To Right a Wrong (8 page)

Congratulations.”

“It’s supposed to symbolize a raindrop. The first time Brad kissed me was during a downpour. Isn’t that romantic? I didn’t dare tell him it’s a teardrop.” Shelley laughed. “So tell me.

Who’s your mate? Is it someone I know?” Dani grinned. “Maybe. Do you remember the stories about Ethan Tolene?”

Her friend’s mouth fell open. “As in the old alpha that was banned for those awful murders my parents still talk about?”

“What’s taking so long, little one?”
Dani shook her head. “It isn’t Ethan who’s guilty, Shelley.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Hang on, Ethan. I ran into
one of my old friends from cheerleading. I’m still
outside the store.”

“You were a cheerleader?”
Ethan sounded interested, but Dani shut him out in favor of talking with Shelley.

“Did he come back here…with you?” Shelley crossed her arms and gazed around the parking lot. “Do you think that was wise? You’ve just lost your parents. Maybe you need some time to heal.”

“I know perfectly well what I am doing. He’s my mate.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Just wait. You’ll soon learn what really happened years ago.”

“Dani, what have you got yourself in the middle of?” Shelley suddenly dropped her gaze.

“Never mind. I should go. Brad’s probably waiting for me.” She scurried over to a beefed-up truck.

Dani swung around and stared after Brad, who strode across the parking lot from the back of the store and climbed in the truck. She frowned. Despite Shelley’s concern over her safety, her friend’s sudden shift of mood seemed odd.
“Dani! What’s happening?”

“Sorry.”
She turned her attention away from the truck, which was burning rubber out of the parking lot, and headed toward the doors.
“I’m
going in now, babe.”

Dani grabbed a bottle of soda out of the cooler beside the checkout counter and smiled up at the cashier. “How are you today, Mrs.

Danielson?”

The slim, gray-haired woman glanced behind her before scanning the soda. “I-I’m fine. Thanks for asking, Dani.” But Mrs. Danielson refused to raise her eyes and her hands trembled.

Dani leaned against the counter. “Are you okay? You look upset.”

Mrs. Danielson took pulled a small brown paper bag and slipped the bottle inside. She glanced behind her again and lowered her voice.

“Dani, don’t come back here. It’s not safe. I cared about your mom, and I don’t—”

“Mrs. Danielson!”

“Yes, Mr. Lehman.” Mrs. Danielson turned around, her hands fisted at her sides.

“It’s time for your break.”

“But—”

“Now.” Mr. Lehman glared at Dani with angry eyes, but spoke to his employee. “Do not go outside. You can take your break in the back room.”

Mrs. Danielson nodded and shuffled out of the room. Dani reached for the bag, but Mr.

Lehman caught her wrist in a painful grip. She moaned as his claws dug into her skin. She jerked her gaze up and came face to face with a half-shifted werewolf.

Sharp pain shot from her wrist up her arm.

She reached behind her back for the .38 Special loaded with silver bullets.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Mr.

Lehman snarled. His teeth elongated, his eyes narrowed and took on an unearthly menace of a rabid animal, and yet, his body remained human.

Dani gasped and recoiled in disgust. Bile bubbled in her throat. She’d never witnessed any of the werewolves she knew in mid-transformation who were able to halt the shift between human and wolf. The result was terrifying and evil.

“W-what do you want?” She tamped down her own desire to shift. Something was very wrong here. There was no way Mr. Lehman should be able to get the upper hand on her, but his speed and strength overpowered hers.

“We’re gonna have a little talk, you and I.” Mr. Lehman pulled her around the counter toward the backroom. “You shouldn’t have brought Tolene back.”

“Oh God, Ethan. Help me.”

Chapter Nine

Rounding the front of the car, Ethan sailed through the air and landed flat on his stomach.

A powerful force knocked the breath out of him.

He shifted to his wolf and flung the sudden, heavy weight off his back.

He lowered his head and growled at the man who’d tackled him. The man shifted, bared his teeth, and lunged at him again. Worried about Dani, Ethan grabbed the wolf’s throat in his jaw, flipped him over, and clamped down. Ethan wished like hell he would have had time to remove his clothes before shifting. He couldn’t run with the extra length of his pants puddled around his back feet.

The animal flailed his legs in the air looking for traction, but Ethan had him in a death grip faster than the wolf could react.

“Ethan! He’s got my—”

“Dani!”
His blood boiled inside his veins hearing her scream of pain.

He savagely bit through the fur, tore out the wolf’s throat, and spat. The animal twitched, but lay still, his eyes were unfocused.

Ethan hadn’t killed the werewolf—not given how fast he’d heal—but he wouldn’t be charging Ethan from behind too soon.

“Hold on, Dani.”
He leaped over the curb and shifted in midair before landing on his bare feet.

There was no time to put his tennis shoes back on.
“I’m coming in.”

Pushing through the front door of the store, he scanned the inside for any hidden dangers.

The area was clear. He vaulted over the cashier’s counter, ran toward the back door, and using all his weight, threw his shoulder into the closed-off area.

The door slammed open.

Dani sat in a chair in the middle of the room, her hands tied behind her back, an old shirt stuffed in her mouth. Blood trickled down her face.

He howled. He’d kill the bastard who harmed his mate.
“Are you okay, little one?”

“I-I think so. God, Ethan, it happened so fast,
I couldn't even fight. He was stronger than he
should have been. J-Just untie me, please.”
Ethan ran to her and kneeled. He tugged away the gag and wiped her forehead with it.

The bastard had carved the word
Kill
into her forehead. Rage contorted his face into a grimace.

“Where is he?”

“Gone.”
She motioned toward the backdoor.

“Dammit. You’re hurt.”
He threw the rope down and rubbed his fingers over the red welts on her wrists.
“Your hands will heal.”
And so would the message left behind for him to read. Guilt and fury boiled inside of him.

He should have protected her better.

But he'd made sure Dani knew the risk involved with him coming back to Drover before setting foot back in town. He'd trained her, warned her, and still it wasn't enough. He clenched his teeth together.

He had no doubt the damage done to Dani was a warning to him. He held her hands in her lap. She'd heal quickly, never discovering the brutality one of her pack had dealt, never knowing how dangerous the situation had turned. Someone was going to die, and he'd do whatever he had to do to make sure it wasn't Dani who paid.

“Ethan…”
Dani pulled her hands away and reached up to touch her forehead. Blood covered her fingers.
“It’s not healing. It feels like my
head’s burning up.”

“I’m gonna kill the son of a bitch who did this,
but we need to get you home.”
He pulled her up and gathered her to his side.
“I’ve got some
ointment that’ll help.”

“What is it? Why won’t it stop?”

“It’ll be okay. The cuts aren’t deep, but he
must have used a silver-coated knife to—”

“What?”
She clutched his shirt.
“Am I
scarred?”

“No, little one.”
Opening the back door, he peered to the left and right.
“It’s safe. Let’s get
you home.”

A sense of viewing a dream world different than reality settled over Ethan, but his senses were finely tuned to the littlest observations. The air seemed stagnant, as if the world had stopped spinning on its axis. This wasn’t really happening. He wasn’t sitting in the car with his mate in pain, blood trickling down the side of her face.

“Are you okay, little one?”

Dani turned her head.
“Why would Mr.

Lehman do this to me?”

“Because of me.”
Ethan’s gaze traveled to her forehead.
“He hurt you to scare me away from
Drover.”

She groaned. He imagined that the pain radiating over her forehead was torment.

“You don’t know that. H-he seemed angry at
me. He kept telling me I’d betrayed the pack and
my parents would be ashamed of me. Oh God,
Ethan. He hated me. It was nothing like I’d ever
seen before. He…”
She waved her hand in the air.
“He wasn’t normal.”

“Hold that thought, baby.” He pulled into the driveway, shut off the car, and opened the door.

Racing around to the other side, he picked up Dani and whisked her into the house. He set her on the couch. “I’ll be right back.” In the zippered pouch of his duffle bag, he found the ointment his father always swore would work against injuries resulting from silver. He stood clutching the bottle, kicked the bag carrying his personal belongings back into the corner of the room and hoped that it would do the trick. The store owner obviously knew what he was doing when he cut his message over Dani’s forehead. The poison wasn’t enough to kill, but Ethan guessed the pain was worse than she was admitting.

Ethan returned to the living room and sat on the coffee table facing Dani. “Dammit, I forgot a bandage.”

She pointed toward the kitchen. “There are clean rags in the second drawer underneath the sink.”

Disgusted at himself for taking so long and making her suffer further, he set the bottle on the table and opened a drawer. Grabbing a few hand towels, he turned.

He could hear Dani leaving the room.

“Dani?”

He followed her scent into the bathroom and found her staring into the mirror. His chest tightened. He'd wanted to protect her from seeing her face. “Little one—”

“Tell me the truth.” She shifted her gaze to his reflection, blinked hard to dispel the tears clouding her vision, and whispered, “Is this a message for me or you?”

The red, raw carving still wept tears of blood.

He studied her in the mirror, not daring to break eye contact. Keeping her in the dark wasn’t doing her any favors anymore. Against his better judgment, the game had turned from play to personal.

Ethan turned her away from the mirror, tipped her face up, and opened the bottle, spilling some medicine onto a clean towel. He was surprised to find his hand shaking. “The hate between Greggoire and I goes back before you were born, little one. In fact, it goes back to my father’s days when he battled his cousin, Greggoire’s father, for the alpha position. It has always been this way.”

She winced at the sting from the medicine, but let him continue dabbing the cuts. “This isn’t about the challenge, though. The fight for position was never meant to go to the death. I never remember any of the men fighting among the pack this way. I need to tell someone. Mrs.

Danielson isn’t safe working for that psycho.

Butch has a right to know what is happening to her. Maybe she’s too scared to say anything.”

“Dani, you mentioned that the owner of the store wasn’t normal. What did you mean?” He folded the cloth and cleaned the rest of her face.

She closed her eyes, and he felt her shudder go through him. He set down the supplies to wrap his arms around her. “It’s important, little one.”

She snuggled against him. “I’ve watched men and women shift into their wolves my whole life.

This guy shifted halfway. He had hands, but his nails turned to claws. His wolf showed up, but yet he kept his human body. It’s not normal.

You know that, I know that…werewolves can’t mutate that way. We’re either human or wolf. It was like this guy picked the strengths of his wolf, and yet kept his ability to remain upright on two legs.”

“It’s possible to reverse during shifting—”

“That’s not what I’m saying. He stayed that way the whole time I was with him. I’m talking minutes, not seconds.”

Ethan crossed his arms and leaned his hip against the bathroom counter. There were advantages of turning into a wolf. Speed.

Enhanced hearing, smelling, and sight. The ability to heal. The force of strength alone would help anyone in a battle against an enemy. But he couldn’t ignore the benefits of having limbs and the ability to communicate as a human.
To
merge the two using the strengths together can
only happen when…

He straightened up. “Fuck.”

“What?”

If he guessed right it was even more important to find Dani’s brother now, before it was too late. He dashed to the bedroom. Maybe he was wrong.

“Ethan?” Dani, who’d followed, grabbed his arm. “Talk to me.”

“Give me a second.” He dug through his duffle and took out an old journal, then sat on the edge of the bed. Flipping the pages with thumb and finger, he scanned the words…
There.

He read through the page. A heavy ball of dread settled in the pit of his stomach.
Christ.

He closed the book and stared at the journal, a legacy from his father. Every secret, anecdote, and genetic marker of the pack was written down and saved by the alpha. Ethan just happened to keep it when he was banned from the pack. Greggoire wasn’t the right werewolf to trust with the responsibility of keeping pack history.

“Please, Ethan. You’re scaring me.”
Dani sat down beside him and leaned her cheek on his shoulder.

“Plans have changed, little one.”
He tapped the journal against his thigh.
“We don’t have
time to wait for the challenge to find your brother.

We must find Jordan…now.”

“What's going on? What did you learn?”
He opened the book, passed it to Dani, and pointed at the page. “There have been werewolves in the past who've discovered that drinking the blood of another werewolf will heighten their powers. It mutates them into a fierce being, far stronger than the typical werewolf.”