Chapter Two: Whiskey

Grant

Alex snuggled down into her dad’s old hunting quilt, and I pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Goodnight, Kiddo.” I stood up, ruffling her hair before I turned toward the door, hoping to high hell that what happened tonight wouldn’t mentally scar her for life.

“Uncle Grant?” She called after me, looking up at me with my brother’s eyes. “We’re safe here, right?”

My chest felt constricted, and I had to fight to keep the snarl off of my face when I thought about that weaselly little dirtbag who tried to snatch my niece off the street earlier tonight.

All I could think about was tracking the piece of shit down and showing him that he messed with the wrong family. This kid was all I had left, and I’d be damned if I let anyone try to hurt her and live to tell about it.

But right now, Alex needed me to keep my cool. Letting her see me get upset would only scare her more.

Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to smile at her, leaning against her doorframe. “You’ll always be safe here, Alex. You have me to protect you.”

She was quiet for a moment, curling back into her bed, and for a moment I didn’t think she was going to respond, but then her small voice krept out from under the old blanket. “I’m sorry I left the yard. I should have listened to you.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Sweetpea. Usually, Moonhollow’s a safe town, you couldn’t have known what would happen.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “I’ll bring that dirtbag’s hoodie to the police station in the morning after you get on the bus, then they can deal with him.”

“Do you think we’ll see Deidre again?” She asked, so innocently, but just hearing that name made my throat itch.

I swallowed harshly, trying to push the feeling down. “Well, she’s moving into the cottage in the woods, so she’ll probably be around town. Why do you ask?”

“She just . . . ” Alex stared up at the glow-in-the-dark stars River glued to her ceiling when she was still tiny, and it made my eyes sting. “She seemed nice.”

“I’m sure she is.” This was a dangerous topic of conversation—always had been, even when River was alive—so I knew I needed to tread carefully.

Alex never knew her mom—Mandy. Mandy died giving birth to her, so it’d just been Alex, River, and I since day one, and that’s made it real complicated any time a woman came into our lives.

The last thing I needed was for my niece to latch onto Deidre—nothing good could come of that.

“So, why didn’t you give her your number?”

“Because I don’t know her.” I was a little too quick to respond, so I forced a smile and ruffled Alex’s hair, making sure she knew I wasn’t mad. “Now, you’d better get to sleep. You have school in the morning.”

“Okay,” she sighed, and I tucked the quilt over her shoulders. “I love you, Uncle Grant.”

“I love you too, Kiddo.”

With that, I turned out her light and stepped out of her room. Once the door was shut, I leaned against the wall with a heavy sigh.

She was almost kidnapped. My niece was almost a fucking statistic.

Alex was too young to have to worry about this kind of shit, especially in a tiny little town like Moonhollow. Back when I was a kid, the worst crime that ever happened here was some light vandalism and shoplifting—and it was usually River and I behind it.

At least, until all those men disappeared from their annual trip, my bastard of a father included.

Most of the bodies were found torn to shreds deep in the woods, only one was missing—Rowan Carey. Deidre’s father.

The official report claimed it was a rabid bear that killed the hunters, but I learned the truth last year, when I saw the culprit for myself.

Walking into my kitchen, I pulled a bottle of whiskey from the high up cabinet, bringing it to the counter where my shot glass still sat from earlier in the night, before I realized that Alex wasn’t in the yard.

Thinking about the incident made me . . . thirsty. One shot didn’t feel like enough, so I brought the bottle to my lips instead, taking a long swig.

The snarling beast inside me seemed to settle after the liquor hit my system, like it usually did, but it didn’t chase away the memories of that monster.

It wasn’t a bear that killed those men all those years ago, it was a wolf—no normal animal, but a savage beast of a monster that went on to infect me with its curse.

If I had to guess, I’d say the same thing happened to Deidre’s dad.

If that was true, I couldn’t blame him for choosing to leave his family behind and disappear into the woods. I’d have done the same if it weren’t for Alex, but I was the only family she had to take her in after her dad died.

She needed me, so I needed to do whatever I could to keep the beast in check.

The liquor burned my throat as I took another swig, and my mind lingered on Deidre Carey.

Last time I saw her at Ethel’s place she was just a little girl, not much older than Alex. But she sure as hell wasn’t a kid anymore.

Something about her was inexplicably magnetic—just being near her riled the beast lurking inside of me, and that made her dangerous.

It’d been a long time since I’d had a woman in my life, even before the curse, but it was more than just loneliness that made me want to get my hands all over Deidre.

The second the silver moons of her eyes met mine, I felt it, like she had my soul on a leash with a single glance through those lashes. And she felt it too—I knew she did. I could smell it on her.

Which was why I needed to stay the hell away from her.

The only girl I needed to worry about was my ten year old niece, sleeping in the room at the end of the hall. If what almost happened tonight told me anything, it was that Alex needed me to be here, being a responsible guardian.

Not chasing Deidre around like a buck in rut.

I could feel the beast inside of me panting, begging to be let out, and a growl built in my throat as I forced it back down.

In the past year, I’d gotten pretty good at keeping a tight lid on my curse—especially if I had a drink in my hand, but something about her made the animal inside me so much more desperate to escape.

And it wasn’t just the wolf in me that wanted her.

Seeing her standing there in the moonlight, defending my niece from that creep with her teeth bared in a vicious snarl, made my heart skip a beat.

She didn’t even know Alex. She just saw a kid in danger and put herself in harm’s way to keep that little girl safe.

If it weren’t for my curse, I’d have given her my number then and there. A woman like that was the kind of woman I’d like to see in Alex’s life . . . but it wouldn’t be fair to bring her into this.

It was bad enough that I was the town drunk—she never needed to find out that I’d become a monster too.

Chugging what remained of the bottle, I put the traitorous thought out of my mind. Indulging thoughts like that would only float me out onto dangerous waters, and I was in no position to go taking risks like that.

“Sorry, River,” I murmured, setting the bottle down on the counter with a satisfying clack. “But I don’t have much choice.”