Chapter Five
Sonya
Only after I had ransacked my apartment for the few belongings I couldn’t live without, was I finally able to make the fangs go away. The key seemed to be relaxing, something I was not very good at. All those years studying control in glíma—the Scandinavian martial art my dad insisted I learn—were what finally helped me do it. For the first time, I wished I had paid more attention to those lessons. Fighting just wasn’t my thing. The lack of desire to hurt anyone had always held me back. Or maybe that’s because my dad had wanted it to be my thing so badly. My big rebellious idea had been medicine. Go big or go home was my motto, even in rebellion.
Once I choked down the noxious mixture of anger and fear and got my heart to return to a normal rhythm, the fangs simply retracted. They were still there, longer than normal canines—much like Raul’s had looked. Nothing too out of the ordinary unless you looked hard. And I couldn’t help but look hard. The seemingly ever-present tears in my eyes made me hope I was seeing things. I had no idea what any of this meant, what was happening to me, but I knew I had to find out. And after I did, I was going to kill that crazy son of a bitch, monster or no monster.
A friend of mine at the hospital had tested me for drugs and gave me a tetanus shot. Nothing had shown up in my system. The only other thing that made sense was hallucinations caused by rabies. But rabies would have taken longer to set in and damage the brain enough to cause hallucinations. Which came right back around to nothing making sense. Whatever was going on, I had to get it cleared up before fall semester. The fierce competition in the medical profession meant I couldn’t afford to miss any time at all. If I did, someone else would get the internship I had been working so hard for. Over my dead body.
Well, I hoped not.
Everything I needed fit inside two duffel bags: a few changes of clothes, my favorite shoes, and my copy of Gray’s Anatomy. Taking one last look around at my thrift store furniture, I sighed at the sad state of my apartment. In the four years since I had left Washington and landed here, I hadn’t accumulated much beyond the necessities. It was hard to accumulate anything while putting yourself through med school. There was no dog, cat, or even a goldfish to worry about. Nikki, the closest thing I had to a friend, would only notice my absence because she’d have to work extra shifts. After a month she’d probably forget my name.
The few friends I had in school wouldn’t know I was gone until the new semester started. And I didn’t plan to be gone that long. It was bad enough that they would be reading up and taking extra classes all summer while I was off trying to make sense of something crazy.
The finality of the deadbolt clicking into place as I turned my key brought an unexpected rush of excitement. No matter what Raul was, I looked forward to meeting up with him and grinding his balls into the dirt for what he had done. That, and it didn’t hurt that I quit my shit job, was leaving a crappy apartment behind, and was getting out of this sleepy town for a while. One duffel bag over my shoulder, the other in hand, I made my way to where my Jeep was parked on the street.
I tossed my jacket and one duffel bag in the backseat, and the other in the passenger. Standing at the door, I paused, wondering if I should wait for the blond stranger who had helped save me in the alley. Worry for him nagged at me. Raul was clearly dangerous. Who knew what he might try to do to the guy. But he had been a big guy, clearly capable of handling himself. Still, the thought of Raul trying to hurt him bothered me, a lot. On the other hand, it had seemed like he knew Raul. If he knew him, he might know what the bastard had done to me, might know a way to fix it. Or he might be just like him, which meant he could be dangerous too. Best to face the danger I knew, rather than the one I didn’t. If Raul had wanted to kill me, he clearly would have. No, he wanted something else.
Maybe I would get to see the blond stranger again. I hoped so.
Thunder boomed overhead, followed by a crack of lightning a little too close for comfort. Forcing thoughts about what all that meant down somewhere deep, I climbed in, started up the Jeep and grabbed an apple from the duffel bag full of food. Tight red skin gave way to juicy crispness that helped distract me as I turned my radio to a satellite station of hard blues. With Ram Jam screaming about Black Betty from my speakers, I laid rubber down on the asphalt of Twin Falls, Idaho, for what might be the last time.
…
Aside from a few rest stops and fast-food breaks, I drove nonstop for over six hours until I reached Missoula. The fact that I could stay alert that long shocked the hell out of me. Being behind the wheel for over an hour had always made me sleepy. Dad once told me it was because any time I wouldn’t stop crying, Mom took me for a ride in the car. It put me right to sleep, every time. The long drive made me think about them, something I hated doing. It hurt too much. He’d been dead and gone for years, and she might as well be.
Despite being a sprawling city with over twenty thousand more people than Twin Falls, the scents of vegetation and water hung here and there on the air, making it almost tolerable. Cities really weren’t my thing, having grown up in Washington and all, and this one was too big for my liking. The four-story brick building of the Staybridge Suites thrust up into the night sky like a glowing, impenetrable fortress. All right, that was probably my nerves getting the better of me. In all fairness, most of the hotels all around it were as tall, though not nearly as imposing because they didn’t hold Raul within their walls.
I parked beside an SUV, shut off the headlights and ignition, and took a few deep breaths. It was going to take every ounce of control I had not to pound the bastard’s face in the moment he showed it. Even if he was a monster, I was determined to get a few good hits in before he overcame me. I had to keep my head enough to find out if he had known my dad, if he was using that to get to me. If I met him in the lobby, then I really wanted to be able to control the temper that now raged through me like a blaze well on its way to an inferno.
Several slow, deep breaths later, my teeth stopped aching and the four fangs pulled back up into my gums. For now, that would have to do. The feel of them didn’t bring tears to my eyes or nearly throw me into a panic attack anymore. I had mastered enough of my fear during the long drive that I didn’t lose it every time the damn things sprung, which was all too often. Not one to carry a purse, I grabbed my jacket, the two duffel bags that held everything I cared about, and started through the dark parking lot for the entrance.
Polished hardwood floors led the way to a modern yet classy-looking reception area. Halfway to the desk, someone stepped in my way. At easily six and a half feet tall, he was the tallest man I had ever seen this close up. Broad shoulders filled out a black T-shirt like they were trying to burst from it. Huge biceps coiled like snakes waiting to strike. This beast of a man had at least fifty pounds of muscle on Raul, and Raul was nicely built. Eyes so blue they looked as if they had been chipped from a glacier regarded me with veiled interest from a clean-shaven face framed by pale blond hair. And dammit if he didn’t smell absolutely amazing, like pine and clean water. Not the overly sweet pine scent that came from aftershave or cologne, but the pine of a forest and the clear water of a snow-fed river. Though the last time I had seen him had been on my dark porch step, I recognized him immediately.
How could I not? The thrill that raced through me when I met those icy eyes brought back the memory of his burning touch.
“You’re not Raul,” I said a bit breathlessly.
Despite his effect on me—or because of it—anger started to boil inside me, making my jaws ache.
One side of his lips curved up. “Thank the Gods. He is…detained at the moment, and I have been sent in his place.” The first part was a whisper said through a sneer. His voice reverberated along my bones like chords played on an amplified base guitar. It was a very nice feeling.
Clearly, he didn’t like Raul, and that made me like him a little bit more. Yeah, like that was possible. What the hell was I thinking? My attraction to anyone right now could not be trusted.
He held out a hand. “May I get your bags for you?”
Manners and good looks, a dangerous combination, one I did not trust. Fingers wrapping tighter around the straps, my eyes narrowed. “No, you may not. What do you mean, ‘sent’?”
Turning sideways, he motioned to a hallway. “May we at least take your things to our room and go somewhere more private to talk?” His speech wasn’t so much old-fashioned as it was the precise wording of one whose first language wasn’t English, and had taken their lessons a bit too seriously. But it was nice. Really nice.
My eyes danced across his broad chest. Going somewhere private with him was a bad idea in a colossal way, but I didn’t have much choice. Even with my training I couldn’t take him. I motioned toward the luggage carts behind the reception desk. “Fine, but just send my bags up, that way we can get this over with.” I was determined not to go upstairs with him until I had made up my mind about whether or not I’d be safe with him alone.
It did not escape my attention that he had said “our room” with a casual air that implied he was confident it wouldn’t bother me. To be honest, with a body and a face like that, it almost didn’t. I must have taken a blow to the head somewhere between my porch step and bathroom to even entertain the idea of trusting some big, good-looking guy again. I wasn’t ready to trust anyone. But I was picking my battles, as my dad had taught me. Tall, Light, and Handsome cocked his head and raised his blond eyebrows.
“Fair enough.” He held his hands out toward my bags with an expectant look.
This time I had no choice but to give them up. He accepted them with a slight nod and carried them over to the desk. The dark-haired female receptionist smiled a little too large for my liking. I didn’t care that she was flirting with him. Sexual relations were the last thing on my mind right now. Or so I told myself as I watched his perfectly shaped ass. They exchanged words that I barely paid attention to. Instead, I peeled my eyes off him and scanned the hallways, making note of the rooms and doors. Only the door I had entered through seemed to lead back outside. Far from ideal if I needed to make a break for it.
“Shall I have them park your Jeep? We can go for a walk,” Not-Raul called over his shoulder.
I clutched the keys inside my pocket tighter. “Hell no. We’ll take it to wherever we’re going.” If I had my Jeep I could flee and leave his ass behind if things got too spooky.
“Fair enough. I am all for a lady behind the wheel,” he said quiet and low, making it sound sexier than I wanted it to.
I tried not to shiver, but his effect on me was too strong. Dammit.
Letting my bags out of my sight was one thing, but my only wheels out of here was another altogether. Sure, this man seemed nothing like Raul, all polite and proper where Raul was edgy and daring, but that didn’t mean I could trust him. My libido was not going to get the best of me again. But, he had helped save me from Raul, so he couldn’t be all bad. And then there was the way his skin had felt against mine… True, it had just been his palms on my arms, but the fact that had felt so amazing made me wonder what more would feel like.
I shook my head to clear it. There were things I had to know, about Raul, about what was happening to me. I didn’t really have much of a choice but to go with this guy. The fact that I wanted to made me more cautious. He shrugged, laid a few bills on the desk, and strode back toward me.
He held his hand out and I stared at it like the snake it could very well be. Slowly, he lowered it and nodded as if this was a perfectly acceptable reaction.
“I am Ty. I am sorry we had to meet like this. If I had known Raul was after you, been another step ahead of him, I could have prevented this entire thing.”
My spidey senses began to tingle. “You’re not a cop, are you?”
Every muscle in my body tensed in preparation to run. It was a stupid instinct when I hadn’t done anything wrong, but I couldn’t help it. Heart in my throat, I waited for his answer. Brows scrunching together, he shook his head, the motion releasing some of my tension, but not all of it. Just because he wasn’t a cop didn’t mean he wasn’t an authority. Cops could be funny like that. Detectives, PIs, DEA, some of them didn’t call themselves cops, but that didn’t make them any less of one in my eyes, which was only a small part of why I didn’t trust them. Having watched them haul my dad away at a young age had forever tainted my view of them.
“No, I am a professor.”
That was so not what I had been expecting that it rendered me speechless. Part of me relaxed a bit. All those years of sitting in lecture halls had given me a healthy respect for professors. Still, self-preservation made me hang on to my suspicions. For one, I’d never seen a professor this hot. He could be lying. We started to walk for the door. The moment we were out of the receptionist’s hearing, I asked, “A professor that was following or tracking Raul? Why? And what do you mean you could have prevented what happened? What do you think happened?”
Ty held his hands up before him. “Easy. One at a time. Yes, I was following him, trying to find out what he was up to. The rest we will need a bit more privacy to answer.”
I ground my teeth as he opened the door for me. I wasn’t against a man being gentlemanly, but I didn’t want him at my back. The casual way in which he did it made it seem like something ingrained in him. Great, a gentleman on top of being hot. Just what I needed. They were an endangered species that I had a soft spot for. One thing I didn’t need right now was soft spots. I walked backward through the door, keeping my eyes on him. “Why should I let you in my Jeep? How do I know I can trust you?”
The cool night air swept around me.
“Fair enough after what happened to you, and you should not trust anyone right now. That said, you are behind the wheel, in control of my fate. And I did try to save you. If you do not trust me after we talk, you can leave me there and return to your life.”
“Fair enough,” I threw his own words back at him. It wasn’t enough, but the cold metal of the mace pressed against the waistband of my jeans was.
Once outside, he walked straight for my Jeep as if he knew it was mine. Then I realized he had probably watched me pull up. Yeah, that wasn’t creepy at all.
“Nice classic you have here. ’79?” Ty asked. The impressed tone of his voice sent a thrill through me.
I didn’t want to warm to him, but his appreciation of my rig hit yet another soft spot. “’75. It’s unlocked,” I said as I walked around to the driver’s side.
Somehow, he beat me there and opened the door for me. My traitorous heart thudded harder. Brows raised, I stared at him for a moment before climbing in. He closed the door after me and strode around the Jeep. Dressed all in black as he was, he blended with the night in a way that set my nerves on edge and on fire at the same time. With those long legs of his, he didn’t even need to use the rocker bar as a step to climb in. The grace with which he folded his tall, broad frame into my Jeep was a bit distracting, causing me to forget my anger for a moment.
Doing my best to hide my blush behind my long hair, I picked the screwdriver up out of the cup holder and started the Jeep. Being that he seemed to be a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy, I shouldn’t have been worried what he would think of my low-budget way of starting my ride. But he had an air of sophistication about him that made me uncomfortable. The way he perused the inside of my Jeep with a boyish smile spread across his face softened me and eased my embarrassment a bit.
“This is amazing.”
I smiled and motioned toward the modern stereo. “It isn’t exactly stock. But I try to keep it close. Where do you want me to drive?”
He pointed. “To Clark Fork Park. Only a few miles away.”
Pulling out into the light traffic, I followed his directions.
“Did you catch Raul the night…that night?” I asked. I’d almost said the night he bit me, but the words wouldn’t come out. Even though this guy has seen it, knew what happened, it still felt too crazy to say out loud.
“I did.”
Damn his voice was sexy. Like, slide over your skin and turn your nipples to ball bearings sexy. I gripped the steering wheel harder.
“But he left a note on my Jeep, telling me to meet him here.”
Ty shook his head. “A friend of his left it there. They were going to meet you here, take you to his family.” He didn’t look happy about that.
I raised a brow at him. “And you what? Intercepted them?”
“Not exactly. Shortly after I caught Raul, the authorities caught both of us. When they let me leave, I tracked down one of Raul’s men and persuaded him to tell me their plan.”
Their plan. I did not like the sound of that. The traffic around us suddenly didn’t seem thick enough. More people would be better.
“What did you do to him?” I asked. Blunt though it was, I had to know what kind of man I was dealing with.
Brows furrowing into deep grooves, Ty sat up a bit as he turned to look at me full on. “Nothing untoward, I assure you. Though he would have had it coming.” Yeah, English was definitely not this guy’s first language. The way he phrased things was as much of a clue as his slight accent. But as much as I hated to admit it—even to myself—that part of him was kind of charming.
“Okay. Sorry, I have to ask. English isn’t your first language, is it? That, or you aren’t from this century.” The skin along the back of my neck tingled at that thought. But no, I couldn’t go there. Not yet.
A slightly crooked smile tugged his lips up in one corner. “I get that a lot. No, English is not my first language. But I like to think my grasp of it is not that atrocious.”
I shook my head. “Not at all. It’s impeccable, which is how I could tell. That and the lack of contractions.”
He let out a short, humorless laugh. “Yes, well, contractions are the downfall of any language. They are often not even a combination of the proper words one means to speak.”
So many more questions burned in my brain, too many. If I kept asking them, there was no way I’d be able to concentrate on driving. Hence the whole detour into the language subject. But that was all the small talk I could take. I allowed a tense silence to fill the Jeep. Well, tense for me. Ty leaned back into his seat and watched the scenery pass by. After a bit, his manner started to relax me, too. It was nice to drive with a guy who didn’t feel a need to talk, or worse, to critique my driving. The universe was clearly against me ignoring my libido. I mean, seriously, what kind of guy could be so charming while not doing or saying anything?
Over four miles later, we pulled into a parking lot set within a grouping of trees. Through the open window I could smell water—a lot of it. A few people milled about carrying various bags. Couples and individuals mostly, all going about their normal lives as if nothing were amiss in the world. But then, I suppose nothing might be amiss in theirs. I was the one who was about to receive news I didn’t want to hear. No matter if it was something from a horror movie like I suspected, or simply that I would never see Raul again and miss my chance to pulverize his scrotum.
I leaped from the Jeep, walked around the front of it, and stood with my arms crossed, tapping a foot on the sidewalk. It seemed to take Not-Raul an eternity to unfold his huge frame from the Jeep and join me. I didn’t want to think of him as Ty. The name made it more personal, and I didn’t want to get personal with this guy. Well, part of me did, but I was ignoring that part.
He moved with an air of confidence that suggested he was a fighter: slow, steady, and aware of everything around him. Not good. Yet very sexy. Swallowing down my impatience and sex drive, I followed in silence as he started down a tree-lined sidewalk. Questions burned my mouth but I didn’t dare ask with all the people milling about us. Everything I had to say was going to sound crazy as hell and I didn’t want anyone to overhear.
“I am sorry we had to meet this way, Sonya.” They were the first words he had said to me since I’d stopped asking questions.
That he knew my name was only slightly disturbing considering all the other disturbing things that had been happening to me lately.
“Me too. So what happened to you that night? You said you were coming back, when you didn’t, I figured you were a delusion caused by whatever drug Raul slipped me.”
Delusion, yeah, fantasy was more like it, of the Thor in clingy Under Armor variety. But I wasn’t about to say that. Why did this guy affect me so much?
“The authorities took me in, thinking I was the one who had attacked you. I set them straight and came back for you,” he said.
“But I never called the cops.”
No one did, I was sure of it. If someone had I wouldn’t have lain on the bathroom floor for two days in a pool of my own blood.
“Not your authorities. Mine,” he said.
The hushed tone along with the way he looked away from me made it clear he didn’t mean the Montana State Police versus the Idaho State Police. No, he meant something else entirely, something that had to do with the fangs that sprung from my jaw every time I got pissed. Just thinking about it made my heart race as though it were trying to escape the truth. A huge part of me fantasized that he was with the DEA and was after Raul because of some wicked new psychotropic drug he was pedaling. That would make far more sense to my scientific mind. Which was exactly why I knew that wasn’t it. Being raised by a dad who practiced Odinism and a Cherokee mom who believed in the old ways meant sense and logic weren’t places I often got to visit.
The sound of moving water drained some of my tension away as we wound along a riverside dotted with trees here and there. The further we walked, the more scarce people became. Whether it was due to the lack of people, or the shadows in which I could hide, the trees soothed me, eased my anxiety. Once we reached a part of the path void of others, I stopped and moved into Ty’s way. We were alone and I was done with all the eluding. Damn, but he was tall. And that chest looked really hard. My fingers wanted to dance across it. I had to step back and crane my neck to see his face.
“Your authorities, Montana police, you mean? If the police knew about the attack, why didn’t anyone contact me?”
Blond brows rose. “Those are the first questions you have for me?”
My patience wore as thin as rice paper. “Yes.” It came out sounding like a growl, a growl that freaked me out more than a little.
My gaze flicked to the nearest couple walking some distance away on the path. Maybe coming all the way out here with him had been a bad idea. I took a step back in the direction of the oncoming people.
He held his hands up in surrender then leaned against the trunk of a tree. “As you suspect, the police do not know. I meant my kind’s authorities, not Montana’s. What Raul did to you broke our laws. He will stand trial for it. I was sent by them to be your kennari.”
I swallowed hard and decided to go for the first tough question I could take. “What exactly did he do to me?”
Guarded eyes shifted from the undulating green river to me. “What do you think he did to you?”
One side of my top lip curled up, exposing the fangs that had sprung forth on an instinct that I can only assume was born of my anger and fear. “Don’t play games with me,” I snarled.
His gaze didn’t waver from mine. “I am not. I need to know how much you are ready to accept so I know how fast to take your instruction.”
So much was wrong with that. But the words confirmed my suspicions. I was going to have to sound like a crazy person and see where this led. “He bit me and it…changed me. I thought he had drugged me at first, but then…” I motioned to the fangs.
The world started to sway a bit, growing fuzzy around the edges as it closed in around me. Tears stung my eyes, again, dammit. I couldn’t explain it away with science and that made me feel crazy, made my world feel crazy.
“Look, I’m ready to hear it. I need to know what’s happening to me. It’s just all a bit insane, you know?” My voice broke, making me want to crawl into a hole and hide. I hated letting others see when I felt weak.
“I know. I am sorry.”
Suddenly Ty stood before me. His big arms wrapped around me, pulling me in against his chest. Going stiff, I held my breath. The warmth of his hard body soon melted through my resistance. Without meaning to, I relaxed against him, sinking into his arms and molding myself against his chest. The scents of sweet pine and an aloe glycerin soap enveloped me. The tide of my troubles receded. Somehow this stranger put me at ease in a way no one else ever had. Something about him tugged at something inside me. I both loved and hated the feeling at the same time. After a long moment, I forced myself to pull away.
The thoughtful, surprised look in his eyes suggested maybe he had felt the tug, too. I lifted my chin and crossed my arms beneath my breasts. His left hand opened and for a second I thought he was going to reach out to me, but then his arm dropped to his side.
“Aside from the fangs, your senses are also stronger—smell, hearing.”
Though it wasn’t a question, I nodded. The fact that he went on while I was so obviously close to losing my shit made me like him even more. A guy that respected a lady’s wishes even if he didn’t agree with them couldn’t be all bad.
“Did he tell you anything? Did he ask your permission?”
In the shadows it was difficult to tell, but his expression looked serious, as though my answers held a lot of weight. Suddenly that weight pressed down on me as I realized the unfathomable depths of what I had gotten myself into. I had an overwhelming feeling that the world—mine in particular—was about to get far more complicated and interesting.
I had to take a long breath that shuddered through my chest before I could go on. “Not much. He said he wanted to see the world, travel, and that I seemed like someone he could do it with. As for permission, why the hell would I give him permission to bite me? I’m not into that kinky shit.”
Sighing, Ty ran his hand through his hair. “So he did not tell you anything about what the bite meant? He did not ask you if you wanted it?” The precise way he worded things told me the answer would be important.
Blood scorched its way up to my face. Normally I wasn’t one to blush, but the flashback of Raul’s body pressed against mine, hands all over me as he asked me if I wanted it, was too much. Or maybe it was the hot mountain of a man standing next to me asking about it that really did it. I turned my own gaze out over the slow-moving water so I wouldn’t have to face him. The attraction to Ty was starting to bug me. Sure, Raul had left me far from satisfied, but I wasn’t one to drool after a man because he was hot as Hades.
“No, he didn’t ask if he could bite me, or if I wanted him to. And he definitely didn’t say anything about what it would do to me.”
A low, rumbling growl unlike anything I’d ever heard come from a human throat issued from Ty. The glow of the distant streetlights was barely enough to gleam off the edge of what I thought might be fangs exposed by his curled upper lip. Knees growing weak, I stumbled back heavily against a tree. Part of me wanted to get as far away from all this craziness—and Ty—as fast as I could, while a much bigger part wanted right back in his arms. Whatever was wrong with me, was wrong with Ty as well. It made me afraid of him and drawn to him at the same time. Hell, I was kidding myself and it was getting old.
“That bite changed me into something, something both you and Raul are, didn’t it?” I asked. Voicing it made it hard to breathe. I became light-headed and things began to blur and sway.
From behind a fringe of blond hair that reached below eyes filled with concern, Ty’s piercing blue gaze found me. He smiled, the hint of fangs gone save for a few pointy canines. “Yes, you are in the process of changing. You seem to be taking this rather well.”
“Sure, if you consider being on the verge of a panic attack well.” My voice shook as much as I did. I sucked in a deep breath to give my brain some air so I could think. “I’ve seen a lot of things as a med student, some that couldn’t be explained away. And I’m not naive. I know even more exists in this world than I have seen with my own eyes.”
The reality of that statement made it easier to breathe and stopped things from swaying a bit. Some part of me had always known there were worlds within worlds, things that couldn’t be explained away with logic. The self-preserving instinct in me made me hold my tongue about my dad. I didn’t know this guy from Raul, so there was no way I was going to tell him that my dad had told me stories about Viking werewolves my whole childhood. He didn’t need to know my dad had believed the stories, talked about Loki and his wolf-child, Fenrir, as if they were real. If Ty knew something about my dad, I wanted him to be the one to say it. I wasn’t about to give him any information about me he didn’t need.
Ty made that low, rumbling sound again that vibrated through my core in a very pleasant way. “Hmm, wise and beautiful. No wonder he chose you.”
Stifling the feeling both the rumble and his words awakened, I fought the impulse to turn away. Such feelings were what had gotten me into this mess in the first place. Well, not quite. With Raul it had been more about how terribly long it had been since I’d had sex. That and his slippery charms, if I was going to be completely honest with myself. I opened my mouth to ask my next question but promptly shut it when I heard footsteps on the bridge. A glance back toward the parking area revealed a couple stepping onto the bridge some fifty feet away.
“Shall we walk over to the park where we can find more privacy?” Ty asked.
With a nod, I shoved my fisted hands into my pockets to keep from looking like I was itching for a fight—which I was at this point—and followed him. What can I say, it was a defense mechanism of mine that reared its ugly head when I got stressed. The questions burning a hole through my tongue had to wait as we walked farther down the path and wove our way through couples and a few families. After walking beside a bend in the widening river, we veered off onto one of the paved paths that led deeper into the trees. Soon we were shrouded in shadows even the distant streetlamps didn’t reach. Ty stopped and sat down on a bench that looked out over the river, inviting me to sit beside him with a wave of his hand. Getting as far to the opposite end of it as I could, I sat, turning sideways with one leg pulled up partially beneath me. The position not only gave me a good view of his nice profile, but would help launch me to my feet faster should I need to run.
“What do you mean ‘in the process,’ and what am I changing into?” I asked. The world started to close in again. Recognizing the signs this time, I took several deep breaths to stave off the tunnel vision that came before a panic attack. It worked, a little. The dark tunnel trying to close around me opened up.
Even in the dim light I could see the calculating look in his eyes as they met my gaze. He stretched an arm up onto the back of the bench, fingers just barely brushing my shoulder. The light touch banished my panic far better than a few calculated breaths ever could. “Your DNA is changing; that takes time. You are changing into a varúlfur, but you will still be you, only enhanced.”
“Wait, I’m changing into a…varúlfur? What is that, even?” Coming out of my throat it sounded like a completely different word.
Half of his mouth quirked up into what I had to admit was a handsome grin. “Varúlfur, or in English…” He paused and stared hard at me before finishing. “A werewolf.”
Though I had been expecting something like it, the words hit me like a hard slap. It explained the fangs, and it meant some of my dad’s old stories were true. I’d always written them off as the ramblings of an overly religious man. One of a peculiar religion, admittedly, but a zealot nevertheless. Head dropping into my hands, I leaned forward until my elbows rested on my knees. It was too much. Could my dad’s stories seriously have been true?
It had never bothered him that I didn’t embrace his religion. He always said I’d understand someday. More than anything, I wished I could talk to him again. Tears began to drip between my fingers. Jeans brushed against steel as Ty slid over next to me. His arm came to rest on my shoulders, warm and heavy. He didn’t pull me in against his chest this time, but I wanted him to, oh how I wanted him to.
That was twice tonight I had let a practical stranger see me weak. I leaped to my feet and began to pace before the bench.
“That bastard. I should have realized him calling his nitro-addicted friends his ‘pack’ wasn’t a way of being original. Dammit!” It served me right for being attracted to a man with a fast car. Whether all this shit was true or not, and I wasn’t sure it was yet, that I had made a colossal mistake with Raul was clear.
Spinning on Ty, I fixed him with a hard look. It might not be his fault, but he was the only one I had on hand to focus my anger on. “Why would he do this to me?”
Sadness filled Ty’s eyes. “To make you his.”
A feral-sounding growl tore from my throat, frightening me almost as much as the fangs that sprang forth. Now I really, really wanted to hurt this bastard. Moisture stung my eyes. I looked down before Ty could notice. Pinecones and goose droppings littered the sidewalk but I was able to avoid them by mostly smell alone. This fact only disturbed me more. My mind searched for conditions and disorders that heightened senses, but everything I came up with was almost as improbable as becoming a werewolf. I kicked hard at one of the pinecones, sending it flying off into the night. It took a lot of deep breaths to get my fangs to go away.
Fangs. Fucking hell.
In mid-pace, I stopped before Ty. “I’m going to turn into a monster on the full moon?”
He shook his head. “You will still be who you are. If you are not a monster now, neither you nor your wolf self will be a monster. Forget the legends. Very little of them are true.”
Resuming my pacing, I took a few strides to breathe before asking my next question. “So I won’t feel the overwhelming urge to eat people?”
Laughter erupted from Ty, the deep kind that vibrated along muscles at my apex. “Gods, no. Can you imagine how bad humans must taste? With all the garbage they put into their bodies?”
I was not convinced. “No overwhelming urge to feed every full moon? You’re sure?”
“Do you have an eating disorder now?”
“No,” I snapped.
Was this a game to him? The touch of humor in his voice suggested it might be. Just when I thought this might all be some big joke, my teeth began to ache again. “What about these fangs growing every time I get mad?”
He shrugged one broad shoulder. “Emotions evoke instincts in your wolf. You must simply learn to control them.”
I ran a hand through my hair, forcing myself not to clutch at the long black locks and pull. It wasn’t easy. The struggle made me remember something he said. “You said you were here to be my kennari. What does that mean?”
“Roughly, it means teacher. I am here to help you through the verða—becoming—then to take you to Raul’s trial, if you wish to go.” The guarded tone in his voice made me stop and take a long, hard look at him.
My mind spun with a million different thoughts, questions. Even though I had suspected such creatures existed for years, it was too much to take in. Too impossible. “I take it there’s no cure.”
“No.”
Hands gripping my hair, I sat down on the bench—hard—and rested my elbows on my knees. “Of course there isn’t. Just my luck.”
No tears would come, though it felt like I should lament the life stolen from me. Crying wasn’t working so there was no point. Screaming…now that I really wanted to do, and was close to it.
“So much for being a doctor,” I mumbled.
“You wanted to be a doctor, like a surgeon?” Ty asked, eyes wide.
My own gaze hardened. Why did people always find that so hard to believe? “Yes, and I was close, dammit. One more year of med school…”
“A surgeon. Truly?”
“At first, yeah. But after so long in med school I’m more interested in the inside of a person, mentally. But none of that matters now.”
Ty leaned a bit closer but didn’t reach out to me. “I am sorry this was forced upon you. Such things are not done anymore. Raul was out of line and will be punished. You can still have a normal life after this is over.”
Bones ached as fangs grew within my mouth. Normal, yeah right. Only if crazy was the new normal. “I want to be the one to punish him.”
To my surprise, Ty nodded. “That is your right. You will be given the opportunity to do so after his sentencing, but the punishment itself will be decided upon by the Council.”
Anger spread out from my center as if riding on my very blood itself. The sensation reminded me of hard whiskey burning all the way down to one’s stomach, only in reverse. My skin crawled as if the tiny hairs along it had been stirred by a breeze. Sitting back against the bench, I rubbed my arms. The crawling magnified, turned into a burning, as if that breeze were now brushing against sunburned skin.
“Easy, there, easy,” Ty soothed, a hand reaching out to touch my arm.
His cool fingers helped ground me, bring me back to myself a bit. That glacial gaze of his pulled me back from the brink of rage so completely I found myself leaning toward him as if those eyes were magnetic. But it had to be more than that because he began to lean toward me as well.
“It is best not to focus on anything that makes you angry for the first week or so,” he said, breaking the spell.
Inches from his face, I leaned away quickly, feeling utterly foolish. “What if I don’t want your help with the becoming?”
His big fingers wove through each other as if he needed to keep his hands busy. “That part is not an option. Every new varúlfur must be guided through the verða by a kennari. That is the law, and for good reason. There is a lot to learn that will keep not only you, but those around you, alive.”
I sat up straighter, palms pointed skyward. “So I will feel compelled to kill people?”
Blond hair light as wheat flashed in the light bouncing off the river as he shook his head. “No. But your emotions are heightened and they will be harder to control. If you get angry and lose that control…” His voice trailed off as he shrugged.
Sighing, I nodded as I tried to take it all in. “I get it. So I can control this thing with help. Will I actually turn into a wolf?” My voice dropped to a whisper on the last part.
A gentleness entered his eyes, softening them like spring melt. Oh damn, now his pretty eyes had me thinking all poetic. “Yes, but it isn’t like the movies or books. You will be able to change at will. Emotions will be heightened during the full moon, but it will not force you to change. You will want to that much more.”
Hell, why not dive head first into the crazy? “Will it hurt?” I was no stranger to pain and a hard life had given me a high threshold, but I wasn’t looking forward to more.
“Only if you fight it, like how your jaws ache when you try to hold back the fangs. I will teach you to control your emotions, and that will help curb the instinct to shift.”
The fact that he knew about that made it seem more real, more plausible that he wasn’t pulling my leg. Obviously, he wasn’t. The fangs made that clear. But still, part of my mind couldn’t let go of the possibility that this was all a hoax. Sadly, that part grew smaller by the moment. The breath in my lungs eased out. There was one more thing I had to know sooner rather than later.
“You said something about being sorry you didn’t get to Raul before he bit me. Did you know he was going to do this?”
He shook his head. “I suspected he was searching for a woman to bite in to be his mate, and since I knew he didn’t have the Council’s permission, I was following him to keep an eye on him. I had no idea he’d go to the extreme of biting someone in without their permission and knowledge.”
After a long moment he stood and offered me his hand.
“I have overwhelmed you enough for one day. What do you say we get you something to eat, then let you rest?”
My stomach growled at the words. The bag of food I had filled from my pathetically stocked kitchen had run out and it had been hours since I’d eaten. Even then, that had been a granola bar. I accepted his hand and let him help me to my feet. The warmth of his rough palm felt amazing, like a hot tub I wanted to sink into. It was all I could do to force myself to let go. I needed to get this over with, get back to med school, and most importantly get away from this guy before I made another poor decision.
“All right, let’s go. But, Ty, will you promise me one thing?”
He grinned. “Only one?”
My expression hardened. “Only one. Don’t keep secrets from me.”
His smile vanished as if blown away by my words. “I promise.”
We walked back to the Jeep in silence, if you didn’t count the chaos of thoughts going off like fireworks in my head. Part of me wished Ty hadn’t been the one to be here, hadn’t told me all of this. But not knowing wouldn’t change it. The world had upended, leaving me drowning in a foreign universe. I was bad at being human. How I was going to be a werewolf, I had no idea.