Chapter 10
Allie’s scream jolted Selene from sleep. She’d been dreaming about whittling stakes with her new silver dagger, and it took her a minute to realize she was no longer preparing to fight vampires.
“Allie!” Selene rushed down the hall and flung open her niece’s bedroom door.
She thought her heart stopped when she saw Allie pinned to her bed. A huge brown wolf hovered over her squirming niece, its fangs bared.
Selene stared in shock at the real-life manifestation of every nightmarish thought she’d had since she’d learned magic and monsters were real. Her fear that a werewolf boyfriend was a danger to Allie was confirmed beyond doubt.
“Get off her!” Selene shrieked, raising the dagger.
The wolf caught the flash of silver. It blinked, leaped away from Allie, and cowered against the wall.
“Aunt Selene, no!” Allie sat up, her face white as the sheets on the bed. “Stop!”
“Ms. Jones.” The wolf was gone and Josh lay on the floor, human again, pale with fear and stark naked. “What are you doing?”
Selene froze as her certainty that Josh had been attacking Allie faltered. She gripped the dagger tightly but didn’t take another step. Though the immediate threat appeared to be gone, or at least stalled, her pulse continued to hammer.
She pointed at Josh with her free hand. “You attacked Allie. I heard her scream.”
Allie groaned and threw Josh a pillow, which he used to shield his lower body.
He glared at Selene. “I did not attack her!”
“I had the hiccups!” Allie cried, still glaring at Selene. “I couldn’t get rid of them.”
That made absolutely no sense.
Selene frowned at her niece. “Why are you talking about hiccups?”
“I was trying to scare her so they would go away,” Josh said, his eyes still wild.
The adrenaline kick from choosing fight over flight the moment she woke up still held Selene’s body captive. As her panic receded and her tense limbs went wobbly with relief, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Oh god.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I thought . . .”
I thought you were about to be shredded by fangs and claws. I knew I would do anything to save you, and you’re staring at me like I’m the enemy. And you think I’m completely nuts.
“Why did you run in here?” Allie was still furious. “You don’t even have pants on.”
Selene looked down. She was only wearing a nightshirt. At least it hits at mid-thigh. Good to know I could have been even more humiliated.
“I just—” Selene started and then gave Allie a hard look. “Allie, you screamed bloody murder. It woke me up. What did you expect me to do? Ignore it?”
Allie’s belligerent expression didn’t waver. “Josh would never hurt me.”
“I really wouldn’t,” Josh said as he inched toward a duffel bag across the room.
“I’m sorry,” Selene said.
Josh’s eyes fixed on the dagger. “Where did you get that?”
Selene set the gleaming weapon on Allie’s bookshelf and held up her hands. “I am sorry, Josh. I misunderstood what was happening. I only wanted to keep Allie safe.”
“That is a bounty hunter’s weapon. Their sale is forbidden here.” Now that his fear had dissipated, he snarled. “Where did you get it?”
Selene’s eyes widened. Oh no.
Only for emergencies. That’s what Natalie said.
Way to get an F on my first assignment.
“I ordered it online,” she lied, her instincts screaming at her to keep Natalie out of it. “I had it before I knew about you.” Please let him believe me. “When I heard Allie scream, I grabbed it off my dresser.”
“You keep a dagger on your dresser?” Josh was not buying it.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“That dagger is illegal in Avondale,” he continued. “I need to know where it’s from.”
“Why is it illegal?” Selene tried to maneuver out of her predicament. Hoping with all her heart that Josh would believe her if she kept playing dumb. “What do you mean it’s a bounty hunter’s weapon?”
Radiating defiance, Josh straightened to his full height and tossed aside the pillow. Selene averted her eyes while he rummaged in the duffel bag, presumably for his clothes.
“Some people make their living by hunting us,” Josh growled.
When Selene heard the sound of a zipper, she turned back to face him. Josh had a pair of jeans on and was pulling a T-shirt over his head.
“Why would anyone hunt werewolves?” Selene frowned.
“Sometimes it’s assassination,” Josh said, his eyes dark with suspicion, as if she was a threat he hadn’t seen coming.
“We have politics of our own, and they can get dangerous. For others it’s profit—werewolf pelts and fangs have mystical properties.
They command a high price on the black market.
And there are some who just do it for sport.
We aren’t easy to kill. They see it as a challenge. ”
This is getting worse and worse. No wonder Natalie told me to keep the dagger hidden.
Selene glanced at it. “And that’s a bounty hunter’s weapon?”
“Any weapon crafted of pure silver was meant for a bounty hunter,” Josh snapped. “They have no other purpose. Where did you get it?”
Selene didn’t answer. Natalie had said something about laws and the dagger being a problem, but Selene had been a mess, her mind jumbled by back-to-back encounters with Fenris and Daniel.
Josh growled and stepped toward her.
“Answer me.”
Allie jumped off the bed and stood between them.
“Hang on, Josh,” Allie said. “I get why you’re upset, but you’re overreacting. Just like Aunt Selene overreacted when she heard me scream.”
Josh looked at Allie, his expression softening slightly. “Allie, there are laws—”
“Laws she doesn’t know anything about,” Allie insisted. “She doesn’t hang out with bounty hunters, and she didn’t even know that werewolves were hurt by silver. For god’s sake, when she shook Fen’s hand last night, she had a silver ring on.”
Josh stared at Allie, who nodded. Then he looked at Selene like she was a complete idiot.
“Seriously?”
Okay, not fun to be insulted, but less scary.
“It’s true,” Selene muttered. “I apologized to Fen for the mistake.”
Josh shook his head. “That is . . . really something.”
“I’m sure the dagger is some kind of antique she found. She picks up weird stuff on eBay all the time. Right, Auntie Sel?” Allie gave her a piercing look before taking Josh’s hand and tugging him close.
Selene smiled weakly and nodded. “The dagger caught my eye because it’s beautiful. The scrollwork on the hilt is very ornate. That’s why I keep it on my dresser.”
Did that sound like I know what I’m talking about?
A new tack jumped helpfully into her mind.
“It’s next to my antique brush, comb, and mirror, which are also silver plated.
I’m sorry. Silver has never been an issue before.
The dagger matched, and I thought it made the whole ensemble a little edgy.
Like the cover of a mystery novel. I realize that sounds ridiculous. ”
Josh seemed to relax. “Look, Ms. Jones, I’m sorry I got angry, but you need to understand how serious this is. Fen’s mate was killed by a bounty hunter. That’s why the laws in Avondale are so severe—all silver weapons are forbidden. Trafficking them is a capital crime.”
“Someone killed Fen’s mate?” Selene gasped and looked at Allie for confirmation, but her niece appeared astounded by Josh’s revelation.
Josh nodded, his face becoming drawn with grief. “Five wolves were hunting in the foothills when bounty hunters, poachers, ambushed them. We lost all five of our pack mates. Fen’s mate was one of them.”
Selene couldn’t speak. It was Allie who asked the next shaky question. “Poachers? Are you saying that Fen’s mate was killed . . . and skinned? By humans?”
“Skinned and beheaded. It was like that for all five wolves,” Josh said quietly. “Fen was mad with grief. There was a time when we thought he wouldn’t come back from it.”
Selene’s stomach roiled with such violence, she had to grab Allie’s dresser to steady herself.
Skinned and beheaded. She’d been obsessing about werewolves being a danger, but the true monsters in this story were people.
She couldn’t grasp how twisted someone would have to be to commit such an atrocity.
She only spoke when she was certain she wouldn’t vomit, which meant that several seconds of uncomfortable silence passed before she could ask, “When did this happen?”
“About ten years ago,” Josh answered.
Ten years. From the raw sorrow on Josh’s face, Selene had expected him to say it had happened more recently. But she thought of Emma and knew that years from now, the pain would be just as sharp. Loss was loss.
And how had Fen spoken of werewolves and their mates? “Our relationships can span infinite lifetimes.”
The promise of an eternity of love had been stolen from him in the most horrific way. Her heart ached for him. How many years had they been together before she was killed? Decades? Centuries?
Daring to ask that question was unthinkable, so instead Selene whispered, “Did he ever find out who the hunters were?”
“No,” Josh said, cold fury edging his words. “Unfortunately, bounty hunters are very good at what they do. They know how dangerous it is to prey on werewolves. They also know a pack will try to come after them, so they cover their tracks. Finding a bounty hunter after a kill is almost impossible.”
“Josh, I am so sorry,” Selene murmured. “I’ll get rid of the dagger.”
“That would be a good idea,” Josh said. “And I . . . I won’t mention it to Fen. He really likes you, and he would be . . . I won’t say anything.”
He would be what? Selene wanted to scream. Hurt? Disappointed? Angry?
Probably all of the above.
Selene couldn’t fault Natalie’s intentions, and she wished she’d been paying closer attention to her friend’s warning.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Selene said. “I should get dressed.”