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The way Teresa gnashed her jaws made her look feral. For a woman who had been regrettably attractive in a catsuit, she was losing herself to the chaos of her animal. Eric managed to get her into a headlock, grabbing one of her paws that she was trying to use to scratch at her face. They tumbled over the grass until he had her pinned under his elbows, both creatures wheezing from exhaustion.
Within seconds, what used to be a snout became a woman’s jaw, then a nose, then a pair of eyes that reminded me of Kiki. Too strange was it to see Eric battling a half-shifted she-wolf who refused to leave her ex-boyfriend alone.
“Give me the amulet,” she demanded. Growls echoed between them as Eric started to shift himself. “Hand it over!”
“You’re crazy.”
She howled mournfully. “I hate it when you call me that. Why do you hate me?”
“I can’t hate someone I never loved.”
Teresa whined and yowled as she returned to her wolf state, kicking her body to loosen the expertly positioned pin. Once her shoulders were free, she bucked the rest of the way and took off for the main road, kicking up plumes of dirt behind her as she barked ferociously into the night.
And then she was gone.
I clutched my chest as my heart hammered away, the rest of the adrenaline having almost nowhere else to go. I stumbled down the porch steps, fumbled my way to Eric, and then dropped to my knees beside him.
We locked our arms around each other, sliding together like a lock into its proper keyhole. While my nails latched into his back, his fingers gripped my hips, pain radiating from where he clung to me.
But that wasn’t important. The pain barely bothered me. What mattered most was that he was physically and emotionally okay.
I stroked the hair on the back of his head. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I had to give up my sight for a minute, but…”
He lifted his head while panting. “But?”
“When you touched me, I got it back.”
“I gave you my human sight—and used my wolf eyes instead.”
I stared into his glorious eyes, that reminded me of glowing sapphires. “The law of exchange…works between us, doesn’t it?”
He smiled through his miserable and exhausted expression as he released my hips and moved his hands up my sides. “It sure does, darling. You know what that means?”
Oh, but I didn’t think I wanted to know what that meant.
Because that meant things had just gotten even more complicated.
Chapter 17 - Eric
Relief flooded my entire body when I saw my truck running outside Harry’s Garage. Rideshares were expensive these days. And while I wasn’t hurting much for cash, I was worried about being tailed by Teresa again.
Last night had been weird. In my mind, that was putting it lightly. I barely slept once Regina got me back inside, my heart too wound up and my inner wolf itching for a fight. Only two things got my wolf to calm down: fighting or fucking. Since Regina was worn out from using her magic, I didn’t want to bother her.
Sleep happened in minor stages. Mostly, I spent the night monitoring the broken window, trying to figure out if there was a quiet way for me to fix it. But once Regina got out of bed, she went right over to that jagged mess, waved her hands elegantly over the frame, and reinstated the glass as it was.
“That’s why I told you not to clean it up,” she had claimed as she wandered over the clean floor to her duffel bag. “I needed the pieces to go back to where they had been. Takes less magic when the resources are already available.”
Gravel crunched under my boots as I walked up to my truck with a lottery-winning grin. Gill thumbed the straps of his blue overalls while bouncing on his toes. Dill complimented literally every possible thing that Regina was wearing. Both salamanders were too proud for their own good in their own ways.
But at least they made great friends.
I shook Gill’s slippery hand. “Thank you, bud.”
“No thanks needed! We’ll call on you if we’re ever in Sumter.”
