Wolf Hunter (12 page)

“
It was my choice!”

“
Well, he killed Austin, so your plan didn’t work.”

“
I couldn’t make him stay— Austin’s dead?” Westley blinked tears. “Fuck.”

“
Yeah.”

“
What about Jaylen? Is he—?”

It took Tom a second to catch on.
Westley was using the hunter’s name. Like he was worthy of a name.
“The hunter? Denton sent Cody to pick him up.”

“
Cuh-Cody?”

Tom felt a smidgen of gratification that Westley seemed upset. Still, it didn’t stop him from adding, “I imagine your friend won’t last much longer.”

“Denton killed his family. He’s here to kill Denton.”

“
And Denton is here to kill him. So you’re going to step out of the way and let that play out, and then everything will return to normal. Understand?”

Westley shook his head. “I felt something when we were together.”

“You and the hunter?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Something like—?”

Westley looked at him. “He’s the one.”

“He
murders wolves
. He is not ‘the one’.”

“
I felt it.”

Tom finished with the mop. He put it back in the bucket. “I’m going to forget you told me that, and you’d better forget it too.”

Westley stared at him, hard, his mouth twitching. Finally, he nodded.

Tom sighed. “Take a shower. You smell like him.”

Westley got up without a word. He didn’t meet Tom’s eyes as he left the room. Tom contemplated going after him, but he heard the shower turn on and decided against it. If he’d taken Westley as his mate, this wouldn’t have happened. It wasn’t too late. Sure, Westley wouldn’t be speaking to him, but he wouldn’t be fucking around with murderers either. He forced the idea from his mind. Westley would hate him. He couldn’t do that to Westley, to anyone.

Even if it would be for their own good. And that right there was the core reason his father was still alive.

CHAPTER SIX

WESTLEY CLIMBED OUT the bathroom window and hit the ground running. He felt better for having passed out and puked. Since he had a reputation for taking long showers, he figured he had twenty minutes before Tom would get curious. He made a beeline for the La Mer Inn. As a wolf, he could run it in fifteen minutes. As a human, he wasn’t sure. He prayed he’d get there in time to stop any more deaths.

He should have done more to make Jaylen stay. He beat his way through the overgrown deer trails, thankful Tom hadn’t thought to remove his shoes when he’d put him to bed. Westley wiped tears off his cheeks.

His brain rattled off the list of the dead. Ed. Leslie. Austin.

No going back to normal now. Only forward. He shoved through the brush.

“MR. DEWALLIS. OPEN up.”

The wolves howled as he thrashed against his ropes, uncertain what was real and what was illusion. The knocking continued, breaking through Stania Parker’s soliloquy about how she’d never had her first kiss because he’d killed her when she was eight. “Sixteen,” Jaylen had shouted in his mind or screamed out loud, he wasn’t sure. “You were sixteen.” Didn’t matter, though, because in his hallucinations, she was always eight.

“Mr. DeWallis.”

And now this pounding, and the voice on the other side of the door. A police knock if Jaylen had ever heard one. Stania, in her white dress with black polka dots and red ribbon trim, stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared.

The pounding continued as the howls fell away. Jaylen stared at the ceiling. Then the door crashed in. He reached for his knife under his pillow.
R.W.
As he sat up, prepared to lunge, his mind registered that a policeman stood at the foot of the bed, gun drawn.

“
Drop it.”

If he’s inside, he isn’t a wolf.

Jaylen dropped the knife and collapsed backward.

“
I should thank you for making things easy for us,” the officer said. Jaylen felt him tug the knife at his ankle free and use it to cut his ropes. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind standing up and putting your hands behind your back...?”

“
What’s the charge?” Jaylen asked, though he knew. He wanted the cop to say it.

“
Murder,” said this cop who looked like he’d fallen out of his mother the day before. Jaylen bit down a groan and got up to offer his wrists for the cuffs. “Goddamn drifters.” He clipped the cuffs too tight, but Jaylen didn’t say a word. Another thing he’d gotten used to. Hey, at least the guy didn’t bring race into it. That was a bonus, right? Not so bad getting arrested, anyway. This was the ticket out he’d been looking for. He couldn’t leave on his own with the wolves surrounding him. But riding out with police escort? Sweet. He’d slip the cuffs and ditch the blue lights before the cop had finished prattling off the Miranda. He’d thank the guy if it wouldn’t arouse suspicion.

“
You gonna let me get dressed before you frogmarch me outta here?”

“
You look plenty dressed to me.”

Jaylen glanced down at his boxers. “Come on, man. Have a heart.” He winced when the cop tapped him on the back of the head.
Act like it hurts. They like that.
“Please, sir. It’s cold out.”

“
Fine.” He grabbed Jaylen’s jeans off the dresser, checked the pockets, tossed them at him. They fell to the ground.

“
Hands,” Jaylen reminded him.

“
Fuck. All right.” The cop bent down and helped him get them on, one leg at a time. Jaylen didn’t need his pants, only the distraction. He reached backwards and grabbed a lock pick from the bed. It had been on the towel with the weapons earlier, but had fallen out when he’d wrapped that up. It had poked his back during his detox. Now he pushed it into a slit at the base of his shirt, centered at his spine. First chance he had, once he was clear of this place, he’d make his break. He recognized the cop now; he was the same one Westley had spoken to the previous morning in front of the Curlicue. No wonder he’d slapped the cuffs on so tight.

The officer stopped short of zipping him up. “You ready now?”

“Can’t go out like this. It’s indecent.” Jaylen nodded down at his fly.

“
You’ll deal.” The officer grabbed his elbow and dragged him toward the door. Jaylen put up a token struggle.

“
What about my stuff?”

Once the cop looked in Jaylen’s bags and found the weapons, he’d think Jaylen was an idiot for pointing them out, but he’d take them along, and that was what Jaylen wanted. He couldn’t come back for them, and at this point in his depleting bank account, he couldn’t restock his arsenal. Fortunately, the La Mer’s Finest didn’t open the bags, only grabbed them, and continued pushing Jaylen toward the door.

Jaylen did his best not to grin.
God bless small towns.
He was practicing his somber face right up until he crossed the threshold. The blond wolf from the morning stepped in front of him.

“
Gotcha, asshole.”

Before Jaylen could get off a smart remark, the wolf punched Jaylen’s lights clean out.

IN RETROSPECT, ESCORT-by-cop hadn’t been a great plan. Sure, it had worked before, but that was no guarantee. As he stood chained to a wall in a cell, he decided with little prejudice that on this occasion it definitely had not worked.

Should have looked outside.

He’d woken up like this. His duffle bags were in the room too, stacked in a corner well out of his reach. He tried to determine if anyone had gone through them, but the bags gave nothing away.

Shit.

He glanced at the door as it opened. Denton walked in. He hadn’t changed much since the last time Jaylen had seen him. A little more gray in his beard, maybe. “Jaylen,” Denton said. As ever, his voice was low and warm. Perfect for a psychopath. “Good to see you here.”

“I guess that blond wolf was upset I killed his friend.”

“
Well, yes.” Denton shrugged, a ‘what can you do?’ gesture, as if he thought it was beneath anyone’s dignity to be bothered by another’s death. On this point, he and Jaylen were of a like mind.

“
Why don’t you unchain me, and I’ll make it all better by arranging for him to join his pal?”

Denton tutted. He flicked his wrist, and Jaylen noticed he’d come in carrying a long, thin cane. “We found a variety of interesting items in your bag. Why don’t you tell me what those powders are for?”

“Why don’t you suck my dick?”
Bravado gets you nowhere
, but he couldn’t help himself. Denton had threatened him with that cane before. Now that he was getting his chance to use it, things wouldn’t turn out good.

“
Don’t tempt me. You wouldn’t like it if I did that.” Denton grinned. His teeth were all fang. “You’re not very good at labeling bottles, so we’ll have to make you talk, won’t we?”

“
Fuck off.”

Denton lashed out with the cane. It struck Jaylen across the chest. He felt the welt through his T-shirt. “Good. Deny me. I’d hoped you would.” He choked on a breath as Denton hit him again. “Oh, don’t cry yet. I won’t stop until you’ve told me everything, and I’m hoping that will be a long, long time.”

Jaylen spat, just missing Denton’s eye. “It’s my beauty regimen. It’s how I keep my face so pretty.”

Denton laughed as if Jaylen had delivered the greatest joke ever told. “Very good. Now.” He tilted the cane backwards and looked merrily at Jaylen. Jaylen clenched his teeth. “Let’s begin for real, shall we?”

THE FOUR O’CLOCK sun hung low, almost touching the trees as Westley ran. He squinted as the rays pierced the spaces between the leaves and streamed into his eyes. His ears attuned to the sounds of howls. Westley’s skin tingled, wanting to join the shift. It was still a few days until the full moon. This was the Alpha’s influence. He fought it, ran harder. By his estimation, he’d had his last cup of tea three hours before. Between that, and the vomiting, his system was probably almost clear. He hoped he’d absorbed enough of his special concoction—cabbage and garlic, Jaylen had said; the reality was so much more intricate—to offset his body’s natural inclinations. However, the growl that rose up from his chest told him he shouldn’t hold out much hope he wouldn’t end the night on four legs and out of his mind.

The La Mer Inn wasn’t much further. Another hill to climb, a creek to jump, and he’d come up on the back side. He trampled over uncut grass and splashed through the cold water, almost tripping as his rubber soles slid on the mud and pebbles in the creek bed. Howls followed him, and then he heard crashing in the brush. Glancing behind, he saw a flash of red fur charging toward him. What was Thomas doing tracking him? Surely he had other things to do? Had Tom sounded the alarm that Westley had done a runner? He shouted as the wolf leapt.

“
Alpha! Stop!”

Tom’s father landed on Westley’s chest. Westley fell on his back in the mud of the creek bank. He spread his arms and went still as his pack alpha stood over him. Thomas sniffed him. He pulled back, then sniffed again. Westley said a silent prayer of thanks that he’d been with Tom. Having Tom’s scent on him might stay Thomas’s teeth.

Thomas moved off him, but he planted a paw on the loose part of  Westley’s T-shirt, securing it to the ground as surely as if he’d had a stake and mallet. Westley didn’t dare move. He tried to crane his neck to look at the motel, which lay a hundred yards away. Its rear view, unseen by passing traffic, hosted a row of air conditioning units and walls peeling yellow paint. A white laundry truck was parked at one end. None of these things told him about Jaylen. He found what he thought was Jaylen’s window. The brown curtains were drawn. Thomas continued to stare at him, lips pulled back from his teeth and moist gums showing.

“
I don’t think Tom would want you to eat me,” Westley said. “Omegas taste terrible. No nutritional value.”

Thomas howled. As he did, his paw eased up on Westley’s shirt.

Westley rolled free and ran. He went full-tilt toward La Mer Inn. If he had any luck at all, he could dive into the laundry truck and bar the doors. Thomas had just signaled every wolf in vicinity. Now wasn’t the time for second guessing. Thomas was already on his heels, and this time he wouldn’t be so kind. It was difficult enough for a werewolf in human form to understand Westley’s life choices. A werewolf in wolf form would only recognize an aberrant who needed to be put down. Westley ran for the truck. He didn’t have a prayer of making it. Thomas’s wolf brain knew it. He slowed and ran wide. Westley glanced back where he’d come from. He could chance the forest again, but he was too big to spend the night in a tree. The truck remained his only hope, only now Thomas had positioned himself between it and Westley. Something cracked beneath Westley’s foot. Reaching down, he picked up a branch. They’d had a storm a few weeks before; this must have come from the wind damage. Hefting it in both hands, he took a swing. Before he’d rounded it out, Thomas snapped it out of his hands. Westley stumbled backwards and fell on his ass. Thomas flung the branch out of his jaws and turned his attention to Westley.