The Better to Bite (Howl #1)(67)

Rafe. The wolf stared at me, body quivering with rage and bloodlust. But he didn’t attack. He came closer to me, and he used his body to push me away from Valerie.

She was shifting, the fur melting from her body. Not a terrible monster anymore. Just a girl, one with a knife in her back and with a broken body that lay sprawled on the ground.

I hadn’t been in time to save Valerie.

But maybe that was the point.

Maybe.

Rafe began to change. Slower, harder than before. The sound of his bones reshaping should have horrified me.

But I was far past horror.

I barely even noticed his nudity. His arms came around me. I knew he was still hurt. I could see the claw marks on his throat, but he only seemed worried about me.

Not such a big, bad wolf—at least, he didn’t seem that way to me.

He picked me up and carried me away from Valerie, and I realized that I’d just been staring down at her body. She wasn’t moving.

I’d killed her.

I’d thought it would be harder to kill someone like her.

“Val…” Brent’s broken voice. He dropped to his knees before her. She lay face down on the ground, her long mane of hair covering her face. “Val, you should have come to me, you should have—”

And she spun over in an instant.

So not dead.

She was just like one of those movie monsters that wouldn’t stay down.

“Why?” Valerie snarled and her claws were still out. She wrapped those claws around Brent’s throat, and literally threw him into the air.

Oh, crap.

“I should have told you my plan?” She yelled after him. “So you could stop me? So you could try to protect her?”

She smiled then, and the sight almost stopped my heart. A smile shouldn’t hold such evil.

“It’s the blood, you know.” Now she said this in her chirpy VIP cheerleader voice. Not the psycho wolf voice that she could use. Her hand reached behind her, and she yanked the knife from her back. “I’ve learned that human blood makes our kind much, much stronger.”

Dad, where are you? The cry was only in my mind, but the answer came to me immediately as I pictured him running through the woods, with wolves at his side.

He’s coming to find me.

“Valerie, this isn’t you.” Rafe was trying to be calm. I didn’t think calm was going to work so well with the psycho who was apparently flying high on human blood. “You aren’t a killer,” he said.

She blinked at that and looked rather confused. “Of course, I am. Just like you are—just like Brent is. I saw you, you know…”

She walked toward us. Rafe’s arms tightened around me.

“You and Brent,” she continued. “I saw you change last spring.” She lifted a claw-tipped hand and pointed to the woods. “I saw you running out here, and I knew the two of you were just like me.”

Brent had risen to his feet.

“We don’t kill!” Rafe snarled at her.

“Not yet, but you will.” Valerie seemed so certain. “Once you get a taste of their blood, once you feel the power, you will.” Her eyes found me. “Blood and death will be all either of you know, unless Anna saves you.” She laughed, a wild, mad laugh. “And she’ll only save you by dying.”

“You’re crazy!” I screamed the truth at her. “I can’t save anyone! I’m not a witch! I’m just a girl who—”

She lunged for me. She shoved Rafe right out of her way as if he were nothing, and as I fell from his arms, she wrapped those claws around my throat.

“Lost your necklace?” She taunted. “It won’t save you now, nothing will—”

“I will.” Rafe’s voice. He’d risen instantly to his feet. “Valerie, in case no one’s ever told you this…you can be one real bitch.”

Then he grabbed her and wrenched her away from me.

But Valerie didn’t fight him. She just fell to the ground and stared up at me, her face slack with surprise. “Y-your neck…”

My hand was on my neck, looking for blood. But she hadn’t ripped into me. Not yet.

“Silver…” Valerie rose to her feet. “I’ve seen that rash before.”

It wasn’t surprising that she could see in the dark. Not with those glowing yellow eyes that were burning so bright, but I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about.

Then she started laughing.

“Get Anna out of here!” Rafe ordered Brent as he pushed me toward the other guy. “I’ll stop Valerie!”

My knees buckled. Too much blood loss. I wanted to fight but I was suddenly too weak. Broken.

Brent caught me and lifted me into his arms. His lips brushed across my forehead.

I couldn’t outrun a wolf.

But he could.

“You’re just like your mother.” Valerie’s taunting voice carried in the night. More laughter, and I really wanted to punch the bitch, but I didn’t even have the strength to lift my arm. “Not a savior, are you, Anna Lambert? You’re just as much of a monster as I am.”

Her words settled deep inside me.

Just like your mother.

No, no, that wasn’t right—

“Stop,” I whispered to Brent.