Werewolf Dreams (10 page)

“If you can change, then you’re a suitable mate. You are smaller but that doesn’t matter to me. I like that you’re so feminine. I’m very attracted to you Ava,” he said bluntly, pulling her back towards him.

Ava smiled but shook her head, pulling her hand back. “No Cyrus. No mates. No choosing. None of this is going to happen.
At least not between you and me. I have too much to figure out. I told you, I’d rather die than stay in this town. And according to my father, the last time I changed, I was three years old. I might not be able to anymore,” she said in a careful, low voice as his face hardened and he stood up angrily.

“You’d willingly choose a society that would hate you if they knew who you really were? You’d choose men you could only have meaningless, empty relationships with? With me, you could have a family. You’d be accepted. You’d be
mine
,” he said, staring at her face with narrowed ice blue eyes.

Ava licked her lips and moved away from Cyrus. “I don’t know what the future holds for me Cyrus. But I know one thing for sure. My father left here twenty years ago and has never regretted it. He made the decision because he didn’t want to raise me around men like his father and like Ben and Jake and that other guy, I can’t remember. I’d be miserable here,” she whispered, knowing it was true. “I have dreams Cyrus. I don’t want to be chained to a destiny that I didn’t choose,” she said, feeling panic crawl up her legs toward her heart.

Cyrus shoved his hand
s in his pockets and stared moodily at her. “That’s all good Ava. The career, the freedom, but what if there was something better? Maybe you could choose a different dream?”

Ava shook her head and opened the door to her room so he could leave. “What’s better than having everything I’ve always wanted?” she asked.

Cyrus walked past her, not looking at her. “Love.”

Ava snorted and shut the door hard, leaning back against it as she stared unseeingly at the rumpled bed.
Cyrus was an idiot
, she thought and went to grab her running shoes.

Later that morning Ava
hopped out of her dad’s jeep and slipped her sunglasses on over her eyes. She stared at her father as he slipped on his back pack.

“My dad is a werewolf,” she sang in a sing song, grinning as her father stilled in surprise and then sent her a mock glare.

“You’re going to give me heart attack with all your teasing,” he warned, as he attached the lethal looking Beretta to his leg. Ava’s smile faded as she stared at the gun. “These attacks that your father was talking about last night. The people were killed by a werewolf, weren’t they?” she asked softy.

Harry nodded his head and shut the door to the jeep, motioning for her to follow him.
“Most definitely. The scratch marks I saw yesterday were unmistakable. Sometimes, our kind choose to turn into a wolf permanently, but unlike real wolves, the animal side takes over and twists the person inside, turning him cruel and evil. It turns them into murderers,” he said bluntly.

Ava walked along the path with her father, scanning the trees and hills and shivered. “Wouldn’t the town automatically have a suspe
ct then? Just figure out who has disappeared, and there’s your bad guy,” she said.

Harry laughed and shook his head.
“Logical as always Ava, but no. That’s not how it works. Werewolves can be solitary people. The people you met last night enjoy company, but many don’t. And they especially don’t like people coming around asking questions. No, my father was right. We’ve got to track the monster who did this and make sure they don’t take off before we can corner the animal and put him down.”

Ava shivered and grimaced.
“Holy crap Dad. No innocent until proven guilty in the werewolf community, huh? It’s the death sentence for evil doers, huh?”

Harry glanced at her and shrugged.
“Sometimes Ava. An eye for an eye. It usually works believe it or not. At least in most cases,” he added softly under his breath.

Ava frowned at her father’s back, but didn’t push him. They reached the cottage Cyrus had taken them to yesterday and she immediately ran for the soft sandy beach. She threw off her pack and threw herself into a triple somersault, landing on her feet with a happy grin.

“You know, your wolf heritage gives you almost twice the strength of a normal girl. Gymnasts are usually short and compact but even with your height you’re able to do things normal girls can’t. You could have gone to the Olympics last year,” he said sadly looking at the ground as if he were in pain.

Ava shrugged. “I don’t like being judged. I was fine with you telling my coach I couldn’t go to the
World Championships. That was never why I liked gymnastics Dad. I’m actually not that competitive.”

Harry shook his head. “No, but I would have loved to have seen you win.
I guess I am competitive that way.
Or prideful
. It was always in the back of my mind that if your mom could see you win on that level that she’d be proud of you and be open to a relationship with you. It kills me that you had to grow up without a mom because of me. But I knew they’d do a blood test on you to check for steroids and I knew they’d notice your blood is different. I couldn’t chance it,” he said, wiping his wrist across his forehead.

Ava felt her heart break for her dad and she bit her lip.
“Dad, I’m over mom. Don’t torture yourself about it. You’ve been the best dad a girl could ever ask for. Honestly.
 

Harry smiled warmly down at his daughter and ran his hand over her hair.
“Only because you’ve made it so easy. But if there was any way to get you to the Olympics without a blood test, I would have done it,” he said, frowning again.

Ava did a back hand spring and grinned at her father. “Let it go Dad. Who needs
a gold medal anyways?” she asked.

Harry sighed and put a determined smile on his face.
“No one really. I guess it would have been unfair to everyone else anyways. Oh well, enough of regrets. I’m going to get to work and when we finish up here, we’ll talk. I’m sure you will come up with hundreds of questions between now and then,” he said with a genuine smile before disappearing into the cottage.

Ava let her smile slip. She was trying so hard not to freak out for her dad’s sake, but the fact was, she was completely overwhelmed. What she needed was a good hard work out. She went mindlessly into her routine she’d done for one of her meets last year before she’d decided to quit competitive gymnastics.

She finished with her trade mark upside down split and then moved to hold her entire body off the ground in a push up position, only supporting herself with her hands. She finally lowered herself and sighed as she felt the last of the tension ease out of her body.

“I would actually pay money to see you do that every day.”

Ava sighed in exasperation and turned to see Cyrus walk toward her. “You know you’re kind of turning into a stalker. You’re always watching me and sneaking up on me out of the blue,” she said grumpily, standing up and grabbing her water bottle.

Cyrus grinned and reached up to stretch his own muscles. “Don’t think of me as a stalker. Think of me as your personal guard dog.
Literally
,” he said with a grin.

Ava couldn’t help smiling. “Ha
ha, I get it.
Now
. But what are you doing here? My dad’s here, so I don’t need a guard dog,” she said, motioning towards the cottage.

Cyrus glanced at the cottage and frowned. “If I was someone meaning to grab you and do you harm, I could have you away from here before your father even knew what had happened. I can be as quiet as I want to. Others like me can too. Until the person who did this is caught, I’ll be coming with you, so get used to it,” he said, deadly serious.

Ava frowned and looked away from Cyrus. “Are you here on your father’s orders or my grandfathers?” she asked.

Cyrus shook his head and walked over to the lake, pulling his t-shirt over his head as he went. “No and no. I’m here because you need watching over. I’ve put myself in charge of your safety. This might look like a beautiful vacation spot, but just a few feet from where you were throwing your body around, was a horrible, violent murder. That’s not something I can forget,” he said looking back at her over his shoulder.

Ava shivered and looked back at the cottage. He was right. She’d been ignoring the facts but the truth was, she was hanging out at a murder scene. Maybe hanging around town was the better option after all.

But all thoughts of murder vanished from her mind as she stared at Cyrus. She’d been around male gymnasts so she wasn’t a stranger to seeing fit muscular men, but Cyrus made them all pale in comparison. His muscled back, wide shoulders and narrow hips made her feel breathless for some reason. She’d never had this strong of a reaction to anybody
else ever before. She looked at her feet and closed her eyes. Why all of a sudden did she have to be so uncontrollably attracted to a werewolf of all people? She forced herself to turn around as he reached for his zipper.

“You can look now,” he called out to her as she heard a splash.

Ava looked out at the lake and saw Cyrus swimming out to the middle. She wanted to join him in the water, but wasn’t sure she was exactly safe with him. His hinting around at wanting to be mated to her made her feel nervous and vulnerable.
That combined with her fierce attraction to him and she was just asking for trouble.

“Come on in Ava. The water feels amazing,” he called out to her, tempting her horribly.

“I don’t swim with nude werewolves, sorry,” she called back petulantly, crossing her arms over her chest and turning away.

Cyrus laughed as he tread water. “I’m not nude Ava. I promise. Grab your suit. You can change behind the cottage. Hurry!” he yelled, diving under the water.

Ava frowned and huffed out a breath. She could outswim everyone she knew. If he tried to step over the line, she’d just leave him. That or dunk him, she thought darkly. She sighed, knowing she was giving in
and hoping she could handle the consequences.

She grabbed her
tankini out of her back pack and changed behind the cottage quickly, grateful for the dense trees surrounding her. She ran back to the beach and into the water, jumping into a streamlined dive that barely made a splash as she cut through the water, reaching the middle within minutes. She stopped at a safe distance from Cyrus and pushed the wet hair out of her face.

“You’re a pretty amazing swimmer,” he said admiringly.

Ava smiled and tread water as she looked back at the beach. “There aren’t many sports that I’m not good at. I’ve done them all,” she said, floating backwards every time he moved toward her.

“You’re like a well-oiled machine,” Cyrus said, smiling as he moved steadily toward her.

She frowned and splashed him in the face, making him blink in surprise. “Stay back Cyrus. I have an invisible boundary surrounding me. It’s called personal space and you have no clue what that means,” she said wishing she didn’t sound so prissy.

Cyrus laughed and wiped his hands over his face. “Personal space huh? Well you’re in werewolf territory now and we’re a little like pack animals. We like to smell and touch and get as close as possible,”
he said purposefully coming closer again.

Ava glared at him and then stopped. “Wait,
were you
smelling
me all those times you’ve been too close?”

Cyrus laughed and nodded. “I could track you anywhere now. You smell like honey. Delectable, tasty honey,” he said quietly, not smiling anymore.
“You’re a werewolf too Ava. You have the same sense of smell I do. Do you smell anything when you’re close to me?” he asked watching her closely.

Ava remembered that spicy warm scent she had smelled in her room yesterday right before he’d turned her into a puddle of longing.
Yep, her sense of smell worked just fine. He smiled when he saw she refused to answer him and swam closer.

Ava swallowed, feeling like she was being stalked.
Time to retreat
. Without warning, she dove under the water and resurfaced as far away from Cyrus as she could get with one breath. When she popped up, she laughed at his confused expression. She turned and swam with long sure strokes to the opposite side of the lake. A few moments later Cyrus joined her as she tilted her head, trying to figure out what she was looking at.

“Cyrus,
what is that?”
she asked softly, pointing to a large bloody smear across a boulder on the shore.

Cyrus stared at the red smear silently and then touched her shoulder. “It’s what it looks like Ava. Come on. Let’s head back to the other side,” he
said, his voice empty of all flirting and fun.

Ava swam back as swiftly as she could, beating Cyrus by a good two lengths. She walked to shore and whisked the excess water off her body as she moved onto the beach. She refused to look around until she heard the sound of Cyrus’s zipper.

“Let’s dry off before I talk to your dad,” Cyrus suggested pointing to a large flat rock they could both sit on and dry out.