“What’s the matter, Meara?”
“Nothing. I thought you were going to take a nap with Tessa.” She motioned to the kitchen. “I’m going to clean the cocoa mugs.”
“I’ll help you.” Cara vamoosed to the kitchen.
A strange noise sounded in Tessa’s bedroom. He listened, trying to discern what it was. A grating sound? A window opening?
He raced down the hall and grabbed Tessa’s doorknob. Locked.
His blood chilled. “Tessa! Open up!”
No response, but the wind was blowing into the room, papers fluttering, curtains flapping, the frigid air seeping under the bottom edge of the door. “Tessa!”
Turning, he saw Meara watching him, wringing her hands. He didn’t even want to know why at this point. He made a dead run for the front door and threw it wide open.
Tessa struggled with the key in her car door lock. His heart beat out of bounds, the thrill of the chase deeply ingrained in him.
She wasn’t leaving him. Not unless he chose for her to do so.
He glanced at the key. Not making any headway on the lock. Frozen?
He stalked toward her, his footfall crunching on the glazed snow. She glanced up at him, held herself rigid, testing him with an icy gaze, but she shivered and looked like a rabbit caught in a trap. He gave her credit for not running away.
“Let’s go inside and discuss this, Tessa.”
“Like two human beings?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
He couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips, but then he frowned at her. “If you stay out here, you’re going to catch pneumonia.”
“But you won’t?”
“We can discuss this inside, now.”
Her brows knit together, and she stormed past him. Meara and Cara watched from the front entrance, but quickly moved out of Tessa’s path. Hunter gave Meara a look that meant he would have a word with her later. Cara closed and locked the door behind him. Ashton and Rourke came inside from the back way.
“Not much worth saving at this point.” Ashton shook snow off his parka.
Everyone was glowering at Ashton, except for Tessa. Trembling, she knelt before the fire, her hands spread over the flames.
Hunter crouched beside her. “Ask me what you will.”
She glanced at the others and then focused on Hunter. “You have two options as far as taking care of me. Make me one of you, or kill me.”
Chapter 12
HUNTER SUSPECTED THE WORST—THAT ASHTON HAD shapeshifted in plain view of Tessa and now he was faced with a new dilemma.
Rourke swore under his breath.
Hunter clenched and unclenched his hands. Damn Ashton. “Ashton, the window’s open in the master bedroom. The door is locked. Go around the front and climb in, shut the window, and unlock the door, why don’t you?”
“I’ll go with him,” Rourke hastily said.
When the men left, Hunter pulled off one of Tessa’s cold wet gloves and then the other.
Meara said, “I’ll make lunch.”
“I’ll help her,” Cara quickly added, and the two disappeared into the kitchen.
“Tessa, what did you see?” Hunter’s gut clenched with concern for what she was feeling.
If he could undo the last few days in a heartbeat to save her from what now had to be done, he would. He couldn’t believe Ashton had caused so much trouble. No wonder changing humans wasn’t a good policy.
Tessa swallowed hard and stared at the fire while Hunter rubbed her cold fingers. “Ashton was acting crazy, pacing all over the place, and then he went outside and stripped off his clothes in the snow. I thought he was rabid, and I was afraid he would hurt Cara. Instead he… he changed. Transformed into a wolf. Cara wasn’t surprised. Your sister told me nothing had happened. And if neither of them was shocked, it meant they were whatever he was also. And you, too.”
Wanting her, despite everything—her cousin, his own feelings about changing a human, the fact she had a brother, which would cause even more problems— Hunter unbuttoned her coat, knowing now he had no choice but to explain his world. “I’m sorry.”
“That you have to terminate me now? I won’t tell anyone.” Her eyes glistened with tears. “How could I? They’d lock me away.”
He let out his breath, unsure how to approach the problem. He didn’t want to upset her any further, but he couldn’t be dishonest with her at this point. “Letting you go, isn’t one of our options.” Their laws had kept them alive and their secret intact for this long, he wasn’t about to break one of the most important rules they lived by.
She blinked away tears and looked back at the fire. “Will you at least help my brother get his release?”
Her tearfulness cut straight through to his soul. “Changing you was the other choice.” Or giving her up to Devlyn Greystoke.
“Your sister said it wasn’t an option for you.”
He shook his head. Leave it up to his sister to be truthful at the most inopportune times.
Tessa’s bedroom door opened, and Rourke stomped back down the hall. “What else did you need done?”
Ashton slinked in behind him.
“Rourke, why don’t you take a nap in the guest room? Ashton, you take one in Michael’s room. We’ll need some sleep so we can pull guard duty tonight.”
Rourke cast a sympathetic look Tessa’s way and gave Hunter a hard look. Then he and Ashton headed down the hall.
“If I turned you…” Hunter said.
“I don’t want to be crazy like Ashton.”
“You’ll be the same person you are now even after the change. Maybe he was already a little crazy.” Hunter stroked Tessa’s hand. “There are benefits for being what we are.”
“What exactly are you?”
“Shapeshifters. Lupus garous. Werewolves. We normally don’t associate much with humans, and we don’t normally change them.”
Tessa’s eyes were so big, Hunter knew telling her the facts of life wasn’t going to be any easier than it had been when he told the guys.
“You can’t have been born this way.”
“Yes, we’re born this way. Normally, it’s much easier to stay with our kind since we’ve grown up this way. Teaching a newly turned human can be a real trial. Both Rourke and Ashton have already made innumerable mistakes. If I could, I’d take them to my home and keep them there, isolated from humans until they more thoroughly understood how dangerous it is for us to let down our guard.”
“Dangerous?”
“Yes. Can you imagine if people knew of our existence, what would happen? DNA testing, for one, to learn why we heal so quickly, how we can shapeshift, what makes us age so slowly.”
“You… you don’t have the life span of a human?”
“No. Although we can die.” He pulled off her coat. She looked so petite sitting there, he again wondered if she could handle being his mate. “Think on it, Tessa. I won’t pressure you into making a decision.”
She snorted. “Death or life as a werewolf. No pressure. Right.” She took a ragged breath and stared at the floor. “You wanted to take a nap.”
And the fact she wouldn’t look at him made him worry she was intending on trying to slip out while everyone was napping. “With you.”
She looked so damned vulnerable, he didn’t want to push her into accepting any of this until she could handle it. What was he supposed to do? Letting her know their secrets, but allowing her to live on her own as a human was not an option. But killing her wasn’t either.
He ran his hands through her silky hair, wanting to bury his face in the sweet peach-scented strands. “In part, you and your brother are already one of us, if it helps any. It seems Jeremiah Cramer, your great-grandfather, was Seth Greystoke, a friend of my great-grandfather’s. One of his great grandsons still lives. Which creates another situation. Maybe the solution, or not. Once Devlyn Greystoke learns of your existence, I’d be willing to bet, he’ll want you to join his pack.”
Tessa looked so distraught, Hunter took her hand and kissed it, and he noted how small her fingers were compared to his, just like the rest of her—petite, delicate, not tall like his sister or Cara, which meant she’d be a small wolf when she shapeshifted, and most likely unable to deal with the heftier grays if one of them tried her. But touching her turned his body into a torrent of need—the desire to claim her overcoming any rational judgment.
Trying to get his mind off what Tessa’s sweet body did to his, he considered the matter of turning her further. He didn’t object to making her one of their own for the same reason Leidolf did because of his roots, even though he and Meara were of royal lineage also, but having offspring who were not, didn’t matter to him. Turning a reluctant woman did. But if she had wolf roots already and she was willing… “You have a choice, Tessa.” As much as he hated to admit it.
“You mean to go with some stranger?” She sounded slightly hysterical, her eyes wide, scared. “I can’t leave. My brother—”
“As the last of his kin, I’m certain Devlyn would want to do whatever he could to help free your brother.”
Although Hunter had every intention of freeing her brother himself, somehow.
Tessa’s expression changed subtly—almost as though she thought family might be more of a help than he would be. And the notion irked him. He was her savior, no one else.
But then she squeezed Hunter’s hand and his groin tightened. “What about you?”
Hell, he wanted her, but in reality, since Devlyn was a pack leader and her kin, by their laws, he should decide her future. Hunter chided himself. That was one law he wasn’t willing to abide by—not when it came to Tessa’s fate.
She bit her lip, her hands nervously rubbing her jeans. “What, Hunter? If it pertains to me…”
“Hell, Tessa.” He tugged her from the floor and pulled her toward her bedroom. “If I was being perfectly honest with you, I’d tell you it’s out of my hands. That according to our laws, your cousin would decide what would happen to you and your brother.”