Lori Handeland - Blue Moon

A sound in the brush to my right caught my attention. When I followed the rustle, I saw the wolf. "Will!"

He froze, followed my gaze, cursed. More wolves appeared, sliding from the underbrush all around us. At least fifty of them ringed the clearing.

Suddenly Will was at my side, shoving me toward the door. Good idea, since the wolves had begun to advance. Legs stiff, hackles raised, they snarled.

"What do they want?"

"What do you think?" He tapped the totem, which still hung around his neck.

We stumbled over each other and into the cabin. He slammed the door just as a heavy body thumped against it. My eyes went to the glass window just as Will slammed a wood shutter into place and flipped the lock.

"Help me!" he shouted, running from window to window.

He didn’t have to tell me twice. What little light was left in the sky was blotted out as we boarded up all the glass.

I’d puzzled over the dual shutters. Now I thanked God for them. If Cadotte’s cabin had only been equipped with outdoor storm protection we’d be dead or foaming at the mouth.

The windows shattered as the wolves tried to get in. The shutters shimmied, but they held.

"Hell," Cadotte muttered.

I glanced at him and found myself distracted again by all that smooth, perfect skin and those supple muscles. I turned my back. "Can you put on some clothes?"

"What? Oh, yeah."

He went into his room and returned, pulling a bright yellow T-shirt over his head. The top button of his jeans hung open, and I swallowed the urge to put my mouth against the strip of skin.

This wasn’t the time. There might never be a time again. That upset me more than it should. Cadotte had used me, lied to me, and I wanted him still. I loved him.

The shutter behind my head rattled. I flinched. "Can I have my gun back?"

"Are you going to shoot me?"

"Are you going to bite me?"

He wiggled his brows. "Maybe later."

I made an impatient sound and he sighed. "I thought you loved me."

"That’s what you wanted all along, wasn’t it?"

He appeared confused. "Of course I want you to love me."

"Because you need the blood of the one who loves you to become the wolf god."

"I do?"

"Don’t tell me you didn’t know that!" I shouted. "Don’t lie to me anymore, Will!"

"You think I’ve been lying to you? That I told you I loved you… why?"

"You made me love you."

His lips narrowed. "No one has that power. Either you love me or you don’t. I can’t make you feel anything. No matter how much I might want you to."

The eternal sadness that had drawn me to him so many times before was back, but I wasn’t going to let him seduce me again.

I stalked into the kitchen, shuffled through the minutiae on the counter. Found the bag of plastic and held it up.

Confusion pushed away the sadness in his eyes. "Where did that come from?"

"Don’t play stupid with me. You stole this from the evidence room."

"Me? If I went anywhere near the police station your boss would have a stroke. Someone planted that."

"Spare me the O.J. delusion." I moved into the living room and picked up the book on Ojibwe ceremonies. "What about this?"

"What about it? I’ve had that book for years. It’s useless without the page that’s missing, which is why I ordered another one." He frowned. "But it hasn’t arrived. That’s what I get for ordering a used copy off the Internet."

"Isn’t it convenient that the one page we need is missing?"

"It’s weird, that’s for sure. I picked that book up in a secondhand store, never even looked through it until last week when I found a page missing." He shook his head. "You actually think I was trying to raise the wolf god?"

"I don’t know what to think."

"Those wolves attacked us both. Why would they go after me if I made them? If I were a werewolf, wouldn’t I have changed? Like them?"

I spread my hands and shook my head. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

He crossed the room and I tensed. I didn’t want him to touch me. I wasn’t sure what I’d do. Slug him or hold him—neither one appealed at the moment.

Cadotte handed me my pistol, shrugged when I lifted my gaze to his. "If you want to shoot me, Jessie, go ahead. I’m tired of trying to make you believe that what we have is special."

I opened my mouth to say… I’m not sure what, and my cell phone rang. It was Mandenauer.

"I am waiting for you, Jessie."

"You’ll be waiting quite a while. I’m a little… trapped."

"Where?"

"Cadotte’s place."

"I will be right there."

"Bring a lot of ammo. There are at least fifty of them out there. And…"

"Yes?"

"Be careful."

"Fifty is nothing to me, Liebchen ."

Then he was gone.

Cadotte had moved to the other side of the room with my rifle. His back to me, the set of his shoulders was dejected. "I didn’t finish the ritual," he said.

"I know."

"We can’t let them get the totem."

"I know that, too."

Silence descended, broken only by the intermittent thud of wolf bodies against the door and the windows. I wanted to ask him so many things, but he was right. I didn’t trust him.

Gunshots sounded outside. Our eyes met. "It’s too soon to be Mandenauer," I said.

Cadotte flipped the lock on the window in front of him and peeked out. "It’s the sheriff."

He must have followed me here. Damn.

I crossed the room and glanced outside. It was Clyde all right. He shot a few wolves. They whimpered, but they didn’t die.

"Lead bullets," I murmured. Clyde must not have had time to find any silver.

He shot his way through the circle, then backed toward the cabin. The wolves advanced again.

I locked the shutter and hurried to let him in, taking my pistol along. I remembered how Clyde had tried to convince me that Will was the werewolf leader—and I wasn’t exactly unconvinced of that yet—but I wasn’t going to let my boss kill him. I couldn’t.

So as soon as I opened the door I asked for Clyde’s gun. He froze, frowned, stared at the pistol trained on his chest. "You nuts?"

"Hand it over, Clyde, or stay outside with them."

"Fine." He slapped the weapon into my palm and stomped into the house.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"What do you think?" His attention was captured by something behind me. "You’ve brainwashed her, you bastard."

Before I could stop him, Clyde charged Cadotte. They went down in a heap. Clyde was bigger, heavier, but Cadotte was younger and stronger. They rolled across the floor, banged into the furniture. Papers and books flew every which way.

Clyde yanked Cadotte’s earring from his ear and tossed it across the room. The golden feather skittered into a heating vent. Damn, I’d really liked that earring.

Blood flowed down Cadotte’s neck, a graphic illustration of the dangers of pierced ears—one reason I didn’t have them.

I took a step forward just as Cadotte hooked his leg around Clyde’s and flipped the larger man onto his back.

I blinked, and he had his knee on Clyde’s chest, his forearm at his throat.

" Aanizhütam ?" he growled.

"Fuck you."

Cadotte pressed harder, and Clyde turned purple.

" Aanizhütam ?" Cadotte repeated.

Clyde gave a sharp nod and Cadotte jumped up. He held out a hand, but Clyde smacked it away and clambered to his feet on his own.

Blood spattered across Cadotte’s shirt and Clyde’s. There were drops all over the floor. I resisted the urge to get a towel. This wasn’t my house.

"What is your problem?" Cadotte asked.

"This." Clyde reached out and yanked the totem from Will’s neck.

Will grabbed him by the shirt with both hands and lifted him off his feet. "Give it back."