Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) (5 page)

He broke into a grin. “Race
you.”

My lips twitched, my insides itching
to burst free and meet the challenge. “You’re on.”

Halfway to the door, he stopped. “Is
Wes coming?”

“
He’s probably still on
the phone letting everyone know about Vera.” A lump formed in my
throat, almost preventing me from saying her name. I swallowed it
and took another step. I needed to run. Now. “I’ll find him when I
get back.” I pushed through the back door and out into the
sunshine. The humidity hit me like a ton of bricks. Sticky,
suffocating bricks. “Where’s Chris?” I asked, looking
around.

“
Ran to get Jack,” George
said. That meant camp had been left unattended for far too
long.

George swiped his forehead with the
back of his arm. We’d made it halfway to the woods and already we
both were sweating. “Damn, it’s hot.”

“
Agreed.” I said. “Makes
me miss Astor’s. At least that heat wasn’t this dripping
curtain.”

George shot me a look. “Can’t say
there’s much else I miss about that place, though. The atmosphere
was a little … unpredictable.”

I snickered.

George and Astor hadn’t exactly hit it
off. I suspected Astor’s label of George had something to do with
the words “stereotypical” and “jock”—an impression which George had
been oblivious to. He’d been a little distracted, slowly turning
into an evil hybrid right before our eyes. Until my blood had cured
him.

Whatever the excuse, there weren’t
much warm fuzzies between Astor and George.

“
I don’t know why you’re
laughing when you have plenty of reason to agree,” George said. I
lifted a questioning brow. “One word for you: Grandma.”

I grimaced.

Grandma’s appearance at Astor’s was
the definition of unpredictable. Not simply that she’d blown in and
dragged me out, but also because she’d brought Alex with her. An
ally in her spy efforts against CHAS. After learning that, I’d
thought he was on our side. I thought I could trust him. That was,
until he’d betrayed me—and all of us—by showing up in the woods
with Kane and his band of killers.

“
Grandma,” I muttered in
agreement. George grunted. The single word summed it up. And now my
thoughts were buzzing all that had happened. All that was still
happening—with Grandma. And CHAS. And Alex. Vera.

Supernatural soap opera.

“
Ready?” I
asked.

“
Let’s do it.” George
shouldered his way in front of me on the trail, his eyes
glittering. He stepped behind a tree and tossed his shorts aside.
Not that it mattered. We’d already seen all there was to see of
each other. Still, our modesty was something we each attempted to
preserve. Some more than others.

Derek thought it was hilarious. When
you’d been a Werewolf all your life, maybe it made you less worried
about what others thought of you naked. He’d tried shifting in
front of me a few times to see the look on my face. Cambria stopped
that pretty quickly.

George’s shorts landed in a heap and
he stepped clear of the tree, his body too shimmery at the edges
for me to make out anything specific. I looked down at my own
still-clothed body.

“
Hey, wait for me. You’re
cheating,” I said, but he was already shifting. His faced elongated
and then became coated with fur. His shoulders hunched and grew. I
knew from experience he couldn’t hear me right now. He was caught
in the “between.”

I used the moment to yank my shorts
and tank top off without worry of being watched. My wolf pushed and
shoved its way to the surface. It rose much quicker now that I
welcomed it instead of fought against it each time.

For a handful of seconds I couldn’t
see. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t consciously move my muscles. The
change from girl to wolf happened out of pure instinct and reflex.
Hands and arms withdrew, as did feet and legs. My torso twisted and
fell. Before I hit the ground, paws sprouted. I landed soundlessly,
scooped my clothes up in my teeth, and took off.

George was ahead of me, his laughter a
distorted growl.

He was winning. Damn.

I pushed harder, exhaling through my
nose and inhaling the scent of leaves, pine needles, and dry,
packed dirt. My ears pricked at the small forest sounds—a
squirrel’s feet scraping against the bark of a tree, a bird calling
out, cicadas singing in the heat. The tension in my shoulders
melted off as I lengthened my stride. My muscles strained as I
picked up speed and let the animal in me stretch out. Despite my
fur coat, it wasn’t nearly as hot in this form as it was in a body
with exposed flesh. My wolf adjusted to extremes much easier than I
could as a human.

I glanced over, checking my progress
against George’s. He was still two lengths ahead. Time to stop
messing around.

I caught up to George a second before
leaping the creek. It was narrow enough here to jump, but only in
this spot. To the right and left, the bed widened and the water
deepened. It served as an effective barrier between the hybrid camp
and the rest of the world. So far.

I brushed George’s shoulder with mine
as I left the ground, letting him know I was passing him, and then
used my last push of momentum to accelerate the last few steps.
When my paws crossed out of the brush of the creek bed and onto
dry, packed dirt that signaled the outskirts of camp, I snorted in
triumph.

George let out a long growl that
became a hoarse laugh as he shifted back to his human
form.

From behind an over-sized oak, he
pulled a pair of shorts from the stack of thrift store findings
kept for this reason. I stepped off the path on the opposite side
and shifted and redressed. This part of shifting was a constant
annoyance for me. Not just because of the hassle of needing clothes
at all times, but because I knew in an emergency, the wasted
moments could cost me something huge. The logistics of turning from
human to animal were inconvenient at times. Still, it was also sort
of magical.

“
You cheated,” I said as I
stepped back onto the path.

“
You won,” George shot
back.

He ran a hand through his blond hair,
smoothing it down, and fell into step beside me. I loved how
easy-going George was. Even through all his competitiveness, he was
never angry at losing—even to a girl. He liked the thrill of it.
That part was easy to read through our bond but also in his
demeanor. It was moments like these that gave me peace about all
I’d put him through. He was a wolf because of me. We were bonded
because of me. He spent his days babysitting hybrids, balancing the
lies to his family and the rest of the world—all because of me. And
he was happy.

“
You still cheated,” I
argued.

“
Why does it matter if you
won?”

“
A matter of
principle.”

He rolled his eyes. “One of these days
I’m going to be faster than you.”

I laughed. “Today’s not that
day.”

George’s response was cut short by the
sound of a snarl and something breaking. George and I exchanged a
look and then hurried toward it. It wasn’t until we’d weaved around
half a dozen tents that I saw what was happening.

Two Werewolves were going at it.
Yellow eyes narrowed, paws swiping, teeth bared. Between blows and
attempted bites, both of their jaws hung open as they panted. One
had a scrape above his left eye that was deep enough to leave a
line of red above his brow. Both were caked in dirt. It looked as
if they’d been at it a while.

The crowd gathered—some humans, most
wolves—yelled and jeered and encouraged the fighters to continue
their scrapping.

I shoved my way to the center, George
close behind me. The noise of the crowd died off as they caught
sight of me. The wolves in the center continued to snap their teeth
at each other’s throats. They were too involved with each other to
notice me.

“
Knock it off,” I
commanded.

Neither one obeyed. I stepped toward
them, ready to slide between them and dare them to try it with me
in the way. As I moved closer, I sensed hesitation rather than saw
it. The wolf facing me caught himself and paused in his attack. I
knew him and more importantly, he knew me. I was his alpha and he
wouldn’t challenge me no matter what the fight had been
about.

But the wolf behind me didn’t stop. I
realized I had no reading on him. And while I knew his face—all too
well after our previous altercations— there was no voice in my head
to match.

“
Nick?”

He didn’t respond. Out loud or in my
head. Were he and I no longer mentally connected? Wasn’t that
impossible?

I became sure of the loss the moment
his teeth closed over my wrist.

“
Ow!” I yanked my hand
away and turned to fully face him, glaring, but Nick didn’t back
down. He glared back and bared his teeth, looking ready to come
again.

My wound burned, although nothing like
it would’ve had my Hunter blood not been mixed with so much
Werewolf blood. A bite like this could kill a normal Hunter.
Luckily, I wasn’t normal.

“
Stand down,” I
demanded.

Nick hesitated but I sensed his
intention. The bond was there, just … different.

Darker. Silent. Irrational. No wonder
I couldn’t hear his thoughts. He wasn’t having any that were
decipherable.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the
crowd back up. Based on the feelings coming through the bond, they
were all giving me extra room to kick ass. Good. I was mad enough
to do it with the burning in my wrist.

Nick took a step forward.

“
You don’t want to do
that,” George warned. He took a step toward us as if to intercede,
but my temper wouldn’t allow it.

“
George, move,” I said.
Maybe it was something in my tone, but he didn’t argue.

I called my wolf to the surface. It
was so close already, shifting took no time. With a small ripping
sound, my clothes shredded and fell around me. I leaned in as my
limbs extended here, retracted there. I landed on four
paws.

Nick growled.

The look in his eyes seemed wilder,
almost feral. No specific thoughts penetrated but there was a mood.
A dark cloud of fury. I took a step toward him, my gaze intent. No
matter what was happening with the bond or to him, I had to let him
know who was boss around here.

“
Why were you fighting?” I
asked.

No answer.

“
It’s the second time
today. Tell me why.”

Nick’s shoulders straightened and he
raised his snout. “Curtis was running his mouth.”

“
That is not a good reason
to attack someone.”

“
It is for me.”

My temper spiked. “You’re not in
charge. I’m alpha here. You will obey me.”

Instead of backing down, Nick stood
tall, a glint in his eyes. I’d seen this look on him before. Nick
was stubborn. He was one of the hybrids I worried about. There was
a darkness in him, something below the surface that didn’t seem
quite human. Right now, the darkness was thick and close. It
clouded my thoughts. Made my temper worse.

“
You thinking about doing
something stupid, Nick?” My normally growly voice was silky with
the threat behind them. Even with the unpredictable side of him
underneath, I wasn’t scared of Nick. I’d fought worse. Much, much
worse. “Because you look like you’re thinking about challenging
your alpha and that would be very, very stupid.”

The pack pressed into the corners of
my mind at the new conflict unfolding. George hovered nearby,
worried for me, where the rest of them seemed much more concerned
for Nick. They had no doubt their alpha would rip him to
pieces.

“
I’m exercising my right
to have an opinion. And enforce it when someone doesn’t listen,”
Nick said.

He was choosing his words carefully.
He wanted to challenge me but he was wary of how to go about it.
Something dark and lethal shifted inside him. No, I was wrong. He
didn’t want to challenge me so much as pick a fight. With anyone.
Nick wanted to taste blood. It no longer mattered whose.

This was my fear with the
hybrids.

The reason I checked on them, babysat
them, kept them hidden in the woods. There was something dark and
ugly inside them. Some kept it farther from the surface than
others, but all of them had it. Even George. The thirst, the
longing for blood. Not only to spill it but to taste it.

Nick’s thirst was overwhelming now. I
could feel it in my head. I could see it in his eyes. He couldn’t
fight it any longer. He’d decided he didn’t want to.

With mouth open, jaws flexed, he
leaped.

All I could think
was,
this is why Alex hates us.

Despite Nick’s craving for a fight, or
maybe because of it, he was sloppy. He plowed into me, grazing my
left shoulder with his teeth. I caught my balance quickly and
knocked him aside with my paw. He stumbled and I tackled him to the
dirt. He writhed underneath me, bucking and snapping his teeth,
aiming for my throat.