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  “What the fuck, man?” Zack cried with horror as he rushed to his sister’s side. Crystal had slid down to a sitting position, her head slumped over her chest, and was completely still. “Crystal, can you hear me?” asked Zack while he frantically checked her body for vitals. She remained unresponsive.

  Nearby, Carly had her hand over her mouth, staring with horror at her cousin. Liam stood over the bloodied Erick, staring at his mate with a stunned expression. “I was just trying to get her off me,” he muttered as his arm wounds slowly healed over.

  Shaking away his shock, Liam brushed aside several pack members that were in his way and rushed across the clearing to Crystal’s side. He knelt to get a better look. Blood now matted his mate’s pale blonde hair. She had hit the tree hard. “Is she...?”

  White-faced, Zack placed his head against her sister’s chest and listened. Liam waited several moments before the teen pulled away. Guilt mixed with relief, mixed with vindication, mixed with fear that she would never wake up...mixed with fear that she would.

  Zack sighed in relief and sat up. “She’s still breathing.”

  Liam drew a steadying breath, not sure what to feel. “I’m sorry, Zack. You know I would never do anything like that on purpose.”

  Expecting Crystal’s brother to attack him in vengeance, Zack surprised him when he simply replied, “I know you didn’t, man. It was a reflex, and you were pumped up with anger already.” He tossed a baleful glance Erick’s way as if it was all the would-be rapist’s fault.

  Liam stood up, pushing his golden hair out of his eyes, his mind racing. If either his or Crystal parents heard of what he’d done, even by accident, there would be hell to pay.

  But he did have one thing working in his favor. “You will take her home,” Liam ordered Zack, “clean her up and lay her in bed, letting her regeneration do its work. I’ll visit first thing in the morning.” If he was lucky, the blow to the head would muddle her memories of what had happened. If not...well, he would figure that out when it happened.

  Zack climbed to his feet, bent over and hefted his sister into his arms. “What do I tell her when she does wake up?”

  “Call me, and we’ll sort something out.” It would ultimately depend on how much she remembered. If her memory was fogged they could come up with some bullshit excuse, and that would be the end of it.

  Zack let that sink in for a moment before nodding over at Erick, who was sulking, holding his bleeding lip. “What about that bastard?”

  Liam made sure to make his voice extra loud. “I think the beating I gave him was enough...and if he knows what is best for him, he’ll get the hell out of here before I finish what I started.”

  Erick took the hint. Casting an angry glance Zack’s way, he slipped into wolf form and disappeared off into the trees.

  Liam looked around at the white-faced shifters. “All of you go home and say nothing of this to anyone. This never happened. Do I make myself clear?”

  Slowly, they all nodded.

  Liam pointed off into the trees. “Now go.”

  “Thanks,” Zack said when their brethren were all gone. “If you hadn’t gotten here, who knows what would’ve happened.” He glared off in the direction Erick had gone. “I wanted to kill him. I know the girl he attacked. I wasn’t in my right mind. I’m just glad you kicked that fucker’s ass.” With a nod of respect to Liam, he began walking away with his sister dangling in his arms.

  “He has such a nice butt,” Carly sighed dreamily as she watched the back of Zack’s naked form. She stepped up beside her cousin and placed a hand on his shoulder. “But you better hope that Crystal doesn’t remember what happened here or that those shifters don’t say anything to the others.” She shook her head. “I know she was biting on you pretty hard, but you really fucked up throwing her off like that. I’m just so glad she didn’t die after hitting that tree so hard.”

  “I know. Of course,” he said in his defense, “it’s kind of hard to think straight when a complete nut case is trying to chew your arm off.”

  Her gaze flicked from Zack’s ass to his face. “I get it, I do. But just try explaining that to her parents. They’ve never could admit that she’s anything less than perfect. Talk about a blind spot.”

  “Yeah. No kidding.” As Liam stood there with Carly, watching Zack vanish off into the woods with his burden, he felt a powerful guilt wash over him. Not just for injuring Crystal, but because he couldn’t rid himself of the wish that he had killed her.

  Chapter 8

  Kat awoke to the repetitive beep of her alarm clock, the irritating sound setting her nerves on edge.

  “Shut the hell up!” she groggily growled in annoyance, swatting at the damned thing on the nightstand next to her bed. She only succeeded in knocking it to the floor out of reach. Unfortunately, she had failed to knock the power cord out of the wall, and it continued to beep gratingly.

  “Goddamn it,” she groaned, covering her ears with her pillow. When she could take it no longer, she sat up, knowing that she had to get up anyway. The weekend was over. It was time for work—hangover and sore muscles be damned.

  Still, last night was pretty much worth it. Letting out a yawn, she stretched her arms, hearing several joints pop. Something light and feathery fell on her chest. She looked down.

  “What the fuck?” Several fallen strands of her hair lay in between her breasts. She picked them out in disgust and set them to the side on the nightstand. As she did so, another handful of them fell on her chest.

  Oh hell. Am I going bald? She jumped out of the bed and rushed to the bathroom, where she stood in front of the mirror, inspecting her scalp. Her panic grew as more and more hair began falling from her head as she checked for bald spots. She couldn’t find any, but the more she ran her hands through her hair the more loose strands shook free and drifted down. Where is it all coming from?

  By the time she was finished, a large pile of hair was cluttered on the floor, but surprisingly, her hair still had the same thickness it had the day before. There was not a sign of baldness anywhere. What the hell is going on? Did someone play a prank on me?

  But she had no time to ponder the mystery. It was time to get ready.

  Fresh out of the shower fifteen minutes later, dressed in a black skirt and a white, pearly blouse, she pounded on her sister’s door. “McKenzie, get up so I can drop you off at school.”

  “I’m not going,” came the muffled reply.

  This was unlike McKenzie. Usually, she would be on Kat’s ass to get her to school on time and got pissed off if Kat ever made her late. But then again, her sister had been acting strangely the whole weekend, refusing to talk to her or their dad. It was starting to really worry her.

  “Come on Kenzie,” said Kat, “don’t you wanna talk about it?” She pressed her ear against the door. Faintly, she could hear her sister moving around in her bed, and for a moment, she thought she heard sobbing.

  It seemed like forever before the muffled reply came. “No.”

  This wasn’t normal at all. She tried a different angle. “Dad is not going to be pleased to find out your ditching school.”

  “Well, that’s too b-bad.” That was definitely a shake in her voice like she got when she had been crying.

  “Kenzie, you’re worrying the shit out of me. Isn’t there anything I can do to help here?” She shifted her weight restlessly, trying not to let herself get angry.

  A pause. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard her sister mumble something like “kill that sicko for me.” Finally, McKenzie sighed. “Look, I just need some time, okay? Last night was rough and I’m not feeling well. I’ll talk to you about it later.”

  Kat let out a big sigh, her shoulders slumping. “Okay. But you better pick up your phone when I check on you at lunch, or I’ll be right back at here at your door.”

  “Fine.”

  She turned away, rubbing her face. Damn it. Well, I tried.

  Five minutes later, she was driving off to work, st
opping once at a breakfast drive-thru to get her morning meal, a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit, smothered with mayonnaise.

  She took one bite and nearly choked. For some reason, the taste of the bread disgusted her. This was puzzling; normally Kat loved her some bread. But today it was about as appetizing as packing peanuts. She ended up tossing it out the window for the birds and eating the sausage patty only. It was absolutely delicious. When she was done, her stomach rumbled for more, but the drive-thru line was packed and she had no time to wait or else she’d be late for work.

  “I’ll just have to get me a mega meat plate from one of the fire grills at lunch time,” she muttered as she pulled out of the parking lot, puzzled by her sudden, exclusive desire for anything meaty. Anything else just didn’t seem like food anymore.

  Half an hour later she was at work, where she worked as a file clerk for AcuDyne, a computer chip company. She stood in the file room before an open cabinet, furiously filing away information that she had neglected before taking off for the weekend. Ugh, why do I let myself slack off so much on Fridays? Thanks, past self, you’re a jackass. She would just have to play catch-up so that her future self wouldn’t have to deal with so much of this shit.

  Her job happened to be in a high-rise building with a wonderful view of Bone City...from everywhere but the file room, which had no windows. Near the top floor, she worked the rest of her day in a cubicle room filled with her co-workers who all had various tasks. Some were clerks, some were technicians and some were telemarketers. The latter’s constant yammering irritated her normally, making the small file room a haven from their voices. But today, she found herself wishing she could go back to her desk instead of dealing with this backlog. She just wanted to look out at the open sky for a while.

  Instead, she gritted her teeth and kept collating and filing, reminding herself that the harder she focused on getting it done, the sooner she could get back to her desk. Her neck ached from bending over the files.

  “Damn, you looked backed up,” said an annoying voice, accompanied by the smell of cloying perfume that made Kat’s stomach curl up.

  Oh, go away already. Kat looked up into the face of her co-worker, Tammy, a tawny-haired, snotty airhead who always managed to get on her last nerve. She was standing in the file room doorway, her small, curvy frame wrapped in a red designer dress that was too short and too tight for an office setting. Her long hair was pulled into a tight ponytail that she flipped back over her shoulder before aiming a not-exactly-nice smile at Kat.

  “Tell me about it.” Kat shrugged with a fake smile, trying to at least pretend that Tammy didn’t have the power to annoy the shit out of her just by talking. “I could have sworn when I left Friday that there was less work than this.”

  Tammy inspected one of her glittery nails and said archly, “That’s why you stay behind after hours and get things done. Like I do.”

  Please bitch, thought Kat. We both know why you really stay behind...and it’s not for work. “Yeah, Tammy, I know. Everybody knows how eager you are to keep the boss happy.” The snide edge on her voice made her coworker’s jaw drop, but before Tammy could respond, they were interrupted.

  Speak of the devil. Thomas, their supervisor, came up beside Tammy with the usual annoying smirk on his face. He was dressed in a tailor-made suit that made him look even more pompous, his black hair gelled and slicked to the side. He had the usual baselessly bloated ego of typical middle management, was petty and passive-aggressive...and still talked and acted like he expected his subordinates to be his pals. “Hey, how’s it going Kat?”

  Okay, until you walked up, prick. Kat pretended not to see Thomas’s hand, which was adorned with a gleaming wedding band, snake around Tammy’s backside. She had hated cheaters before Kevin had done his thing, and now she wished them all dead.

  But she needed the paycheck—and more importantly, her family needed it. Putting on a fake smile again, Kat replied, “I’m doing fine, Mr. Dunley, how about yourself?”

  His eyes on Tammy’s ass, Thomas nodded distractedly. “Good, good. Thank you for asking.” He looked up for a few moments and gave Kat a brief smile. “You’re doing very good work here, Kat. Keep it up.”

  He pulled Tammy just outside the doorway, where they proceeded to talk in hushed tones before he winked at her and patted her ass. When Tammy began to walk back to her cubicle, Kat saw her discreetly place her hand on the married man’s package, squeezing lightly.

  “Slut,” Kat muttered as she turned back to her work. What kind of sick woman deliberately chased guys that she knew were taken? Didn’t she realize that if he was the sort to cheat with her, he would just as easily cheat on her?

  But that just reminded her of her attempted dalliance with Liam. That’s kind of hypocritical. He doesn’t wear a ring, but be honest with yourself, Kat. How many girlfriends do you think he has? Because it’s probably more than that.

  She went about her day as usual, finishing the filing job finally and heading back to her cube. Her view of the sky over the top of her divider soothed her: blue, spattered with little rags of cloud, with the occasional plane or flock of birds flying past. She dove into the data entry portion of her day, stopping her vigorous typing every now and then to rest her fingers and get up to make herself steaming mugs of coffee. The hangover’s grip on her skull was slowly loosening, and the caffeine helped her keep her eyes open.

  While browsing the internet during her midmorning break, she ran across a headline that caught her attention. It was on the local gossip rag’s website, which she usually read for laughs. It was generally full of bullshit, but today it had gotten especially creative. Bone City on High Alert as Claims of Werewolves abound...by Jason Morgan

  This looks like it was taken right out of the pages of a Buffy episode script, she thought as she started reading.

  The string of missing persons reports filed in Bone City has been baffling local police for months now. But a private citizen’s cell phone video, taken last night, has just been submitted to local news outlets with a note explaining that the culprits are captured on it. Shockingly, what is depicted on the tape appears to indicate that those behind the disappearances in Bone City aren’t human at all!

  Local cryptozoology experts are beside themselves with excitement over footage of what Bone City residents are calling real-life werewolves. The cell phone video (viewable below) is of poor quality but captures just one of the many alleged encounters with werewolves that have residents of Bone City on high alert.

  As of today, five people have been reported missing in the small, insular city in just two months—including the young woman being chased by the creature in this video. She has been identified as a local community college student named Maeve Kendrick, who was reported missing by her parents this morning.

  One local who claims he was forced to hide from one of these creatures in a tree described the werewolf as, “a lean, gray monster of a wolf”, appearing to be about 1.5 meters tall at the shoulder. According to the witness, the animal acted as though it was intelligent—and sadistic, stalking him during his evening hike through the heavily forested State Preserve that borders the town, and seeming to enjoy his increasing fear.

  Although citizens of Bone City have perpetuated legends of werewolves and other cryptids for the century that the city has existed, actual evidence has remained rare. The newly released footage is causing a swirl of caution and fear throughout this largely working-class city.

  My conclusion: Batty, but entertaining. The video is an obvious fake. No word yet on whether there is a reward for the capture of the legendary creatures and local law enforcement is silent on the matter. While I would love for these sightings to be of actual werewolves, I’m sure these reports are nothing but mass paranoia brought on by citizens that have nothing better to do with their time.

  Kat scrolled down to the video mentioned in the article and pressed play. The footage was very grainy, showing a wooded area on the outskirts of the city. A group o
f rowdy teenagers was being filmed drinking and smoking pot while sitting around a campfire. They all appeared to be having a lot of fun, cursing and making fun of each other when the person holding a camera, an annoying-sounding teenage girl whose nonstop comments distracted from the goings-on, let out a blood-curling scream.

  Bending forward to squint at the grainy footage, Kat’s breath caught in her throat when a hairy figure appeared on the screen behind the shocked teens. It was a gigantic wolf, skinny and gray, with rabid-looking eyes. It almost looked like it was grinning as it bounded into the circle of firelight—and went straight for the camera girl, fangs bared.

  She jumped a second later when a stack of papers slammed down near her keyboard, nearly overturning her mug of hot coffee.

  “Here’s some work that you forgot to do,” said Tammy, as Kat quickly closed the web page she had opened, even though it technically was her break time. Browsing the web while on the clock was frowned upon, and she had seen several workers get written up just for doing it on break. Knowing Tammy, she would love the chance to snitch on Kat. “Thomas says it all needs to be filed away before you leave.”

  Anger boiled inside of Kat’s stomach as she scowled at the stack of papers. “Are you serious?”

  “Yep. Have fun.” Tammy walked away with her usual annoying smile.

  It took all of Kat’s self-control not to get up and clobber the smug bitch in front of all her co-workers. Calm down, she told herself. You need this job. “Looks like I won’t get to eat lunch,” she muttered. She wasn’t sure how she would last. She had been absolutely starving since having that meager patty in the morning.

  Consigning herself to a day of despair, she began transcribing the information as fast as possible. When lunch time came, her stomach was growling so loudly that they could probably hear her several floors below. It was only made worse as some of her co-workers began bringing their meals to their desks, the aroma of fast-food and microwave-heated lunches hitting her nose like a freight train.