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Parker stiffens. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Someone here means to do me harm.”
Parker rears his head back. “What?”
“It’s a thing I have.” I slide out of the booth, glancing in every direction. No one in the restaurant looks suspicious. They’re all too busy watching me like I’m a freak on display for their amusement. “My intuition always tells me when I’m in trouble. Right now it’s saying get the hell out of here, quick.”
Parker looks around the diner, same as I just did, and throws some cash down on the table. “Then let’s go.”
He takes me by the sleeve of my new coat and tugs me close behind him as he steps outside. Neither of us sees anything, but the warning of impending danger grows stronger. “There has to be someone out here.”
Parker takes a deep breath, smelling the air, and snarls. “Werewolves. Quickly, Nora.”
He doesn’t wait for me to respond, but rather scoops me into his arms and dashes to his car so fast I want to vomit. “Ugh…” I moan as he unlocks my door. “Remind me never to—”
A huge werewolf comes out of nowhere and tackles Parker to the ground. “Nora, get out of here!” he shouts as three more wolves run toward us.
I dive into the car, locking the doors. I feel like a jerk leaving Parker alone to face off with four werewolves, but I’m just a human with only a handful of self-defense classes under my belt. I can’t fight them, and Parker would lose his focus if I were out there. He’d probably die trying to protect me.
I call the only person I can think of to help us. “Nick!” I shout when he answers the phone. “Parker and I are at Skinny’s Diner. We’re being attacked by were—agh!”
A fist smashes through the passenger window, and before I can duck, a huge man with a big scraggly beard and dark eyes grabs me by my new coat and pulls me out the broken window. “What the hell?” I shout as the broken glass rips my new jacket. “Let me go!”
“I don’t think so.” The man holding me pulls me close and breathes in deeply, scenting me. His eyes take on a faint glow, letting me know his wolf is close to the surface. “You’ll make a very strong wolf,” he says in a rumbly, gravelly voice that is more wolf than human. “You’ll be an excellent mate.”
Oh. Hell. No.
Rook says all it takes is one bite from a werewolf while they’re in wolf form and I start the change. So when Mr. Needs To Trim His Beard flashes me his teeth and starts to shake as if he’s about to shift, I quickly use one of the moves Rook taught me for getting out of someone’s hold. I half expect it not to work, but the move performs as well on him as it did the hundred times Rook made me do it on him and Wulf.
Once I’m free, I jump-slide across the hood of Parker’s car, putting the vehicle between us before Beard Man even realizes the weak little human got away from him. He snarls at this and goes to follow me around the car, but another guy quickly snatches me from behind. This one smells a little better and has a lot less hair on his face, but he’s sniffing me and telling the other one that I’m his, so you know, he’s still a douche.
Beard Man and New Guy start trading threats and insults. I’m lucky they have to be in wolf form to turn me, because this new guy’s teeth are too close to my neck for comfort. I have another move Rook showed me to get out of a hold from behind, but I know that even if I escape, I can’t outrun them. They’ll wolf out to chase me, and then I’ll be in real trouble. For now, I let them fight with each other and hope Nick shows up quickly.
Parker is now fighting two wolves while two lie on the ground dead or unconscious. Parker is a badass, but he’s starting to slow down. He’s got huge, bloody gashes across his chest, and the way he’s blinking and wincing, I don’t think he’s going to be on his feet much longer. If only there were some way to help that didn’t end with me sprouting fur and a tail.
Parker knocks a wolf away, and the wolf is slow to get up, but the second wolf gets the jump on Parker. Parker’s jacket gets ripped to shreds, and he screams out in agony.
“Parker!”
I can’t help my fearful scream. He’s going to get killed. My shout gains the attention of the wolf, and he turns on me with a vicious growl. My heart leaps into my throat, and the feeling in my gut becomes so strong my knees buckle. The man holding me keeps me from falling, but he makes no other move. He and the bearded guy have both lost the dominance battle.
I’m going to die. This wolf isn’t interested in a mate. He’s hungry for a kill. “Nice doggy?”
The wolf snarls. Guess werewolves can understand English.
The wolf slowly stalks toward me, growling and drooling from his bloody snout. That’s Parker’s blood on his muzzle. Parker’s down on the ground now, and I can’t tell if he’s dead or alive. With each step the wolf takes, the man holding me from behind grips me tighter. The feeling in my gut intensifies.
Then, something else rises from deep inside me, a power that I don’t understand. It’s only happened once before. I got kidnapped by a sorcerer when I’d been searching for the missing underworlders. When he was about to kill me, I put him under a spell somehow. I don’t know what kind of power it is, or why I have it, but I know it has to do with my curse. The one that makes men become obsessed. The sorcerer had eventually used his magic to fight me, but this guy doesn’t have magic.
I embrace the power coming alive. Now that it’s awake and I can feel it, I can sort of grab onto it and bring it all the way to the surface. Once I’m fully in control, I know that I’m stronger than the wolf in front of me. I’m stronger than the two holding onto me, too. I’m more powerful than all three of them together. If I want them in my thrall, they will be.
I focus my attention on the one in front of me, the one who means to kill me. When our gazes lock, he flairs his nostrils and his pupils dilate. I have him now. He’s under my control. “Stop,” I say. My voice sounds strange. It’s lighter somehow. Almost musical.
The wolf stops moving.
“Sit.”
He does.
