Wolf Moon (33 page)

I opted for a hot
chocolate while my parents both asked for tea, and we relaxed in front of the
roaring fire and talked about everything that happened over the last few weeks.

“So,” Dad said after
setting his tea on the table next to his chair. “What happened that night we
spoke on the phone that caused you to hang up in such a hurry.”

I dropped my eyes to the
steaming hot chocolate in my mug and sighed. I never could lie to him, and I
didn’t want to start now. What I
could
do was withhold a few things without too much trouble. “The, uh, gazebo back at
the house caught fire.” I glanced to Nick, who nodded. “Vandals.”

“Everything was a mess,”
Nick said, picking up the explanation. “One of our roommates was out there and
got hurt.” I appreciated that he wasn’t trying to steer them too far from what
had really been going on around the manor. Depending on how long they were
going to be here, they might eventually run into a Pack member or two. It would
be easier to keep our stories straight if we didn’t have to completely manufacture
one from the ground up.

“Jesus,” Dad exhaled.
“I’m so sorry. I hope everyone’s okay.”

“She’s fine,” I assured
him. “A little smoke inhalation and a few cuts and scrapes.”

We talked for hours
before any of us realized that
dinner time
had come
and gone. I was particularly famished, but because Nick had planned everything
within the last couple of days, there wasn’t any food in the fridge yet.

“You know,” Nick said. “I
know of a great little Chinese place in the city that’s open late tonight.” He
smiled confidently. “That’s always been a Leighton Family Tradition on
Christmas Eve, hasn’t it?”

My heart swelled that he
even remembered after all this time, and I nodded. “It has.”

His grin widened. “Tell
you what, then. How about I run into the city and pick something up? It’ll only
take about an hour.”

After giving Nick a list
of our favorite dishes, I walked him out to his truck while my parents stayed
inside. We stood next to the driver’s side door for a minute before I stood up
on the tips of my toes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” I whispered. “This is
the best gift you could have given me.”

He sighed, his heavy
breath turning into a dense fog on the cool night air, and cradled my face in
his hand. For the first time in days, his eyes held a glimmer of hope. “I just
wanted to see you happy again. Give you something to hold onto and remind you
of who you are.”

I brought my hands up and
wrapped them around his wrists as his thumbs moved over my cheeks. He tilted my
face up and lightly pressed his lips to mine. “I’ll be back in an hour. I’m
also going to try and stop by the Manor in the morning to pick up some food so
we can try to prepare an actual Christmas dinner for your parents tomorrow
night.”

I nodded, running my
hands over Nick’s forearms and then down his sides until they rested on his
hips. “Drive safe.”

He kissed my forehead
before opening his door. “Always.”

As his taillights faded
into the night, I headed back inside to be with my parents. It was weird, the
longer I sat with them, the more it felt like no time had passed since we’d
last been together.

“How long are you guys in
town for?” I asked, knowing that this wasn’t a permanent
arrangement—unfortunately.

“Till just after the new
year,” Dad explained. Hearing this made me a little nervous, given how close
the next full moon was to New Year’s Eve, but I knew Nick wouldn’t put
me—
us
—in a potentially
dangerous situation.

Just the brief thought of
the next full moon invited that familiar tension in my muscles, the dull ache
in my belly, and the tingle in my veins. The wolf twitched beneath the surface.
Even though I still had over a week until that happened, my body anticipated
that night more than feared it, which was an interesting change for me. I
welcomed it in hopes it meant I was that much closer to accepting her fully.

I’d been curious about
how things at the precinct were going—primarily the investigation—but
I knew I couldn’t ask in front of my mother. When she excused herself to use
the washroom before Nick got back with our dinner, I jumped on the opportunity.

“How are the guys?” I
asked, curious about how O’Malley and Keaton were holding up with half their
team gone. “Still working on that case?”

Frustration filled Dad’s
expression as he ran a hand over his weary face. “The investigation is still
active, but it’s no longer a priority. Everything about it has come to a dead
end.”

“That’s too bad,” I said,
my sympathy genuine, even though I already knew the truth behind the murders.

Dad fell eerily silent
for a second, his eyes trained on me. Curiosity gleamed in them as he took a
pull from his mug. “There is
one
thing I’m curious about, though.”

Something told me I
should be nervous about the tone in his voice—there was
a niggle
in the back of my mind—but his expression
contradicted this feeling. “Oh?”

He nodded. “Your house
has been cleaned and released as a crime scene.”

“That’s great,” I said,
pouring myself some more hot water and placing a tea bag in it. “I’ll place an
ad on one of the rental sites in the New Year.”

“You might want to get
the hardwood looked at beforehand.”

A lead weight dropped
into my stomach when I realized where this conversation was going.

“There are scratches in
the finish. Some deeper than others,” he went on to say. “I didn’t notice them
before that night…not in light of everything that had happened.” I remained
silent, taking a sip from my mug, praying it would calm my nerves the way tea
was supposed to. It didn’t. “There were traces of DNA retrieved from some of
the deeper ones.”

I sputtered and choked.
My heart raced in my chest. “
Th
-there
were
?” I wasn’t familiar enough with the wolf side of myself
to know what a DNA test would prove. Would it be equal parts human and animal?
All me?

I tried telling myself
that if my DNA showed up at all, that I would have been asked to come back to
Scottsdale when the realization was made.

“It looks like there was
an animal in there. Possibly a large dog.” His eyes remained locked on mine.
“But the DNA also showed markers similar to yours.”

I swallowed thickly,
taking deep breaths in hopes of calming my thundering heart.

My dad opened his mouth
to say something else, but before a sound came out, a blood-curdling scream
ripped through the house. I was on my feet in a second, skin tight, muscles
tensed, and eyes alert.

Something was here. I
could sense its presence before I smelled traces of it seeping into the house.

M
y ears strained as my father raced from the living room and toward the
stairs. I was hot on his trail, and we’d made it halfway up the stairs when my
mom appeared and ran down to meet us. She flew into my father’s arms, her
terror infusing the air around us. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on
end.

“I was just grabbing a
sweater from our room,” Mom said through the frightened sobs. “There was a
shadow…a-a man, I think.” She shook her head as she lifted it from my father’s
shoulder and looked at me. “Whoever it was, was down in the yard, so I didn’t
get a good look.” She shuddered. “Except for his eyes. The way he stared up at
me was…he looked positively
evil.
Predatory.”

Suppressing the snarl
that was slowly building in my gut, I turned and headed for the front door.
Behind me, I heard my dad calling my name, but he sounded distant as the wolf
fought to take over. It clawed and tore its way to the front of my
consciousness, snapping and salivating at the opportunity to take over, but I
had to keep a leash on it. My parents were here, and I knew I couldn’t lose
control in front of them.

My control was slowly
slipping away as I ripped the front door open and stole away into the night.
Breathing hard, I could feel the tightness all over my body as the change started.

“No,” I whispered. Steam
rose off my body as my temperature continued to soar. “Not now.” My hands
trembled, so I clenched them tight, hoping to quell the shake. My stomach
rolled as my abdominal wall tensed, and my knees threatened to give out on me.
I was within fifty feet of the open front door, and I knew there was a high
probability my parents would see what was about to happen. Or worse, come after
me. In an effort to keep that from happening, I closed my eyes and inhaled
slowly and deeply, just like Nick had taught me early on.

That didn’t help. The
wolf only leapt forward, wiping my concentration out until giving in to it was
all I could focus on. Eventually, it was all I wanted.

Somewhere in the darkness
that shrouded me, tires skidded to a stop. I sensed the vehicle was close when
gravel beneath the snow was kicked up around my feet. A door flew open. Heavy
footfalls sped toward me. I heard a voice, but was too deep in my own head, concentrating.

It was his smell that
grounded me first, and when he wrapped his hands around my upper arms and shook
me, my vision cleared. “Nick?” My voice was hoarse.

His eyes were wide,
flitting around as if focusing on something in the distance. He looked
panicked; he could smell it… No. He could smell
them
. There were several of them out here. I could smell them, too.

Nick’s hands moved to my
face, holding it firmly and locking eyes with me. “Brooke, you need to calm
down.” It was when his eyes narrowed in on something behind me that I
remembered my parents were within earshot.

My instincts for
self-preservation and protecting our secret took over once more. I glanced back
at their worried expressions. My mother still looked out of her mind with terror,
and I turned to Nick. “They’re here,” I whispered. “I don’t know how
many—”

“Four…maybe five,” Nick
interrupted, looking around the dark yard with his eyes narrowed. “Their scent
is fading, which means they’re likely retreating. They probably just wanted to
get our attention.”

“Well it worked,” I
snarled quietly, clenching my hands at my sides. I looked up at Nick. “It was
my mom who saw one of them while she was in her room changing.”

Nick must have picked up
on my anxiety rising again, because his hands fell to my arms and he rubbed
them up and down. “I’m here now. Come on,” he gently urged. “Your parents look
like they’re freaking out. Let’s go tell them everything is fine, and then I’ll
do a quick perimeter check and call Marcus.”

I nodded, and Nick turned
to grab the brown paper bags of food from his truck. “You can’t go out without
protection,” I warned, and he arched an eyebrow, looking at me like I had gone
completely mental. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “I know you don’t
need
a weapon, but unless you plan to
tell my parents about your superhuman strength and ability to change into a large
wolf, they’re going to question it.”

We started toward the
house while Nick spoke quietly. “Vince is an avid ball player,” he explained.
“I think he’s got a couple of bats in the front closet. Would that appease your
parents and keep the questions to a minimum?”

I nodded. “Yes. Thank
you.”

I wasn’t sure what else
to say as I followed him into the house, so I decided to let him take the lead
when it came to talking to my parents.

“Sorry about that, Mr.
and Mrs. Leighton,” he said, handing the bags of food off to me. “Brooke tells
me you saw someone outside?”

Mom nodded. “Out back.”

Nick opened the front
closet and rifled through it until he retrieved the baseball bat he’d told me
about. “Why don’t the three of you head back into the living room and get started
on dinner. I’ll run a quick sweep of the yard and join you. It was probably
just a neighbor or a hunter…sometimes their dogs run off and they follow them
onto private property before anyone can get too upset.”

It surprised me just how
quick he was to come up with an answer to our trespassers, but it surprised me
even more that my parents bought it so easily.

“I’ll come with you,” my
dad offered, but Nick quickly shot him down.

“No. Go enjoy your time
with your family. I’ve got this.”

Dad seemed uncomfortable
letting Nick do this alone, but he nodded his assent and protectively wrapped
his arm around my mother again.

Before he left, I turned
to Nick and looked up at him pleadingly. “Be careful,” I whispered. “If you
find it, do what you have to do and get the hell out of there. Don’t antagonize
it.”

Nick smirked crookedly.
“Baby, please. It’s like you don’t even know me.” Before I could retort, he was
gone, and I was left in the entryway, holding two giant bags of Chinese food.

“Oh, I know you,” I mumbled,
closing the door with my foot and turning toward my parents.

The three of us headed
for the dining room where I emptied the bags onto the large oak table. Unlike
the dining room table at the manor, this one was only set up to seat a maximum
of six people. I hadn’t even gone to the kitchen in search of plates and
cutlery before the front door opened and Nick joined us.

“Couldn’t find anyone on
the property. Found some tracks, but they looked like they came and went,
likely in search of a runaway dog, like I suggested.” He looked to me, his
expression telling me we’d discuss his actual findings at length in private.

After offering to grab
the plates from the kitchen, Nick joined us at the table, and we enjoyed a
traditional Christmas Eve dinner together. When dinner was finished, we all
enjoyed some wine by the fire until almost midnight. Logically, I knew it was
time for sleep, but my body was still wound up from earlier. Couple that with
the full moon in a little over a week, and I wasn’t sleeping any time soon.

Nick and I followed my
parents upstairs where we said goodnight. After my parents’ bedroom door
closed, Nick turned to me and led me down the hall to another bedroom. Like the
rest of the house, it was decorated with rustic furniture and colors, very much
how I would expect a traditional log cabin of this degree to be furnished. The
four-poster bed along the far wall had sheer white curtains pulled back and fastened
at the head. At the end of the bed was a bench, and on it was the bag Nick had
packed for me. The blankets on the king-size were thick and inviting,
embroidered with warm colors, and there were more pillows than I would even
know what to do with. I wanted to jump on it and see just how deep into it I
would sink.

“I’ll be just down the hall,”
Nick said, surprising me. He picked up on my confusion. “I figured with your
parents here, it might not be wise for us to maintain our sleeping arrangements
from the manor. Besides, there’s no one here to fool anymore.”

He turned to walk away,
but I grabbed his wrist. “Nick…” His eyes locked on mine. “I don’t want you to
go.”

Slowly, his lips curled
into a smile. “What about your parents?”

“I’m a big girl who can
make grown up decisions.” I paused. “But if you’re really that concerned, you
can sneak out of my room before dawn. Perhaps through that very large window
over there.”

“You’re sure?”

I nodded and pulled him
through the door, closing it behind us.

After changing, I sat on
the bed, crossing my legs in front of me; it was as soft as I imagined, but it
didn’t relax me the way I’d hoped it would. I still wasn’t tired. In fact, I
felt a little jittery
;
like I was ready to jump out of
my skin.

“You all right?” Nick
asked, emerging from the small
ensuite
washroom in
his black sweats and nothing else.

“Just wired, I guess. Our
visitors earlier made me a bit twitchy.”

Nodding, Nick settled
onto the bed behind me. I could feel the heat from his body even before his
hands encased my shoulders. I groaned when his thumbs began kneading my
muscles. “You stopped a shift from happening. The adrenaline is still hot in
your veins.”

I’d never been offered an
explanation for this feeling before, but I recognized it from the last few
times Nick had helped me avoid an accidental shift. It made so much sense.

“Plus, the full moon is
almost upon us. This is going to intensify what you’re feeling tenfold.” The
low vibrato of his voice pulsed under my skin, warming me, relaxing me.

My head fell forward as
his hands moved down my back, working each and every knot loose. His thumbs
dipped just below the waistband of my shorts, pressing against my lower back
muscles. I could feel a whisper of his warm breath as it fanned across my neck,
and I swear his lips ghosted across the skin of my right shoulder. Goosebumps
rippled down my arms, and I shivered as a wave of calm poured over me. Any
anxiety I had felt earlier seemed to be melting away with each passing second.

“That’s better,” he
whispered, kissing my shoulder lightly before pulling away. I looked back to
find him crawling under the comforter. With a smile, I joined him, tossing
three of the over-stuffed pillows to the floor and resting on my side to face
him.

We stared at each other
in silence for a moment, and I sighed when Nick reached out and pushed a strand
of hair off my cheek. His fingers lingered on my shoulder before he trailed his
hand down my arm.

“Are we ever going to
talk about what happened earlier?” he asked quietly, his voice low and
gravelly.

My gaze flitted away from
his for a brief moment before capturing it again. “I don’t know. My mom was
scared, and then I just sensed danger. I lost control. I didn’t mean to.”

“Hey,” he soothed. “I’m
not placing blame or angry. Shit happens. The important thing is you were able
to keep it from happening.”

“Barely,” I muttered. “If
you hadn’t shown up when you did—”

“But I did,” Nick
interjected gently.

I sighed. “What did you
find?”

“Nothing more than
tracks, like I said. I called Marcus and let him know, and he suggested having
a couple of the guys patrol the perimeter at night.” My eyes widened. “I told
him no. I couldn’t risk your parents spotting one of them and asking questions
about the mutant Canadian wolves.”

I laughed softly, trying
to keep the nervous lilt from it. With everything going on, now was not the
time to worry Nick with my dad’s suspicions. They could wait.

“As long as your parents
don’t venture outside after nightfall, they’re safe here. The coven is just trying
to scare us. Ruffle our coats.” I rolled my eyes at his play on words. “We
can’t let them. We can’t give them power over us.” With one last reassuring
smile, he pressed his lips to mine. “Now, let’s get some sleep. It’s been a
long day.”

It wasn’t easy, but
eventually the rhythmic strokes of Nick’s fingers along my spine lulled me to
sleep.