Chapter 11
Emery
Halfway between the hotel and Hudson’s, I caught a whiff of the scent that still made my insides churn with disgust. A pungent wet dog that caked itself in cheap perfume and cherry lip gloss, lurking somewhere beyond the line of trees that hid the interstate out of town.
I didn’t have time to go back for Tyler. There wasn’t even time enough to call Hudson.
I just shot off a few texts, pinned the location I intended to chase her to, and started running.
Four days of constant tracking and planning to ensure that someone I loved was safe.
Totally worth it. But I was ending this little game of Vera’s.
Whether or not she was aware of the cure, it didn’t matter.
By stealing my clothes with Hudson’s scent, she’d made a threat on his life.
Possibly Tyler’s too, if her motives were nothing more than spite.
I didn’t want to tell Tyler that, though.
I couldn’t bring myself to explain that, to someone like Vera, someone who believed I was rightfully her property, anyone who dared be close to me in any capacity was subject to her vengeful whims. As far as she was concerned, they were both lovers I had taken in defiance of her.
Not to mention she and the wolves she ran with abhorred both humans and homosexuals. A wolf supremacy, full of forest-dwelling fools who believed a werewolf’s only purpose was to breed more werewolves, and that the bitten were meant to be subservient to the born.
Which made Vera’s ire toward me and those I cared for even stronger. How dare I, a mongrel wolf created by the bite, spurn her charitable affections toward me?
Fucking idiots, the lot of them.
The sun dipped below the tall pines of the forest as I darted into their depths. Earth and the sting of sap filled my nose, marring Vera’s trail but not eliminating it. I raced south, further away from Hudson’s house.
What is she playing at?
For all I knew, it was merely a trap for me, meant to get me alone. But she’d had that at the garage, and born by a wolf mother or not, she was no match for me in a fight.
“Vera!” I shouted against the wind rushing over my face. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, and I don’t care! You threatened someone important to me, and you know the price!”
“Threatened?” Vera’s voice echoed in my ears like words spoken at the end of a tunnel, bouncing off the trees and scattering in every direction. “Too much time with your human chew toys has you confused, Emmy. I have a mark, and wolves do not abandon the hunt.”
She was too far ahead, I was never going to catch her at this rate, let alone corral her as I intended. I kicked off my boots, running through the fallen pine needles in nothing but my socks as I reached deep.
It was an insane move, letting my wolf free while the sun still hadn’t completely set.
Taboo, even, fully shifting in the light of day.
If I were seen by anyone—human, wolf, or otherwise—I’d be a dead man.
Protecting our existence from mortal eyes was of the utmost importance, and I would be hunted until my dying breath if I fucked up.
Which is how I knew Vera wouldn’t have the nerve to do the same.
You wanna play games, bitch? Let’s play.
With a swift kick to propel myself forward, my spine bowed.
My knees twisted and cracked, stretching the baggy fabric of my oversized sweatpants, morphing shape to grant me the speed I desperately needed, with massive paws that ripped my socks to ribbons.
My arms bulged, fingers snapping as they became weapons, sharpening into claws to sunder the earth in my path.
The tank covering my chest shredded down the front and back, peeling away in the breeze as I hurtled forward, deep red fur sprouting in its place. My jaw snapped free, teeth becoming razor sharp within my skull as it grew outward.
The forest floor embraced my every movement as I crashed back to the dirt, bounding toward the would-be predator made prey.
Freedom.
“Oh dear, Emery.” Vera’s voice echoed nearer, maintaining her careless edge despite the stink of fear that now laced her scent. “You seem to have forgotten everything about being a decent wolf. Now I’ll have to make you watch while I devour your pretty little piece of fuckmeat.”
It was the stupidest of moves, enraging a fully transformed werewolf, and at the way she referred to Hudson, I saw red. I smelled blood. I craved nothing more than to sink my teeth into her throat and tear it out.
If she was aiming to make me behave carelessly, she’d failed miserably. All she had done was remind me of my purpose. Of what was at stake should she escape.
I shot westward, giving her a temporary gain as she continued south. I sensed her few short moments of relief, letting her believe she’d lost me right before whipping back to approach her from the northwest.
Wolves weren’t used to being the ones hunted, especially those who believed as Vera did. She had no idea how to run as if her life depended on it. No clue how poorly she was playing her own game as she changed directions, heading east.
All I needed was to introduce a little bit of panic.
The most feral roar I had ever released came tearing out of my lungs, up my throat and into the looming darkness.
“I’ll kill him, Emery.” There it was. The panic I needed, completely displacing her cool composure. “I’ll tear him apart, limb by limb. I’ll make him scream until his throat bleeds, and the last thing he’ll see is my teeth bearing down to taste his—AHH!”
If werewolves could smile, I would be grinning from ear to ear with the sound of her shriek as she ran right through the wolfsbane traps I had laid the night before.
“I’ll… kill him!” she bellowed, every syllable riddled with delicious agony. She kept moving toward the highway, slower and slower, from the solution I’d set to mist the area as it burned her skin. “Both of them! They’re dead, Emery Evans! You’re dead!”
She was headed to the highway. A last resort, hoping I’d be dumb enough to follow her and risk being seen on the off chance anyone were to drive by.
Suddenly, she laughed, low at first and then rising into a cackle as she neared the road. My ears picked up a sound beyond her. Hundreds of feet away, but approaching fast.
The roar of an engine.
“Run home to your plaything, Emmy.” I finally caught sight of Vera in the distance.
She’d made it to the road. If I was to end her, I’d have to show myself—or kill whatever poor soul was racing toward her where she stood in the road, smiling at me.
Daring me to take her out right there. “Say goodbye to your precious—”
I knew that engine. Along with the cocky voice that caught my ears as it closed in. “Bad dog.”
Vera didn’t even have time to scream, my bulky Impala colliding with her at a hundred miles per hour.
She went flying, sailing twenty feet up the road and landing face down on the asphalt with a nauseating crack.
Tyler didn’t stop. If anything, he picked up pace, rolling right over her where she lay in the street.
I lurked in the shadows of the forest, watching as he stopped the car, parking it in the middle of the road. “Emery!” he shouted into the woods as he slammed the door shut, stopping halfway between the car and Vera. “Emery!”
I couldn’t approach him. I wanted to. He smelled incredible. Like sweat and testosterone steeped in adrenaline. I wanted to leap on top of him and claim him right there in the road. Every fiber of my being was screaming at me to move toward that delicious scent.
“Em?!”
A low growl came out of me. I smelled Tyler’s fear as it echoed toward him.
And it hurt.
“Fuck…” he whispered, his eyes locked on mine through the trees. “Emery… please… please tell me that’s you.”
His fear was drowning me. Making my every muscle ache. I didn’t want Tyler to be afraid of me. Not like this. Not actually concerned for his life.
He backed away, and my wolf’s heart broke. A whimper like a hurt dog came out of me—and I felt myself begin to shift back.
My human hands shook in front of my eyes. My bare feet became cold in the soil and scattered brush. I regained my senses, suddenly wildly grateful that my wolf could be so offended by someone important to me being frightened.
“Oh, thank god,” Tyler sighed, clutching a hand over his chest as he ran toward me. “I thought you were going to eat me.”
“No…” I chuckled as I got to my feet, wiping my hands on my sweats, the only piece of clothing that hadn’t been utterly destroyed with my shift. “That was… not where my mind was.”
Ty cocked a brow at me. “Do I wanna know?”
“Probably not.”
I followed him back to the road, listening for any other approaching vehicles in case we needed to clear the scene. He kept looking back at me over his shoulder, something strange in his eyes. “Did you manage to get a hold of Hudson before you… got all furry?”
“Sent him a few texts, but then I tossed my phone in my car.” I nodded toward the Impala as I walked to the driver’s seat, popping the trunk.
“She gonna get back up?” Ty asked warily, staring at Vera’s still body.
Grabbing a machete out of the back of my car, I stalked toward her. “Nope.”
Ty sucked air through gritted teeth, snapping his head to the side as I sliced clean through Vera’s neck.
I thought the poor guy might hurl, pretty sure I smelled it coming, but he held it back.
He was made of stronger stuff than I gave him credit for, it seemed.
Should’ve known. After all, he’d held his own against me when I’d started that fight with him.
Maybe our world won’t eat him alive.
The utmost relief washed over me, knowing we’d actually got it done. We’d protected Hudson.
I shot Ty a grin over my shoulder, and for the first time since the boy we both loved came home, he smiled at me. “Catch!” I shouted, pretending I was going to toss him Vera’s head.
“Oh my god, don’t you fucking dare!”
Okay, he might die if I don’t keep an eye on him.