Chapter Five

 

I took a deep breath and turned back to the house. A dark form detached from the shadows.

“I was hoping you waited up,” I told Jet.

He nodded. His silence was as familiar to me as Nikki’s voice. Jet’s dark history had left him little chance to converse. He chose his words with care, and often let silence speak instead. The dark, wild, injured werewolf we had rescued turned out to be so much more than I ever could have imagined. He had assigned himself as my bodyguard, but he was also my best friend.

I walked across the driveway to the road. The barest hesitation touched my thoughts at leaving the perimeter we had set up. I gritted my teeth and pushed past it, unwilling to be afraid in my own city. Jet followed at my side without pausing. I didn’t know if he was ever afraid. If he was, he never showed it.

“After we tell the world the truth about werewolves, life is going to change.” I glanced at him. “It might get pretty crazy.”

He met my gaze. “It’s not already?”

I laughed. “Point taken.” I pulled the box from my pocket and handed it to him. “I’m planning to give this to Nikki tomorrow night.”

Jet’s interest sharpened. He opened the box and stared at the ring. It was gold with a small diamond in the middle. He ran a finger over it and glanced at me, his head tipped slightly to the side.

“It’s an engagement ring, the same one my dad gave to my mom.” I thought of the expression on Mom’s face when I asked her for it. She couldn’t stop smiling when she handed me the box.

“She deserves it,” Mom had said.

“Do you think it’s too soon?” I asked, though I had no doubts in my mind.

She shook her head. “Your father proposed to me three weeks after we met.” A light of loss tormented the depths of her eyes.

Every day I regretted my dad’s death. I wondered how I could have prevented it, if I could have. So much had changed since then. My naiveté was gone, torn apart by Dad’s murder and the numerous things I had seen since. Werewolf fighting rings, torture chambers, testing facilities, and experiments cruel enough to make grown men cry tormented my dreams. Thanks to my pack and my mother’s love, I had yet to lose my faith in humanity, but my conversation with Commander Rogart put that into question.

Yet Mom had kept me centered, and I stayed strong for her. I touched her arm and she sighed. “When a werewolf falls in love, there is nothing that can stand in his way. You love completely with every part of your soul.” The memories that surfaced in her eyes made her smile. “If it’s right for you, then I’m behind you every step of the way.”

Her words rang in my mind as I studied the ring. Jet frowned slightly. “Should I give one of these to Taye?”

I grinned as his uncertain expression. “Are you planning to marry her?”

His face paled. It was the first time I had ever seen Jet completely thrown off balance. “I, uh, well.” He swallowed, then met my gaze. “Yes.”

I nodded. “Then a ring would be good.” I held up a hand. “But you don’t have to do it immediately. We’re young, all of us. I just have never felt so certain about anything in my life, and I want her to know that.” I smiled at the thought of my dad. “I suppose you could say it’s tradition in my family for us to get married young.”

He was silent for several minutes while we walked. I didn’t mind his silence. His head turned at every sound, alert for any danger. My own senses strained, searching the darkness around us.

“I wonder if my family has any traditions like your engagement ring,” Jet mused quietly.

I glanced at him. “Wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

That brought a small smile to his face. Separated from his family when he was a baby, Jet was still getting used to being part of a real family. He looked for excuses to visit them, even if he spent most of the time in silence just enjoying being around them. They didn’t mind, especially his extremely energetic twin younger siblings. Spending time with him was their favorite thing in the world.

I could still feel the silver band around my neck. I rubbed the skin. It was almost healed, but I couldn’t shake the frustration of not being able to phase and fight back.

Jet watched me, his dark blue eyes catching my every move.

“Let’s run,” I said. He nodded.

I paused behind a tree and took off my clothes, leaving them in a pile in the shadows at the base so nobody would find them. Moonlight brushed across my shoulders, inviting the phase. I smiled and closed my eyes.

The full moon was still a week away, and it had been longer than usual since my last phase. I welcomed the pull as my limbs changed; my nose and mouth elongated into a muzzle, and black fur ran up my arms and down my back. I stretched when the phase was complete. A myriad of smells swarmed my nose and my brain worked quickly to categorize them. I padded out from behind the tree and flashed a wolfish grin at the black wolf with a silver seven on his shoulder, a remnant of Jet’s harsh past in the werewolf fighting rings.

He took the grin as a challenge and started running. My heart raced at the thrill of the chase. My paws pounded the ground before I even realized I was moving. Jet darted down a gully and up the other side. My feet barely touched the ground as I loped after him. I felt alive in every inch of my body, alert, focused, and free with my animal senses straining.

A twig snapped to the right under the weight of a rabbit’s hind leg as it darted away. A shadow graced my shoulders, the remnant of an owl’s silent departure into the night sky. We leaped a stream that babbled over rocks worn smooth and covered in moss. I passed Jet on the right only to have him leap from a boulder to land in front of me again. He ducked to the left through a fence, startling the cows that chewed their cud and dozed on their feet. I leaped the top of the fence, darted beneath a sleepy Angus, and jumped the last fence the same time he did.

We both slowed at the sight of the land stretched wide before us. No fences marred the landscape. Jet’s dark eyes danced as he stared down the gently sloped decline. I followed him feeling lighter than I had since talking to Commander Rogart. With such a world beneath our feet, it was hard to dwell on anything negative.