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27
By the time my paws hit the familiar dirt of the forest outside Cape Luna, the sun was almost below the horizon. The sky had turned a vibrant shade of pink and something felt sour on my tongue. The bad feeling I’d had when we left the bed and breakfast was only getting worse the closer we got. The air felt cooler, and a nervous tingle traveled the length of my spine.
Jamie guided me with a gentle push toward Maria’s house, and before long we slowed to a quick walk, cutting across the back yard to Maria’s sliding glass door.
I looked around, and then went up on my hind legs to force the door open with the weight of my front paws. It slid open just enough and we shouldered our way inside. Sniffing the air, I checked for Maria’s scent but it was nowhere to be found. I shivered, and closing my eyes, I summoned my human form back from the depths of my soul, slowly erasing the image of the wolf in my mind.
My paws kneaded the floor like a cat with its claws, and my toes stretched one by one into fingers. My legs lengthened. My feet returned and in another flash of light I rose up off the ground, standing to my full height, naked in Maria’s living room.
I turned around expecting to see Jamie standing behind me, but instead found a black wolf, sitting on his butt staring at me.
“Why didn’t you…” I frowned at him for a second and then it dawned on me. “Right, you don’t have any clothes here. Let me get changed and then we can take my car back over to your place.”
The wolf exhaled a long breath, and I wandered over to my bag, pulling out fresh clothes. As I dressed a stray thought crossed my mind. I didn’t need to sleep on Maria’s couch anymore. I had two other beds to choose from. Annie’s house was mine now, and I didn’t see Jamie refusing if I climbed into bed with him. Despite everything that thought made me smile. Fully dressed I frowned down at my bare feet.
“I’ll have to steal a pair of sneakers from Maria,” I said, turning toward the hall.
By the time I returned, Jamie was sitting by the front door like a dog waiting to go for a walk. I couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s a shame I don’t have collar and leash for you, we could really go for a walk.”
The wolf glared at me, and the mating bond flared in the back of my mind, as he reached out with a warning caress. I’d pay for that joke later, in orgasms no doubt.
Opening the door, I led him to the curb, and he trotted at my side all the way into the passenger seat of my car. Trapped inside the small box with a wolf, something changed. The air charged with wild power, and a nervous energy soured on my tongue. Energy that wasn’t coming from me. Reaching blindly for Jamie in the seat beside me, I threaded my fingers through his fur. His body tensed, and then relaxed after a few seconds as he exhaled a loud breath.
I pulled my car in his driveway and got out, leaving the door open for him to climb out behind me. I led him up the front walkway and padded over to a small plant by the foot of one of the white Adirondack chairs sitting on his porch. I shoved it aside and found his spare key waiting for me.
I opened the door and let him inside. I stepped in after him and bounced on my toes. We were so close to Annie’s books, and a possible solution for what was going on that my skin had begun to itch.
I called after him as he slipped into his bedroom, and I heard the groans of him beginning to change. “Meet me at Annie’s when you’re done.”
“N-n—” I heard him call out, but it sounded like a grunt, so I walked out, and walked across the street letting myself through Annie’s gate.
On the front porch I froze. The bad feeling that had been haunting me since we left Estelle Falls was back with a staggering vengeance that made me nauseous.
I pushed my way inside, expecting things to be tossed, but there was nothing out of place, it was as clean as Jamie had left it. The only sign anything ad been disturbed was the overlapping scent of wolves in the air. Wolves that had no right to be in my house. I recognized notes of Zach, Dillon, and a handful of the pups I’d passed on the training field.
Clenching my jaw, I walked slowly down the hallway in the direction of Annie’s bedroom, my heart thundering in my ears. I hesitated at the door, and then taking a deep breath stepped inside to see the door to the basement sitting wide open like it was waiting.
An ugly weight sank into my gut. The nervous feeling I’d been tasting on my tongue turned to ash, and I forced myself to climb down into the room beneath the house. I turned and just as I expected it was empty. All that remained of Annie’s legacy were empty scroll cubbies, empty shelves, a desk with an empty drawer sitting on top, and a table with nothing on its shelves. They’d taken everything. It was all gone. Everything.
Tears blurred my vision, and I felt my wolf growling beneath the surface of my skin. A noise sounded above my head as Jamie started climbing down the ladder. He stepped off turning to face me, breathing heavy from racing to dress.
“Eve, I’m so so—”
“Sorry?” I arched an eyebrow at him and laughed.
“Yes.” He nodded. “I know what this stuff meant to you. It was Annie’s stuff. Something the two of you—”
“Why did you do it?” I asked, the words thick on my tongue. “Why tell him?”
“Tell who, what?” he asked.
“Why did you tell him?” I said, enunciating my words a little more. I couldn’t bring myself to look directly at his face yet, but I could see him take a step back out of the corner of my eye, hurt by my words.
“You think I did this? You think I told Adrian about this? Why would—”
My anger snapped. Lifting a foot, I slammed it against the edge of the table in the middle of the room and shoved the monstrosity across the floor. “That’s what I want to know. Why would you tell him? This was supposed to be a secret. I trusted you.”
“I didn’t,” he said, shaking his head. “I never said a word. I wouldn’t’ do that to you, Eve. I lo—”
