Her Perilous Wolf by Julie Steimle (free e books to read .txt) 📖

just make you an eternal victim. The wound does not fully heal.”

They finally reached the crest of the beach. The volleyball game was over. Most of the partiers were on the other side of the house where the food and dancing were. When they reached the porch, Rick whispered to Audry, “All I’m asking is that you ‘forget’ everything you found out here. Or, more honestly, never talk about it ever again with anyone. This isn’t for me. The SRA will hunt me no matter what I do. There is nothing I can do to stop that. But you are safe from them as long as you remain a skeptic—the way you used to be. Don’t give anyone a hint that you found out. Don’t even give it another thought. Embrace the world you are from—the one of provable facts and logic.”

He meant that. She could feel it.

Audry nodded. Purposeful, willful, mental denial that all this was real and embrace the empirical—that’s what he was saying.  Yet a funny notion came into her head, as she thought about everything he had told her, going back to the core of it. He was a werewolf. He was her wolf.

She chuckled painfully as she said to him, “Well, at least now I know why you can never be vegan.”

Tears crested in Rick’s eyes. He laughed, nodding. “Yeah.”

His smile was pained, though. His eyes tracked her with so much attention and regret. Yet he urged them to go home once they arrived back at the cabin. He did not seem in the mood for partying himself. And as they walked up, Audry wondered if the party was set up as a cover for her to be there so they could talk. Undoubtedly he was being watched. There had to be SRA agents spying on them, even now.

“Can I ask you one more thing?” Audry said with a peek after Vincent who had headed over to Bobo up at the grill the moment they got to the cabin, undoubtedly wondering if the Rubber and Glue Curse were in fact real.

Rick nodded, looking in that direction also as Vincent had gone introspective near the end. His eyes tracked Vincent then Bobo, his mouth crooking up on one end when he saw them together. Audry could follow how Rick’s mind was working, easily seeing the gears behind his watching gray eyes mentally predicting what would happen between Bobo and Vincent.

Audry asked the question that had bothered her the most. “When you finally found your mother again—”

“She freaked out when she first saw me.” His words cut her off. He shook his head. “Back when she divorced my dad, left us, and went back to New York, her parents had thought she had lost her mind when she told them about Dad and I being werewolves. And they had institutionalized her.”

Audry nodded, feeling sad for him. For them.

“But she escaped and… well, changed her name and—”

“Started another family,” she murmured, thinking on that. He had a half-brother and half-sister. And they seemed to know he was wolf. All the signs had been there when she had met them, but had been blind to them.

Rick nodded, sniffed and wiped his eyes. With embarrassment, he chuckled. “It’s a win. I mean it hurt, but… her husband, Mr. Dell, is a great guy. And I got to be a big brother. Total win. I mean, my mom’s safe. The SRA and the witches can’t get at her anymore, which is all that really matters.”

Nodding, Audry sighed also. She would have marked that as a win too. Yet she persisted. “Does your father know where she is?”

“No.” Rick said in a private voice. “We’ve agreed to let her have her life. Let her move at her own pace.” He smiled though, tears drying up. “I’m just glad she’s not afraid of me. I went there for Christmas this year. I got to play Santa. It was great. Jessie and Claire are hilarious.”

“They’d probably get on with Skyler and Maris,” Audry chuckled, thinking they were about the same age. Wouldn’t it be fun to get them together?

Yet he drew in a breath. His face lost all humor, and he pulled away from her. “Don’t do that.”

She shrank back defensively. “Do what?”

“Make me hope,” he breathed out, his cheeks coloring. His eyes seemed to go wolfish in that moment. There was mournful longing in them.

Her heart fluttered. Audry took two steps back. He was right. What was she doing? Flirting with danger. Flirting with the wolf. She was stupidly, and always, attracted to dangerous men. She had to get home.

Turning to search for Vincent, Audry spotted him rubbing his own arm not far from Bobo and the grill, ducked back. But Vincent was laughing. His eyes said, ‘Damn, it’s true.’ Bobo was also smiling, surprised at Vincent.

She marched up to them and grabbed her cousin’s arm. “We gotta go home.”

“Nice to see you, Audry!” Bobo waved after them with the grill fork.

Rick saluted her as she rounded the building again, his gray eyes saying her swift exit was wise.

Audry and Vincent went in search for Vicky.

Vicky was dancing, a degree drunk, having a fun time with a group near the music and food. Vincent walked up to her, tugging on her arm. “We’re going now.”

“You go. I’ll stay!” Vicky declared, dancing to the groove and the beat, and all that other stuff. “Where have you been anyway? Hi, Audry! Dance with us!” She tugged on her cousin’s wrists to get her to join the crowd.

“We need to go home now,” Audry said, peeking back toward the DJ, whom she did not know.

“Party poopers,” Vicky staggered next to her cousin, and shook her head, losing some balance. “Come on and have some fun with me! You two are such curmudgeons!”

Audry rolled her eyes, internally moaning. But then she saw Selena not far off, who was dancing with Troy. Drawing a breath, realizing she was lingering among people who were dangerously supernatural but also gifted, she marched up to the pair of them, drawing up strength within.

“Hey!” Selena beckoned Audry closer. “So… I heard the rumor. You figured it out. I knew you were a smart cookie.”

Troy eyed Audry up, grinning. Indeed, he had vampirish canines in his smile, but they were not obvious. He seemed to like what he saw too. “I remember you. How are the tee shirt sales going?”

Audry rolled her eyes at him. She looked to Selena. “I know you can convince people to do things they don’t want to do. Can you please help me get my cousin Vicky to come home with Vincent and me? We need to leave.”

Selena sighed, her sea-colored eyes flickering with disappointment, but she nodded. “Ah. I see. It was too much to take.”

Audry shook her head. “I just want to rescue animals. I don’t want complications to my life, like the SRA coming around and—”

“They did that already, didn’t they?” Matthew came out of nowhere. Or rather she had not seen him near the drinks until then.

Vincent also turned, searching for Audry. He rushed up as Audry nodded to Matthew to confirm his suspicions.  

“Vicky is being really stubborn. How are we going to get her to leave with us?” Vincent hardly looked at the others.

Audry turned back to Selena, begging with her eyes, hands together to really beg.

“Alright.” Selena heaved a sing-song sigh. She strode over on her long model-like legs, straight to Vicky, spreading on a smile. Vincent and Audry followed. Matthew and Troy hung back, yet not far.

“Hi, Vicky!” Selena sung out to her. “It is time for you to go home. You are very sleepy.”

Vicky swayed on her feet, nodding. “I need to go home. I’m suddenly very sleepy.”

Selena led her out of the dancing group two steps before Vicky lost her balance. Vincent and Audry caught her before she passed out and fell.

“We’ll help!” Matthew and Troy rushed up. Matthew caught hold of Vincent’s side, and Troy took over Audry’s. He was surprisingly strong for such a lean build. But then a vampire would be, wouldn’t he?  

“Thank you,” Audry mouthed to Selena, hoping she was still able to trust Matthew and his friend.

Selena shrugged, winking at her. Then she mingled back into the group, cheering them up after the loss of Vicky who had been fun. 

Matthew and Troy helped Vincent carry Vicky back toward the cabin where the families were busy with their own evening fun. As they traversed the grassy sand dunes in the dark, they did not say much. Troy led the way, mostly. He could see better than the rest of them all anyway. Night vison.

“So,” Matthew said after some time. “Rick told you the truth.”

“I…” Audry shook her head. “I figured it out.”

“How did you figure it out?” Matthew asked. It was difficult to see his face in the dark, but she was sure he was listening to her thoughts. “I mean, Rick’s good at hiding stuff—even from me—but Tom’s been teasing you about it for years, and you never clued in until now. In fact, I think Silvia has also.”

Audry nodded, rolling her eyes, wondering what he was picking up from her brain. She remembered the teasing. She just thought it was only that. “Yeah… well, seeing my wolf on the same beach wearing the same swim trunks Rick was—and neither together, kind of, uh… makes you add things up. And, believe it.”

Matthew chuckled, picking up the rest, including her recognition of the scars she had bound and what Rick had shown them on the beach.

“Who were the other dogs?” Vincent asked. “Rick said he was someone else.”

Troy laughed. “Chen.”

“Chen’s a werewolf?” Audry asked, peeking to Matthew whom she could now get an outline of his face from a distant lamp.

“No.” Troy laughed more. “He’s a shape-shifter. Ancient Chinese family. Apparently from an old elvish blood line that battles demons. Rick claims he is a descendant of the Monkey King, but I think he’s pulling our leg.”

“He’s not,” Matthew interjected. “They met the Monkey King in China a couple years back on an emergency trip. Andy told me all about it. It was the total truth.”

Audry felt chills. Andy was Andrew Cartwright. Everyone called him that except for Rick who called him AB, and his Massachusetts friends who called him Red.

“The Monkey King is a fictional character,” Troy protested.

“Based off of a real person.” Matthew snapped, probably reading Troy’s mental criticism. “Come on. You should know by now that most mythic beings are real in some form or other.”

Vincent shot Audry a look, as that matched what Rick had said.

“Are you saying there really were people like Odin and Hercules?” Vincent asked out loud.

Both Troy and Matthew halted in the sand.

“Uh…” Matthew took a breath, thinking as he clearly picked up more out of Vincent’s brain. “You know what? We really shouldn’t be talking about this. Rick will be ticked off.”

Audry felt more chills, knowing why Rick would not want them talking about all that near them.

“Does he control all of you?” Vincent asked with a tone of annoyance.

“No,” Troy huffed with his own hint of peevishness towards Rick. “He doesn’t.”

“But he wants Audry safe,” Matthew snapped back to his friend. “And you know what happens to people who know too much about the supernatural.”

The air went silent.

Troy nodded after a moment, sounding winded. “Sorry.” And they both continued on.

More silence followed. Both Audry and Vincent assumed the remark was vampire related, but it bugged them. After all this they did not want to be in the dark anymore.

“What happens?” Audry asked finally, feeling the chill, with a peek to Vincent who also shuddered. They could see the lights from their cabin just ahead.

Matthew sighed, looking to her whom he regarded kindly. “It never leaves you alone.”

They deposited Vicky on the back porch, upright, with Vincent and Audry to carry her the rest of the way. Vicky was fast asleep. Audry and Vincent realized as they received her and propped her up, without