Deceived By the Others

chapter 16



On my way back to the cabin, shortly after I crossed the bridge, something growled at me from the bushes.

The tendons in my neck creaked as I caught movement, and twisted to see what it was. My blood turned to ice water as what I’d taken to be a tree trunk shifted—against the wind. It was too dark to really see the shape of the thing, other than that it was big. Very big. Bigger than Chaz when he was Were. It was growling at me, a lone human in the dark with no weapon and no hope of outrunning a predator this big.

My knees trembled as I backed away, slowly so as not to invite it—whatever it was—to charge. The thing growled again, deeper this time, and I froze in panic.

My gaze shifted upward to focus on the source of the low rumbling. Large yellow eyes gleamed out of the shadows briefly before that great, huge something moved. At first, I thought it was coming after me, and rapidly backpedalled, slipping in the mud. The thing wasn’t after me, though; it pulled away, disappearing between the trees.

Knees weak with relief, I stumbled along until I reached my cabin. My hands shook as I worked the lock, dropping the key in my haste to get inside. Cursing, I scattered dirt and wood chips as I searched for it by feel. Once I found the damned thing, it took longer than it should have for me to get inside, as I kept twisting around and flattening against the door at every rustling bush or crackling of a tree branch behind me.

Once I wrestled the lock open, I slammed and locked the door behind me.

Coffee and paranoia were my companions for the rest of the evening. I dead-bolted the cabin door and stuck a chair under the knob. It wouldn’t do much to stop a determined, rampaging Were, but it should give me enough time and warning to slip out a window or grab a makeshift weapon. I found myself wishing for a power cable or something to get the laptop up and running; this place was horribly claustrophobic without a phone or computer to connect to the outside world. If you needed to make a call, they had a bank of antiquated pay phones in the lobby of the lodge. Being cut off from technology was supposed to be part of the charm of the place. With my luck, I should’ve known better.

The caffeine infusions I took to stay alert helped, but also made me jittery and didn’t make it any easier to concentrate on the notes I was scribbling down of what I knew about our enemies thus far.

The Cassidy family was involved somehow. I wouldn’t approach them without the Sunstrikers at my back. Mr. Cassidy was a Were of some kind; some of the others in his household could be Were, too. Despite the location of his home, he might belong to a pack, which meant other shifters could be hiding somewhere in the town or elsewhere on the property. If they were in on whatever was planned to hurt Chaz, they could have made an attempt on his life before now—if they had the numbers to stand up against the rest of the pack. I was guessing they didn’t, or they would’ve been more open about their attacks. Whatever had growled at me out there hadn’t been part of the Sunstriker pack, lending credence to my suspicions that while there might be other shifters on the property backing the Cassidys and whoever George had been talking to, there weren’t enough of them to make a concerted effort against the Sunstrikers.

That, or they only wanted Chaz.

Everything Mr. Cassidy had said now came into question. It was possible he was covering for whoever had trashed our first cabin, and shot Chaz, and that he was deliberately covering for whoever this Howard Thomas person was. Keeping track of all the possible connections and consequences (or maybe the caffeine overdose) was making my head hurt.

I watched through a gap in the curtains as the first rays of the sun crested over the mountaintops, chasing away some of the mist creeping along the path between the cabins and heralding the coming of Sunday morning. I also had to stifle a scream as the door shook in the frame.

“Shia? What the hell! Open up!” Chaz sounded grumpier than he had been before he left last night.

Embarrassed by my reaction, I blotted up the few drops of coffee I’d spilled on my notes and rushed to the door, shoving the chair out of the way and yanking it open.

Chaz was clearly exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes, which were bloodshot and hooded. He hadn’t buttoned his jeans, and there was a bit of mud spattered on his arms. He slid past me, dropping some clothing on the chair and collapsing facedown on the bed. A few of the other Sunstrikers were sluggishly wandering from the tree line, some with jeans or sweatpants on, but most with clothes tucked under their arms. I slammed and bolted the door shut, returning the chair to its place under the knob.

Chaz regarded my antics with one eye, his voice gravelly and exhausted. “What are you doing?”

Rubbing my arms for warmth, I skittered over to the fireplace and poked at the log I’d tossed on there earlier, willing the flames to chase away the bone-deep chill I was feeling. “We’ve got a real problem here. I know you didn’t want me to leave the cabin, but—”

“Jesus, Shia, you could have been killed! What did you do?”

“I’m sorry!” I crept over to the bed, easing down onto the edge as he twisted to face me. I kept my eyes averted, not wanting to meet his tired, angry glare. “Look, I knew you’d be worried if I told you I was going out. I went up to the lodge while you were out so I could get some information on that guy Mr. Cassidy mentioned.”

“Hawk?”

“Yeah. I think his real name is Howard Thomas. I know what cabin he was staying in and that there were two other people with him. That’s not the interesting part, though.”

Chaz rubbed at his eyes, levering himself to sit up and wrapping his arms around me when he saw my expression. I gratefully leaned into his warmth, though I was worried what he’d have to say by the time I was done telling my tale.

“George Cassidy was up there, and I overheard him talking to somebody about us. I think the Cassidy family is in on what’s been happening around here: the cabin, the arrow, the weird notes… .”

He made a disbelieving sound, and I poked him in the side. “Let me finish! Chaz, he was talking about killing you. We’ve got to get out of here. These people are crazy. I think they might have some other Weres out here, too. I ran into one on my way back to the cabin.”

He stiffened, grip tightening painfully around me. “What? What happened? Is that why you barricaded the door?”

I squirmed until he eased up, nodding. “Yeah. It growled at me and ran off. I barely saw it in the dark, would’ve walked right past it if it hadn’t made some noise to let me know it was there.”

Chaz huffed, a low growl of his own rumbling in his throat. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—did it ever occur to you that you could have died out there? I don’t want to lose you, Shia. Please do what I say next time.”

I nodded again, squirming and twisting until I could wrap my arms around his waist and bury my head against his chest. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled against him, not sorry at all. If I hadn’t done my reconnaissance mission, we might not have known until it was too late that the Cassidys were in on the plot to kill Chaz.

“It’s okay,” he said, sighing as he pressed his cheek against my hair. He ran his fingers through the red strands, tangling them in the curls. “I know you only wanted to help. It’s good you found out what you did—but next time, don’t investigate a Were’s territory alone.”

“All right.”

“Listen, love, whoever you ran into last night is going to be as wiped out as I am. I need to sleep, but we should be okay for the next few hours. Let’s get some rest. As soon as I wake up, I’ll go check out that Howard guy’s cabin.”

“Okay,” I agreed, nestling against his chest as he lay back down. He curled his arms around me, keeping me close, and I was grateful for the warmth and protection he afforded. It must have taken a heroic effort for him to be as lucid in conversation as he’d been; he dropped off into sleep in no time, snoring quietly.

Despite my caffeine jitters, it didn’t take long for me to join him.