Linda Thomas-Sundstrom - Half Wolf

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.