chapter Two
She was still sleeping.
Jay knelt on his bedroom floor and peered under the bed. “Eden? You awake?”
A muffled, sleepy noise answered him. Eden tried to curl onto her side and froze when her shoulder bumped the box spring. Her eyes snapped open. “Uh…”
He turned his head. “I brought you a shirt.”
“All right,” she said, voice faint. “Could—could you give me a minute?”
“Do you need me to do anything?” He’d left her alone for most of the night. After her change, no amount of comfort or soothing magic seemed to get through to her. She’d hidden under the bed, and Jay had slept on the floor beside it.
She squirmed a little and bit off a curse as something thudded against the bed frame. “Maybe lift the bed a little? This is awkward as a naked human.”
“Yeah.” Better to put his eyes above the mattress anyway. He rose on his knees, lifted the frame with one hand and held out the shirt with the other.
Her body brushed his as she crawled past him, grabbing the shirt on the way. By the time he lowered the bed, she’d tugged the garment over her head. “Thank you. Do I want to know how I ended up under there?”
“I think you wanted to den up and hide. It’s pretty common after an initial change.”
“So it wasn’t a dream.”
He turned to find her kneeling a few feet away on the floor, rubbing her cheek against the sleeve of the shirt he’d lent her. “No, not a dream,” he whispered. It was too much for her to go through, for anyone to face. “I’m sorry.”
She dragged in a shaky breath before burying her nose in the sleeve. “It smells like you. I don’t even know how I know that, but it’s comforting.”
“Your sense of smell will be a lot more pronounced now.” He could handle teaching, offering her information, and he knew a woman like Eden was bound to appreciate it. “People think wolves have the best sniffers out there, but it’s not true, not compared to a lot of dog breeds. Sound, though—that’s a big one. Your brain will block out the worst of it, but loud noises might be painful until you get used to them.”
Her gaze dropped to his chest as her eyes narrowed. “I can hear your heart.”
“You’ll be able to see in the dark too.” He rose and held out his hand. “Hungry?”
“Starving.” She let him pull her to her feet but didn’t release his hand. “Jay… Thank you for taking care of me.”
His skin tingled at her touch. She’d slept two feet away from him, he’d seen her naked, and now she was wearing his shirt. Not just wearing, but luxuriating in, like his scent was the only thing she wanted on her body ever again.
He bit his tongue. Hard. “You’re welcome.”
She swayed toward him, like she was fighting the urge to close the distance between them. Her fingers clenched tight as she turned away. “I can feel her. She’s me, but she’s separate. And she’s not confused.”
“Good.” Too many new wolves went nuts from the sudden shift in sensory input, not to mention the lifelong implications—the transformation was irreversible, those changes unavoidable. Adjusting was hellish, and some people couldn’t do it at all.
If Eden was one of them…
It didn’t bear consideration. Jay would have had to end her misery, and how the hell would he explain that to Zack? To Eden’s father?
How would he handle it himself?
She cleared her throat. “Am I supposed to want to sniff you?”
“If you want to check me out.” Only shit, that sounded like an invitation. “You’re going to want to test other wolves. That’s unavoidable.”
Silence. Eden edged closer, as if she couldn’t help herself, her gaze fixed on his throat. “If you don’t want me to, I think you better run or lock me in the bathroom or something.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m going to do neither,” he answered. “I wish we had a couple of days for you to hide away from the world and deal with this, but we don’t. We’ve got to get you solid on your feet and head back out to the farm.”
She moved in a rush, slamming against his chest and burying her face in his throat with a distressed whimper. Her fingers dug into his shoulders in a painful grip that only eased after her first gasping breath.
Jay wrapped his arms around her, already regretting his blunt words. “Hey, you’re okay. You’re fine, Eden. Just fine.”
“I know.” The words sounded more frustrated than scared, but the nervous energy pulsing just under her skin didn’t fade. “I don’t have time to fall apart. I need to be stronger.” She dragged in another breath. “Why do you smell so safe?”
“Because I’m strong. Because you know me already.”
“Because I trust you?” She turned her cheek to his shoulder with a sigh. “Tell me I can do this, and I promise to believe you.”
That much, at least, was easy. “I’ve seen people way weaker than you handle this. You can do it, no doubt at all.”
“Okay.” She eased out of his arms and glanced down at her bare legs. “I need food and clothes, and then we should get back out to the farm.”
“Your clothes are in the bathroom.” He dragged his gaze away from her legs and focused his mind on something else. “I made breakfast. You’ve probably already figured out what.”
She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Bacon and eggs? And coffee. Oh, thank God.”
“Real cream too. I hate that powdered stuff.” He gestured to the door. “I’ll be in the kitchen, okay?”
She offered him a shy smile. “I’m fine. I have to be, right?”
“You’re fine, Eden.” He didn’t have to dig deep to put the force of his conviction behind the words. “You’re perfect.”
“I bet you say that to all the women who sleep under your bed.”
“Only the ones who blush as pretty as you.” Then, before he could get himself into big trouble, he ducked out of the room.
The vehicles from Memphis were gone.
Jay pulled his truck to a stop in front of the farmhouse. “You think they parked the other cars out back?”
“Probably. Zack knows all about nosy neighbors.”
They’d have to come up with a more permanent solution—once Jay knew what the hell was going on. “Hang on. It’s an old truck, so I’ll have to come and let you out.” He climbed out and hurried around to open her door.
Eden slipped off the seat and stood next to him for a moment, her body tense as she took in the farm with her newly awakened senses. The front door slammed open, and she stumbled back against the truck.
Zack strode out the door and jumped the porch steps, landing a dozen yards in front of them. His nostrils flared as he stared at Eden. “What in—” His teeth snapped together as he found Jay’s gaze, but the question remained, even if Zack seemed unwilling to frighten Eden by voicing it.
“Her bite healed right after we left,” Jay told him quietly. “She shifted last night. I don’t know how or why.”
“F*cking hell.” Zack ran both hands through his hair. “God, Eden, I’m sorry—”
“No.” She straightened and gave Zack a stubborn look bristling with untamed challenge. “We’re not doing this. It happened, it’s over. Now we’re going to go inside and discuss what’s going on and what needs to be done.”
Zack backed down. Judging from the raw, ragged power that spilled out of the man, he relented either out of respect for his cousin or because he was simply tired of fighting.
“We need the whole story,” Jay said. “It’s the only way I can help.”
“Okay.” Zack studied Eden for a moment longer before his lips quirked in an awkward, sad smile. “You weren’t this bossy when you were ten.”
“I was shorter too.” She slipped her hand into Jay’s. “Trust him, Zack. He’s a good man. Whatever you guys are running from…”
“The same thing every other wolf is.” Zack turned his back on them and started toward the porch. “Might as well come in. Waiting won’t make it hurt less to hear. Or to say.”
“Never does.” Jay pocketed his keys and kept hold of Eden’s hand as they followed her cousin up the steps and into the house.
Though he could hear plenty of footsteps and movement in the upstairs rooms, they didn’t run into anyone as Zack led them to the kitchen. The girl who’d saved Eden the previous night was standing in front of the sink, and Zack’s severe expression softened slightly. “Kaley, could you run and get Lorelei?”
Her gaze fell on Eden as she dried her hands, and her brow furrowed in confusion. “Uh…sure. She’s just out back.”
Jay watched her go. “How many of you are there?”
“Six, other than me.” He sank into the chair like his whole body ached. “No—four. There was a couple expecting a baby, but they split after last night’s attack. Now there’s one other man and three women. Everyone’s pretty roughed up.”
Jay took the chair opposite his. “Your pack?”
He nodded, not looking at Eden. “Memphis is too big for only one. There was the strongest pack, but they always left the rest of us alone, as long as we paid our tribute.”
“What changed?”
“The alpha let too many vicious bastards join up.” Zack’s features twisted into a scowl. “By the time he realized how vicious they were, it was too late. They put him down and turned Memphis into their playground.”
An old story, the kind of thing that happened all too often. Especially in cities, where the stress of hiding amongst humans seemed to lead to ever-increasing savagery. “So you ran.”
“Not at first.” The words came from a slender blonde standing in the doorway. She walked in with a grave look at Zack. “Kaley wanted to come back, but I sent her out to the barn with Mae. I figured you wouldn’t want her in here for this.”
“Thank you.” Zack cut a look at Eden. “You don’t have to listen to this either, you know.”
Eden stared right back. “I think I do. I’m a part of it, whether you want me to be or not, and I need as much information as I can get.”
Zack smacked his hand on the table with a growl. “You don’t get it, Eden. You don’t know what life in a city is like for a werewolf. In your worst nightmares, you can’t imagine it.” He gave Jay a desperate look. “You know I’m right.”
“So is Eden. Like it or not, this is part of her life now.” Jay laid his hand over hers. “But be sure you want to hear this, honey. You don’t have to—not yet, anyway.”
Eden squeezed his hand lightly, then pulled hers away and offered it to the blonde. “I’m Eden. You must be Lorelei.”
The woman nodded but kept her hands to herself as she slid into the remaining empty chair. Eden let her hand fall to the table, her embarrassment plain.
Zack sighed and rubbed his face. “They asked me to step aside as alpha. When I didn’t, they snatched me off the street and told my pack I was dead.”
Lorelei took over. “With Zack gone, most of the stronger men tried to fight. They died. The ones who didn’t took their loved ones and ran. With all the outward opposition gone, the gang pretty much did whatever the hell they wanted.”
“But you weren’t dead,” Eden said softly.
“I wasn’t dead,” Zack agreed. “They were having too much fun beating the shit out of me.”
If the fresh scars on the man’s face, neck and arms were any indication, they’d done more than that. They’d tortured him, and with magically enchanted weapons, no less. It was the only thing Jay could think of that wouldn’t heal, the reason he still had a shallow, scabbed-over scratch on his own side. “What about everyone else?”
“They hid. A few of us couldn’t.” Lorelei looked away. “It was bad, but nothing we couldn’t get through. Not until Kaley—”
A surge of raw, angry power burst through the room. Zack clenched his jaw and his fists and still looked like he was about to punch a hole through the table.
Jay held up a hand. “It’s okay.”
Zack sucked in a steadying breath. “They didn’t say as much in front of me, but I knew they’d go after the pack. It didn’t matter how broken I was—I had to get free and get them the hell out of Memphis.”
“So you left,” Jay murmured. “But why did they follow? Could they want you all back that badly?”
“Last night was personal.” Zack rose and retrieved a cloth-wrapped bundle from a drawer by the sink. He set it on the table before carefully pulling back the fabric to reveal a twist of herbs, twine and a lock of bright pink hair.
Jay picked it up and turned it over in his hands. “The girl from the woods. Mae.”
“That’s right.” Lorelei leaned forward. “One of the new alphas—Scott Fields—he took a shine to her. At least, that’s what we thought. Then he got…crazy. Plain old bugf*ck insane.”
Zack snarled. “He stalked her, is what he did. Tried to make her feel indebted by keeping the other men off her. And with no one to protect her, what the hell other choice did she have?”
He exploded from the table, toppling his chair to the floor. Furious, jagged power smashed through the room in a brutal wave. Lorelei sucked in a breath, and Eden jerked beside Jay, nervous ripples of magic vibrating off her.
If he didn’t calm her down, she’d shift—suddenly and painfully. “That’s enough,” he said firmly. “Everyone settle down.”
Zack whipped around, his mouth open to deliver what would undoubtedly be a vicious retort, judging from the rage in his eyes. Then his gaze tripped over Lorelei and settled on Eden, who was practically hyperventilating, her fingers locked around the edge of the table.
He stumbled back and hit the wall with a hollow thud. “I can’t do this. I can’t take care of them.”
Jay stood. “I’ll help them in any way I can, but I can’t do it alone.”
Zack met his gaze. “Are there more of you in town? Do you have some sort of pack here?”
“No, there’s just me.”
Something deadly stirred behind the other man’s gaze, a banked fury that eclipsed his previous anger and turned his next words into a venomous threat. “The only other alpha we have is Kaley, and she is not going to be your partner.”
Jay held his gaze. “To be honest, I kind of figured she was with you.”
That put an entirely different look in Zack’s eyes. Panic. “She’s not. But I’m responsible for her, just like I’m responsible for all of them.”
And the weight of that responsibility would break him—sooner rather than later. “So let me handle it for a while. I’ve got the contacts, I know this place… It’ll be easier.”
Zack turned to Lorelei, who stared back at him, unblinking, and nodded once, almost imperceptibly.
The press of Zack’s power melted away. “I yield. If Eden says I can trust you…then I yield.”
“I’ll need to call some friends. Will you be okay with that?”
“Are they friends who’ll keep their hands to themselves?”
Jay ignored Eden’s squeak of outrage. “Yeah, they are.”
“Fine.” Zack glanced at Lorelei again. “You can tell them everything they need to know,” he growled before spinning out of the room. A few seconds later another door slammed shut.
Lorelei ran her hands through her hair. “Sorry. He’s been through a lot.”
“I’m sorry.” Eden folded her hands on the table, her knuckles white. “You’ve all been through so much.”
Jay had calls to make, and there were practical matters to deal with. “Lorelei, if you make a list of things you need—food, flashlights, sleeping bags, anything—I’ll make sure you get them today. Tomorrow, we’ll get started on things like electricity.”
“There are immediate needs.” She stood. “Zack said there are some things stored in the attic we might be able to use. I’d appreciate some help looking around, Eden.”
Eden pushed out of her chair without meeting Jay’s eyes. “I repacked a lot of it after my uncle died. I’ll show you.”
A mundane task, but it could be what she needed to keep going at the moment. “You’ll be all right?” Jay asked.
She managed a half-smile. “I’ll shout if I start sniffing people or going crazy again.”
“Deal.” He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed as he stepped out onto the front porch.
Fletcher answered on the third ring. “That you, Ancheta?”
“It’s me. You still in Nevada?”
“Nah, chased that prey to ground a month back. I’m enjoying the sun in Florida this week. Purely recreational.”
“Where in Florida?” Neal Fletcher had nothing holding him, no reason not to pick up and head for west Tennessee. “Panhandle or down south?”
“Panhandle. Why, you got trouble up your way?”
“In a manner of speaking. A splintered pack of refugees out of Memphis just fell into my lap.”
Fletcher spit out a curse. “Have you called Colin yet? Last time I talked to him, he mentioned checking out Memphis after he finished up his current gig. If it’s bad enough to catch his attention, you’re going to need more than me for backup.”
“Alphabetical order in my contacts list, Fletch. First you, then Colin, and then Shane.” He stepped off the porch and rounded the edge of the house. “What had Colin heard about Memphis?”
“Nothing good. A few of those bastards are into pain and tears. Enchanted blades and leaving their victims scarred up. Shit like that.”
“Damn it.” Jay had seen some of Zack’s scars, but what others did he bear? And what about the rest of them? “It’ll mean a fight. Are you up for it?”
“Sure. It’ll take me a day or so to get on the road, but I owe you.”
“Thanks, man.” Jay ended the call with a deep breath and ticked one more thing off his mental list of things to do.
One down, way too many to go.
Eden opened the box marked GG’s china and smiled as she lifted out a plate with a pattern of whimsical blue flowers encircling the rim. “Grandma Green’s china. It would be nice to see it put to some use instead of gathering dust.”
Lorelei peered over her shoulder. “Are you sure you want us using your grandmother’s dishes? Wouldn’t you rather take them home?”
“I have plenty crowding the house from the other side of the family already.” Eden traced her finger over a flower. “I never knew Grandma Green, but Dad always said she was a practical sort of lady. No-nonsense. I bet she’d approve.”
“Then we’ll certainly put it to use.” Lorelei dragged a hair elastic off her wrist and twisted her hair up into a high, sloppy ponytail. “We’ll probably end up cooking in shifts just to feed everyone.”
Easy to believe. Jay had shoveled three meals’ worth of eggs and bacon onto Eden’s plate that morning, and she was hungry again. “So wanting to eat everything in sight isn’t a temporary condition?”
“Not hardly. It’s an enduring trait of your average werewolf.”
“Damn.” She put the plate back and lifted the box. Carefully. The first time she’d braced her weight to heft a box, she’d almost thrown it into her own face. “I guess I’ll have to get used to it. And everything else.”
Lorelei pulled open the folded flaps of another box. “I remember. It’s crazy at first, but you acclimate faster than you might expect.”
“Yeah?” Eden straightened and rubbed the back of her neck. “I don’t remember changing. I remember being in Jay’s car, and I think I remember trying to bite him. I woke up under his bed.”
The other woman regarded her thoughtfully. “What do you remember most? Like, what feeling? Fear?”
Everything after the attack had melted into a disjointed blur, but one thing stood out. She brushed her fingers over the base of her neck and remembered Jay’s teeth closing there, sending desire throbbing through her body.
Her cheeks heated. “No, not fear.”
Lorelei shrugged. “Then it sounds like it could have been worse. You’ll be all right.”
She must sound spoiled and ungrateful to a woman who’d endured the sort of things Lorelei had. Eden bit back a self-conscious apology and turned to the next box. “I know I will. What I’m worried about is helping the rest of you be all right.”
“You may as well pack it in right now, because the only thing that can do that is time.”
“Then that’s what we’ll work for. Time.” The next box held linens, each sheet individually folded and packed in its own plastic bag. Eden remembered folding them, remembered drowning her guilt over her lack of sorrow for her dead uncle in meticulous care for his belongings.
Fitted sheets had been a lot easier to care about than Zack’s father.
Eden lifted one of the bags. “Sheets and blankets, though we’ll need to round up some more furniture. But if Jay’s willing to make a trip with me tonight, I can at least bring over a couple of twin beds and a futon mattress.”
Lorelei caught her arm. “I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
“No. God, no.” Eden covered Lorelei’s hand with her own. “This is hard. And awkward. It’s the most confusing day of my life, and I wish I knew how to handle all of it better.”
The woman stared down at the bagged sheet in Eden’s hand. “One of them was going to rape her. Kaley. But he screwed up, started taunting her about how maybe he should do it in front of Zack instead. We all thought he was dead, and when Kaley heard that…she lost it.”
Zack couldn’t stand to listen. Eden had to. “What did she do?”
“She ripped his throat out,” Lorelei whispered. “With her bare hands.”
Eden was unprepared for the surge of brutal satisfaction. “Good,” she rasped, her voice holding an edge of a snarl that shocked her out of the moment. “Oh hell, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Why not?” Lorelei’s smile was a little vicious, almost feral. “He was trying to hurt her. Worse, he was going to use her to hurt someone she cares about.”
“Zack.” Eden had heard his heart rate soar every time someone mentioned Kaley’s name. She’d felt the deception, had almost been able to taste the lie in the air. No wonder she’d never been able to fool him during their childhood. “He was lying about her, wasn’t he? Are they involved?”
“No, he wouldn’t bring her down like that.” Lorelei hesitated. “They hurt him, Eden. I mean, Zack had shit going on before—we all knew it—but this thing in Memphis? It almost broke him.”
“This wasn’t a happy place for him,” Eden said carefully. Even brushing those memories kindled fierce anxiety in her gut, the terrifying pressure that made her feel like she no longer fit inside her own skin. “I can’t imagine what he went through, but it must have been bad to drive him back here.”
“Now you know. As much as I do, anyway. I figured you deserve that.”
“Thank you.” Eden shifted the box of linens to the stack going downstairs. “I need to get my dad out here. He was always the only person Zack would talk to.”
Lorelei leaned back on her heels. “He knows, right? About the werewolf thing?”
“About Zack? Yeah.” Eden smiled wanly. “About me? No, not yet.”
“But you can tell him.” The other woman’s smile matched hers. “I’m a little jealous.”
Yet another way she was lucky. “Once he gets done shaking me, he’ll probably spend his free time over here feeding you all until you hate the sight of food.”
“It’d take a while.” Lorelei’s smile faded slowly. “Jay. How long have you known him?”
“Four—no, five years?” Eden narrowed her eyes and tried to remember. Jay had arrived in town a few years after she’d come back from college, replacing the old Chief of Police at his retirement. “I haven’t known him well for that whole time, but he’s in my dad’s diner pretty much every day.”
“You trust him.”
It wasn’t a question, but Eden still answered it without hesitation. “With my life.”
“Okay.” Lorelei looked away. “I don’t want to have to worry about his friends, but…it’s exactly the way the alphas in Memphis took over, you know? None of them were strong enough to stand alone, so they banded together. I don’t think I can help being a little nervous.”
A different sort of pressure built inside Eden. An ache just below her breastbone, one that blossomed in reaction to Lorelei’s slumped shoulders and tired eyes. She took a step forward, then another, watching Lorelei for any sign that the woman was about to retreat.
She started to raise her arm, but froze when she caught the slight stiffening in the other woman’s shoulders. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, letting her arm fall back to her side. The pressure became pain, glass shards in her throat, and she had to force each word out carefully. “If there’s anything I can do to make it easier for you and your friends, tell me. I’ll tell Jay to keep his friends away from the farm for a while, if that’s easier.”
“No,” Lorelei said forcefully. “I just wanted you to know. So you could understand. But we’ll all deal with it, I promise.”
She wanted to snarl that none of them should have to deal with anything right now. But if Eden pressed the issue, Lorelei might not be as ready to confess to other worries and fears. “Okay,” she said instead, trying to silence her newly awakened wolf’s agitation. “What about the others? Are there any in particular who need to be given some space?”
“Mae. Without question.”
The one who’d been stalked. Eden rubbed a hand over her arm as a chill shivered through her. “The man who hurt her. He was one of the ones who came here last night?”
“He was.” Lorelei turned back to the box and began unpacking the rest of it, then continued matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry. He’s dead now.”
The pressure intensified into a nagging tickle, and Eden scratched at her arm, wondering how the inside of her skin could itch. “Does she need attention? I have a friend in the next town over, someone with counseling training.”
“That’s nice of you to think of, but I don’t think it would help. There’s so much—” Lorelei’s voice cracked, and she swallowed hard. “There’s a lot she couldn’t talk about. The worst things, in some ways.”
The memory rose in spite of Eden’s best efforts to hold it at bay, vivid in the way it replayed itself in her nightmares. Zack, seventeen and shirtless, with the height of a man but the build of an underfed teen. She could still smell the rain, hear the thunder that accompanied each flash of lightning.
She would never forget the sight of him, shirtless and bleeding, his back torn up by his father’s belt but already healing. The rain washed away the blood, and by morning there was no proof of the way Albus Green beat the hell out of his kid. No marks, no witnesses.
No one but her. Gawkish, terrified Eden, nine years old and rendered mute by the promise he’d extracted from her so many years ago she couldn’t remember not having made it. The defining rule of her childhood, the Green Rule. Don’t tell anyone.
Eden’s arm itched. Burned. She dug her fingers into her skin, the metallic scent of blood a welcome distraction from the nightmares. “I understand,” she told Lorelei in a voice that didn’t sound like hers. Too distant. Too calm.
Lorelei’s hand settled over hers. “You’re bleeding.”
Pull yourself together, Eden. She gathered every scrap of willpower she’d ever called hers and pushed the power of her wolf into an angry, painful knot in her chest. It made every breath hurt, but it allowed her to smile and pull her hand from her arm. “I was always bad at scratching things that itch. You should have seen me with the chicken pox.”
“Okay.” Lorelei rose and wiped her hands on her jeans. “I need to make out that list for Jay. Do you want to come with me?”
Eden didn’t itch anymore. She hurt, like her wolf was clawing up the inside of her skin, trying to get out.
As long as the pain stayed internal, she could hide it.
She leaned down and hefted the box of china. “Absolutely. Some stuff we’ll have to buy, but I might have a lot of it in my house or in storage. My mom’s family were a bunch of packrats.”
“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
With all of the advantages she’d been given, Eden could do nothing less. She wouldn’t allow herself to consider any alternative.