Page 116 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

I rubbed her shoulders. “You all right? It’s pretty warm out tonight.”

She tensed and looked back at me. “Mom.”

“Are you feeling overwhelmed? I can get us booked in a hotel for the night and ask Jonathan if he can meet us for breakfast to talk,” I said, worried about how she was handling everything. She’d seemed to accept it in the cave, but it was a lot to throw at a teenager.

Hell, it was a lot to have thrown at me, and I was nearly forty. Expecting a seventeen-year-old to run the gamut of emotions and be totally fine with everything she’d just had dropped on her was a lot.

“I’m sure he’ll be totally fine with giving us the night to ourselves so you and I have a chance to talk alone,” I said.

Hannah yanked me down toward the ground.

“Hannah, what in the…?” My words died on my lips as I heard the familiar sound of an arrow whizzing through the air near my head. I reacted, knocking my daughter all the way to the ground, putting my body over her, my wolf ready to surface if need be.

The moon wasn’t full, but it was bright enough to cast at least a little light over the area. Enough to see an arrow embedded deep in the rock face, not far from where my head had been. The arrow reflected the moon, and my gut clenched with the knowledge that it was silver. Whoever was firing them at us knew what they were dealing with, and silver wasn’t a friend to any shifter.

Another came zipping at us, and I pressed down tight on my daughter, wanting her safe. The arrow grazed the back of my upper arm. Pain shot through the spot, a combination of being cut open and the burn of the silver. I clenched my jaw, ignoring the pain and my wolf, who was trying hard to come to my defense. I wouldn’t do anyone any good stuck in wolf form.

“Okay, I’m all set,” said Jonathan as he emerged from the cave.

My attention snapped to the entrance of the cave, and fear for my mate slammed through me. “Jonathan, get down!”

His gaze moved to me for a moment before his body jerked violently.

I watched in stunned horror as he was struck with three silver arrows. One hit him in the upper arm, one embedded into his chest, and the other lodged into his thigh.

Jonathan stumbled forward and fell from the ledge into the water below. His body sank, and red blossomed up around his point of entrance.

It took me a second to realize Hannah was screaming and extending toward where Jonathan had gone into the water. I wanted to lie and tell her everything would be fine. That he was okay and would emerge unscathed, but he’d been shot three times with arrows engineered to be lethal to a wolf-shifter.

I wanted to scream and mourn him too, but right now, my daughter’s safety had to come first. Grieving and processing my feelings and emotions would have to come later.

I stayed on her for a moment. “Stay low! Get back into the cave. Now!”

She twisted her head partially, her gaze colliding with mine. “Mom?”

I squeezed her. “I love you. Get to the cave. When you can, find Aunt Mina.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked, her voice coming out in a squeak, her eyes wide. “Mom?”

I shot up quickly, drawing upon my wolf enough to let claws emerge from my fingertips and to increase my speed and strength. I charged forward in the direction I’d seen the arrows coming from. I found myself standing over a man I’d not seen in twenty-two years. One I thought was long dead and gone.

Lester.

He’d not aged a day. He looked up at me, his eyes filled with solid black as he tossed aside his crossbow and flashed fangs at me.

I blinked in surprise.

The creepster was now a vampire?

He came up fast and struck me in the chest, knocking me into a tree.

I felt no pain as adrenaline and rage consumed me. I went at him with a fury only a mother trying to protect her child could have. When we’d last met, he’d had the upper hand with his years of slayer training and the strength of a grown man against a teenage girl. I wasn’t that same girl anymore. And while he might be a vampire now, I wasn’t human either. I was a pissed-off momma wolf, and he’d just killed my mate.

I slashed his upper chest open, and he hissed, staggering backward.

He brought his hand to his chest and came away with blood. He moved with inhuman speed, reaching for my neck.

I caught his arm and brought it down over my thigh. The sound of his bones breaking was music to my ears, spurring my wolf onward. It wanted a pound of flesh from him before I ended him.

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