Claimed by the Beast Bundle (48 page)

Chapter 17

Crystal ran cross country, leaving Hank behind to clean up the scene. She had to get away. From the dead cops, from Hank, from everything. There was nowhere she could think of to run that was safe. Her mom’s house was being watched. Beth was being watched. Stephanie—Steph lived with the enemy. Her only escape was in the act of running itself. So she ran.

By the time Crystal crossed fields, streams, woods, and a few pastures, she realized she’d gotten herself lost. She’d run to the north, away from where the officer had stopped them. No, not stopped them. From where they’d ambushed him. He was dead because of them. Sheriff Whitcomb had stabbed him, but if they hadn’t been hunting the sheriff, he never would have died.

She could go and see Clover, she supposed, but what would Clover do? Offer to help for a price. She didn’t have anything left to give. Nothing except her own blood. She’d been willing to accept that before, but if she was going to give up her life, she might as well do it fighting the paladins.

Crystal slowed to a stop and paced back and forth. She could smell a herd of cattle nearby, over a ridge, but she ignored them. She had more important things to worry about, things like how she’d been toyed with and lied to. Or at least they hadn’t been honest with her, and that was basically the same thing.

Or was it? Hank said he loved her and she believed him. She loved him, even if he’d tricked her. Well, he hadn’t tricked her; he just hadn’t told her everything. But had she asked him? She’d asked him about his past and how he changed. About who he was. But mostly when they were together, they were busy making love. That, or helping her figure out what was going on. So had he held anything back from her?

Crystal growled and lifted her head so she could let out a frustrated scream. It came out as a howl that surprised her and filled her with energy. It filled the unseen nearby cows with terror—she heard them cry out and felt the ground tremble as they started to turn and run away from her.

Crystal felt her heart leap in her chest and ached to rush forward. She shook her head, pushing the instinct aside. There were more important things to do. She wasn’t even hungry; it just seemed like a fun thing to do. She turned away, determined to leave the cattle alone, when she heard a man cry out.

Crystal spun and saw a farmer on a horse at the fence row that ran along the top of the ridge. He reached down to his side away from her, scrambling for something. She crouched down and looked around, trying to find the quickest escape. There wasn’t one. When she looked back, she saw him fumbling with a gun, either a rifle or a shotgun.

Crystal snarled. She’d had enough of being shot at! She dug her claws in and leapt forward, tearing across the ground towards the rancher. He fired but the bullet passed over her. The miss made her dig in harder and helped her surge up the shallow rise towards the battered wire fence.

The rancher’s horse whinnied in terror as she approached. She could smell its fear, adding a primal surge to her chase. The rancher tried to calm it and then fired again, missing to her right and spattering dirt against her side from where the bullet dug into the ground. He pumped his weapon to load in another bullet and she realized he had a shotgun, not a rifle, even though she wasn’t sure what that meant.

The horse reared up beneath him, sending him flying off its back and slamming into the ground hard enough she heard the air explode from his lungs. His shotgun went off again, firing into the air. His horse came down and ran, galloping hard and kicking dirt back that slapped the fallen ranger to add insult to injury.

Crystal crouched low, losing sight of the rancher for a moment before she pushed off the ground. She sailed over the fence and landed just past the rancher. She spun, sliding and nearly going down in her haste to turn and be on him. His gun roared, leaving a ringing in her ears and making her feel like she’d been slapped in the head with a baseball bat.

Crystal shook her head and jumped forward. Her left leg trembled and burned when she came down on it. He’d shot her, the son of a bitch. She growled, pushed herself onto him, knocking the shotgun out of the way and then stepping on it while he struggled. He cried out, yelling without saying anything in a modern language. He was speaking a primal language, one she could understand all too well. He reeked of terror and desperation.

Crystal’s teeth closed on the neck of the beaten man. She hesitated, her tongue tasting the sweat and dirt on his skin. He froze beneath her, his body tight in its final expectation of life. She growled and felt him shudder and collapse beneath her. It only took a few excited breaths before she smelled his terror in another way. His bladder released and soaked his pants.

Crystal growled again and snorted. He whimpered as her snort put extra pressure from her teeth on his neck. She released her grip and pulled her head back so she could glare at him.

“Please!” he begged in a whisper. “I won’t shoot no wolf ever again, I promise!”

Crystal snorted and turned to look at his gun.

“You understand me!” he breathed.

She swung her head back and glared at him. She nipped at the air, sending him jerking back and forcing his head to strike the ground. He grunted and closed his eyes at the impact, giving her a chance to turn and try to pick up the shotgun in her jaws. She could manage it, but it was long and heavy. Too awkward to carry. She heard him gasp again and decided to drop it.

She couldn’t pick it up and she couldn’t bite through it. She might be special, but she didn’t have that kind of strength! At least she didn’t think she did. She wasn’t going to try to find out she was wrong in front of this guy. She pawed the ground and felt a numb tingle in her shoulder, reminding her he’d hit her. It didn’t hurt too much, just a dull ache. Maybe he’d grazed her?

Crystal returned her attention to the gun and then looked up at him. He shook his head. “I won’t shoot, I promise!”

Crystal snarled and moved sideways until she felt her left hind paw brush against it. She picked her leg up and straddled it before squatting down and snarling at him while she forced her bladder to release. There was no way she could have done it on two legs—the sheer embarrassment alone would have killed her. On four legs, as a wolf, it felt like something she should do. Like she was saying he didn’t have any right to it anymore. She straightened and stared at him as he gawked at her.

“You just pissed on my gun,” he breathed. Louder, he said, “Holy shit! A wolf done just peed on my gun! Nobody’s ever gonna believe this.”

Crystal took a step closer to him, shutting him up. She snapped her teeth together again and then turned away and ran. Her shoulder hurt at first but each step worked the ache out of it. She focused as best she could while she ran on, making the pain go away, and soon was moving smoothly again.

She glanced back once, as she neared the edge of the field she’d run through when he’d first shot at her. She saw him sitting up and staring at her. As far as she could tell, he hadn’t picked up his gun. She huffed and took off again, running away from him and heading to the northwest.

If she could teach a rancher not to shoot at wolves, maybe she could teach people they didn’t need to hate each other for being different.

Chapter 18

Crystal kept to the afternoon shadows as she crept through the rural neighborhood on the outskirts of town. Sirens sounded from time to time, keeping everyone looking off in the distance. The distraction helped her and scared her. She knew it was the pack hunting. Her pack, whether she liked them right now or not.

How many times had Ember or Hank saved her? Or the rest of them? How many times had they been there to help her? Sure, she didn’t approve of what they were doing right now, but that didn’t mean they were her enemies. They were her pack. Her blood. Her family. She didn’t have to always like them to be a part of them.

That’s why she breathed a sigh of relief when she walked alongside the house and saw the garage door was shut and Stephanie’s car was in the driveway. More importantly, there weren’t any motorcycles parked on the street.

Crystal backed up and glanced back and forth. The street was empty and nobody was tending their lawns. Was it because Guntar had declared war on the paladins, or was it because the hottest part of the afternoon was just passing? Her fur kept her protected from the sun but too much running, she’d discovered, made her pant. It felt weird, panting, but it also helped cool her down. Not as much as the stream she’d run through before she made it to town, but it helped.

Crystal huffed to herself, knowing that her time was limited. If they couldn’t lure Mr. Edgerton out, they’d come to his house. She was pretty sure they’d wait until dark, but not sure enough. Every minute she wasted was a minute where she might not be able to stop a tragedy from happening.

Crystal took off at a run, bursting out from the shadows of the house and streaking between a pair of parked Cadillacs. She raced across the street, her ears back and body low to the ground for speed. She made it without hearing any screams or, more importantly, anyone shooting at her, and dug her feet into the yard beside the driveway to run even faster. She reached the infamous gate to the backyard that had given her so much trouble before and leapt up.

Crystal’s front paws touched the edge and corrected the direction she was headed. She pulled her hind legs up to her body until she was sure she was past the gate, and then dropped them down in time to land on the ground and absorb the impact. She took a few more steps to slow to a stop and let out a huff of victory. She’d beaten the gate!

Crystal looked around and froze when her eyes fell on the shed at the back of the lot. It was tucked back in the corner and mostly shaded by the fence. Vines and tall grass surrounded it, giving it a menacing look. The grass was ornamental, she knew, but with the experience she had, it was easy to imagine it as overgrown and haunted. She wondered how many other people had died inside the small tool shed.

“Holy shit!”

Crystal spun and saw Jimmy, Stephanie’s younger brother, staring at her from the edge of the pool. He stared at her with his mouth open, gawking. Behind him on a reclined beach chair, Stephanie picked her head up from where she’d been tanning and scowled at him. She opened her mouth to snap at him when he raised a hand and pointed at Crystal.

Stephanie turned her head and saw Crystal standing there, legs spread and ready to pounce or run. Stephanie clamped her mouth shut but had the presence of mind to sit up on the chair.

Crystal hadn’t expected this. She didn’t need Jimmy freaking out and shouting. Stephanie would be cool. Well, if she knew who she was. So far Steph had only seen Ember change, as far as she knew. Crystal hadn’t thought this through as far as she should have. She sat down on her haunches, hoping that would calm things down.

“Jimmy, go inside,” Stephanie snapped.

“Steph! That’s a wolf! That’s a fucking wolf! The same white one they said was running around! Holy shit, it’s in our backyard!”

“James Robert Edgerton, watch your mouth and go inside!” Stephanie growled at him. “And don’t you dare say a thing to anyone about this.”

Jimmy turned to look at her with wide eyes. “What? Are you crazy? If I move, he’s going to eat me!”

“That’s a girl, not a boy,” she told him and stared at Crystal for confirmation. Crystal nodded.

“Holy shit! Did that wolf just—no way! I’ve got to get a picture of this!”

“Jimmy, don’t even think about it!” Stephanie hissed at him. “Get your butt inside this instant or I’m going to make sure it gets spread all over school that I caught you jerking off to gay porn and that you’ve got a tiny dick!”

He gawked and stared at his sister, forgetting Crystal for a moment. “Steph! What? That’s not true!”

“Truth doesn’t matter, only what people believe. Now get your ass inside right now and don’t say a word to Mom or Dad.”

“And leave you out here? No way! You’re a bitch but I can’t let you get eaten. Mom and Dad won’t—”

“You’d be the only kid then—you could have anything you wanted. They’d feel so bad, they’d buy you everything.”

Jimmy tilted his head as he considered her words. Crystal rolled her eyes and shook her head. She’d babysat plenty of boys and none of them had been that shallow. They were younger than Jimmy, but not as spoiled either.

“You’d be the cool kid at school too,” Stephanie added. “Think of all the attention you’d get because your sister was chewed up by a wild animal!”

Crystal huffed. She wasn’t a wild animal. Wild, maybe, but not an animal. She glanced down at her paws and then shifted her stance to itch her neck with a rear paw. Nope, definitely not an animal.

“You know something, don’t you?” Jimmy asked through narrowed eyes. “What’s going on here?”

“Please, just go inside,” Stephanie asked, resorting to pleading when her threats and bartering failed.

“Fine, but I’m watching through the door!” he said and glanced at Crystal again. He shook his head again and grabbed his towel off a chair on his way to the French doors.

Once they were shut, Stephanie stood up and took a few steps towards Crystal before she stopped. Crystal had never seen the bathing suit she was wearing before; it was white and so tiny it made a bikini look like a burka. “Crys? Is that you?”

Crystal nodded and glanced at the door. She could make out Jimmy’s outline through the glass, even if she couldn’t see details. She wanted to change but couldn’t, not with him watching. It wasn’t modesty—she was way beyond that. It was about secrecy. People weren’t supposed to know about them. Tell a teenage boy, and she might as well go on a morning news show.

Then again, his father was being hunted by a pack of werewolves. His father, a murderer and member of a secret cult. Crystal sighed.

“Crys? What’s going on? I saw you earlier this week running out of my yard. Please! Talk to me. Oh no! You’re not trapped like that all the time now, are you? Wait, you can’t be, Rebecca said she talked to you. I don’t—”

Fuck it. Stephanie was babbling and starting to act like she was having a breakdown. Crystal had to talk to people and she couldn’t do it as a wolf. Her plan had gone out the window as soon as they saw her. Now it was time to improvise. Crystal took a breath and let it out as she let herself shift back into the form she’d been born with.

Crystal winced and rose up to her knees. She picked one leg up, trembling as her body finished its internal transformations. The pain faded like the taste of a bad piece of food. She met Stephanie’s wide eyes and smiled.

Crystal turned her head when she heard the thud of something, or in this case someone, hitting the floor behind the French doors.