Everly was up early the next morning, even though she didn’t have to be. She would’ve liked to have been one of those teens who could sleep in, but she had never really been one to enjoy sleeping, not when her dreams were often plagued by nightmares of her mother’s disappearance.
That’s not what had her leaping out of bed around the time her father left for work that Tuesday morning, though. She wanted to take a shower before Jack got there. Everly had no idea what time he was planning on being there, but she wanted to be ready when he arrived.Once she was out of the shower, dressed, had her makeup and hair done, there wasn’t a whole lot for Everly to do except for sit around and wait. With no signal on her phone, she turned the television on, but they only got about three channels, and there was nothing on them…. It would’ve been nice to have some homework to do. She didn’t even have that.Everly sat on the couch, her“Everything is gone.” Everly looked around the attic. All of the boxes of her mother’s stuff, as well as everything else, was gone. “Where in the world would my dad have taken it?”Jack stood behind her, quiet, for a few moments before he said, “Probably that shed he mentioned the other day, the one on the edge of the forest.”Everly turned to look at him. “Do you think he’d take her camera out there? What if something happened to it?”Jack shrugged. “He didn’t want you looking at that stuff, right? Where else would he put it? If it’s not up here, there’s not a lot of other places to put it. I mean, we could check in his closet, but if it’s not in there, it has to be in the shed.”Everly let out a long sigh. There was no way in the world she was going out to that shed, not by herself. “I don’t even know where the key is.”“I do,” he s
The walk to the shed didn’t take too long. It wasn’t all that far from the back yard. But it was strange, walking with Jack in his wolf form. Everly didn’t like that she couldn’t speak to him. She also didn’t like that she had no idea where the other wolves were, especially the Nachtwolves. She knew that Jack could communicate with his own pack mates in his wolf form and that he’d find a way to let her know if she was in danger, but it still made her uneasy.They reached the shed in about fifteen minutes. She pulled the key out of her pocket and unlocked the padlock on the shed, pulling the door open. Walking inside, she tried not to sneeze from the dust and musty smell. It was dark in there as well. A few windows on one side or the other did little good with the big tree branches hanging down over either side of the shed.“How are we supposed to see anything in here?” Everly muttered walking inside. There wasn’t any el
“Get on your back?”Everly could hardly believe what she was hearing. Jack actually wanted her to crawl up on his back. “Are you serious, Jack?” she asked him.“Yeah, and we don’t have a lot of time, so I’m going to give you my jeans. Bring them with you, please. And hold on tight because I’m going to be running pretty fast.”Everly didn’t even know what to think. Before she could get another question out, Jack had his pants off and was shifting. Everly’s eyes were on the forest around them as she tried to listen to hear if anything was approaching. Would the Nachtwolves Jack’s pack had warned him about come flying through the trees soon? Could Jack outrun them?He was in his wolf form now and crouching down for her to climb on. He made an impatient grunting noise in the back of his throat.“Okay, okay,” she mumbled. “I’m going.” She had no idea how to mount
By Thursday, Jack was about ready to come out of his skin, he was so tense about Saturday night. He’d spent Wednesday with Everly, at her house, trying not to carry her into her bedroom, toss her down on her bed, and have his way with her, and it proved to be very difficult. They’d stayed in the living room, mostly watching movies and talking about when they were younger. She’d fallen asleep on his lap, and he’d spent hours just smoothing her hair and rubbing little circles on the back of her hand and her arm.But Thursday, she showed up with her dad around 11:00, bringing pie and rolls, as his mother had said they should, since Jim didn’t want to come emptyhanded, and she looked beautiful in a long blue dress he’d never seen her in before. Jim had on jeans and a brown turtleneck sweater and looked completely uncomfortable.Greta met them at the door. “Oh, this pie smells delicious,” she said, taking the apple pie from Everly
Everly couldn’t believe that Alyson and Jack had gone to so much trouble to throw her a birthday party. She saw all of the presents, decorations, and balloons, and felt tears come to her eyes. It was one of the nicest gestures she’d ever remember someone making for her.Except, of course, the whole saving her life bit.Then there was the cake, which looked amazing. “Oh, look!” Everly exclaimed, going over to have a better look at the dessert. “It’s Toby!”“We thought you’d like it,” Alyson said. “Not that you want to eat your dog or anything, but it’s cute, isn’t it?”“It’s so cute,” Everly agreed. She just loved that Toby was able to open his eyes earlier. She’d missed looking into those big brown orbs so much, and to think that he’d be able to go home with her in just a few days.“You guys really didn’t have to do all of this,&rdquo
Everly waited until Jack was driving her home later that night to ask about the necklace with the wolf pendant. She knew he’d seen her reaction when she’d opened the box, but he hadn’t asked her anything other than if she’d liked it, and she’d just said, “Yes, it’s beautiful,” and he’d put it around her neck. She knew she couldn’t let her dad see it, though. She’d have to tell Jack what the deal was. Of course, if she just told Jack that she didn’t want her dad to see it because she didn’t want him to be suspicious that Jack might be a wolf shifter, that should be enough, but she wanted to tell Jack the truth.They hadn’t even made it out of the village when he asked, “Did you have fun at your party?”“Yeah, it was great,” Everly said, squeezing his hand. “I had an amazing time. I still can’t believe you guys managed to pull that off.”“Y
“They are exactly the same,” Jack noted, comparing the necklace he had given Everly, the one his mother had given him that had come from his grandmother.“I know,” Everly said, leaning over for a closer look.They were sitting on her couch, and it was Black Friday. Her father had gone to work a few hours earlier. Jack had waited a while to come over, thinking maybe Everly would want to sleep in, but she hadn’t. She looked tired, and he had the idea she might fall asleep on his lap again if they watched a movie, like she had earlier in the week, but right now, she was all riled up over the necklace situation. Jack couldn’t blame her. He wondered what it meant as well.“Did you get a chance to ask your mother if she knew where the necklace that had belonged to her mother had come from?” Everly asked.“I asked her,” Jack said, still looking at the wolves. They were howling standing up, their heads raised an
It was finally Saturday. Everly woke up with her heart in her throat and her breath catching every time she tried to draw in a lungful of air. She couldn’t believe this day was here.She’d never been one of those girls who spent a long time thinking about guys. She certainly hadn’t allowed herself to daydream about sex all of the time like she knew some people did. But as soon as she’d met Jack, part of her had awoken that she just couldn’t ignore, and she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been drawn to him in a way she’d never been drawn to anyone else. Now, knowing that the two of them were going to be in bed together in just a few hours, she was both excited and nervous as hell.Since it was a Saturday morning, Everly’s dad didn’t have to go to work. He was never one to sleep in, but he would be up and outside messing around the property when she got out of bed. She usually tried to sleep in a bit on Saturday,
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.”