The Better to Bite (Howl #1)(43)

My heart stopped slamming into my chest. In fact, it seemed to stop beating entirely.

Granny Helen shook her head. “Who do you think cursed the hunters who came to Haven?”

I turned and ran for the door.

“Be careful, child…” Her voice followed me. “And don’t let any wolves in your door.”

Too late.

I shoved back the curtains. Jenny was at the cash register, a plastic bag gripped tightly in her hands. Cassidy smiled at her like a cat with cream.

I rushed by them both. “We’ve got to go,” I told Jenny as I grabbed her arm and pulled. “I’ve got to find my dad.”

And get the truth from him.

No matter how ugly it was.

***

But my dad wasn’t at the station. Deputy Jon, his sandy hair mussed and his green eyes tired, told me that he’d gone out for a scout in the woods with one of the rangers.

They were still recovering the bodies of the dead wolves.

I dropped Jenny off at her house. She stared at me with worried eyes but didn’t question me.

Then I went home as fast as I could.

I had to find my dad.

Sure, most girls would probably just call their dad on their cell phones. I wasn’t most girls. I had a much faster connection. Besides, I didn’t want to talk to him over the phone. For this little father-daughter chat, I wanted to see him in person.

The better to catch any lies he might try to give me.

I parked my car, stared into the woods, and just thought—

Where are you, dad?

I saw him in my mind, standing by a stream. The water rushed over the pale white bones that had been tossed into that shallow stream.

The image connected immediately in my head. The hiker. Susie Harper. He’d found the body. I cried out and covered my eyes, but it wasn’t my eyes that were doing the seeing. Not even close. Why, why did I have to—

“Anna!”

Hands were on me. Hard, tight, pulling my arms down. My eyes flew open, and I found Rafe in front of me.

I lifted my knee and kicked him in the groin as hard as I could. He doubled over, and I turned and ran for the house.

Don’t let any wolves in your door.

“Anna, wait!”

My dad had gotten me a new can of mace. Stupidly, I’d left it in the bag on the porch. I grabbed my bag and yanked out the mace. I held it in front of me. “The last time I sprayed a wolf…” And I still didn’t know what special brew my dad was giving me, but no way was it your garden variety pepper spray. Not if Dad really knew the score in this town. “The wolf I sprayed started to burn.”

He’d doubled over, but as I stared at him, Rafe’s head rose, and his eyes found mine. “You don’t need that,” he gritted as he straightened. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Why are you here?” He’d given me a nice cold shoulder routine after that whole bit of insanity during lunch.

His hands fisted. “I haven’t been honest with you.”

My fingers tightened around the mace. “I don’t exactly need that newsflash. I realized the truth last night when I learned the whole werewolf bit.”

Rafe’s lips—lips that I stupidly remembered too well against my own—hardened. “You asked me about the other wolves in this town.”

I didn’t like where this was going. I already had a suspicion and…

Rafe shook his head. “Whatever you do, don’t trust Brent, okay?”

No, I definitely didn’t like this. “Brent’s never done anything to me.”

“He hasn’t done anything, yet.”

“Are you saying—is he like you?” I asked but I already knew. No one could heal as fast as he had. No one.

Rafe stared back at me. He made no move to come closer. He just watched me with that steady gaze that saw too much. “You’re afraid of me.” He seemed confused. “But not him?”

His words weren’t an answer. Or maybe they were. Either way, I still wasn’t dropping my mace. “What do you want from me?” I demanded because there had to be something, some reason that he’d sought me out.

I was the new girl in town, and suddenly, the two hottest guys in the school were both showing me way too much attention.

Because I was drop dead gorgeous? Um, no.

Because they were freaking werewolves, and they wanted something from me.

I caught the slight flare of Rafe’s eyes and realized I’d hit close to the truth.

“I know about this town,” I told him. Part of me wanted to run inside and slam the door, but a much bigger part wanted to race down the porch steps and shake the truth from him. I managed not to move at all. “Granny Helen told me. Witches started this place, huh? And let me guess—your family, Brent’s family—they would have been the hunters who followed the witches here.”

He nodded.

Progress. “So what do you think? Because some ancient ancestor of mine thought she was a witch, I can—”

“She didn’t think she was a witch. She was.” Flat. “And because of your mistake today, the others will know you’re just like her.”

My brows shot up. “My mistake?”

He took one stalking step toward me. Then another. I held my ground and my mace. “You really think Valerie took your necklace?”