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 littleThe 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’s lungs were burning by the time she got back to the cabin. Her legs were sore, and all she wanted to do was fall into bed, possibly into Jack’s arms, and go to sleep.But she had a little problem.She didn’t even have any arms at the moment—just legs. Four of them.How in the world was she supposed to switch back to her human form? She didn’t even know how she had managed to get herself into her wolf form, so how was she supposed to get out of it? It wasn’t as if she could just jump up into the air and turn back into a human the way that she’d leaped up into the air to turn into her wolf—could she?Jack was behind her as they neared the house. Knowing that she could tell him anything, and he wouldn’t judge her or laugh at her was reassuring. At the same time, she didn’t know if it would help her for him to try and talk her through it.For a moment, panic set in, and the fear of staying in he
Something wasn’t quite right. Jack knew it the moment he walked back outside to wrap the blanket around Everly’s shoulders. He had a feeling that they were being watched, but he didn’t have any of his own pack members out in the woods close by enough to ask any of them to go check on the situation. So for now, all he could do was get Everly inside, try not to panic her, and head back to the village as soon as she was ready to go.Everly was smart and knew him well, though. Once they were back inside, she asked, “What’s going on, Jack?”“Nothing,” he said, pausing to lock the door before he moved her into the bedroom.She spun to look at him, one eyebrow raised. “Are you sure?”“Yeah, everything is fine. But I think we should just get dressed and head back home. I know my parents are eager to make sure that everything turned out and as expected, and even though I could text them or possibly
“What the hell are you doing here?” Everly demanded, stepping out from behind Jack. She wasn’t afraid. Maybe she should’ve been, but she wasn’t. Instead of fearing the tall, muscular man standing in the shadows near Jack’s car, she wanted to punch him in the face. “How did you even know where we were? Were you spying on us, you creeper?”Jack pulled back on Everly’s arm as she lunged forward at Slate who hadn’t moved at all since he’d stepped out into her line of sight. “Calm down, Ev,” he said. “There’s no reason to get all riled up.”She had a feeling that was his way of reminding her that they weren’t aware of whether or not there were others in the woods around them, other Nachtwolves who might be ready to pounce on them at any moment.Everly didn’t care at the moment. The thought of Slate peering in the window while she and Jack were making love made her st
“You don’t actually believe a word he said, do you?” Jack asked as he drove toward his house.Everly sat in the passenger side of his car, exhausted, and ready to just go back to the Grey house and get some sleep. “No,” she said, but that wasn’t necessarily the truth. At the moment, she wasn’t sure what to believe. Slate had made some pretty interesting points, and even though she knew she had absolutely no reason in the world to believe a Nachtwolf, she had fallen into a position where she had to trust Jack awfully quickly. And if there was one thing she’d learned recently about these wolf shifters it was that you couldn’t always trust them.After all, the council was supposed to be the most trustworthy of all, weren’t they? And look what they’d done.It was dark outside out in the country with only the full moon and the stars to illuminate the area outside of the direct path of the headlights. E
Everly was being strangely quiet at breakfast, and Jack wasn’t sure why. He was worried about the conversation Slate had had with her the night before, but he didn’t think there was truly any risk of Everly taking the Nachtwolf seriously. After all, she had to know by now that Slate wasn’t trustworthy, and she needed to ignore everything he said.But watching her slowly eat the pancakes the staff had set in front of her, it was clear that something was bothering her, and Jack couldn’t imagine what else it would be. He prayed she wasn’t having second thoughts about the mate bonding ceremony they had gone through with. He’d sacrificed everything to make himself available to her, and the idea that she might not want to be with him now made him sick to his stomach.He didn’t want to say anything in front of his family, so he didn’t. His mother was in a cheerful mood, despite the fact that they had work to do as soon as he too
“What do you mean they’re not the same?”Jack felt his heart leaping into his throat. How in the world was it possible that his mark didn’t perfectly match Everly’s? He couldn’t believe that what she was saying could be true. Every fated match he’d ever known involved a pair with matching marks. While he knew that his mother was aware of people who had marks that didn’t match, he’d never even bothered to listen to her explain how that could be because he never thought it would matter to him.He would never be one of those strange people whose mark didn’t match his mate’s.It was clear that his entrance had startled Everly. She’d jumped at the sound of his voice, and he hated scaring her that way, but he was caught off guard as well. He hadn’t expected to come into the room to see his sister staring at his girlfriend’s mark or to hear the woman he loved telling his sister that her mark
It wasn’t common for members of one pack to show up on another pack members’ territory. Apparently, Slate Bose had forgotten that when he’d shown up at the cabin the night before, but Victor had called Brock while Jack was taking Everly home and asked if the two of them could come over to the village in Nachtwolf land and speak to them.Brock had needed some convincing, but Victor was persuasive, and before noon, Jack found himself climbing the steps to the Bose residence along with his dad.He was nervous, though he didn’t want to admit it. They were greatly outnumbered, the two of them in the center of enemy territory without anyone else from their pack anywhere nearby. Though his father had ordered all of their warriors to come to as close as possible to the border, they weren’t in the territory, and they were hanging back so as not to be intimidating. They didn’t want to pose a threat. They just wanted to be ready in case somethi
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.”