There was silence on Sunny’s end. Then I heard, “Going out for a run, Mom,” from what sounded like a young boy.
“Be home for supper, Jude. Don’t make me send your father out to the woods to get you.” There was another slight pause. Then she said, “Boys. Am I right?”
“I have no idea,” Etta said. “Until Peculiar, I’d never been around kids.”
“Oh, right.” Sunny’s voice turned serious. “Etta, I hope you know that none of this is your fault. You didn’t start any of this. William is the only villain here, and if anyone can empathize with you, it’s Doc. The only reason your dad, your real dad, didn’t end up with the same fate as you was that his grandfather took him in after his mother died. Do you know why William allowed his only child to leave? Because he could tell, even at the age of nine, that Billy Bob would be more of a man, more of a leader than he could ever be on his best day. There’s a reason William never told Doc about you and why he put rot in your head about your dad. He knew he couldn’t compete. So, let Doc and Chav help. This isn’t just your fight. Remember that. You’re not alone.”
Etta’s gaze met mine. “So, I keep hearing.”
“Talk soon,” Sunny said, then hung up.
“What now?” Etta asked.
“Let’s get your stuff and go.”
“As long as go doesn’t include the conjuror,” she said.
I could see the idea really frightened her, so reluctantly, I agreed. “No conjuror.” It didn’t mean I wouldn’t have the witch checked out, but I wouldn’t force Etta to be a part of it. She was traumatized enough. “Pack whatever you can shove into a duffel, and we’ll get on the road to Oklahoma.”
She beamed a smile at me. “Thank you.” Then added, “But first, a shower. I have some oversized sweats you can change into.”
I chuckled. Visions of her naked popped into my head again. I thought about offering to share the tub so we could conserve water, but she hadn’t given me any indication she’d welcome the invitation.
Instead, I shrugged. “Fine, shower first.”
CHAPTERFIVE
Etta – We probably should’ve gone to Canada.
Jo Jo had called me beautiful on the drive over, and the compliment had turned me practically giddy. I’d always been the weird kid with silver hair. At college, most of the girls I knew thought I’d dyed my hair to have it look this way. I wasn’t that trendy. I’d inherited my silvery-gray locks from my father’s side of the family. That and my gray eyes. But even when I was growing up, the other lycanthropes in our pack treated me differently. A lot of it probably had something to do with William. I hadn’t recognized how bad a chief he was until I learned from Chavvah that there were other ways to lead our people that didn’t rely on isolation and fear.
I tried to put it out of my head. This wasn’tThe Bachelor, where I was trying to win Prince Charming’s love and affection. It wasSurvivor, and I had to find a way to outwit, outplay, and outlast my grandfather.
Jo Jo’s phone rang as we headed up the steps, and he hung back to answer. My door was locked and appeared undisturbed as I put the key in and unlocked the bolt.
The curtains were closed, and the lights were off, leaving my place dark as I went inside. I was a lycanthrope. Normally, a little darkness wasn’t a problem. But since the magic lady had zipped up my wolf with her hooky witchcraft, I could hardly see anything.
Which was why I didn’t see Pete Ward come at me from behind the door. He slammed it shut, then lunged at me.
A sharp cry tore from my throat as my side hit the breakfast bar in my small kitchen. He threw me to the floor, then pressed his knee against the center of my back, crushing my spine with his considerable weight. Pete was six years older than I was, and we’d grown up together. His father was Tom Ward, another of William’s top guys and a true believer in the purity of lycans. In other words, they gave us all a bad name.
“Pete,” I gasped. “Don’t do this. Please, let me go.”
“You’ve been brainwashed,” Pete sneered. “It’s turned you into a traitor.”
The whole brainwashing thing was ironic, considering Pete was basically following a cult leader who had gotten it all very wrong. His leadership had angered Brother Wolf enough that we’d been cursed with infertility. In a couple hundred years, there wouldn’t have been a single one of us left in the tribe to care about William’s doctrine.
“You don’t have to do this,” I wheezed out. His knee in the middle of my back was crushing the air from my lungs. Still, I tried to get through to Pete. “You heard the call. We all did. William’s way isn’t the way. Cal and his new wife have a baby, and there are several other couples from our pack that have conceived or have already had children. Can’t you see that what William wants is an affront to our creator?”
“Shut up!” he snapped. He yanked my hair, wrenched my head back, then smashed my cheek against the linoleum floor. I felt my back break under his weight. If I’d had any doubts that my wolf had left the building, the fact that my bones broke so easily stripped them away. The agony was beyond anything I’d ever experienced, and I begged the universe to end my suffering.
The universe answered as an electrical tingle ran along my skin as the darkness took over. My muscles became light as air, and I floated on the feeling of weightlessness. The higher I floated, the more the pain faded. I stared at my hands. They were glowing soft yellow. I shoved my sleeves up. My arms were glowing as well. “What is this?” I whispered.
A roar from below stopped my speculation. Jo Jo had transmogrified into his warrior form and burst into my apartment, half man-half beast, amazingly hot. Fine brown, black, and white hair covered his arms and legs. I knew this because him going from six-foot-three to nearly seven feet and doubling his muscle size had caused his shirt and his jeans to rip at the seams. Whew. Wowza, he was savagely hunkalicious.
Jo Jo grabbed a very surprised Pete by the back of the neck and threw him like a rag doll. In human form, the wolf was no match for the coyote. And Jo Jo was smart enough to know it. He pummeled Pete, relentless in his fight to overwhelm the dangerous man until he was completely unconscious.
Then he let out a mourning howl as he skidded across the floor to where he’d grabbed Pete. He was holding something. I shook my head. No, not something. Someone. I floated down for a better look.
