Aiden frowned. “I’m a good reader of Skins, and Lupines. I didn’t sense anything.”
“Me either,” Darius echoed.
“There are rumors about Perry around campus, but they don’t amount to much,” Dale added.
Terrific. They didn’t believe her. I’m doomed to be like Cassandra, able to predict a grim future, but no one trusts my words.
Troy studied her intently. “What kind of magick, Jenny?”
Trust him to know she spoke the truth. He’d seen some of her odd powers. The others had not.
“He’s evil,” she blurted out. He possesses dark magick.”
Aiden said nothing, but she sensed his disbelief.
Still, she persisted. “You need to do everything you can to keep him off this land. I would even engage the help of that other professor, Carson, if that Skin wishes to protect the wolf pack in your territory.”
“They may be warring for academic recognition. But evil?” Darius shook his head. “I’ve lived among Skins and I sense nothing truly evil about Perry.”
“My Beth says he’s respected, although quirky.” Dale shook his head. “I don’t agree with you, Jenny.”
Aiden gave her a long look. “You say Perry is dangerous. Tell me how you know.”
If she revealed the truth, they’d know she was different. She glanced at Troy, who wanted to be part of this pack. Wanted it more than anything. Troy needed to belong.
He wanted her with him.
She wanted to be with him.
Troy had done so much for her in the past. Now was not the time to reveal her quirky powers. Jenny shrugged. “Call it instinct. I know.”
“Not good enough. The pack needs to be informed. I’ll tell them tomorrow at our noon monthly meeting in the auditorium” Aiden stood, and the look he gave Troy seemed filled with warning. “I expect both of you will be there.”
Troy glanced at Jenny. “We will.”
Once she might have protested. She wasn’t part of this pack, or any pack. But today Jenny felt a nagging urge to be part of this. Because she understood the real threat Perry presented.
Even if no one else did.
Chapter 11
Due to the odd nature of Perry’s visit, Troy wanted to pitch in at the ranch helping Dale patrol the territory. Jenny assured Troy she’d be fine at the cabin, and told him she needed a nap.
Grinning at her, he drove away on the ATV as she waved from the porch.
She went inside.
Could not sleep, thinking about the death’s head skull on Perry. Thinking about the wolf pack and the odd and evil smells around the area.
Finally she gave up, dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved blue T-shirt and her hiking boots and slipped out the back door.
Aiden might have the resources of dedicated Lupines, but she had something better – her powers. Jenny could flush out a drop of blood in a lake in minutes. Skins like sneaky Professor Perry could prove less of a challenge.
The man stunk. Literally. Not enough for Aiden and other normal Lupines to detect. No, his smell of darkness was subtle, an undercurrent. Like perfume covering body odor, Perry’s normal scent disguised the stench.
Every bone in her body cried out to flush out this man and bring him to justice.
Kill him, if necessary.
Turning 21 had done more than crank up her sexual needs. It had turned on these frightening and odd magick powers she struggled to control. Yet this time, she didn’t fight it.
Instead, she knew with all her heart her instinct to find Perry guided her in the right direction. Felt like she’d been wandering for years and suddenly found the yellow brick road. Only this road didn’t lead to Oz, it led to her destiny.
She once scoffed at such ideas. Destiny was for weaklings who let others decide their lives, their fates in life. Not her.
Yet she knew destiny called to her with its strong, sometimes sinister, siren voice. She could no more ignore it than she could choose to never be Lupine.
More than being wolf now, she longed for a large dagger or even a sword. Then she could cut that bastard’s dick off if she caught him even trying to harm a hair on the wolf pack.
Jenny made her way toward the forest in a normal stride, as if going for a leisurely stroll.
When she reached a clump of trees hiding her presence, she took a deep breath. Jenny culled all her magick, centered all of it and concentrated.
The only other time she’d attempted this she’d been terrified and in tremendous need. That was before meeting Troy, when a gang of angry, doped up Skins drew near the hiding place where she slept.
It worked – barely, and left her drained and panting, but got her out of danger. The payment was a full day of being so weak she could barely walk. The startling bonus was her thoughts had propelled her to a place she’d least expected.
In an amusement park, hidden behind some barrels, she had materialized amid a happy flurry of Skin families eating spun sugar candy or popcorn. With no idea how to get back, she’d coped as best as she could. Jenny had camped out inside the park, eating scraps until a kind park manager had spotted her and offered a job sweeping.
Gradually she’d made her way back west, and met Troy.
Now she was older and much stronger. Maybe she could pull it off without the consequences, or at least without them being as severe.
Jenny inhaled a breath and the next, focused on being exactly 100 yards from the wolf pack den.
Magick swirled around her, darkening the air, sucking her into a vortex she could no fight. Jenny went with it, closing her eyes. She felt all her cells, her entire being, pulled across time and space.
When she opened her eyes, she was inside the forest near where she’d spotted the timber wolf pack. She took a deep breath, drained, and dizzy. Jenny leaned against a tree and struggled to regain her equilibrium. Odd. This
