Evan arched a brow. “And that would be because?”
“Because you care about her, I saw it in your face when you were looking at her. You met her and something about her found some real emotion in you man. I get it now. I should have gotten it the minute I heard you put your life on the line for her, but you had just met her. We’ll get this wolf and then you can get her the hell out of here and then decide what to do about the rest from there.”
He meant the council and the decision to covert Marissa, for her own protection. But it didn’t matter if he converted her or not. In the end, he’d broken the law, and he’d be punished. He could save her, just not himself.
“There’s always a way,” Aiden said, as if reading his thoughts. “We should have died and we didn’t. And so should she have. Clearly she wasn’t meant to die any more than we were. I’m envious man. You have something other than ice in your veins for the first time since we were changed. This thing that we do gets mechanical. I have to remind myself we are saving lives, but we’re so removed from those we’re fighting for, it’s hard to remember why that’s important. Maybe keeping the humans at a distance isn’t all we’ve cracked it up to be. Maybe we need to feel something to keep fighting.”
Evan took that in, let it roll around inside him, let it take root. Until Marissa walked into that bar, Aiden didn’t remember the last time he’d felt anything real besides fleeting lust. The fire for vengeance had faded centuries ago.
Aiden’s cell phone rang and he tugged it from his jeans. “Troy,” he said. “And you know without me telling you he’s going to be hard to deal with because of Sarah.”
Sarah, the wolf that had tried to kill him, the one he’d been in love with. “I know,” Evan said. “Believe me, I know.” And while Aiden had always been the one who rolled with the punches and seemed unaffected by the hell of a hundred plus years of fighting. Listening to him talk about Marissa now, Evan wondered if it wasn’t all an act.
“Talk to me my brother,” Aiden said answering his phone. Listening, his gaze lifted to Evan’s almost instantly and Evan knew the news wasn’t good. Aiden snapped his phone shut. “The wolf is headed this way.”
Chapter Eight
Marissa had just finished – no – inhaled – the last of the three slices of pizza that had been in the box, when she felt a rush of awareness, a powerful energy. She whirled around to find Evan charging toward her.
“Go get dressed,” he said. “We have to leave now.”
“What? I--”
“Just do it Marissa,” he ordered. “Do it now.”
Panic rushed through her, and she could feel the tingling of her skin begin again. She turned toward the hallway, with Evan on her heels, and rushed to her room.
She turned to him, tugging on shorts. “What’s happening?” She asked, yanking a tee over her head, and sliding on her Keds. “Is it the wolf?”
“Yes,” he said, shackling her arm. “It’s the wolf.” He proceeded to all but drag her to the backdoor where an Escalade was waiting. The door popped open immediately and Aiden got out. “Take the wheel and drive north on IH-35.” He was already rounding the truck to get into the back on the opposite side.
Evan motioned for Marissa to get into the passenger seat. Marissa rushed to the other side of the vehicle and Evan reached over and shoved the door open. She froze when she saw the man in the backseat with Aiden, his long blond hair draped over Aiden’s arm as he bent over it. The man looked up at her and she could see claw marks on his face oozing with blood, his silvery eyes piercing hers with what looked like hatred.
“Get in, Marissa, damn it,” Evan shouted.
“Hello Marissa,” came a male voice from directly behind her.
She whirled around to find a tall muscular man with dark hair curling around his face. “I enjoyed playing with you in the alley. Shall we play again?” His eyes went red. She sucked in a breath, the wolf. This was the wolf. She’d barely had the thought before he began to shift, his face contorting, teeth extending. In some distant part of her mind, she heard Evan scream her name – and saw Aiden was out of the truck and lunging at the wolf but he wasn’t fast enough. The wolf sunk teeth into his shoulder. Evan was over the hood of the truck and jumping down on the half shifted wolf’s back.
Marissa didn’t know what to do. She turned to find the silver eyed man coming for her, blood dripping from his arm, the man who hated her. Fight or flight kicked in and fighting wasn’t an option. She turned and ran. He grabbed her arm and somehow she evaded his firm grip, and managed to escape. She ran toward the line of woods behind her house. When she cleared the line of trees, the darkness didn’t stop her. Her heart was pumping, that tingling sensation on her skin turning to a burn now. She had to run, she had to get away. Faster and faster, she pushed forward, feeling limbs cut her, but she didn’t care. She just had to run. She had to keep moving.
“Marissa, stop!”
She heard the voice, and panic swelled inside her. The wolf and he was coming for her. The wolf would kill her. She could hear him, feel how close he was. She stumbled and went down hard on her hands and then tried to push to her feet. But he was on her, a heavy weight. She scrambled forward and turned to fight. Fighting was all she had left. She couldn’t escape.
***
“Marissa, stop,” Evan ordered, deflecting her punches and straddling her, shoving her hand over her head. “It’s me, Marissa. Stop!”
“Evan,” she panted, her chest rising and falling, her eyes red. Damn it to hell.
“Yes. It’s me.”
“Oh God,” she gasped, her eyes going wide at the claw mark down his neck. “You’re bleeding.”
He bit his wrist, the easiest most comfortable way for her to take in blood right now. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“You need blood and you need it now.”