CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

 

Wait, she realized. I’m thinking. I’m thinking thoughts in my wolf form. Human thoughts. With words and—

Her body was changing. She was turning back into a human. She could feel her fingers, her toes. She could feel that her face was wet, because she’d been crying tears.

She moved away from Mick, belly on the ground, army crawling.

Mick growled behind her, and she could almost hear the disbelief in his tone.

She felt triumphant.

But then…

Oh God, no!

She was shifting again. Mick was forcing her back into wolf form.

She gritted her teeth. She wouldn’t let him. She focused everything on her human form, intent on keeping it.

And the shift stopped.

Mick growled again.

She grabbed the wall and yanked herself to her feet.

She hurried away, tripping down the steps to the first story.

Careening down the hall, she arrived in the kitchen.

She threw open the door to the basement and rushed down the steps, her heart in her throat. She didn’t know what to expect. Would it be carnage, the bodies of Melanie and Joan ripped to shreds, Holden buried in their grisly remains, his muzzle red with blood?

Well, Holden was in wolf form.

But he hadn’t touched them. He was circling them, sniffing, growling, but they were whole.

She let out a sigh of relief. Now, if she could only figure out how to teach him to shift back to human form too. Then everything would be okay.

She went down the rest of the steps, holding out her hand to Holden. She didn’t know what to do. Should she call him? Like a dog?

Mick appeared on the steps behind her. “What? What’s wrong with you, boy? Kill, damn it, kill!”

Holden snarled, his ears flattening against his skull.

“Stop it,” Carrie said to Mick.

Mick opened his mouth to say something else.

Carrie did it without thinking. The change came over her body as she willed it—easy and beautiful, like a waterfall rushing over her skin. The wolf streamed over her, through her, into her.

And she bounded up in one long, liquid leap, tackling Mick and pinning him to the steps.

Mick was too shocked to react.

And she didn’t give him the chance to gather himself.

She went for his throat, her sharp teeth ripping it out, taking his life, stopping the beating of his heart.

There was blood, spraying, flowing…

But Carrie didn’t get caught up in its delicious bouquet.

Instead, she turned to make sure that Holden…

Yes. He had already shifted back into human form. The bond with Mick had been severed along with Mick’s life.

* * *

Melanie rubbed her wrists where the rope had bit into her skin. She looked tired and haggard but relieved. Carrie thought that it was horrible what she had been through. She couldn’t stop apologizing.

“It’s okay,” Melanie finally said. “I know it wasn’t your fault. It was that Mick man who did this.”

Carrie and Holden were both wrapped in throw blankets from the sofa in the den, since they didn’t have their clothes anymore. At some point, Carrie figured she would find something for both of them to wear, but it was most important now to make sure that Melanie and Joan were okay.

Joan was shocked. She stared at both Carrie and Holden, wide-mouthed. “You guys are werewolves.”

Carrie nodded. “Yeah. Apparently, yeah. I was born that way.”

“But… but you don’t change on full moons,” said Joan.

“It’s a long story,” said Carrie. “And I promise I’ll get into it for you at some point. But the good news is that we’re safe now. Mick was hurting us, forcing us to do terrible things, and now he can’t do that anymore.” She wasn’t glad that she’d killed someone else, but someone like Mick surely deserved it. He had needed to be put down. He had proved over and over again that he wasn’t going to stop hurting them, so there had been no other choice.

“Well,” said Melanie. “Now, we need to call the SF.”

“What?” said Carrie. “No, I can’t let you do that.”

“Seriously, Mel, you can’t,” said Holden.

“Can’t?” Melanie’s eyebrows shot up. “Holden, you’re a monster. I just saw you shift back from wolf form. You could have killed me.”

“But he didn’t,” said Carrie. “Even without training, he wasn’t a vicious beast when he turned. He knew enough—”

“I didn’t know anything,” Holden said quietly. “It’s just dumb luck, I guess. Maybe the wolf wasn’t hungry.”

“You did it,” said Carrie. “Your will carried over from when you were in human form to when you were in wolf form.”

Holden shrugged. “If you say so. But I don’t feel like that’s true.”

“We have to call the SF,” said Melanie. “Otherwise, he’ll hurt someone.”

“He won’t,” said Carrie. “The only reason he was even shifted right now was because Mick made him do it.”

“Well, what about the next full moon?” said Melanie.

“Yeah, why don’t you shift on full moons?” said Joan.

“I do,” said Carrie. “Well, I did, but Mick stopped me from shifting. He was my alpha.”

“And now he’s dead,” said Holden. “So, next full moon, I’ll go nuts and kill my sister.”

“No,” said Carrie. But she had to admit, she wasn’t sure what might happen. She’d controlled her shifting now, breaking the ties between her and Mick, but when the moon called her… She remembered how strong the call of the silvery light had been, how much she was drawn to it. She bit down on her lip. “Maybe… maybe we should call the carnival.”

“The carnival?” said Joan. “What carnival? The one that Mick worked at.”

“It’s a carnival of wolves, apparently,” said Carrie. “His aunt and uncle run it.”

“We just killed their nephew,” said Holden.

“True.” Carrie felt a little sick. “But… I talked to his aunt once. She came to talk to me when the carnival was in town, and she said that I would be welcome there, no matter what.”

“I’m not sure what the problem is with going to the SF,” said Melanie.

“I don’t want to risk it,” said Carrie. “That place doesn’t seem like a good place. I don’t want to suppress my wolf.”

“You don’t?” said Holden.

She touched his arm. “You’ll see what I mean. It can be so beautiful.”

“You sound nuts,” said Mel.

“I’m just going to call.” Carrie figured it couldn’t hurt, right?

* * *

“Is Mick dead?” said his Aunt Calla when she heard Carrie’s voice.

“Uh, how did you know that?”

“You had to kill him, didn’t you? He went mad, didn’t he? He tried to hurt people, tried to rape you, maybe, got a head full of grandeur and wouldn’t listen to reason?”

“Uh… well, yeah,” said Carrie.

Calla sighed. “I knew it. I warned him. I told him that creating a pack like that—an unnatural pack—with him so young and inexperienced… The wolf bonds don’t play nice when they are manipulated in that way. You can’t fool nature. Adding the boy in as well, that was last straw. It broke him. I could tell when I talked to him. Damn it.”

Carrie swallowed. “So, you aren’t, uh, angry with me for killing him?”

“I’m sure you only did it because you had to.” Calla sighed. “Are you calling because you need a place to stay?”

“Actually, yes. It’s either the carnival or the SF. I’m not sure we can make it on our own. If we shift at the full moon…”

“Please come,” Calla said. “Please come as soon as you can.”