Kathy Love - My Sister Is A Werewolf

Reaching for her beer, Elizabeth took a sip, and, for the first time tonight, felt a little normal. The atmosphere seemed to envelop her, as if she was meant to be there. A much-needed sense of contentment filled her. The talking, the laughter, the smell of drinks and salty, roasted peanuts. It made her feel oddly better. This was a good idea-a good distraction. Tomorrow she’d return to her research more relaxed and focused.

Elizabeth smiled as Jill Lewis finally took the stage. The reluctant woman shook her head, glaring good-naturedly at her friends.

“All right!” Jolee cheered from over her microphone, and much of the audience exploded into applause. Elizabeth clapped along with them.

Jolee started the music and the woman’s voice filled the room almost from the first note. Elizabeth recognized the tune as a song from the radio with a happy, contagious beat. And the woman sang it well-better than well. It was little wonder that her pals were urging her to get up there. She was great.

Elizabeth looked back to the woman’s table of friends to see their reaction to the woman’s fantastic singing. Two of them, a man and a woman, beamed and clapped, while the other at the table, a male, just watched. He was somehow distant from the other two. The clapping male leaned over to say something to him, and the one who only watched turned toward his friend, giving Elizabeth her first full view of his face.

Elizabeth’s smile disappeared. Desire, so strong that it almost made her cry out, ripped through her, shredding any trace of calm she’d found. Every muscle in her body tensed, every sense sharpening until her whole being was centered on the man before her.

Without saying a word to Christian, she rose. Carefully, purposefully, she zigzagged through the tables, her eyes never leaving the man. Just tables away, she stopped herself, fragments of her reasonable mind taking control. She glanced back to the bar. Christian watched her, but when he saw her looking, he busied himself by taking an order from one of the patrons.

Her brother could sense her desire now. Of course he could. Vampires could sense emotions-and she knew hers ran very strong. Shame filled her, but still her gaze returned to the male at the table.

The man was beautiful-dark hair, sculpted features, perfectly shaped lips that any woman would have killed for, yet on him they were sinfully masculine. He was beyond handsome.

Elizabeth had seen many handsome men in her life, but her body had never reacted like this. Moisture pooled between her thighs, dampening her panties. Her nipples hardened, rasping the cotton of her camisole. Her mouth watered.

She swallowed. Control yourself! What was she doing?

But instead of walking back to her bar stool like her brain ordered her to, she took another step toward the table of friends. Then another. She sauntered slowly past the man’s chair, not getting too close, not drawing attention to herself-not just yet. She had to assess, she had to watch. Stalking her prey.

She lifted her head to breathe in his scent. The hint of woodsy cologne, the freshness of soap and shampoo, the minty traces of toothpaste. And a warm, rich scent-a scent that made her want to tip back her head and howl.

She continued around the table until he was directly in her line of sight-then she sat down at an empty table. Eyes trained on him, she studied him. Oh yeah, she wanted him.

For just a moment, she closed her eyes as her rational mind took tenuous control. Why was this happening? It was as if the wolf was in control. But that didn’t happen. She didn’t stay in human form and think like the wolf. She didn’t allow that. Some werewolves did. Brody did. He was more wolf than man at all times. She didn’t allow that. She didn’t.

Her eyes snapped open. The man was looking at her. She’d felt his gaze before she’d actually seen it. Their gazes met, and even in the dim light, she could see his eyes were a mixture somewhere between brown and green.

Again her body told her this was what she needed. This was what she’d been wanting. He was what she wanted. She continued to stare, meeting his gaze, until he looked away. Still she watched him. Unable to do otherwise. The need was in control now.

She was acting like a bitch in heat. And she didn’t care.

Jensen only half-listened to the conversation going on around him. He’d thought tonight would be okay. The bar was a place he’d never been, so it shouldn’t conjure memories. But location wasn’t the issue. Oh, it definitely was at other times, but tonight, it was the company.

He glanced at the man sitting to his right. Brian Lewis, his best friend growing up. Brian had changed very little, maybe a bit thicker in the middle, broader in the shoulders. But he still had the same easygoing nature and dry sense of humor. And he still had Jill.

He glanced to Jill, Brian’s wife for… was it five years already? Jill looked the same, too. Maybe a little more mature, more refined.

An image of Jill and Katie immediately appeared in his mind. One brunette, the other blond, both in ponytails. They’d been as inseparable as he and Brian had once been. As all four of them had been. They’d always assumed they’d stay friends, no matter where their lives took them.

But sometimes it only takes one event to change the tide of a man’s whole future. Jensen had ended up in a direction far, far different from anything he’d ever imagined. Too far to get back to the person he’d been when Brian and Jill had known him.

He hadn’t seen either Brian or Jill for over three years-not until his recent return to West Pines. And even then, he’d avoided them.

But after Brian had called him nearly a dozen times, he’d realized he couldn’t sidestep them forever. Not in a town the size of West Pines. So they’d gotten together a few times. Even though Jensen quickly realized he still liked his old friends, very much, it had been difficult-so many memories revolved around these two people. Memories of…

“Oh, please sing, Jill.”

Jensen blinked, pulled out of his thoughts by the pale blonde to his right. Melanie was the woman who Brian and Jill had invited along as his date. Although no one had said that, exactly.

Jill shook her head. “No. Not tonight.”

“That’s what you think,” Brian said, wiggling his eyebrows. A gesture Jensen remembered well.

“What have you done, Brian Andrew Lewis?” Jill demanded.

“Nothing,” he assured her, his grin in direct opposition to his denial.

“You put in a song request while I was in the ladies’ room, didn’t you?” Jill drilled her husband with a look that would have crumbled a weaker man.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Did he, Jensen? I know I can get the truth from you.” She gave a pointed look to her husband. “Jensen was always the more upfront one of the two of you.”

Jensen forced himself to swallow the sip of club soda he’d just taken, the carbonation hurting his throat. Upfront? Yeah, that showed how little they knew him now.

Fortunately, he was saved from having to respond by one of the bar employees announcing that Jill Lewis would be the next to sing.

“You,” Jill growled at Brian, although there was no real anger in her eyes. Her cheeks did flush a bright red.

Suddenly Jensen was seeing Jill as she’d looked right before the senior talent show their high school had held every winter. She’d blushed a bright red just before taking the stage.

Katie had been nervous, too, although no one would have guessed it. She’d had a way of remaining so calm, so composed. Only Jensen had known, because when he’d held her hand before she took the stage, her fingers had been ice cold and trembling.