Once Bitten_Wolves of Hemlock Hollow

by Heather McCorkle

  Some of the fear leaked from her eyes, but the tightness around them betrayed her wariness. “You were?” Hope tinged her quiet voice.

  I nodded. “They aren’t all like him. We aren’t all like him.”

  The hope I had heard in her voice blossomed in her eyes, brightening them from brown to an almost golden hue. I let go of her arm. She immediately crossed her arms over her chest, but it did little to hide how much she shook.

  Her eyes darted about, not as if she were looking for an escape route this time, but more like she was looking for witnesses. “We’re werewolves, aren’t we?”

  “We are. You haven’t been through the—well, your first shift yet?” Though I was growing comfortable with the Icelandic terms, I figured she wouldn’t have a clue what they meant.

  She shook her head. A breath eased from me. For some reason that felt important, as if part of me knew that would change matters considerably.

  “My name is Sonya.”

  Her shaking slowed and her shoulders relaxed a bit. “I’m Candice.”

  “I’m glad we met, Candice. There are people that can help you through this. You aren’t alone.” Saying the words aloud made me face the fact that I wasn’t alone, either.

  The idea both thrilled and terrified me. My entire life I’d been alone. It was easier that way, less people to worry about, to disappoint.

  She snorted. “Hmm, well that would be new.”

  Soft though they were, I heard the distinct rhythm of Ty’s footsteps coming across the parking lot. To keep her from growing alarmed, I turned and motioned in Ty’s direction with a thrust of my head. “Here comes my friend now.”

  Looking at his tall, broad frame striding with a confidence few possessed, I realized it would be difficult to look at him and not become alarmed. The man had a presence about him, one that brought Norse gods to mind. Why the sight of him thrilled me instead of alarmed me, I wasn’t sure. Maybe I was well on my way to madness after all. Though he stopped at the tailgate and leaned against it with a casual air, the lines between his brows and around his eyes revealed his tension to me almost as much as the tang in his scent.

  “Who do we have here?” he asked through a forced smile.

  “This is Candice, and she needs our help. She’s like me,” I said, though from his demeanor I could tell he already knew she was a newly bitten. But the words were for her sake, not his.

  Running a hand through his blond locks, Ty blew out a breath. “I am sorry this happened to you, Candice. Our kind are forbidden to do this to anyone who is not willing.”

  The girl tightened her arms around herself and thrust her chin higher. “Yeah, that’s what she said, yet here we are.”

  “Are you hungry? Shall we go grab something to eat and talk?” he suggested.

  The casual shrug she gave couldn’t hide the way her eyes lit up.

  Eager as she was, she refused to get into the cab of the truck with us. Despite only being about sixty-five degrees outside, she insisted on riding in the bed. Still on the edge of wanting to trust Ty myself, I couldn’t blame her. She didn’t know us, and from the looks of her she was a runaway who had been on her own for a while. Those types didn’t tend to trust anyone, something I knew all too much about. After going through a fast food drive thru, Ty took us to one of the half dozen or so parks that made Missoula feel more rural than city. It was easy to see why he chose this city to live near.

  In somewhat of a state of awe, I listened as he told Candice most of what he had already told me, using a tone and manner that put the girl at ease. Once in a while she would lower her burger to ask a question, but for the most part she simply devoured the food he put before her and listened. Her ability to take it all in stride impressed me, and the fact that she ate two mega-size meals—double cheeseburgers and fries—made me feel a little less guilty about eating an entire one myself. After a bit of careful prodding, Ty and I determined the person who bit her wasn’t Raul, which only made me feel slightly less murderous toward the bastard. From the pinched look of confusion on Ty’s face when she gave her vague description of her attacker, he couldn’t place who it was. She had been attacked at night while walking back to her “pad” as she put it, which sadly turned out to be a place beneath a bridge. When she finished her second meal and began eyeing the fries I had left, I pushed them her way. The hesitant, almost ashamed smile she gave me brought up memories I quickly stifled.

  For the first time since I had been bitten, I felt normal. No, better than normal. Helping her felt natural and right on a level that went deeper than even my desire to be a doctor. I couldn’t explain it. With a certainty that was a touch disturbing, I knew that I had been drawn to that coffee shop, to her. Could it be madness creeping in? Worry over it ate at me, but I didn’t let her or Ty see it.

  An hour or so after we’d started chatting, a blue Xterra pulled into the parking space behind Ty’s truck. Set back some way from the road as our table was, I couldn’t see who got out. Leaning back to look around a tree, I saw that it was a woman. Before her first foot stepped on the grass I knew she would come our way. Everything about her from her energy to her stride revealed her to be a varúlfur. Ty fell silent and sat up straight and stiff. The tightening around his eyes made it obvious he was fighting for control of his temper. Was that veiled anger in his eyes? I couldn’t quite tell, but I didn’t like what it meant about the woman walking across the grass.

  An athletic body was clothed in gray slacks and a darker gray top that revealed quite a bit of cleavage. A plait of long brown hair swung as she walked. Severe brown eyes glared at me from a face that might have been pretty if it didn’t look so hostile. The glare only deepened when her gaze shifted to Ty, turning into something almost feral. That look told me all I needed to know about her animosity toward me. And damn if it didn’t make me hate her.

  “Hello, Tyler,” she said coldly.

  “Morene.” Ty’s tone was neutral, careful.

  In a flash too quick to be real, her energy changed and she smiled as she looked to Candice. “On behalf of the Council of Elders, I apologize for what has happened to you. I will take you to people who will help you through this, you have my word.” She had that same quality to her voice that told me her first language wasn’t English.

  She sounded sincere enough, but part of me still didn’t like her. Before she had arrived Ty had explained to Candice that she needed a teacher of her own to get through this. To my surprise, she had asked for me to do it. When he had explained that I was still going through the verða myself, she had asked for him to do it. Though it seemed like the best option to me, he had insisted that she needed a kennari of her own, one who could focus solely on her. I don’t know what I had expected, but this woman was not it.

  I couldn’t help but notice her nails were short and stubby, some clearly having been chewed, as she stuck her hand out to Candice. Like everything else about her, that rubbed me the wrong way.

  “I’m Morene,” she said.

  Candice only stared at her hand as she finished chewing a mouthful of fries. Her hard eyes scanned the woman from top to bottom. Swallowing, she cocked her head. “Yeah, I got that. I’m Candice.”

  Pulling the open wrapper that held the fries closer, she stuffed another handful in her mouth and leaned back to cross her arms over her chest. “And what happens after you get me to people who will ‘help me through this’?”

  Morene sat down on the edge of the bench as far from Ty as she could get. “Then you get to decide whether you want to stay with us, or leave.” The words were tight and the tone controlled, leading me to believe they weren’t entirely truthful.

  Candice turned to look at me. “Will I be safe with her?”

  The question struck a protectiveness deep inside me, making me turn a questioning gaze to Ty. By his pinched look, he clearly wasn’t happy about it, but he nodded. Determined not to scare her, but to get the whole story later, I met Candice’s eyes again. “Yes. I trust Ty’s judgment.�
� I looked to Ty again. “Got a pen and paper?”

  Like any good teacher, he produced both from a pocket of his jacket. I wrote my cell number down and handed it to Candice. “You can call me if you need anything, or if you just want to talk.”

  “I don’t have a phone.”

  Elbows resting on the edge of the table, Morene leaned forward. “We’ll stop on the way out of town and get you one.”

  Gaze never leaving mine, Candice took the piece of paper and shoved it in the pocket of her worn-out jeans. “All right,” she said to me.

  Promises of also stopping for more food finally got Candice moving toward the Xterra. Barely concealing a look of begrudging tolerance that bordered on hostility, Morene stared Ty down for a tense moment. I walked them to the vehicle, Ty shadowing me much farther behind. There were no tear-filled good-byes, hugging, or even much more than a nod, but Candice’s eyes told me all I needed to know. She was grateful but was trusting this woman only because I did. The moment the engine revved to life and Morene began to back the SUV out of the parking spot, I turned to Ty.

  “Want to tell me why I’m placing that girl’s life in the hands of someone you obviously can’t stand?”

  “She will be safe with her, you have my word.”

  Though the words were measured and controlled, his clenched fists gave away his fury. He started for the truck.

  “Why don’t you like that woman?” I pushed.

  “It does not matter,” he said as he got in and shut the door.

  Determined, I jumped in the passenger side and turned to him. “It does if it affects that girl’s life.”

  His hands clenched the wheel so tight I saw imprints. “It does not. She and I have history. It ended badly, that is all.” As he spoke I saw the gleam of fangs.

  Compelled by something I couldn’t fight, I laid a hand on his arm. It was like placing my hand on a wood stove. Despite the sting, I refused to pull away. Breathing heavy, fangs bared, he turned to me, but it wasn’t hostility that flashed in his eyes, it was pain. Damn if that didn’t make him even sexier. It shouldn’t have after what I’d been through. But where Raul’s wolfiness had felt threatening and dangerous, Ty’s made my blood heat up.

  “I’m sorry. If you feel she’s safe, then I trust your judgment,” I said softly.

  As a long breath eased from, him, his fangs retracted. I was about to pull my hand back when his came to rest on top of it, trapping it in a wonderful cocoon of heat. “Thank you. I am sorry, I did not know they would send her.”

  “You wanna talk about it?”

  His hand let go of mine to start the truck. “No.”

  Though I knew they were long gone, I glanced in the rearview mirror. “Do you think Candice will make it through the verða?”

  He nodded without hesitation. “It is easier for the young. Their minds are resilient, malleable. The concept does not seem so foreign to them, therefore the risk of madness is less.”

  “How do you know that if there hasn’t been a new varúlfur in so long?” If he was just trying to make me feel better, I needed to know.

  “The kennari handbook.”

  “Seriously?”

  Another nod.

  “How did you find her?” he asked.

  He shifted into reverse and I sat back in my seat, pulling my seatbelt on. “I saw her sitting in the coffee shop, coincidence I guess.”

  As he turned my way to look behind us, his doubtful gaze raked across mine. “Which is weird enough in itself. But, how did you know she was a new varúlfur?”

  I shrugged. “Varúlfur radar. I assumed that was a thing.”

  His brows knitted together as he pulled out onto the virtually traffic-free road. “It is, sort of. But only after you have gone through the verða.”

  The way he kept his tone guarded, it was hard to tell, but I think he sounded mystified. Between the dappled shadows and sunlight caused by the trees lining the road and the way he kept his eyes firmly ahead, I couldn’t tell much by trying to read his face, either.

  “So I’m an early bloomer,” I suggested.

  “Maybe, I do not know. According to the literature it is not supposed to happen. But like I said, you are the first new varúlfur in my lifetime. Well, you and now Candice.”

  “Wait, there’s literature on this? More than just the kennari handbook?”

  Tension drained from his body and he relaxed back into the seat. “Of course.” The playful tone of his voice suggested it wasn’t so simple.

  “Why haven’t you let me read it?”

  He shot a half grin my way. “It is in Icelandic.”

  “Oh.”

  A determination the likes of which I hadn’t felt since my first year of college came over me. Crazy as it was, this was my life now—or would be if I survived. I had to know as much as possible. “Will you teach it to me?”

  “Icelandic?”

  “No, Chinese.” I rolled my eyes upward. “Yes, Icelandic.”

  “If you really want to learn it.”

  Was that a challenge I heard in his voice?

  “I do.”

  “All right then. We will start when we get back to the cabin.”

  I grinned at him, pouring all the challenge I could into it. “Excellent.”

  Sitting back, I crossed my arms beneath my breasts and turned my attention to the tree-lined roadside. It wasn’t that I thought Ty was withholding information, quite the opposite. I needed answers to things I wasn’t willing to ask him yet. Like, why was I drawn to a rune that looked like the birthmark on my hip? Why had I known that girl was a new varúlfur who’d yet to go through the verða? And more importantly, how had I known she needed my help? Me of all people, who could barely help myself.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sonya

  Head still spinning from a two-hour lesson on a literally tongue-tying language, I leaned over my outstretched leg to grab the deck railing. The pull of my hamstring muscle helped me clear my head almost as much as the view of the spruce and pine forest beyond the deck. Clouds covered most of the blue sky above the towering treetops, keeping the day pleasantly cool. Even now rolling some of the words around in my head, I couldn’t get Ty’s accent quite right. Breathing the wet earth and fresh rain-scented air deep into my lungs, I whispered a few of the toughest words, going over their meaning in my mind.

  “See, you are a natural at it.” Ty’s voice came from the French doors a moment before his soft footsteps sounded on the deck.

  Laying the side of my face against my leg, I peeked at him through the curtain of my hair. Clothed only in a pair of loose gray sweats, he looked as divine as a Norse god. With that smirk on his fine lips, the expanse of chiseled chest, abs, and those bulging arms, I couldn’t imagine a finer looking deity.

  “Hardly,” I said a bit breathlessly, hoping he would think it was from the stretch.

  One of his legs came to rest on the railing beside mine, and he leaned down to stretch. Seeing how my leg was at a ninety-degree angle and his was barely at forty-five, it hardly seemed as effective for him. I was suddenly very interested in how flexible he might be. Shaking the thought from my mind, I pulled my leg off the rail, took a step away, and began stretching my arms. Sanity, I had to keep my sanity. Which made me wonder…

  “You mentioned varúlfur who didn’t make it through the verða being put to the reaper. Is that like a metaphor for a person, or just the killing itself?”

  Eyes going so wide they practically bulged from their sockets, you would have thought I’d wrapped my hands around his neck and squeezed. “I should have known you would catch that. I did not mean to say it. Such dark talk is not exactly encouraging to a newly bitten.”

  I touched his arm, partially because it was growing harder and harder not to touch him, but mostly to make him look at me. Right, that was why, because that was so important. Dammit. “I realize it’s been less than a week, but you still know me better than that already. My doctor brain wants all the facts. Tell me.�
��

  He met my gaze. “Hundreds of years ago, it was a person, chosen by the gods, legends say. But with fewer and fewer being bitten in, there has been no need for the gods to choose a reaper. So now, when necessary, it is carried out by the lögreglu.”

  “The police?”

  He grinned. “Very good. Yes, the police, or the chief of police, rather.”

  “Tell me more about this reaper legend.”

  “My apologies, I do not know much more about it. It is one of our most obscure legends that is not talked about much. It is a dark part of our history, my father says.”

  Cocking my head at him, I put a hand on my hip. “Seriously? A history teacher who does not know the legends of his own people?” I teased.

  Pink flushed across his cheeks. “I know of it, just not the details. Like I said, our kind do not like to talk about it. Besides, I have spent much of my time learning the history of the world, and there is a lot to learn.”

  I tagged him gently on one rock-hard bicep. “Forget it, teach. I’m just messing with you.” Another thought occurred to me, this one almost as disturbing as thoughts of the reaper. “Do you think Raul had one of his people bite Candice as some twisted backup plan?” With two long phone calls between us in the last twenty-four hours, she and I were on a first name basis already, and then some. The girl liked to chat and had a million questions. Not that I could answer any of them.

  Stretching over his leg to loop his interlaced fingers over his toes, he shook his head. “No, even Raul is not that sick. She is just a kid.”

  “I thought you said they—we—don’t do this kind of thing without approval.”

  “We do not. I do not know who could have done it, or why. Unless… No that is not possible.”

  His eyes had drifted off into the distance, peering deep into the trees but seeing something else entirely.

  “Unless what?” I prompted.

  “There are old legends my mother used to tell me, about a time when our kind would bite those who had wronged them. The bitten ones became indentured to those they had wronged, often serving decades or centuries trying to redeem themselves.”