I'm Not Afraid of Wolves (The Cotton Candy Quintet Book 4) (6 page)

“Where am I?” Officer Donnelly repeated, his voice stronger now.

I stepped over towards him and looked down at him, hoping that I could intimidate the big man as best as I could. He was glaring up at me, and having a big, attractive man do that to you—angrily—is one of the most disconcerting things I’ve ever felt.

“You should know,” I told him coolly.

“No, I do not,” he replied icily.

I put my hands on my hips. “Try.”

Behind me, Emily and Andrea had stopped talking to each other and had fallen silent, watching our conversation. Sara stood behind me, as if I shielded her from him.

I was the only form of protection they had.

Officer Donnelly blinked, then looked down at himself, at his restraints and sighed. “You realize that this is a Federal offense, right? And did you hit me with a rock?”

“We’re not playing by the rules right now,” I said. “Especially since your kind doesn’t.”

“And what is my kind?”

“Werewolves,” Sara whispered behind me.

He waited a beat and then burst out laughing. “Werewolves?” he asked. “Seriously?”

I clenched my jaw, refusing to yield. Doubt, however, creeped into the back of my mind, whispering thoughts that I was very, very wrong and made a terrible mistake.

No,
I told myself firmly.
He
has
to be one of them. Why else would he be out in the woods at this time of night?

After everything in life, I no longer believed in coincidences.

“You were outside our cabin,” I told him. “After midnight.”

“I was doing my rounds,” he said.

“Uh-huh,” I said. “And do your rounds involve getting out of your truck and trespassing on private property?”

I didn’t exactly know the law, but he’d have to have a warrant or something, right?

He only glared up at me in answer. “So what do you think I was doing?”

Sara cast a look of worry my way, but I kept my eyes on him. “I think you know what you were doing.”

He shook his head with a short laugh. “No, I don’t!”

“Christine,” Emily said from the couch. I tried not feeding into her worry. Although I knew, that out of the four women here, I was the only one standing alone in this conviction.

“He was outside, on the property, after I chased off the werewolves!” I said, pointing at the park ranger. “You don’t think that’s weird?”

“No,” Officer Donnelly said, “what’s weird is seeing a naked woman running through the woods after midnight, and then she knocks you out and ties you up.”

“Maybe we should just let him go,” Emily said uncertainly.

“He’s a werewolf,” I insisted.

“I’ll have you know that drugs are a Federal offense too,” he threatened. Was he insinuating that we were on drugs? I almost laughed. “In fact, you’re breaking so many laws down here…”

“I had nothing to do with this!” Andrea shouted behind me.

Emily sobbed, confused with the entire situation.

“We were attacked, Officer,” Sara pleaded, stepping between us. “Pardon my sister, we’ve had such a bad night…”

“Sara, get back,” I hissed through gritted teeth.

I spoke too late. The tape that I had thought had secured and restrained his limbs shredded as he lunged out at her from a seated position, transforming into a werewolf as he did so.

Two thoughts entered my mind. First, that my instincts were correct, he was a werewolf and he was dangerous.

Second, that I had to protect my sister.

I roughly shoved Sara behind me, transforming into my werecat form as I did so. So much for saving this dress—it tattered and shredded as my body changed and morphed. I threw myself between them, making my body as big as possible, looking as threatening as possible. The beast that was Officer Donnelly paused, taking in the sight and the fact that I was a mountain lion.

Screams filled the claustrophobic space of the basement, Sara, Emily, and Andrea. My sensitive ears picked up on it, and if I’d been human, I would have winced. As it was, I had to push their screams away from my mind.

Even in his wolf form, Donnelly looked confused at my sudden transformation. Like he hadn’t been expecting it.

I wasn’t falling for it. I bared my teeth and paced between them, daring him to try something,
anything
.

Instead, he stayed where he was. As if he was dumbfounded by this turn of events.

But he should have seen this coming. After all, he’d been one of the wolves from earlier. He
saw
me in the woods. He was here at a weird time, for Pete’s sake.
He was a werewolf
.

Do it,
I told him silently.
Fight me. I dare you.

A pity that I was going to have to mess up his rugged, handsome face.

“Christine,” Sara said, diverting my attention for just moment.

I turned so that I could keep one eye on him and one eye on my sister. She was backing up to the couch, white as a sheet. Emily and Andrea both looked like they were going to be sick at all this.

Donnelly stepped forward, and I snapped all of my attention back to him. No way he was going to get past me.

“Ugh, fine,” I heard Andrea say dimly behind me. “Forget Chad’s orders. Do I have to do everything myself?” What the hell did that mean?

I didn’t have time to wonder. He launched himself forward and I only had time to tense up, ready for the attack.

“CHRISTINE!” Sara screamed again. Was it in warning?

The sensation of Donnelly’s teeth on my jugular never came. Instead, he brushed right past me, and I snapped at him as he passed. I wasn’t his target. I had never been his target. He bounded towards the couch, towards Sara.

And I was too late to stop him.

Yet, there were no longer just humans on the couch. As I followed Donnelly’s trajectory, I saw the transformation of one of them.
Andrea.
Andrea was transforming into a werewolf herself, her teeth bared to…

To get Sara.

I screeched in anger, rushing forward to intercept Andrea’s attack. Donnelly got there first, barreling into Andrea, and both beasts hit the wall with a deafening thud. DVDs and trinkets fell off the shelves as they roared at each other.

What I saw was something like two dogs fighting. Despite Donnelly’s size as a human, Andrea made a formidable opponent against him. Their teeth snapped at each other, their claws raking deep wounds into shoulders and chests. Yelping, barking, growling filled the air in quick succession.

It was a fight to the death.

All Sara and Emily could do was watch in horror. Hell, all
I
could do was watch in horror. What do you do when a supposed friend was actually a monster, and she was fighting the monster that you knew was a park ranger too? Was Emily one too? Or would Sara turn into one?

What the hell was this?

I was getting so confused at this turn of events.

I jumped to the other side of the couch, keeping myself between the fighting monsters. Sara watched them, her jaw on the floor, while Emily sobbed in terror.

What should I do? What
could
I do?

The two beasts broke apart, panting from exertion and their injuries. I was hurt badly earlier, but these two were bleeding and spitting out blood. Donnelly was missing part of his ear while Andrea had deep scratches.

I heard a noise that I didn’t recognize at first, and then I realized with horror that it was laughing through a strangled throat. Andrea was laughing.

She looked my way and gave a smirk. There was something sinister in that smirk. Like a promise to return. Or worse.

Then she pushed her way past me at a speed I hadn’t expected. She tore across the room, and when she got to the door, she didn’t stop. She hit it full on with her shoulders, blowing the door off its hinges.

She went up the stairs, out of sight, leaving a werecat, a werewolf, and two other people whom I assumed were still human. Although nothing would have surprised me tonight.

But it seemed the danger was gone. At least for now.

Donnelly and I looked at each other and he nodded slightly.

I nodded in return.
Truce.

I quietly called back my inner beast and transformed back into a human. Donnelly did the same, cradling his torn, bloodied ear. We were going to have to figure out what just happened.

Emily broke the sudden quiet with a scream: “IS EVERYONE HERE A WEREWOLF?”

There were no clothes in the cabin big enough to really fit Donnelly after he transformed back into a human. Thankfully, he had pants that still somewhat functioned, much like the Hulk’s pants. I was able to find one of my nightshirts that covered up much of his chest, although it was tight across his biceps.

There was something rather funny about seeing a grown man wearing a pink shirt that said, “Lewisburg High School 2003 Girl’s Softball Team.”

“Thanks,” he said, rolling the shirt down over his abs.

“Don’t mention it,” I said, feeling my cheeks flush with embarrassment.

On the other hand, my dress wasn’t as lucky as his pants. The poor thing was done for and when I had transformed back, I was once again naked. I went upstairs by myself and dragged my rolling bag back downstairs to change.

All semblance of modesty was gone for me tonight. If I lived through this
,
I was never going to live it down.

One thing was certain though: with the door torn off the hinges, the basement was wide open and we’d have to keep moving.

“So let me get this straight,” Emily said as I tied my sneakers. Her voice pitched an octave higher than normal as she spoke. “There’s a group of werewolves that’s after Sara. Andrea is one of them and probably ratted us out to them. Hell, even offered her cabin as bait. Ranger Rick here is a werewolf, but he’s not a part of that group of werewolves. Christine is a mountain lion. And I’m just here because I wanted to go on vacation?”

“That’s why I’m here too,” I reminded her.

She shook her head. “How am I supposed to believe that?”

“Because it’s the truth.” I finished double-knotting my shoelaces and got to my feet. Hopefully I wasn’t going to have to transform any more tonight. These were my favorite pair of running sneakers and it would be devastating if I had to ruin them too.

“I should have stayed home,” Emily muttered, putting her face in her hands.

I didn’t want to point out to her that this was all kind of Sara’s fault. If she had told me about her predicament before we left Atlanta, we would have been able to figure this whole thing out. As it was, well, this wasn’t going to be the restful vacation that I hoped for.

“If you weren’t a part of the werewolf pack from earlier,” I said, look at Donnelly, “what were you doing out in the woods?”

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I heard them howling to each other.” He gave me a hard look. “You don’t hear werewolves like that unless they’re moving to attack someone. So I came to investigate.”

“As a park ranger or as a werewolf?” I asked.

“Does it matter?” he asked.

“I need to know if I have to stay on the right side of the law tonight,” I told him. “I need to know if you’re here as Officer Donnelly or as a werewolf.”

He chuckled. “Touché. I’m here as a friend. I knew you all were out here, and I was worried about you.”

That made my stomach twist in a funny way, and I swallowed, hard.

“Okay,” I said.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “And then you knocked me out.”

“The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”

He sneered. “With a rock.”

“Sorry about that.” Apparently, I wasn’t very good with an action-movie kind of bravado.

But he smiled and said, “I probably would have done the same thing in your position.”

Our eyes connected. When was the last time I’d seen eyes so blue? And again, there were butterflies flitting about in my stomach, distracting my thoughts. I needed to stop this and get my head back in the game.

“So what’s the plan?” Emily asked. “We just hop in the Jeep and drive to get help?”

I shook my head. “No. They made sure that we weren’t leaving that way.”

Sara froze. “What do you mean?”

“They slashed the tires and ruined the engine. That Jeep isn’t going anywhere.” When Sara’s face fell, I quickly added, “But Officer Donnelly here has a truck that we can take. How far away did you park?”

“About a mile southeast of here.”

“You think they could have gotten to it?”

He shook his head. “I parked where they couldn’t find it. And it’s so far away, the engine wouldn’t alert them to my presence.”

I frowned. “The flashlight would have alerted them.” Then again, he didn’t turn it on until I was nearly on top of him.

“I’m not lying.” He groaned. “I figured if it all went to hell, I could pretend that I was here on official park business. Besides, I got to see things in the dark I wouldn’t have otherwise.” He smirked at that last part.

I just about died from embarrassment.

“We can also radio for help from the truck,” he added, as if sensing that his comment nearly had me retreating into my shell.

I sucked in a deep breath. “Good, I like this plan.”

“And call me Colton.”

I wasn’t sure if I could start calling him “Colton” without getting too close. You start calling a hot man by his first name, and then what’s next? Ziplining through the Chattahoochee National Forest?

If I got back to Jacksonville yesterday, that wouldn’t be soon enough to get out of this mess.

“There’s just one problem with that part,” Sara said. “Who are we going to call for help? Animal control? We have
werewolves
that are hunting us. You don’t just call the police on them.”

I had to refrain from telling her that the werewolves were only hunting her. I figured that wouldn’t go over very well.

“There’s a local pack,” he said. He got to his feet. “I’m a member. They’ll take us in.”

“And save us?” Emily asked, her voice trembling. “Because all I wanted was a vacation. I’d really like to be saved, please.”

“Me too,” I told her gently. “Just think how relaxed you’ll be when you get home.”

She shook her head. “I never thought Atlanta would seem safer than this.”

“Join the club. Okay.” I looked at Emily’s pumps. “You aren’t going to run in those, are you?”

Both Sara and Emily looked at me blankly. Only Officer Donnelly—
Colton
—knew what I had in mind and he nodded in understanding.

“What?” Emily asked.

“We’re going to make a run for the car. You can’t do that in high heels, hun.”

She blanched. “All of us? But you two are the monsters—werewolves—
magic people
,” she finally managed. “Why don’t you go out to grab the truck and bring it back here?”

“That’s what I thought you were proposing, too,” Sara added.

“There’s at least six wolves out there,” Colton said. “Seven, if you count your friend. I could smell them on my way to the cabin. If Christine and I go get the truck, we can come back quickly, but that’s leaving you two in danger. And if one of us goes, that’s still splitting us up and they’ll pick us off one by one. So the best thing to do is to go together.”

“We can protect each other better then,” I said. “Unless you have a better idea.”

Emily was silent for a moment. “I don’t have anything else to wear.”

I pulled out my hiking boots from my bag. “I may pack light,” I said pointedly to Sara, “but I do pack the essentials. Wear these.”

***

Colton took point while I carried the rear. I’ve never been in a true combat situation, except for my jiu jitsu classes that I took for self-defense, but we just naturally fell into formation like that. Sara and Emily were in the middle, the safest place for humans.

I hoped I didn’t look as terrified as them. Emily’s eyes looked like they were about to bulge out and Sara kept jerking her head around at any slight movement.

Trust me, if it was dangerous, I’d know even before we heard the noise.

When we got to the main level of the cabin, I inwardly groaned as it was raining outside. Lucky bastards. I won’t be able to smell them as easily.

Colton’s eyes met mine and he gave the barest nod. He was thinking the exact same thing. Sure, the rain masked them, but it also gave us an advantage too. We just had to make sure that we could follow through with it.

“Calm down, Sara,” I muttered to my sister. “I can hear your heartbeat racing at a million miles a minute.”

Emily looked at me, shocked. “You aren’t going to drink her blood, are you?”

I inwardly groaned. “I’m a werecat, not a vampire.” At her blank look, I added, “I don’t drink blood. It’s just bad because I can hear her from across the room. I think once we get outside, the rain will cover it up, but we all need to calm down.”

Sara gulped and nodded. “Sorry,” she whispered. “I’m just so scared.”

“I am too,” I said gently. “But we’ll get out of this. Okay, now we need to be quiet.”

We reached the front door. I kept an ear open as I looked out behind us. Colton propped the door open a slight bit, stuck his head out, and then signaled for us to follow.

Outside, the rain was even worse, coming down in buckets. Immediately, I was soaked to the bone, making me wish that I had transformed. Mountain lion fur is amazingly waterproofed compared to cotton and human skin.

In the distance, I heard thunder rumble. The rain on the already-wet ground and on the leaves covered up a lot of noises, and all I could smell was the dampness in the air.

The only way they could find us was by sight, and it was hard through the rain and trees. I hoped.

Please, please, please let us get there in one piece.

We moved as a pack to a copse of trees about a hundred feet from the cabin. The significance of the word “pack” wasn’t lost on me. Werecats had a social order, but nothing like werewolves. They lived and died by the pack, and to lose a potential member like Sara would have been a huge blow to their morale.

Ugh, shifter politics.

I could only hope that Sara wouldn’t have to experience it like I did. Emily too, for that matter. I didn’t know what the wolves would do if they got their claws on her, but I didn’t like the thought of it. Many people join the were community against their will. Including me. And many of them don’t last.

They weren’t as lucky as me.

With the rain, thunder, and darkness, we were practically running blind. Even with my cat-like eyes, I had trouble having a good grasp on what was happening around us. A mile seemed like a long way in these conditions, even to myself.

Thank god we had the good officer with us.

We followed Colton as he directed us further into the woods.  I may have been a mountain lion shifter, but I was a city girl at heart, so running around in the woods at night was out of my comfort zone. I was grateful for the fact that he was here.

Not just because he’s good-looking.

Certainly not that at all.

If I wasn’t much for the outdoors, Emily was in her exact opposite environment. She slipped and fell in the mud several times trying to keep up with us. I saw her tear-stained face every time lightning struck. Sara wasn’t much better. But she at least had the air of someone who knew where to place her feet; Emily was woefully lost.

We paused underneath a rock outcropping to catch our collective breath. Or rather, Emily’s and Sara’s breaths.

“How much further?” Sara asked.

“Not too much farther,” Colton told her. “Maybe another quarter mile or so.”

“I want a bubble bath when all this is done,” Emily sighed, putting a hand to her face. “I
deserve
a bubble bath.”

And she started to cry. Sara comforted her, but I could tell that Emily was angry with her because she shrugged off the offered hug. Granted, I didn’t blame her for being prickly to Sara.

“Do you think they’re following us?” I muttered to Colton, so low that they couldn’t hear.

“I’ve been trying to keep an ear out,” he said softly, “and I haven’t heard anything.”

“Neither have I,” I whispered back.

But we both knew that didn’t mean anything.

“You never did tell me why we could trust you,” I said, a note of playfulness in my voice.
Oh my god, am I flirting?
The thought struck me like a ton of bricks. No, I was just trying to make this terrible situation better for all of us. I was scared out of my mind, and there were lives on the line. That was what they called comic relief, right?

Colton smiled—and I began to think of all his smiles as being wolfish.

“Because I’m the best hope you’ve got,” was his answer. Not the greatest response, but I thought he was flirting back, judging by the way he was smiling.

“I can handle myself too, you know,” I said.

“Yeah,” he said honestly. “You can. How did you get caught up in this anyway, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Sara’s my sister.” That usually explained a lot of things.

But Colton shook his head. “No, I mean caught up as a were. When did that happen?”

I snorted through my nose. “It was bad decision that I made a long time ago for the guy I loved.”