Growl

  They were on their way to a small café to have lunch when something in the window of Sandy’s Thrift Store caught Lacey’s attention. She stopped and looked in the window at the choker necklace around the mannequin’s neck. The heart shaped emerald pendant dangled from a black satin ribbon. It was the most beautiful piece of jewelry she had ever seen. It didn’t matter in the least that the emerald was more than likely fake. She stared at it with yearning, completely oblivious to the fact that Jesse was watching her.

  Jesse smiled as she adored the necklace in the window. It was clear from the look on her face that she wanted it. He grabbed her hand and started to go inside the store but Lacey pulled him to a stop. “Where are you going?” she asked.

  He touched her cheek and smiled. “I’m going to buy that necklace for you.”

  “It’s called a choker and I don’t want it” Lacey said, shaking her head. She glanced at it one last time before walking off down the street. She did want the choker but was afraid to let Jesse buy it for her, afraid that it would mean more to her than it did to him. And that if he was to decide he didn’t want to be with her anymore, the choker would become a constant reminder of him and she wouldn’t be able to deal with that.

  Jesse was puzzled. He knew that Lacey was lying about not wanting the choker but he didn’t know why. He saw the way her eyes lit up when she looked at it.

  Lacey put the choker out of her mind and led Jesse into Carl’s Café. They sat down by the window and she picked up a menu to look it over. Jesse couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in her mind. Why she was so open at times and guarded at others? He watched as Lacey twirled a strand of black hair around her finger and the overwhelming urge to protect and keep her safe hit him.

  Being around her always made him so happy that it was easy to forget about all the danger she was in. But looking at her now, he was reminded of it and also of what he had promised himself he would do. Get her out of the city and as far away from Cole as possible. He didn’t want to be separated from her but he didn’t have a choice. He looked at her and said the first thing that came to his mind. “You do strange things to me, Lacey.”

  She put down the menu. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that you make me feel things I’ve never felt before and I don’t know how to deal with that. You excite and scare me at the same time.”

  Lacey smiled and bit down on her bottom lip. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” she teased.

  Jesse shook his head. “I don’t know” he answered honestly. “But what I do know is that I have to get you out of Carol Springs. I’m going to find a safe place in another town and this weekend I’m going to get you out of here. I can’t handle the thought of someone hurting you.”

  Lacey’s brows furrowed. “I don’t want to leave. I like it here with you. And I thought you liked having me here” she said and looked away so that he wouldn’t see the disappointment on her face. “Is this why you wanted to take me out today? You wanted to show me a good time before you send me away.”

  Jesse pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “That’s not what this is about. I want to be with you but it’s safer if we live in different towns. I’ll visit you as often as I can. Cole won’t know where you are and neither will anyone else. You’ll be safe.”

  Lacey pierced him with an angry stare. “Why do I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me? Cole hasn’t been back to the warehouse. I don’t think he’s interested in me anymore. I think my powers scared him and he knows that he can’t get close enough to hurt me. So why don’t you tell me the truth about why you want me to leave?”

  Jesse didn’t like seeing Lacey look at him in anger. He wished that he could make her understand how wrong she was about Cole not wanting her anymore. He was just waiting for the right moment to strike. And then there was the law that said Jesse had to either change her or kill her. He didn’t plan on doing either. That was the real reason he wanted her to leave, because too many werewolves already knew about her. How could he tell her that everyone was waiting for him to either kill her or turn her into a monster? He was about to say something when a tap on the window caught his attention. He looked out the window and saw someone that he knew. “I’ll be right back” he said before getting up and going outside.

  Lacey watched as Jesse walked around the corner of the café. A few seconds later, a waitress came over to take her order.

  *****

  Jesse followed Jaden around the building.” What’s going on?” he asked.

  Jaden looked around nervously. “I heard a rumor this morning that Cole is planning another hunt for tonight.”

  “What!” Jesse yelled. “He just had one last night. Why is he having another one so soon? This isn’t like him. He knows not to have back to back hunts, the disappearances will attract too much attention.”

  “I know, that’s why I’m telling you. I think your brother has really lost it and if anyone sees me talking to you, I’m a dead man. I heard he was pissed that you saved two of his humans last night and he’s out to make up for his losses tonight.”

  Jesse was quiet for a minute. This was not good news and it made him feel that Lacey was in even more danger than he thought. Cole wasn’t acting normal and there had to be a reason for it. He patted Jaden on the back. “Thanks for letting me know about the hunt. You should get out of here before someone sees us talking.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice” Jaden said and took off down the street, leaving Jesse standing by the café alone. He peeked through the window and saw Lacey eating. Then he glanced across the street to the thrift shop and made a split second decision to buy her the choker. He wanted her to have something from him to take with her when he found her a safe place to stay. He darted across the street and into the shop.

  Chapter Eleven

  Lacey had just finished her tuna salad sandwich and was wondering what was taking Jesse so long when a tall, very attractive woman with long blond hair and a skin tight leather outfit came over to her table and sat down in front of her.

  “Can I help you?” Lacey asked.

  The woman laughed. “Yeah, you can...you can kill yourself and save me the trouble of having to do it. I hate getting my switch blade dirty.”

  Lacey stared at her with wide eyes then looked around the café, thinking it must be some kind of joke. But no one was paying them any attention. “Who are you?” she asked nervously.

  “My name is Sasha, but you already know what I am, don’t you?” Sasha said and looked Lacey over from head to toe. “I just don’t see what he sees in you” she said in a disgusted tone.

  Lacey’s heart raced in her chest. Tonya had told her that Cole’s girlfriend was named Sasha. She also told her how dangerous she was and now she was sitting less than three feet away from her. Lacey stood quickly and was about to run out the door when Sasha grabbed her by the arm and squeezed it painfully. Lacey looked to the waitress and the other customers for help but they all looked away. They were just as terrified of Sasha as she was. She tried to pull her arm free, but couldn’t.

  Sasha dragged her outside and around the corner of the building. Lacey opened her mouth to scream for help but Sasha covered it with her hand. “If you scream, I’ll slit your throat” she threatened and pushed Lacey up against the wall and held a knife to her throat. “I won’t let you have him” she growled.

  “What? Who are you talking about?” Lacey asked as a tear rolled down her face.

  “Cole!”

  Lacey blinked to clear her eyes. “I don’t want Cole. I swear.”

  Sasha sneered at her. “You might not want him but he sure as hell wants you. And I won’t lose him to a human.” She looked Lacey over again. “What the hell is so special about you anyway? You’re just a weak, pathetic girl and I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

  Lacey glared at Sasha as her fear turned to anger. She wasn’t ready to die and she wasn’t going to make it easy for Sasha to kill he
r. She opened herself up to her powers. The knife in Sasha’s hand started to shake then flew out of her hand and embedded itself into the building behind her. Sasha narrowed her eyes at Lacey and took a step back. “How did you do that?” she growled.

  Lacey’s whole body started to tremble. A second later, Sasha was thrown backwards into the building inches away from her knife.

  The headache that using her powers brought on was instant. The pain grew worse with every second that she used them. But Lacey ignored the pain as her anger grew even more. Sasha got up from the ground and ran at her. She barely made it three feet before she was tossed backwards again, this time hitting the wall much harder. Her head slammed into the brick wall and it left her dazed as she slid down to the ground. She looked up just in time to see bricks from a pile by the café flying toward her. She scrambled to her feet and tried to dodge them, the whole time screaming profanities at Lacey.

  But Lacey was too far gone in her rage to realize what she was doing. She knew that Sasha would have killed her if she had been given the chance. The thought of being murdered just like Cindy, kept going through Lacey’s mind, fueling her anger. She didn’t want to have to live the rest of her life afraid that Sasha was going to come after her again. With that in mind, she knew what she had to do. Without warning, she lashed out at Sasha with everything that she had.

  Blood was pouring from Lacey’s nose and her head was throbbing with a pain so intense that it was taking every ounce of strength she had not to scream. She continued hurling bricks at Sasha, striking her in the head repeatedly. She was already unconscious on the ground but that didn’t stop Lacey’s attack.

  *****

  Jesse stepped out of the thrift store and knew immediately that something was wrong. The scent of a werewolf was in the air and it wasn’t a friendly one. It was Sasha. Jesse ran across the street toward the café where he had left Lacey. But before he even got to it, he knew that she wasn’t inside. He could hear the commotion around the side of the building and knew that she was in trouble. He was in no way prepared for what he saw.

  Jesse skidded to a stop when he rounded the building and saw Sasha lying on the ground, bleeding. Several bricks were on top of her and on the ground around her. Lacey was about ten feet away, shaking so bad that it looked like she was having a seizure. Bricks were flying in the air around her and her gaze was locked on Sasha.

  “Lacey!” Jesse yelled to get her attention, but she ignored him. He tried to go to her but couldn’t reach her without getting hit by the flying bricks. “Lacey! Stop this!” he yelled again.

  This time Lacey turned to face him. The look on her face sent Jesse’s heart to his feet. She was deathly pale and her eyes looked empty. Blood covered her mouth, chin and shirt.

  Lacey stared at Jesse and tried to focus on his face but her vision was blurred. The pain in her head intensified to the point that she couldn’t concentrate. The bricks fell to the ground and she grabbed the sides of her head. Unable to hold in her pain any longer, she screamed. She was suddenly so weak that she could barely stand, she reached out to Jesse but before he could get to her, she fell to the ground. He ran over and lifted her head onto his lap. “Lacey, baby talk to me!” Jesse said in a rushed frantic voice.

  Her eyes fluttered open. She reached her hand up to his face but before she could make contact, her eyes closed and her hand fell to the ground at her side.

  “Lacey!” Jesse yelled and shook her. But she didn’t respond. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called Trevor. “Bring the jeep to Carl’s Café on Main Street, now!” he yelled into the phone and hung up.

  Jesse picked Lacey up and carried her to the rear of the building and laid her down near the backdoor of the cafe. Then he went back to where Sasha was still laying on the ground. He knocked the bricks off of her and shook her to wake her up. She wasn’t dead, he could hear her heart beating and he knew it would take a whole lot more than a beating with bricks to kill a werewolf. It might hurt like hell but it wasn’t going to kill her.

  Sasha opened her eyes and glared at him. It took her a minute to pull herself together, then ignoring the pain all over her body, she got up. The bricks had done a number on her and she was definitely going to be sore for a while. She touched her forehead and looked at the blood on her hand. She growled and looked around for Lacey. “Where is she?” she yelled.

  Jesse stood in front of her ready to fight if she took one step toward the rear of the building. “If you ever go near her again Sasha, I will kill you” he threatened.

  Sasha stared at him, still a little dazed. She reached for her switch blade and realized that she didn’t have it on her. It was impaled into the wall behind her. She narrowed her eyes at Jesse and said in a low menacing voice, “I will kill her before I let Cole have her.”

  Jesse growled and was about to attack her when he heard tires screech to a stop at the curb. He looked past Sasha and saw Trevor, Scotty and Kindal running toward them.

  Sasha made a noise that sounded like a chuckle and said, “this isn’t over,” before running across the street.

  Trevor hurried over to Jesse. “What’s going on? Where’s Lacey?”

  Jesse ran to the rear of the building and knelt down beside Lacey. He scooped her up in his arms and started for the jeep.

  “Oh my god, what happened to her?” Kindal asked as she ran ahead of him and opened the backdoor to the jeep.

  “Sasha attacked her and she used her powers to protect herself. We need to get her back to the warehouse. She needs to rest” Jesse said and got in the backseat with Lacey.

  “Shouldn’t we take her to the hospital?” Scotty asked.

  “No, I promised her that I wouldn’t. She has a fear of hospitals.”

  Everyone jumped in the jeep and Trevor drove them back to the warehouse. By the time they got there, Lacey was starting to wake up. She moaned and grabbed her head, squeezing it between her hands.

  “It’ll be okay, Lacey” Jesse said softly as he rubbed the back of his hand over her cheek. Scotty took off his shirt and handed it to Jesse to clean the blood from her face.

  Lacey moaned again and began to squirm in the seat. “It hurts” she said and squeezed her head tighter.

  Jesse pulled her into his arms and held her. “I know baby...I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone.” Guilt ripped a hole in his chest as he looked down at her struggling in pain.

  Lacey squeezed her eyes shut and bit down on her lip as another sharp pain hit her. She tried so hard not to scream but after a few seconds, she lost that battle and let out a blood curdling scream. Kindal spun around in the front seat and looked pitifully at Lacey. “Is she going to be alright?” she asked in a cracked voice.

  Jesse shook his head. “I don’t know. When I found her she was...” he paused, unable to talk with the image of how pale and lifeless Lacey had looked so fresh in his mind.

  Trevor pulled up in front of the warehouse and everyone got out. Jesse carried Lacey upstairs and gave her some pain relievers. He stayed with her until she fell asleep then he moved to the chair by the bed. He couldn’t help but think about how close he came to losing her. The thought brought him more pain than he thought possible.

  For the first time since the day he lost his mother, he let down his guard and a tear slipped from his eye and rolled down his cheek. He rested his head on the edge of the bed and wondered how his life had managed to get so complicated in such a short period of time. He had broken his own rule and fell in love with a human. Then he nearly got her killed by not being there for her when she needed him most.

  *****

  Cole and Kevin were sitting at a table by the door, going over their plan for the nights activities when Sasha burst through the door and walked past them in a huff.

  “Sasha” Cole called out to her but she kept going toward her room. Cole got up and followed her. She tried to slam the door in his face but he stuck his boot in the doorway. He looked at her and grimaced. Her arms and face w
ere covered in bruises. “What the hell happened to you?” he asked.

  Sasha growled and turned her back to him. “None of your damn business.”

  Cole followed her into the room and shut the door behind him. “The hell it isn’t. You’re a member of my pack and I’ve never seen you beat up like this before. Who did this to you?”

  Sasha glared at him but didn’t say anything. Cole studied her carefully. He could see the shame on her face. And he knew her well enough to know that even if she had lost a fight, as long as it was a fair one, she would still hold her head high. She wasn’t doing that now. It took him a minute to understand why and when he did, he burst out laughing. “I see that you’ve finally met Lacey.”

  Sasha snarled at him. “Get out!” she yelled and tried to push him out the door.

  Cole touched the bruises on her face. “She’s magnificent, isn’t she? A puny human managed to take on one of the deadliest creatures in the world and survived. No one has ever hurt you and lived. I’m more impressed with her now than ever.”

  Sasha pushed his hand away. “Well, you shouldn’t be. She got lucky, that’s all. I wasn’t expecting her powers but now I know what she’s capable of. The next time I see her, I will kill her” she snapped.

  Cole grabbed her by the throat and brought her close to him. “You better not touch her. I’ve already told you that I want her alive.”

  Sasha stared at him with cold eyes. “And I told you that I won’t sit by and watch you take another woman into your bed and I meant it.”

  Cole tossed her onto the bed and straddled her. He leaned his face close to hers and whispered, “Is this what you want, Sasha?” He teased her by running his tongue over her lip then he kissed her chin and neck.

  She moaned with pleasure and grabbed his head, pulling him from her neck so that she could kiss him. But he wouldn’t let her. He grabbed her hands in his and held them over her head. He looked down at her and smiled. “I don’t think so.”

  Sasha growled in frustration and struggled to push him off of her. “Damn you, Cole. The girl doesn’t even want you. She told me so herself.”