I'm Not Afraid of Wolves (The Cotton Candy Quintet Book 4) (10 page)

I caught one to the face barreled into one, and he spun once, hitting the floor with a thud, grimacing in pain. The other grabbed me by the scruff on my neck and I shrieked in pain. Still though, I grabbed him with my own jaws, and, since I was bigger, I pulled him off me and into a wall.

His teeth left deep grooves in my neck, adding to the growing number of injuries that I already had. I couldn’t focus on the pain, not now.

“Christine!” Sara screamed, but it was too late. The throng of werewolves, for lack of a better phrase, dog-piled on top of me, keeping me from attacking. Teeth and claws and bodies pressed me into the floor, and I couldn’t breathe.

A bit unfair, but I’d decided that nothing in the werewolf world was fair. I only hoped that Colton was faring better than me, but my head was held immobile and I couldn’t see behind me.

The noises sounded terrible, and even though Febreze mixed in the air, the coppery smell of blood filled my nostrils. I hoped that meant that Colton had succeeded, but I knew that he was probably overpowered.

Like me.

Chad stepped into my line of view. Unlike before, he had transformed back into a man. And, unlike me, he was completely unembarrassed by his nudity. I hadn’t seen him as a human before, but I could now identify him by his scent—and I could see why Sara had once found him attractive. He was lean, but toned and tall. Scratches marred his muscular torso, and he had a dark, full beard that was trendy in a lumbersexual way, as well as tattoos wrapping his arms and around his chest.

The kind of bad boy that you’d find in a romance novel.

He huffed in anger, his dark eyes glaring at me.

“Look at what the cat dragged in,” he murmured.

The other werewolves thought that was hysterical, and they all laughed, even if they were in wolf form. The sound, halfway between a howl and a jackal’s laugh, set my teeth on edge.

It wasn’t even a funny joke.

Another figure came into view, naked as well.
Andrea.
The woman crossed her arms and glared down at me. “Who would have thought that Sara would bring a were mountain lion on our little camping trip?”

Chad shrugged. “It’s made things interesting.”

Andrea glowered at him. “And ruined the cabin.”

I saw it then, the resemblance in their red hair and facial structures. Chad was Andrea’s brother, probably the brother who had renovated the cabin five years ago. This was all sorts of messed up.

It was like he planted Andrea to get to Sara.

“Sara, I have to hand it to your friend’s tenacity,” Chad said, drawing my attention back to him.

My sister cried, reaching out for him. “Please, Chad. I’ll do whatever you want. Just let Christine go.”

Andrea snickered as Chad grinned serenely. “Oh, I’m sure of that. Just do as I say. After all, you
are
my mate, right? Or did you forget that?”

She nodded. “I haven’t forgotten that.” She sobbed on that last word, inconsolable.

Chad touched her chin, bringing her gaze to look up into his eyes. “Good girl.”

I felt like I was going to be sick.

He strode over to Emily, who had gone silent, the tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn’t even acknowledge his presence. She just kept looking forward, begging me to do something. Anything.

I couldn’t.

I heard the struggle behind me, of Colton trying to break free to stop what happened next, but I was immobilized, and the struggle ended as abruptly as it started.

No, no, no, no.

“You’re the sacrifice, little one,” Chad said, grinning down at Emily.

She spat in his face.

He grabbed her shoulder with a partially-transformed hand, and I watched in horror as his mouth changed to the trademark snout of a werewolf. He reared his head back and bit into the fleshy part of her neck.

Emily screamed.

My own muscles spurred, and I fought against my restraints, but the wolves held me fast. I could only watch. I heard a whimpering sound, and it took me a moment to realize that I was making the noise. I was crying.

Chad pulled back, wiping his bloodied mouth as it transformed back into a human’s. Emily continued shrieking in pain as he walked away. She was turning white, and there was so much blood. It wasn’t fatal, but it must have hurt a hell of a lot. If we didn’t get her medical attention soon, it could very well turn into a big problem.

“Your turn, lover,” Chad said to Sara.

My sister gulped, nodded, and walked over to Emily. She swayed on her feet as her friend looked up at her with pleading eyes. I wanted to scream at her to stop.

Sara hesitated, her eyes flicking over to me before she gave me a small, sad grin. I pleaded with her not to do it.

But then she bit into Emily’s neck, the blood spurting between them. Emily’s body went limp in the chair and Sara continued biting.

I can’t believe this is happening. It can’t!

Sara stepped back, heaving big breaths. She kept rubbing at her mouth, trying to wipe away the blood as if she herself couldn’t believe what she had just done. She was shaking, almost as pale as Emily’s unconscious form.

Then the wolves around me started howling.

Sara cast one last look back at me, before the transformation hit her. She threw her head back as fur sprouted and she fell to her knees. Her eyes went wide in fear as her entire body morphed, bones clicking into place, and her own muddied clothes ripped apart.

Standing before me, she was no longer Sara the Human, who was in control of all her functions and her humanity. I remembered that it took me a few times to really get a handle on my mountain lion instincts and control them.

She was Sara the Werewolf, a killing machine

And she turned her amber-colored gaze on me, and licked her chops with a growl.

“Kill the werecat,” Chad ordered smugly. “The one who’s
different
here and trespassing on our pack’s grounds.”

Without another word, Sara pounced on me.

I chose that moment to pull out my last defense, even though it would make me far more vulnerable to injury. I called back my werecat, twisting out of the way as the wolves moved to give Sara access to me. By transforming, I granted myself a split second of reprieve as I slipped out of the other wolves’ grasps.

The move worked, but just barely. I spun out of the way just as her teeth snapped in the air where I’d been only moments before.

“Sara,” I pleaded, dodging another attack. “Remember who you are.”

The wolf didn’t answer, and instead lunged at me, her fangs bared. I ducked under it, transforming back into a werecat as I did so. Now, as we were both beasts, we were far more evenly matched, except for the fact that she was entirely wild and I still had my human faculties.

I hissed at her, hoping that would wake her up to the absurdity of this moment. She was a human in a wolf’s body fighting a mountain lion for Pete’s sake. Didn’t that make her stop and think?

Apparently not.

She launched at me and I batted her out of the way. She was clumsy in this new body, and she kept slipping and tripping over her own paws. She shook her head with my last attack. I’d hit her hard and my heart broke for her.

I couldn’t bear to hurt her again.

She barked and came at me again, a sign of an inexperienced werewolf. I used that to my advantage, sidestepping out of her way, and using my shoulder to flip her on her back. The movement both stunned and knocked the wind out of her, and I took that moment to pin her to the ground.

I screeched in her face, willing her with all of my might to put some sense into her damned head. She looked up at me, her eyes still wild.

I had one more option, one that I hated doing.

I transformed into a human, hoping that I had long enough to talk some sense into her while she was stunned.

And hopefully the other wolves wouldn’t attack me as this happened.

“Sara, listen to me!” I yelled into her wolf-face. “Your name is Sara Driver, you’re twenty-eight years old, and you’re my sister. A human. Please, remember!”

She blinked up at me, the wild beast dissolving in front of me. I could watch as humanity crept its way back into her gaze as abject horror took over. She was herself. She remembered who she was and what she had done and what it meant from here on out.

I wanted to tell her that it was going to be all right, that we’d figure a way out of this. I still believed it. She had to as well.

I watched as her face and body morphed underneath mine. Tears filled her human eyes as she looked up. “Christine.” Her voice broke. “I’m so sorry…”

And she passed out underneath me. I wanted to shriek in anger at the entire ordeal.

Except I didn’t have much of a choice. A furry body slammed into me, and I sprawled across the floor, my own breath knocked out of me. I sobbed for breath as I laid on my back.

Being attacked by a shifter when you were human always sucked.

I turned my head to see Chad stalking over towards me, murder in his red eyes. This was it. This was going to be my end.

They say that your life flashes before your eyes before you die. I had too many regrets for that to happen—I didn’t want to remember my mistakes, especially the ones that involved Shane. All I could think about was how I let Neptune down and how the new mermaids were going to be without a leader. Sara was going to have to live with this awful werewolf pack, and while I’d only known Colton for a day, we’d never get to explore if this attraction meant anything as far as relationships.

Because this bastard was going to kill me.

I steeled myself for it, even though I didn’t want it to happen. I shut my eyes, ready.

It never came.

A roar sounded, this time unfamiliar as the scuffle and howls intensified again, and I snapped my eyes open. I turned my head to see Colton’s werewolf form attack Chad’s. Chad turned his murderous gaze on Colton, and they both growled and howled, circling each other. They were both of similar bulk and size. If they fought, one of them was going to die, and I couldn’t risk it being Colton.

Not on my behalf. And not because of my sister’s mistakes.

No. This was my fight. This was for me to end.

As I pushed myself up to a sitting position, I saw the throng of werewolves, including Andrea, move into position.
Attack
position. Apparently, after Sara and I fought, the ceasefire was over and they were moving into position to attack Colton. This time, they weren’t going to restrain him or hold him hostage.

They’d just kill him.

I couldn’t have that.

A surge of adrenaline brought me to my feet and I rushed at Chad, transforming back into a mountain lion as I did so. I caught Chad in the middle, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. I hadn’t expected to get this far, so this had caught both of us off-guard. He was too slow to respond, and the slightest twitch of my powerful jaws would collapse his windpipe and he’d be dead. I didn’t even have to tear out his throat.

I had him at my mercy, and all I needed was to finish him and be done with it. We both knew it, because I could see the whites of his eyes as he tried to look at me.

Except, in that moment, I realized that I couldn’t do it. I was a mountain lion shifter due to a bad choice I made for love, but I wasn’t a killer. Even though this bastard had terrorized my sister and her friends and who knew how many people, I couldn’t bring myself to end it this way.

In that moment, I was more human than animal.

It drove me nuts, that I could end this now, but I couldn’t do it. I hated it in movies when someone was stupidly benevolent, yet here I was.

I realized that I was still Christine, and I was not a killer.

I took my paw, and put it just underneath my jaw, and applied pressure to his throat, enough to make him gag. I released my jaws and called back my inner beast, shifting back into a human for the umpteenth time that night.

“Get out,” I snarled at Chad. “I’ve won, and I’m letting you live. Get out of this warehouse. Get out of Atlanta. I don’t want you around my sister anymore.” I raised my voice so that everyone else in the warehouse could understand me. “And I want all of the other werewolves to lay off and leave us alone. Your leader is defeated. Now just walk away with dignity.”

All of the other wolves watched me, their mouths agape. Chad snarled before nodding slowly.

I deliberated if he was telling the truth, but I couldn’t very well hold him like this forever. I made a choice in that moment.

“Transform back into a human,” I said, “and I’ll let you go.” His lip curled and I increased the pressure on his windpipe. “
Now.
”

I felt his body change underneath mine, but I didn’t take my eyes off his face. If he was going to betray me, I would be able to read it in his face. When he was fully human again, I relaxed just a bit. It’s amazing how less threatening someone can appear when they don’t have huge teeth.

I pushed myself off him and got to my feet. I offered my hand to him, to let him know that I was in charge. This could go one of two ways, and I was prepared for either of them.

He chose the worse one.

He took my hand, but as I pulled him to his feet, he tried kicking my legs out from underneath me. I’d been expecting something like that. After I divorced Shane, I took jiu jitsu for self-defense because I needed it if he ever wanted to show his sorry face around me again.

When his leg connected with mine, I shifted my weight, spun him on his stomach, and smashed his face into the concrete ground.

“I told you to behave!” I yelled, holding him fast.

Apparently, there’d been enough force in that movement to knock him out cold. His entire body slumped underneath me as a rivulet of blood started spreading. Maybe I broke his nose. Maybe worse. I didn’t care at that moment.

As I straightened up, I saw that the werewolves were all looking at me, shocked, like they’d never seen anyone defeat him before, much less a tall, skinny woman in her early thirties.

“You defeated our Alpha,” the closest wolf said, shock in his voice.

“I had to,” I said, not catching his drift. “He was trying to kill me.”

“No, you don’t understand,” a wolf to my right replied. “You
defeated
our alpha. And you’re a shifter. And that makes you…”

“
Our
Alpha?” another one asked, his voice raising in pitch. “Is that even possible?”

I searched the crowd, trying to find Colton’s eyes to ask him for help. I jumped at the feathery touch of an uncertain hand on my arm. Colton was standing next to me in his human form as well. Except he was looking at me in the same way as the other werewolves. I wished he’d stop; I wish they’d all stop doing that.

“You defeated him, Christine,” he whispered. “And not only that, you asserted your dominance over him.”

Asserted my dominance? I just wanted to beat him into submission. Oh, wait, I’d said, “I told you to behave.” Among other things. I now regretted my choice of words.

“And that makes me their Alpha?” I asked, panicked. “I’m not even a werewolf.”

He combed a hand through his hair. “I don’t know,” he admitted softly. At least it was honest.

“Has that ever happened before?” another wolf asked.

“She’s my leader,” one of them said, kneeling in front of me. “It’s how we do things.”

I looked on in horror as all fifty wolves knelt in front of me.

And then I remembered I was naked in front of them.
Again
.