After saying that I needed a break from werewolf information, Emmitt and I joined the others in the front yard just in time for sprinkler races. I let the rest run while I sat in the shade, thinking. My mental list of questions wasn’t any shorter than when we’d started. What could I do to stop Blake? Would he pick up traces of my scent and have enough of a broken trail to follow me here? Why did Blake want me to Claim one of his men? And if humans and werewolves didn’t have relationships, why did I feel a pull in my stomach when I looked at Emmitt?
After Emmitt’s explanation of my scent appealing to all werewolves, I really needed Nana Wini to clarify a few things for me. She’d said scent was how werewolves found their Mates but then hinted werewolves and humans didn’t work. So what did that mean for me? And why was biting even necessary?
Since it was too early for lunch, I struggled to come up with an excuse to invite Nana upstairs. But, I needed the distance and closed door to ensure we wouldn’t be overheard. I didn’t want to embarrass myself with my line of questioning.
Perhaps my repeated looks her direction gave me away because she came to sit by me without any manipulation on my part.
“Everything okay?” she asked after a moment. For having run through the sprinkler several times, she didn’t drip any water. In fact, her shirt only sported a few wet marks.
“Could we talk?” I said it quietly, but Emmitt glanced up at me anyway. “In private?” Might as well send up the red flag for everyone.
“Of course. Let’s go inside. I saw you did a load of laundry. I’ll help you fold.”
I nodded, relieved. I hated folding laundry.
With a basket of freshly washed shirts and shorts between us, we sat on the couch in my closed apartment. The humidity and heat hadn’t yet seeped in, but it wouldn’t take long before it drove us back downstairs. Knowing I didn’t have much time, I took a calming breath and prepared myself for the possibility of the werewolf version of “the talk”.
“You and Emmitt mentioned a few things that I don’t really understand. I have an idea, but…what does Claiming really mean?” Her brows rose slightly as I spoke. “Please keep it cliff-noted,” I said desperately.
She laughed and patted my hand. “No details, I promise. I heard Emmitt explain that Claiming for our kind is a bite on the neck.”
My heart thumped heavily in panic and the image from the vision I had starring Emmitt and me resurfaced.
“That bite has a purpose. It establishes a connection between the pair similar to what I have with each individual—”
I opened my mouth to ask for clarification, but she held up a finger in the universal just-a-minute sign.
“—but at a reduced level. A Mated pair will know what each other is feeling if the emotions are strong enough. It can also be a way to sense each other’s location. This is especially important to the pair as separation can cause anxiety.”
So it was more than a simple human engagement. It was a mental tie, an instant tracking device. A shiver of fear traced its way through my middle.
“Mating is the next stage.”
Whoa! That got my attention. I turned crimson and thought about covering my ears. She laughed at my expression and held up her hands.
“As promised, no details. But I do want you to know that the connection the pair has because of the Claiming evolves when Mated. They will be able to send thoughts to each other. Complete silent communication regardless of distance.”
I felt as if she’d slapped me then caught the other cheek on the back swing. “Telepathy?”
“Yes. A Mated pair’s communication is much closer to what I, as an Elder, have with all werewolves.”
“All of them?” Fear clogged my throat. I could feel Blake’s hands around my neck again, and I gasped for air. I’d only wanted to know what scenting had to do with Claiming and how it applied to Blake. I didn’t want to know she communicated with him.
She nodded as she eyed me curiously. Someone knocked on the door just then, and I jumped slightly. Nana continued to watch me. Glancing over my shoulder, I called out in a strangled voice. Emmitt walked in, saw me, and flashed an annoyed look at Nana.
“She’s fine, Emmitt. We’re asking her to take in a lot of information at a frequency that I would imagine makes it hard to assimilate everything.” Nana set her stack of folded clothes back into the basket and rose.
She didn’t understand the reason for my panic. I tried to calm myself.
Just because she had the ability to communicate with all of them, didn’t mean she actually did. Or perhaps she didn’t do so frequently. Maybe the last time she’d communicated with Blake, he hadn’t yet found me. It could explain why they didn’t know about my premonitions. But if he had been hiding me, amassing his fortune, where was his wolfie loyalty Nana mentioned? Shouldn’t he have shared the money with the rest of his kind? Maybe his loyalty only applied to himself. I wanted to believe that hopeful thought but couldn’t ignore the other possibilities.
My hands grew cold and sweaty at the thought of Nana inadvertently communicating my location to every werewolf in existence.
Emmitt stood beside me until she left then sank down on his heels, eye level with me.
“I can smell your fear.”
I didn’t look up. While staring at bare feet that glistened with water droplets, I tried to breathe through the dread that held me tight.
“I don’t know what to do.” The comment popped out without warning. Something about him just made me want to spill everything, to trust that he would keep me safe.
A gentle touch under my chin had me lifting my head and meeting his concerned gaze.
“About what?”
His fingers moved from my chin to feather along my jawline. Sighing, I closed my eyes and words spilled from my mouth again before I decided what I wanted to say.
“I want to tell you. I start thinking I should. Then I learn more, and I can’t.”
“I don’t know what else to do to prove you can trust me. I’ll wait forever if you need me to. There’s nowhere else for me to be, but by you.”
My eyes popped open. “That’s part of what I don’t understand. You talk about my scent. Nana talks about a pull. I see—”
I stopped myself just in time. Divulging that I saw the two of us together would lead to the fact that I had premonitions. I couldn’t say anything about that until I had a better understanding of how Blake played into their lives.
“Well, never mind about what I see. But Nana said that humans and werewolves don’t work, so why are you talking like I’m…that you and I…” I stopped, not sure how far I wanted to spell out my confusion. I already sounded like an idiot.
He tilted his head. Not like he usually did when I puzzled him, but as if he could hear something I couldn’t.
“Do you want Nana to come talk to you some more?” he asked softly after a moment.
Why would she need to come and talk to me again? Realization dawned. A shallow connection. Was that what this really was about? My legs started to shake with my embarrassment. I was wanted too much by one werewolf for the wrong reason and not enough by the other for the right reason.
I looked away, displacing his touch on my face. “No, that’s not necessary. I’m sorry I misunderstood. Like Nana said, it’s a lot to take in.”
He growled low, the sound reverberating deep in his chest. The noise reminded me of Blake, and my gaze flew back to him. He shook his head slowly, and his growl quieted.
“You’re getting me in trouble. Nana is scolding me for growling.”
She should. It had scared me. But how did she know? My eyes flicked to the closed apartment door. Was she just outside, listening?
“And I’m frustrated that we keep misunderstanding each other. May I please explain myself clearly?”
Heart still thumping from his growl, I nodded hesitantly. It couldn’t hurt to listen to more. Everything else I’d learned churned in my thoughts until they turned into mud. What was one more glop of sludge?
His hand slid into my hair, and he closed the distance between us. “I saw you in the diner and felt an instant recognition. When you walked in, you flooded my senses until only one word beat through my mind.” He leaned in until his lips brushed my ear. “Mine.” A slight growl roughened his voice when he said it, and I shivered.
“So, when I say I’ll wait forever to earn your trust, I will. My heart is yours. My loyalty, yours.”
He inhaled deeply near the curve of my neck. My insides heated, and I barely stopped myself from wrapping my arms around him.
“If all you can give is friendship, I’ll take it. For you, I’ll take anything. Do you understand?”
I nodded, but the mud in my head remained.
“Liar,” he whispered pulling me up off the couch. He looked into my eyes. “What don’t you understand?”
“Nana said humans and werewolves…”
Emmitt distracted me. Freeing his hand of my hair, he trailed his fingers down the curve of my neck then traced my collarbone to the base of my throat. Tiny shivers followed their paths.
“You’re different. Special. That rule doesn’t apply to you.” Like a bucket of ice water, his words penetrated the fog his fingers had made.
“Different?” I feared I’d found out their lie, that they already knew.
He continued to trace his fingertips along the collarbone to the other shoulder, and I struggled to stay focused.
“There’s nothing wrong with being different. My mom’s different. Human like you.”
Hope flared. Could she really be like me?
“I’ll make you a deal. You tell me a little bit about your past, whatever you can trust me with, and I’ll tell you about my mom.”
I considered his offer. He politely kept his fingers still so I could think, which told me he knew exactly what he did to me.
“I think my mom was killed. My stepdad, too. If they catch us, they’ll hurt one of my brothers. Bad. To teach me a lesson. Their safety kept me there, a willing prisoner, until I realized the boys were only useful young. Their lives would end like my mother’s and their father’s as soon as they were no longer useful.”
He pulled me into a tight embrace. Comfort radiated from him, and I gave into the urge and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my face in his chest. I felt safe and protected. I wanted that feeling to last forever. To trust it.
“I have two big secrets.” It came out muffled, but he didn’t let me go. “One will test the sincerity of what you just said, and the other will give you power over me.”
“Then tell me the first one. Test me to see if I’m worthy of the second one,” he said, his breath warming my hair.
“I want to, but what if you’re wrong. You’ll hand me back over—”
“Never,” he growled. His arms trembled against my back.
I looked up in time to catch the bones in his face shifting under the surface of his skin. Eyes closed, he struggled to control it.
“Mine,” he reiterated, tightening his hold.
I couldn’t keep living here, wanting to trust yet unsure where I stood with him, with Nana, with the werewolves in general.
“Blake killed them. My mom, Richard.” I took a breath and whispered the words that I knew would seal my fate.
“He’s one of you.”
The words had barely left my mouth when Emmitt’s body gave a huge lurch. Bones didn’t just move, his shape exploded into his other form. His sudden shift bumped me backwards. He fell to all fours, facing me. He tipped his head back and started yowling. Eyes wide, I listened for barely a moment before the door swung open.
Nana and Jim rushed in. Nana, looking stern and concerned, planted herself in front of Emmitt. Jim picked me up from the couch and dashed down the stairs.
“Control is…”
I only caught those two words. The rest faded as we reached the second floor landing.
“We left the boys outside,” Jim said. “They can probably hear Emmitt.”
He set me on my feet before we reached the door. I wobbled a bit, and he had to steady me. We stood in the shadowed entry. The boys still played on the swing set, though I saw Liam glancing up toward our apartment.
“What happened?” I asked, looking up at Jim.
He chuckled a little. “We’ve talked about your secret and tried to guess what it might be. You’d mentioned Blake a few times. Emmitt thought he was your stepfather until you corrected him. Then he was sure Blake was a controlling boyfriend from your past. Human. Easy to deal with. Finding out one of our own mistreated you, someone we consider rare and special, well, it put him over the edge. He’s still swearing.”
“Swearing?” I couldn’t believe that noise had been swearing. It’d been more like a one-sided dog fight. “Then why did you guys rush up there?”
Jim’s face lost its humor. “After your admission, Nana thought his sudden shift might turn your fear to include us. She wanted to put some distance between the two of you until he calmed down.” His gaze flicked to the steps behind me. I caught his lips twitching before he turned away. “Let’s go check on the boys and give Emmitt a minute to get dressed. Our clothes don’t shift with us.”
I followed him, not wanting to check the stairs behind me. I wasn’t ready for any more of an eyeful.
Once we stepped out in the sunlight, I started perspiring and wished we could sit on the porch. The boys didn’t seem to mind the heat. Probably because they were still wet from the sprinkler.
“You really didn’t know?” I asked as we walked toward the swing set. I waved at Liam to let him know everything was okay.
“Nope. That’s a bit of a shocker. It will take Nana some time to figure out who Blake is.”
“No!” I spun back toward the house, but Jim caught me before I could take a step.
“No one will do anything without talking to you. I promise.”
I glanced nervously at the house then back at the boys. They stood tense, watching me because of my outburst. I relaxed so Jim would let me go.
“Emmitt’s talking to Nana now. I can hear some of what they are saying. We understand what’s at risk.”
Both boys held themselves back from greeting Jim as we neared. I knew Aden just followed Liam’s lead. Liam, ever cautious, eyed Jim. I hated lying to them but didn’t want them to revert into their distrustful selves.
“Don’t use the TV upstairs,” I said to the boys. “The volume’s broken. We’ll have to get a new one.” I turned to Jim. “Sorry for scaring you.”
He nodded, understanding my lie.
Aden asked Jim to push him on the swing. My explanation for the noise and Jim and Nana’s disappearance were good enough for him. I moved to Liam, who still watched Jim closely.
“He runs fast,” Liam stated quietly, meeting my eyes. Too smart for five.
I nodded in agreement. “Just remember that if he and Aden challenge you and Emmitt to a race.”
“I’ll ask Nana to be my partner,” he said seriously. “She runs faster.”
It didn’t take long for Emmitt and Nana to reappear. Emmitt stayed on the porch while Nana walked toward me.
“We need to know more to understand how best to protect you.” She spoke in a low tone so that only I could hear. Well, probably Jim and Emmitt too, but at least the boys remained oblivious. “Would you mind talking to Emmitt on the porch?”
I agreed and shuffled toward Emmitt, unsure how he’d react to me. He met me on the bottom step, captured my fingers, and tugged me down to sit next to him. My stomach somersaulted at the contact, and I eased my hand away, wanting to concentrate. The churning didn’t completely leave, though, because our shoulders still touched, and I couldn’t bring myself to move further away.
“I apologize for losing control. It will never happen again.” He rested his arms loosely on his knees and turned his head to study me.
His spontaneous shifting had surprised me, maybe even freaked me out a little at the time, but it didn’t bother me now. “Did my secret change anything?”
“Not the way I feel. But it does change how we need to deal with Blake. Will you tell me more? How did he find you?”
“Remember when I told you Richard and my mom married and then things changed? Blake changed everything. I don’t know how Richard got involved with him, but one day, Richard brought Blake home. He spoke smoothly. Salesman-nice is what my mom called it. She didn’t like Blake.
“Looking back, I think that’s why she died after Aden was born. I think Blake knew she would be a problem. She would have tried to stop what he had planned. So, he killed her. With her gone and two little boys to worry about, Blake had Richard on strings, dancing to his commands. Suddenly, I wasn’t allowed to leave the house anymore. Disobedience wasn’t tolerated.” I watched my brothers play. “I tried to run once. When they caught me, Blake slapped Liam. Hard. His handprint turned into a bruise that covered Liam’s little face from temple to jaw.”
Emmitt growled low in his throat, startling me. When I glanced at him, he had his eyes closed and jaw clenched. The skin on his forearm rippled slightly. I glanced at Nana and Jim unsure what to do. The boys didn’t need to witness Emmitt shifting, and I didn’t want to get knocked off the porch steps.
Nana didn’t acknowledge us, but she did move to block Liam’s view. How did she know?
“I promised not to lose control, and I won’t. However, I can’t help reacting,” he said after a moment. An underlying growl roughened his voice. He lifted his head and met my eyes. I could see his anger. “We don’t hit children.”
I nodded slowly. He might not, but Blake sure did.
“So I stayed and obeyed, and Blake had me by the same strings he had Richard. Every month he brought men to the house. He called it a business meeting but the men never talked business. They never said anything. They just stared at me.
“Then, at the beginning of the summer, Blake became driven.” I paused, looking off at the trees as I remembered my last night there. “The dinner before I ran, Blake went crazy. He grabbed me by the throat, and his face started to change. Not all the way like you did. Only a little. His fangs scared me. While he held me, he told me I would allow all of the men to ‘scent’ me. He said I would bite and Claim one of them.”
I felt Emmitt shudder beside me and touched his trembling hand in comfort. When he stilled, I continued.
“I held myself still as they approached me one by one, afraid they would change like Blake had. After the first one, I closed my eyes. When they finished, Blake told me to go to my room.
“The next morning Blake called. He told me that Richard was dead. I don’t doubt Blake killed him, and I think Richard expected it because that morning there’d been an envelope shoved under my door. Important documents, cash, and a number for a lawyer were in it. Richard had written a note telling me to run. I hit David over the head and ran fast. I took my mom’s car, not knowing how to drive. I almost backed into the mailbox.” I looked up at Emmitt. “He won’t give up.”
Something in his eyes gave me real hope. I wanted to believe I wasn’t alone and unprotected in a world filled with strange beings. I shook just thinking about it.
Emmitt wrapped an arm around me and hugged me close, resting his chin on top my head. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore. By exposing our kind to you and using humans like he did, he broke our laws. He’ll pay for what he did.”
“I don’t understand. How is what he did different from what you did? Not that you’ve used us. I mean, you showed me what you are.”
He lifted his head, tilted it as if listening, then sighed. “I’ll let Nana answer the questions about the rules and laws tomorrow. We’ve had enough excitement for one day.”
My gaze flicked to Nana. With her back to us, she pushed Liam on the swing. “Was she just talking to you?”
Emmitt didn’t ask whom I meant. “Yes. She’s worried about you. Jim gives you too much to drink last night. She scolds us this morning. I prove what werewolves are capable of. She reveals more about Claiming and Mating than you’re comfortable with. Then we find out everything we’ve asked you to understand about us is on top of an exposure to our kind that’s left you distrustful and fearful. And I burst into my fur in front of you.” He paused, a small, self-depreciating smile playing about his lips. “It’s a lot to take in before lunch.”
I nodded in agreement. Yet, now that I’d told them about Blake, it didn’t feel so bad.
After the silence between us stretched, Emmitt joined the boys in their sprinkler races, leaving me to my thoughts. One secret down. How would they deal with my ability, though? Staying in the shade, I contentedly sat on the porch and watched their antics while I dwelled on my premonitions.
Nana went inside after a while. I didn’t know how she could stand the heat.
I knew I needed to plan for tomorrow’s premonition, but instead, I watched the ripple of Emmitt’s muscles while he twisted, turned, and jumped through the water. His chest was wet again from the sprinkler, and he was almost as tan as Jim from his time outside. I struggled not to drool. His words echoed in my head. I was his. Did that then mean he was mine? I liked the idea of that. My stomach tightened.
He turned, caught me watching, and winked. Given my thoughts, my face flamed. He frowned, stopped playing, and strode toward me. I felt my face heat further and looked away, trying to calm down. My averted gaze didn’t last long. I couldn’t not look at him.
As he approached, his nostrils flared. His lips curved in a knowing smile. My stomach went crazy, and my breathing spiked. With a gleam in his eyes, he leapt onto the porch, bypassing the steps, and stalked me.
“Do you have a phone with a data plan, or a computer with internet?” I asked randomly.
My question brought him up short. He tilted his head and studied me with a curious look before shaking his head.
Nana stepped out just then with a tray of sandwiches.
“Emmitt, go get the boys. Michelle, will you fetch a hand towel?”
Glad for the reprieve, I ran inside. Nana had the boys wipe their hands so their sandwiches didn’t disintegrate when they touched them.
We all ate on the porch, and after Emmitt finished eating, he quietly excused himself. I watched him walk inside. When he stepped out again, dressed in a shirt and jeans, he said he’d be back later and strode to his bike. The roar of the engine and a cloud of dust marked his passage and left me wondering where he’d gone.
Tired from an afternoon of playing, the boys fell asleep quickly, leaving me with nothing to do. I jogged back downstairs, returned the books I’d finished, and borrowed another one from Nana. Back in our apartment, I pulled the office chair onto the dark porch then settled down to read. Reading wasn’t easy. I had to angle the book to catch the light from the kitchen. Still, I relaxed and listened to the night sounds.
Several chapters in, I heard the distant rumble of a familiar engine. I smiled to myself and stayed sitting in the dim circle of light, waiting. It didn’t take long for Emmitt to pull into the driveway. I could taste the dust in the air; we needed rain again. He slowly pulled into the garage and cut the engine.
His eyes glinted when he stepped from the garage and looked up at me. I gave a small wave, knowing he would see me. A few minutes later, I heard his footsteps in the kitchen behind me.
“Nice chair,” he said with a hint of laughter.
I glanced back at him. “It’s my new office.”
“Then you might need this.” He lifted a dark object he’d been holding.
Spinning the chair around, I reached for it. The small sleek tablet caught the light, and I glanced up at Emmitt with a frown. He’d left to buy me a tablet?
“The guy at the store said you should be able to surf the internet, even out here.”
I accepted the outrageous gift quietly. The sensibility of having it for tomorrow outweighed the need to protest at the expense.
“Thank you, Emmitt. I’ll try to pay you back.” But I doubted the stack of bills left in the envelope was enough to pay for it. When pulling a bill out here and there to give to Jim or Nana so they could buy us groceries, I never stopped to count what remained. The thinning pile told me enough.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s a gift.”
He stepped onto the porch and moved to lean against the wall. In silence, we watched the stars twinkling over the trees.
“Pretty crazy day,” he commented after a few minutes.
“Makes sitting in my office at night just that much better.” I didn’t really want to talk about the day. If I did, it would really hit home how messed up my life was. I preferred to bumble along in denial for as long as I could.
He pushed away from the wall. “If you need to talk about anything, I’ll be here.” Then, he left quietly.
I stared off at the stars until a distant howl reminded me I had work to do.
