Page 7 of Moonlighting with the Werewolf

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing to be, but sometimes it’s a selfish thing to be, especially if you get yourself in over your head. Every member who follows my orders and works together in the ways that’ve proven the safest and most successful for theentire packis a hero. What you wanted is glory, and that’s less heroic.”

He hung his head. “I know.”

I batted away the urge to clap him on the back and assure him we all made mistakes. While true, he’d endangered the pack in an attempt to look brave in front of the guy he liked, andthatwasn’t okay. Softening the admonition wouldn’t result in him learning a valuable lesson, so despite the incessant stabbing sensation in my chest and side, I clamped my lips and lengthened my stride, forcing him to have to work to keep up with me.

“It’s just over the hill, in the center of the clearing.” Even though we’d remained in our human forms for the hike, the meekness in his voice and the dragging of his limbs managed to convey that his tail was firmly tucked between his legs.

That was the way it should be, and Elias would learn that in time. At one point, I’d balked at being ordered around and following safety procedures, I deemed unnecessary. As frustrating as it was for the generations on both sides of the fence, it was part of growing up. Truth be told, I’d rather the youth in our pack not have to learn they and their families weren’t invincible the hard way.

The instant I stepped into the meadow, every hair on my arms and neck pricked up, and the strange darkness hovering in the air permeated my skin and formed a tight knot in my gut. Looked like I owed the kid an apology for mocking his use of heebie-jeebies, as there wasn’t a better word for it.

“See what I mean?” Elias asked in a quiet voice. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“It feels very, very wrong,” I agreed. Since I’d lost enough clothes today, I shed mine before morphing into wolf form and putting my nose to the ground. Sulphur. Batshit. An overly sickly sweet flower I’d caught whiffs of here and there in the spring.The stringent scent grew stronger as I padded to the center of the area. At my next deep sniff, fire shot up my nose.

My eyes burned as though I’d inhaled an entire shaker of pepper, and I backpedaled as quickly as my four legs could take me.

No matter how hard I shook my head, the searing sensation remained, so I pivoted around and raced to the nearby brook to rinse my snout.

It’d been a while since I’d literally stuck my nose in it. Used to happen all the time when I was a pup. I’d tasted insects that were never meant to be eaten and ended up swarmed by a hive of wasps that stung me so badly my mom shaved me bald in order to treat them with a thick, smelly salve.

There were lessons, and then there were lessons involving clippers. I’d always been proud of my thick gray and brown coat, and being shorn to the pink taught me a big lesson. One, don’t be stupid, and two, don’t go to Mom after stupidity occurred.

Mom’s image formed, watery, as though seeing it at the bottom of a lake. At the glimpse of my brothers and sisters, I slammed the door on that memory, banishing it back to where it’d come from.

Never againhad become my workout mantra from that day on. I flipped tractor tires, carried boulders back and forth across the community, and owned a few vehicles without working engines to pull around for fun. Lately, Diego had taken to training with me, the spark of competition pushing us both that much harder.

Whenever he got too cocky about how close he was to beating me, I pulled out my half- form. Not many werewolves could maintain the amalgamation of wolf and human, but it came in handy whenever I required use of my full lupine strength and senses while retaining the ability to speak.

After two decades of shifting, commanding my body to morph into human form was second nature. So why did pain explode in my chest? I braced my hands on my knees and wheezed out a few breaths. If anything, I should’ve healed faster on four legs, not reinjured myself during the transition.“Fuck, that hurt.”

Good thing Elias wasn’t in view, or he’d ask if I was all right again, and I’d get pissed I wasn’t as healed as I should be.

I stepped into my clothes, grunting like an old man the entire time, and then returned to the meadow. Elias sat at the tree line in his hoodie and jeans, blinking red irritated eyes and rubbing at his nose.

“You ever smell wolfsbane?” I pointed to the spot that’d offended my inner wolf. Even human, it rankled, a handful of sharp nails slowly scratching the chalkboard as the acerbic air invaded my nose and lungs. And that was from ten yards away. “Don’t get too close, but commit it to memory. If you ever smell that, note the location and then get out of there. Leave any further discovery to the experienced soldiers.”

No matter how many times I paced the perimeter, I couldn’t catch a single foreign scent. It was the equivalent of walking into a room that’d been cleaned so well you’d never suspect it’d ever been dirty. I hadn’t encountered people capable of that sort of thing in over a decade, and if I had my way, I’d hunt them down and exterminate every last one.

But between my paranoia and the crushing sense of responsibility I felt for my pack, I’d let go of that desire to build a safe community. To the point that I also kept tabs on everything that happened in town. I hadn’t been lying to the new vet about the deal the sheriff and I’d made. When it came to my enemies, he allowed me to handle them my way, as long as I kept him up to speed. In turn, he granted me full access to the goings-on intown so that we could ensure the safety of the people in both of our worlds.

While I hadn’t gotten around to finding out more about the newest resident in Guadalupe Falls, like full name, address, and where she’d come from, only one person had recently moved in.

My brain struggled to believe it could be the veterinarian who’d gone wide-eyed over my existence. She’d even mentioned calling the cops.

Then again, she’d also said she could see why someone would shoot me.

People often wanted to dig deeper, forming preposterous ideas like frame jobs and conspiracy theories to explain away what they didn’t want to be true. In my experience, the obvious choice was obvious for a reason, and it came down to that person being guilty as sin.

Why wouldn’t she have just finished the job and killed me on the operating table? Or was that part of her plan? Gain my trust so she could later exploit it? It didn’t make sense, yet it was the only possibility that did.

Shit.I’d flirted with her. I’d taken that damn shock electricity to mean we had chemistry, falling for her magic trick without a second thought. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t come up with a dozen reasons to pay her a visit in the near future, and hardly any of them would be considered noble.

Interrogation certainly hadn’t been on the menu, and I figured bondage would be further down the road in our relationship, after we got to know each other better. Hours ago, the idea of acquainting myself with every inch of the woman’s body had sparked. Even now, the memory of our interaction caused my blood to pump hotter.

It’s just a spell. Who knows what else she did to me while I was out of it?

Come to think of it,that’sprobably why I wasn’t healing. She must’ve done something to hinder the process while claiming to have fixed me up. It was smart, I’d give her that. But I’d give her a whole lot more, and none of it would be pleasant on her end.

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