"Wake up, bitch."
The slap to my face didn't hurt as much as Flicka thought it did. She was crowing in triumphant glee in her thoughts, which was ironically what grounded me in reality and allowed me to stay calm the second the slap woke me. Little did she know that I had been slapped by Elly and Maria so much when I was younger that I hardly cared about such trivial attacks anymore.
What I was more concerned and confused about was how I was back in human form. They must have forced me back into this shape at some point while I was unconscious. And they had shoved me into a loose hospital-gown like article, thin and drafty--
"I said, wake up!"
The second slap didn't faze me either, which only made Flicka even more frustrated. She knew I was conscious again. I had opened my eyes and was looking straight at her when she shouted again. What she was upset about was that I wasn't groveling and sniveling, and that threw her off so much she had no idea what to d
EARLIER:Evan no longer had Peelle at his side. He had only the counsel of werewolves whose first concern was excitedly throwing themselves into the drama, not saving Claudia. They didn't understand. This threat delivered over their radio frequency to not attack, that if they did, the enemy would slit Claudia's throat. Evan would listen to their demands, or he would lose his woman.The others didn't understand. They had all shaken their heads and nearly laughed, as if it was some kind of joke. As if they couldn't believe the audacity of someone to try to threaten their fearsome Alpha Evan with the life of some... some no-account half-breed woman, a former slave no less.Someone had even dared to say that aloud. In the next second, he had gone flying across the room and smashed into the wall before sliding to the floor, stunned. In no uncertain terms did Evan make his message clear: Claudia was no mere plaything, nor was she a failed bait.The demand from
This was a trap. It was meant to be the end of him. Evan had walked into too many battles to miss the signs, the scent in the air, the killing intent buried in crafty tricks.He stood before the Wellington Federal Bank alone, in the shadow of the massive building where he had already caught more than two dozen unique scents. There would have been more had Evan's pack not circled the entire area -- though from a distance of about half a kilometer out. Evan had forbidden anyone from coming any closer. He wouldn't risk Claudia. But to forestall a backstabbing, he had ordered all werewolves already outside the base to gather at a safe radius, surrounding the patch of land to hem in the enemy should they try to escape. Or, more importantly, to fight whoever else tried to come in and reinforce the enemy's numbers so as to overwhelm Evan even more.Two dozen enemies and some change. That was a lot. They weren't all werewolves either, probably a lion shifter in the mix and a t
Evan left Claudia's side exactly twice.The first was when he presented himself at the trial to decide the traitors' fates. Matthen Joseph and the Glily family faced the judgment of the pack three days after the end of the Scarlet pack siege, and the judgment came swift and harsh.Matthen Joseph was sentenced to death, although that was probably preferable to the lifelong agony he would have had to suffer otherwise thanks to the gruesome injuries he suffered at Evan's hands in the fight. They had been so severe his werewolf healing had failed to regenerate them properly. When he stared blankly around the Quad where the entire rest of the Scarlet pack had gathered, glaring at him as they would any enemy, he quietly accepted his execution.Evan was not the one who rendered it. He had spilled enough blood, and Claudia had wanted him to leave things up to the natural majority, not take lives at a whim. It was a little thing. He could do that for her. Instead, the Sc
When I opened my eyes, I remembered nothing. For a terrifying moment, I couldn't even remember who I was.But there was a warmth on my belly and chest, the weight of something reassuringly heavy and solid. Someone was resting their head on me and holding my hand. Someone I knew. Someone I wanted desperately to never leave me.And then it all flowed back like a river crashing through a broken dam, washing over me in a mighty wave."Claudia!"I must have awoken Evan somehow even though I hadn't even moved. Eyes wide, I stared up at him, too stunned to answer.But I didn't have to. He wrapped me up in an embrace, hauling me up from the hospital bed as if I weighed no more than a feather. The way he held me was desperate, terrified, frenzied yet gentle, and before I knew it I was clutching at him too."Evan," I whispered, lost for words. I could only say his name over and over again -- "Evan!"Because now I knew.Now I felt it.
Nine years before Claudia and Evan reunited on Dark Moon territory, they met once before in a dark forest not too far away. Freezing rain pelted the trees, and winds battered the branches so hard that with each gust, needles and twigs and stray leaves ripped off to fly about. In the dark of that winter night, a young boy staggered through the heart of the forest, bleeding and bruised everywhere from head to toe.Something was strange about this forest. Evan had never seen such thick fog before, especially when this was no ordinary rainfall. Was it even possible for a mist this thick to roll in with freezing rain?He groped forward blindly, unable to see anything past the thick curtain. Even if the way forward was concealed from his sight, he had to keep moving. He had run far and fast to get away from the older and stronger werewolves pursuing him, and although this mist made it impossible to know where he was going, it helped him avoid capture at the same time. Those
"You have to catch my bouquet.""Raf, I'm already married.""It doesn't matter! It's the principle of the thing. I caught yours, now you have to catch mine!""But--""No buts!"Raf fixated on the strangest things. Normally, I would write this off as one of her playful moments or even her stubborn ones where she knew she wasn't quite right but dug her heels in anyway for sentiment's sake. But that wasn't the case now. Raf was about to explode ten minutes before her wedding rehearsal started, and she was channeling all her frantic energy into arguments that made no sense."Raf. Listen to me. This is just practice, okay? You'll be fine."She didn't even try to deny her anxiety. She flopped into the chair and splayed over it, the hem of her white cocktail dress fraying against the strain. "This is going to be a disaster! Why is there only one rehearsal! What if something goes wrong now or we have to change something! Then the actual weddi
Peelle and Osborn were tearing up the house long before they could even walk properly. Blessed with overpoweringly strong werewolf genes thanks to their father, they could slightly shift their fingertips to sharp clawed points, and they decorated the walls, floor, and furniture with their artistic masterpieces anytime we so much as blinked.This was unsustainable. At this rate, we might as well just put all repairs on hold until they were old enough to learn they shouldn't draw castles and dragons into expensive wood and leather. We had already stopped trying to patch up the dresser as it was. On either side of it, there were about twenty tangled pictures clawed into the wood, just like the two previous dressers that had been there before.I hoped they would turn their artist talents to paper or another, less expensive medium soon..."Oh, man. I can't believe they're already so big." Raf bounced her little daughter in her arms as she stared goggle-eyed at Peelle
Lucas Hanson was every bit the grizzled private eye stereotype I expected. Salt and pepper beard, dark fedora, tan trench coat, an unlit cigar hanging out of his mouth, even the pose. He stood in the living room when we entered, hands in his pockets and looking mysterious as anything."Claudia Scarlet and Ken Joseph, I presume.""That would be us." Ken stuck his hand out for a shake, and the man examined it with a skeptical eye before accepting it. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I heard you've been on the case for over a year.""Not the entire time. I only do the work I'm paid for." Lucas raised a lit lighter to his cigar, but reconsidered after looking around and remembering he was indoors, evidently. He tucked the light back into his pocket. "But yeah. A month on the case before. And been a month and a half that I've worked on it again. Found some things. Trails die fast, though. Should have kept me on it instead of taking me off the first time."