The rest of the week both seemed to drag along and fly by until it was Saturday again, and Everly didn’t know how she should spend her day. Should she spend the day pampering herself like she had the week before, or should she just veg out and watch a movie or ten?
At least she had Toby with her. That was a major difference from the week before. She knew she shouldn’t spend too much time outside, and since it was early December it was pretty cold, too, but with the big fence in the back yard that Jack and the others had built for Toby, she didn’t mind going back there with her dog quite a few times that day for him to do his business and to play catch for a while until her dad yelled at her that she needed to go back inside. He said it was too cold, but she knew he was nervous that something else was going to happen to her.
Everly mumbled under her breath that she was fine, but she decided to go in anyway, grabbing the ball off of the frozen ground. T
Rather than going to Chase's, Jack decided to stay home this time around. He did go for a run in the woods in his wolf form, which was freeing, but after that, he came home, took a shower, and put on some clean clothes. He decided this time around to bring things down a notch. He hoped that Everly wouldn’t mind too much. He was just too wound up last time, and he didn’t want to go through all of that again.Besides, after the first time, he had a better idea what he was doing, and he was looking forward to it a lot more than he was terrified, like he had been the week before.He was a little nervous about the whole marking thing, though. Since Everly hadn’t even seemed to notice when he’d bitten her, he was hoping it wouldn’t hurt when she bit him.“Are you about ready to go get Everly?” Alyson asked, coming into the living room and picking up a throw pillow to blast him in the head with at about a quarter till three.
“I swear to the Moon Goddess, God, Buddha, Tiki, whoever you want me to swear to,” Paul said, running his hands through his hair. “I didn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t tell anyone! I didn’t show anyone the pictures. I printed them out and came right here. I didn’t even know who was in them!”Everly felt sorry for the guy. The moment they’d gotten to the Grey house, Jack had used that mind-link thing to call him over to their house, as well as Chase and a couple of other guys she didn’t know, guys his dad’s age. Victor was out of town at the moment. Everly was staying out of the way, standing with her back pressed against the wall, wishing she could just melt into the drywall and disappear.“No one else knew about this,” Jack said, not for the first time. Paul was sitting in a recliner, though the footrest wasn’t up, and the others were all sitting on the couch. Except for Jack who was paci
Jack was still wound up, even when his parents got home and suggested he let Paul and the others go home and let the matter go for a while. It made sense to Jack, since he did have other things he needed to get done that evening… but he still couldn’t concentrate on much else.If Paul hadn’t leaked the pictures to the Nachtwolves, then who had?“Jack?” Everly said, just a few minutes after everyone else left the den. “Will saw something interesting at the school the night that Paul developed the pictures. We asked Chase to stay to see if maybe he saw something, too, since he was the one that drove Chase back to get his textbook out of his locker.”Jack was confused, wondering why no one had mentioned any of this before. He looked up at his brother expectantly.“After Paul came out of the school, the front door to the school building opened and closed by itself,” Will said, sounding confident, as
Everyone else left the room, leaving Everly and Jack alone. She sat down on the couch near him but left about a foot between them. It seemed pretty clear that he was still upset, even though when she asked him, he said he was fine. He was sitting with his elbows on his knees, his hands pressed together, his eyes staring at the floor.“Are you sure you’re okay?” Everly asked him.“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jack said. He seemed to snap out of it a bit, reaching over and taking her hand. He smiled at her. “I’m sorry I haven’t been in a very good mood on such an important day.”“No, it’s all right,” Everly said, squeezing his hand. “I understand that you’ve had a surprise. You’re just trying to figure out what to do about it.”“Yeah, but I can worry about that later. You deserve my attention today.” He scooted closer to her, and leaned in closer but gave E
Everly didn’t think she would be as nervous the second time around as she had been the first time. But she was. Even after Jack’s mom had made them (or had the chefs make them) a nice dinner, and they’d spent a few hours sitting on the couch relaxing, and had a nice leisurely drive out into the woods to the cabin, she still felt anxious as they entered the bedroom, as if she were still a virgin, and it was her first time all over again. She had no idea why she felt that way. It wasn’t as if Jack had done anything to make her feel self-conscious. He was always so loving and respectful. He made her feel beautiful and perfect in every way, but she still felt the butterflies going to war inside of her stomach as the two of them sat on the bed in the large bedroom situated in the perfect position so that the moonbeams could stream in through the large window. “I really hope no one decides to come and play peeping Tom,” Everly muttered, looking up through the wide glass at
Jack was taking his time, kissing every square inch of her body it seemed as he peeled her clothing off and tossed it aside. Everly felt like her entire body was being consumed by flames as his touch awakened her. She’d only managed to get a few buttons from his shirt undone before he’d unhooked her bra, and from that moment on, the world had become blurry, and she’d been unable to function.The man had an enchanted tongue. How he could twist and turn it in so many splendid ways and make her feel so alive and invigorated while simultaneously making her head whirl was magical in a way that had nothing to do with this brand new world of wolves and mages. While one hand worked a peek to life, his mouth encircled the other, and Everly found herself arching her back and moaning before he even got her jeans off.When Jack finally slid her jeans off over her hips and whipped them down over her legs, Everly was ready to get him inside of her. He was not in an
Everly shot up, her eyes wide. “Oh, my God, Jack!” she said, staring at the blood dripping from his neck. “Are you okay?”“I’m all right,” he said, but she wasn’t convinced. Grabbing his shirt off of the ground, she threw it on and rushed to the bathroom to grab a washcloth to press against the wound. By the time she got back, he was sitting up, and even though he looked fine, she was still concerned.“Are you sure that this even worked?” she asked as she pressed the cloth against his neck. The wound was in the same spot as where her mark was, but this looked different. This didn’t look like a friendly nip on the neck like the little wound she had. It looked like a wild animal had taken a chunk out of his flesh.A wild animal… like a werewolf.Jack scoffed at her and took the cloth out of her hand. “Yes, I’m sure that it worked, Ev,” he said. “You just bit me a little
The closer Everly got to the moonbeams and the forest, the more the itching she’d felt within her body began to change. The more she began to feel an electricity pulsing throughout every fiber of her being. Her heart was racing, and a wildness soared within her like nothing she had ever experienced before. All she could think about was the sounds of the forest, the animals calling to one another, calling to her, the breeze flowing through her hair, the glow of the moonlight, and the longing she felt within her to take off and sprint through the trees and never look back.Everly knew that Jack was behind her. She could sense his presence back there. It made no sense to her that he wasn’t able to catch her unless he was letting her get ahead of him for some reason that made little sense to her. He was so much faster than her. But she felt a quickness in her steps like nothing she had never felt before, much like the increase in her ability to see in high definition and hear the flu
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.”