Werewolf Rage Book #2 in the Taming The Wolf Series (17 page)

She was a very different girl than the one who had left Seattle a few months ago.
She was now a woman and a werewolf. Seattle could handle it. She yawned tiredly and stretched. First thing tomorrow. Work out, get her schedule for school and find her own place close to campus. Then she’d go gun shopping. She wandered back inside and locked the door. She felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket and pulled it out. It was her father’s number. She frowned and slipped it back in her pocket. She’d be shopping for a new phone too. She didn’t want updates on Paskell. She didn’t want to know how happy her father was with Perry. She wanted a restraining order on her old life. Maybe in a year or so, she’d call her dad. Maybe. But for now, it was time to move on. Cyrus had insisted on it. It would be the last time she did her best to make him happy.

She walked in her room and wandered to the bed, pulling the black t-shirt she’d been wearing for two days over her head and throwing it in the corner.
She crawled into bed as soon as her jeans and shoes were off and closed her eyes. She wanted to go to sleep as fast as possible, because when she woke up, she’d be the new Ava with a new life and no one would ever have the chance to hurt her again. She smiled and fell asleep immediately, ignoring the phone vibrating on the dresser.

Four Months Later

Ava waved at one of her new friend’s from her physics class and threw her books on the passenger seat of the jeep before walking around and hopping in.
She glanced at her phone and decided she had time for a work out. She drove to her gym and grabbed the bag with her work out clothes in the back seat and headed toward the familiar glass doors.

She changed into her spandex yoga pants and tank top and walked into the yoga room.
She’d do an hour of advanced yoga before hitting the weights. She’d save her cardio for tomorrow since it was Saturday. She’d treat herself and go running on the beach.  She waited patiently for the class to start and smiled automatically at the women and a few men who were regulars like her. Their yoga teacher, Tiffany, a tall graceful blond, moved them through her favorite poses, Chakrasana , the wheel pose, Kakasana the crow, Sirshasan the headstand, Poorna Salabasan, the full locust and Kapothasan the pigeon.

As she stood up at the end of the class and rolled up her yoga mat, her senses tingled and she slowly turned her head.
Someone was looking at her. She stared hard at the men and women on the elipticals in the room beyond the glass walls, but everyone looked like they were watching the TV monitors, listening to their music or just concentrating on breathing.

She narrowed her eyes and stowed the mat before waving to her teacher and walking out of the room and toward the weights.
She nodded at her personal trainer who was helping a new client. She hadn’t made an appointment with Brett but she knew the basics and went through her repetitions, barely breaking a sweat.

Her mind wandered as she worked her body as it always did.
With gymnastics, her mind had never wandered. She’d always been thrilled and excited to do flips and splits and complicated routines.
But no more
. She’d shut the door on that part of herself too. She lowered a twenty pound weight and looked over her shoulder again as she sensed someone’s intense gaze. She licked her lips and glanced at the clock. She could ditch out on the last part of her work out and run over to the coffee shop across the street and watch for whoever was following her.

She’d had a bad experience at school a few weeks ago, when a guy from her English class had started following her everywhere.
One night when she’d turned around to find him waiting for her at her car, she’d punched him in the stomach so hard, he’d thrown up on his shoes. As he lay on his side moaning, he’d gasped out that he’d only wanted to ask her out to dinner.

She’d been mortified and surprised.
She’d been putting “stay away from me or else” signs all over the place and most men were smart enough to pick up the cues. The ones who weren’t ended up throwing up. She shook her head at the memory and then shrugged. She’d work her abs before she dealt with her watcher. She grabbed onto the metal bar hooked to the wall and flipped her legs up. She did four sets of twenty five sit ups and then dropped down, wiping her forehead with her arm.

She picked up her bag and threw it on her shoulder and walked to the front door.
A few people called out a greeting but she just waved and kept going. She wasn’t the type to stop and chat anymore. That was the old Ava. The new Ava, didn’t have too much time for people these days. She was focused on school. She wanted to be a geneticist like her dad. Even though she never changed into her wolf form anymore, she was still fascinated by her heritage. That was the one part of herself that she couldn’t completely erase.

She scanned the parking lot and then jogged quickly across the street to the coffee shop.
She pushed through the door and then grabbed a table by the window as she watched the people coming out the front door of the gym. She studied the people closely for fifteen minutes, but there was nothing suspicious about the senior citizen, or the four women. Even the group of teenage boys didn’t cause a bump in her senses. It must have been a random man who couldn’t keep his eyes to himself. It happened.

She stood up, ignored the worker who asked if she’d like to order anything and walked out into the sunlight.
She drove home with the radio on and smiled lightly. Music was the one thing that she enjoyed at the moment. Her favorite song right now was
Inside Out
by Eve 6. For some reason, she could listen to that song all day long and never get tired of it. The image of her heart being put in a blender connected with her on a cellular level.

She drove up to her c
ondo and parked her jeep in her parking spot. She grabbed her books and her bag and ran lightly up the stairs to her front door. She paused as she smelled a strong scent. It smelled like a man had been by her door recently. She closed her eyes and breathed in again. It could be a delivery man at the wrong address.

No
, something was up. First her senses warning her at the gym and now a dominant male scent. She put her books down on her front porch and pulled her bag to the front, reaching her hand down inside and grabbing the Beretta she kept there at all times. She thumbed off the safety and put her bag down on her books as she unlocked her door and pushed it open. She glanced around her small entrance way and sniffed the air again. The scent was even stronger inside her home. A ripple of rage flowed through her. This was her territory. No one else’s.  No one had the right to come into her home and make her feel vulnerable.

Ava’s lip pulled back in a snarl and she walked inside, closing the door with her foot as she held the gun out in front of her, swiveling left and right as she crept slowly through the house.
They had no right intruding on her new life. They had no right hunting her down and turning her life upside down. No one had that right anymore. If it was Braxton and his men, they’d regret it. They wouldn’t find a vulnerable girl this time. They’d find someone very ready to put a bullet in them.

Ava moved up the stairs to her second floor where her bedroom and her office were.
The scent of the man was even stronger now. She was close. She moved quietly on the carpet and stayed close to the walls as she listened for the faintest sound. And then she caught it.
Breathing.
Her head turned toward her room. He was inside her room. The place where she slept. Whoever it was better have good health insurance, she thought and stepped closer to the room.

“Whoever you are in my room, please just come out,” she said in a scared voice that was feminine and soft.

She sensed movement and kept going. “I won’t call the police. I just want you to go,” she said, adding a tremor to her voice to seal the deal.

She raised the gun to shoulder level and as the man stepped through the doorway, she put a bullet right into his shoulder, sending him flying back into her room on his back.
His yelp of pain and surprise made her smile.

She walked into the room, keeping the gun trained on the large body of the man who had dared to intrude into her home.
She kicked his leg as she passed by and stood next to him.

And then lowered the gun.

She was staring into the grinning face of Cole
Jansen.

“What are you doing here?” she said putting the safety on and staring unhappily at a very large reminder of Paskell.

“I was in town and wanted to catch up with an old friend,” he said rolling to his side and pushing up.

She sighed at the blood stain on her white carpet and glared at Cole.
He was very quickly ruining her day.

“You got a rag or something I can catch some of this blood with?” he asked, looking around.

Ava ground her teeth in irritation and walked into her bathroom and took a hand towel off the rack and threw it at him.

“You’ll have to have someone dig that bullet out.
Thanks for stopping by. I’ll see you out now,” she said pointing to the door.

Cole looked at her with a raised eyebrow as he sat on her bed, holding the wadded up towel to his shoulder.

“You’ve changed,” he said softly looking her up and down. “You’re hard now. Tougher. I like it,” he said with a grin.

Ava stared at him silently and then tapped her foot on the floor.
“What’s the real reason you’re here? If you’re checking up on me for my dad, just tell him that I’m fine. I sent him an email a few weeks ago,” she said feeling her muscles tense as thoughts of Paskell started to seep inside her closed off heart.

Cole shrugged,
“He worries. He’s your dad. But that’s not why I’m here. You’re dad has no idea I’m here. No one does.”

Ava looked at him curiously.
“How did you find me?” she asked leaning up against the door jamb.

Cole looked down at his shoulder and winced.
“It wasn’t hard. Look, this is starting to hurt, so I’ll make it fast. I received some information from a friend of mine up at Tanner’s Landing a few days ago. I thought you should know about it,” he said softly.

Ava looked at her feet.
He was going to tell her Cyrus was dead. She had known that someone would find her someday to tell her. Knowing it was coming and actually hearing it were two different things though. She swallowed the lump in her throat and motioned him to continue.

“Go on,” she said, her voice sounding hoarse in her ears.

Cole studied her silently for a moment before speaking. “Cyrus is alive,” he said quietly.

Ava’s head snapped up and she stared at Cole with a glare as the news sank in.
He was alive. Just not with her. “Cyrus and I are through. We’re done. I’m glad he’s alive but next time keep your friendly little updates to yourself,” she spit out, feeling the familiar sense of rage wash over her when she thought of Cyrus.

Cole frowned at her reaction and crossed his legs at the ankles.
“He needs help Ava. Braxton is holding him prisoner. They’re planning on executing him in a week in front of the whole town.”

Ava felt her heart pound inside her chest and her hand clenched at her side.
She closed her eyes tightly as emotions she’d held in check struggled to free themselves. “Does my Dad know? Does Tobias?” she asked.

Cole rubbed a hand over his mouth and looked away for a moment.
“Ava, Tobias died a few months ago. Along with the rest of the people who went with him to offer a truce to Braxton Mayhew. But yes, your Dad knows about Cyrus. He’s sending me and a few other guys up to try and save him. I thought you might want to come along for old time’s sake.”

Ava’s mouth had fallen open at the knowledge that Tobias was dead.
Big, strong, kind and sweet Tobias.
Dead.
And Cyrus was next. She dropped her head to her chest as she fought for control of her emotions. So many were trying to fight their way to the surface. Anger, sadness, horror and fear. Life in Paskell just kept getting worse and worse.

“How is Patricia holding up?” she asked softly, thinking of the beautiful woman with spiky red hair who had the heart of an artist and who loved her husband and son more than her own life.

Cole sighed sadly. “She went through withdrawals for a few days. Perry was with her the whole time. She refused to be sedated. She’s not all there anymore. When Tobias died, part of her did too. Some days she doesn’t even know who she is. I think if she could see Cyrus again, she’d come back to herself. But I don’t even know if that would help. We have to try Ava.”

Ava rubbed her hand over her face and walked over to the dresser, setting her gun down.
Cole wasn’t a threat to her. She turned and looked at the man who had caused Cyrus so many headaches. The man who was now planning on trying to save him. Life was too ironic sometimes.

“I’ll sit this one out.
But I wish you luck,” she offered in a stiff voice, wondering how long it would take her to lock up her heart and emotions again after Cole disappeared.

“You don’t mean that Ava.
Forget about withdrawals and all that crap. You two were true mates. That’s rare even for werewolves. You two had it as much as I hate to admit it. How can you not want to save him?” he asked, his voice loud and perplexed.

Ava walked over to the window and pushed the blinds to the side so she could stare out at the soft rain now falling on everything. “Have you ever been through withdrawals Cole?” she asked quietly, her eyes going glass
y as she remembered.

Cole made a huffing sound before answering.
“You know I haven’t.”

Ava licked her lips as she remembered.
“It’s like a forest fire. Knowing that you won’t be with your mate, that you’ll never have this person in your life again, rampages through your soul, burning everything there is alive about you. There’s nothing left but death. I don’t love Cyrus anymore,” she whispered. “I don’t love anything anymore. I can’t.”

Cole stood up as if he would go to her, but paused, staring at her straight back and the proud tilt of her head.
“
Yet
Ava. Not yet. I’ve seen a fire take a whole mountain. But the following year, there was life. What’s true for nature is true for us. You might feel like that now, but you won’t forever. You will love again. I promise,” he said softly, compassion rich in his voice. “Come with me tonight Ava. We’ll do what we can for Cyrus and then we’ll figure everything else out. If you don’t love him anymore, then all the better. But we need you. You belong with us in Paskell.”