Leopard Moon

Chapter 14

Kess had been on the edge of panic all shift. She'd been wrong that work would take her mind off of her encounter with the wolf; instead all she did was jump at every sound and flinch away from people. She'd come back from her woodland excursion last night completely exhausted and had fallen directly into bed, bloody clothes and all, and into a dark dreamless sleep. But she'd been obsessively turning over the events of last night in her head since she'd woken up this morning. And doing that was not helping her one bit.

She'd tried to order things logically in her head: she'd been out hunting, she'd run across a grey wolf, she'd run, it had chased, she'd gotten bit, she'd escaped, she'd changed and went back to the boarding house. No problems so far. Except that she'd found Cormac's scent near her clothes. Except that she'd found clothes that could have been his discarded nearby, almost as if someone had hurriedly taken them off to change. Except that it was his Jeep that had been parked next to her car.

She tried to keep calm, but her mind had been running through a thousand exit scenarios as she prepped for the lunch shift that was just about over. Kess wanted to believe that it was just a coincidence, but she knew it wasn't. Chances were good that it was a werewolf out there and that the werewolf was Cormac. The wound on her side was a confirmation; it hadn't healed up by the morning like a normal animal bite would have. Were bites healed much slower and left silvery-white scars behind. It was too soon to tell what the scar would look like, but Kess didn't think she had the time to wait and see. She needed to come to some kind of decision soon.

That was the problem. Her head told her what she should be doing: gathering up her tips, packing her stuff and putting this town in her rearview mirror as soon as she could. That's what she'd always done. Her heart was telling her something entirely different and a lot more dangerous. She wanted to stay, to see what would happen, in the dim hope that Cormac was exactly what he appeared to be—a nice, normal guy. One she wanted and who wanted her. The thought of leaving crushed a part of her that she hadn't even realized was there; the part of her that would miss the way his presence filled a room with warmth, the way his eyes crinkled when he grinned at something funny she'd said, the way he looked at her.

Kess ran through the events of the previous night again. One thing kept sticking out to her. The wolf had stopped. It hadn't chased her until it caught her. It had nicked her, almost like it was trying to get her attention, and then it had sat down. She didn't know much about wolves, were or otherwise, but she was pretty sure that wasn't normal behavior.

So if it was Cormac, what would he be doing right now? Calling the pack together? Planning her destruction for trespassing on his land? Picking out wallpaper? Her thoughts tangled together as she tried to reconcile the guy that she knew with the wolf from last night. Cormac didn't seem like the kind of person who could just kill someone for being in his territory.

She'd already decided she wouldn't fight him if it came to that. She didn't want anyone to get hurt. Especially not him.

Kess only had her own clan as a model, and if she went by that, it meant death. Most likely hers. She was on her own, solitary, with no territory of her own. Whether or not Cormac was a great guy wouldn't mean anything if his pack decided to get rid of her.

She finished her sidework with a sigh of resignation and gathered up her things. Her decision was made. She would leave. It would be better for everyone if she was gone by sunset, even if the thought of leaving made her heart clench in her chest. Working a double was out of the question. She needed to plan out where she'd be heading next, get her stuff and get out. She pulled her hair out of her chopsticks and fought off the allure of a nap. She couldn't afford to wait, no matter how tired she still was from the night before.