“Well, whatever. No harm in having an extra wolf around in case there’s a fight. Any signs?”
“If there were, there would have been a fight already.”
“That’s more like it.” Jeremy slapped Nathan’s shoulder. “Where have you lot been hunting lately?”
The conversation turned a little too wolfy and warlike, and I was more than happy when Amelia dragged me into the kitchen to let her brother and cousin bond.
“Too weird,” she hissed once we got out of werewolf earshot.
“What is?”
“He’s our cousin and all, but I don’t even know him. He left when I was a little kid. Hasn’t been back since. He makes me uncomfortable or something. He kind of reminds me of... those others, you know?”
She blushed, but I got what she was saying. Her family was pretty tame, relatively speaking, but whenever Jeremy looked in my direction, I instinctively wanted to take a step backward. Aside from his natural aggression, he had that air of just hunted about him. I was beginning to recognise the lightness and freeness in all of the werewolves right after the hunt. I tried not to think of what the hunt entailed, because I might never want to kiss Nathan again if I imagined a visual.
“What’s going on anyway?”
She shrugged, and when she spoke, her voice was laden with bitterness. “As if they’d tell the non-wolf.” I pitied her then, how she felt left out from her own family because she was relatively normal. I found it strange when Nathan felt left out for not embracing how similar he was to them.
Byron stormed out of his office, seemingly intent on leaving the house in a strop, but a pretty, dark-haired woman stopped him, resting her hand on his shoulder as she spoke to him. He stepped back, forcing her to drop her hand. Her face fell with it.
“Who’s that?” I asked Amelia.
“Who? Oh… the caterer, I think. She might have organised the whole thing, actually. Why?”
“Never mind.” I watched until he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving the woman staring regretfully after him. She was obviously interested in him, but he was typically cold to her. I knew his mate was gone, but surely he could have other relationships. Did the curse really doom men to be alone in the end?
Gran waved, and we reluctantly joined her. Her gaggle of old ladies had already left, and she was probably feeling a little lonely since she decided to not engage in a conversation with Erin.
“How are you doing, little one?” she said to Amelia, who pretty much lapped up the attention.
“Who’s that with Nathan?” Dad asked.
“Cousin. Home for a while.”
“He looks quite happy, considering why we’re here.”
“Stop being so judgy. Sorry,” I amended when I saw the look on his face. “But please, try to be nice to Nathan’s family.”
“I wasn’t planning on being anything but nice.” He sounded offended, but I knew him. “I thought Joey might have been here.”
“Tammie probably wouldn’t let him come. She doesn’t like Nathan and Amelia.”
“Why?”
“Oh, she hates all of those tattoos. And the drug-taking. Plus Amelia’s part-time job as a pole dancer bothers her.” I rolled my eyes. “Come off it, Dad. It’s Tammie. She doesn’t need an excuse. She’s horrible for reasons known only to her, and at this stage, I seriously doubt she even knows herself.”
“I said one word, Perdy. Erin, did I imply anything at all?”
Erin grinned. “Not in so many words. Luckily, Perdy knows you better than that.”
“Stop ganging up on me,” he said. He gave a little ick-worthy grin. “Still, if Tammie doesn’t like them, it probably means they’re decent.”
“Um, she loves Joey,” I reminded him.
He snorted. “Love. Teenagers don’t love.” He wandered off to chat to someone else.
“So,” Erin said. “Feeling okay?”
“Yep.”
I stared at Nathan, forgetting all about Erin. His conversation was full of animation, and I was relieved he was getting on with his cousin, even if I was a little peeved that he had made some pretty big assumptions because of his cousin’s appearance. And his behaviour in general would still require a conversation or three.
I wished Tammie and Joey were around. They would have been company while Nathan and Jeremy caught up, and Amelia floated around like a miniature social butterfly.
My heart practically fell to my feet when I saw Jakob, closely followed by Byron, approach my father.
“You should all stay for a few drinks when everyone is gone,” Jakob said. “It’s probably about time our families got to know one another, now that our children are such good friends.” He gave me a distinctly wolfy smile, and I had to wonder what his game was. Byron looked horrified, and I wasn’t surprised. It was a big enough deal to have people in his home without keeping some of them around for even longer.
As if seeing my alarm, although she couldn’t have known the real reason for it, Erin winked at me and linked Dad’s arm to lead him outside.
“What are you doing?” I asked Jakob.
“Getting to know our neighbours,” Jakob said.
“I don’t want my family in the middle of anything.” I wondered why the dogs out back had suddenly started barking. Cú was among them, his time with my family over. I had been more than a little sad to see him leave.
Jakob cocked his head almost imperceptibly, quickly glancing at the window, but I noticed because I was busy glaring at him.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of blond curls pass by the window. I whipped my head around, but she was gone. I ran to the window and spotted a familiar figure that removed her jacket before disappearing into a crowd of people. My stomach dropped.
“What is it?” Byron asked.
“I thought I saw her. No, I did see her. Her, her.”
“Here? Unlikely.”
“I’m telling you, it was her. She’s going to hurt someone,” I said, already in a panic.
“Not possible,” Jakob scoffed, but he grabbed my arm.
I wriggled in his grasp, desperate to get free. “Let go of me!”
“Dad, what are you doing?” Byron glanced around the room nervously, while trying to quietly wrench my arm free from his father’s grip.
Once loose, I moved out of the way before Jakob could grab me again. “It was her!” I shouted, grabbing the attention of most of the room. I didn’t care; I was already hurrying out the door. I had to know for sure.
The screams came before I made it outside. I ran faster, but in my heart, I knew I was already too late.
A couple of people ran toward me, their faces pale with shock as they tried to escape whatever had happened. I ignored them, heading straight for the figure on the ground. A woman made an awful sound. Erin. Deep down, I had already known, but I had to see for myself.
Prone on the ground, blood gushing from a wound to his neck, my father stared upward, his breathing shallow. Erin pushed me out of the way so she could put pressure on the wound. Blood dribbled from a gash on her forehead, but she ignored it to help Dad.
I heard people whispering.
“Wild dog.”
“… attack…”
“… not looking good.”
I couldn’t see her, but it had definitely been her, the werewolf. And not one of Nathan’s family had done a thing to stop her.
I knelt by my dad, listening to people call for an ambulance, and touched his clammy skin. “Daddy. Daddy, please.” His eyes rolled in his head, his skin deathly white. I glanced behind me and met the eyes of Jakob Evans, who had the tiniest smile on his lips.
“I told you she was here!” I screamed, running straight at him, fists flying.
He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even try to stop me, and somehow that felt like an admission of guilt.
“This is all your fault,” I hissed as Jeremy lifted me away from his grandfather. “You did this!”
Jakob’s face remained compl
etely blank, as though I didn’t even exist. I caught a glimpse of Byron holding on to Nathan, Amelia sobbing behind them. Then, I was ushered into the ambulance, words and noises buzzing around me meaninglessly.
Chapter Seven
Nathan
One minute, I was chatting to Jeremy about the best way to sniff out a cold trail, the next, Perdita’s cry froze my blood. The sound kicked me in the gut, and I was outside before Jeremy, stopping short when I saw her dad on the ground, bleeding. Confusion and fear flooded the air along with the scent of blood, but not half as much as her pain and rage. Her eyes were wild with emotion as she screamed at my grandfather.
I tried to go to her, but Byron grabbed my shoulders. “Not now,” he whispered. “She won’t hear you right now.”
“But what happened?”
“Werewolf attack. Keep calm. Don’t breathe through your nose too much.”
I choked down my response as the familiar smell of enemy werewolf invaded my nostrils. I should have ripped out her throat when I had the chance.
Amelia was crying. Tears were rolling down Perdita’s face; she looked as though her heart were breaking. Jeremy’s hands were on her, and I wanted to break those fingers, but Byron held tight, and something inside me froze.
Erin led Perdita into the ambulance, and before the doors closed, Perdita caught my eye, her stare filled with betrayal and pain, but most of all, anger. I knew Byron was right. She hated us. She blamed us. Her father had been attacked right under our noses, and not one of us had done a thing to stop it.
It took at least an hour to get everyone off our property and probably longer for the situation to really sink in. They all talked about the attack in excited voices—how big the dog had been, how dangerous and wolf-like, how they were all so lucky that they hadn’t been hurt, too. Indignant vows were made to call the dog warden and even the newspapers first thing on Monday morning. Proclamations were declared against backyard breeders who were obviously creating those fashionable wolf hybrids. They talked of how it was a disgrace that wild dogs could wander around attacking people without being caught.
Blood had been drawn. There were reliable witnesses, and that meant the whole wild dog situation would finally be taken seriously. Life was going to get awkward.
But all I could think about was the werewolf attack and how it could possibly have happened at our home, of all places, and in front of everyone. That had to have been intentional. Could we have even reacted had we seen a werewolf? What would we have done, shifted in front of our neighbours? That was what I should have done. I should have paid attention to the warning barks of the dogs. I should have caught the scent of strange werewolf. I should have been there to stop her. The mess of people had confused my instincts, muddled my senses. If only I had been there…
I paced my room while Byron tried to escort everyone out. I couldn’t handle the tension and excitement in the air. It ripped a hole in the barrier between me and wolf. And I couldn’t forget Perdita’s face, how I hadn’t protected her again.
What good was I? I had taken my bad mood out on her and left her by herself. She’d left with only bad memories of me, and that was killing me. There had been so much blood, so little movement. I didn’t even know if her dad would be okay. If he died…
I tried not to think of all the terrible things that would happen. It was Mémère all over again. That awful sense of helplessness pervaded, suffocating me.
I couldn’t go through it another time. Same mistakes. More pointless pain. Something had to be done.
By the time everyone had left, I was ready to punch my fist through the wall. I rang Perdita’s phone numerous times, desperate to know what was happening, but no one answered. Byron warned me not to leave, but I was close to running. The walls shrank in on me, making me feel cornered, caged.
Amelia was still sobbing when Jeremy brought me downstairs.
“Chill, little man,” he warned me, his fingers pinching my shoulders.
“Easy for you to say,” I snapped.
Byron came in first, but he looked as aggravated as I was, and for some reason, that deflated a little of my own anger. I wasn’t alone in my frustration or confusion. That meant something.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “How the hell did this happen?”
He shrugged wearily, falling into a chair and rubbing his eyes. “Let’s wait for the alpha to fill us in.”
Those words only served to fill me with dread. If Byron wasn’t in control of the situation, then what chance was there for me? Opa must have heard him, but he didn’t respond when he joined us. He didn’t take a chair, but in an alpha kind of voice that meant we couldn’t refuse, he demanded that we all sit. It was demeaning to be told to sit like a dog, embarrassing that none of us could help but comply. There wasn’t time to voice those thoughts. I was too intent on hearing what he had to say.
“The female was here,” he said. “She was alone, but we can follow her trail to find the others if they don’t come to us. Now that they believe we’ve no defences, they’re more likely to come to us. I need at least one alive to get to their leader. Remember that before the fight begins.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I blurted. “What about Perdita?”
“Keep away from the girl,” he said, as if she were nothing.
“What?” Byron sounded as baffled as I felt. “How can he keep away from her? Why would he?”
“I don’t want the female to scent any of us on Perdita. The bitch won’t come close enough again if she does.”
Silence filled the room as we all exchanged confused glances. Byron’s eyes caught mine, and it seemed as though he decided something because he gave me a reassuring nod and faced his father. “Are you crazy? I’m asking very seriously here. Why the hell would we want that creature to get close to any child, never mind Nathan’s mate?”
I was speechless with anger and shock. That man wasn’t my grandfather. He would never talk like that.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t actually found their alpha. He’s tucked away in a hole for all I know. This is the only way to get to him. Lure in his people, take care of them, and send a stronger message back to him, something that will force him to face me himself. It’s the only way.”
Byron stuttered for a couple of seconds. “By using a teenage girl as bait? Dad, what is this?”
“This is the plan. I’ve been tracking him for weeks. I can’t catch his scent for love nor money. People won’t talk, at least not enough. But I know their ways. And I know his name, know how he works. I’ve picked up a few important pieces of information.”
“Such as?” Byron sounded more sceptical than angry, as if pacifying someone he knew was unable to do anything.
“Such as the one Perdita killed. The one who… the female is his daughter. Loyal daughter. The word is that she’s the type who can’t stop herself from coming for revenge, that she’s unhinged enough to walk straight into the lion’s den. I wasn’t sure when, but I knew it would happen. I knew the others would follow if she survived.”
“Wait a second,” I said, thinking hard. “You knew this would happen? You knew she’d come after Perdita?”
He nodded. I watched him in a daze, barely capable of comprehending what was happening. “Yes, of course. Perdita and her father. I wasn’t sure if she’d be stupid enough to come to our home in front of dozens of people, but she did, knowing full well we wouldn’t be able to respond so publicly.” He hacked out a laugh. “She wanted to show us what she could do.”
“You… you could have stopped this? You wanted this to happen?”
“Think about it, Nathan. If we kill everything he sends, he won’t come to us. If we use them to track him down, or force him out of his hole, then we have a chance of confronting him once and for all. We need to find out what he’s after and dangle it on a string. This is only the first step.”
My heart felt as though the life was being squeezed out of it. I literally couldn’t
believe what I was hearing. My grandfather was nuts. Absolutely nuts. Bait. That was what the day had boiled down to. That was why he had returned, to see who would come at us. I wished with a passion that he had stayed away forever. We were all worse off than we had been with him gone.
I made my way to the door, determined to leave. “Well, you lot can do whatever you like. I’m going to Perdita. No way am I being a part of this mess.”
“No!” he shouted. “You keep away from that girl. I mean it.”
A shuddery sensation ran through me, and I froze to the spot. I stared at him in horror. “Take that back.”
He shook his head, not even bothering to answer me properly.
“You… you can’t do that. Why would you do that? Opa, please!”
“Trust your elders,” he said.
Byron stared at me, looking as horrified as I felt.
“Do something,” I urged him, knowing he could if he tried. He looked away, and I felt even more helpless than ever. No wonder Perdita hated us. We as good as attacked her father ourselves. “If she gets hurt, I’ll never forgive you,” I managed to hiss at my grandfather.
“She won’t,” he said. But he had no way of knowing that.
“What am I supposed to do?” I heard the pleading in my voice, but he didn’t even react.
Jeremy spoke up instead. “Run with the pack. Take them down. Then everything goes back to normal.”
“So you’re ready to make murderers out of the whole family?” Byron asked.
Jeremy opened his mouth to answer, but my grandfather spoke instead, his eyes glittering with anger. “We do what has to be done. We’re too weak. That’s going to change. Before we lose another member.”
“As if you’d care.” I stormed out of the room, ignoring Amelia’s tear-filled eyes.
I tried to call Perdita again. No answer. Frustrated beyond belief, I stomped outside and caught her scent. I saw her dad’s blood on the ground. A broken mobile phone lay next to it. Perdita’s. At least that gave me a little bit of hope that she wasn’t ignoring me.
I found the female’s scent close by, and anger surged through me as I came across her clothing. She had walked among us in human form and was rubbing our faces in what she had accomplished. Where had she gone? Did she have a hiding place? Clothes hidden nearby?