My frown deepened. “Friendship?”
“Yes, Morgan, special friends…you know, with benefits.” He leaned toward me, his eyes shuttered, his lips partly open.
Understanding descended. I pulled my chin away and glared at him. “I can’t have this conversation right now.” Not now, not ever.
“Ah, sweetie, I’m not really interested in a conversation.” He bit his bottom lip, eyes hooded as his gaze dropped to my cleavage.
“You pig! I’m not falling for that again. I can’t believe I bought it the first time. The whole ‘take our friendship to the next level’ bullshit.” I air-quoted the last sentence. Friends with benefits had been the furthest thing on my mind when I’d gotten caught up in my feelings for Jimmy.
“Come on, Morgan, don’t be such a prude.” He moved to touch my arm, but I jerked away. “Listen, we’ve been friends for a long time. I thought you’d want to be with someone who loves you, cares about you. And I do care, Morgan. I just don’t want to be tied down. You know that about me.”
“This is unbelievable,” I said, shaking my head at the absurdity. After the night I’d had, now this? “You can leave now.”
I stormed to my door, looking over my shoulder to shoot one last cold glare in his direction. Movement in the corner of my eye stilled my hand on the knob. I turned fully to face Jimmy, who was staring at me incredulously.
“Really, Morgan, you’re being so dramatic. If you’d just let me explain…”
I took a few steps away from my door to the edge of the porch and looked past Jimmy into the dark night. I tracked the direction where I had seen movement, dread pooling in my stomach once again.
The wolf came out of nowhere, striking Jimmy down, its huge front paws pinning his chest to the ground. I jolted back, instinctively grasping the railing of my porch to steady myself. A scream started from deep in my gut, wrenching from my mouth as I watched the beast lower its massive snout to Jimmy’s neck. Jimmy jerked his head to the side, staring at me with disbelief and unmasked terror as the wolf slammed its teeth into his throat, casting arterial spray over everything. Jimmy opened his mouth in a silent scream, his breath stolen as the beast gorged.
I stood staring, the fleeting thought of how quickly a person could die from one bite, causing my body to tremble. The life faded from Jimmy’s eyes swiftly. The beast stepped off his limp body before sauntering toward me at a leisurely pace. I was frozen once again, no longer able to utter a sound, as if my scream had ripped my voice from my throat.
The wolf stalked closer, its muzzle a gross matting of fur and bloody gore. Its eyes shone yellow, glaring at me, daring me to run. A shudder trailed down my body. The wolf had found me just as that man, Caleb, had warned.
I was steps away from safety. If I could only turn, get my key in the lock, I would be okay. But I knew that I couldn’t move fast enough, that my hands would shake too much for me to make them work. The wolf was almost at the steps of my house, a couple of feet from me. I was too late.
“What do you want from me?” I cried as tears sprang to my eyes, my body vibrating with fear, my gaze darting all around into the darkness as if somewhere out there was my salvation. But no, I’d left my only savior a writhing mess back at the carnival.
When the beast lunged, I covered my head with my hands and braced for the impact.
“Get behind me,” Caleb ordered, his words punctuated by the zinging sound of metal.
I lowered my hands, my body forced back, pressed against the door as a familiar form blocked the wolf from my sight.
“You!” I whispered, in awe once again at the sheer bulk of him. He dwarfed me by at least a foot. Caleb, the hunter.
“Unlock the door,” he growled over his shoulder. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to protect you.”
I peered around his body. The wolf had been joined by others, all growling and snarling, closing in on us quickly. Caleb held a huge sword and he was swinging it from left to right, in a sweeping arc in front of him.
Protect me?
“Open the fucking door, woman.”
I snapped out of my thoughts and quickly yanked the keys from my pocket, steadying my hands before jamming the right key into the lock and twisting the knob. He pushed me back as I opened the door, barreling both of us into the house, and then quickly slammed the door shut behind him.