Chapter Six
“Problem?” Sarah said. She rubbed her palms in her lap. He’d said he was taking her home, and now they’d pulled into an abandoned parking lot.
“It’s not exactly like we want everyone knowing about werewolves,” Caleb said, his eyes filled with irritation.
“I… yeah, I can imagine.”
“I thought you knew, but you’ve never seen a wolf before tonight, have you?” He stared at her, his face impassive.
Sarah opened her mouth to spit out a lie. If he already thought she had, maybe she could bluff her way through. Instead, she closed her mouth and shook her head.
The only thing that kept her from trying to run off screaming in terror was a vague belief that she might just be dreaming. Men didn’t just turn into wolves and back into men. If only everything else wasn’t so clear and lucid, she might have believed she was drugged.
If what she saw was real, though, then she might be a loose end that needed to be cleaned up, and she’d tipped Caleb off.
Sarah swallowed. Her lip quivered. He was probably thinking about how to kill her and hide her body.
“Please don’t kill me,” she said. “I won’t tell anyone. I promise.” A hysterical laugh escaped her mouth. “Like anyone would even believe me. Werewolves fighting in a bar? I mean… that’s crazy, right? You see, you have nothing to worry about.”
Caleb watched her, frowning.
She squeezed her eyes shut as tears began to leak out. “I… oh God.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll have anything to worry about,” Caleb said softly. “Who are you, and why did you come to the bar?”
Her heart kicked into overdrive. His statement sounded more than a little ominous.
“Sarah Lindsey. I’m just a normal woman. I wasn’t lying about being a sociology graduate student.” She opened her eyes and wiped her tears. “I… came to the bar just to find some informants for my grad school thesis on outlaw bikers. I’m not a cop, or a werewolf hunter.” She sniffled. “Is that even a thing?”
“Yeah, there’s some hunters out there, but most people just think they are nut jobs.” Caleb snorted. “Most are, really. Just because you’re right about something doesn’t mean you’re not crazy. And hunters don’t tend to last long. We’re very tough, and very good at fighting. Hell, you’ve seen it.”
He reached toward her, and Sarah choked on her fear. This was it. She was going to die.
Caleb didn’t strangle her, or bite her, or anything remotely like that. He reached down and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.
“Just calm down, okay?” he said, his tone level. “I’m not going to hurt you. Hell, about the last thing I would do is hurt you. I don’t hurt women, especially women like you.”
Sarah nodded quickly, still not convinced. “O-okay, but why? Is it just because you’re a nice guy?”
Caleb let out a dark chuckle. “I’m a violent asshole, so no, but it’s more about what I said before. You’re Blooded. You have to understand what that means. It means you have a werewolf ancestor. Your kind is important to my people.”
“Huh? Werewolf ancestor? I think I’d kind of know if I had something like that in my family tree.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “You know, ‘Hey, you’re descended from royalty and werewolves. Or werewolf royalty.’” A strangled, nervous laugh escaped her mouth.
A faint smirk appeared on Caleb’s face. “Would you? Depends on what society they were in. It’s not like we’ve only been hiding things lately, and not exactly like my kind is popular in myths and legends. Back in the day, you didn’t necessarily need an excuse to try and kill someone who was weird. Besides, in a place like America there’s so many immigrants, it’s hard to know who you are descended from, let alone shifters.”
Sarah stopped trembling. Even though her heart was still thundering away, each passing second made it clear that Caleb didn’t intend to kill her. On some level, too, she felt like she could trust him. Maybe that had to do with her being Blooded, even if she didn’t understand all of it yet.
The one thing she did know was that she believed everything he said, no matter how fantastic it sounded. She’d seen them shift, so that proved that werewolves existed. Everything after that seemed minor in comparison.
“Are… all werewolves big?”
“Yeah, actually. Just kind of the way we’re born and grow. Why?”
“Just curious.” Her face heated. She wondered if her werewolf ancestry explained why she’d been attracted to the big and dangerous type all her life. “I still don’t understand what this has to do with you not hurting me,” Sarah said. “Is it just a respect thing because of my ancestry?”
He chuckled. “No. You see, it’s not like in the movies. A werewolf kills you, you just stay dead. If they bite you, it just hurts like hell. It doesn’t turn you into a werewolf.”
“I don’t understand what that has to do with me, but, now I’m even more curious. So where do werewolves come from, then?”
“We’re born this way, but we don’t come into our nature until the first full moon after our thirteenth birthday.”
“That specific? That doesn’t sound all that possible. It sounds like magic.”
Caleb laughed. “And a man changing into a wolf isn’t? Forget what you think you know about the world. There’s a lot more to it. I don’t claim to understand it all. I just know what I am, and what I’ve seen.”
“What does this have to do with me being Blooded?”
“We have a mom and dad, but there’s no such thing as a female werewolf. The less werewolf blood in a partner, the less chance of a new werewolf being born. Shit, my brother’s not a werewolf. So, if you want new werewolves, you need purer blood, and so you need Blooded.”
All her relaxation vanished, and she reached into her purse for the Taser. “You’re going to kidnap me to breed new werewolves?” She shuddered. She needed to get out of there right away.
Caleb groaned and leaned back against the seat. “No. That’s not how I do things, and I personally don’t give a shit about kids. They kind of seem annoying to be honest.” He frowned. “Though you should know not all wolves are as nice, like that asshole Jake.” He stared at her, his dark brown eyes staring into her very soul. “Look, I’m just trying to explain why I wouldn’t hurt you.” He shrugged. “Even if I don’t want a mate, I’m not going to harm our people’s future.”
Sarah took several deep breaths. He could easily overpower her, so he had no reason to lie to her. She chose to believe him for the moment.
“You calm now?” Caleb asked. “Wish I had some booze in the truck.”
“I guess, as calm as I can be, all things considered,” Sarah said. “I know what I saw, but it’s so hard to believe. I don’t get it. I know there are legends and stories, but if werewolves are common enough that I can run into them in Glendale, why aren’t there are more people talking about this? Why isn’t it on TV or YouTube?”
“We call it animal magnetism,” Caleb said. He grinned. “Most normal people, we can kind of just stare into their eyes and erase their memories and put them to sleep. That helps with most of it.”
“Then why didn’t you just do that to me?”
Caleb grunted. “That’s just it. You’re not normal. You’re Blooded, and from your scent, you’re practically pureblood. That’s why I thought you’d leave yourself. I assumed you already knew. Anyway, the stronger your blood is, the less animal magnetism works on you. There’s no way I could wipe your memories even if I wanted to.” He shrugged. “And there’s no way I’m letting anyone harm a Blooded.”
All this new information was starting to hurt her head. “Okay, ignore me then, so a bunch of werewolves are running around erasing everyone’s memories?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, most aren’t obvious dumbasses like the True Sons. We mostly know how to keep a low profile. Plus, we’re not the only shifters. We don’t all get along, but we also understand that silence is best in all of this. Lots of our shifters have contacts in the government and law enforcement, and then there’s the guys calling the shots. They have a lot of money, time, and patience. So it helps.”
“Who are those guys calling the shots? Vampires?”
“No such thing as a vampire.” He scoffed.
“Oh, I’m so sorry to suggest some mythical creature exists. I mean that’s almost as silly as saying there are werewolves.” She rolled her eyes. “So who are these guys then? The guys who call the shots?”
Caleb gave her a broad grin. “Weredragons.”
Sarah stared at him. She shook her head. “That’s just crazy. Crazier than vampires.”
“Why do you think there are some many conspiracy theories about reptilian aliens ruling the world?” He snorted. “They are half-right. Pompous bastards if you ask me, but they keep a lid on things, and they are all rich pricks for the most part.”
Dragons? Werewolves? Biker werewolves?
Sarah groaned and slumped forward. “So, if I just keep quiet, I’ll be okay?”
“Like I said, you’re Blooded. So wolves don’t want to harm you if they can help it, and other shifters, even if they could smell what you were, know that killing a Blooded would lead to war normally.” Caleb shrugged. “You could go and blab, but then it wouldn’t be just wolves, it’d be one of those asshole dragons who might come a knocking, and we might not be able to stop them. They take our silence very seriously.”
She let out a long sigh. “This is just so much to process.”
“Sure, I get it, but I’ll need your phone. I have to erase any pictures.”
Sarah fished it out of her purse and handed to him. “Go ahead and check, but I didn’t even think to take any.”
His eyebrows lifted, and he nodded. He spent a few seconds thumbing through her pictures.
“Kind have a boring life, huh?” Caleb grinned.
Sarah snatched her phone back. “Sorry if we can’t all be mythical beasts of legend.”
Caleb laughed softly. “There you go. There’s the girl I met at the bar and not this scared chick in my truck.”
Her cheeks heated. She wasn’t scared at all anymore, just confused, but that wasn’t enough to make her not notice the way his muscles strained against his shirt as he stared at her.
“So, that’s the deal, Sarah,” Caleb said. “I’m going to take you home now and let you think it through and get some sleep. Like I said, as long as you keep your mouth shut, you’ll be fine. I promise.”
“I think I can manage that.”
“Good girl.” Caleb started the truck back up. “Let’s get you back home.”