“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! Everly!” her dad’s voice carried down the porch and out to Jack’s car before she could even get the seatbelt off and open the door.“I’m fine, Dad,” she said as Jim opened the door to the sportscar. He practically pulled her out of the car and wrapped his arms around her so tight, Everly could barely breathe.“Thank God,” Jim said. “Oh, thank the good Lord. I don’t know what I would’ve done if something would’ve happened to you.”“Dad,” Everly said, wishing he’d let her go. They had company, after all. She knew he’d spend plenty of time lecturing her about not chasing the dog into the woods and about how stupid it was that she’d followed Toby and all of that, but for now, with Jack and his parents, who had followed her father out of the house, standing right behind him, she really didn’t want to make a scene.Jim seemed to reali
By the time Jack returned home, they had a visitor, a very important visitor. Alyson had used the mind-link to tell him and both of their parents that Granite, the head of the council, had arrived a few minutes before they got back home from Everly’s house. How he’d gotten their so quickly, Jack wasn’t sure, but he was shocked and surprised to hear the news. The head of the council wasn’t supposed to arrive for two more days to hear his side of the story regarding Slate Bose’s complaint that Jack had threatened him. Now, here he was, sitting in the Grey family’s living room, awaiting their return. Jack knew he should let his dad take the lead, but he had a few things he wanted to say to the head council member himself, a few things that would probably come across as obnoxious and entitled, if he wasn’t careful.Victor was always more diplomatic and socially aware than Jack was. That was probably because he’d been the pack Alpha
The door slammed loudly behind him as Slate Bose came inside of his father’s house. He’d just gotten back from the pack healing center, and he couldn’t believe how stupid his dumbass cousin had been. What in the world had Rider been thinking? Slate had told him he had a plan for the girl. Yet, he’d gone plowing ahead like a damn bull on roller skates, and now, here they were in a whole heap of trouble. If he had actually hurt that girl, Slate was going to go back over there and finish the job the Lightwolves had started and end his stupid cousin. “Oh, good. You’re here,” his father said as Slate walked inside. His parents’ home was a lot nicer than the one he shared with his cousins, though it was nothing compared to the mansion the Greys lived in. Nightwolves never had it easy compared to their lightwolf counterparts. Everyone always blamed anything bad that happened on the Bose family and their pack, even if it wasn’t their fault. How many times had the high counci
Everly wasn’t surprised that she couldn’t sleep. Not only was this the first time in over four years that she’d gone to bed without Toby next to her, she was too shook up from everything that had happened. She also had about a million questions dancing through her mind, questions she wanted to ask Jack but knew he probably wouldn’t answer for her anyway. His phone was in her palm. A glance at the clock told her that it wasn’t quite midnight. He’d said she could call anytime, but she felt bad calling him that late. Her father was snoring in his bed next door. She had no idea how he could just fall asleep so quickly, but he had been out like always, as if this night had been nothing different than normal. And here she was, wide awake, staring out the window. At least no wolves were howling outside her window. If she called Jack, would her dad hear her talking and come into her room?Everly doubted it. Jim was a pretty sound sleeper, but she thought maybe she
The moment Aly’s phone rang, Jack answered it, even though he was exhausted and had almost nodded off several times, sitting there waiting for Everly to call. He didn’t even know for sure that she would, but he had a feeling that she might, especially since she was clearly confused when he’d dropped her off, and she hadn’t had much of a chance to ask him questions.Seeing his own name pop up on his sister’s phone, he rushed to answer. “Hi, Ev,” he said, longing to hear her voice. He tried not to pay too much attention to those feelings. He knew they could only get in the way of his ability to help her, and that’s what he needed to focus on right now. If she truly hadn’t been hurt in the attack tonight, as she claimed, then it was still in her best interest to get as far away from Cook as possible.“Hi, Jack,” she said, her voice just a whisper. He imagined she was trying to keep from waking her dad. &ldq
The next morning, Everly got ready for school without saying much of anything to her dad, nor did he really talk to her. She did take the cup of coffee he offered her, even though she knew it would be too strong for her. She needed something to wake her up.It was a chilly morning. A thin veil of frost covered the windshield of the Jeep. Jim used the windshield wipers to chip away at it as Everly sipped the warm, strong coffee in the cup he’d given her. “I’ve got a guy coming to fix the house phone,” Jim told her, once the hole in the frost in the windshield was big enough for him to be able to see out of.“Okay,” Everly said. It came out more of a question than she intended.“I want to make sure you can get me if you need to,” he said. “You can always call the office, and they can get me on the radio.”“Okay,” Everly said again. “Will you be home when the guy comes to put it in
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.”