Quarantine (10 page)

“I don’t know what to say except that it does get better. I know that doesn’t do shit for you now. But it does become easier to live with.”

“Hey,” I said, looking up at the television. “
Jeopardy
is on.”

I wanted to change the subject. All this beast talk was making her stir uncomfortably in my chest. That feeling of a physical being marching around inside of me was getting worse as the minutes ticked by. Like she knew she would get to come out and play tonight, and it made her restless.

“Great!” Jasen said, hopping up to sit on the bar and watch it. “Hey, assholes, come on!” he called toward the kitchen. “Let’s play
Jeopardy
.”

Dean and Nate came out of the back room, each carrying a tub of ice cream and a couple of spoons. Dean sat next to me on a stool and Nate went behind the bar to sit next to Jasen on the rail.

“Teams?” Dean asked, handing me a spoon and nudging the tub of Mackinaw Island Fudge Ripple toward me.

“Sure,” Nate said, his eyes twinkling. “What’s the wager?”

“Oral favors,” Jasen said quickly.

“Okay,” Dean answered cautiously. “What are the teams?”

“Me and Jasen against you and Jo,” Nate said.

“Perfect,” Jasen piped up. “Boys against girls.”

Dean made a noise I could have sworn was a bark in Jasen’s direction, but Jasen just laughed. The game started, and we were off.

Chapter Eight

“Double or nothing,” Jasen said in frustration as
Final Jeopardy
started. Dean and I had thoroughly whooped them, and Jasen was acting quite the sore loser.

“Double what?” Dean asked with a laugh. “You’re going to suck me off twice?”

“I don’t know. This is bullshit.” Jasen crossed his arms across his chest and glared at us. “You two are cheating.”

“How?” I asked, a smile tugging at my lips.

“Jasen, calm the fuck down. We lost. This was your idea anyway.”

“Well, I didn’t know she was a fucking genius,” Jasen said, pointing at me with his spoon.

The ice cream was long gone, but Jasen had been nervously sucking on the end of the metal tip for the last few questions. It had drawn my attention away from the game, focusing instead on his lips and tongue playing along the spoon. Luckily, Dean couldn’t have cared less and picked up my slack.

“I’m hardly a genius.” I rolled my eyes.

“What was your major in college?” Nate asked suspiciously.

“Art history.”

“Who the fuck majors in art history?” Jasen was on his feet now, pacing up and down behind the bar.

“You need to calm down,” Dean said, standing up to walk over to the restless man. “Take a deep breath. No one cheated. We shouldn’t even have played tonight. Didn’t we make that a rule once upon a time? No wagers the day of?”

“Yes,” Nate said, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.

“It’s not funny,” Jasen yelled, rounding on Nate. “That car was fucked.”

“What happened?” I asked, looking between the two men.

“Jasen got pissed off about something and shifted an hour before sunset. We were driving out to my house to run after we changed, but he went early. Tore up the whole car, the seats were shredded, dashboard destroyed. We decided then that he’s a sore loser and it would be safest if we avoided making bets around the full moon.” Dean had cornered Jasen behind the bar and held an arm across his chest as he told me the story. When he was done, he turned back to the blond and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

Nate and I watched as Jasen’s breathing slowed and the heat in his eyes dissipated. Whatever Dean had said to him had worked and calmed him down.

I grabbed Nate’s arm and looked at his watch. It was after five-thirty. Fear shot through me as I realized that the sun would be setting in less than an hour. I hoped I wouldn’t try to hurt the guys.

Suddenly,the front door smashed open, and I screamed when I saw Kevin walking through it. Dean and Jasen jumped over the bar, and Nate came around to stand in front of me, his arms outstretched in a protective stance.

“Thanks for keeping her warm for me, boys,” Kevin said, his voice just as oily as the rest of him. “I’ll be taking my girl back now, if you don’t mind.”

“You stay the fuck away from her,” Jasen hissed through gritted teeth.

“That’s my mate,” Kevin said, walking toward the men boldly. “Hand her over.”

“She is
not
your mate,” Dean spat, stepping forward. “She is mine.”

“Like hell, son.” Kevin’s tone was still light, as if he were having a normal conversation with friends. He was grinning in that crazypants way he had, and it made my beast start to pace. She wanted to attack him. I tried to swallow down my fear and her anger. It was too close to sunset to risk losing control. All I could do was trust Dean and the guys to keep me safe from Kevin.

“You probably thought you were real clever, didn’t you, mister?” Dean asked, stepping slowly to the left to keep Kevin’s eyes on him instead of on me. “Calling in that fake Anthrax scare to keep her trapped here until the full moon? You’re a lot stronger when you shift, huh? So you figured there was no use busting in here if you could lock her up real good until you could change and barge in after her.”

“That’s about it, yeah.” Kevin shrugged. “You’re pretty smart, kid. You ever think about becoming a Were-Cougar?”

“Not interested,” Dean said.

“That’s too bad. I kind of like you. Shame I’ll probably have to kill you all.”

I wondered how Kevin didn’t know Dean was a Were-Wolf. I’d just assumed I didn’t know enough to be able to tell. But surely, Kevin had some sense of it. The guys had smelled me when I’d walked in. Didn’t Kevin know how to do that?

“That’s not very likely,” Jasen said, walking around to Kevin’s right side. “You’d best leave. Now.”

“I’d be happy to,” Kevin said, bouncing on the balls of his feet and smiling that greasy smile at Jasen. “Just hand over the girl, and I’ll walk out real kindly like.”

“I’ve already told you,” Dean said, stepping directly in front of Kevin and staring down at him. “She’s mine.”

Kevin sighed and stepped around Dean as if he didn’t even matter. He stalked toward me, and I cowered behind Nate. If I hadn’t been a complete chicken I might have seen it coming. But my head was turned away so I didn’t know what was happening until I heard the gunshot.

Nate collapsed to the floor in front of me, and I screamed, fear that he'd been killed ripping through me. I scrambled toward him, desperate to see if he was still breathing, but Kevin grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away. I struggled against him, bile and more rising up my throat. My beast threatened to burst from my body.

Kevin threw me forward, and I stumbled, crashing to the floor. He wrenched down the collar of my T-shirt to look at my back.

“You fucking whore!” he screamed, losing his composure for the first time. “You stupid little cunt!”

He wrenched me to my feet, shaking me violently before reaching back and slapping me hard across the face. One minute, it felt as if my eyeball had exploded in its socket, the next every bone in my body was breaking.

I screamed, a low guttural howl forced from my lips as my body tore itself apart. Bones shattered and bent, skin ripped, muscles burst and re-knitted as I shifted into my cougar form.

“You bastards stole my mate!” Kevin screamed, turning dismissively from me as I writhed on the floor.

“We didn’t steal anything,” Dean said, standing from where he’d knelt next to Nate’s body. “She is mine, ours.”

“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Kevin hissed, raising the gun.

“You picked the wrong fucking bar on the wrong fucking night, asshole,” Jasen said.

I watched from the floor as Dean and Jasen howled. The sound echoed around the room, and I whimpered as it hit my ears. Slinking past Kevin, I made my way over to Nate. His body had shifted, too, but he was unconscious still.

Dean petted my head behind my ear. The sensation was so odd, I looked up at him, and he winked at me. I knew fear and adrenaline had brought mine and Nate’s beasts out early, but it couldn’t be that much longer before sunset then there would be two more Were-Wolves and another Were-Cougar in the bar.

“She is my mate,” Dean told Kevin coldly. “She has taken my mark and marked me. We belong to each other. You’d best get your ass out here.”

“Fucking wolves!” Kevin screamed in frustration. “Of course, you would whore it up with a bunch of dogs. You stupid bitch. I should have left you where I found you. All I wanted was to love you. That husband of yours was worthless. He made you miserable. I wanted to make you happy. But you had to ruin everything.”

I tried to scream back that I didn’t even know him, but all that came out was a long, low growl. Stalking toward Kevin, I was glad to see him backing away in fear. The beast liked the fear, the smell of it hit my nostrils and it was good, like burning leaves, woodsy and delicious. Closer and closer, I padded, the scent getting stronger. Something in the beast wondered what that fear would taste like sliding over our tongue, but I pushed the thought away. I would not eat Kevin. Gross.

The beast conceded that we did not consider him food. But he was a threat that had to be dealt with. He’d spoken ill of us in front of our mate. I turned to see Dean following me slowly. He wasn’t going to interfere unless he got a sign from me. I understood now that this was my fight. I had to finish this and soon. If Kevin shifted before I was able to incapacitate him—

That thought was cut short by howls filling the room again. I watched in fear as Kevin grinned wickedly at me before his body began to shrink and writhe and change. I turned to see Jasen and Dean shifting behind me.

I took the only chance I knew I’d get. I ran flat out at Kevin who was still too occupied with changing form to notice I was attacking. My front paws slammed into his back, which had bowed out as the bones tried to twist and form a new shape. He flew backward, his head slamming into the doorframe behind him. His body continued to shift, but he didn’t seem to move more than that. I hoped like hell that he was really knocked out. Staring down at him, I watched the steady rise and fall of his chest. Tentatively, I poked him with my paw. He didn’t stir.

A furry head rubbed against the side of my jaw. I turned to see a large tawny wolf standing next to me. I bumped my head against Dean’s chin then turned to see a gray wolf leaning over another tawny wolf—Jasen checking on Nate. The gray wolf looked toward us and nodded its head once. I took that to mean Nate would be okay.

I looked back at Dean and studied his wolfish face. His eyes were that amber color I had seen earlier, but the look in them was very human, very Dean. A headache was blossoming behind my eyes. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to fight the beast taking over for much longer. I would lose myself to the change. But I trusted that Dean and Jasen wouldn’t let me hurt anyone or myself. I knew I had to believe in them, because my choices were slipping away.

Raising my head, I bumped it against Dean’s furry forehead. We looked into each other’s eyes for a moment then he faded away as I gave in to darkness.

* * * *

I woke up on the cot in the office. A quick glance down showed me I was human again and quite naked. Searching the room, I saw the guys had left my suitcase sitting on a stool across the room. I climbed out of bed stiffly and walked over to get some clothes. After dressing quickly, I opened the door and peeked out into the bar.

Nate sat alone at a table, eating peanuts and watching the news. He looked up and grinned when he saw me.

“Good morning, kitty,” he said brightly. “Damn you slept a long time.”

“Did I?” I looked outside and saw that the sun was bright out the window. I sat down across from him and grabbed a handful of nuts, cracking the shell so I had something to do with my hands. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.” He shrugged. “Bastard just tranqed me. I’m sore as hell, but other than that I’m good. How are you feeling?”

“All right,” I said with a sigh, cracking a shell and rolling the peanuts across the table to him. “Where is everybody?”

“I woke up just as Dean and Jasen were shifting back. They took that Kevin dude and restrained him downstairs until Dean's FBI agent friend got here to detain him.” He grabbed the nuts and popped them into his mouth. “They’re all down there now. From what Dean told me the agent is going to take the scumbag into custody and get him charged with the murder of your husband and kidnapping all of us. He’s going to be locked up in a special Were detention center for a long time.”

“Really?” I cracked another husk and tossed the nuts again. “So, you were out of it all night, too?”

“Yeah. You were fine by the way,” he said, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand. “Dean said he saw the beast take over, but you just laid by his side all night. Apparently, you got a little nippy with his neck when he tried to move away from you, but you didn’t attack anyone or anything like that.”

That was a relief. It was nice to know that the beast seemed to be calming down. Or maybe, I was just learning to take better care of her. I had been stuffed before I’d shifted. Perhaps, the guys were right, again, and eating constantly before the change did make a world of difference. I’d have to remember that in the future.