Wolf

by D. M. Turner

Fingers eased through the fur around her neck, sweeping tenderly from one ear to the other. “It’s alright. I promise.”

  The vehicle stopped at the end of a flagstone walkway that led to the front door, the driver’s side facing the house.

  Colin opened the car door and climbed out then waited for her with an expectant look.

  Tanya slunk out of the car and clung to his leg as he led her toward the house, skittering forward a few quick steps when Brett and Graham got too close behind for comfort.

  Both men shortened their strides and dropped back a few feet. Graham’s faint smile reflected sympathy. Brett looked annoyed, his jaw tightening.

  The whole front of the entry was glass from floor to ceiling. Clear panes bracketed double doors inset with still more glass. Colin opened one of the doors, pushing it wide and leading her through.

  Her nails clicked on the ceramic tile. She could see straight through what appeared to be a living room to yet another wall of floor-to-ceiling windows and out to the scenic view beyond.

  A huge stone fireplace stood to one side of the room with a dark-stained hickory mantle that matched the other woodwork, such as that around the windows. The ceiling vaulted at least fifteen feet high, covered in a lighter tone of wood, maybe white oak. She wasn’t sure she was seeing the colors accurately. Some seemed exaggerated—red and yellow mostly. Others appeared muted, and she couldn’t be sure what they were.

  Colin drew her to a halt inside the front door.

  Graham and Brett brushed past, on the far side of Colin, and headed into other parts of the house.

  To her left and right, still more glass for a couple or three feet, then another two to three feet of floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Tanya stared at their reflection. Was that really her?

  She lifted a foot then shifted her body. The image in the mirror mimicked her. She cocked her head. A gaunt, white wolf with a bloodied coat and amber eyes stared back. What had they done to her?

  The gentle purr of metal sliding on well-oiled metal pulled her gaze away from her reflection. A man came through one of the sliding doors at the far side of the room, taking a moment to close it. His gaze dropped instantly to her as he skirted the sitting area and crossed the distance between them.

  She shrank back, leaning a shoulder into Colin’s leg as the bear of a man loomed closer and larger. Did he only appear so overwhelming because she wasn’t upright?

  His hair was dark blond with a widow’s peak like Colin’s, wavy like the younger man’s as well. She cocked her head, fascinated by the fact his short, well-trimmed beard showed hints of red that didn’t appear in his hair. Freckles across his nose and forehead stood out stark on pale skin. He gave her a lopsided grin, exposing his teeth on one side in a relaxed half-smile. Did he have an extra canine tooth on that side?

  “Dad, this is Tanya Sikes.” Colin squatted beside her and removed the collar from her neck. “Tanya, this is my father, Ian Campbell.”

  The big man stopped a few feet away, crossed muscular arms over his broad chest, and studied her with predatory scrutiny his easy smile couldn’t mask. He was old enough to be a father? He was maybe in his mid-thirties. Colin looked less than a decade behind him. No way that man could have a son Colin’s age. “You found a survivor, I see.”

  “Only one, unfortunately. The other two appear to have died at the full moon.”

  Sadness flitted across Ian’s face. He shook his head, and his gaze met Tanya’s. “I hope you know how very lucky you are, young lady.”

  Lucky? Are you kidding? Look at what they did to me! How can you call this lucky?

  He chuckled. “I may not be able to read your thoughts, but I can certainly see the incredulity in your eyes. I understand far better than you might think, too.”

  Graham returned with a blanket in hand. He gave her a brief smile then glanced at Ian. “I thought she might need this.”

  The other man nodded. “Good thinking. It’s been a while since we’ve had a new Turn. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

  Graham handed the blanket to Colin.

  What were they going to do with that?

  Colin dropped it over her, leaving her head exposed.

  She shot him a puzzled look.

  “Tanya?” Ian knelt in front of her.

  Not having heard or seen him move so close, she flinched and shrank back slightly.

  “Can you Shift back without help?”

  She cocked her head. Why did they keep asking that? Shift back? What did that mean?

  “I asked her before.” Colin caressed one of her ears. “I don’t think she knows what to do.”

  Ian nodded, drew in a deep breath, and met her gaze. “Return,” he murmured.

  Power washed over her, like nothing she’d ever felt before. Within moments, agonizing pain racked her body. Muscles, bones, joints. Fractures rippled across her skull, and it felt like her teeth were being pulled out. She closed her eyes against bolts of lightning shooting through her vision, whimpered, and dropped to the cool, hard floor.

  * * *

  Groans, whines, and whimpers made Colin wince and look away. New Turns were always the worst to watch. Until they quit fighting the Shift, the pain was tremendous. Witnessing it, and being helpless to ease it, was difficult to stomach. Hopefully Tanya learned quickly. For her sake far more than his.

  His father rose to his feet and folded his arms across his chest. “We have to stop this.”

  Colin frowned, confused even as worry skittered through him. His father wouldn’t put her down, would he? She’d already made the Shift to wolf once. “We can’t. She’s already been Turned, and she deserves a chance to prove she can change back and forth at will.”

  “I don’t mean her.” Dad quirked a brow with a You-should-know-better-than-that look. “I mean the men who put her here.”

  Thank heavens. “What about O’Neil’s team? Did they fail?”

  “The rogues got away. Well, all but one, and he’s dead. O’Neil is seeing to the clean-up.”

  “No!” The fact the word came out on a gasp didn’t dull the emphasis Tanya put behind it. She rolled onto her back, grasping the blanket to her throat and panting. Pain contorted a very human face, brows furrowed over tightly closed eyes. Long, blond hair spilled across the floor.

  Colin knelt beside her but kept his hands to himself. Until she’d completed the Shift, her muscles, joints, and skin would be tender. “Tanya?”

  “No… clean-up.” Blue eyes opened and peered up at him, full of pleading. Nothing of the wolf remained, except for what lingered in her scent.

  “We must,” he murmured. “The world can’t know about us.”

  “But… the others….”

  Dad squatted beside him. “What others?”

  “The other women.”

  “They’re dead.” He shook his head with a sad but resigned sigh. “There’s nothing we can do for them.”

  “Their families.” She grimaced and sat up, clutching the blanket close. “They need to know those women are dead. You can’t leave them wondering what happened to Heather and Willa. It’s not right.”

  Dad scowled. “This is how these situations have always been handled.”

  Tanya glared at him. “Is that supposed to make it right?”

  Colin bit back a smile. He couldn’t remember the last time a lone wolf had challenged his father. He waited to see how Dad would respond.

  A long, slow sigh emerged as the man stared down the willful woman. The borders around the irises of his gray eyes were tinted with a green so pale many wouldn’t notice. The wolf was rising. “I never said it was right. It’s the way things are, the way they must be for the safety of all our kind.” His eyes narrowed. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t challenge a wolf who’s older, stronger, and more willing to kill than you are.”

  She flinched and blinked at him.

  The right corner of Dad’s mouth cocked upward to reveal teeth, including the double canine. “Some of the others won’
t be as understanding as I am, or as tolerant with a new Turn. You may not belong to this pack, but you better learn to respect those who can and will kill you if pushed.”

  Her gaze dropped to the tile floor, her breathing shallow and rapid. The scent of her fear filled the entryway.

  Colin hated the fact she’d been frightened, but she needed to know such things, and his father would be more lenient than others like Brett might be. He caught his dad’s gaze. “I’d like to show her to the guestroom. I’m sure she’d like to get cleaned up and dressed.”

  Dad nodded and got to his feet. “I’ll prepare food. She needs to eat. She’s far too thin. Those idiots apparently don’t know how to take care of what’s theirs.”

  “I’m not theirs.” The growl in her voice raised Dad’s brow, but her head remained down, her gaze on the floor. The muscles across her bare shoulders had tightened.

  “For a time, you were.”

  She swallowed audibly. “Does that mean I’m yours now?”

  “That depends on you.”

  Her head came up, and Tanya craned her neck to peer up at him. “I don’t understand.”

  “Colin will explain what you need to know.” Dad waited until she lowered her gaze then turned away and went into the kitchen.

  Colin stood up and offered her a hand. “Come with me. I’ll show you to the guest suite. There’s a great deal you must know, but I’m sure you’d like to take a shower and dress before we get into it.”

  Tanya nodded and laid her free hand in his.

  He tugged her to her feet then, with an unfamiliar sort of reluctance, released her. What was that about?

  Dismissing it for another time, he led her past the kitchen and a curving stairway into a long hall, stopped at the third door on the left, pushed it open, and stepped back, waving her inside.

  Head down, she slipped past, fear still clinging to her.

  He snorted softly to clear his nose and followed her into the room. “You have nothing to fear from me,” he murmured, hating the fact she now seemed afraid of him as much she was of his father.

  “But… your father said—” She frowned and met his gaze.

  “I’m not one you need to worry about.” He chuckled. “I don’t feel the least bit inclined to kill you or put you in your place, whatever that may be.” In fact, what he felt instead was new and unsettling. Something he had no reference point or words yet to define. He pointed to a pair of doors across the room. “Those two doors are the closet and bathroom. You’ll find clothes in the closet. I’m afraid all we have that might fit you are sweatpants and t-shirts, but that’s better than nothing. Take your time in the shower. No one will bother you. When you’re done, you can find me in the office at the end of the hall and to the right.”

  Tanya nodded.

  Colin hesitated, but she said nothing, so he backed out of the room and closed the door. Once in the office, he turned on the television to make sure O’Neil’s fight at the warehouse hadn’t drawn unwanted attention.

  * * *

  Is this really happening? Tanya stared at the cream tile on the shower wall. Oddly enough, it matched the tile in the shower at home. She ran a hand over it. Maybe she was home. Maybe it had all been a terrible nightmare.

  She leaned against the wall behind her. Her gaze fell on a series of long, jagged wounds across her stomach. Blood had crusted on her skin, but none of it was fresh. More blood had dried on the inside of her thighs. A sob threatened. She raised a hand to run fingers along the still healing scabs. No bad dreams, no matter how horrific, left marks like that.

  Sliding down the wall, she drew her knees to her chest. Water fell over her head, plastering wet hair to her skull, neck, and shoulders. If the claw marks were real, then everything else that had happened had been, too.

  She’d gone to church Sunday evening with her parents, like most weeks, but forgotten her Bible on the backseat of the car. Why had she been so determined to have it? She could’ve used one of the Bibles tucked into the racks on the back of every pew. She’d never made it to the car.

  A shudder ran through her as water bordering on scalding hot ran in long rivulets over her, washing away dirt, blood, and a host of other things she’d prefer not to think about. Everything ached. Some things stung and burned. She leaned her head against the wall to one side.

  Wolf. That’s what Ian Campbell had called her. Called himself by implication. She hadn’t seen what attacked her. They’d shut off the dim light in her cell long before he’d entered. Only the faint, barely discernible outline of a man had appeared when the door had opened, quickly blocked out by a metallic slam. She’d never been hunted before that night, but she’d known she was prey for some nasty predator the moment that door closed and he growled.

  Terror rose in renewed waves. Tanya lunged to her feet, dry-heaving, pushing back the memories that tried to surface.

  After a few minutes, possibly more, fear settled into memory again. Shaking, she picked up a bar of soap from a small shelf under the shower head and scrubbed her body from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. By the time she finished, the wounds on her belly bled again. Red-tinted water trailed down her legs and swirled with clear water on the tiled shower floor.

  Was God punishing her for something she’d done? If so, what could’ve possibly warranted turning her into a monster? Werewolves were supposed to be myth and legend. The rampaging, blood-thirsty beasts of horror movies.

  Lord, what did I do to deserve this?

  No answer came.

  Tanya shut off the water, pushed open the glass door, and grabbed a towel off the bar on the wall over the toilet. She dried her body, taking extra care around the gashes on her stomach that had stopped bleeding again for the moment.

  Once she was dressed in sweatpants and a too-big t-shirt, she opened the bathroom door and went in search of Colin. She found the office easily enough.

  The television faced the door. Her parents’ faces flashed across the screen. Tears glistened on Mom’s face. Strain made Dad look haggard, far older than his fifty years. Though the volume was turned way down, she still clearly heard her father’s words.

  “Please, if anyone has seen our daughter, please, please, contact the police.”

  She gasped, fighting back tears.

  Colin glanced over, and his face tightened. He raised a remote and shut off the TV. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to see that.”

  “I can’t go home again.” Even if the bodies of the other women were found, she wouldn’t be among them. Her family would forever wonder what had happened to her.

  “Yes, you can. Things will be different now. There’s no way around that. But you can go home.”

  “How?” Tears blurred her vision. “How can I go back? Being this… thing? I’m a monster. I can’t take the chance that I’ll hurt my family.”

  “We’ll teach you to control it.” He dropped the remote control on the desk and crossed the room to stand in front of her. His hands rose to gently grip her upper arms. “You won’t hurt anyone.”

  “Can you guarantee that?” She brushed away tears with her fingertips and pinned him with a hard look. She couldn’t afford to buy a whopping dose of false hope. “Can you promise that I won’t lose control and maim or kill some innocent person?”

  His mouth opened then closed, and Colin shook his head. “No. I can’t. I’m sorry.”

  Tanya looked over his shoulder at the blank TV screen. “Then we have to make them think I’m dead.” She’d never see them again. A sob caught in her chest, and she blinked back more tears.

  “We’ll think of something.” His nostrils flared, and he frowned. “You’re bleeding.”

  She glanced down, but there was no blood on her shirt.

  “I smell the blood. Did your wounds open up in the shower?”

  She nodded.

  “We need to get food into you. You’ll heal quickly if you eat.”

  “What’s the point?”

  “Survival.�
��

  “Again, I ask, what’s the point?” She met his blue gaze. “I’ve gone from one prison to another, and my life is over anyway.”

  Colin half-smiled, the same cockeyed grin his father had. “You’re not a captive here. Not by a long shot.”

  “Right.” She snorted. “That twenty-foot wall around this place with a locked gate, inside the perimeter of a ten-foot wall with another locked gate, suggests otherwise.”

  “That’s to keep people out rather than to keep anyone in.”

  Tanya narrowed her eyes. “Why don’t I believe you?”

  He chuckled. “Very good. Whether you realize it or not, you just smelled a lie. A partial one anyway. The outer wall is to keep people from wandering onto the property. The inner wall keeps wolves in if they’re newly Turned and out of control. We can jump ten-foot walls without issue, but twenty-foot isn’t manageable even for the best of us in wolf form.”

  “And the sign on the outer gate that says ‘Trespassers will be eaten’?”

  “Brett’s less-than-stellar sense of humor.”

  “Would he really eat a person?”

  “If I said no, I’d be lying, but I’m not altogether sure the answer is yes either.” Colin shrugged.

  “He scares me.”

  “He scares everybody. Except my dad. I’m not sure much scares my dad though.” He rubbed both hands gently up and down her upper arms. “Let’s get you something to eat. You’ll feel better. Then we can talk.” He nudged her toward the door. “If Brett or Graham come in, don’t look them in the eye. I don’t think anyone else is around today, but they’re all lower than me in the pack. I can keep them off your back while you figure things out.”

  “So your father’s the boss here?” She stepped to one side and let him take the lead, in case they ran into anyone on the way to the kitchen.

  “Yes, but we call him the Alpha. Brett and Graham are second and third, with me as fourth. O’Neil, the one you heard us talking about earlier, is fifth.” He glanced over his shoulder. “If you stick around, you’ll eventually meet the whole pack and learn where everyone fits in the chain of command.”

  “How many of you are there?”

  “Eleven wolves, all male, three humans, all female.”