Page 28 of The Werewolf Cowboy
It would have been funny had she not been so terrified.
He loped over to her and regarded her with those cool blue eyes. In Lupine form, Grayson was large as a small pony. Black as ink, the wolf outweighed her alpha by at least a hundred pounds. She stepped back, afraid of the terrible power radiating from her friend.
Crimson dripping from its jaws, the wolf turned to her. Sorrow swam in the ice blue eyes. “Katy, you fear me.”
This was the man/Lupine who would never hurt her, who risked his own life to find entrance into the Dark Kingdom and find her, bring her safely home.
“I don’t fear you, Grayson.” She stared at her hands, which had grown talons that had ripped out the throat of the centaur. “I fear what I am. What am I?”
“Don’t.” His voice thickened. “There is nothing to fear, Katy. You’re different. And here, those differences are lifesavers.”
“What am I? I’ve never attacked another living being before, except to hunt prey. And yet the rage within me, seeing them attack you, I felt nothing but bloodlust. And you…”
This wasn’t like killing prey to eat. She had downed a creature twice her size, and ripped him apart like a feral wolf. Katy knew what happened to feral wolves. In the end, the Silver Wizard, the judge and guardian of Lupines, usually had to dispose of them quickly. It was a merciful death. Wolves without the discipline of pack, Lupines that did as they pleased and killed viciously, were dangerous in the Skin world. Feral Lupines didn’t care about the rules governing them. They risked exposure, and letting out the secret that Others roamed the earth alongside the human race.
Humans must never know that werewolves existed.
Grayson shifted back to Skin and clothed himself in jeans, and a black T-shirt. Familiar clothing. She’d seen him wear this several times around the ranch when he helped wranglers round up stray cattle or fix a fencepost bordering his ranch and her pack’s.
The clothing grounded her. Perhaps he meant it to do exactly that.
Grayson held out his hands. Strong, calloused, the palms of a rancher. Not a feral wolf, a creature that could bring down two nightmarish Fae and a centaur that made a Clydesdale look like a pony.
“Katy, come here.”
Immobilized, she could not move. This place was too strange, too frightening. She had become frightening as well.
His voice softened to a husky plea. “Please. It’s me, Grayson. Your friend.”
He kept speaking in a soothing tone, as if she were a wild animal to tame to his hand. Katy didn’t want to approach him. Her heart pounded like a drum, and sweat dampened her hands. The fear became a live, writhing beast inside her.
And then she looked into his eyes and saw the haunted shadows there.
Whatever this thing had become, this thing that was her, he suffered from it as well.
She went to him and he did not move. Only when she flattened her palm against his deep chest, to feel the steady rhythm of his heart and know it was Grayson, did his arms wrap around her.
For a minute they remained motionless, the stench of blood and death and evil swirling around them. Grayson finally rested his chin atop her head.
“Katy. My Katy. You are not a monster. I will explain everything, but right now is not the place. At dusk, creatures of the night roam the Blasted Zone to search for easy prey. The blood will draw them close.”
But he had changed. No longer Grayson, the guarded but approachable cowboy. Even his manner of speaking had changed and become more formal, less folksy. Less Grayson.
What was he?
She pulled away and stared at her hands, her now-normal hands. And what did that make her?
He brushed a lock of damp hair from her face. “We have to go, sweetheart. I have to get you someplace safe.”
Taking her hand, he picked up the pack and tugged her toward the narrow passage cutting through the thick mountains. It looked nearly impassable. She had no choice but to follow. In this foreign, dangerous land, she was lost.
Grayson nodded. “Go first. It looks as if it will close in on you, but that’s an illusion created to keep out other species.”
I hope so. I don’t relish the idea of being trapped in here if more of those things chase us.
He pulled her close and kissed her cheek, a mere brush of his lips, but the contact made her toes curl. “Remember, if you get scared, I am behind you all the way. You are Lupine. Strong. You can do this.”
They walked through the passage, Katy in front of Grayson. A chill raced down her spine as the thick, tall rock seemed to compress her.I am Lupine. I am strong. I can do this.
