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“Oh, I know what it is! It’s R for Rainer!” Huxley declared.
Gretta thwacked the back of Huxley’s head with her free hand. “God, Huxley, you douchebag! Why are you so stupid? Would he kill his own girlfriend and blame it on our Alpha?”
Huxley whimpered in protest before countering, “Isn’t he crazy, anyway? Besides, they were already over before she died. Rainer is just hung up on her!”
Stan and I simply stared as we let the two hotheads banter. Stan had always been by my side. I trusted he could help me with this task, along with Huxley and Gretta.
Once we finalized the plan, I headed back home, ready to take a break.
* * *
Things didn’t go accordingto plan. Cole barged into my room, begging me to go on a Rainer hunt just when I was about to give myself credit and sleep.
“Bro, I’m telling you, you’re asking the wrong guy. I’m useless when it comes to physical fighting. I have limp muscles, and I don’t eat enough potassium. Never mind that I’m a werewolf, I don’t even know how to be one,” I insisted while lying flat on my bed, trying desperately to steer Cole off course.
“That’s obviously a lie,” Cole reckoned, unimpressed.
“Yeah, but if you really need help, go ask the sheriff instead of lying to him that his son is sleeping over at our place to complete a school project.”
I had already done what I could! I wanted to tell Cole everything he needed to know but couldn’t risk further exposing my pack. I could only hope for the best.
“Aren’t you the slightest bit worried that your friend ambushed a werewolf hunter?” Cole asked.
“I’m not. I have a lot of friends I’m not really friends with. A lot of them secretly hate me too, apparently. Some of them have anger management issues, and I think it’s fairly normal, considering most kids in this town don’t have parents who are still married and in love—or even alive,” I said nonchalantly. Though, honestly, I was thinking,Are you fucking kidding me? I’m so (werewolf growl) mad, I don’t even know what to say or do. So, (werewolf growl) please, I’d like to just (werewolf growl) sleep and think of purple unicorns.
“Did you already know he’s one of us?” Cole sounded dubious.
“That Rainer’s a wolf?” I scoffed, inhaling a mouthful of pretentious aura. “Holy shit, no.”
“Oh, great. He must be wearing some sort of werewolf mask perfume then, considering we both didn’t sense him.” Cole rolled his eyes, his tone sarcastic. Things were getting more and more intense. “Seriously, what were you doing this whole time?”
I shrugged, forcing my mouth shut. Afolo, a customized perfume that helps werewolves mask their scent when they’re in their human forms, was real. Where it came from and how it came to be, I didn’t know. But whoever made it, and whichever pack they were in, they wanted to remain anonymous. Although I never felt the need to use one, Rainer definitely did for a number of reasons.
“Gray!” Cole raised his voice. “Come on, man, help me out here. You’re the only one who can.” Cole’s expression was dead serious. I knew we’d be fighting like ninja turtles if I refused him one more time.
“I said I can’t help—” I flicked my head to the other side, only to spot our family picture hanging on the wall, awakening my sense of responsibility for him. “Goodness gracious, you’re not gonna let me sleep, are you? Did I ever tell you that you scare me more than any monsters inStranger Things?”
What happened next was never part of the plan. Cole and I simultaneously caught a whiff of a werewolf—Rainer—watching us from outside. I assumed it must be a trap, considering he wasn’t wearingtheperfume.
* * *
“It must bethat sly bastard Rainer!” Despite his sense of smell lacking in the werewolf department, Cole guessed right.
“No shit!” I wasn’t even done processing it yet. In a matter of seconds, Cole, still human, was already running after Rainer into the woods.
I followed them, complaining about not getting enough sleep, grumbling and murmuring every swear word in the dictionary like a grumpy old man. They never listened.
In the midst of it all, I could smell the familiar mockery of Rainer de Luca, in his werewolf form, hurtling straight ahead like an evil maniac. The forest was quite similar to a maze, and Cole seemed to have found himself slowly losing his shit as he got lost in the big bad’s territory. As much as I wanted to guide him, revealing my knowledge of Rainer’s whereabouts was too risky.
So, I let him lose his shit.
I sprinted toward the congested area and searched for Cole.
Being an alpha by blood, I didn’t need to be on all fours to catch up to him, even if he had longer legs and was a naturally fast runner in any form.
I loved being a werewolf, but I had to save my clothes for Aunt Suzy’s sake. She’d had to buy new clothes for Cole every other day, whether or not her son transformed and lost his clothes. Luckily, I had a conscience and thought of her bank account.
“Gray, I got him! I got him!” Like a child, Cole trumpeted from a distance ahead.
