The Better to Bite (Howl #1)(66)

She smiled at me. I saw her fangs. I saw the evil. Why hadn’t I seen it before? Why hadn’t anyone?

“How?” The snapped question came from Rafe. “You weren’t born here in Haven, you weren’t—”

“Seems my great-grandfather enjoyed seeking some fun times outside of his marriage.” Valerie’s sharpening teeth snapped together. “Of course, he never bothered telling his lovers about his little family trait of turning into a werewolf.”

I started to shake, I couldn’t help it, and more of my blood dripped on the ground.

Bleeding too much.

“But I figured out how to stop the curse.” Leaves crunched, and I knew she was coming for me. “All we have to do is kill the witch.”

I shook my head. Brent still wasn’t moving. Be alive.

“Rafe…” Now Valerie’s voice had dropped and taken on a silken, almost seductive quality. “You like me, Rafe. You’ve met me under the moonlight and kissed me so many times.”

First she’d stabbed me, now this? My back teeth locked. But I couldn’t move. If I did, I was pretty sure I’d fall on my face.

“If we kill her,” Valerie, VIP, cheerleader, werewolf, killer—crazy bitch—continued, “then we can be free—together. I found a journal in Helen’s shop. The journal told me everything I needed to know.”

She’d found the journal?

“To break a witch’s curse, you have to break the witch. The cursed have to drink her blood. She has to die, then we can be free!”

It sounded like a sucky option to me, but then, I was the one who’d have to do the dying. Rafe was the one who’d been forced to change into a wolf, over and over again. His family had been the one cursed.

This might be sounding like one very good deal to him.

I choked back my whimper of fear because yeah, right then, big, bad old me felt like whimpering, and I tried to pull away from Rafe.

His hold just tightened. Then his eyes, still with that glow of yellow around the edges, met mine. “You think I’m going to let you go?” His voice was a terrible blend of a man’s deep rumble and a wolf’s snarl.

Valerie laughed.

So sorry, Dad. So—

“No, I won’t.” His claws were out. I could feel them on my skin. But then those claws pushed me behind his back, and I heard him say, “And if you think you’re taking her from me, then Val, you’d better think again.”

My breath exploded from my lungs in a shocked rush. I peered over his shoulder and watched as Valerie screamed. No, howled. The pretty cheerleader vanished and a raving wolf took her place as bones snapped and popped and fur exploded along her body. Then she was attacking Rafe. Her teeth came right at his throat but he caught her, and drove his claws into her thick fur.

“Run!” He screamed at me. “Get out of here, Anna, run!”

Clutching my stomach, still attempting to stop the blood, I tried to run. I slipped instantly because my legs wouldn’t work. But then I crawled back to my feet.

I didn’t head for the thick darkness of the trees. Even without a knife wound to the gut, I couldn’t outrun a wolf. There was no point in trying.

But, I did have my own skills.

Lost. The knife. Valerie had dropped it. It was—

I jumped forward, scrambled five feet to the left and picked up the knife. My blood was still on the blade.

Rafe was changing, shifting as fast as he could as he fought Valerie.

Brent groaned. Still alive. I managed to get to his side. He was back to being a boy, not a beast. Blood had darkened his skin, but I couldn’t see any wounds. Those wolves, they could heal so fast.

“S-sorry, Anna.” He shook his head. “Didn’t think she was…so far gone.”

I slid my shoulders under his arm and helped him to stand. Rafe and Valerie had both shifted fully, and they were a tangle of dark fur, claws, and rage.

The fight was vicious as growls filled the air. They bit. They clawed. Blood flowed.

“You have to…get out of here,” Brent told me. “Leave me. Go find…your dad.”

But I shook my head. “I can’t—”

Just then, one of the wolves sank its teeth into the other’s throat.

“Rafe!” I screamed because I didn’t know which wolf was— The wolf yanked its teeth back and turned toward me. The yellow eyes locked on me, and the rage in that burning stare seemed to dim as the beast stared at me.

I looked deep into those eyes, falling into the wildness, falling into…

Rafe.

Too late, I realized the wolf beneath him was attacking. With a swipe of her claws, Valerie went right for Rafe’s unprotected throat.

“No!”

I yanked away from Brent. He swore behind me, and I heard him hit the ground. The wolves were rolling, twisting, and too much blood was flowing.

A tangle of black fur. Fangs. Fury.

Don’t go into the woods.

Blood and death.

Nightmares.

Reality.

I lifted the knife. Only one chance, only one.

But I knew my wolf. I knew. The same way I could never get lost. I knew my wolf. Something clicked in me.

I shoved the knife deep into Valerie’s back. The wolf’s body stiffened and a long, mournful howl broke from her throat. Then she shuddered, and her body slumped to the side, falling onto the ground.