another one fell, then another. I buried my face in my hands as all the grief from the past—and the past week— welled up and spilled out in great, heaving sobs. The biggest insult was that Robert wasn’t there to hold me and comfort me, to let me cry on his shoulder.
When I raised my face to the sky, I saw the clouds had turned dark gray, and an ominous rumble was enough to send me scurrying off the bluff and back toward the Manor. Soon sheets of rain fell, and I had to stop to get my bearings as the path seemed to taper off into the woods. Had I taken the wrong path off the bluff? I didn’t know if there was more than one, but then, things may have changed since my childhood. Righteous indignation welled up. I’d been through enough, and now the forest would betray me? I picked a direction that felt right and headed that way, picking my way through the underbrush.
I walked along, pelted by raindrops so big they may as well have been small water balloons. My clothes were soaked completely, and I couldn’t help but ponder how miserable I was. It was all Robert’s fault. If he hadn’t screwed up my appeal to keep my job, I wouldn’t be in this mess.
I continued to walk through the forest, completely lost, and then the rain let up enough for me to hear something behind me. It matched me step for step, only a beat behind. I quickened my pace, and it did as well. The image of the black wolf came to mind, the way it had stalked me and driven me into hiding on the night of the fire, and then how it had reappeared the night of Louise’s death. Had it played with me enough? Was it waiting to finally drag me to my doom?
Strong arms wrapped around me and tackled me to the ground on a bed of pine needles. The smell, the same as in my dream, burned my nostrils. I screamed at the top of my lungs and brought my knee up to my attacker’s groin. He grunted, but laid on top of me, which completely immobilized me. I squirmed anyway.
“Will you be still?” asked a familiar voice.
I stopped writhing. “Leo?”
“Who else?” He raised himself up on his hands and looked at me through rain-soaked hair. I became acutely aware of his thighs across mine, his face only inches away, and his hair dripping into my eyes.
I turned my head away. “Okay, okay, I surrender.” Then a thought crossed my mind, and I couldn’t help but giggle.
“Oh, for God’s sake, what are you laughing at?”
I rolled on to my side, now laughing so hard I couldn’t speak for a moment. He sat back on his heels and watched me.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I sat up. “The thought just hit me that I’m very glad you don’t smell like wet dog.”
His lips twitched. “Actually, it’s a good thing I do smell like a dog, otherwise I wouldn’t have found you. Do you have any idea how far away from the Manor you are?”
I looked around as though I could divine my location from the trees. “I’m completely lost.”
“Well, it’s going to be a bit of a walk back. Come on.” He stood and held out his hand to me. I took it, and he helped me to my feet.
“How is your wrist?” he asked as we walked back the direction I had come.
I held it up. “Fine. You didn’t damage it when you tackled me.”
“Good. I was trying not to.”
“Did Lonna send you?”
“No. I saw you leave the Manor and was worried when the storm blew in and you didn’t.”
“Are you my guardian angel now?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me. “Now that is one job I would
“This is actually the lesser of the two today.” I remembered Kyra’s running after us at the junkyard. “I think your girlfriend tried to shoot me earlier.”
“Who?” The shocked expression on his face seemed genuine, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Kyra. She came after us today when we talked to Ricky, the junkyard guy.”
“I know Ricky. He’s a good guy. Kyra tried to shoot you?”
“She ran after us yelling something about a man-stealer.”
He brushed leaves off his jeans. “And she had a gun?”
“Not that I could see, but she reached in her pocket.”
“If she was fresh off the hunt, who knows what she was thinking?” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “She lost a lot when she developed CLS. We all did, but it really screwed up her lifestyle.”
I crossed my arms. Was he actually defending her? “And what did she lose?”
“Her business. Her home. Her life. She ran a modeling agency in Memphis and Little Rock. Her main clients were girls whose parents were willing to pay her outrageous fees for classes, but to her credit, she was very good at placing them with companies in New York and L.A. When she started disappearing at night and news of her erratic behavior got around, her contacts dried up, then her clients, and she finally had to close the agency.” His voice became a little hoarse, and I could tell Kyra’s loss echoed his own. “She moved up here, where her parents had a cabin. They’d died the year before and left her a little money, and she found a place where she wouldn’t be bothered and where she could exist as a werewolf.”
“Wow.” My problems seemed a little better compared to having lost everything. “She shouldn’t have come after us, though.”
He turned away and studied the gloom ahead. “Who am I to say what she should or shouldn’t have done? We all make mistakes, Joanie.”
It was my turn to look away as my wrist gave a little throb. Or maybe it was my heart. We walked the rest of the way in silence.
Chapter Thirteen
“Thank God!” Lonna threw open the kitchen door and hugged me close in spite of my wet clothes. “I didn’t know what had happened to you. You were gone for hours.”
“And you didn’t send the cavalry?”
“Ron said Leo had gone after you. I figured he would be best since he knows the woods.”
I looked at Leo, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. It struck me that Kyra was his pack-mate, and who was I? Nothing but an ivory-tower princess who may or may not know the secret to their cures. And if they were cured, would they then live happily ever after?
Lonna distracted me from my thoughts by throwing a giant bath sheet around me. “Go on up and take a shower. Gabriel will have dinner waiting when you get done.”
The butler was waiting for me at the top of the stairs. “Are you okay?” he asked. The concern in his eyes almost made me start crying again, but I felt ashamed for having gotten lost and then for wanting to wallow in my self-pity and grief, especially since others had lost so much more.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Good, then. I’ve drawn a nice, hot bath for you and warmed your robe and slippers.”
“Thank you, Gabriel.”
He inclined his head, and I searched for something more in his smile. His face didn’t change, but he squeezed the top of my arm as I walked past him.
I felt more human after my bath and walked down the stairs to find Leo, Ron and Lonna in the sitting room. Gabriel had retreated into the kitchen and, I found when he handed me a glass of shiraz without saying a word, into his formal persona.
“Galbraith called while you were upstairs,” Lonna said. “I told him you’d call him back when you were available.”
“You didn’t tell him I was bathing, did you? He’s the last person I want thinking of me naked.” I caught Leo’s glance and felt the heat in my chest and cheeks. “I’ll make the call in my office.”
