Linda Thomas-Sundstrom - Wolf Slayer

“If you think this changes anything, you’re wrong,” she said. “We’re on opposite sides of the game, and in any game, there can only be one winner.”

She watched the alarmingly large Were shake his head as if he understood what she had said, as well as the promise in it. True to his word though, he didn’t make any move to harm her. This close to him, she couldn’t see his claws or imagine what he might gain by holding back on his end.

So she waited for his next move, already planning hers. She’d duck to the side, come up to his right and use the knife. She wouldn’t be facing him then, wouldn’t have to look into those sympathetic blue eyes.

Yes, that’s what she had seen in them after the flash of curiosity. Sympathy.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” she demanded in a voice that didn’t sound as strong or as confident as she meant it to be. “One of us has to do the honors. If that’s you, so be it. If it’s me, all the better. That’s how this works.”

When he failed to respond, Tess’s gaze went to the blood dappling his broad chest. Red blood. Half men, half beasts had red blood like the humans they emulated.

She continued to eye the tiny hole in the Were’s chest until he began to back away. Given some distance, Tess’s nerves fired up, white-hot. Her arms began to quake with the need to do something—show him who she was and what she could do. She’d just had an intimate tryst with death and was still standing.

The Were was a good three feet away now and facing her. Tess’s first real look at the whole package he presented, head to foot, was another nerve-jangling revelation.

In this incarnation, the Were actually did seem more man than beast. Well over six feet of undulating muscle and sinew made it appear that he was moving when he wasn’t.

He had chiseled cheekbones, sun-streaked brown hair and blue eyes. If there had been an image of the perfect specimen of a man-wolf in that wolf hunter rulebook, this guy could have been the model. The real deal. The epitome of an evolved enemy.

She was looking at a Lycan. Tess knew this now. This guy was a pure-blooded example of the species. Her first.

No longer able to manage the internal quakes shaking her, Tess widened her stance. Her pulse was skyrocketing. Her fingers were bloodless from her grip on the knife. Confusion caused this delayed reaction, she told herself. She needed to lunge.

Do it now.

End this.

“If you go now, I will find you,” she vowed. Encouraged by the strength in her tone, Tess added, “Why prolong the inevitable? Tonight has to be the night. We both know this. Wolf and wolf hunter is the way this goes down. Werewolf and hunter.”

The wolf blinked his big eyes and then he shook his head. Within seconds, his body was against hers and she was wedged between his considerable bulk and the shadow-covered rock face behind her.

It was over. She had lost with supernaturally unlucky werewolf number thirteen. It was inevitable that this minute would come someday.

Tess closed her eyes.

Without sight, all of her other senses became acute, serving to enlarge every small detail of these last few seconds she had left. Her opponent’s breath was heated and slightly sweet. With the Were’s chest tight up against hers, she felt the steady rhythm of his heartbeat and the way his muscles twitched. Was he eager to win? Holding back for what? The hope that she might plead for her life?

Never...

With the weight of his body squeezing hers into submission, Tess discovered how close to humans Weres could feel physically. All of the masculine stuff was there, in spades. With her eyes closed, she might never have known what this bastard was and the extent of the danger she found herself in. Even his musky masculine scent was pleasantly unique.

“Sorry, Dad, Mom,” she whispered, ready to draw that last breath.

The Were’s muscle rippled as the shocking sound of muscle pulling on bone made Tess look up to meet the blue eyes that would be the last thing she’d ever see...and found them looking back at her from an exceptionally handsome human face that was a lie, at best.

* * *

“I told you I mean no harm,” Jonas repeated in a hoarse voice that hadn’t fully recovered from the shift. “What more do I need to do to prove that to you? What part of my explanation didn’t you get?”

Tess was barely breathing, and staring at him.

Jonas tried again. “We’re not all bad guys. Most of us aren’t, in fact.”

She said, “You could have fooled me.”

He could see she was scared, though not as frightened as anyone else in her current position would have been. Tess Owens had faced more than one werewolf with grit and dedication, though it was clear that she had never met anyone like him.

She expected trouble. Clearly, she was awaiting her death by his hand. Her face had paled to transparency. In that milky whiteness, her scars took on a pale blue cast.

Jonas touched one of those scars with a finger no longer blessed by a claw. The scar he chose was the one nearest to her temple. In response, she drew back as if she’d been struck. Her head hit the rock with a thud. She swore out loud, which seemed to make her feel better if the light that appeared in her eyes meant anything.

“Do it,” she challenged. “What are you waiting for? There’s only one way to end this, because I’ll never stop hunting you.”

She was so damned determined to fix this situation, so stubborn and brainwashed on the werewolf issue that Jonas had to smile. The smile kicked up the flames of her anger.

“Promise me something,” he said. “If I let you go, you’ll need to honor that promise.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” she snapped.

He pushed more of his weight against her. “No?”

“I’d rather die right here than to owe you anything at all,” she said.

He shook his head. “We both know that’s not really true. You have a calling and I can’t stop that. I wouldn’t stop that. Bad guys are bad guys.”

“Wolves,” she corrected.

“But I’m not one of those bad guys. This, I solemnly swear.”

“What would the world be like if I believed that line from every werewolf that trespassed here?”

“Did you give any of those Weres the chance to prove it?” Jonas asked.

“I caught them in the act. Devilish stuff. Killing sheep. Killing horses. Stealing. Brutally attacking people in the dark. Were those things supposed to continue without intervention? Knowing what those creatures are, was I supposed to allow it to go on?”

He said, “If that was the case, it’s likely those creatures deserved what they got. I might have done the same things you did in order to keep the peace.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You mean in order to keep your species a secret, don’t you? You’d condone culling a few bad seeds in order to keep most of you safe from the world discovering your existence?”

She had more to say. Jonas waited.

“So why here? Why have you come here?” she asked again.

“I’m here to keep something very bad from happening.”

She struggled against him. Jonas held her firm as he continued.

“I have a life, Tess. But I needed to come here to take care of an issue that arose. When that’s done, I’ll go back to my life, get on with my life, hopefully having helped to save someone very dear to me.”

Chances were slim that she might believe him. Nevertheless, Tess stopped struggling.

“Promise me you’ll let me do what I need to do here without interference and that you’ll give me time to take care of the thing I came here to do,” Jonas said. “That’s all I ask.”

“You’re kidding, right? Turn my back? Let you have free rein?”

Her tone hadn’t softened and yet her body had lost some of its stiffness. Hints of a darker ivory color were slowly returning to her cheeks. Jonas hoped this meant he was making progress.