Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles #2) (33 page)

And now she knew one thing for sure, because she could smell the silver bullets inside the gun.

Her grandfather knew about werewolves.

19

Twisting inside, terrified, and yet oddly composed, Katelyn stared at the gun in her hand. Why was she surprised? She had seen the bullets.

I could pretend they weren’t his. I could lie to myself.

Shaking, she ran to the door to call her grandfather back, make him talk. Spill it all. Then she flopped her back against the door and slid to the floor, gazing upward at the ceiling as huge tears rolled down her cheeks.

How long has he known? What does he know? And who does he know about?

Wiping her face, she raised the gun to eye level and studied the ends of the bullets in the circular chamber. The odor of silver wafted like incense, mingling with the smoke and ash in their fireplace.

She let out a shaky breath. She shouldn’t have let him go out there.

No. I should have gone with him.

He had left her there because she was safer home alone than wherever he was going. She was stuck. There was nothing she could do to help Trick, who had told her he cared for her.

“I’m sorry,” she said brokenly. Because he was in trouble, and she was afraid for him, and she knew he was innocent.

Right?

“Oh, God,” she blurted. Of course she knew. She believed in him.

And I need someone to believe in me.

She thought about Quentin Lloyd’s body. How would they explain that? Would he be seen as just another victim of the same monster? And was that monster the same one that had bitten her?

Mr. Fenner hadn’t bitten her. She knew that now. But he was crazy. He had killed someone before her eyes, would probably do it again when he lost his temper.

He couldn’t remain alpha forever. Everyone had seen: everyone already knew that he was crazy.

But they’re all terrified of him. Because he’s still strong and fast and ruthless. And even though he’s losing his mind, that just makes him more dangerous, not less. They put up with it, like at Thanksgiving. Because it’s their “instinct.”

Another thing she couldn’t do anything about.

But it’s not my instinct, she thought. I don’t feel any loyalty to him. I don’t have to sit here and meekly let him ruin our lives. I have to do something. I can’t just sit here.

Outside she heard a wolf howl. It was close. She clenched her jaw and wiped at her eyes. If it was coming for her, better that it did now while her grandfather was safely away. This way he couldn’t get hurt. This way, maybe he wouldn’t have to figure out she was a werewolf.

“I’m not afraid,” she said aloud, and then she picked up the handgun and molded her hand around it.

She was not helpless. She had power no one else did. She was immune to silver. If a werewolf came near her house, she could shoot it.

And kill it.

She heard the crunch of gravel outside and she moved to a window just in time to see Justin getting out of a truck.

She blinked rapidly. She couldn’t let him see the gun with the silver bullets. She ran into the kitchen and hid it in a drawer and then flew back to the front door, opening it just as he knocked.

“I came to check up on you. Make sure you were okay.”

She nodded swiftly. And then over his shoulder she caught a flash of something moving in the woods. She jerked. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing.

Justin spun on his heel and looked. “I don’t see anything.”

“There was something there a second ago.”

“Maybe you’re just jumpy.”

“No, I’m not,” she said.

Justin stepped off the porch and started walking toward the trees. When he got close something exploded in movement. With a yelp he began to give chase.

Katelyn bolted out the door, running toward him.

“It’s a wolf!” he shouted.

And the wolf was running away from them. Savage heat filled Katelyn and she leaped ahead, running past Justin. She crashed through the trees, following the creature. She swept her arm low and snatched up a rock. She flung it with all her strength and it hit the creature in the head. It turned on her, all snapping jaws and saliva. She tried to see the color of its eyes, but couldn’t tell in the gloom beneath the trees.

“Show yourself!” Justin commanded in a booming voice as he ran up next to Katelyn.

The wolf spun around and focused on him. Katelyn took a step to the side, but it didn’t look at her. She took another step, then another. Justin and the wolf were closing in on each other, fixated on each other. Neither of them was paying attention to her.

It could be the wolf that bit me.

I can’t let it hurt Justin.

Katelyn circled to the side and then grabbed hold of a thick tree branch and swung herself up into the tree. She moved carefully from limb to limb, maneuvering herself until she was over the wolf.

This is crazy. What am I doing?

And as the wolf snapped its jaws she realized exactly what she was doing. She was saving Justin.

Aimed like a missile, she dropped silently from the tree. Her boots struck the wolf hard just at the base of the neck. It collapsed onto its side.

“Did I kill it?” she asked.

“No, knocked it out,” Justin said, giving her an admiring glance. “Quick thinking.”

“Thanks.” She tried to slow down her breathing, her heartbeat.

The wolf began to transform into a human and Katelyn stared intently at the face. As the wolf snout turned back into a human nose and mouth, Katelyn gasped.

“Babette!”

“You know her?” Justin asked.

Katelyn nodded. “She owns the boutique clothing store downtown. I didn’t know she was part of the pack.”

“She’s not,” he said grimly. “I think we just found our Gaudin spy.”

An hour later they pulled into the Fenners’ driveway. Justin was at the wheel of his truck, Katelyn beside him, and Babette was wrapped in chains in the back. Justin had called ahead and it seemed the entire pack was waiting for them. Doug and Al hurried forward and picked Babette up, carrying her around to the other side of the house, with the rest of the pack trailing behind.

“You did good,” Justin said.

“Thanks.”

He looked around. “I just wish I could figure out why it smells like silver in here.”

She shrugged as she had half a dozen times on the drive. He didn’t know that she had a gun with silver bullets, or that she had taken it and stashed it under her seat while he was busy making sure Babette couldn’t escape. Maybe it had been foolhardy.

Maybe not.

Reluctantly Katelyn got out of the truck and followed Justin to the back yard. The pack was in an uproar, the air vibrating with jeers and growls.

“What the hell,” Justin muttered.

Pack members in human form were gathered in a semicircle. Lee Fenner’s back was to Katelyn, and he was kicking something on the ground.

Not something, someone.

Babette.

She was curled up in a fetal position, arms covering her head as he drew back his booted foot and kicked her in the back. Justin’s hand went across Katelyn’s mouth as she cried out. Oblivious — or unconcerned — Mr. Fenner bent over Babette and pushed her onto her back. Then he grabbed her by the hair as if he were going to scalp her and lowered his face toward hers. His face sprouted hair; his jaw jutted forward and his teeth morphed into huge, white fangs. Drool roped off them onto the woman’s neck, and he opened his mouth to tear out her throat. Babette’s face flickered in and out of her human face and the she-wolf within, her jaw slightly elongating and her ears lying flat against her head.

Justin yanked Katelyn hard towards his chest, his hand so tight against her mouth that she couldn’t breathe.

“Not a word,” he whispered.

“Go ahead,” Babette snarled between clenched teeth. “Do it. Then you’ll never know.”

With a ferocious growl, Mr. Fenner’s face became mostly human again. Katelyn tapped on the palm of Justin’s hand and he loosened his grip.

“Know what? Tell me,” Lee growled.

“Why don’t you ask her little friend about your daughter?” Babette growled. “They were always whispering in the store about their boyfriends — about my alpha Dominic Gaudin, and the boy Trick Sokolov.” She threw back her head and howled, beginning to change fully, but another lunge from Mr. Fenner sent her sprawling semi-conscious on the ground.

“So,” Mr. Fenner said over his shoulder. He looked straight at Katelyn. “My girl was talking treason all that time, and you never told me?”

The crowd quieted for Katelyn’s answer. On the ground, Babette lay unmoving. Dizzy with fear, Katelyn remembered to duck her head to show submission.

“Mr. Fenner, I didn’t know anything. This was . . . before. She said she liked this guy who was older, and that you didn’t like him.” She prayed she could deflect Mr. Fenner’s focus from Trick. She didn’t want any of this to come near him.

He glared at her. “You should have told me, girl.”

She started to sweat. She didn’t know if he was following what she was saying. If he even knew who she was.

He gestured to Babette. “All these years, she’s been spying on us for the Gaudins. Listening to every stupid thing she said in that store. Stupid, careless. You both deserve to die.”

“Mr. Fenner, I didn’t,” Katelyn began, but behind her, Justin whispered, “Ssh.”

“I’ll do better,” she said, changing course, raising her chin but staying low, maintaining the respectful body position she knew he would expect. “Now I know. I swear it. If you’ll just give me a chance to prove myself.”

He blinked at her. And then smiled. “All right. Take this piece of garbage out in the forest. Kill her, and bury her. Come back and tell me that you’ve done it.”

“Let’s kill her here, Uncle Lee,” Lucy called out, baring her teeth and snapping toward the semi-conscious Babette. Clearly this was an occasion when it was okay to let out a bit of inner wolf.

“Now there’s a good girl,” Mr. Fenner said, smiling. “Lucy knows her place. You’re going to go far, darlin’. But no one has ever died at our home, and I mean to keep it that way. Justin, make sure Kat gets it done.”

Justin gripped Katelyn’s arm tightly, silently begging her to agree. Although she wanted to start screaming, she dipped her head again. Then Justin left her, walked to the inert woman, and picked her up in his arms. As he approached Katelyn, she had to look away.

“Follow me,” he said through clenched teeth. She fell into step behind Justin: dazed, disbelieving.

Bypassing all the Fenner vehicles, Justin carried Babette up the driveway, lingering at the road for Katelyn to catch up. There was never any traffic on their country lane, and Justin crossed into the forest without even looking. Katelyn thought about running; he must have sensed it, because he glanced over his shoulder at her and slowed down.

Time slipped away from her. She was so lost, inside and out, and when he stopped and lay Babette on the ground, Katelyn crossed her arms over her chest and gave her head a quick shake.

“She’s healing,” Justin said. “It’ll be better if you do it now while she’s still barely conscious.”

Katelyn looked down at the ground. “I could never do it. I’m not a killer.”

There was a beat. “Yes, you are. You’re a werewolf.” His voice was steady, firm. When she didn’t respond, he said, “And you have done it before.”

She whipped up her head. Babette was lying at his feet, and she saw that he had put her facedown. Katelyn’s stomach contracted hard as Justin stepped over Babette and came toward Katelyn.

“Quentin Lloyd,” he said.

Her heart leaped into her throat. She felt icy, and unaccountably abandoned. “No. You said—”

“I said what I said. But was it really very different?” He cocked his head. “You knew what you were doing.”

“No.” She tried to take a step backwards. But something inside her was beginning to respond to Justin’s approach — interest, warmth. She was shocked.

“Katelyn, you already have to lie to so many people. But you don’t have to lie to me. I’m like you. We’re predators. There’s no shame in that. Hell, humans eat meat.”

“I didn’t,” she rasped, “before I got here.”

There was silence. She peered up at him through her lashes and she was sure she caught the shadow of a fleeting smile on his face. Outraged, she turned her back on him.

She took a deep breath. “I’ll help you.”

“No, you’re the one he wants to kill her.”

“No, I mean I’ll
help
you.”

He turned her around. “What are you saying?” he asked, face intense.

“I will support you. All the insanity, death, it has to stop. I will help however I can.” She rubbed her arm that had been injured in the silver trap, not wanting to mention her immunity in front of Babette, worried that she’d already said too much in front of the Gaudin werewolf.

Justin got the message and she could see the thought quickening in his eyes. “Your price?” he asked.

She ticked her gaze over to Babette, now crouched on the ground in her human form, clearly terrified, and he grimaced. She held her breath, waiting to see what he would do.

Then he chuckled deep in his throat and said, “Run, Babette.”

Katelyn jerked, hard, as Justin shifted his weight so that she could see around him. Babette was ready to run, but first the Gaudin werewolf stopped and tears rolled down her bruised face.

“I swear I will never, ever set foot on Fenner territory again,” she whispered, all her earlier bravado gone. “Please.”

“If I catch you,” Justin said, “I will kill you.”

As an answer, Babette nodded, then dashed into the forest. Katelyn could scent her, hear her crashing through the underbrush.

“If Lee finds out, there will be hell to pay,” Justin said. He smiled. “Now, where were we?”

“Thank you,” Katelyn said, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug.

He held her tight for a minute and then stepped back. “Let’s go home.”