Slate drove on for what seemed like several hours. Everly wondered how much gas he had in his motorcycle and whether they might run out and not be able to get back home.
But they were wolves, so they could always run back home eventually, right?She did have her phone. So she hoped she’d be able to call her father at some point. Would they be able to get a signal this deep in the woods?It was getting dark. Part of it was because of the woods. They were so tall here, in the shadows of the mountains, which they’d begun to creep up a bit the further they went, the tops of the trees easily blocked out the beams of the sun as it began to fade over the edge of the horizon.“Shouldn’t you turn your headlight on?” Everly asked Slate once it got so dark she was having trouble seeing. Now that she was a wolf shifter, she could see better than she could before, but it was still getting harder for her to see into the darkness around them.With the council members locked in the jail cells, Jack was ready to go try and find Victor, but he was also nervous. “What about Jim?” he asked his dad.“Slate’s mom went to talk to him,” Victor replied. “Why don’t you let your mom and I take care of that. You need to go find Everly and get her as far away from here as possible. We’ll tell the school that both of you have mono. They’ll believe that. You have good grades. Jamie can write you excuses.”Jack nodded—that was a good way to get them dismissed for the last week of school before the end of the year, but they would have to figure all of this out before the spring semester. He knew how important it was to Everly that she graduate from high school with good grades so that she could go to a good college. It wouldn’t matter to her that she would be the Luna of his pack and had a guaranteed job and plenty of money for the rest of her life.Or
“Can I help you, young lady?” a gruff, yet somewhat feminine voice asked.Everly took a step back. She wished she could mind-link with Slate to tell him that they weren’t alone. Now that she was looking at this person, she appeared to be a harmless older woman, but there was really no way to know that for sure, and they were obviously in her house.“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Everly said. “My friend and I were looking for a cabin that his father told us we should go to… to find shelter… but… I guess we’re in the wrong place. We didn’t mean to intrude.” She didn’t know why she was stammering. It wasn’t like the lady was imposing. Everly was probably six inches taller than her. She had hunched shoulders, graying hair, and was probably fifty pounds heavier than she should’ve been. It was clear she wasn’t going to hurt her.But then, maybe she had some sort of supe
The darker it got, the harder it was to see Slate’s tracks. And it was also getting to be more of a challenge to smell Everly. The scents of the forest were beginning to mingle with Everly’s scene, and a rainstorm was beginning to blow in from the east—either that or a snowstorm, he wasn’t quite sure which one—so it was becoming difficult to stay right in the tracks of the last bike.Jack didn’t want to turn his headlight on for fear that it would attract unwanted attention. He’d heard from Alyson that the other packs were out and about, but they hadn’t come directly to the village. The council had told them that Everly was out in the woods, and they were in the process of trying to find her tracks so that they could hunt her down out there, wherever she was.That meant that Jack was currently in more danger than the pack members at home. But as long as he didn’t attract attention to himself, then he could protect t
“A werewolf?” Everly repeated. “You don’t mean a wolf shifter like us, but a werewolf, right?”“No, I mean a werewolf. You shouldn’t be surprised, though. You know all about werewolves, don’t you, dear?”Everly knew what she was getting at. She nodded. “And you’re a human?”The woman nodded. “I am.”“Aren’t you scared?” Slate asked. He folded his arms across his massive chest. “Aren’t you afraid that one of these werewolves will go berserk and hurt you?”She nodded her head. “Most of the time, they’re just regular people. It’s only during a full moon that they have trouble controlling themselves. They come here to purposely make sure that they don’t get hurt or hurt anyone else.”“How many of them are there?” Everly asked. It wasn’t the real question that she wanted to ask, especial
The plan wasn’t working.Jack had begun to hear howling in the distance a little over an hour ago, but now that the sun was down completely, and it was pitch black out here in the deep woods, the beasts and creatures had come out to play.Following Everly’s tracks completely seemed to be a mistake. If he ran straight to wherever she was, whatever was following him was going to end up there, too. And that was the opposite of what Jack needed to have happen.He needed to lead them away from Everly but not end up in a fight where he was grossly outnumbered trying to fight off twenty or thirty wolves all by himself. He knew that was out of the questions as well. He could only take eight or ten other wolves at best, and that was if they were not that large or skilled.Something told Jack that the council wouldn’t choose packs that were weak or had unskilled scouts to send after him.As he continued to run, Jack could sense that the wolves that h
“Now, this is a record of all of the reifes blut my family has helped over the years,” Margot began, holding the book firmly in her grasp.Everly’s eyes widened as she listened to those words. “Reifes blut,” she repeated.“Yes, that’s right,” she said. “Reifes blut simply means blood that is ready to be changed—mature blood. Your blood was able to be changed into something else because your mother was a Schicht.”Slate was sitting in the chair, his hands between his knees, silent, but Everly had a feeling he already knew all of this. She returned her focus to Margot. “And what does Schicht actually mean?”“Its literal translation is layer, but it really just means something that can be changed, something that can transition or change. That’s what it means to their kind anyway.” Her eyes went to Slate, but he didn’t lift his head to look at either one of them.
Jack’s legs were beginning to tire, but he heard familiar howling not too far behind him and knew that his own pack was close behind. So far, he’d fought off five attacks, including one by a group of six other wolves that he almost didn’t make it through. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he spotted a small hole between a tree and a bush that was just wide enough for him to squeeze through with just the right timing so that he could then turn around and bite the wolf that tried to follow him in the face, he would probably be lying on the forest floor bleeding out right now.But he wasn’t. He was running back the direction he’d come from earlier, when he’d veered off of Everly’s scent, trying to pick it up again, and he was desperately hoping he hadn’t run so far that he went past wherever she’d stopped while he was going the other direction. He still couldn’t reach her by mind-link, but he thought she had to be
“What do you mean I’ve already found my mate?” Slate was asking Margot as Everly was finally able to get in touch with Jack.She’d gotten up to go into the other room to talk to Jack, but when she got back, she saw that Slate didn’t seem to like the answers he was getting from the old woman.“If you could just stop talking in riddles and tell me what the hell you’re talking about, that would be great,” he said.“I have a question,” Everly said, not wanting to interrupt but realizing Jack’s question was an important one. She had meant to ask it earlier when Margot had first mentioned the witches, and with the realization that her mother was nearby, that she wasn’t dead, and that there was a good possibility that she might be able to see her the next day… she’d forgotten.“I don’t mean to be rude, sweetcheeks, but I’m in the middle of having my question not answer
Everly carefully made her way down the stairs toward Jack’s living room, holding on tight to the railing. The heels she was wearing were a lot higher than what she was used to, but Alyson insisted she should wear them because they looked perfect with the sapphire blue dress she was wearing. While Everly loved the tight, strapless, sequined dress, she wasn’t sure that the silver heels looked all that great.They’d look a lot worse if she fell down the stairs and broke her neck because of them…. But then, she was a shifter now, so her coordination should be better.That didn’t make her feel any less shaky on the shoes.When she got about three-fourths of the way down, she heard a loud exhale and managed to pull her eyes away from the next step long enough to look at Jack.Her heart skipped a beat, seeing him standing there by the front door with a pink corsage in his hand, wearing a perfectly-fitted suit with a tie that matched her dress. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was slightly a
Pain radiated throughout Jack’s chest and back as he felt himself slowly being dragged back to reality. His thoughts were cloudy as he tried to remember exactly what had happened. The last thing he remembered, he was running through the forest toward the sounds of fighting, looking for Everly.The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground, blood everywhere, trying to breathe through the most unbelievable pain he’d ever experienced in his entire life.“Come on, Jack!” he heard a somewhat familiar voice telling him. “Go ahead and open your eyes, Jack. Let us know that you can hear us.”It was a struggle, but the realization that he didn’t know where Everly was or if she was okay made him will his eyes open. Blinking a few times, Jack looked at the concerned faces around him and tried to piece everything together.He was surrounded by people who looked like they were about to cry, except for Jamie, the healer. She was concerned, but not tearful.He’d seen Everly, though, so he force
Not long ago, watching Jack die wouldn’t have been that big of a deal to Slate. In fact, he probably would’ve just shrugged about it and made some remarks like, “Too bad. He was so young.” But now that he realized that Alyson was his fated mate, Slate felt compelled to find someone to help the guy he’d wanted to tear limb from limb all by himself only a few days ago.Tearing through the woods, he used his mind-link capability to reach out to anyone from his pack to see if they knew where any healers were. Unfortunately, everyone was either too far away to hear him or they were too busy to respond.He darted through a thick wooded area and came around a large pine tree to see a wide meadow full of velvety green grass glowing in the silvery moonlight.And on the other side of it, he saw a familiar wolf loping along, following his nose.It wasn’t one of the healers he was looking for, though.No, it was someone who shouldn&rs
The smile on Everly’s face was there despite the pain at seeing Lexi show up right behind Maura as she was in the process of tormenting her. Maura might’ve thought it was fun prolonging her death, but just like the villain in every James Bond movie, she was about to find out what happened when you didn’t kill your enemy right away.“What’s wrong with your face, Everly?” Maura had asked her, but Everly didn’t get a chance to answer before it was Maura’s face that was suddenly messed up.Lexi hit her from behind with a strong beam of magic. It was so powerful that Everly could actually see it glowing and lighting up the forest. When it hit the cheerleader in the back, Maura’s eyes bulged, and her body stiffened, her back arching as she tried to figure out exactly what was happening and how to make the pain stop.Immediately, the agony that had been coursing through Everly’s body faded as Maura was too dis
Hands would’ve been a great thing to have at the moment, but Everly only had paws. She looked around and saw that her dad had the backpack, so theoretically, she could go shift and get dressed quickly, but her back hurt so bad, she didn’t know if she could get all of that done.Jim was already trying to stop the blood that was flowing like a river out of Jack’s chest and back. “I’m so sorry,” he kept saying. “I was just trying to protect you, Everly.”She couldn’t respond to her father, what with him being a human and her being a wolf, but she knew it wasn’t on purpose.That wouldn’t matter if Jack died.Behind her, she heard the sound of rocks and tree branches sliding down the side of the ravine as Alyson and Slate came flying down behind them.“What happened?” Alyson asked, using the mind-link. “We thought we heard—” Her eyes landed on Jack and her countenance
Every inch of Everly’s body ached, but she knew she had to push herself up off of the ground and get out of there.If that wolf were to come back, he would kill her, and she’d fought too hard to die now.Pushing up off of the ground, Everly tried to get her feet beneath her. The ache in her back was blindingly painful. She thought she might pass out from the pain. Could she have injured her spine when she hit that tree trunk upon her descent?She didn’t know, but she had to ignore the pain and move.Everly took a few careful steps, trying to get her bearings. She knew that Jack and her mother were up on top of the hill. But it was so far away from where she was now, she couldn’t even hear them fighting.Climbing back up the steep ravine would be nearly impossible in her current state.Instead, she’d need to find another way to walk to get back to someone who could help her.If only she had her cell phone&
The black wolf Jack was fighting was strong, and though he had spent a lot of time training and sparing with other wolves in his pack… he’d never actually fought anyone with the intent to kill them.But… at the moment, he had no choice. If he didn’t try to kill the wolf that was scratching at him with his long claws, trying to knock Jack backward so that he could sink his long fangs into his neck, then that wolf would finish him off without a second thought, and Jack couldn’t let that happen.Next to him, Slate didn’t seem to have any problem whatsoever going in for a kill shot. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack could see Slate knock the smaller male he was fighting onto his backside and then chomp down on the sensitive area between his neck and shoulder. Within a few seconds, the wolf stopped moving, and Slate stood up, looking for the next wolf to take on.Jack didn’t have time to survey the area as he needed to pin this
Running through the forest with Jack on one side and her mother on the other, Everly felt a nervous tension building inside of her. Knowing that Jack and her mother had vowed to protect her was one thing, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t end up in a situation where she’d be forced to protect herself.And she was pretty sure she wasn’t capable of that.After all, she wasn’t exactly an athletic human to begin with. Now that she was a wolf, that hadn’t changed. These other shifters had been training for this their whole lives, so they knew exactly what to do while they were fighting. And the werewolves were so vicious, they instinctively knew exactly what to do to make sure that they could handle anyone who was stupid enough to challenge them.But Everly felt just about as vulnerable as her dad. At least he had brought a gun. He was riding on her mother’s back right now, and Everly made a point not to look directly into Jim
“He was at the party?” Everly repeated what Su said. “Slate was at the party where you were turned into a werewolf?”Su’s head bobbed up and down again. “That’s right. He was with the guy that bit me.”“You’re sure it wasn’t him though, right?” Everly asked as she felt Jack tense up beside her.“Oh, yeah. I’m sure it wasn’t him. But still… it’s weird to see someone who knows about all of this. He was with the guy when he was telling me about what happened and telling me that I was in huge trouble and I was going to have to do something.”Everly couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Slate had gone through this before. “Slate!” she shouted, and he looked up.His eyes flickered to Everly’s face, and then they went to Su’s, and they widened. Even from across the yard, Everly could read his lips, “Oh, shit.”