Authors: Marylynn Bast
“Hey Gerald!”
They all chimed in when he walked up to the table with a grin on his face. “Where have you been for the past couple
of
weeks?”
The friend probed, pushing the chai
r out with the tip of his boot.
Gerald grabbed hold of the
chair
before it tipped over, scraping the wooden legs along the floor
before he
sat down
“I’ve been busy out at the campsite.”
He wiggled his bus
h
y eyebrows and laughed loudly.
“But I needed something to drink and some male company for a bit.” The
group
laughed, encouraging him to continue.
“I can’t stay too long though, gotta get back out t
here, if you know what I mean.”
For some reason, even
the guy’s
name didn’t set well with Amber
.
Hearing the co
nversation and seeing the lecherous
way he eyed the younger women in the bar
made Amber
grit her teeth.
Listening intently to the
ir discussion
, she
continued to wait on people throughout the bar, fielding invites to sit and have a drink or t
o go home with them. Absentmindedly
taking their drink orders
,
she
wanted
to get closer and find out w
hy Gerald
had caught her attention. What was so important that her senses went into overdrive? His
group was in Catherine’s section, but she had n
ot made her
rounds again. This gave
Amber
the perfect opportunity and
she
made her
way towards
the corner.
“What can I get you to drink?” She normally called
the customers gentlemen, but not these guys
.
From what she was hearing, there was no way she considered them civilized men
.
Hell, half the men in the small mountain town were crude, but this group was different.
Ju
st the smell emanating from
them
made her nostrils flare and her skin c
rawl
even more than it already was
, e
specially
whe
n she focused on the new comer.
His th
inning
,
greasy
, brownish gray
hair was
slicked back away from
his fa
ce
and
shaggy
on the ends which reached for the collar
of his
grungy
button down shirt
.
She judged him to be in his late fifties
,
early sixties
, but it was hard to tell with h
is weathered face
because it
was wrinkled from too many days spent in the sun. With a high forehead
and receding hairline
, his nose jutted out from his face, ove
r a
mouth
with
most of its
teeth missing
. The three teeth
that remained
were stained
brown and
yellow
from years of neglect
. The once tan khaki
pants and oversized shirt
hung
loosely
on his scrawny
body. His boots were caked with mud and he
reeked
with the mixture
of stale coffee, little cig
ar cigarettes
,
Jack Daniels
,
and
what stood out
most of all
was
the odor
of sex and the
days he had gone without showering
.
Amber guessed
from the smell
and look
of him, he more than likely dran
k his meals rather than eating.
Nearly backing
away from the
pungent stink
of him,
she
forc
ed herself to
remain
and take their
order. As she suspected, he
ordered a round of whiskey to celebrate
what he referred to as his
latest
conquest.
She
couldn’t help
thinking
that
whoever he had slept with must have been extremely despe
rate
. A disgusted shiver went down her spine and she fought the
reflex to gag
at the
revolting
thought of him havi
ng any type of sexual activity.
“She
’
s
new in town,
a sweet young thang
,
”
h
e boasted, receiving a
hearty
round of
knowing
laughter from the group.
“Her golden curls are soft, and so’s
her skin
,
”
h
e continued while
nastily
smacking his lips.
Amber smelled the su
rge of testosterone from the others
while they visualized the woman
he described
. Their reactions
made her want to slam their heads against the table. She felt the l
ow growl
beginning
deep in her throat and sucked in a deep breath to keep
it
from
escapi
ng
. Chuckling
silently
at the
thought of getting locked
up
for being t
he crazy bitch that
goes around growling at people.
The way
Gerald spoke of the person
waiting for him
sent a chill up
her spine. She was going to have to check out the campsite. Things just d
idn’t feel right about what he was
saying. The subtle hints
he kept
dropping
were
not lost on
Amber
. She
fought
th
e urge to reach out and grab the scumbag
by the throat
.
She felt her eyes blur and
then suddenly
become sharper. She had seen
her mother change
, so she knew the look
. Like she had seen that morning in the mirror, she
knew
her eyes were a
vivid
swirl of chocolate brown and black, with yellow
specks. If she didn’
t get away from him fast
,
she
would
probably
snatch him up
right there in f
r
ont of his friends and the entire
bar
.
The presence of her wolf was growing stronger and the
throbbing
in her head increased,
if that was even possible since her head was already pounding. Realizing she was about to lean forward, she forced herself to back away.
Ducking her head to hide her
eyes
,
and to the dismay of the men
,
Amber
turned
and
hurried
away.
She could hear them yelling that she neede
d to finish taking their order.
“What the h
ell are you doing?”
Ryan was stunned and stared at her with a frown
when she
rushed past the bar
on her
way to the ba
throom.
Slamming into the stall and fighting to get
her
body
under control
, she could feel her wolf pushing to be released.
Images of tearing through flesh and bones slipped through the hazy fog in her mind. Every muscle in her body trembled with suppressed rage. Amber
cradled her head, rocking back and forth from the pain and the images. When another wave of pain struck
she knew that it was not
normal.
Werewolves shifted on the night of the full moon. If she was right, her first change should be
in three days
, when th
e moon would be at its fullest. So what was causing her to feel the
urge to change now
?
Sitting on the toilet with her
head between her
knees,
Amber
continued to rock
back and forth
while the pain
ricocheted through her head
and throughout her body
. B
reathing deeply
to fight the scream that threatened to erupt
,
she heard the
creak of the
bathroom door
being pushed
open
.
The l
oud mu
rmur of the tavern
’
s
sounds
blasted
through the opening with its
noisy laughter and conversation,
then
went
back to
a
dull babble when the door slid closed
with a bang.
Amber recognized the overwhelming smell of
perfume which
immediately filled th
e room and knew
Catherine had followed her in. She now stood tapping on the stall door with her
perfectly manicured fake nails.