chapter 19
Twisting inside, terrified, and yet oddly composed, Katelyn stared at the gun in her hand. Why was she surprised? She had seen the bullets.
I could pretend they weren’t his. I could lie to myself.
Shaking, she ran to the door to call her grandfather back, make him talk. Spill it all. Then she flopped her back against the door and slid to the floor, gazing upward at the ceiling as huge tears rolled down her cheeks.
How long has he known? What does he know? And who does he know about?
Wiping her face, she raised the gun to eye level and studied the ends of the bullets in the circular chamber. The odor of silver wafted like incense, mingling with the smoke and ash in their fireplace.
She let out a shaky breath. She shouldn’t have let him go out there.
No. I should have gone with him.
He had left her there because she was safer home alone than wherever he was going. She was stuck. There was nothing she could do to help Trick, who had told her he cared for her.
“I’m sorry,” she said brokenly. Because he was in trouble, and she was afraid for him, and she knew he was innocent.
Right?
“Oh, God,” she blurted. Of course she knew. She believed in him.
And I need someone to believe in me.
She thought about Quentin Lloyd’s body. How would they explain that? Would he be seen as just another victim of the same monster? And was that monster the same one that had bitten her?
Mr. Fenner hadn’t bitten her. She knew that now. But he was crazy. He had killed someone before her eyes, would probably do it again when he lost his temper.
He couldn’t remain alpha forever. Everyone had seen: everyone already knew that he was crazy.
But they’re all terrified of him. Because he’s still strong and fast and ruthless. And even though he’s losing his mind, that just makes him more dangerous, not less. They put up with it, like at Thanksgiving. Because it’s their “instinct.”
Another thing she couldn’t do anything about.
But it’s not my instinct, she thought. I don’t feel any loyalty to him. I don’t have to sit here and meekly let him ruin our lives. I have to do something. I can’t just sit here.
Outside she heard a wolf howl. It was close. She clenched her jaw and wiped at her eyes. If it was coming for her, better that it did now while her grandfather was safely away. This way he couldn’t get hurt. This way, maybe he wouldn’t have to figure out she was a werewolf.
“I’m not afraid,” she said aloud, and then she picked up the handgun and molded her hand around it.
She was not helpless. She had power no one else did. She was immune to silver. If a werewolf came near her house, she could shoot it.
And kill it.
She heard the crunch of gravel outside and she moved to a window just in time to see Justin getting out of a truck.
She blinked rapidly. She couldn’t let him see the gun with the silver bullets. She ran into the kitchen and hid it in a drawer and then flew back to the front door, opening it just as he knocked.
“I came to check up on you. Make sure you were okay.”
She nodded swiftly. And then over his shoulder she caught a flash of something moving in the woods. She jerked. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing.
Justin spun on his heel and looked. “I don’t see anything.”
“There was something there a second ago.”
“Maybe you’re just jumpy.”
“No, I’m not,” she said.
Justin stepped off the porch and started walking toward the trees. When he got close something exploded in movement. With a yelp he began to give chase.
Katelyn bolted out the door, running toward him.
“It’s a wolf!” he shouted.
And the wolf was running away from them. Savage heat filled Katelyn and she leaped ahead, running past Justin. She crashed through the trees, following the creature. She swept her arm low and snatched up a rock. She flung it with all her strength and it hit the creature in the head. It turned on her, all snapping jaws and saliva. She tried to see the color of its eyes, but couldn’t tell in the gloom beneath the trees.
“Show yourself!” Justin commanded in a booming voice as he ran up next to Katelyn.
The wolf spun around and focused on him. Katelyn took a step to the side, but it didn’t look at her. She took another step, then another. Justin and the wolf were closing in on each other, fixated on each other. Neither of them was paying attention to her.
It could be the wolf that bit me.
I can’t let it hurt Justin.
Katelyn circled to the side and then grabbed hold of a thick tree branch and swung herself up into the tree. She moved carefully from limb to limb, maneuvering herself until she was over the wolf.
This is crazy. What am I doing?
And as the wolf snapped its jaws she realized exactly what she was doing. She was saving Justin.
Aimed like a missile, she dropped silently from the tree. Her boots struck the wolf hard just at the base of the neck. It collapsed onto its side.
“Did I kill it?” she asked.
“No, knocked it out,” Justin said, giving her an admiring glance. “Quick thinking.”
“Thanks.” She tried to slow down her breathing, her heartbeat.
The wolf began to transform into a human and Katelyn stared intently at the face. As the wolf snout turned back into a human nose and mouth, Katelyn gasped.
“Babette!”
“You know her?” Justin asked.
Katelyn nodded. “She owns the boutique clothing store downtown. I didn’t know she was part of the pack.”
“She’s not,” he said grimly. “I think we just found our Gaudin spy.”
An hour later they pulled into the Fenners’ driveway. Justin was at the wheel of his truck, Katelyn beside him, and Babette was wrapped in chains in the back. Justin had called ahead and it seemed the entire pack was waiting for them. Doug and Al hurried forward and picked Babette up, carrying her around to the other side of the house, with the rest of the pack trailing behind.
“You did good,” Justin said.
“Thanks.”
He looked around. “I just wish I could figure out why it smells like silver in here.”
She shrugged as she had half a dozen times on the drive. He didn’t know that she had a gun with silver bullets, or that she had taken it and stashed it under her seat while he was busy making sure Babette couldn’t escape. Maybe it had been foolhardy.
Maybe not.
Reluctantly Katelyn got out of the truck and followed Justin to the back yard. The pack was in an uproar, the air vibrating with jeers and growls.
“What the hell,” Justin muttered.
Pack members in human form were gathered in a semicircle. Lee Fenner’s back was to Katelyn, and he was kicking something on the ground.
Not something, someone.
Babette.
She was curled up in a fetal position, arms covering her head as he drew back his booted foot and kicked her in the back. Justin’s hand went across Katelyn’s mouth as she cried out. Oblivious — or unconcerned — Mr. Fenner bent over Babette and pushed her onto her back. Then he grabbed her by the hair as if he were going to scalp her and lowered his face toward hers. His face sprouted hair; his jaw jutted forward and his teeth morphed into huge, white fangs. Drool roped off them onto the woman’s neck, and he opened his mouth to tear out her throat. Babette’s face flickered in and out of her human face and the she-wolf within, her jaw slightly elongating and her ears lying flat against her head.
Justin yanked Katelyn hard towards his chest, his hand so tight against her mouth that she couldn’t breathe.
“Not a word,” he whispered.
“Go ahead,” Babette snarled between clenched teeth. “Do it. Then you’ll never know.”
With a ferocious growl, Mr. Fenner’s face became mostly human again. Katelyn tapped on the palm of Justin’s hand and he loosened his grip.
“Know what? Tell me,” Lee growled.
“Why don’t you ask her little friend about your daughter?” Babette growled. “They were always whispering in the store about their boyfriends — about my alpha Dominic Gaudin, and the boy Trick Sokolov.” She threw back her head and howled, beginning to change fully, but another lunge from Mr. Fenner sent her sprawling semi-conscious on the ground.
“So,” Mr. Fenner said over his shoulder. He looked straight at Katelyn. “My girl was talking treason all that time, and you never told me?”
The crowd quieted for Katelyn’s answer. On the ground, Babette lay unmoving. Dizzy with fear, Katelyn remembered to duck her head to show submission.
“Mr. Fenner, I didn’t know anything. This was . . . before. She said she liked this guy who was older, and that you didn’t like him.” She prayed she could deflect Mr. Fenner’s focus from Trick. She didn’t want any of this to come near him.
He glared at her. “You should have told me, girl.”
She started to sweat. She didn’t know if he was following what she was saying. If he even knew who she was.
He gestured to Babette. “All these years, she’s been spying on us for the Gaudins. Listening to every stupid thing she said in that store. Stupid, careless. You both deserve to die.”
“Mr. Fenner, I didn’t,” Katelyn began, but behind her, Justin whispered, “Ssh.”
“I’ll do better,” she said, changing course, raising her chin but staying low, maintaining the respectful body position she knew he would expect. “Now I know. I swear it. If you’ll just give me a chance to prove myself.”
He blinked at her. And then smiled. “All right. Take this piece of garbage out in the forest. Kill her, and bury her. Come back and tell me that you’ve done it.”
“Let’s kill her here, Uncle Lee,” Lucy called out, baring her teeth and snapping toward the semi-conscious Babette. Clearly this was an occasion when it was okay to let out a bit of inner wolf.
“Now there’s a good girl,” Mr. Fenner said, smiling. “Lucy knows her place. You’re going to go far, darlin’. But no one has ever died at our home, and I mean to keep it that way. Justin, make sure Kat gets it done.”
Justin gripped Katelyn’s arm tightly, silently begging her to agree. Although she wanted to start screaming, she dipped her head again. Then Justin left her, walked to the inert woman, and picked her up in his arms. As he approached Katelyn, she had to look away.
“Follow me,” he said through clenched teeth. She fell into step behind Justin: dazed, disbelieving.
Bypassing all the Fenner vehicles, Justin carried Babette up the driveway, lingering at the road for Katelyn to catch up. There was never any traffic on their country lane, and Justin crossed into the forest without even looking. Katelyn thought about running; he must have sensed it, because he glanced over his shoulder at her and slowed down.
Time slipped away from her. She was so lost, inside and out, and when he stopped and lay Babette on the ground, Katelyn crossed her arms over her chest and gave her head a quick shake.
“She’s healing,” Justin said. “It’ll be better if you do it now while she’s still barely conscious.”
Katelyn looked down at the ground. “I could never do it. I’m not a killer.”
There was a beat. “Yes, you are. You’re a werewolf.” His voice was steady, firm. When she didn’t respond, he said, “And you have done it before.”
She whipped up her head. Babette was lying at his feet, and she saw that he had put her facedown. Katelyn’s stomach contracted hard as Justin stepped over Babette and came toward Katelyn.
“Quentin Lloyd,” he said.
Her heart leaped into her throat. She felt icy, and unaccountably abandoned. “No. You said—”
“I said what I said. But was it really very different?” He cocked his head. “You knew what you were doing.”
“No.” She tried to take a step backwards. But something inside her was beginning to respond to Justin’s approach — interest, warmth. She was shocked.
“Katelyn, you already have to lie to so many people. But you don’t have to lie to me. I’m like you. We’re predators. There’s no shame in that. Hell, humans eat meat.”
“I didn’t,” she rasped, “before I got here.”
There was silence. She peered up at him through her lashes and she was sure she caught the shadow of a fleeting smile on his face. Outraged, she turned her back on him.
She took a deep breath. “I’ll help you.”
“No, you’re the one he wants to kill her.”
“No, I mean I’ll help you.”
He turned her around. “What are you saying?” he asked, face intense.
“I will support you. All the insanity, death, it has to stop. I will help however I can.” She rubbed her arm that had been injured in the silver trap, not wanting to mention her immunity in front of Babette, worried that she’d already said too much in front of the Gaudin werewolf.
Justin got the message and she could see the thought quickening in his eyes. “Your price?” he asked.
She ticked her gaze over to Babette, now crouched on the ground in her human form, clearly terrified, and he grimaced. She held her breath, waiting to see what he would do.
Then he chuckled deep in his throat and said, “Run, Babette.”
Katelyn jerked, hard, as Justin shifted his weight so that she could see around him. Babette was ready to run, but first the Gaudin werewolf stopped and tears rolled down her bruised face.
“I swear I will never, ever set foot on Fenner territory again,” she whispered, all her earlier bravado gone. “Please.”
“If I catch you,” Justin said, “I will kill you.”
As an answer, Babette nodded, then dashed into the forest. Katelyn could scent her, hear her crashing through the underbrush.
“If Lee finds out, there will be hell to pay,” Justin said. He smiled. “Now, where were we?”
“Thank you,” Katelyn said, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug.
He held her tight for a minute and then stepped back. “Let’s go home.”
Justin had blood on his shirt and, looking down, she realized that she did now, too. Babette’s blood might be on her clothes, but at least her death wouldn’t have to be on Katelyn’s conscience.
When they finally trudged out of the woods and made it back to the house, Katelyn saw that everyone was still gathered. Heads turned at their arrival and she forced herself to try and stay calm. There was no reason to panic.
She felt a text message come in on her phone but she kept it in her pocket — she couldn’t read any messages until she was alone. And as she and Justin came to a stop before Mr. Fenner and the rest of the pack, Katelyn had never felt so alone.
Lucy was staring at them both, fire in her eyes. “How could you!” she demanded before anyone else could speak.
Katelyn froze as her mind tried to process what was happening.
“I can smell you all over him!”
Katelyn blinked in shock. All the times that Justin had kissed her and they’d never been caught, and now, over just a simple hug, Lucy was coming unglued. She opened her mouth to say something, anything.
“Lu, you’re just upset,” Justin said soothingly.
“You go to hell, Justin Fenner! You lying, cheating bastard!” Lucy shouted.
Then Lucy leaped at Katelyn, knocking her to the ground, and wrapped her hands around Katelyn’s throat. Katelyn felt her phone fall out of her pocket as she flailed at Lucy, arms windmilling, trying to bat at her. She was too panicked to remember how to defend herself.
Over Lucy’s shoulder, Jesse was screaming and Justin was holding him back.
Holding him back from helping either one of us. This is a challenge.
To the death.
Then Katelyn’s vision swam before her eyes. She needed oxygen. Everything hurt; she couldn’t breathe.
They rolled to the side and in the confusion, somehow Katelyn drew up her right leg and slammed her knee into Lucy’s body. She didn’t know where the blow landed, but Lucy grunted and loosened her grip. Katelyn hit her in the face and got to her feet, preparing to run. The rest of the pack was keeping their distance, as Jesse cried and Justin held him, and Katelyn half ran, half staggered toward the driveway. Her ears were ringing.
I don’t have my car, she thought, lurching forward, dizzy and disoriented.
“Kill her, Lucy!” someone shouted.
They’ve come to watch her kill me, Katelyn realized in a panic. I’m going to die and Trick and my grandfather will never know why.
“I’ll get you, bitch!” Lucy screamed, yanking Katelyn by the hair. Then they heard roaring, and Lucy spun her half around.
Katelyn blinked and slowly realized that Mr. Fenner was standing alone, hands on his hips, and he was speaking.
“— going on here?”
Before Lucy could say a word, accuse her of stealing Justin from her, Jesse shouted. All eyes swiveled toward him and in horror Katelyn realized he was holding her phone.
“What is it, Buddy?” Justin asked.
“Cordelia married that no-good Dom,” Jesse said, waving the phone in the air.
“No,” Katelyn whispered. “Oh, no.”
That must have been the text she got. Now everyone would know she’d been in contact with Cordelia.
“Ssh,” Justin warned her. “Not a word.”
The silence was terrible. Katelyn braced herself for Mr. Fenner’s fury. The entire pack held its breath.
Then, with icy calm, the patriarch of the Fenner clan, leader of the descendants of the Fenris Wolf, squared his shoulders and raised his chin.
“War,” he said, his voice ringing out. He looked at his daughter, Regan.
“War,” Regan replied.
He looked at Arial.
“War,” she concurred.
Then Doug: “War.”
And Al, Arial’s mate: “War.”
And then it was Justin who said, “War.”
Then Justin slid a knowing glance at Katelyn, who was heaving, trying to catch her breath. They had a secret, just them two. She was his secret weapon. But he wasn’t planning on making his move then.
A thrill of pure, unadulterated horror shot through her. So much had changed in the past few hours.
And she knew, with crystal clarity, that right there, right then, so much was about to change again.
Trick, she thought, her heart breaking. Take care. I love you.
“I can be your secret weapon, Mr. Fenner,” Katelyn said in a loud voice as she took a deep gulp of air.
Justin’s knowing little smile broke. She read his expression — What the heck are you doing? — but she ignored him, staring straight at Lee Fenner.
“I’m immune to silver,” she announced. “It can’t hurt me.”
A ripple of shock and a few strained laughs of disbelief went through the crowd as Mr. Fenner strode past Lucy, forcing her to get out of his way or get slammed into, and grabbed Katelyn by the hair. He yanked back her head and glared down into her eyes. His eyes began to glow as the wolf took him over. She forced herself not to betray any fear.
“I’m not lying,” she said. “You can test me.”
“Right, because we’re always testing each other for that,” Lucy said between clenched teeth. She was practically pawing the ground. “She’ll do anything to save her skin. Let me finish what I started. It’s my right.”
“Lucy, shut up,” Justin said quietly.
“Justin, go get the sword,” Mr. Fenner ordered him, staring down into Katelyn’s eyes. Her scalp was on fire. She was dizzy, and in pain, but she forced herself not to blink at the mention of a sword.
It seemed her entire life flashed past as Mr. Fenner held her in his agonizing embrace. She heard footfalls, and then the unmistakable odor of silver. Chills rushed through her as the odor grew stronger. Were they actually going to cut her, stab her? She was immune to silver, but she wasn’t invincible.
Mr. Fenner pushed her away and she fell down hard on her knees. He was holding a silver sword, its hilt wrapped several times in some kind of cloth, in his right hand. She started to panic, imagining he was going to cut off her head.
“This sword is our most priceless possession,” Mr. Fenner said. “It’s the silver sword that the gods used to attack our father the Great Fenris Wolf, but they failed to cut him down. In retaliation, the Great Wolf devoured his enemy. He was forever after called Moon Snatcher, and we were born of his blood. For that, the gods cursed all silver that we touch.”
“Don’t hurt Kat!” Jesse shouted, and there were a few ripples of nervous laughter. Katelyn couldn’t move her head, couldn’t see what was going on. Her heart was nearly leaping out of her chest.
“Alpha,” Justin said. “If it will save her life, then I—”
Katelyn felt a sharp cut across her right bicep. Jesse screamed, which covered her own cry. Then Mr. Fenner yanked her up to her feet and took a step away from her, pointing the sword at her heart. Tears stinging her eyes, she clasped her hand over the wound, but she quickly realized he hadn’t cut her very badly. Just enough to make her bleed.
Blood trickled through Katelyn’s fingers, and Jesse started sobbing. Katelyn looked around and saw horror on the faces of most of the pack, but a few cruel smiles of anticipation as well.
Though she was swaying, Katelyn stayed on her feet. Mr. Fenner pushed her hand away and inspected the wound. Then he looked down at the sword. After a beat, he raised it upward to the sky.
“It’s true!” he bellowed.
“Kat, Kat!” Jesse shouted, rushing over and throwing his arms around her. Then he planted a big wet kiss on her cheek. “Kat is so awesome!”