Page 156 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

We watched the fire burn down from the steps on the front porch of the cabin. I was still reeling from the meeting several hours before, and a few too many whiskeys had eradicated any desire to get up, move, or do much of anything but sit here and watch the flames try and fail to lick the clouds.

“Cookie?”

My brows crinkled, and I lifted my heavy head from the fist propped up on my knee to find Hazel exiting the cabin behind me, a plate of cookies in between her hands.

That explained why my stomach had been rumbling for the last hour.

“Why are you making cookies at midnight?” I asked but didn’t hesitate for even a second to snatch a few still-warm chocolate chip ones from the plate before the guys descended on them.

Clay stole what looked like five with one scoop of his hand, leaving Jared only one remaining on the plate.

I thought they’d both been asleep, honestly. They’d been quiet for so long. Clay sprawled over the rough wood of the porch with his head in my lap. And Jared was sitting on the dirt, two steps below mine, his head resting heavily against my thigh.

It was official, I was certain Hazel’s cookies could even wake the dead.

I stuffed one in my mouth, moaning at the melty chocolate goodness.

“There, see? Nothing a good cookie can’t fix.”

Something cold nudged my shoulder and I spun to see Hazel pressing a cold glass of water to my skin. “Drink this. You’ll thank me tomorrow.”

I huffed, but gratefully accepted the glass, draining in in two long swallows. Wincing as the chill of it stung my teeth.

“Thanks, Grams.”

She ruffled my hair and turned to go back inside. “Don’t clean up,” I insisted. “Let us do it in the morning.”

“Oh, it’s already clean dear. I’m just going to get another plate of cookies. Seems I underestimated how hungry you beasties would be this late.”

Despite myself, I grinned as I watched her feel her way back to the door and vanish back into the cookie scented cabin.

“Come on, Clay,” Jared said, leaning over my lap to where Clay had himself propped on an elbow, demolishing his cookies. “I only got one.”

“Your own damned fault you weren’t fast enough.”

“Dude.”

“Here,” I offered, sadly looking at my only remaining cookie before passing it to Jared. He didn’t take it, though.

Clay snatched it away from him and not so gently stuffed it into my mouth.

“Hey,” I muttered around the mouthful, glaring at him.

“That’s your cookie,” he growled, casting a venomous glare in Jared’s direction. “Here, you fucking tortoise.”

He tossed Jared one of his cookies. “Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

“You spit on it, didn’t you?” Jared asked, his face pinching as he turned the cookie over in his hands.

Sometimes I forgot that they were just a bunch of overgrown twenty-somethings that had been best friends their whole lives.

A lightness stole some of the weight from my shoulders, and a small giggle escaped my lips that had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the empty bottle of whiskey at our feet.

Nope. Nothing at all.

Not two seconds after Clay set his head back down in my lap and I let my fingers delve into his soft dark hair, something shifted.

The screen door creaked open, and I felt the pause not just in her step, but also in Clay’s stiffening shoulders against my thighs.

A cool night breeze brought with it a familiar scent that I hadn’t been quick enough to catch first. Probably because I didn’t know it as well as they did.

“Sam,” Hazel said on a breath, and the plate of cookies shattering behind us spurred us all into action.

Clay leapt up from the porch, his inner wolf immediately taking over.

He shifted before I could blink and was chewing dirt as he sped off into the trees in the direction of her scent.

“Clay!” Hazel called. “Don’t kill her!”

I snapped out of my daze and grabbed Jared’s elbow as I stood. “It could be a trap,” I blurted, my pulse thundering in my ears as my wolf awoke with a vicious need for bloodshed fueled by the lick of whiskey in my veins.

We raced after him, and I mourned the loss of yet another favorite pair of jean shorts as they flayed to ribbons in my haste to shift.

My wolf nearly ran headlong into a tree, disoriented from the taint of alcohol still lingering in our bloodstream.

Fuck.

I’ll never drink again, I promised myself.

“Allie!” Vivian shouted, panicked from somewhere behind me. I knew she’d follow. So would anyone else still awake, or anyone woken by the commotion.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I needed to get to her before Clay did. If it was a trap, he’d need backup.

If it wasn’t, someone would need to stop him from tearing his sister’s throat out.

Not that she didn’t deserve it, but if she were really back, then we might need her.

Any information she dumped from her poisonous mouth when I let Vivian beat it out of her was better than the big fat fucking nothing that we had now.

Clay, I shouted down the length of the bond, spurring my sloppy run into a full on sprint. It could be a trap. Wait!

No reply.

I said wait, I growled within, injecting the words with an alpha’s venom to which I heard Clay howl ahead, forced to slow by my will alone. It wouldn’t stop him entirely, I needed to be closer for that. Needed eye contact. But it would make it a hell of a lot harder for him to run.

Stall him, Jared spoke in my mind. The others and I are just behind you.

Got it.

Mentally thanking Hazel for the cookies and water to sop up some of the booze in my gut, my vision began to clear. My wolf burning off the last dregs of it with her heat and power. Once our head was clearer, we could run full tilt.

A dash of shadow ahead told me we were right on top of him now. And ahead, I could hear the plaintive cry of an injured wolf. Sam’s scent permeated the air now. Tainted every heavy breath I drew.

A savage snarl proceeded the pitched cry of an animal as Clay attacked his sister.

I got there just in time before he got his jaws around her slender neck and knocked him off, finding Charity and Syd flanking Sam’s wolf.

Calm the fuck down, I hissed. We need her.

Vivian was the next to arrive, all fangs and claws and fury.

You fucking cunt! She screamed through the pack bond, launching at Sam.

I stepped into her path, blocking her and earning myself a stare of cutting betrayal.

She may know something, I reminded Vivian, my own desire to tear Sam’s throat out almost winning out over rational thought.

A few years ago, my wolf would’ve had her way no matter what I wanted, but not now.

I respected and validated her need for pain and punishment.

For retribution. And she respected my need to retain my authority and to do whatever I needed to serve my pack in the best, smartest way. Even if she didn’t always agree.

I faced Sam as Jared and the others crowded in around, ears pricked for signs of attack. We were still within the first ring, so if I had to wager, I’d say we were safe here.

Clay growled ferociously at his sister, his emotions a chaotic mess of anguish and fury that was starting to taint my own thoughts enough that needed to actively block him out.

Please, Sam pleaded and I was disgusted at the reminder that I never officially cut her out of this pack.

It was then that I noticed all the blood. The scent of it alerting me before the sight of it in the dark.

Blood coated every inch of her dark fur, making it glimmer in a red hue under the light of the moon. Her rear quarter looked awkward, too. And her left leg was twisted at an odd angle, showing bone through the skin.

Her face, too.

A long gash ran six inches from her temple down to split her lips wide open on the right side.

She was utterly grotesque with injury, and despite all my loathing, something in my stomach grew cold with pity at the sight.

Clay was noticing it now, too, bending low to sniff at her back.

With a long, broken howl that tore open the wound on her lips afresh, she shifted back into her human form, bones rebreaking and wounds bleeding anew.

It was easier to see the injuries against her pale flesh and my canine stomach heaved at the severity of it all.

Broken ribs for sure.

One eye running completely red from burst blood vessels.

A foot facing the wrong way.

What are you doing? I demanded through the bond, not even realizing at first that she couldn’t hear me anymore as she screamed her pain.

She’d have healed better and faster in her wolf form. The bones would’ve had to be rebroken but...shifting was the stupidest idea in her state. She could die from the blood loss alone.

Her scream choked off into a sob, and she bent forward, wincing at the broken ribs and letting her long black hair fall to cover her face. “All my fault,” she said in a distant, watery voice. “All my fault. All my fault.”

I shifted, careful to keep my distance as I knelt naked onto the earth. “What happened?”

“So sorry,” she muttered, beginning to rock back and forth despite the discomfort that must have brought her. “All my fault. All my...all my fault. Shouldn’t have done it. Lies! He lied to me.”

She snapped her head up and I saw madness in her eyes as she fixed them on me. “He lied! He lied, he lied, he lied!”

My upper lip curled and Jared appeared at my right shoulder, shifted back to his human form.

“She’s fucking delirious,” I spat, hating that I felt sorry for her after what she’d done. “Let’s get her back to the cabin. If she bleeds out, she’s no good to us.”