Blooded

by Amanda Carlson

  “Shut up,” he growled, almost within reach. His canines had lengthened enough to jut between his lips. I pushed out once more in a last-ditch attempt to put more space between us. “You’re going to die now. I’m going to see it done.”

  “Not if I can help it,” I panted as I swam backward. I kept the banter going while I still could. “All your cronies…are going to be talking about it…Sean. It’ll be the hot topic of conversation. The…only topic. How you had to use…a weapon instead of your strength…to best a…female.”

  “Nobody is going to talk, bitch, because I’m going to be the one who finally kills you. I’ll be a hero. Nobody’s going to care in the end how the job was done, only that it’s finished.” He took a big stroke toward me.

  “Nope, you won’t be a hero, because you’ll be…dead.” I gasped for air, my arms starting to falter as exhaustion crept into my limbs, my wounds from the previous night aching in earnest. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping me in the game. “Why can’t you boys get that through…your thick skulls? My father…is going to kill…you.”

  The knife stabbed down in front of me, a hairbreadth away from my face. Water splashed as I dove under, kicking deep. Once I was down far enough, I twisted my body in a circle, searching for his feet. Once I spotted them, I swam over and yanked hard. Gravity worked in my favor, and he plunged down. I let go and swam backward underwater. Unfortunately, he wasn’t giving up or dying of water inhalation just yet. He turned to face me in the murky green darkness, his yellow, glowing eyes looking creepy underwater. I aligned myself in front of him as he swam forward and brought my body up so I was horizontal, my knees bent. When he got close enough, I shot my feet into his oncoming fists, hoping to dislodge the offensive knife still in his grasp.

  I connected, but it didn’t work. The knife stayed.

  The momentum of the contact pushed us apart. I was lucky the blade hadn’t stabbed into my leg.

  Sean recovered quickly, gunning himself at me, grinning like a sociopath, scaring both the fish and me in the process. It was safe to say this was the first time I’d fought a wolf in water, and I hoped it was my last. I was tired. I angled myself backward and brought my legs up again. I shot them out, this time connecting with his face as he swam straight for me. His head snapped back with satisfaction, and he howled underwater, bubbles erupting around him. Good. I hope you choke to death, asshole.

  It didn’t slow him. I turned to face him right as he swiped the knife down again. He was closer to the surface than I was, above me, suspended in the water. I tried to block, bringing my arm around in what felt like slow motion as the viscosity of the water worked against me. The knife found its mark, plunking soundly into my big, heavy, soggy, bedraggled cast. Thank goodness for the goddamn cast. The small knife lodged in the wet plaster and, using the cast to my advantage, I flung my whole arm backward—meaning I sloshed it through the water—taking the knife with me and away from my attacker.

  Then I swam upward.

  Sean and I broke the surface at the same time. I ripped the knife out of the plaster with my other hand and threw it as far as I could before Sean could wrest it from me. It was a stupid liability to keep it; Sean could swipe it back from me and slash my throat. A tiny knife blade would do nothing against a wolf, anyway. It was better to get rid of it. “Oops…Sean,” I sputtered. “Looks like you’re…going to have to use your fists now.”

  He lunged at me, tagging me around the neck and pulling me into a choke hold against his body. “My fists are stronger than yours,” he snarled in my ear. “Let’s see if you can break free now.”

  I clawed at Sean’s arm with my good hand, drawing blood. My cast was in the way, unable to do any real damage—but it started to unravel. Inside, my hand was aching in earnest, but it was easy to ignore since I was in the middle of fighting for my life. I dipped the cast back under the water and started ramming the plaster against Sean’s side, aiming for his kidneys. The cast was either going to do some damage or get the fuck off my arm. I’d take either one. “What,” I sputtered between hits, “are you going to do…once I’m dead…huh…Sean? You’ll be so bored…with no one left to…harass. Wait, I take that back… You’ll be dead…remember? You won’t even get to revel in…your victory.”

  Sean sneered in my ear. “When you’re gone, I will be celebrated. I’ll finally have peace, knowing you’re not going to taint our race with your filth and I was the one who stopped it. The wolves will cheer me.”

  “You won’t have any peace…you stupid idiot…because, like I’ve said two hundred times already…you’ll be dead.” I gasped for a big breath and bucked myself backward, straining against his grasp. I used my legs in a burst of energy. I was so sick of this shit and everyone’s deluded views about me.

  The motion was enough to rock us backward, and we both went under, thrashing against each other fiercely. My cast was almost fully unraveled now. I shook it harder as I moved, and was rewarded as the last of the plaster swirled off into the depths of the lake. With my fingers on that hand free, I went straight for Sean’s eyes. Always a favorite move of mine.

  I shoved my nails in, ignoring the pain it caused me, and gouged as deeply as I could. Sean opened his mouth underwater and yelled, releasing me. I kicked upward, surfacing and sucking air before the next round. My lungs were exhausted—along with everything else—and half filled with lake water.

  Sean came up next to me, his eye dripping blood, canines down fully, even longer than before. He was on the brink of changing.

  Things were looking up.

  I hacked and coughed, ejecting water from every available opening. Sean lashed out with his fist, connecting with my face. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t talk because his vocal chords were in process of morphing. He didn’t need any words; his eyes and face told me everything I needed to know.

  I was going down.

  The blow knocked me under the water again, my head ringing. Sean swam down and grabbed me, clawing his way up my body until he had me around the middle. Underwater had to take the cake for the oddest werewolf-fighting locale of all time. Ultimately, Sean’s goal was to drown me, but he needed to breathe as much as I did. Werewolves were supernatural, but they still had lungs. He wouldn’t die under here, like I would, but he would lose consciousness without oxygen. I rocked my head up, knocking my skull into his chin. He sputtered and kicked us both to the surface, not letting go of me.

  He snarled with me in his grasp, “Getting tired yet?” It sounded more like gretting grie ret through his corded neck, already thick with fur.

  “Bring it…asshole.” I coughed. “What’s the matter? Can’t control your wolf? You know…there’s a pill for that.”

  Sean raged, the vibrations of his hatred running through his body, rippling the water with his malice. He knew he was losing control and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

  I had to push him to the brink if I wanted to stay alive. “Yep…it’s a pill called…failure. You take it twice a day…and eventually you—” Water rushed into my mouth as we went under.

  Sean still had me around the middle, but I squirmed in his grasp, trying to break the hold, which was a big mistake. I hadn’t accounted for his new sharp claws. As I moved, they raked along my sides, slicing me open. I stopped moving and angled my head toward him. More wolf than human stared back. Fur covered his face, highlighting his nasty glowing eyes. This could be it. His strength was enhancing by the second. I had only one thing left in my survival arsenal. There was no playing dead now.

  Instead of thrashing, I stilled completely.

  Sean grinned at me, thinking I’d given up.

  I gathered my focus, lifted my head, and directed my full stare at him. I steeled myself, locking on to his eyes and not letting go. On those rare occasions when I’d gone up against betas in the past, I’d learned my visual cues could intimidate them. They would’ve died rather than admit the real reason, but they usually backed down, always citing something else for
ending the fight. In their minds, it would be physically impossible for a female to have a higher status, so the notion simply didn’t exist for them. They walked away convinced they had ended it for a good reason. I let them.

  I had no idea if it would work on Sean, who was clearly alpha-born, but it was all I had left. Sean’s gaze locked on mine, his body becoming rigid, whether he wanted it to or not. As a wolf, he couldn’t simply look away from a visual challenge. I steadied myself and peered as hard as I could into his soul.

  Sean’s eye sparked a half beat before he reacted.

  He broke his gaze first, tearing his eyes off mine, roaring like a beast underwater. He tossed me away from him with enough force to send me sailing, his nails ripping through my chest. I reeled, jarred silly, losing blood from my new wounds fast. I swam for what I hoped like hell was the surface.

  I erupted with a splash, screaming for air. “Gahhh.” I took in as much air as I could, hyperventilating with the need to fill my lungs and clear them at the same time. “Ohmigod.” I sputtered, coughing. I whipped around in a circle, bracing myself for the next blow, craning my head around in circles, trying to spot where Sean was going to emerge.

  I kicked in a circle, still glancing around. After a few more breaths, I ducked back underwater. I wasn’t going to take any stupid chances by swimming back to shore with an angry werewolf on my heels. Much better to fight him head-on than to be jumped from behind. Surprises could kill, and between drowning and bleeding out, I had enough to worry about.

  I spotted a large object floating in the distance. It was hard to see in the murky green water, so I kicked closer. It was Sean. He was in the midst of a full change, drifting toward the bottom of the lake. I watched for a second as he morphed and shifted, sending currents of movement through the water as his body became something else entirely.

  I punched for the surface.

  He likely wasn’t going to die down there, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out. A werewolf could die only if his spinal column was broken or severed, thus cutting off all communication from his brain to his body. I had no idea if, in his wolf form, Sean would regain consciousness in the water, but it would be silly to wait to find out. The one thing I’d never done was fight a wolf in his true from.

  That was a battle I didn’t have an ass-chance of winning.

  On nights the wolves shifted, I stayed in my room. A command I never disobeyed. My father took no chances when he had a large group to contain, not with me, and not with the humans who lived in the towns nearest to us. It was a very well-oiled operation.

  Having a wolf lose this much control, enough to shift uncontrollably like Sean was doing, was highly unusual. Once a man became a wolf, he had to prove mastery over his wolf, which was called Dominion. His human side had to prove stronger than his wolf side. It was absolute. Sometimes it took a long time for young wolves to learn, but they did eventually. Or they weren’t allowed to live. Sean had just proven he did not have full Dominion over his wolf, which would be a very bad thing for him indeed—if fighting with me hadn’t already signed his death warrant.

  I started to swim. As I focused in front of me for the first time, I could see figures running down to the dock and gathering on the embankment in front of the lodge. I was in the middle of the lake.

  It took me a long time to reach shore.

  Nobody came to assist me.

  It was better that way. I didn’t need the remaining wolves to think I was any weaker than I was. I aimed for ground because it was closer than the dock. When my feet finally touched the mucky weeds, I dragged my body upright, staggering.

  Once I hit the small shoreline, I collapsed.

  So much for the stoic tough-girl facade.

  The first three faces I saw hovering above me were those of my father, my brother, and James, which was a relief. I rolled onto my side, coughing violently, choking up a fountain of water. My stomach was in knots. It felt like half the lake sloshed around inside my gut.

  When I could finally breathe again, I rolled onto my back. It took supreme effort. The concerned faces still loomed above me, nobody saying anything. Blood leaked from the claw wounds, tracing down my sides. The damage inflicted by Sean was clearly more severe than I’d realized in the water. I didn’t want to look at it.

  Tyler stepped up first. “What the fuck was going on out there? Was that Sean with you?”

  “Yes, it was Sean,” I said, coughing. “He’s shifting somewhere at the bottom at the moment.”

  Tyler’s face fell. “I’m so sorry, Jess. We just figured out what was going on. Danny realized you were in trouble when he came out and heard splashing. We got down here in time to see you and Sean go under for the last time, and then you came back up and started swimming.” One of my allies would’ve had to have heard the commotion, because even if the other wolves had heard me—which I’m certain they had—none of them would’ve rung the alarm. Nick had been too far away to hear. I’m sure Sean had known all those factors and had planned accordingly to give himself a good chance at success.

  My father lowered himself to one knee and very gingerly spread open my mangled T-shirt to expose the wounds on my stomach and side. He stared at the bloody gashes without speaking, without betraying a single emotion. Then, to my surprise, he reached out and tenderly brushed a piece of wet hair away, his fingers hesitant, lingering on my face for a long moment. He traced the outline of my cheek with the pad of his thumb, and only when his hand fell away did I see the tips were covered in blood. My blood.

  His eyes shot completely violet in the space of a breath. He looked away, his mouth thinning in a hard line.

  Between the new damage, my still-broken hand, and all the pain, I was barely staying conscious. I needed much more than Percocet; I needed to be knocked out. I squinted upward, moving my head minutely, catching the somber faces of my brother and James. Their anger was palpable, radiating from their bodies. It soothed me for a moment.

  Most of the other wolves on Compound had gathered by the water, but in the presence of their Alpha, there would be no rejoicing. No one dared move a muscle. My father’s head swiveled toward the lake and then back to the dock. He snarled at someone I couldn’t see. “Go fish him out of the lake. He will answer for this with his life.” Three wolves dove into the water without hesitation. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t swim.

  “Jessica?” My father hovered over me again. He was either speaking too softly or I was fading fast. Then he was on both knees beside me, his hands on my skin again, warming me.

  “Yeah?” I mumbled, my eyes dilating, my brain giving in to the pain.

  “I’m sending you away.”

  I cracked a smile as my eyes closed. “It’s about damn time.”

  Meet the Author

  A Minnesota girl born and bred, Amanda graduated from the University of Minnesota with a double major in speech and hearing science and child development. After enjoying her time as a sign language interpreter, she decided to stay at home and write in earnest after her second child was born. She loves playing Scrabble, tropical beaches, and shopping trips to Ikea. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three kids. To find out more about the author, visit www.amandacarlson.com or on Twitter @AmandaCCarlson.

  Amanda Carlson. Photo © Paige Carlson.

  Also by Amanda Carlson

  JESSICA MCCLAIN

  Full Blooded

  If you enjoyed BLOODED,

  look out for

  FULL BLOODED

  JESSICA MCCLAIN, BOOK ONE

  by Amanda Carlson

  Chapter 1

  I drew in a ragged breath and tried hard to surface from one hell of a nightmare. “Jesus,” I moaned. Sweat slid down my face. My head was fuzzy. Was I dreaming? If I was, this dream hurt like a bitch.

  Wait, dreams aren’t supposed to hurt.

  Without warning my body seized again. Pain scorched through my veins like a bad sunburn, igniting every cell in its path. I clenched my teeth, trying har
d to block the rush.

  Then, as quickly as it struck, the pain disappeared.

  The sudden loss of sensation jolted my brain awake and my eyes snapped open in the dark. This wasn’t a damn dream. I took a quick internal inventory of all my body parts. Everything tingled, but thankfully my limbs could move freely again. The weak green halo of my digital clock read 2:07 a.m. I’d only been asleep for a few hours. I rolled onto my side and swiped my sticky hair off my face. When my fingers came in contact with my skin, I gasped and snapped them away like a child who’d just touched a hot stove.

  Holy shit, I’m on fire.

  That couldn’t be right.

  Don’t panic, Jess. Think logically.

  I pressed the back of my hand against my forehead to get a better read on how badly I was burning up. Hot coals would’ve felt cooler than my skin.

  I must be really sick.

  Sickness was a rare event in my life, but it did happen. I wasn’t prone to illness, but I wasn’t immune to it either. My twin brother never got sick, but if the virus was strong enough I was susceptible.

  I sat up, allowing my mind linger for a brief moment on a very different explanation of my symptoms. That scenario would be impossible. Get a grip. You’re a twenty-six-year-old female. It’s never going to happen. It’s probably just the flu. There’s no need to—