Page 32 of Curse of the Wolf
She yelped when she clipped it. I sprang atop her, bearing her to the floor. She snapped at me, but I knocked her maw aside with my own. Snarling, I lowered my fangs to her throat, half an inch from sinking them in.
Remembering that my human side didn’t want this enemy dead, I paused. Further, I sensed someone looking into the closet, gaping at us and also the clothing, shoes, and broken shelves scattered everywhere. Our onlooker held a clear plastic bag with a couple of tiny hairs in it. Two gray-haired men in dark attire gaped in from behind his shoulders.
“Do you… need help, Izzy?” The closest man grabbed a sports racket off a shelf.
Such a mediocre weapon didn’t worry me, but I lifted my jaws from my attacker’s throat. I hadn’t intended to kill her, regardless.
The icy expression that the female wolf gave me didn’t suggest she would thank me later.
Snout up, I walked out of the closet, not so much as glancing at the racket. The man—Ivan, wasn’t it?—stepped aside, letting me pass without taking a swing. The other two men backed all the way to the door of the room, one fumbling for the knob as they continued to gape at me.
Only as I sat on my haunches near the bed did I remember that my clothes remained inside the closet, buried somewhere under the mess. The other wolf growled and pushed herself to her feet. She looked at Ivan and growled again.
“Touchy, touchy,” he muttered and closed the closet door on her.
So she could change back into a human in privacy?Herclothes were on the bed.
Ivan noticed them and skirted me to grab them. He opened the closet door to toss them inside. That prompted another growl, my enemy more irritated by the whole situation than thankful to anyone, I guessed.
“So…” Ivan shooed the other two men out of the bedroom—what rumors would they start about this?—and lowered the racket as he eyed me. “I can see why you would have an aptitude for security. You’re, uhm, huge.”
I rippled my lips to show him my fangs.
“Yeah, those are huge too. Did you attack my sister or the other way around?”
I lifted my snout again, turning my face toward a window. With the battle past, my magic was fading. Too bad I couldn’tleave this great human hive and run to the woodlands to hunt before changing back.
“She started it, huh? She’s been suspicious of you all night, but I know the Sylvans. They wouldn’t hire someone with bad character. Kashvi, in particular, doesn’t take crap from anyone. And I gather they—or at least Rory—know… about that.” Ivan waved at my wolfness.
The magic faded, leaving me crouching naked near his bed. Why hadn’t anyone grabbedmyclothes?
“I’m less certain if he knows aboutthat.” Ivan’s second wave indicated my nudity. His eyes crinkled with humor, though a thump from the closet made the expression fade. He knocked lightly on the door. “Are you okay, Izzy? Do you need a ride to the ER?”
The door opened, and Izzy stalked out, fully dressed again though her shoes were missing and her hair looked like it had been blow-dried by a tornado. She gave me a frosty look, her brotheralmostas frosty of one, and flung open the bedroom door to stalk out. The stalking faltered as numerous people who must have been listening with their ears close scattered. Without looking back, she strode away.
“You two have history, I gather.” Ivan handed me the baggie.
“Apparently.” I couldn’t remember having encountered Izzy before, but she had to be seven or eight years younger than I, so she would have been a child when Raoul died and her pack left the area. “You’re not, er, weren’t affiliated with the Cascade Crushers?”
“My father was. He hooked up with my mother on a hiatus from the pack before going back and marrying one of his own kind. My single mom got to raise me on her own. I should have been bitter about that, I suppose, but I mostly wished my father would come back and do wolfish things with me. You know, take me hunting and fishing and camping.”
“I think those are dad-ish things in general.” Aware of my nudity, I padded into the closet to dig out my clothes. My ribs twinged as I bent, and blood trickled down my arm from a fresh puncture wound in my shoulder.
“Yeah. Do you need any help? Or can I takeyouto the ER?”
“I’m fine.” A drop of my blood landed on the carpet. Even though we’d already stained it, I grimaced. “Sorry about that. Maybe I could use a Band-Aid.”
“That bite mark is an inch deep.”
“Two Band-Aids?”
Ivan snorted and stepped into the bathroom. I’d found my clothes and shoes by the time he returned with gauze, a roll of bandage, and a damp washcloth.
“Allow me. I always offer rides, but I’m aware of the werewolf aversion to treatment in normal medical facilities.”
“We’re not normal people.”
“Oh, I’m aware of that too.” Ivan winked and dabbed my wound.
