Page 49 of Werewolves Don't Howl
He inhaled and then bent over her eye and spread her pupil. “Excellent work noticing the peculiar scent, Miss Era. Would you mind taking that tray of samples out to Mel?”
I could leave? “Not at all, Senator,” I said and then hurriedly picked up the tray and walked out the door. I stopped just outside the room, because something about his inhale struck me as off. It was probably nothing, but… I put the tray carefully on the ground and then turned around and pushed open the door to find Cross beneath a very animated blonde, only her eyes were dead, face blank, but she was definitely killing Cross.
No one got to kill him except for me.
I shifted past the adorable wolf and straight to my beast in a confetti of my clothing. With one lunge and a powerful snap of my jaws, I bit off her head. If she wasn’t already dead, that would have done something, but as it was, I ripped off her arm next, then her knee, and after that, there was nothing but pieces left of her.
I pinned Cross against the counter, slobbering down at him, snapping my jaws and licking my teeth to try to get the flavor of the possessed girl out of my mouth.
“I need to analyze her remains,” Cross said with a slight smile on his beautiful face. And those eyes. I had to taste them.
I licked him, a long, slobbery licking that would hopefully clean all the dead girl off him. His eyes tasted like the rest of him, delicious. Carnations. Mine. After that, I turned and pounced on the dead girl, and then proceeded to show the remains just what I thought of them coming to life and touching my elf.
“Okay,” Cross said, face dripping with werewolf saliva while he stood there, kind of frozen in place. “I guess you’ll take care of her remains instead.”
The door burst open and Melville came in with three other people who stopped abruptly when they saw me. They weren’t afraid, but wary, and each pulled out a variety of weapons that would do a lot of damage. A big, bearded man moved through the others. When he saw me, he growled and nodded a greeting to me. Oh. He was a wolf.
“Harold. You’re early,” Cross said, still frozen and covered in slime.
Harold smiled at Cross before turning back to me. “Did you kill her well?”
I growled at him. “Already dead. Animated death is not killable.”
He raised his brows. “You’re very eloquent for a beast.”
I straightened slowly until I towered over him. I shook my head and shifted back to human, then stumbled into a counter while Cross stepped in front of me, shaking out a lab coat to wrap around me while he blocked me with his body so no one else would see me in my furless glory. I shook my head again while I put my arms through the sleeves. I’d been a werewolf for over fifteen years. Random nudity was just part of the glorious package, but I still wasn’t used to it, particularly other people seeing my beast. No, I made a point of keeping my wolf and beast under wraps. No one else ever got to see, but here in Cross’s compound, everyone knew what monster I had under my skin.
“Why don’t I show you to your room?” Cross said, pulling my coat closed and snapping it beneath my chin.
My teeth chattered as I said, “They let you take her. They set you up to be killed by that undead creature. Are you so delicate that a feeble zombie would kill you? No. So why bother?”
He frowned at me, sober, serious, the head of the world’s most dangerous order of secret assassins. “I don’t think they meant me to take the body. You’re right, it’s not an effective method of killing someone like me. Even if you hadn’t come back and so heroically rescued me, I would have been fine while I examined the evidence. They didn’t even plant an explosive in her.”
I took a step back while embarrassment washed over me. “The evidence. That’s what you’re doing, why you didn’t stop her right away. I destroyed evidence that you were trying to collect?” That’s the only reason he wouldn’t have destroyed the monster immediately. Of course it was. I really was an idiot.
He raised a brow, a moment of considering how to be polite and save my feelings without lying. “It would have been convenient to get answers out of her once I spelled her securely. I can often get answers out of animated dead, depending on what magic fuels them, but I’m not sure whether this would be one of those times.”
I swallowed hard while nausea churned in my belly. “Of course. My apologies for interfering with your business.”
“It’s not just my business. It’s yours as well. I should have told you what I was doing instead of sending you away without explanation. You’re too intelligent for that.”
I winced. If I were so intelligent, I wouldn’t have ripped apart a possible witness. I was so ashamed. I wanted to slink away under a bush and hide there forever. The yard had so many bushes, both around the house where everything was meticulously maintained and further out, where it blended into wild areas with a stream running through it. I couldn’t hide because we had to do a photo shoot. The house was set up, but Cross’s hair was still slicked back from my werewolf saliva. He also had several scratches from the dead girl.
“We’ll do the shoot tomorrow morning,” I said, edging away from him. “You should shower before you go to bed. For a very long time.”
He smiled but still looked puzzled as he gave me an elvish bow. “Tomorrow then. Thank you for your assistance, Miss Era.”
I left the room before I could burst into tears or something else equally embarrassing. My beast was out of control. Cross had so much Elven magic. Of course he’d be fine with the zombie girl. And if he wasn’t, why was that my problem? Maybe I couldn’t kill him, but did I have to protect him so stupidly? Yes, I did, and I hated myself for it. Everyone here was a killer, and so was I, if I wanted to be honest. I’d killed that wolf and his pack members. And that zombie girl. If she’d been a live human threatening Cross, I would have killed her then, too.
Didn’t I hate him? Yes. I was so angry at the monster who’d tortured me for so long, holding me so close while I buried my teeth into him. But at the same time, no one else had ever held me so tight, even if he was the one injecting me with agonizing substances that brought my skin back together again and again, he never left me through all of it. So maybe I also felt some gratitude. My wolf considered him hers to protect, to bathe in her noxious saliva until he drowned in her affection. Hopefully, he didn’t understand beast instincts, but what were the odds of a monster assassin not understanding something so basic?
I shook my head. My beast wasn’t me. He knew that.
“Miss Era?”
I turned to face the bearded wolf, who was looking at me with golden eyes and an impassive face. He had his wolf completely under his control, instincts locked and loaded.
“Yes? Harold, isn’t it?”
