Wolf Moon (22 page)

T
ake
it back
.

I
wasn’t even sure what to make of Jackson’s suggestion. How was I supposed to
take back what Karl took from me? It wasn’t like he took a physical possession;
he took something I once thought untouchable and tainted it, and I wasn’t sure
how I could ever get that piece of me back.

Before
I could ask what he meant, I heard Nick call my name. I turned in the direction
of his voice, and when I glanced back, Jackson was gone.

“Hey,”
Nick said, approaching me. He must have picked up on my distress, because his
expression quickly morphed to one of worry. “You all right?”

Shaking
my head, I fidgeted with the end of my braid. “Yeah. Just embarrassed.”

Nick
gently gripped my upper arms, moving his hands up and down them. “You have
nothing to be embarrassed about,” he assured me. “Did you want to go back in
there, or would you prefer to maybe go for a walk?”

While
the solitude of a walk sounded heavenly, I knew I couldn’t hide from the Pack
forever. I needed to be able to be around other people and resume my life. It
was the only way to move on.

“I’m
starving,” I told Nick, and it was true; my stomach growled as if to confirm
this statement. “Let’s go have breakfast with everyone else.”

Hand
in hand, Nick and I headed back toward the kitchen entrance and joined the
Pack. The minute we were inside, Marcus gave the order for the women to dish up
first, and then the men. Everyone took a seat at either the huge kitchen table
or the island while they ate.

Missing
from the island was Karl’s plate, and I could only assume it had been delivered
without a problem. Thinking about Karl reminded me of what Jackson said about
how the bastard’s fate was in my hands. It seemed like a tremendous amount of
pressure, and I wasn’t sure I felt comfortable doling out his punishment.

Over
breakfast, we didn’t talk about the other night; instead Marcus spoke of their
tracking efforts.

“
Gianna
taught her disciples well before she met her end,”
he said. “As far as I can determine, they’re acting out their revenge for their
maker. None of them are very old, meaning they’re likely not skilled, so once
we’re able to track them, it should be simple enough to annihilate the entire
nest.”

“If
we can even find it,” Nick muttered. “We’ve been searching for this place for
years.”

Confused,
I turned to Nick. “I thought you said you burned it down? In Alaska?”

“That
was only one of their temporary lairs,” Vince offered up from across the room.
“Like the place you and Nick cased back in Scottsdale.
Gianna
was always moving from city to city in an effort to elude us while rebuilding
her ranks.”

“Like
you guys do—minus the rebuilding…” I paused, blushing as I remembered how
I was bitten and inducted into this exclusive club. “Most of the time.”

“Exactly,”
Corbin added.

“How
is it you don’t know where this place is if they were able to track you here?
It’s not like they leave no trace of themselves,” I said, cringing as I
recalled how foul they all smelled.

“We’ve
been able to track them to a certain point, but then their trail just ends. It
hangs in the air as if they just vaporized.” I could hear the frustration in
Jackson’s voice as he added to the conversation.

I
thought about this for a moment, wondering how that could be possible. Even if
they could fly, surely there’d still be a faint trail hanging in the air,
right? How were they able to just disappear like that?

I
hated when I couldn’t piece something like this together. It was the detective
in me that craved answers, and I felt like this might just be the project I
needed to keep my mind otherwise occupied. “Can you take me to where it ends?”
I inquired. “Maybe I can help.”

The
room went silent as if they were contemplating my request, but when Nick turned
to me, I knew the answer without him having to say anything.

“I
don’t think that’s the best idea right now,” he said gently. “After everything
that’s happened these last couple of days, maybe we should lay low. There’s
already been a threat against you, and I don’t think that wandering into their
territory is the greatest decision until we know what they plan to do.”

I
was about to argue with him, but then remembered how the smell of them caused
that visceral reaction inside of me that forced my transformation, and I knew I
wasn’t ready for that now…probably ever if I could help it.

As
if sensing why I wanted to go in the first place, Nick took my hand in his.
“I’m not saying that it’s not a great idea. A fresh pair of eyes is always
welcome, and you’ve got that killer instinct for detective work that I think
would be more than useful. I just think
you
need time before we pull
you back into the fray. You’re already having reservations regarding a few
things. Let’s address those first.”

Understanding his point,
and not wanting to air my dirty laundry to the entire room, I nodded. “Of
course. You’re right.” While I still thought that this could be a welcome distraction
from my current situation, I also realized it might trigger my next shift, and
I wasn’t ready for that. I still wanted to avoid being in a position where I
couldn’t properly defend myself.

Once everyone had
finished eating, Marcus handed out instructions for the morning run, and I
helped tidy the kitchen. Marcus had requested Nick’s help, but it wasn’t
mandatory. While I didn’t think I was meant to hear it, Marcus wanted to make
sure I was okay more than he needed his right-hand man.

“You should go,” I told
Nick as I wiped down the counters.

“Not if my leaving is
going to set you up for an anxiety attack,” he whispered, still drawing the
attention of Miranda.

“The four of us are going
to head into the city today for a bit of Christmas shopping,”
Layla
announced, acting as though our conversation was more
public than either of us had intended. “Why don’t you tag along, Brooke?”

I seriously contemplated
this for a minute—even though by “the four of them,” this implied that
Roxanne was going, too. True, I’d enjoyed spending time with them a few days
ago, but I feared being around that many people might be difficult. A busy mall
where people were bound to run into me was just asking for trouble.

“Thanks for the offer,” I
said, being sure to smile appreciatively. “But I think I’ll just stay close to
home and wait for Nick to return.”

“I don’t
have
to go,” Nick interjected.

I stopped him with a
look. “Yes. You do. They need you, and I’ll be fine. I’ll head to the library
and do some light reading or take a nap or something. I’ll be okay for a few
hours.”

It took a little more
convincing on my part, but eventually Nick agreed, telling me he’d try to
hurry.

“Don’t rush. This is
important, so take all the time you need to be thorough,” I told him as we walked
upstairs to our room. “Just be careful. Stay diligent and come back in one
piece.”

Alone in our bedroom, I
sat on the end of the bed, crossing my legs in front of me, while Nick pulled
off his button-up flannel shirt and put it away, then removed his belt and hung
it on the back of the closet door.

“What are you doing?”

“Less to hide out there
if I leave some of it behind,” he explained.

“Ah,” I said, nodding my
head as he approached me in his jeans and white T-shirt.

He placed his hands on
either side of my neck, his thumbs stroking my jaw lightly as his eyes held
mine. “You’re sure you’re going to be all right?”

I hesitated, not sure if
I would be or not and not wanting to lie about it.

“Marcus will sedate him
before we head out,” Nick whispered. “And with the silver nitrate in his
system, he’s weak. You’ll be safe.”

“I know,” I spoke up. And
I did know that, but hearing him confirm it still offered me some relief.

Nick leaned forward and
kissed my forehead as I reached up and wrapped my hands around his wrists.
“I’ll be back soon, okay?”

The house was eerily
quiet with everyone gone, and I tried to not let it get to me. Sadly, the silence
was more maddening than a houseful of people. After killing the first hour in
my room, I made my way to the library and looked through the books I’d found
the other day. Even though I knew it ran the risk of inviting more stress, I
wanted to read more about
Gianna
and my brother and
everything they’d done over the years. I was hoping that getting a little more
insight into what she was capable of might allow me to help pinpoint her
coven’s next move. Or even their nest.

Learning about everything
she’d done over the years made me increasingly uneasy, but I also felt my
temper rising. Over the last few decades,
Gianna
had
been responsible for hundreds of murders, and the Pack had been tracking her
the entire time. I couldn’t imagine how frustrating it must have been for the
Pack to have her slip through their fingers so many times. How had she been so
successful in eluding them for this long?

I flipped through the
yellowing pages, absorbing the information I gleaned from them. Children seemed
to be her favorite; this made me think of poor
Cordelia
and the fate she most likely met after Bobby had snatched her from her mother’s
arms. Had he grabbed her as some kind of gift for
Gianna
?

My stomach lurched at the
thought. Was he capable of something like that? Had he really changed as much
as Nick said? I didn’t want to believe it, but something pushed me to.

I switched to a different
journal for a bit. This one looked to be a little older, and quite a bit more
personal. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be in with the others. When I realized
it was written by Marcus’ great-grandfather
, I couldn’t stop
myself from reading.

June 25, 1907

It is not getting any easier. I
cannot sleep. I cannot eat. All I can do is think about that day and wonder
when everything went so horribly wrong. What was that thing that came out of nowhere
and took her? Why had no one found her yet? I have replayed the events of that
night in my head over and over again. Nothing makes sense to me or to anyone
else.

Gianna
, my sister, where are you?

My mouth fell open in
silent shock; Marcus was a descendant of
Gianna’s
?
How did I not know this already?

July 31, 1907

Another month has passed, and
everyone seems to have given up hope for finding
Gianna
.
I cannot come to terms with what they are saying. She cannot be dead. I would
know if that were true. We were once close. I would feel if she were no longer
with us.

I am aware of how the entire
town views me. I have become a bit of a recluse. Some say I am obsessed and
need to accept the truth. But I cannot, because their truth is not my truth. It
cannot be.
I cannot lose her...not even her memory.

I sympathized more and
more with Marcus’ great-grandfather after reading these entries. I knew exactly
what he had been feeling, because I felt it too when I lost Bobby. People tried
to tell me to move on with my life, but I couldn’t. They made it sound like it
was nothing more than a bump in the road. A tremor. But the truth was
,
the ground hadn’t just shifted beneath my feet when Bobby
died; it had been ripped away entirely.

August 19, 1907

I saw her last night.
Gianna
. I was drawing the curtains closed before bed when I
watched her emerge from the shadows. The moon above cast an angelic glow around
her. Her eyes called to me, but when I ran outside to find her, she was gone. I
have told no one of this. They would only question my sanity further.

August 25, 1907

Everything is...confusing. My
head, it feeds me images that I am uncertain whether or not to believe. They
feel like they could be memories, but at the same time are so far-fetched that
they cannot possibly be real.

I went out searching for
Gianna
every night since seeing her outside my bedroom
window. I waited in the garden for her to come to me, but she never did...until
the other night. I think. The way she moved as she approached me was
otherworldly. She practically floated, reaching her hand out toward me. Her voice
was hypnotic as she held me, whispering promises of forever.

That was when the wolves came...
I wondered if it was just my memory playing tricks on me again. Perhaps I had
dreamed this entire event, wanted it so badly that my subconscious created it all.