Three giant wolves stood in the forest surrounding Everly’s home. It was nearly one in the morning, and even though there’d been no sign of danger, they would be there for another two hours, until the next patrol came on duty.
Jack shifted his weight on his massive paws, trying to stay on full alert. He’d already been there for about five hours. He’d decided to take a longer shift than the others because it had been his idea. Besides, as much as the others were concerned about Everly, she was of the utmost importance to him.Across the driveway and behind her house, Chase was stationed. Jack wouldn’t be too surprised if his friend hadn’t nodded off. He’d only been out here for a couple of hours. It was nice of him to volunteer.It was nice of everyone to volunteer who had done so. Alyson was in the parklands, about three hundred yards north of the house. She’d been there a long time, too, insisting on taking a double shiOf all of the days for her German teacher to be absent! Everly sat in her chair, frustrated, as the substitute passed out some worksheets for them to practice common nouns. It would take about five minutes for her to complete this, and then, the teacher said they could work quietly at their seats on something else.Which meant the room would erupt in chatting and laughter in less than ten minutes.Everly’s eyes scanned the room. Was there anyone in here that might be able to translate for her? Was there anyone in here who knew German well enough? She wasn’t sure. But then, she also didn’t know if she wanted anyone to know what her crazy grandmother had shouted about her mother before she was locked up in an asylum.Her eyes landed on Will. He looked tired. For that matter, all of the Greys had looked tired that day. So had the other kids sitting at their table at lunch, except for Fiona. She wondered if something had gone on in their village th
“Jack!”It wasn’t unusual for Will to be shouting at him from across the void, whether they were at school, at home, in the woods, wherever, but there was an urgency in his tone that got Jack’s attention.He’d been on his way to his car. Chase had driven that day, and he’d arranged for his friend to take his brother and sister home so that he could be at the driveway when Everly got off of the bus. Even if he had to drive alongside her, he was making sure she was safe while she walked to her cabin.But there was clearly something wrong. “What?” he called, heading over to meet Will.“Listen, Everly gave me a recording she needs to be translated. She said that it’s something her German grandmother told her dad after her mom disappeared. The fact that her dad remembers it makes me think it might be important.”Jack could hardly believe what he was hearing. “Well, yeah, that does s
Jack realized he was scaring the hell out of Everly, but that was only because he was terrified. “Did he touch you?” “No! No! Let go of me!” Everly shook free of him, and he released her, running a hand through his hair as she walked away from him. “You’re acting crazy, Jack. I don’t belong to you, you know? I can talk to whoever I want to.” “I know that, Everly. I’m sorry. It’s just… you don’t know that guy.” She turned around to look at him. “And I take it that you do?” He nodded, still trying to calm down. He wanted to inspect every inch of her, to make sure she wasn’t hurt. It wouldn’t take much at all for her to fall victim to a Nachtwolf. For that matter, even he could hurt her if he wasn’t extremely careful. It wasn’t just a Nachtwolf that could do it—they were just the only ones who would want to turn her. But accidents could happen. Maybe he should stop picking her up. “Jack, what’s going on?” she seemed calmer. Her he
“Everly! Who’s car is that?”Her dad practically knocked the door down, scaring the shit out of her. Even Jack looked a little caught off guard. Clutching her chest, Everly said, “Dad! Seriously—was that necessary? I think you made a hole in the door.”“I was driving through, doing my rounds, and I see a strange car parked outside of my house, I’m gonna be a little excited.”By then, Jack was up, waiting patiently for her dad to start breathing normally again. Behind Jim, Everly heard laughter and figured that had to be his partner. It was too early for her dad to be home otherwise. He really must have been worried.“Sorry, Dad. This is… Jack. Grey. He… is going to help me with some homework.”Again the guy behind her dad was laughing. Jim stepped aside so he could come inside as Jack stepped over to offer her father his hand. “Mr. Harrison, I’m Jack Grey. I
Leaving Everly when she was so confused and upset had been nearly impossible. But the second time Jim came home, Jack noticed his scent before he arrived and knew he needed to get out of there before he caused a family squabble. As it was, he was pretty sure Jim would have a few choice words for his daughter about her having a boy over without asking first.He didn’t actually leave until he saw Jim’s Jeep pull into his normal spot. He’d parked his car down by the end of the driveway and come back, in his human form, to keep an eye on the house. Once Jim was there, he decided to go home and talk to his parents before he came back for his own shift. Right now, Troy, Sam, and Bridge were in the woods near Everly’s home.He didn’t want to leave, but he didn’t have much of a choice. His parents needed to know what Slate had done that day. It was atrocious that he’d be so bold. If Jack could, he’d go find the son of a bitch and
“Toby!” Terror coursed through Everly’s body as she watched her best friend disappear into the night. Where the hell had he gone? She needed to find him right now before he got hurt. “Toby!” She took off running behind him, frantic.She heard her dad screaming her name behind her, but Everly didn’t slow down. She had to find Toby. “Toby! Please come back! Where are you?” She could hear him barking in the distance, but it was so dark in the woods, she couldn’t see much of anything. She had to slow down because she kept tripping, and she wasn’t going to be able to find him if she broke her ankle.She thought she saw him run around a tree about a hundred yards in front of her. “Toby!” she shouted, picking up speed again. His barking increased, then, she heard him growl before another sound hit her ears.This was the sort of growl she’d only heard in horror movies or her worst nightmares.
Jack’s pulse finally started to slow down now that Everly was in his arms. She was covered in blood, and he wasn’t positive she was okay, but she said she wasn’t hurt, and he had to hope that was true.He had been parked ten thousand yards away from Nachtown territory when he had gotten a mind-link message from Bridge. All his friend had said is, “It’s going down!”That was enough. Jack sped over to Everly’s house as fast as he could go. The rest of his family was already there. They were just about to relieve Bridge, Troy, and Sam of their duties when Slate had made his move.Bridge and Troy had managed to drive Slate away and get quite a few blows in on him, but they hadn’t killed him. He’d probably go limping back home and tell his daddy that he’d gotten beaten up, and he wasn’t even doing anything wrong.Well, council or no council, this was an act of war, and he was going to pay for it
Alyson’s voice in Jack’s head finally convinced him to go take a quick shower and change his clothes while Everly was in the shower in her room. He didn’t have as much blood on him as Everly had had, but he did look a little gruesome, and he didn’t want to get blood on her once she was cleaned up, so he went upstairs and did that as quickly as he could.He wanted to go examine her for himself—not just for the obvious reasons but because he wanted to check and make sure she really hadn’t been injured. All it would take was the tiniest of scratches or puncture wounds from a tooth and Everly would be forever changed.He didn’t want to think about that, but it would be better if they knew now before it caught them completely off guard.Once he was rinsed off, he got dressed quickly and went back downstairs, glad to see that Everly hadn’t emerged yet. He checked in with Alyson and found out that she was ju
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.”