Half Wolf (9 page)

He had broken a deep-seated personal vow. Now he knew he had imprinted with a human whether or not he had meant to. For a werewolf, imprinting was an unbreakable union, and lifelong.

Kaitlin must have felt this, too. She had been chained to him by his actions. Though she wanted to be fiercely independent, that wasn’t going to be the direction of her future.

Hell.

He loped faster, glad that Kaitlin had sensed the monsters on the loose tonight and had the wits to run. She was heading back toward the college. In a night of missteps, moving toward a crowd might be one small thing in Kaitlin’s favor.

He ran faster.

She had veered toward a building that used to be the main college library. While the building wasn’t empty or derelict, and still housed some collections, it was no longer the gathering place for most of the university’s student population, by the looks of things on a Monday night.

His hopes slid a little. The fact that the building wasn’t empty was a worrisome detail that had to be carefully considered. Who wouldn’t notice a large wolf shadowing a woman through corridors and half-empty shelves?

Kaitlin?
Michael sent a silent call.
Hold on. I’m coming.

He had promised she would be safe tonight, and that promise had been broken. Would she believe anything he said after this?

A rain of dark, foul-smelling ash struck his muzzle, but Michael kept running. A vampire had perished here just moments ago. Who had seen to that if his pack was behind him?

He was accosted by another strange scent that he almost recognized until something deferred his attention from it.

His head came up. His ears pricked forward.

Bless her pale, shapely hide. Across that chain binding them together, Kaitlin had heard him and was answering his silent call.

Chapter 10

T
he beast on her tail was closing in.

Kaitlin tore through the hallway like a winged demon, knowing this old library better than most people, having spent a year doing research here before the newer building opened. She hoped that fact would help her now.

She moved right, turned left down a long corridor, not sure if she should shout for help or lead the monster away from the few other people occupying this building. She wasn’t sure she could handle this new threat, or even face it.

To say that this had been a long day was an understatement. She had set her studies aside in order to learn something entirely new that would help to guide her future. The scent of vampire was one of those things. And though that putrid odor would be forever embedded in her lungs, it didn’t mesh with the unusual smell of the thing chasing her.

Were there different smells for different vampires?

Were there different
kinds
of vampires?

Guilt about running away from Michael was an added pain to the pressure in her lungs, but she couldn’t have this both ways. Either she wanted him with his pack, or with her.

Still, facts were facts. She was a hindrance to his pack when dealing with these monstrous fanged creeps. Her family’s credo had been about keeping out of trouble by not standing out. By blending in. Following their lead, while at times resisting her rise of inner rebelliousness had been her daily quest.

She ran as fast as she could, energized by fear. Nerves were firing. Adrenaline was dumping into an overwrought system.

Without having to look, Kaitlin knew the beast was right behind her. Maybe running turned vampires on. Possibly their minds had been left for dead, while the rest of them worked off the smell of terror. Being near other people didn’t seem to deter this particular monster. Neither did racing through enclosed, lighted hallways.

Her pursuer’s presence was like a dark, unshakable shadow. A reminder she didn’t need about the things vampires were capable of. Yet there was also a familiar pressure in the air that sliced through the rest of this sensory bullshit. Wolf.

One more right turn brought her to the staircase leading to the mezzanine overlooking the main library floor. Circumventing a few people by managing to remain just out of sight, Kaitlin groped for an idea about what to do next. Although she didn’t want to call Michael again, she whispered his name.

The irony of sprinting through a research facility when she couldn’t stop to learn more about what was chasing her stayed with Kaitlin as she raced through another row of mostly empty shelves. There were only so many places to get away from this thing.

Damn it. I’m screwed.

Kaitlin? Hold on. I am coming.

Michael’s words buzzed through her with a crackle of electricity. In the midst of a high-speed chase probably not destined to end well, his effect on her continued to exemplify the word
seductive.

Running from Michael had been a stupid move. She saw that now. She kept moving, dodging shelves, breathing through her mouth. Though Michael wasn’t here in person, she knew he soon would be. All she had to do was hang on and take this monster on an extended tour of the stacks.

Kaitlin hoped to God she could do that, because it was going to take a miracle to pull off. Then again, she had already experienced one miracle, care of Michael, and was exhaling the breath to prove it.

“Hurry, Michael,” she whispered, resigned to be a damsel this one last time, and swearing a solemn oath not to make it a habit.

* * *

Hurry, Michael.

Kaitlin’s shout reverberated inside Michael’s skull leaving a long, lingering echo.

When he reached the entrance to the library building, he knew he’d have to lose the fur. Problem was, beneath that fur he was naked, which would no doubt cause quite a stir in university hallways, especially since the days of thrill-seeking streakers were over.

He had to get as far as he could on all fours first.

He loped through the open doors and down the first corridor, sensing Kaitlin’s presence as if she’d magically appear if he looked hard enough. If she had been there, he would have pushed her against a wall and kissed her stupid for taking so many chances with a precious life that had been given a second chance.

He would also have done more than that.

Michael!
Panic laced Kaitlin’s call.

He pushed through an office door, scaring an elderly woman who was leaving. He spied a desk and a man’s jacket hanging on the back of a chair.

Ignoring the woman, who had quickly exited, probably to call the police or animal control, he morphed back to a more acceptable shape, sweating, breathing harder than usual. His internal heat level was at a record high and left the wolf, safely tucked inside again, whining to again be free.

Grabbing the coat, shoving his arms into the sleeves, Michael raced back to the hallway figuring that being half dressed was the only option open to him and better than nothing when a life was at stake.

He lucked out again. A forgotten backpack leaned against a wall beneath a bulletin-board. He snatched it as he ran, finding a pair of jeans rolled up inside. Pausing only seconds, he pulled them on.

Kaitlin. I’m on my way.

I’m sorry
were the words she sent back that stoked the fires allowing him to pick up more speed.

He found the stairs Kaitlin had used. Following her scent, grimacing over the odor of what was chasing her, Michael took those stairs three at a time.

Kaitlin was leading her shadow on a crooked path with hopes of ditching the beast, oblivious to the scent of the creep’s bloodlust that saturated the slightly stale library air. Michael found it hard to believe that a bloodsucker had dared to enter this building. Did that mean bloodsuckers were evolving?

He could not allow this one to be seen. He had to kill it. End it.

Hold tight, Kate.

He had said those words to her before, on that first night, wondering if she would survive. Michael repeated them again now, as much for his own peace of mind as for hers.

Hold tight, little wolf.

He reached the mezzanine without drawing too much attention to himself. Luckily, this old library didn’t have many students lingering at its scattered desks. The few who were present were deep in their studies.

Kaitlin’s scent grew stronger as Michael rushed toward the shelves leading to a back wall, where the stink of what was chasing her hovered. He nearly stopped to consider the shock of that smell.

The thing pursuing her wasn’t a vampire.

He saw her. Kaitlin’s fear got stronger with each step the thing that chased her took, and yet that fear hadn’t crippled her. He was moved by that show of bravery.

The thing focusing on Kaitlin hadn’t expected him, and didn’t bother to turn as Michael approached from behind. Taking hold of the creature’s shirt, he spun the short, tightly muscled body around with a twitch of his arm and stared into a dark, expressionless face.

It was a Were he held onto. A Were in man form that carried in its scent the foul odors of a bloodsucker because it was covered in ash.

There was no time to deal with the ramifications of that.

“Out of your league, my furry friend,” he said with a harsh half growl. “And much too far from whatever hole you crawled out of.”

Without struggling too much, the Were hissed one word, “Her,” with a breath that smelled of dead fish.

Since the Were’s gaze was glued to Kaitlin, there was no doubt about who the beast meant.
Her.
Michael didn’t like this. What was a lone wolf doing in Clement? Why hadn’t his pack gotten wind of it before this? Why hadn’t he?

The creature’s response left him with the sinking feeling that it had one specific goal tonight, and that goal was Kaitlin Davies. No one else. Just Kaitlin. He had thought the same thing about the vampires.

Why would that be true, if it were?

“Who are you? Who sent you? Plenty of others weren’t lucky tonight when they faced us,” he said.

The Were didn’t even pretend to fight Michael’s hold. It stood there with its red-rimmed eyes locked on Kaitlin as if mesmerized by her.

This was both creepy and surreal. If this creature was crazed, the scents drifting upward from those students had to be working on the demented Were’s mind. Yet it didn’t seem to notice.

“Leave this Were to me,” he said to Kaitlin. “Go now. Wait for me in the hallway. Don’t go outside alone in case there are more of these guys.”

Bless her, she nodded and said, “Should I get the other people out? There aren’t many students here.”

“Can you do that?”

“There’s a fire alarm on every floor.”

He nodded. “Use one.”

When she turned, the Were in his grip began to struggle. It wanted to go after Kaitlin. The short male Were was strong, but unsteady on its feet, as if weakened by sickness. Sweat gleamed on a face that was as pale as a vampire’s. Muscles that should have been taut quivered. This Were might have wanted to hurt someone tonight, yet wasn’t strong enough to best an Alpha who had made Kaitlin’s safety a personal mission.

Kaitlin didn’t take long to find that fire alarm. The shrill sound streaked through the building like the roar of a tweaked nerve. He heard students leave their seats and head for the door, grumbling about being disturbed by what could have been an overused prank.

The Were in his grasp strained against Michael’s hold, snapping its human teeth the way vampires snapped theirs, possibly recognizing what the alarm bell meant. No one liked fire. However, this Were’s mind had to be severely muddled for it to believe there was a fire without scenting a single wisp of smoke.

Michael had to try to get this wolf out of the building and into the open, where he could explore the reason for its unannounced presence. But the Were twisted suddenly as if just regaining its wits, and was stronger than it looked.

Michael had never enjoyed fighting. He detested unnecessary violence. His family had been decimated by his mother’s murder. Nevertheless, keeping secrets was paramount, so getting this Were out, and away from humans, was at the top of his list.

He tried to drag the flailing werewolf to the stairs. The Were had a punch like a prize fighter, and several of those punches in a row threatened to knock the wind out of Michael. He tasted blood, ditched the idea of getting this guy out of the building peacefully and rallied with a right cross of his own that managed to stop the Were long enough to try to get a better look at him.

The rogue wasn’t going to submit to closer observation or be taken anywhere. The eyes were black, wide, wild. There wasn’t much human left in that face, though the Were could not transition inside the building or outside without a full moon. Nevertheless, this guy’s body was trying to do just that, and trapped in the inferno of mutating cells.

The fire alarm had been going off for a few minutes too long already. There would be a response soon. They had to get out.

“Why?” Michael asked, managing to pin the Were’s arms to its sides after receiving another blow to the stomach that temporarily turned his vision red.

The Were spat in Michael’s face and again tried to bite.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, my friend.” Michael wrestled with the beast. “Or what you’ve done to smell so bad, and what you’re up to.”

He tried again to drag the Were to the stairs. The wolf shook him off, jumped over the railing and hit the floor below with an audible crack to several leg bones. The maimed creature howled as it lunged through a window, breaking the glass, spreading shards in all directions.

Michael stared, too surprised to move.

“Michael?”

His attention snapped back to the floor beneath the mezzanine. Cade was there, looking up.

“You might want to come down here,” Cade said. “Pronto.”

Damn it. There were so many reasons why he didn’t like that remark.

* * *

Kaitlin watched the few people in the library leave. She stayed just inside the door in the shadows, hoping she wouldn’t be seen.

In spite of the fear and the anger she was feeling, she was determined to remain human, even though her body was telling her it wanted to change. Energy was sparking within her, as if her nerves had become live wires. She flinched with each inaudible zap of white-hot electricity, shocked by those sensations, feeling as though she had been electrocuted.

Half her body was chilled. The other half was extremely hot. There seemed to be a line down the center of her body to separate the two temperatures, just as there were going to be two sides of her physically when the full moon showed up.

Light-headedness was a side effect for having passed in and out of shock for the past few days, she supposed. The miracle was that she no longer felt sick to her stomach.

Her skin was twitchy. Her scalp tingled. She imagined moonlight playing on her skin, though she was indoors. None of those reactions hurt her. They were scary, new, weird.

Although Michael had encouraged her to wait for him, Kaitlin wasn’t sure she should. She would be relatively safe in a crowd and there were plenty of students and university staff members surrounding her. When those people dispersed, she would have to find someplace safe to hide from both vampires and wolves until she got her wits back.

Peace was what she craved. Peace, quiet and everything having to do with the term
normal.
In her mind were echoes of explosions that had been vampires turned to ash. If that wasn’t incredible enough, her mind also churned up an image of one central figure standing in all that ash like a mythical phoenix rising from the flames.

Guess who.

Michael’s presence always gave her a whole new series of shudders and quakes, followed by an unusual pressure on her eardrums. He was now her Alpha. What kind of power did Alphas actually wield over their packs? Maybe her attraction to him was part of that.

Michael wasn’t much older than the other Weres she had seen tonight. Cade was larger. Rena was sassier. Together, they formed a tight family unit that seemed to easily read each other, and willingly traded verbal barbs and clothes. This was going to be her new second family. She would graduate from the university with an advanced degree soon, and then what? Would she leave this pack behind? Did that happen?