by Ruby Raine
Mack hadn’t taken more than a few sips when Charlie sauntered through the back kitchen door.
“Morning everyone,” he called out, upon seeing them. “I’ll take a cup of that,” he told Michael. He grabbed a mug, filled it, and handed it to Charlie.
“Thanks,” he said, taking a big gulp.
“You looked relaxed considering what day it is,” Michael noted with a smirk.
Charlie just shook his head and scrunched his face. It was his look of, yeah, we’re so not going there. Instead, he made a quick change of the subject. “What’s up?”
They all turned to Mack.
She set down her cup, clearing her throat.
“There’s something I need your help with, and more importantly, Charlie, you need to hear what I have to say.”
Charlie’s relaxed demeanor morphed into tension. So naturally. Like a second language. “You know you can count on us for anything, Mack, supernatural or otherwise.”
“Truth is,” she continued, “I just came back into town from a crime scene, out in White Pines National Park.” She paused after, seeming apprehensive to continue.
“Do you need help figuring out how someone died?” Michael questioned.
She shook her head no. “No death readin’ needed. Coroner already has a cause of death.” She aimed her next words at Charlie. “Wolf bite. Although I’d say it was more like wolf shred.”
Charlie pounded his mug onto the counter splashing the coffee and nearly breaking the mug. He stood up, his body fully awake and aware of what Mack was telling him, but his mind refused to believe it. “There are no wolves on the Isle,” he insisted, knowing full well there had been at least one wolf on the Isle previously.
“Yeah, just like there weren’t any God dang wolves on the Isle ten years ago when you got bit.” Mack spoke like she had read his thoughts.
“What does this mean?” Melinda asked faintly.
Michael, already realizing what it meant, wrapped his arms around Emily, pulling her as close to him as possible.
“It means there’s a werewolf on The Demon Isle,” Charlie revealed darkly. Invisible hackles went up, a hardness claiming him that made his already huge size suddenly feel like it was filling half the kitchen.
Emily shook her head, confused. “I thought werewolves could only change during a full moon.” She did not know the entirety of Charlie’s story. Only that he’d been bitten. And through research, read that werewolves could only turn on a full moon. “How did a werewolf kill someone the night before a full moon?”
“That’s how it happened when Charlie first got,” Melinda stopped, covering her mouth. Beginning to understand why Mack had needed to speak with Charlie. And what Michael had already caught on to.
“The coroner discovered a very unique thing about the wolf’s bite. It’s missin’ a tooth, Charlie.”
CHARLIE’S NOSTRILS flared a flurry of emotion raging through him.
It wasn’t just any werewolf.
It was the werewolf.
The very one that had bitten him ten years prior and had left a tooth embedded in his shoulder after its hideous attack.
“I guess you can consider yourself lucky you survived, Charlie. The body we found this mornin’...” Mack couldn’t finish, and she’d witnessed plenty of bloody attacks during her time as sheriff.
Melinda stared at Charlie, but he didn’t see her. Only the wolf that bit him.
Panic rose inside her chest. What would this mean for her brother? And what was going on in his head? She couldn’t even imagine, but wondered if maybe they would need to subdue or calm him in some way. Emotions brought out his wolfy side, not always in the best way, and this, this was a massive test of his willpower.
It wasn’t like they had a doggy shock collar they could put on him or something. And it was daytime. Not night. No full moon right now to worry about. Good thing. And currently he was just staring into nothing. Blinking. Blinking. Blinking. Not quite present in the room, even though physically he was taking up so much space.
Michael’s empathic ability sensed Melinda’s anxiety mounting to a threatening to explode level, and he grabbed for her hand. She barely felt him holding onto it. Her skin numb. Her mind blasting off in a hundred directions of freaking out all at once.
William took a few quick paces around the room, blood lust, no longer a concern, the look of comprehension dawning in his emerald green eyes.
“Yes,” he mumbled as if answering his own silent question.
The rest turned and waited breathlessly for him to explain. Including Charlie. Desperate for any good news. Or explanation the vampire had to offer.
“It is extremely likely that this wolf’s return to the Isle is behind your heightened tension these last few days, Charlie. Even though you have never permitted the full transformation to take place, you still have your werewolf senses. I believe this wolf’s arrival may have triggered the connection between you.”
“How do I break it, William? I want nothing to do with it,” Charlie clipped out, his voice charged with shaken control. “Unless...” His eyes brightened with a new possibility.
“Don’t even think about it, Charlie,” exclaimed Michael, already understanding what Charlie was thinking. “You cannot use yourself as bait to capture this thing!”
“I am afraid Michael is quite right, Charlie,” William agreed. “You cannot confront this wolf without an almost certain chance of transforming completely. I am sure you remember what happens then?”
“You mean other than a murderous rampage across the Isle?” Melinda muttered in a sickly sarcastic tone.
Charlie covered his face with his hands, looking pained as he forced himself to sit back down. And deflate himself. He looked up, dropped his hands, staring into the eyes of Melinda and Michael. They shuddered at the same moment.
Melinda, because she saw true fear in Charlie’s eyes and this frightened her above all else. And Michael, because his empathic abilities sensed Melinda losing the battle to keep her own fears from crushing her. So many steps forward, and now, she was seconds away from running all the way back to start.
Charlie stood up, pacing back and forth, stopping every few steps to speak, but nothing would come out. He gulped, his throat feeling like a pile of dry ash as he searched for the courage to say what he needed to say.
“There’s something I never told you guys,” he finally pushed out. “And don’t get mad at William, I forced him to swear to secrecy.”
“What did you keep from us, Charlie?” Melinda barely controlled the panic ensnaring her heart.
He took another moment to answer. Thinking it over carefully first.
“If I transform, fully surrendering to my wolf, and the one who bit me is still alive... it becomes my alpha. I will no longer have control over my actions, whether it’s a full moon, or not.”
“What!?” breathed out Michael.
“Charlie. This is huge!” Melinda had many choice words and thoughts about the revelation, but none would reach her lips. Captured and imprisoned by her thickening throat and befuddled brain.
“I have to agree with your siblings on this one, Charlie.” Mack shook her head. “This situation is turnin’ into a much larger problem than even I expected.”
“And William isn’t going to be much help,” stammered Melinda. “Or have you forgotten that a werewolf bite is poisonous to him?”
William ignored Melinda’s remark, realizing it was misplaced anger, and knowing he would do whatever was necessary to save Charlie.
“I’m sorry I never told you guys. I guess I hoped it would never come to this. I hoped the thing would never come back here. I didn’t want to burden you with what I thought would be unnecessary worry.”
“Turns out it was necessary, Charlie!” Melinda’s heart was beating at a much faster pace than it should, and she sucked in unsteady air trying to calm the panic attack bubbling its way to the surface. Tears stung at her eyes. She sucked the side of her cheek, trying to
control them.
No one replied. No one knew what to say, or do, with this information. After another long moment of tense silence, Michael did his best to bring everyone out of their stupor.
“And here I thought Charlie’s edginess was just over the new girl in town.”
“Ha. So much for the Eva Jordan theory,” Melinda sniffled.
Charlie sighed, deeply regretful as he witnessed his sister crumbling before his eyes. He stepped over to her, forcing her to hug him.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you,” she sobbed. “I can’t lose you too. I just can’t.”
“I know, Kiddo. I’m sorry I never told you. I really am. But everything’s going to be okay. This full moon will come and go, just like any other. I promise.”
Just then, the sheriff’s radio started chirping.
“Looks like I am being called away, Howards. You all talk amongst yourselves and let me know what you figure out. I’ll be in touch.”
She showed herself out, but before she let the door close, she gave another warning.
“Be careful, all of you. I don’t want to be losin’ any of you either. That put out there Charlie, if you transform and can’t be controlled, you know what I’ll have to do.” She patted her upper pocket. “I’ve still got the bullets you gave me.”
“I expect you to do your job, Mack. Nothing less,” he agreed firmly. “I’m supposed to protect the Isle, not be the thing it needs protection from.”
She nodded stoically and let the door slam shut.
Melinda’s nostrils flared and her eyes began to tear up again.
“You gave her bullets!? To kill you with!”
“It’s going to be okay, Melinda,” Charlie insisted.
“You can’t know that!”
She turned to Michael and William for support, but neither spoke.
Michael, grasping Emily, now as if his life depended on it, could not reply to Melinda because he could barely keep himself together as her anguish washed out of her body like a flood.
William’s face turned to stone, but not before she saw the struggle there; he was trying to hide it from her. They didn’t want to admit they might be in more trouble than they could handle. Or they were just trying to protect her from the truth, afraid she couldn’t handle it.
They were right.
Melinda’s throat closed up and she gasped for air. Black splotches burst into her vision. The room started to spin and her mind shouted for her to run and hide, to disappear completely.
Charlie and Michael reached out but she batted them away, heading for the door. “I can’t be here,” she choked out in a pained voice. “I can’t watch my brother basically fucking die.” She ran out of the house as fast as possible.
Charlie stepped out after her, shouting, but she did not hear what he said.
She just kept running, blocking everything from her mind. She needed to get away. She’d suffocate and die if she went back inside that house.
“WHAT PERFECT ASS TIMING!” Charlie rumbled angrily. “Just when I was starting not to worry about her, every waking moment.”
“Just let her go,” William advised. “At least she is out of the house and not locked in her room.” Although even as he said this, it was everything he could do not to go after her himself.
“Great! Out there, who knows where, with a werewolf on the prowl.”
“She is stronger than you think, Charlie. Give her time to sort out her feelings. I think it might be good to let her do this.” It might also be good to have a little space from her, William realized. He needed to have a clear head, something that was proving impossible when he was near Melinda now.
“Maybe I should go after her?” suggested Emily. “Maybe she wouldn’t mind talking to me, being I’m a girl, and a friend, and not a brother.”
Michael tossed her an appreciative smile. “Maybe it’s just better if Melinda sits this one out. Give her some space like William said. We can handle this one ourselves. We just need to come up with some kind of plan that doesn’t involve you turning into a werewolf, or using yourself as bait, Charlie.”
“Yes, let’s not have it come to that, shall we?” agreed William. “Perhaps, the best place to start is...”
“Research,” both Charlie and Michael finished in dry sarcasm.
William lifted an eyebrow. “Actually, yes. I want to know what allows this wolf to change without the moon being full.”
“You’ve researched this before,” Charlie said. “You found nothing.”
“Perhaps I missed something. Perhaps, what I need is not in my own library, but on that confounded thing Emily calls a laptop.” He glanced at Emily expectantly.
“Oh, come with me, William. The internet is really not that scary.” She grabbed her bag and dug out her laptop. She and William retreated into his study to see what they could find.
This left Charlie and Michael alone in the kitchen.
“I’m impressed,” Michael suddenly told his brother.
“By what?”
“How calm you stayed during all of that. Your wolfy thing didn’t even surface.”
“I think it’s just shock, actually.”
“Still, if you can stay that calm with all this crazy going on, maybe everything really will be just fine. Or maybe, whatever happened last night,” he trailed off, waiting expectantly for a reply.
Charlie said nothing, but Michael didn’t give up.
“C’mon, we all know you got some secret gal you hook up with every summer. What’s the big deal?”
“It isn’t a big deal. It’s just a relationship of, convenience,” he stalled. “It works great for her and it works really great for me.” He couldn’t help but grin, thinking of Nina dancing around her kitchen, her ass doing that seductive little jiggle.
“Do you like her?”
“Sure. She’s a...” Charlie thought hard how to explain a complex woman like Nina. However, he could not do so properly without giving away too much about her. “She’s an incredible woman. Not a human woman, of course. But if you’re asking if I’m in love with her, she’s not the one, or anything like that. She’s not the settling down type.”
“Okay,” nodded Michael, dropping the subject. “So what’s our next move then? How are we going to find this alpha?”
“I need to keep busy for one thing. I may appear to be holding it together, but if I allow myself to disappear into my brain right now, this whole alpha thing will consume me. Finding it?” Charlie let out a sigh that exclaimed I have no idea.
Michael saw it again. True fear reflecting in his brother’s eyes. It wasn’t a sight he enjoyed, and it wasn’t like Charlie to let it leak out.
“The only thing I can come up with, is find the alpha before it finds me.”
“Maybe we should visit the crime scene,” Michael suggested. “Maybe we can find something the investigators overlooked.”
“They certainly would miss any supernatural clues it left behind,” agreed Charlie.
“Sounds like we have a place to start at least. Let’s go tell William and Emily.”
MELINDA HUFFED HER way down the street. It had been sunny earlier, but now clouds rolled in, layering a salty mist over every surface. This did not deter the tourists though. They still bustled about, mindless of the weather. Of course, everyone knew the old saying, ‘If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.’
“God damn you, Charlie Howard,” she spat at the cobblestone walkway. “And William. My William, keeping a secret that big from me! Ugh,” she snorted.
A tourist made to step around her, in a wide, obvious motion.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m freaking talking to myself,” she spoke crazily, at the same time eying the man, as if to say, Yeah, I’m a freak, deal with it!
At that same moment, her foot hooked the edge of a crevice and she tripped, falling forward. “Son of a bitch!” Her hands dutifully flew up to protect her face.
Someone caught her though, holding on tightly, n
ot allowing her to fall.
“Are you okay?” It was a male voice, sounding both amused and concerned.
“Yes. I’m fine,” she responded with mock gratitude as her savior helped her stand upright. She picked up her head and inhaled, losing her breath again.
“Oh, you,” she squeaked out.
“Is that good, or bad?” His molasses eyes danced in delighted bemusement. It was her dark haired motorcycle man, and he’d have to pick now to happen across my path. She could not hide her tear stained face. Or tangled hair, turning into ringlets as the humidity and mist claimed its control for its own. But her fury lessened, replaced with an intense need to disappear. To feel anything other than panic and pain.
He could not believe he’d found her again. More like that feeling he got sometimes, led him to her again. His heart soared, but also cracked just a little. He didn’t know why, or what had caused it, but his little blue eyed beauty was broken. Maybe whoever, or whatever sent him these feelings of where he needed to be, really had sent him to her because she needed him.
But he’d never found himself helping someone that kicked his heart into overdrive and flooded him with such wild desire. No woman that instantly made him want to wrap himself around, and protect her from all the horrors in the world.
He shrugged and shook his head. “You know, that’s the second time I’ve saved you from falling. Do you do that a lot? Or am I just lucky?”
“No, I don’t fall a lot,” she replied, clearing her throat. “And you just happen to be in the right place, at the wrong time,” she told him, keeping her chin held high.
“Don’t you mean in the right place at the right time?”
“However you want to see it. Look, thank you for your help. Again. But I’m fine now. Just having a really terrible day,” she rambled in a haughty mumble, turning away.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he called after her. “I mean that your day is bad, not that you’re okay.”
She just waved her hand as if none of it mattered and stormed off. She still had a brother to be angry with.