Cameron

“ D id you call me for more chemistry shit?” Lesley huffed as she answered my call.

“Not this time,” I said. “I’m walking to the store and wanted some girl talk as company.”

“What’s on the menu?” Lesley asked. “Liquor? Cake? Condoms? What kind of a night are we looking at?”

“Get your head out of the gutter, Lesley.”

Lesley laughed, but it quickly died out. “Has Rick bothered you again? Made contact or anything?”

How the hell did I answer that? Well, he actually shot at me and almost killed a cop in the process. After that, he chased me into the woods, and only coating myself in a thick layer of mud allowed me to escape him. Then I ran sixteen kilometers to get somewhere safe.

“He’s texted me a few times,” I lied, deciding to keep things as basic as possible.

“Ugh. Knowing men, he probably went one of three directions. One, he apologized and begged you to come back. Two, he twisted his words, so it sounds like you’re the one at fault or imagining everything, and he wants you to come back so you guys can work it out.

” She paused for a moment. “Or three, he threatened you. Told you that you better come back or else?”

“Uh, I guess it was maybe a bit of a combination of all of those,” I said.

I was halfway to the store when some alarm at the back of my mind went off. Something wasn’t right. I glanced around. The street to my left was empty, and a quick look over my shoulder showed Nate still sitting on his bike, watching me.

Why did I suddenly feel exposed and unsafe? Maybe this had been a bad idea.

That was a ridiculous thought. Nate was right there watching me. One shout, and he’d come running. He was close. Nothing was happening. Nothing would happen. I’d gotten paranoid after Rick’s attack, that was all.

“Cam, are you listening?” Lesley asked.

She must have been talking this whole time, but I’d tuned her out.

“Sorry, what?”

“I was asking about your hot biker dude. Has he been hanging around? Anything fun happen between you two?”

The question triggered something in my mind, switching on a mental movie projector. Nate, bending me over a table and fucking my brains out. Heat crept into my cheeks.

“We’ve, uh, hung out a few times.”

There was a long pause, with Lesley’s breath the only sound. “You fucked him, didn’t you?”

I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see me. “Maybe.”

“You lucky bitch,” Lesley said, but I heard the smile in her voice. “He’s gorgeous. Spill, how was it?”

When I stepped into the store, my heart rate picked up, and my palms became clammy.

Frowning, I glanced around. Two men stood at the back of the store, perusing the display in the fridges, and an older lady was checking out at the register.

Nothing seemed out of place or wrong. Why was I being so weird?

“It was amazing.” Finally, something I could be honest about. I grinned as I grabbed a chocolate peanut butter candy bar.

“I knew it! He looks the type.”

Snorting, I picked up a bag of cheese curls. “How do you know by looking at someone if they’re gonna be good at, uh, that ?”

One of the men walked out without buying anything. A scent caught my attention, one I couldn’t place, but it made the wolf in my head growl in unease.

Before Lesley could answer, I said, “Hey, I gotta go. I’ll call you later. Okay?”

“Ugh. Fine. But when you do, I want all the details. Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said absently. “Bye.”

I glanced around the store, trying to figure out exactly what had me on edge, but I was still too new a shifter to properly analyze these sensations.

A man stood outside the window, staring in through the window, his face dark and emotionless. I immediately looked away. My gut told me he was looking for me. The thud-thud-thud of my heart boomed in my ears.

I was tapping out a text to Nate before I even realized what I was doing.

Me: A guy at the store is freaking me out. Can you come down here please?

I tucked the phone into my pocket and did my best to appear calm and unconcerned as I walked down the aisles. The other man at the back of the store turned from the fridge and moved slowly, deliberately, down the same aisle. Alarm bells clanged in my head.

Trying to keep my cool, I moved to another aisle, wondering the whole time if I was overreacting.

I cast a furtive glance at the window again.

The guy outside was still watching me. A sound from behind had me jerking my head around.

The other man was walking up the aisle towards me.

Hands shaking, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Nate still hadn’t responded to my text.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

The man at the register, an older guy with bushy white hair, had his head buried in a newspaper. If he’d noticed what was happening, he hadn’t let on. He also looked like he was at least seventy years old, so I doubted he’d be much help.

The bell above the door tinkled, and I spun around, hoping to see Nate striding in with that cocky grin on his face.

Instead, naked dread seeped into my bones as the man who’d been watching me shut the door behind him.

Though they spoke no words to each other, the two of them moved to either end of the aisle, effectively boxing me in.

Shit, shit, shit. I had to do something. Anything .

Before I could talk myself out of it, I hurried toward the guy at my right.

“Can you hold this while I go to the bathroom?” I asked with a bright, fake smile.

The man froze, his brows pulling together in surprise.

Taking advantage of that, I tossed my snacks in his face.

He flinched, raising his hands out of instinct to block the candy and chips.

Recalling all the MMA training I’d done, I twisted my hips and kicked out, getting him right in the crotch.

A sound between a gasp and a gag erupted from his lips as he dropped to his knees.

I leapt over him and sprinted to the back door. The second man rushed forward in an explosion of movement that sounded like he’d actually burst through the shelving.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” the old man at the register screamed.

I glanced over my shoulder to see my second pursuer haul the other guy up. “Get the fuck up! She’s getting away.”

I hadn’t been paranoid. They were here for me. Rushing forward, I slammed my hands into the crash bar of the door. It went flying open into a storage room. The sounds of pursuit spurred me to move. After toppling a stack of cardboard boxes to block their path, I ran to the exit door.

My inner wolf howled to be set free, but I wasn’t confident in my ability to shift in such a perilous situation. I’d failed when Nate and Lenny had fought, and I couldn’t risk failing now.

Shoving the exterior door open, I spared a quick look back.

Both men were clambering over the fallen boxes.

The one in the lead held a pistol in his right hand.

The sight of the weapon sent cold terror through me.

Silver bullet or not, the thought of being shot was enough to get me moving even faster.

If I sprinted down the alley, I’d be an easy target. I needed to hide or duck around a corner somewhere to keep out of his sight. Where the hell was Nate? God, what if one of these men had hurt him or killed him?

No, that couldn’t be true. I refused to dwell on that possibility. Nate was alive. He’d come for me. I was sure of it.

As the doors clanked shut, I spied a small alcove in the brick between the store and the next building. Moving as fast as I could, I slipped inside. It was just deep enough to keep me out of sight.

The door burst open, and the two men rushed out into the alley. I held my breath, not wanting them to hear even the faintest sound from me.

“Go around the front,” the man with the gun said. “I’ll check this way.”

Fuck .

“I can smell you, little missy,” the man said, voice deep and gravelly. “You got that freshly turned scent, too. Come out and say hi to old Danny boy. We’ll forget about you kicking me in the family jewels. Maybe I’ll let you kiss ’em and make it all better before I bring you in.”

His feet scraped on the pavement, inching ever nearer. My brain sent out misfiring jolts of thoughts. Run. Fight. Cry. Panic. Vomit.

My hands trembled as my options dwindled. When he rounded the corner, I had only one thing I could do. I had to fight. The barrel of the gun appeared around the corner first, and when I saw it, I kicked out with all my strength.

Despite my best wishes, the gun did not go flying. Instead, it swung away, opening up an avenue for me to attack him directly.

Moving as fast as I could, I jumped out of my hiding place and slammed my fist into his neck, then landed another punch in his ribs.

My first strike only glanced off his shoulder, but the second struck home, drawing a gasp of pain from him.

The next thing I knew, a blinding-white lance of pain burst through my skull as he swung his gun around and smacked me in the head.

Tumbling backward, I pinwheeled my arms to keep my balance, but to no avail. My ass hit the ground, and pain reverberated through my back. Scrambling to get to my feet, I clawed at the mound of trash bags.

“You got some fight in you,” the man said, and spat on the ground. “I was only joking before, but maybe I will take a little payment outta that cunt of yours before I get paid.”

Blind fear drove me on. Before he could get to me, I was on my feet and sprinting down the alley.

The panicked part of my mind overrode all coherent thoughts.

I’d managed to get ten yards when something slammed into the back of my knees, causing my legs to go out from under me. I fell face-first onto the asphalt.

Glancing back, I saw a broken toilet seat lying beside me. He must have tossed it like a frisbee. A very dignified weapon. My vision was still blurry from the strike to my head, but I managed to make out my attacker rushing toward me. Either I was seeing double, or his friend had rejoined him.

The one with the gun rushed me and planted his foot on my left hand, pressing the back of my wrist painfully into the ground. The other man stood beside him, swinging a wooden club. It looked like a thick broom handle that had been sawed down enough to be hidden under a coat.

“You little bitch,” the gunman said, leaning down and pressing the barrel of his pistol under my chin to lift my head. “This was supposed to be a quick smash-and-grab. I’ll get you back to the one paying for this, but you can fucking bet you won’t be the same when you get there.”

Was he going to shoot me? Put a round into my kneecap or hand so I couldn’t fight back? Though, if that was his plan, why hadn’t he shot me when I ran? Perhaps he’d been told to bring me in unharmed and all this was just empty threats.

My thoughts were interrupted by the high, whining scream of a bike. Nate! The men froze and turned their gazes up the alley. The black motorcycle rocketed down the alley like some sleek-bodied dragon that had taken flight. Nate’s eyes blazed with fury, and a sheet of drying blood masked his face.

“Holy shit!” The man swung around to aim at Nate.

He was too slow. Even as he pulled the gun from me, Nate leaped off the bike and shifted to his wolf form in mid-air.

His jaws yawned open, ivory fangs glimmering in the light of the street lamps.

He crashed into the gunman, clamping his teeth on the man’s wrist and twisting until the gun dropped and skittered away.

Shifters were concerned with secrecy, but it looked like Nate didn’t give a damn.

He’d shifted right here where anyone who was passing the alley could see.

I gaped as Nate and the gunman tumbled to the ground in a heap.

The gunman screamed for help as Nate’s bike crashed into a massive mound of trash bags.

“Fuck you, motherfucker!” the second man cried out. He began beating at Nate’s back with his club.

Nate kicked out his hind leg, his claws raking across the second attacker’s face.

Three bloody furrows tore open from the man’s chin to his forehead, one eye vanishing in a burst of blood.

The club tumbled to the ground with a rattle as the man fell backward, screaming in agony and clutching his ruined eye.

The gunman shifted and squared off with Nate while the screams of the other man echoed through the alleyway.

The growls and snarls of the fight were maddening in their chaos, and I had a hard time watching it.

Snapping teeth, clawing feet, and twisting bodies thrashing around made it difficult to figure out who was winning and who was losing.

I spotted the gun a few feet away and lunged for it.

My trembling fingers closed over the butt of the gun, and I aimed it at the fight.

It was no good, though. The two were too entwined in the fight, and I was far too unskilled with a firearm to trust myself not to shoot Nate in the head by accident.

Besides, the gun felt wrong in my hands, as if it were tuned to a whole different vibration that my body didn’t like. It made my skin crawl.

The screams of the other man had died out. When I looked up, I saw him stumbling down the alley. For a moment, I thought about chasing after him, but it was probably pointless.

A yelp brought my attention back to the fight. Nate had his teeth clamped into the other wolf’s throat. All the light had gone out of the attacker’s eyes, and his body hung limp and lifeless. Nate jerked his head to the side, then tossed the dead body aside before shifting back to his human form.

He rushed to the side and took the gun from my trembling hand. “Are you okay?”

“I—I think so,” I muttered. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“What about your head?” When he touched the spot behind my ear, his fingers came away red.

Wincing, I reached up. My fingers brushed over a small cut, and I felt a lump forming on my scalp. Painful, but not life-threatening.

“Your head looks worse than mine,” I said. He looked like some mad Viking warrior who’d come blood-splattered straight from battle. I reached out, gingerly brushing his forehead. “What happened to you?”

Nate glared in the direction where the second man had escaped. “That prick got the jump on me. Knocked me out. I came running the minute I woke up.” He cupped my cheek, and I saw the fear in his eyes. “I was scared I’d be too late.”

“You weren’t,” I said. “You saved me.”

Nate grinned, then glanced at the slumped form on the ground and sighed. “I guess we need to deal with him now.”

For the second time in a week, I had to deal with a dead body. I really hoped this wasn’t going to become a pattern.