like a hot tub I wanted to sink into. It was all I could do to force myself to let go. I needed to get this over with, get back to med school, and most importantly get away from this guy before I made another poor decision.

  “All right, let’s go. But, Ty, will you promise me one thing?”

  He grinned. “Only one?”

  My expression hardened. “Only one. Don’t keep secrets from me.”

  His smile vanished as if blown away
by my words. “I promise.”

  We walked back to the Jeep in silence, if you didn’t count the chaos of thoughts going off like fireworks in my head. Part of me wished Ty hadn’t been the one to be here, hadn’t told me all of this. But not knowing wouldn’t change it. The world had upended, leaving me drowning in a foreign universe. I was bad at being human. How I was going to be a werewolf, I had no idea.

  Chapter Six

  Ty

  We rode back from the park in a tense silence broken only by the buzz of traffic around us. From across her classic Jeep, I did my best to sneak looks at her without getting caught. I could not help it. Everything about her from her slightly pouty lips and remarkable brown eyes to her long, jet-black hair drew me in. Amazing. But I wasn’t as shallow as all that. More pulled at me than her knockout looks.

  The way she was handling all this, for one, was pretty amazing. I had never known a newly bitten, but I didn’t imagine any of them took it in such easy stride. True, anger radiated off her, but she was not afraid. Even if she had been able to hide it from me, I would have smelled it. But all I smelled coming off her was her unique spicy scent that managed to be feminine and sultry at the same time. From her adaptability to her spunkiness, none of it was what I had expected out of a woman chosen by Raul. She surprised me, and I liked that more than I cared to admit. But I had to admit it to myself, if only to strengthen my resolve to keep my distance.

  It was not just that she had been traumatized by Raul. From what I had been taught, over half of the newly bitten didn’t make it through the verða. They lost their sanity, meaning they could not control their wolf selves, which resulted in them having to be put down. Any big distractions, like family, friends, or attachments could mean the difference in her surviving or not. I would not be the reason my first assignment did not make it.