Moon Dance (11 page)

On top of that, he knew that Dana was
out in this woods.

If it was Dana’s
blood…

It didn’t
smell
like Dana’s blood,
but it had been such a long time since he’d smelled her blood. He
couldn’t be sure.

He took off through the woods,
following the scent, moving as quickly as he could.

It didn’t take him long to
find it.

He moved through the trees,
and he came into a clearing. There was a tent set up next to a
campfire. The tent was spattered in blood—bright red against the
gray nylon material. The two campers were strewn out in front of
the tent, both mutilated.

It had been a woman and a
man. The woman lay on her stomach, her blond hair splayed out
behind her. Her face was intact, frozen in a scream of terror. But
her entire torso had been ripped to shreds. She was nothing but
bloody meat from neck to groin. Her entrails spilled out onto the
ground, long red ropes of gore.

The man was face down, and the back of
his head was covered in matted blood. He was still being
eaten.

By a wolf.

By… Dana.

Cole recognized her wolf,
smelled her, even underneath the heady scent of all the blood and
meat.

Shit.

She wasn’t going to be happy
that she’d done this.

Should he stop her? If he
tried to get between her and her kill, she’d probably go at him
too. He was in human form, and he’d be no match for her. In wolf
form, he was pretty sure he could wrestle her off the guy, but…
well, in wolf form, he’d probably want to eat the campers too. Or
maybe mate with Dana. Or maybe both.

None of which were good
things.

So he just yelled her name.

The wolf didn’t look
up.

He yelled louder. “Dana!
Look at me.”

The wolf raised its muzzle. It was
stained bright red. There was blood all over her pelt. The wolf
growled out a warning. This was its kill, and it would protect
it.

“
Dana,” he urged. “You need
to shift.”

The wolf growled again.

“
Shift for me,” he said.
“Shift for me, Dana.” He lowered his voice. He’d whispered these
same words over and over to her. Maybe something in her would
recognize them.

At first, it didn’t seem to
make any difference. The wolf was still growling, and now it was
advancing on Cole.

But then something seemed to come over
the wolf. It stopped in its tracks. It quieted.

And Cole watched as the fur and teeth
and claws receded off of its body, swallowed back up by human
skin.

Dana sprang away from the dead bodies.
She was covered in blood.

She was naked.

Sharp alarm went through
Cole. Naked Dana. Naked bloody Dana, yes, but naked Dana just the
same, and he…

He couldn’t help but take
her in. His gaze traveled over her. She was different now. Her body
fleshier. Her stomach swelled more than it used to. The scar he’d
given her stood up angry and red against her white skin. Her
breasts were heavier. She was all curves and softness and
he—

Couldn’t think about
this.

She was staring down at the
dead campers, and she was making tiny little noises in the back of
her throat.

He went to her. He pulled
her against him, keeping his hands only on safe parts of her bare
skin. “Don’t look.”

She seized handfuls of his
jumpsuit, pressed her face into his chest, and she
screamed.

* * *

Cole was there. How had Cole gotten
there? She held onto him as tightly as she could, not because he
was Cole, but because he was there, and she needed something to
hold onto.

This was…

This was…

She’d killed two
people.

Cole pried her hands free.
He forced her to look up at him, into his face. “Dana, you
okay?”

Was
she
okay? That was a stupid question.
Of course, she was fine. What about the two campers she’d just
killed? What about them?
They
weren’t okay.

“
Come on,” said Cole. “I can
hear water. There’s a stream this way. Let’s clean you up.” He
started to lead her through the woods.

But she resisted. She shook
her head. “No, no, no.”

“
You need to clean up.” His
voice was soft, comforting.

She shook her head. She
shook her whole body. She’d killed two people. Ripped them to
shreds. She thought she could control her wolf, and it obviously
wasn’t true, because she hadn’t been able to stop this.

Cole’s hands went under her
knees, and he hoisted her into his arms.

She didn’t fight him. She
surrendered, let him carry her through the woods.

She was numb with the horror of
it.

Cole was right. There was a
stream. It was nearly four feet wide, water rushing down over
smooth stones and leaves. The water was clear. Dana felt
thirsty.

He set her down. “Look, it’s
going to be cold, but—”

She threw herself into the
water. It was freezing, but she didn’t care. Maybe the freezing
water could be like a punishment, some way to make up for the
horrible thing that she’d just done. She sucked down mouthfuls of
water, drinking it in.

Cole yanked her head up.
“You’re not drowning yourself or something, are you?”

Oh. The thought hadn’t even
occurred to her. She felt a stab of guilt over that. Certainly, she
probably deserved to die. But she didn’t want to. She wouldn’t have
dreamed of killing herself. She shook her head. “No, of course
not.”

His surveyed her, thinking.
“Okay. Well, stay here, all right? I’ll be back.”

She ducked back under the cold
water.

Cole came back in several
minutes, and he had clothes.

She got out of the water,
shivering, but clean. “Where did you get these?”

“
I took them from the
campers,” he said. “Just put something on, okay?” His gaze
skittered over her breasts, and then quickly away.

She felt a tiny glow inside
her. Cole still found her attractive, even though she hadn’t lost
all the pregnancy weight, even though the skin of her belly had
been stretched out and was never going to be as elastic as it had
been.

Then she scolded herself for
feeling that. She began to shrug into the clothes that Cole had
provided. She shouldn’t be thinking about whether or not he found
her attractive. For one thing, it wasn’t fair to Avery, and for
another thing, she’d just killed two people. How could she possibly
be thinking about anything else?

The fabric clung to her wet skin, and
it was scant protection against the breeze. She shivered a little,
hugging herself.

Then she caught a scent.
Fire.

She looked at Cole.
“Something’s burning.”

“
Yeah.” He gestured with his
head.

The two of them went back to
the campsite. Cole had bundled up everything. The bodies, the tent,
their gear, and it was all ablaze.

“
They had some gasoline with
them. I guess they were using it to start the fire. Came in
handy.”

Dana wrinkled her nose at
the smell of burning hair and flesh. “Why did you…?”

“
Your scent’s on
everything,” he said. “My scent too. We’re barely a mile from the
SF. What do you think would happen if some trackers found these
bodies?”

She bit her lip. She hadn’t
gotten that far. She was still reeling. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t
killed before in wolf form, but it was different this time. Before,
there had always been someone else to blame. Either Cole had set
her up to do it, or Jimmy had forced her to do it. This was the
first time that she felt truly responsible. And if she was
responsible, shouldn’t she suffer the consequences?

“
That’s right,” he said.
“You’d be locked up, and so would I. And I just got a pardon, Dana.
I don’t plan on going back.”

She shook her head. “You
shouldn’t have bothered. I’m turning myself in.”

“
No, you’re not.”

“
Don’t do that,” she
said. “Don’t act like you know what I want to do better than I know
myself. I killed these people. I’m dangerous. I
need
to be locked
up.”

“
No, you don’t.” He rubbed
the back of his neck. “Look, I’ll stay here to make sure the fire
doesn’t go out, and that everything’s burned up. Then I’ll bury the
evidence. There won’t be anything here to connect you to this. You
need to go back home, forget this happened, and take care of your
daughter.” He looked at her sidelong. “It was a girl,
right?”

Dana’s heart stopped. Did he
care about the baby? Did he know that the baby was his?

“
Dana?”

She licked her lips.

“
You want your child to grow
up without a mother?”

She took a shuddering
breath. “I…”

“
Let me deal with this,” he
said. “You get the hell out of here. Try not to think about
it.”

“
But, Cole, I killed these
people. They were out here camping, and I attacked them and I…”
Images and sensations flooded back at her. The joy of leaping, the
ecstasy of her teeth in flesh, the spurt of blood filling her
mouth.

“
Why were they even out
here?” he said. “Who camps next to the werewolf
headquarters?”

“
There’s a campground out
here somewhere. Actually, I think that’s part of the draw, being so
close to the SF. It’s a rush or something. I don’t know.” She
stared at the fire, at the bodies. The skin was turning black. Fat
sizzled and popped in the heat. It should disgust her, but instead…
it smelled appetizing. She turned away, running her hands through
her wet hair. “I’ve always been able to control it. You told me
once that the wolf wouldn’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

His voice was quiet. “You
must have gone too deep.”

“
What do you mean?” She
still wasn’t looking at him.

“
Before, when I told
you that, I’d never let myself get lost. Now… now I’ve tunneled
deep down inside the wolf. I’ve gone weeks sometimes, months, not
even shifting back to human. Sometimes, when I’m that far in,
even
being
human
seems like some kind of dream that I had. And then, the wolf is in
complete control of me.”

She turned back. That was
why he looked so wild, then. He was more wolf than man now, and she
could sense it about him. What was more, she liked it. It called to
her. “Have you… killed humans?”

“
No,” he said. “But only
because there weren’t any humans around.”

“
But you know so much about
how to… get rid of the evidence.” She gestured towards the
fire.

“
This?” He shrugged. “I’m
improvising, Dana.”

She hugged herself again.
She had killed people.
Killed
them. Why didn’t she seem to be able to actually
come to terms with that? Why didn’t she hate herself?

“
Go ahead,” he said softly.
“Get out of here. I’ll take care of this.”

She looked at the burning
bodies and then back at Cole. This was all too much for her. She
knew that she should protest his involvement. She knew that she
should march back into headquarters, declare her guilt, and let
them lock her up somewhere. She was a werewolf murderer. A menace.
A danger to the populace. But she wasn’t going to do that, and she
knew it. She simply nodded at him. Once. “Thank you,” she said
softly.

And she left.

* * *

When Dana got back to her apartment,
she sent Sherry home, and she put Piper to bed. The little girl
seemed subdued as Dana tucked her in.

“
Mommy?” she asked, and
there was a crease in her forehead.

“
What, sweetie?”

“
Is something bad
happening?”

“
Why would you say
that?”

“
You made Daddy mad
today.”

Dana sighed. That was how
Piper saw it, did she? It was incredible the way the girl
hero-worshiped her father. If Avery said something, Piper took it
as gospel. Dana didn’t know if it was because of a normal little
girl relationship with her father, or if there was something of the
wolf bond in all of it. Avery was Piper’s alpha, after all. Dana
was an alpha to the little girl too, but the relationship between
them was different.

Piper wouldn’t begin
shifting into a werewolf until sometime after puberty, but that
didn’t mean she didn’t still have wolf instincts coursing through
her tiny body.

Dana tucked the covers
snugly under Piper’s chin. “Well, Daddy made me mad
too.”

“
Why?”

“
That’s not important,” said
Dana. “What’s important is that you understand that we can get mad
at each other, but we still love each other. And we both love you
so, so much.”