Werewolf Wedding(39)

He stood up and crossed the room, cheap, industrial-grade carpet scrunching under his bare feet. Pushing the vertically hanging blinds apart, he caught a glimpse of the waxing crescent moon and let the light bathe him in silver for a moment.

Deep in his chest, thoughts of Delilah’s lips, the way she tasted when he kissed her, the way her scent down there intoxicated him. He remember how she arched against him, how her hips felt when he lay his hands on them and squeezed her against his mouth. A shudder crept through the huge wolf, which he soon realized was the twinge of longing.

He needed her. Desperately.

Without her, he’d lose his whole pack and the business, but as he watched the moon and listened to a nightingale sing in the distance, he realized that wasn’t what mattered. It probably had never been what mattered.

When he closed his eyes he could still see her body, her shape, outlined by the moon with a halo of shimmering silver around her curves. He pulled one of his lips between his teeth and chewed. The whiskers rasped between his teeth, the rough, dragging sensation giving him a moment’s worth of respite. That was all though – he was worried, and worried to the point of sickness. Since she’d vanished, he had no appetite, which was very, very bad for someone who normally eats eight thousand calories a day.

His skin was starting to get sallow and his cheeks sunken. He looked like he was tired, and felt the exhaustion in his bones. Sleeping was all he wanted to do, but he knew that couldn’t last. He worried that he’d somehow made Delilah panic, or that something had made her run. Fate, he knew, had drawn them together, but all it would take was something very human – insecurity or worry or fear – to rip them apart.

Or it could be something very non-human.

Either way, Jake thought, three days with no word isn’t a good sign. It’s especially bad with Dane doing whatever he can to stop us from getting him out of the pack for good. I need to find her, but I need to clear my head.

Jake was already naked, his body glowing with the moon’s pale, gentle light. A naked trot through the woods wasn’t going to give him the clarity he needed, though. He needed speed and release. Looking down below his second story window, he made sure there were no people to see when he shifted.

With a deep breath, Jake Somerset crouched down, and felt the fur slide out of his skin. Goosebumps followed the coarse, thick hairs that sprouted along his shoulders first, and then down his spine. His neck thickened and his arms quickly took their new place.

He took one last quick look out the window and smelled the air, his lupine nose a thousand times more sensitive than his human one.

It’s clear, he thought.

And then, he jumped.

*

Footfall after footfall crunched in the leaves underneath his huge, lanky, powerful body. Every cord and muscle running through him was tight with power, ready to explode. Over and over, Jake let the energy blast through him as he dashed through the dense, bramble-filled woods.

He was a silver blur, like moonlight shooting through the darkness. In his wake he left dust and leaves and earth kicked up, disturbed, but only for a moment before all of it settled neatly back down to the forest floor.

It’s been a long time since I did this. Too long.

Around a thickly-rooted live oak he dashed, ducking underneath the overhanging branches. He didn’t notice a bramble that cut into his skin, but the pain was just more awakening, just more warmth that coursed through his veins. Out here there wasn’t a single thing that could hurt him, or distract him, or cause any pain. Nothing that is, except what was already in his head – worry about Delilah and rage at what his brother had done.

I should’ve killed him when I had the chance. Should have ordered a hit like they told me to do. But no, Jake chided himself as he leapt over a mound with some ribs protruding. His stomach growled. But no, I had to leave him alone. I had to pretend that I thought he’d either stay gone, or that he’d come around and stop acting like a lunatic. I had to see the best in him and not the reality. I had to see the brother I’d grown up with... not the one he became.

A howl in the distance pricked Jake’s ears. There were normal wolves in these woods too, but the call he heard was different from those. It was louder, more powerful, lower-toned.

And past that, he recognized the voice.

Dane.

The name slid through his chest like cold venom, paralyzing the blood in his heart. He didn’t hate his brother, as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t hate him. He knew him too well, knew his life too well.

Another voice joined his brother’s – this one he didn’t know. Jake shook his head and kept running, kept filling his lungs with cold night air, kept letting his thoughts wander.

The wolf voices were distant. Miles away, probably, and their calling at night was nothing surprising or strange. It’s what wolves did; it’s what nature demanded of them, even if in so many other ways, they had long ago abandoned their wild, fierce selves.

I should go to him, Jake thought. If I do, I can threaten him, beat him, make him relent. He might be crazy, but I know how to fight.

The thought of crunching a fist into his brother’s nose, or swiping a paw across his chest gave Jake a warm, comfortable feeling – and that worried him. He was becoming what he feared, what he hated most about his brother. He couldn’t give in to those animal urges, not if he wanted to keep the pack from chaos, and not if he wanted to keep Delilah from descending straight into madness with him.