He nodded and stepped back. He rubbed his hands together as if my skin had burned him. “Someone broke into the house about a week ago, while I was at work. By the time the alarm company dispatched police, they were gone.”
Now I could see where this was going. It wasn’t looking good. “What did they take?”
“Personal belongings: A wristwatch, some photographs, and some jewelry, a ring with a wolf’s head to be exact.” He swallowed hard, and I was beginning to understand why.
“That’s all? Your computer, TV, everything else of value was left untouched?”
“Completely.”
“Ok, Raoul. I’m doing my best here to be loyal and supportive, but if there’s something you’re not telling me-,”
“You said you don’t think I did it!”
“I’m just saying you can’t hide shit from me. I will find out. And, then you’ll be on your own.” I meant business and felt incredibly annoyed. “You probably messed with the wrong woman, and this is the outcome. You know what they say, ‘Hell hath no fury…’”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Another silence ensued, but more comfortable than the last. I became aware of the itch starting beneath my skin. The pull of the moon created a warm glow in the pit of my stomach. Soon, the need to shift would be upon me. If I concentrated on Raoul, I could feel his wolf waiting. He needed the release, too.
“Why don’t we grab a coffee and head back to my place?” I readied myself to leave and risked laying a gentle hand on his forearm.
His gaze fell to where our skin touched, and I resisted the urge to pull away. “I can’t thank you enough, Alexa. I don’t know how I managed to secure your trust, but I am truly grateful. Considering our history, I don’t deserve this.”
Alarm bells went off in my head. He wasn’t sucking me back in, not now. “We’re pack.” I shrugged it off and swallowed hard. “Now, let’s go run with our wolves.”
Chapter Nine
Raoul wouldn’t leave with me, but I refused to go until he promised to show up, with a tired, “I’ll be in the clearing by midnight.” We often met there in the years since I’d vacated his place. He offered no further explanation, and I didn’t prompt for one.
I stood in the kitchen at home and gazed out the window. Across the field, the silver moonlight illuminated the outline of Shaz and Kylarai as they trotted toward the trees. I had said that I would be right behind them.
I wasn’t feeling so hot. Since I had left Raoul’s, the hunger had been carving out my insides like a dull blade. The craving for human blood tore through me like a sickness, and at one point, I doubled over in pain. Waves of nausea wracked my body, and I gasped for air, clutching uselessly at my stomach.
Arys’s hunger ate at me like a disease. I began to understand why so many vampires chose to take the kill. I’d do anything to make the undying need stop.
The clock on the stove approached midnight. The part of me that was wolf felt confused and irritated. Tonight was supposed to belong to my wolf, who didn’t have time for this.
Clad in only a velvet robe, I let myself out on to the back deck. Determined, I fought back the blood sickness that didn’t belong to me and focused on the wolf that did. I closed my eyes and breathed the night air deep into my lungs. It was cool and crisp. It made me feel alive.
I allowed the robe to slip down my body and pool at my feet. The power of my wolf reached for the moon. The change broke over me, and I shifted quickly and smoothly. The pain in my guts ceased as I took off at a run.
Werewolves, my pack, filled the clearing. Most of the dozen or so local shifters waited there, many of them in human form. Some sat in the grass talking while others stretched or wrestled playfully.
And as he had promised, Raoul stood in the center of them all. I was glad to be in wolf form. I wasn’t a fan being nude in close proximity to Raoul. He stood there beneath the moonlight, unashamed in his naked glory.
Belle began to make her way to him from where she sat with one of the younger males. Typical. I intercepted her just because I could. Her place will never be at the center of the circle with the Alpha. At least, not until she can best me in a fight, the good, old-fashioned way.
Raoul met my eyes and nodded. He didn’t even so much as cast a glance in Belle’s direction as he gracefully went to his knees. By the time, he touched the ground he was a striking black wolf. He fled the clearing with Belle hot on his heels in a pathetic attempt to keep up.
Kylarai and Shaz appeared out of the shadows behind me. Ky’s deep brown fur contrasted greatly with Shaz’s brilliant white and my ash blonde.
The three of us ran with a few others. We frolicked under the midnight sky until we picked up the fresh scent of a deer. I’d much rather hunt something a little less cute and a little more evil, so when they veered off to follow the trail I went my own way.