Bitten By Deceit (2 page)

Not only for them, but for me.
 

Kyle stormed to the tool rack. He selected a wrench before making his way back to the minivan, and Emma’s heart sank. She’d been dismissed. For all the years she’d known him, he never retreated from a fight. Until today.
 

Emma held in her tears until she reached her car. She wouldn’t let him see her cry. Not even after she had begged him for help. She dug into her jeans for the keys. When she couldn’t find the keychain, all the rage simmering under the surface burst forth. With a slew of curses, she kicked the tire.

“Bastard!”

Fuming, she finally found the keys and jumped into the car. Her breaths were deep and measured, enough to start calming her down. She had to keep it together to make the long drive ahead. She had to be strong for Meg even if she faced Liam alone. If Kyle wouldn’t help her, then she’d form a plan on her own. But she had no idea where to start or who she could turn to next. Everyone in town who hadn’t succumbed to Liam and the infection were barricaded inside their homes. They would never open their doors to her.

A shadow darted from a group of cacti and disappeared behind the gas station, visible only for a second in Emma’s peripheral vision. She crouched low in the driver’s seat and peered out the window. No wind. No movements in the distance. The only sound she heard was the rapid staccato of her own pulse. Had she lost her lead already? Had one of Liam’s men found her? What if it was Liam himself? He’d kill her.

She thrust the key into the ignition. When she glanced up, Kyle stood in front of the car with eyes blazing. “C’mon, Emma. We’ve got work to do.”

Chapter 2

The mid-day heat had gone to Kyle’s head and now he’d lost his good judgment. Hell, maybe he’d been fixing the same car for too long. As he walked beside Emma toward the cozy 1950s-style diner where he ate lunch on most days, he wondered if perhaps this was some kind of bad dream, that he’d wake up and realize she’d never come to him in the first place.

He knew the perfect place to confront Liam and his men, but he needed a lot more firepower. And most car repair shops didn’t carry what he needed. Fortunately, the older man he searched for haunted this same diner, always cooking a tasty burger Kyle could smell halfway across the room. After leading Emma inside the diner, he frowned. The man wasn’t around, yet his scent still lingered in the air.

When they sat down at one of the many empty booths, Em had this strange look in her eyes. Like she’d been spooked. An underlying scent was there, too. Pure fear that was sharp and pungent to his nose. For a woman who’d be perceived as an alpha female among his old pack, her skittish behavior raised his eyebrow.

He stared at her briefly. Her good looks hadn’t changed much since he’d last seen her. She still had a thick head of black hair that reached her shoulders and a heart-shaped face with pretty features. When she glanced at him, he quickly switched his gaze to the patrons. The place didn’t have too many of them, so she should feel safe here. The local folks were good enough people, even if they didn’t know he was a werewolf.

The waitress, Milly Barnes, sauntered over. “You’re here earlier than usual.” She smiled and glanced with concern at Emma. “I see you’ve got company today. You okay, hon?”

“She just rode into town. A bit angry and dehydrated from the heat,” he joked.

Milly whipped out her notepad. “Well, I’ll bring some water and two lunch specials if you like?”

He nodded. “Is Pete cooking today?”

Milly’s right eyebrow rose. “If you got plans to invite my husband out for another poker game, then I’d think long and hard on that. The last time you boys got together, I had to use a two-by-four to get his hiney to church the next morning.”

Kyle managed to smile even though Milly was the one wearing a wry grin. “He says you don’t like to hear his war stories anymore.”

Across from him, Em squirmed while staring toward the parking lot. He needed to wrap things up with Milly. Quick.

 
“Oh, I like his war stories just fine. But when you’ve been with a man as long as I’ve been with Pete, well, you can pick out what’s been embellished over the years.” Milly left with a laugh to place their orders.

By the time their food arrived about ten minutes later, Emma had downed three glasses of water. They faced each other in the booth, yet she hadn’t said much and picked at her plate of fried chicken. Hadn’t she told him she’d gone without food for too long? Kyle didn’t like the way she seemed to be shutting down.

“I don’t feel safe here. I wish I had more time,” she whispered.

The way she scratched at the gauze on her arm unnerved him. The skin around the bite was deeply bruised, almost sick. His gaze wandered—like it always did when he was around her—and his eyes migrated along her neck to the V between her breasts. The old, gray t-shirt she wore wasn’t the most attractive, but the visible skin still appeared soft and pliant, perhaps begging for him to trace his lips along the pulse point like he used to do.
 
A tendril of black hair drifted over her face. His fingers twitched as a strong urge came over him to push the hair behind her ear.

As much as he wanted to reach out to touch her, he sternly reminded himself he wasn’t part of her life anymore. He wasn’t a member of her pack. They’d severed ties long ago. Even if he faced Liam right now, that wouldn’t change the circumstances that had pushed them apart.

She caught him staring again and hid her arm under the table.

“We need to get that cleaned,” he said.

“I did that already. Won’t make a difference.”

Her eyes flitted to the door, and her lips trembled then parted slightly as if she wanted to say something else. He’d seen that expression before. The same one she’d worn when she’d told him she planned to stay behind instead of going with him a year before.

“What we need to do is leave. I’m not comfortable here anymore.” She checked the door again. The strong scent of her anxiety became overwhelming.
 

“This’ll be over soon enough.” He rose. “Sit tight and eat something. I have to talk to the cook for a sec.”

She didn’t protest as Kyle walked through the diner to the swinging door of the kitchen in the back. Milly’s husband Pete stood in front of the grill flipping burgers. The stocky man continued to add fresh fries and buns to plates as he grunted in his direction. “What’s up, Kyle?”

“I need weapons. A few of the Winchester Magnums to start. Whatever you can spare.”
Why not get to the point?

The balding man’s head cocked to side. He laughed briefly. “You can borrow a hunting rifle or two.”

“Trouble’s coming soon. The
kind
that requires a lot more than a rifle or two.”

Pete eyed him for a bit. He’d told the older man a few months ago what he was. Even with a few beers in his system, Pete had sobered up real quick when he learned through a demonstration that Kyle wasn’t kidding.

Pete fished in his back pocket and tossed him a key. Then the cook saved a sizzling burger before it burned. “Do I need to get Milly to a safe place?” His voice was low and serious now.

“Yeah. Don’t stick around here too long. Just trust me on this.”

Pete was a good guy. He and Milly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of a werewolf war, and Kyle couldn’t help but feel a little sick at the way Pete stiffened up. Not to mention the way he felt Pete’s eyes warily boring into his back as he headed back into the dining area.

Emma still hadn’t eaten and stared at her plate. Her lips moved as if she whispered something. Under most circumstances, he would’ve heard what she’d said, but no sounds emerged at all. What the hell was going on?

Then her head darted up, and her eyes locked on something behind him. Slowly, she rose, and her mouth formed a single word. “No.”

Kyle whipped around and spotted them. Three men approached the diner. Purple-black spots were spread along the neck of one, while another, dressed in a black overcoat, mumbled to himself again and again.

The third werewolf opened the door and walked through to scan the room. They didn’t smell right. Almost sickly, like a festering wound. When Kyle caught the werewolf’s eye, a wicked grin spread across his pale face revealing his long canines. All around them, the diners quieted, and Kyle knew he had to make his move before a massacre began. He reached to the back of his pants where there used to be a gun. After carrying a firearm for years as a cop, he expected to find something. He yelled, “Everybody out.”

But he was too late. The pale werewolf leapt on the nearest diner and wrestled him to the ground. The man tried to fight his attacker off, but succumbed after he was viciously bitten on the neck. Chaos erupted in the restaurant as the customers knocked over their tables to scatter toward the other entrance at the far end of the room. Thankfully, Milly had disappeared in the back, and Pete yelled for customers to head to the kitchen.

The murmuring werewolf continued to stalk closer, whispering, “Kill her. Kill her.”

Armed with an upended metal chair, Kyle hoisted it in the air and swung the seat into the crazed wolf’s gut. He sensed Emma behind him. With a snarl and a steak knife, she jumped from table-to-table. She buried her blade in the second werewolf. Two of the adversaries fell with ease. One to go. The final one hovered over the now-unconscious diner he’d chosen for his prey. He rested his clawed hand on his victim’s shoulder.

“Joey, no,” Emma whispered to the man.

Joey didn’t respond. He only gazed at Emma and Kyle with a strange glee—until his face molded into a growl. Abruptly, Joey sprang forward, but Kyle was ready. Using his attacker’s momentum, he twisted and tossed Joey through the window. The man’s body shattered the glass and pitched outside where his limp frame rolled across the parking lot. When he didn’t move, everything around Kyle finally became still.

Kyle took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.

This was happening way too fast. And he expected it would only get worse from this point. He checked on Emma at his side where she silently took in the carnage.

“You okay?” he asked.

“This looks too much like home.” She stepped toward the door. “If the scouts are here, our time is running out.”

Pete had hid a few customers in the walk-in fridge. He emerged through the swinging doors, holding a .45 Glock, eyes wide. “I called the police. You need to head out and clean this up, son. Before other folks come across…your friends.”
 

Damn it
. Kyle knew at once Pete must’ve seen the bodies and had an idea of what was coming. Emma didn’t immediately respond when he tugged her out the door to her car.
 

“When you said you only had so much time, I thought you really meant you at least had
some
time.” After less than an hour of having her back in his life, he hadn’t expected to have her show up with death slithering behind her. Not only would she bring Liam back to him for a final confrontation, but she had upended this safe place for him. Even with the friendships he’d made, he couldn’t stay here after what all these people had seen.

And then there was Emma. From the way her hand trembled in his, he knew she didn’t have much time before her bite would affect her. A faint stench of death hovered near the wound, the same smell as the men who’d attacked the diner. She’d been quiet before, but there was an edge to her now, like a viper ready to strike.

“We need to get going,” he murmured. “This town doesn’t have a pack to fend them off. Just a few rogues here and there.”

“So what do we do?”

Yes, what would they do after he got Pete’s weapons? With every fiber of his being, Kyle wanted to confront Liam again. To make the son-of-a-bitch pay for forcing him from the pack. But time had passed, and this was different now. This wasn’t like last year when he’d fought Liam with a busted knee, surrounded by a jubilant pack hungry for a fight. Tonight, he’d have to fight crazed beasts under another man’s control. First though, he had to figure out what to do with Em. Her breaths had quickened. The rise and fall of her chest drew his eyes. He focused on the road instead. This wasn’t the time or the place to think of such things.

“I should’ve armed myself sooner,” he muttered. “I don’t have anything nearly powerful enough at the shop.”

“But you have something, don’t you?” Emma asked, eyes pleading.

His silence was her answer.

They reached the Barnes’ trailer on the outskirts of Stone Ridge. The property didn’t have much—just a long, white trailer and a large tool shed. He pulled up next to the trailer and stepped out. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Emma continued to stare out the window.
 
He didn’t know what she saw beyond the brush, cacti, and rolling hills in the distance. He cocked his head to the side and flared his nostrils. Nothing in the air indicated trouble. What bothered her?

The heated wind swept through the car, catching a few strands of her black hair. Her natural scent reached him, a sweet vanilla, and he tried to ignore the surge of desire it brought. It had been far too long since he’d been with her.

“Emma, let’s go.” When she didn’t move, he snapped, “Out of the car now!” He hadn’t meant to sound like a pack leader—it had never been his position—but her glazed eyes bothered him.

As they headed up to the beaten-up trailer, she grumbled, “You don’t have to talk to me that way. I heard you.”

“Then act like it.” He grabbed her arm and twisted her around to face him. He tried to read her face but couldn’t sense much. Only the sound of her heart racing indicated her fear. She bit her upper lip. “What did he do to you?”

“It wasn’t just him. A black witch did something to him. Now his bite is enchanted. I don’t know what’s happening to me specifically. But I have a feeling it’s not good.”

He nodded. “Get in the trailer and rest. You have ten minutes to relax. I have to get some things from the shed.”

“We don’t have that much time.”

“I’m well aware of that fact, but compared to you, I’ve been waiting a year for a moment like this. And I plan to show Liam what happens when he comes into
my
territory.”