Animal Attraction (14 page)

Hunter!

Then something big and gray came leaping out from the billowing smoke. Eliza blinked, almost afraid to believe what she was seeing. Tugging free of the hands holding her, she started forward on trembling legs, tears welling in her eyes. Hunter’s fur was bloody in places and he was limping a little, but other than that, he seemed fine. God, she’d been so afraid for him!

Dropping to her knees in front of him, Eliza threw her arms around him, burying her face in the thick fur of his neck. “Oh, Hunter. Thank God,” she breathed, the tears that had been threatening finally spilling over onto her cheeks.

He pulled back from her embrace to lick her face in reply, and she couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. It faded quickly, however, when she saw him turn his attention to her injured arm. She’d been so worried about Hunter that she had all but forgotten she’d gotten bitten. To her surprise, the wound wasn’t bleeding nearly as much as it had been before, but it still burned. She held her arm still as Hunter sniffed it. A moment later, she felt him gently lick the wound. The touch of his tongue was soothing and almost immediately, the burning sensation began to lessen.

The shrill sound of sirens echoed in the distance, and Eliza tensed. Threading her fingers in the ruff of fur at Hunter’s neck, she urged his head up. “Hunter, you have to go,” she told him.

Hunter hesitated, clearly not wanting to leave her. The sirens were getting closer now. Eliza took his head in both her hands and gazed into his yellow eyes. “Hunter, please, you have to go before the cops get here,” she said. “I’ll be fine. Go.”

He hesitated again, but then, giving her face one more lick he finally turned and loped off into the darkened forest. Eliza waited until he had disappeared from sight before she got to her feet. As she did so, she glanced down at her wounded arm and gasped. Beneath the torn sleeve of her coat, the werewolf’s bite was no longer open and bloody, but had healed to become a series of jagged, red scars along her forearm.

* * * *

Hunter clenched his jaw as pain tore through his body. While he’d told Eliza that changing into a wolf never hurt, that wasn’t exactly true. It did hurt when he tried to push it too fast, like he was doing now. But he didn’t care, he just wanted to get back to Eliza as quickly as he could. When the transformation was done, he stayed there on all fours, breathing hard and fast. Finally pushing himself to his feet with a groan, he slipped from the forest and yanked open the door of his SUV. Climbing inside, he dressed as swiftly as he could.

When he had first gotten to Marberry’s place, Hunter had been terrified he was too late. He had already been able to hear the growls and shouts coming from inside the small hunting cabin, and could only pray that the other were hadn’t killed them. Hunter had changed faster than he ever had in his life, and then had launched himself through the large plate-glass window in the front of the cabin.

His relief at finding Eliza, Nate, and Andy alive had quickly been replaced with fury when he saw the other werewolf advancing on them. Without thought, Hunter had launched himself at the black were, determined to end it once and for all.

The fight had been closer than Hunter would ever want to admit. While he had more experience as a wolf, the other man possessed a strength born of insanity. It had taken all of Hunter’s cunning to keep the other were at bay while Eliza and the two men had escaped. By then, the fire from the overturned lantern had already been engulfing the small cabin.

Willing to sacrifice himself to save Eliza, Hunter had been intent on keeping the other wolf in the cabin. If the other were had gotten outside, he would have gone straight for her, Hunter was sure of it. But as he and his opponent had rolled savagely across the floor, the roof had started to collapse. A moment later, one of the beams had fallen, knocking Hunter aside, but crushing the black were beneath it. For a moment, Hunter had been torn. Part of him had wanted to try and free the trapped wolf, but the decision had been taken from him when in the next moment, the entire flaming roof had come crashing down with a whoosh. Hunter had barely gotten out the door in time.

Once outside, he had immediately run over to Eliza. To his immense relief, she had seemed completely unharmed, but then he had smelled the blood and seen the wound on her arm. Pain had torn at him then. He had known immediately what the bite meant.

Even now in the SUV, Hunter’s fingers shook a little as he did up the buttons of his shirt and tucked it into his jeans. The bite meant that she would become a werewolf like him. And he had no idea how she was going to react to that.

Abruptly realizing that the sirens were getting closer, Hunter shrugged into his jacket and got out of the SUV to quickly make his way over to Eliza. She was standing with Andy and Nate, her arms wrapped around herself, and she turned as he approached. Without a word to the two men, she closed the distance between them and threw herself into his arms.

“I was so afraid for you,” she said hoarsely, the words muffled against the curve of his neck.

“Shh, sweetheart,” he soothed softly, stroking her hair. “Everything’s all right now.”

Hunter wondered if the words sounded as hollow to her as they did to him.
How could things be all right when she had been bitten?
But apparently Eliza must not have noticed because she only pressed against him more tightly. Closing his eyes, he rested his cheek against her silky hair. He wanted to hold her like this all night.

They weren’t going to be afforded that luxury, though, not when there were police cars and fire trucks pulling into the clearing. Sighing, Hunter reluctantly lifted his head in time to see Fred Newman making his way toward them as firemen began dragging hoses toward the burning cabin.

“What the hell happened here?” the curly-haired detective asked. “And what are you four doing here?”

Hunter’s arm tightened around Eliza as he explained about the photo they had seen in the diner, and the connection between the men that had been attacked. When Hunter came to the part about coming up to the cabin to warn Ken Marberry, he was relieved when Eliza stepped in to continue the story. Hunter listened with amazement as she told the detective about Marberry’s yearly hunting trips to the Yukon and the downed plane full of drugs and money, both of which were still in the shed behind the cabin. While Hunter knew she was deliberately leaving out the part about how Tom Porter became a werewolf, he was able to piece enough of the story together to figure it out.

“What Ken Marberry didn’t know was that Tom Porter didn’t die out there, but had come back and was murdering them one by one,” Eliza finished.

Newman said nothing for a moment. “How does that explain the fact that those men were killed by a wolf?”

Shit.
He had no way to explain that.

“There never were any wolf attacks,” Eliza said quickly. “Porter made some kind of weapon from the skull and jaw bone of the wolf that had attacked him in the Yukon, and then used it to make it look like an animal had done the killings. You’ll probably still find it in what’s left of the cabin.”

Newman frowned, but she hurried on before he could say anything.

“I’m guessing that Porter planned to take the money and the drugs for himself once all of his friends were dead,” she continued. “Porter showed up after Marberry told us everything. They started to fight, and one of the kerosene lanterns got knocked over. We barely made it out alive. Neither of them did.”

Though Hunter couldn’t help but be impressed by Eliza’s quick thinking, he wasn’t so sure Fred Newman would buy it, but to his relief, the detective merely nodded. “That sounds too crazy not to be true,” he said.

“She’s lying! That’s not what happened at all!”

Hunter stiffened at the man’s voice. His eyes narrowed at the bespectacled, blond-haired man hurrying over to them.

Fred Newman eyed the blond man curiously. “Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Carson Emery and I’m a reporter with
Strange Times
magazine,” the man said. “The people who were attacked weren’t murdered by some guy wanting revenge, they were killed by a werewolf!”

Beside him, Hunter felt Eliza tense.

Fred Newman, however, simply stared at Carson Emery as if the man had lost his mind. “A werewolf?” he said dryly.

The reporter nodded his head emphatically. “A werewolf! You know, the monster made famous by Lon Chaney.” He pointed at Nate. “He knows what I’m talking about. Tell him,” he said to Nate.

Hunter clenched his jaw, but Nate only shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “I was there. It happened just the way she said.”

“Liars, all of you!” Carson Emery gave them a baleful glare as he turned to Newman again. “They’re lying, I’m telling you! They’re trying to cover it up for some reason! Give them a lie detector test! You’ll see I’m right!”

Newman’s mouth tightened. “Olsen,” he called to the detective who had been talking with a female police officer nearby. “Get this guy out of here.”

“W-wait a minute!” Carson Emery sputtered as the burly detective took his arm. “You can’t just throw me out! I have a right to be here! Freedom of the press!”

Fred Newman shook his head. “What a fruitcake,” he muttered as Olsen dragged the protesting reporter away. After a moment, he turned back to them. “Obviously, I’ll need the four of you to hang around for a while so that we can get your statements.”

Hunter nodded and breathed a sigh of relief as the detective walked off. He supposed he shouldn’t have been concerned really, considering that Carson Emery had sounded like a raving lunatic.

“So,” Nate said. “You’re a werewolf, huh?” His mouth curved. “I knew it the whole time.” Before Hunter could reply, Nate walked off to talk to the female officer who had been standing with Olsen.

“You don’t think he’ll say anything, do you?” Hunter asked Eliza curiously, his gaze on Nate.

She shook his head. “No. If he were going to say anything, he would have backed up Emery. I think he’s more thrilled to find out that he’s actually been right all along.”

Hunter nodded. “I suppose you’re right.” His gaze went to Andy. “What about you?”

The photographer gave them a wry smile. “Nah. I like the story Eliza came up with better. It won’t get you the cover of
Paranormal Today
, but the local papers will eat it up for sure. Let me know if you’ll need any photos to go with your story. I work freelance, too.”

Giving them a nod, the photographer walked off to join Nate and the female officer. Eliza stood gazing at the trio for a moment, and then turned to face Hunter. It was the first time they’d been alone with each other since he had gotten there.

Eliza reached up to gently brush his hair back from his forehead. “You’re hurt,” she said softly, running her fingers over the cut there.

The corner of his mouth edged up. “It’s just a scratch.” He took her hand in one of his and gazed down at her arm. The bite had healed and was now just a series of jagged scars. “Your wound is a little bit more serious, Eliza. You’ve been bitten.”

She nodded. “I know. And I know what that means.”

Eliza had been cool and collected through all of this, so Hunter supposed he shouldn’t be surprised by how calm she was being now. Still, he couldn’t help but frown.

“Do you really?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes. It means I’ll be werewolf.”

His frown deepened. “And you’re okay with that?”

She was silent for a moment, then offered him a small smile. “Well, I should probably be freaking out, but right now, the only thing that comes to mind is all of the advantages that come with being a werewolf. I mean, I’ll be able to eat more without worrying about getting fat. And I’ll be able to see and hear better, not to mention be able to smell when the milk has gone bad. The healing thing is really cool, too.” She sighed. “But then on the down side, I will have to get over my phobia of nature if I’m going to be out running around in the woods all the time. That might be kind of difficult. And of course, I’ll have to get used to the cold weather if I’m going to be living up here.”

Hunter stared at her, dumbfounded. Was she saying what he thought she was? “Living up here?”

She looked up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “You did say you were serious when we talked about it before. Does your offer to share your bed include the rest of the house as well? I mean, I know you mentioned the hot tub and the bearskin rug, but I’m going to need some closet space, too.”

Hunter chuckled. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was. Not only had Eliza been able to accept him being a werewolf, but she seemed to be handling her newly turned status pretty well, too. In addition to that, she wanted to stay with him. Pulling her into his arms, he gave her a long, slow kiss. “You can have all the closet space you want. Anything, as long as you stay with me.”

“You might regret that when you see all the clothes I have.” She laughed, but then looked at him more seriously. “Really, though. I’d be lying if I told you that I’m not a little scared about going through that first change, especially since you said it was kind of frightening. You’ll be there to help me, won’t you?”

Hunter bent his head to kiss her gently on the mouth again. “The first time, and all the ones after that, sweetheart. I love you, don’t you know that?”

She looked up at him in obvious surprise. “Y-you do?”