Dani Harper - First Bite

At that moment, however, Meredith snapped her fingers, and two things happened. One, the cord loosened from around his neck, and two, as he sucked in welcome air, he began to Change. Connecting with his wolf at last should have been a good thing, except it was nothing like the shape-shifting he was accustomed to. His body contorted violently as if resisting the transformation, as if he’d never done it before in his life. And it was painfully, agonizingly slow, taking long minutes to accomplish what was normally instantaneous. Goddammit, what the hell is happening?

“Stop it,” Neva yelled.

Her twin clapped her hands. “See? Some things never change. I still love getting a rise out of you.”

“You sick, twisted bitch! All you do is use people to amuse yourself. Let him go.”

Gasping, Travis hunched on the floor as his spine rearranged itself, his fingernails tearing up chunks of the expensive carpet and underlay—until his fingers shortened into toes. Don’t piss her off, Neva , he warned, focusing his thoughts narrowly in spite of the searing pain that was exploding throughout his system. She’s not stable.

Jeez, ya think? I told you that a long time ago. Are you okay?

Sure, fine. Gimme a few minutes and I’ll come up with a heroic plan to save us.

In other words, I’m on my own.

Unaware of the silent conversation, Meredith only laughed at her twin. “You’ve seen how things work around here, Geneva. I’m in charge, and that means I do whatever I like. Of course I use people. I tell my pack when to walk on two legs and when to walk on four. And I’ve decided that I’d like your boyfriend better in a fur coat.

“Mind you,” she pretended to muse, “I could decide he looks better without balls, too. You know, I’d never have believed it if I hadn’t gone to the woods myself—imagine my baby sister mated for life to a werewolf she hardly knows.”

“Cut the crap, Meredith. First of all, being born ten minutes ahead of me doesn’t make you older, and it sure as hell doesn’t make you any wiser.”

“No? Then why do I know things about this man that you don’t? You’ve never been impulsive in your life. Always playing by the rules. Never taking a risk. Never really living at all, so what do you know about anything? Oh, and you’re so squeamish about spilling blood and taking lives.” Meredith shook her finger at her. “You’ve judged me very, very harshly because I dare to do these things. So imagine how hurt I felt when I discovered you’d suddenly mated with a murderer!”

Travis’s Change was slowly nearing completion, but a brand-new pain knifed his heart. Christ, he’d known the bitch would use his accidental confession against him. Neva, don’t listen. Please, please don’t listen. He couldn’t tell if he was talking mind to mind or just praying like hell. It felt about the same.

“Uh-huh, sure, sis.” Neva folded her arms and regarded her twin. “Like I’m going to take your word for it.”

“You don’t have to take my word, darling Geneva. Ask him about it sometime. Ask how he slaughtered seven helpless humans, young and old. Tore them into little tiny bloody pieces.” She knelt and put an unwelcome arm around his neck, but he couldn’t control his body yet, couldn’t stop her. “My, my, just look at these big teeth,” Meredith said as she struck a provocative pose, stroking his giant fangs with a manicured finger.

Keep it up , Travis thought to himself, furious and frustrated that the Change was taking so goddamn long. Stay right there until I’m fully wolf, and I’ll enjoy chewing you into tiny pieces.

“These are the very ivories that bit and slashed without an ounce of mercy—” She cut her fingertip on the razor edge of one of his giant carnassials, the meat-shearing teeth that all wolves possessed. “Oopsie.” She giggled. A normal human being would pop their finger in their mouth and suck on it, or run for a Band-Aid. Or both. Instead, the bitch had it poised over Travis’s tongue and was milking drops of her vile blood into his mouth. He fought to get away, even to just close his jaws—hell, he didn’t care if he bit his own tongue off in the process— anything to get away from that foul substance. But his body still wasn’t listening to him. He couldn’t be more paralyzed if he was frozen in a block of ice.

For some crazy-ass reason, the memory of his grandfather popped into his head. Make your thoughts quiet, he had instructed. See. Hear. Feel.

I’m not exactly able to do anything else right now. Travis forced himself to relax, to let go, to reach out with his senses, and just feel . He certainly felt something dark and evil—that had to be Meredith. He felt something oily and almost venomous on his tongue—her blood, for sure. But then there was something else, something that pulsed like a live thing, vibrating as powerfully as his grandfather’s crystal had vibrated in his hands all those years ago…

Suddenly something large and heavy struck Meredith in the side of the face, jarring her from her loathsome task and smearing her ever-perfect lipstick. She shrieked as a second object hit her squarely in the head. Neva was standing over by the bookshelves, hefting a third volume in her hand. “That’s the trouble with spells, dear sister,” she said. “They’re very, very specific. You’ve put up a shield against me, but apparently not against these.” Neva fired off the book, and this time her twin ducked.

Meredith rose up in a fury, forgetting Travis completely and turning her back to him. “You’re protecting this killer ?” she shouted, putting up her hands, palms out, to ward off any more projectiles. “How fair is it that you love him, and you don’t love me?”

Neva threw another book, but cursed as it bounced off an invisible shield without even striking her twin’s hands. “First of all, I never said I loved the guy, and second of all, you’ve done nothing but make my life a living hell since I was born. You called me, remember? I came here in good faith, Meredith, hoping you were serious about reconnecting and making a new start, but you lied. Like you always lie. I can’t love a liar or a killer, and you’re both.”

The devastating words fell on Travis’s heart like sledgehammer blows. You did this , he said to his wolf. I told you we would never have a mate.

His alter ego, maddeningly practical as always, simply addressed the situation at hand. Wolf here. Cord gone.

Travis looked down. Distracted, Meredith had let go of her end of the cord— and it had simply fallen off during his transformation. With the Change complete and his body finally under his control, he used each of his paws in turn to push the jumble of scarlet coils behind him and under the bed. The bedcovers fell back in place as if they had never moved. Next, Travis subtly gathered himself as he trained his attention on the back of Meredith’s neck, where the dark ponytail swung from side to side as she spoke.

“There’s no such word as can’t around here, Geneva. I can make you love me. Just like all my wolves love me. You’re going to stay right here with me, and either be my adoring little sister or my obedient little sidekick,” Meredith hissed, and fisted her hands, her voice gaining volume until it bounced from the walls all around them. “You’re going to worship the ground I walk on right up until it’s time to visit my spell-crafting room. And then you’ll thank me for allowing your blood to be part of—”

Travis sprang.