I stepped backward and felt an emptiness behind me. I quickly glanced over my shoulder and saw Max was gone.
Where was he? Why would he disappear when Molly was right in front of me?
“I hope you enjoyed your little Sarah Connor moment back there,” Molly began. It impressed me that she even knew who Sarah Connor was. “Because that was the last thing you’ll ever do,” she finished.
“You don’t have to kill me.”
“Of course I don’t have to. I want to.”
“You’re afraid of damnation and what your actions mean, but it’s not too late. We can help you the way we’re helping Melanie. There’s still time to change.”
“You act like I have anything to change for. You took away from me the only person I had left. I might as well embrace what I am, right? That you can help me with.” She lunged forward, her hands in a predatory slashing motion, and her teeth bare and ready for my neck. Molly didn’t make it more than a foot toward me before werewolf Max knocked her down and took a bite out of her collarbone area. I don’t think I had ever heard a scream more guttural and enraged. She shoved him off quickly, and in the blink of an eye, disappeared. All that was left of her was a pool of blood and a long trail of it that ran through the snow and down the pathway straight in front of us. Molly was long gone.
Max crouched in the snow and remained very still. The long hairs of his fur slowly shortened, his limbs elongated, and his human skin peeked through. His werewolf flesh and hair fell off of his body in chunks like he was ripping off rubber prosthetics. I had seen bits and pieces of someone turning into a werewolf, but never someone shifting back. It was quicker, quieter, and oddly fascinating to watch.
It only took a minute for a nude, human Max to be standing where his animalistic form once was, surrounded by hair and blood, and seemingly being comfortable about the whole thing. I guess he’d have to be by now.
I rushed toward him and threw my arms around his body and kissed him passionately. Max’s hands roamed all over my body and up to my face, pulling our mouths apart so he could look me in the eye. We pressed together our noses as he held my face between his hands. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I have no idea how to answer that,” I told him with a small, nervous laugh. “I didn’t die, so that’s gotta count for something, right?”
“You’re not leaving my side ever again. I’ll sew our legs together if I have to.”
“You’re so romantic,” I teased.
Max grew very serious. “Cora. What did he do to you?”
I swallowed. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just get rid of him, okay? Where’s Melanie?”
“With Dana. Where’s Daggett and Priscilla?”
“I have no clue. We lost each other. This night is falling apart.”
“Yeah? What was your first clue?”
The moon glistened against his bare chest. “Oh, God, you’re naked.”
“You always were perceptive.”
“No, I mean…” I groaned. “Aren’t you freezing?”
“I shed my skin multiple times in the last fifteen minutes. I’m actually burning up.”
“Under normal circumstances, I’d make a joke out of you standing here in the buff telling me you’re burning up, but I won’t.”
“You just did.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t very funny.”
“None of your jokes are.”
I pouted. “I almost died, you—” Max slammed his lips to mine, kissing me hard. We both knew we had people to get back to and dangers we had to face, but we were so happy to see each other and be in one another’s arms again that we couldn’t stop.
When we pulled apart, my lips were swollen and warm. The cold was suddenly not a problem.
“Let’s find the group,” Max said. “And my fucking pants.”
Chapter Forty-Four
CORA
Max didn’t end up finding his clothes, but we did go back to the shed Pricilla and I had stumbled onto and swiped a blanket that he then wrapped around his hips. It relieved me that he didn’t have his stuff swinging in the cold wind anymore, and it would no longer jeopardize our shot of having children in the future. I was also relieved to know that we were close to where I last saw Priscilla and Daggett. They couldn’t have gotten too far, so we’d be reunited soon.
“You sure Melanie is all right?” I asked as my hands tangled together.
“You know I can’t know that for sure,” Max replied seriously, keeping close to me. “She’s not alone, which is…helpful, but…”
“But?”
“We have to be on the lookout for Veronica and a werewolf. I saw them come in here a while back. They could be anywhere.”
“We already ran into her.”
His eyes raised. “Is she dead?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. She was chasing us, and it’s how we got separated.”
“Great…”
I was worried about them, but I tried to keep up a brave front. I felt like we would have heard something if they were dead. Or Max would have smelled their blood.
“So, you never saw the werewolf?” he asked.
“For about five seconds, before it took off.”
Max groaned. He was concerned, but trying not to show it. Just like me. “We got rid of the other werewolves, at least.”
“Other?” I halted, and the memory of them charging out into the front lawn suddenly flooded into my brain. I pressed against my temples. “That’s right. A lot of what happened back there is a little…foggy.”
Max lovingly coddled my face. “How are you feeling now? You need to rest?”
“Rest? With my cousin out there? Let’s keep
