Howl (21 page)

“I will Daniel.” I murmured. He pulled away
and walked out the kitchen door.

~Usurper~

Jaime’s text message rang loudly on the
counter next to me. 'Hey beautiful. @ home now. Call when u get
some time.'

I hit his speed dial number. “How was
work?”

Jaime's voice was heavy with strain. “Alright
I guess. It seems as if everyone is hounding me with questions. I'm
already stretched thin and fielding questions all day from
concerned townspeople, my bosses, everybody – it's exhausting. I
don't know how you keep yourself sane pretending to be something
you're not, knowing more than you're supposed to.”

“It's not easy. But I'm relieved that you
know. For what it's worth, knowing that you are going through this
with me makes it so much easier to bear. Once this all blows over,
we will take a vacation. Just you and me. Forget most of this ever
happened.”

“I would love some time away with you. Maybe
we'll go to the beach. Somewhere not in the woods.”

I laughed out loud. “The beach would be
perfect.”

“Sand and briny air is....hold on babe,
someone's at the door.” Through the phone I heard Jaime's footsteps
and a wooden groan of the door. “What the fuck?” Jaime's voice grew
distant and there was a crack as if he'd dropped the phone.

My heart leapt in chest. “Jaime?!” I called
out. “Jaime!” In the distance I heard the deep voices of at least
one or two men who weren't him. “JAIME!” I screamed into the
phone.

“What's wrong?” Mom appeared at my side.

My heart thrummed hard in my chest as I
struggled to think. “I think something has happened to Jaime. I
have to go.” I shoved my phone in my pocket and searched
frantically for my car keys.

“Sophie, no! You don't know what you might be
up against.” Mom grabbed both of my arms. Her nails nearly
punctured my flesh.

“Ow, Mom you're hurting me! Let me go!”

“Listen to me! I can't have something happen
to you too!” Mom's face was panicked, her eyes watery.

“Mom, I....” My voice trailed off as yanked
myself free. “I'm sorry.”

Snatching my keys off the counter I bolted
out the door, my arms burning from her fingers.

My wolf instincts took over as I threw the
car into park and slowly crept out of my vehicle. The air carried
just a whiff of Jaime's fear even outside the apartment. I stepped
carefully past his Jeep and leapt from the bottom step up to the
landing by his door with not a creak from the boards beneath me.
Crouching low, I tilted an ear toward the door. Jaime's breathing
was ragged but he did not speak. Angry voices of two others
punctuated the stillness. “Jason said to keep him until he
called.”

“That doesn't mean keep him here. I don't
think it's safe this close to town.”

“I don't care what you think. Jason only said
to keep him so we're keeping him here.”

I sniffed the air. Those inside were
definitely human. What were humans doing keeping Jaime under
someone's orders? Were the orders from another human? Werewolf?
What the hell is going on?

Slowly, I lifted a hand to knock on the door.
Every muscle tensed preparing to spring.

“Don't answer it.” One of the voices hushed
to a hoarse whisper so low a human wouldn't have heard the
words.

Damn it. I knocked again and waited. Not a
movement came from inside. In the sexiest voice I could muster I
called out. “Jaime if you don't open this door and take me to bed
right now I may take my tight ass home.”

My canines sprouted in anticipation as
footsteps shuffled to the door. Bastards. My nails grew and dug
into the wooden planks beneath me I readied myself. The moment the
door swung open I pounced onto the rotund brute in front of me. He
crashed to the floor, arms and legs flailing. His belly was huge
and jiggled as he fought to move under my weight. “She's one of
them!” The other called out as I punched the one beneath me in the
jaw with enough force I felt it shatter under my knuckles. He
didn't move again.

I turned to the one on my right. A heavy
growl erupted from my throat as I sprang in time to see a flash of
silver lift my direction. The arm that held the gun twisted and
snapped like a thin twig under my grasp. I heard the explosive
round make its exit before I realized where it was headed. As the
man crumpled to the floor in terrified agony, I could hear Jaime
slump against the wall behind me. The spice and earth scent of
Jaime's blood churned my stomach as quickly as it made my mouth
unwillingly water. I swiveled around in time to catch him before he
it the floor.

“It's okay, I'm here now.” I breathed,
desperate to steady myself against the competing hunger and horror
of my lover bleeding before me. “Let me see.” Jaime carefully moved
his blood-streaked hand away from his abdomen. A gut shot. Damn
it.

“Shit, this hurts.” He whispered.

“We're going to the hospital.” I swept an arm
under his knees and the other around his back. I hoisted him up as
carefully as I could manage. He grimaced and his breath caught as I
shifted his weight. “It's all going to be okay.”

“You stupid bitch!” The broken armed man
hollered. “You're dead! You're fucking dead!”

I stepped around him quickly and made for the
car.

I grabbed my cell and with quaking fingers
hit 911 as I sped down the road toward the hospital. “My boyfriend
was just shot. We're almost to the Emergency Room. Yes, he is
loosing a lot of blood.” I closed off my sense of smell in order to
focus on listening on Jaime’s heart rate. It was steady but weak.
“Please having someone ready.”

The hospital had a stretcher and crew
standing by the ER entrance when the car squealed to a stop. The
doctors and nurses laid Jaime down and rushed him into the blinding
lights of the open ER. I stood for several minutes outside of
myself and everything around me. It was freezing cold outside but
it didn't really register on my skin. I shook slightly as I rocked
back and forth on my heels but inside I felt completely calm like a
standing bowl of water. Nothing made sense, not the sound of cars
nearby or the electric hum the automatic door made when not in use.
It was all wrong.

My Jaime. I shivered. I brought you into my
world and now this world might kill you.

A familiar buzz in my pocket made me jump.
“Mom, I'm okay but....”

“You need to come home now.” Her voice was
hollow and robotic.

“What is it?” I barely got the words out.
Silence.

“You have a new Alpha sweet pea. Which means
your days playing with humans are over.” A new, husky voice came
across the phone. “Come home now. That's an order.”

The ground beneath my feet sunk away as the
command took root inside me. An order. Mechanically, I turned my
back on the ER, my lover - everything that had brought us together
and now would tear us apart. Jaime would be lost to me now,
forever. My wolf clawed the underside of my skin as anger, shame,
and fear roiled within me.

*

“Oh look, the slut has arrived.” A short
female with wavy dark hair called in a sing-song voice as I closed
my car door and began what felt like a million mile walk to my
house. She was flanked by a lanky man laden with chains on his
jeans and greasy hair. He rolled his shoulders and crossed his arms
as I walked forward. His entire countenance carried a warning to
not linger close by.

“Jason!” The female called out, not taking
her menacing gaze off me.

From a distance, his walk was that of a
leader; proud, commanding, intimidating. As he came closer, his
presence morphed into something far more dangerous. His broad
shoulders lead to massive arms and he was at least four inches
taller than the other male. A cruel sneer played on his face,
momentarily twisting it into something inhuman.

I paled when I saw him. This was him? This
was Jason? Oh my god....

“You’re Ethan's other sister.” He gave me a
cold stare. “How's your pet? I just received a phone call about
him. Did he die?”

“I don't know.” My heart pounded so loud in
my ears I could hardly hear my own voice. I stared at a spot on the
wall of the house to steady myself. The first male looked mean but
this one was downright lethal. Every fiber of every muscle in me
screamed run.

“Where is my family?” I muttered, uncertain I
would be comprehensible.

Jason gave a quick glance over his shoulder.
“Grace, would you be so kind as to bring out the Matthews family?”
His voice was anything but sweet.

One by one my family filed out and were lined
up against the front of our house. I scanned my pack quickly. Mom
gave me a shattered look, tears streaming down over a swelling,
purplish chin. Granddad's cheek streamed crimson from a three-inch
gash, below his left eye. Tristan's shirt was torn at the arms,
blood flowing from what appeared to be several bite marks. Lorelei
and Kylin huddled around Nina and LJ, neither appearing to be
physically injured, though John’s battered face and arms blocked a
good view of them.

A rumbling growl erupted deep in my chest. I
wanted to rip Jason's throat out right then and there.

He grabbed a fistful of hair and whipped my
head back My hands flew to his fist as I cried out in pain. He
whispered in my ear. “Don't do anything stupid.”

I clawed at his skin for just a brief moment.
His free hand yanked one of mine away from my head, twisting it
behind my back. My arm burned from shoulder to fingers in such
excruciating pain that I was certain he would rip off my arm. I
wanted to struggle but fear overpowered me more than his strength.
“Look at your pack. They are weak without a true Alpha. Luckily,
Ethan understands this and has accepted my offer to join our two
packs under my control.”

“Ethan would never!” I cried out.

“Are you so sure? Look at him. He's just a
boy.”

Ethan's face was ruddy, tear soaked, and
crumpled like a dirty towel thrown to the side.

“You aren't blood kin.” I cried again. “You
have no authority over us!”

“Doesn't matter when he willingly concedes to
me. Blood or no blood, fact is I'm stronger.”

Ethan's eyes were glued to the ground beneath
him. I wanted to plead with him, beg him to not let this happen but
I knew deep down that it would do no good. You can't just give and
take back power at will. Our magic doesn't work that way.

“Why?” I screamed at Ethan. “Why did you do
this?”

In the rising light of the moon, fresh tears
glittered as they slid down his face. “I'm sorry. I had no choice.
He would have killed them.”

“You see, princess? Why fight when you can't
win?” Jason gave a cruel laugh.

“Jason, let her go now.” Daniel's voice
carried above the laughter as he stepped out of the house.

“Actually that reminds me. There is another
issue that I think we need to discuss.” His voice was slick as oil
and a thousand times more flammable, as if the tiniest spark could
set him off. “Apparently you are too good to mate with your own
kind. My cousin Daniel tells me that you refused him. Now that our
packs are joined, you won’t need your human toy. If he hasn't died
already, I will gladly get rid of him for you, as a favor.”

An angry burst of electricity shot through me
and I dropped my body to the ground with as much dead-weight force
as I could muster. His grip on me broke as I fell. I swiftly rolled
over and crouched on all fours, nails and canines sprouting.

I bared my teeth and snarled at him.

The first male, to my right, laughed out
loud.

“You're mine.” Jason lunged at me faster than
I could even think to shift and before I knew what happened, I was
pinned to frozen ground. I struggled against his iron grip.

“You really need a lesson in respect.” Jason
growled.

“Don't!” Daniel's voice boomed. “You said you
wouldn't hurt her!”

“Don’t worry cousin; you can have her when
I'm done.” His voice was heavy and ragged with heat.

“Jason!” Daniel lunged toward us but was
grabbed by two other males.

I tried to shift but I kept losing focus. I
could hardly breathe under the weight of him. He ripped my jacket
and tore part of my jeans leg before I even blinked. My cry choked
under the pressure of his hand on my throat. The trees around me
blurred.

And then he was off me.

Ethan, in wolf form, snarled as he and Jason
wrestled, now a wolf, on the ground. The greasy male shifted and
attacked but missed Ethan by inches. Rips of flesh, yelps, and
harsh, coppery blood filled my senses as the male lunged a second
time and hit his mark. My little brother's muzzle opened as if in a
howl and then fell limp.

Ethan!

Somewhere, a scream cut across the barren
wasteland of yard before me. Was it my mom or me? My eyes narrowed,
I refocused and shifted, my clothes shredding to bits as I lunged
after Jason and knocked him to the ground.

Something startled Jason enough to make him
pause as he regained footing. He turned languidly and sneered at me
in an almost lazy way. He was taunting me. His steel grey eyes were
colder than winter. There was no human in him. An aggressive growl
rumbled through my body.

I bared my teeth again and lowered myself to
lunge when Jason came at me. He was as rapid as lightning. His
teeth sunk into my shoulder. I yelped and turned toward his throat.
He flipped me belly up. Blood ran down my shoulder in crimson
rivulets. Breathing was suddenly excruciating. I struggled to get
up when Jason growled again. It was worse than threatening. It was
toxic. A death sentence.

~The animal
within~

We locked eyes. Jason waited for me to get
up. He wanted to watch me struggle only to tear me down again. A
human thought of my family hovered in a distant corner of my
consciousness. An energy I had never felt before pulsed through my
veins. It was more than electric; every muscle and tendon, my very
being was on fire. Anger rippled through me from skin to the tips
of my fur. If Jason wanted a challenge, he was going to get it.