“Some crazy ass goons of yours who just showed up at my house in the middle of the night. They said Mary Jane was in trouble, and I hauled ass here, no questions. Because I love her. Because I will not let her down again.”
“You don’t know what you’re stepping into,” Aidan warned him.
“One night, when I was about four years old, I saw my real father come home. He wasn’t the happy, smiling guy I’d known. The guy who made me feel safe my whole freaking life. His skin was too pale, his body was shaking. And he had fangs. He came at me, and I ran.” Shame burned in Drew’s voice. “Years later, I saw my mother and my stepfather get murdered by vamps. And the father that I’d tried to forget—the father I’d been hiding from for so long? He was there. Fighting with fangs and claws. Fighting to save me and my sister.” His breath huffed out. “So don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m stepping into, okay? I get it—monsters are real.”
Yes, they were.
Drew’s voice shook as he said, “My sister is fighting a vamp, isn’t she? That’s what’s going on, and I won’t let her be alone.”
The guy still didn’t get it. “It’s not just vamps you have to deal with. This time, the killer is one of us.”
“Us?”
Garrison cleared his throat and put down the whiskey. “Well, not you. He’s like me. Like Aidan.”
Drew dropped his hold on Aidan and backed up—fast. “You’re vampires?”
“No,” Aidan told him as he let his claws spring out. “We’re werewolves.” If this went poorly, he’d just make the guy forget.
“What. The. Fuck? Werewolves?” Drew swayed. “Werewolves are real?”
“Plenty of things are real in this world.” He held Drew’s gaze.
“Are you…evil?”
“Only some days.”
“No, he’s not!” Garrison fired back. Like Aidan needed the guy defending him, but it was a nice gesture. “Aidan takes care of this pack. He protects this town. He’s our law!”
Drew’s hand clenched around the back of a nearby chair. “Werewolves.”
Yes, he obviously needed processing time, and that was time Aidan didn’t intend to waste. “Keep him close,” he ordered Garrison. “Only, no handcuffs this time, got it?”
Garrison nodded. “Got it.”
Aidan headed for the door, but quick footsteps thudded behind him. Without looking back, he threw out his hand and his fingers fisted in Drew’s shirt. “Don’t be a liability to me,” he said. “If you’re screwed up in the head because of this, you’ll just distract me.”
“I-I want to help Mary Jane. I want to make everything right.”
That he could understand. “Then you stay close and you do exactly what I say…”
***
When Jane arrived back at the college campus, she immediately went in to have a one-on-one talk with the Dean of Students. Only that little chat went freaking nowhere fast.
She’d wanted a list of students who were in classes with Alan Thatcher and Travis Maller—then, she’d wanted that list broken down so she could see which students were from out of state. A simple enough request.
Because I think the killer has to be an out-of-state student. Aidan knew all the local werewolves. So it stood to reason that this guy—this new alpha—was an unknown because he’d come from a different state.
The Dean of Students—a guy named Shawn Hastings, Dr. Hastings, who had a double chin, a thick head of a black hair, and very twitchy eyes—was sweating as he stared at her. “I-I can’t give you that information,” Shawn said for what had to be the fifth time. “I must protect the privacy of my students.”
His assistant stood just behind him, looking nervous as all hell.
“Your students are dying.” He shouldn’t need that reminder. “And I strongly suspect the killer is on this campus.”
Shawn blanched.
“I need that list.”
“And I want to help you.” He patted a cloth to his sweating forehead. “But unless you have a warrant, my hands are tied.”
A warrant would take too long. The killer had dropped a body for the last two nights, and her money was on him striking again when the sun set. Before she could argue again, Jane’s phone vibrated. Jane looked down and read the text from Aidan. I’m here.
She quickly typed back. Dean of Students. Meet me. “I’ve got something better than a warrant.” And she couldn’t believe she was going to do this. It was wrong. She knew it was wrong, and she felt like a total hypocrite, but Jane didn’t have time to waste. Dammit. The killer was going to strike again. She knew it.
He had a taste for the blood now. Human, werewolf—the killers were the same. Once they got the rush and the power that came from taking another life, they didn’t stop. It was like an addiction.
“Better than a warrant?” Shawn asked as he rose. “Why, I’d like to see that—”
The door to his office flew open. Fast, very fast—that was her Aidan.
“What is happening?” Shawn’s voice was a shriek now.