Читать книгу Half Wolf - Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom - Страница 12

Chapter 6

Sixty-four-thousand-dollar question: How do you cope with life on a Monday when you’ve almost died over the weekend?

Answer: You either curl up for days on end, or you have a go at what’s left.

In the end, Kaitlin had to remember that the Davies family was nothing if not flexible. But she feared that the day stretching ahead would seem like a blur, with life burning like an eternal question mark at the center. Colorless day, colorless surroundings. Heavy books, laptops and ongoing research. Meaningless chitchat. Typical postgraduate stuff.

Because she was no longer herself.

Or so Rena and Michael kept telling her.

Concentrating was difficult when there were monsters all around, and when a person’s eternal flame could be choked out so quickly. When this life do-over had turned out to be a doozy.

However bad things were, she was determined to try to cope. She would handle this, because there was no alternative.

Remaining optimistic proved to be tough, though. In the hallway, Kaitlin focused on avoiding others and keeping to the sidelines, not sure she could actually carry on a conversation or if the students she passed would know she was different. Was she different? She had only Michael’s and Rena’s word for that.

By the time she was halfway through the main university building, odd things were happening. Inexplicable things. Smells, scents and fragrances were suddenly overwhelming and more of an affront to her senses. Polish on the floors gave off a sweet, sticky odor. Scuff marks from black-soled shoes smelled like burned rubber. Paper stuck to bulletin boards made her eyes water.

Crowds of people huddled in the corners, amplifying the odors of damp clothes, hair gel, fabric dyes and perfume. Passing the cafeteria was a big mistake. Although she was hungry again, almost ravenous, the smell of overcooked pizza sickened her.

She wanted to escape, hide, get away, and didn’t know where to go or how to outdistance the waves of panic that stuck to her like shadows. She had to wait to see Michael again.

New self. Changes. Don’t go out after dark.

She chewed her fingernails in frustration and chose a secluded seat in the back of the library, though she was certain there was no way to work on her thesis. No one gave her a second glance or turned around to stare.

The tick of the wall clock drove her mad. Fighting every agonizingly slow minute, Kaitlin waded through the hours like a sinking swimmer, finding it harder and harder to breathe when beyond the library walls she could feel him. Michael. Somewhere close.

Thoughts of Michael made her muscles dance with anticipation. The leftover pressure of his talented mouth brought far too much heat. She looked up werewolves online on her laptop, shuddering as she read lines of a story labeled as myth. She grew more and more restless as the afternoon dragged on. Forgoing her work, she drew pictures of wolves on her notebook and tried to remember the shape of Michael’s eyes.

When the clock chimed five, she raced through crowds of students having a normal day, wondering how they could be so oblivious to events unfolding around them. Almost at the exit, she skidded to a stop near a bunch of people gathered outside a closed classroom door. Taped to that door was a note.

“Class canceled due to instructor illness.”

Her fear turned major. What if that missing teacher had also been some fanged monster’s prey?

Her legs began to shake uncontrollably.

Going to be sick. Need to get out.

Taking in ragged breaths of stale air, Kaitlin slumped against the wall with her head in her hands. After several long minutes she was able to again stand upright, and then only because there were answers to find and truths to sort out.

“Come hell or high water...” She reached for the neck of the sweater that hid what a stranger named Rena had called her “war wound” and finished the statement. “I’m going to find out what the hell is going on.”

* * *

Michael paced from tree to tree, sure Kaitlin would show up, though he wouldn’t have blamed her if she didn’t.

He hadn’t meant to kiss her. Hadn’t realized he was kissing her until she stopped him. Now she’d have the wrong impression of this meeting and what he wanted her to get out of it. She might assume this to be an invitation to a rendezvous. If so, she would be dead wrong.

Kissing wasn’t on his agenda.

Touching her was out of the question.

He set that firmly in his mind and stopped pacing twenty feet from the spot where Kaitlin had nearly lost her life, thinking that she would indeed have to be tough to return here so soon.

Making her confront her new direction in life was part of his plan and an important first step in helping her to face the truth. Hopefully, eventually, she would get past being afraid of the unknown.

For the time being, she needed guidance. After tonight, he was determined to turn her over to Rena. Females were so much better than males at dealing with personal issues, whatever species they belonged to. Some kind of innate nurturing thing had been twisted into female DNA.

That’s what he told himself, anyway.

Rena wasn’t exactly softhearted, but she would step up to the plate if he asked her to. He knew Rena harbored a lust for him that the she-wolf never fully kept hidden, but he considered Rena family. She wasn’t the new rusty-haired human-wolf hybrid that his wolf craved in some strange and inexplicable way.

Rena was intuitive. She would see this. Although Rena wouldn’t think much of what he’d done to save Kaitlin, the she-wolf would never purposefully harm anyone who didn’t deserve it.

So. Hell. Why had he done what he had done, exactly? Why had he helped a human being? Chance? Coincidence? Serendipity?

Humans had not given this same kind of consideration to his family. After hunting his mother, they shot her, did terrible things to her body and then dragged her off. Illicit game hunters in on the secret existence of werewolves had hoped for a pricey black-market pelt, but hadn’t gotten their wish. His mother, also able to shape-shift at will, had robbed them of that last detail.

Michael scanned the lawn. With his sensitive hearing mechanisms on alert, he experienced an anticipatory spike in pulse rate. But it wasn’t Kaitlin who approached.

“I get it, Michael.” Rena effortlessly covered ground on long, shapely legs.

“What do you get?”

“She’s different.”

He nodded. “You noticed.”

“I wonder what it is, though.” Rena stopped beside him with her hands stuffed into the pockets of her jeans, and looked up at him. “What are you going to do with her?”

“I suppose that depends on how she turns out.”

“How bad was it for her? I know you wouldn’t do this unless it was absolutely necessary.”

“There wasn’t much to save,” he replied.

Rena sniffed the air. “Whatever happened to her happened near here? Some of her scent lingers.”

“Rogue vamp,” Michael said. “Possibly only days old.”

“Damn things are getting bolder. That’s the second attack in a week.” Rena nailed him with a shrewd stare. “Why did you do it?”

“I suppose I felt sorry for her.”

Rena’s expression let him know she saw through that answer. She asked, “Is this a new trend?”

“Hopefully not.”

Rena looked around. “Is she coming here to meet you?”

“Maybe she’ll show. Maybe not.”

Michael didn’t want to get into this now, since he’d have to go over it with the rest of the pack tonight. Rena was good at pressing the limits of trespassing on personal space, though. She’d been raised in a family of twelve.

“Oh, she will show, all right. You’ve mesmerized her,” she said.

“She’ll get over it. People often idolize their rescuers at first, until that new take on life wears off.”

“Yes, but Kaitlin’s new take on life won’t wear off. She won’t be able to go back to her old ways as if nothing happened, will she?”

“I’m hoping you’ll help her with her transition to this new life.”

“And I hope you’re kidding, Michael.”

He looked directly at her. “I can’t think of anyone better for the task, or that I’d trust with it more.”

Rena’s eyes were bright with an emotion she almost succeeded in keeping hidden. After helping to raise her numerous siblings, she wasn’t going to be amenable to babysitting again.

“Like me, Cade was human until he was bitten,” she said. “He’s calmer. He’d be a better keeper.”

“Cade is all male, as you well know.”

“You’re suggesting that no male can resist this little human?” Rena fired back.

“I’d rather not deal with having to find out until Kaitlin can make up her own mind about which side she prefers to take.”

“In case she wants to hide out among the humans and pretend she’s still one of them, you mean,” Rena said.

“Like we all do,” Michael reminded her.

Rena turned away from him, sniffing at something she perceived in the wind. Michael was way ahead of her and had been monitoring that smell for the past couple of minutes.

“Vampire,” Rena growled.

“Two of them,” he said. “And I think I might have just broken a promise to our new pack-mate about keeping her safe.”

* * *

Every nerve in Kaitlin’s body screamed bloody murder as she took that first step toward the path to the park. The smell of freshly mowed grass hit her hard. The wide expanse of park grounds ahead of her seemed ominous. However, by the time she’d taken a second step, she was resigned to go through with this meeting.

She just needed a little encouragement.

“One foot in front of the other, that’s all.”

She marched on, shoulders hunched, her gaze scanning the surroundings. Late-evening light lay in a pink haze on the distant mountain rage. Pastel air dripped through the branches of the trees. Several students milled around near the buildings behind her. No one she knew.

As Kaitlin picked up her pace, she warned herself not to look to the right. Despite herself, she slowed, automatically braking to a stop before reaching the spot where the vamp had accosted her.

She hadn’t intended to see this. She didn’t want to recall the details of that night, or see if her blood stained the bark of that damn tree.

Don’t go any farther. Though inner red flags were waving, the pull of that terrible spot was both a fascination and a horror. Her throat throbbed as if it recognized where they were. This was where she had clung to life.

She stared at the trees without realizing how much time had gone by before her body chilled. A man...no, not really a man, but a creature named Michael, again looking human, caught her wrist in a careful grip. Without speaking a word, he urged her into a jog.

She did not stop to question this, and matched Michael’s pace. He led her through another section of the park without communicating to her how different this run was compared to the last one they’d shared. Kaitlin didn’t require an explanation, because she sensed trouble in the air. Michael was tense. His grip on her wrist was tight.

They weren’t alone. Somehow she was aware of another presence nearby and recognized the scent of Rena’s dark jeans. Michael’s female pack-mate was somewhere behind them, bringing up the rear.

Was this how it was with werewolves? They possessed an intrinsic sense of each other, aware of Were presence without having to look?

Although the idea was interesting, there was no time to ponder it. Michael ran, and she ran with him—through the park, past the edge of the campus, slowing only when they hit the street. There, they had to walk in order to blend in with the people on the sidewalk.

Once they had cleared the short block leading to the university’s athletic grounds, Michael took off again with a speed that was more like flight.

Kaitlin ran like the wind without becoming winded. Cool air on her neck stung. Turning her head made her grimace, but those things weren’t half as disconcerting as being mired in the fog of being uninformed. Who the hell were they running from?

Please, don’t let it be vampires.

Panic filled her with the thought of fanged monsters. Her pace flagged as the memory of unnatural teeth tearing into her flesh returned, and with it the reminder of there being more kinds of things in this world than anyone knew.

She uttered a sound that made Michael toss her a sideways look. However, he wasn’t going to oblige by stopping to answer questions. Instead, he encouraged her on.

They raced around the corner of a small building near the university’s farthest fields. Then, slowing so suddenly that she nearly passed him by, Michael whirled and pressed her to the building’s brick siding.

“Don’t go there,” he warned. “Don’t think back too hard or too much. To be afraid is to be weak.”

“I think I can feel them out there. Vampires.”

“They won’t get to you. Not with me here and the pack on the prowl.”

“It’s almost dark, Michael. Don’t vampires come out at night? Is that what you were warning me about when you said to come early?”

He nodded. “When darkness comes, we wait for what hides inside it. I wanted you to avoid being caught up in that.”

“Who? Who will face those things?”

“I will. My pack will.”

Kaitlin refused to address the ringing in her ears that signaled the extent of her panic. She whispered, “I’m not ready.”

Warm hands cradled her face. Michael’s eyes met hers. “You don’t have to see them. No one expects you to. I just wanted you to view the place where you were attacked and accept it. Accept us. Accept me.”

Michael drew back after saying that, as if he had just exposed a secret. Did that secret deal with his feelings for her?

“What if...” Her voice faltered, so Kaitlin started again. “What if they hurt you?”

He shook his head. “Not going to happen. Not here, like this. We’re fairly fluent in vampire, and these young fledglings have picked up a predictable pattern.”

Kaitlin recalled the brute strength of the beast that had trapped her and how she had assumed she would never breathe again. But if darkness was minutes away and Michael’s pack would be going after vampires, where did that leave her?

“What do I do?” she asked.

“Go back to your place and wait this out. I was hoping they wouldn’t come back so soon. It’s unusual they would risk it. I didn’t mean for you to go through this again. I’ll send someone home with you to—”

“Babysit me? Hold my hand? I don’t need that.”

Michael held her to the wall with only one hand on her shoulder. Their hips weren’t touching. She couldn’t feel his breath on her face as he said, “Then it’s a good thing you have no say in the matter.”

As if their sprint had finally caught up with her need for oxygen, Kaitlin said breathlessly, “Who made you king?”

“Not king. Alpha,” he said with a split-second grin that made the rest of the world, as well as thoughts about the monsters occupying space in it, momentarily melt away.

“And as such, you’re my responsibility,” he added.

Michael’s tenseness had returned, which meant that the time for conversation had to be scheduled for a future date. Right on cue with the final nod of his head, the guests he must have been anticipating got nearer, as did nightfall.

Growls rolled from Michael’s throat that would have scared the living daylights out of anyone who heard them, and nearly shattered Kaitlin’s reach for recovery.

“They’re coming,” he said. “Lesson one, Kaitlin. Close your eyes and breathe. Inhale and tell me what you find in the wind.”

Kaitlin did as she was told. She breathed the night in, coughed, breathed again. Heavy pressure on her nerve endings made her eyes fly open. “Is that the vampires?”

“It’s the pack,” Michael said. “Some of it, anyway.”

The scent accompanying the pressure she perceived was hard to define and meant more werewolves were coming. Her body responded quickly to this news. Heat closed around her as if a warm breeze had blown in.

Michael said, “Time to go.” Then Rena, accompanied by two large men that weren’t quite as gorgeous as Michael, but a close second and third, turned the corner of the building...with their eyes trained on her.