Midnight Moonlight (7 page)

He watched as she guzzled the water. “I guess you’re wondering why I brought you here.”

She lowered the bottle. She was interested, but she also didn’t want to engage in polite conversation with this man. He’d kidnapped her, after all, and he wasn’t very nice to the Beast Man. He was the bad guy, and bad guys didn’t deserve politeness.

“I don’t do things like this,” he said. “Capture people, that is. It’s just…” He sighed. Then he sat down in a camp chair by the fire and gestured for her to join him.

She didn’t.

He shrugged. He took the lid off the saucepan that was on the fire. Steam rolled up, along with the delicious scent.

It was oatmeal, Calla realized. Seasoned with cinnamon and maple syrup, full of walnuts and raisins. God, she was hungry.

The man began to dip some of the oatmeal into a bowl. “My name’s Jasper,” he said. “And you already met my brother Ryder.”

She furrowed her brow. Brother? What was he talking about?

“I
am
really sorry if he hurt you. It seemed like before, when you were talking to him in the tent, that he’d listen to you. I haven’t seen him listen to anyone like that. You made him calm, and no one can do that. I just thought that maybe if anybody could help him—”

“What’s wrong with him?” she blurted. She was breaking her rule not to ask questions, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to know more about the Beast Man. About… Ryder.

He held up the bowl of oatmeal. “Hungry?”

She wanted to refuse him, because he was an awful man, and she didn’t want to owe him anything. But she was starving, so she went and sat down in the other camp chair. And she accepted the bowl of oatmeal.

Jasper handed her a spoon. “Do you know much about werewolves?”

She jumped, sloshing a little of the oatmeal out of her bowl and onto her leggings. She’d almost forgotten about this stupid outfit she was wearing. But she didn’t much care how she looked right now. And she didn’t care about a stain either.

But Jasper was giving her handfuls of napkins, apologizing left and right. “I know people don’t like to talk about werewolves,” he said. “Most folks are afraid. But you got to understand that my family and I, we aren’t anything like the stories you hear on the news. Those wolves are mutts—they turn into a wolf because they catch it.”

Calla knew all about that too. Everyone did. It was in the PSAs from the Sullivan Foundation that ran on TV. It was mentioned in health classes in school. Heck, she’d been put through at least three in-services as a teacher in which she’d been required to talk to her students about the dangers of STDs—including the lupine virus, which could be spread through sexual contact. Like other STDs, it was greatly diminished through the use of condoms. She wiped at her leggings, and tried to only focus on those aspects of werewolves, not anything else.

She wouldn’t think about the red balloon. She
wouldn’t.

“My family,” said Jasper, “we were all born werewolves. Natural and not scary at all. My mom and dad are our alpha wolves, and the alphas keep their children—the beta wolves—from shifting at a full moon. So, we’re not dangerous. Not at all.”

Ryder was a werewolf. She shut her eyes. That changed things. Maybe he didn’t deserve her help after all. Maybe he didn’t—

“I swear to God,” said Jasper, “none of us have ever hurt anyone. We’re not like the mutts. The mutts shift out of control and they hurt people, because they don’t have alphas. We’re not like that.”

“Never?” said Calla. Her voice quavered.

“Never,” he said.

She took a bite of oatmeal. It was very good, and she immediately took another one. Throughout the rest of the conversation, she continued to eat the oatmeal.

“Ryder disappeared from home a long time ago, back when he was just out of high school. Ryder didn’t want to work at the carnival, and my father wasn’t pleased that he was leaving the family business. We didn’t see him for years, but then he came back one day. Except he was in wolf form, and it seemed like he’d been that way for a long, long time. He wouldn’t shift back.”

Calla looked back at the container. Was that why he acted like an animal?

“If you stay in wolf form too long, you start… losing things,” said Jasper. “You forget who you are. You just… fade out and become a wolf. Like your human part just kind of disappears.”

“I see,” said Calla quietly. He
did
think he was an animal, then. But he wasn’t mentally damaged. Not the way she’d been thinking anyway.

“Well, he got hurt,” said Jasper. “He was in wolf form, and he got hurt bad, and when werewolves get hurt like that, they shift back to human. It’s just an instinct, you know? And he got better and healed and all. But he still doesn’t know he’s human. He still thinks he’s a wolf. I don’t know what to do with him.”

Calla set down her spoon. She’d been feeling a little sorry for Jasper, but now she was angry. “Well, making him a sideshow attraction at a carnival definitely wasn’t a good idea.”

Jasper glared at her. “Got to earn his keep somehow. We generate money in that attraction, and he gets paid for it. I have to feed him.”

Calla narrowed her eyes. “You’re exploiting him.”

“I’m taking care of him.”

She shook her head.

“Look, I don’t care if you agree with me,” said Jasper. “I didn’t bring you out here so that you could pass judgment on me. I got it hard enough as it is.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You think it’s easy trying to take care of a brother that doesn’t even know who he is? You think that feels good, remembering what he used to be like and seeing him now? He’s not himself. He’s not even human.”

“He
is
human,” said Calla. “You’re the one who’s treating him like an animal.”

Jasper snorted. “Oh, you’re all fired up about protecting him, are you? Here I thought he was attacking you when I opened up that container. Guess you weren’t as attacked as I thought.”

Calla turned bright red.

He leaned forward. “I didn’t bring you here for that, lady, but if it helps him, I don’t care.”

“I wasn’t—”

“I don’t care what you were doing,” he said. “All I care about is trying to get Ryder back. I saw a change in him when you spoke to him. I don’t know what it meant. Maybe it only means that you can get him to obey better—train him like a dog. But even that would be easier than the way things are now. But I’m hoping you can do more than that. I’m hoping you can find the human part in him somewhere. You can bring him back.”

She was aghast. “How could I do something like that?” She didn’t have any kind of experience with helping werewolves become human again. “Why would you think that I could do it? All I did was tell him to stop. I didn’t—”

“Like I said, you’re the only person he’s ever listened to like that.” He raised his eyebrows. “Will you try?”

She grimaced. “What if I say no?”

He glared at her. “Don’t say no.”

“What if I want you to let me leave this place right now?”

His lip curled. “Too bad.”

She looked away, down at the grass.

“Doesn’t matter,” said Jasper. “Because you’re going to help him anyway. If you refuse to be compliant, then you and Ryder can get locked back up in that container every day. If you promise to help out, then I’ll let you stay out here in the camp.” He smiled.

She looked around. She didn’t want to be locked back up in that container again. And all she had to do was pretend to cooperate. Whenever she felt it was time to make her move, she could. She could get away from Jasper. Maybe she could even take Ryder with her. She didn’t think he belonged with someone like Jasper, who was treating him so badly.

She lifted her chin. “Fine. I’ll help you.”

“Good,” he said.

The two of them stared at each other defiantly, as if neither wanted to break the gaze.

Finally, Calla had to look away. “Um,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“I need…” She lowered her voice. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

* * *

Jasper didn’t seem to mind letting her go off on her own to take care of business, which bothered her a little bit. Wasn’t he afraid that she’d escape if he wasn’t watching her? She could make a run for it, and he’d never know where she was. Sure, he’d said they were far away from any town, but there could still be houses nearby, someplace where she could find help. She could take off running now. Why wasn’t he worried?

She considered doing it. The only thing keeping her here now was Ryder, who she wanted to save from Jasper and the carnival.

Ryder’s a werewolf
, she tried to tell herself.
You hate werewolves. You hate Ryder
.

But she didn’t hate him, even though he was a werewolf. Besides, he didn’t seem vicious or scary. He seemed very gentle, and she was certain that Jasper was taking advantage of him. Ryder needed help. She wasn’t sure that he could be brought back to his human self, the way Jasper thought, but at the very least, he needed a place to live where he wouldn’t be gawked at or forced to perform.

She was going to help him. She’d already decided that.

So she didn’t go running off. Instead, she went back to the camp.

Jasper was eating oatmeal himself.

“Did you have to shoot him like that?” she said.

“It was a tranquilizer dart,” said Jasper. “He’ll be awake again in a few hours. He hasn’t been harmed.”

“But isn’t there any other way to calm him down?”

“No,” said Jasper.

She didn’t believe him. From the time she’d spent with Ryder, he hadn’t seemed the least bit dangerous. There had been a few incidents where she’d been afraid, certainly, but Ryder had backed off when she…

Hmm…

Was there something about her that was different for Ryder? Did he listen to her for some reason?

She climbed back into the freight container and went to his sleeping form. He was still and quiet. She would have thought he was dead if it weren’t for his breathing, for the fact that his body was so warm. She brushed hair away from his forehead. She felt a well of compassion and warmth for him, and she wasn’t entirely sure why. She didn’t know him, and she’d been forced into this situation with him. By all rights, she should want to run away.

But she couldn’t quite do that. Ryder meant something to her, even if she really didn’t know why.

Jasper appeared in the doorway of the container to say that he was leaving.

“Leaving?” She stood up, shocked. “Where are you going?”

“I have a job, lady,” said Jasper. “I’ve got to work at the carnival, and it opens around noon.”

“But you aren’t taking Ryder?”

“No.”

“Then you don’t have your attraction to run.”

“I have other things to run,” said Jasper. “We always need extra hands.”

So, he was just going to go away, then. Well, he
really
wasn’t worried about her running away. Why not? It bothered her.

She resolved that she would go. The minute that Ryder was awake and ready, she would take him, and they’d get as far away from Jasper as they possibly could.

She shrugged at Jasper. “Fine, then. Go.”

Jasper squared his shoulders. “Take care of my brother, all right?”

* * *

Ryder didn’t wake up until the sun was high in the sky. Calla had no idea what time it was, because her only means of keeping time had been her phone, and she didn’t have that anymore. She assumed that Jasper had taken it from her.

When Ryder woke up, he was groggy at first, but he allowed her to lead him out of the freight container. Jasper had left the rest of the food behind. Once Ryder smelled it, he ran for it immediately.

Calla tried to give him a bowl and spoon, but Ryder wouldn’t take the spoon. He buried his face in the bowl and began eating that way—like an animal.

Calla wrinkled up her nose. She felt a sharp burst of shame that she’d
kissed
this man.

Maybe he’d kissed her, but whatever the case, she’d accepted the kiss. In that moment, it had seemed exciting and sexy, but now she only felt hotly embarrassed. She promised herself that she wouldn’t allow anything like that to happen again. She’d been afraid and confused in the container, and she’d had no idea what was happening to her. It had been the strangeness of the situation that had turned her head. She’d been pleased to find that she didn’t have to fear Ryder. That pleased feeling had grown out of proportion until the point where she thought she found him sexually attractive.

Besides, it had been a really long time. Maybe she had been feeling a little desperate.

In any case, she wasn’t feeling those things now. She wouldn’t be engaging in any more intimacy with Ryder.

No, she was only going to get him out of here, get them both safe someplace, and then find someplace that could help him.

So, once he was finished eating, she used some of the napkins that Jasper had left to clean up his face, and then she said, “All right, Ryder, let’s go.”