Her True Wolf Read online

  “Everyone get dressed for school,” Karol said once the kids had finished eating.

  Since there were so many more girls in the house, changing was basically a big party in one of the bedrooms. The two boys took a few seconds to get ready to go anywhere, but the girls more than made up for that by hogging the bathroom for what felt like hours. Today’s bathroom hog was fifteen-year-old Sarah. She had recently taken a big fascination in the boys at her school—which was bad enough—but she had also become obsessed with makeup. She didn’t like anyone else in the bathroom when she was doing it either.

  “Karol,” Alice, the second to youngest boldly yanked on Karol’s shirt. “Sarah won’t let anyone in the bathroom again.”

  Karol rolled her eyes, walked to the locked bathroom door, and pounded on it. “Sarah, we have to share.”

  “I need more eyeliner,” she replied.

  “Your eyelashes, like your hair, are a dark enough auburn that your eyes don’t look washed out, Sarah,” Karol said in an attempt to reassure the sudden insecurities her sister started having.

  “Please, Karol.”

  “I can’t afford any right now.”

  “Is that why your dress is in the trash?”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at Karol—everyone but Mary who was finishing her meal at the kitchen table.

  “Yeah, okay. I don’t have a job right now,” Karol said quickly. “But I’ll get that taken care of today. We don’t have anything to worry about.”

  Dale spoke up, “Karol, I can still get a part-time job at—”

  “Nope,” Karol said, cutting him off. “Yes, you’re sixteen, but you need to focus on school and your AP classes.”

  “But, Karol—”

  “No buts!”

  Sarah finally opened the bathroom door and everyone seemed to pile in to brush their teeth. It was a madhouse as usual, but soon enough everyone was ready to go, and right in time not to be late. As the kids rushed out the door, Karol grabbed Cora’s backpack and saw her off with the rest of the kids.

  Sighing, Karol shut the front door and walked into the kitchen. Mary remained at the table, eating her oatmeal slowly, as Karol grabbed the phone. She dialed Isabelle’s number and waited for her to pick up.

  “Good morning, Karol.”

  “Morning, Isabelle.” Karol glanced behind her into the living room where the duffel bag she packed with money sat in a lonely corner. “Mary told me you’ve been giving us money from Casey’s paycheck every month.”

  “…And?”

  “And I need to return it. Tell me where he’s living, and I’ll take the bus over there to return it to him.”

  Everything went silent on Isabelle’s end of the line. Karol almost wondered if she hung up on her.

  “He’s living in my apartments. Complex C, apartment thirteen. The rest you’ll have to figure out yourself.” This time she did hang up.

  “Thanks for your help,” Karol muttered as she put the landline phone back in its place. She couldn’t believe Isabelle had allowed this in the first place. She knew better.

  She took her turn in the bathroom, dressed in her best sweater and jeans for another fall day, and then shouldered the bag of money. Her back was still fussy today, and she did have a nasty looking bruise, but otherwise, she was as good as ever. She was as prepared as she could be. She was going to face Casey, set things straight, and maybe understand a little about what had happened last night. Well, even if she didn’t get any answers, she was going to set things straight. That was the most important part.

  “I don’t know if I’ll be back before the kids get home,” Karol said. “I’ll try to though.”

  Mary just shook her head.

  Karol went back into the bathroom to grab a hair tie for her unruly hair. She also went for her crescent moon earrings out of habit. Whatever. Why not wear them and look her best for any potential jobs? She wasn’t under-dressed exactly, but the earrings would help spice things up a little bit. As she was putting them in, she noticed a strange mark on her left earlobe. It was crescent shaped just like the moons on her earrings. She first noticed the mark around three years ago, but it didn’t always look the same. Sometimes it would be a full circle, sometimes it’d be gone, but usually, it was somewhere in between. At first, she was worried about it, but she didn’t want to pay the money to go to a doctor and get it looked at. She also never told anyone about it. Since she was still alive, she figured it was nothing too serious. It just looked like a bit of scarred skin with its pearly sheen.

  Looking at the mark made her remember that night three years ago with Casey. She was already feeling crazy about him, hot and needy. But, when he touched her earlobe, those feelings exploded. His fingers were like an electrical shock and it traveled through every inch of her body. All she knew after that was that she needed him. Then she had leaned in closer to him, and he kissed her.

  She touched her lips, remembering the sensation of his lips on hers. She had never been so high in her life. His lips were ecstasy. She relived that moment every now and then like she was right now, but it was a ghost of the feelings she had in the moment. It wasn’t the same as when she had actively kissed him.

  Shaking her head to clear it, she stepped out of the bathroom and slipped on a pair of sneakers. “I’m leaving, Mary.”

  Mary acknowledged her with a flick of her knobby fingers. She was mad, but that didn’t stop Karol. She knew what she had to do whether Mary approved of it or not.

  Karol had the duffel bag full of money safely on her shoulder, her own wallet and house key placed snuggly in her pockets, and she was out the door. New Tree Creek wasn’t too far of a walk. The bus was more ideal, but after digging through the contents of her wallet, she decided saving the bus fare would be more worth while. Besides, she was fit. She could handle a few miles walk to the Jones Apartments.

  She tried to run through a list of places she could apply for a job, but Casey kept bombarding her mind. Her left earlobe was burning too. It had never done that before. It was so obnoxious. She considered even taking out her earrings. And then there was the memory of Casey’s lips on hers again. Oh, it made her so furious. She had tried so hard to bury that night and Casey deep in her mind forever, but she just couldn’t do it. And it was so much worse now. It was because Casey saved her. She wanted it to mean something. She wanted it to mean more.

  She wondered if he was okay. He went after that maniac who hurt her and probably would have raped her. He definitely looked like he could hold his own. Then again, that man threw Casey on the floor like it was nothing—and Casey was anything but small.

  Casey went after the man after that because he said he was going to make sure he didn’t bother Karol again. He said that. Remembering his words and his deep voice sent shivers down to her toes. But then there was the fact that Casey was there at all.

  It didn’t make sense.

  She walked faster and ended up speed walking the entire way to the Jones Apartments. Good thing she was in shape and had a pair of decent walking shoes. She scanned the apartments and their lettered arrangement until she found complex C. Numbers one through ten were at ground level. That meant Casey was on the second floor. She found a staircase and started walking up it. There were a few guys outside of what she assumed were their own apartments.

  Most of them gave her stares that made her skin crawl. It wasn’t the kind of stare she was used to, though. It was a hostile stare that told her she wasn’t welcome here, or maybe the kind of stare that meant someone like her was never seen at these apartments. She saw a few women too as she kept moving though, so that was weird. She didn’t know why she was any different from them.

  She decided not to dwell on it, but she picked up her pace. She didn’t want to get caught in whatever was causing her skin to crawl. The sooner she got to Casey’s apartment and returned the money, the sooner she’d be able to leave and put all of this behind her.

  She let out a pent up breath as she stood i
n front of apartment thirteen. She internally lectured herself, telling her body it damn well better behave itself. Then she knocked on the door. She did it again when not even a second had passed. She was feeling impatient. Very impatient. Her left earlobe was tingling with heat, and her legs were jittery. The clammy feeling in between her thighs was making her angry.

  She was about to knock again when the door opened. All the air in her lungs seemed to leave her when Casey’s brown-green eyes met hers. She recovered quickly and frowned. The cut above his right eye was bruised. The rest of his face was perfect though.

  Tearing her eyes away from his beautifully sculpted face before she stared for too long, she floated her gaze to where he had that gash in his left arm. He had a big fat bandage covering it. Her eyes traveled down his toned chest. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Each muscle in his body was so defined, she couldn’t help but stare in wonder. He had to go to the gym regularly to look like that because damn. This man was magazine fit—even with the deep bruising on his chest. Now that looked like it hurt.

  Heat flashed across her face, and she lowered her eyes even more. The crazy guy was wearing shorts in the chilly fall weather. His left foot was all wrapped up in gauze like a makeshift cast. She gasped and looked back up to his face. He was definitely hurt from what happened last night. How wouldn’t he be? That guy he was fighting was a fucking maniac.

  Casey’s eyes hadn’t left her for a moment. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but his gaze was soft for her like it was when he saved her last night. The man had killer eyelashes too. It should have been illegal for anyone to be so gorgeous.

  “Mind if I come inside?” she asked. Her voice sounded so small and pathetic.

  He answered her by opening the door wide and gesturing her inside with a sweep of his hand. She scanned his apartment. It wasn’t large, but it was new. It was also bare. There was a couch in the living room and a small TV. She could glance the kitchen from inside the living room. It was also small, spotless. It hardly looked like anyone lived there. It wasn’t personalized. Anyone could have lived there or no one at all.

  “You should sit down,” Karol said quickly as she turned back around to face Casey as he shut the door. “You don’t look like you should be on your feet.”

  “Are you okay?” he asked her.

  The first words he asked her… Her hands clenched into fists at her side. “Am I okay?” she repeated the question. “What about you? Did that bastard do this to you?”

  Casey averted her gaze. What did that mean? Was he ashamed? She would have felt like a fucking hero if she was able to stand up to that guy. She didn’t understand Casey at all.

  She hefted the heavy bag full of money off her shoulder and held it out to him. She would have shoved it into his chest, but she didn’t want to hurt him when it looked like he was already hurting enough with that bruising. She had a pretty bad bruise herself, but it looked nothing like his. “This belongs to you.”

  Raising an eyebrow, Casey took the bag.

  Karol took a deep breath and decided she should at least thank him for saving her. Whether he had an ulterior motive or not, he did save her life. It was decent to thank him.

  “So thanks for saving me. I didn’t use any of your money. I didn’t even know about it until last night or I would have given it all back to you a lot sooner. I hope this makes us square,” she said.

  Casey’s face scrunched up, and his nose did this cute thing that made her heart flop. Then he held the duffel bag back out to her.

  “I don’t want it back,” he stated. His eyes grew intense, and she couldn’t look away. “You need this money.”

  Karol was like a volcano about to erupt. Her face was hot. She was certain it was as red as her hair. “Me and my family don’t accept charity,” she said as calmly as she could manage, but there was an explosion waiting below the surface. “Count what’s in there. It’s everything you’ve ever given us. This makes us even. I don’t owe you anything!” And the explosion surfaced.

  Casey’s jaw went slack and his eyes widened. He dropped the bag of money onto the floor. “I didn’t give you this money so you’d owe me something.”

  “Is that right?” Karol challenged. She walked forward, well inside of Casey’s personal space. She didn’t take her eyes off his, anger and defiance oozing off of the gesture. She grabbed one of his hands and placed it on her chest, easing him down to her right breast. God, what was she doing? She had lost her mind. And her body was turning traitor again, savoring Casey’s warmth, wanting him to touch her like the nonexistent kind of man she fantasized him to be.

  Casey’s brown eyes flashed a bright yellow-green, the same yellow-green she saw last night. Her body reacted stronger, heat pooling in between her thighs. She could almost feel the tears in her eyes. She wanted this so badly and at the same time, she didn’t. Maybe her body wanted sex with this hot as sin man, but her heart wanted something more. If she had sex with Casey, she was convinced her heart would get hurt along the way. Her mother’s experiences told her so.

  “You see me as one thing and one thing only,” she said, her voice deadly still. “Well, I have news for you. I’m a human being with thoughts and feelings.”

  Karol eased his hand down to the edge of her jeans and then to the front where her sex was hot and needy under the denim and her cotton underwear. She held her breath, wondering what he’d do. Wondering what she wanted him to do.

  He pulled away. He tore out of her grasp and reclaimed his hand to his side. But he was trembling. His eyes were burning.

  “I have thoughts and feelings too,” he said with almost a snarl. “And I’m not interested in taking advantage of anyone if that’s what you’re insinuating. Besides, if any one here owed anyone anything, it would be me owing you. You helped me more that night three years ago than you realize.”

  He tore his eyes away from hers and bent down to grab the bag on the floor. He held it up to her. “Please, take this. I heard you lost your job. It’ll help until you can get a new one.”

  Never mind him somehow knowing about her losing her job, the sincerity in his words shocked her. He wasn’t belittling her, saying she couldn’t handle things. He apparently wasn’t expecting any favors. Could someone want to help someone else who wasn’t family without getting anything out of it? Was that possible? And what about him being a man? She had never given a man a chance because she was convinced they were all scum like the men at the bar, like the men her mother dealt with. Like her father.

  It all amounted to one question. Could she afford to put an ounce of trust in Casey?

  Karol’s lips quivered as she took the bag back. “I’m sorry. I was… I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I’ll pay you back whatever I use and give you back what I don’t use. I just… I can’t just accept all of this when we manage most of the time.”

  “Fine,” Casey said after a pause.

  Karol cleared her throat, doing her best to get a hold of herself. “Yeah, okay. Sorry for bothering you.”

  She was about to get the hell out of there, but she would have had to shove past Casey, and she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Casey reached out a hand for her. Then he bit his lip and brought it back to his side. Then, again, he held his hand out. This time he touched her cheek. Karol tilted her chin up to look at him. His touch was tender, warm. She closed her eyes, taking in the sensation. This simple touch was safe. Trustworthy. She knew it with every portion of her being.

  Then that burst of energy seemed to stem from her left earlobe again like the night Casey kissed her. She knew his lips would be on hers next. They were. This was the moment she tried to recreate in her mind over and over, but this time was real. This time was as powerful as the first. Casey’s lips on hers were a soft caress like his hand on her cheek. And it was short. Too short. She was feeling everything at a thousand percent and then everything went back to normal. Her eyelids fluttered open as she looked up into Casey’s eyes, oddly yellow-green when they were so
brown before. No man had ever looked at her like this before. Like maybe she was something more.

  Casey didn’t do or ask for anything else. He brought his hand back to his side, but that look in his eyes didn’t go away.

  Karol cleared her throat when the haze Casey created started to lift. “Uh, right. So, money.” She held up the duffel bag. “I’ll pay you back.” She looked him over again, taking in his injuries. “You went to a doctor right?”

  “Right,” he said with a small smirk.

  She pointed at the bag. “Because, you know, if you needed money…”

  “Karol,” he said her name firmly, “I’m not going without. I don’t need the money. Trust me.”

  She cleared her throat again and gave a little nod. “Okay. Get some rest then.”

  “I wouldn’t make a habit of carrying around that much cash with you,” Casey said, a hint of teasing in his tone.

  “Ha. Ha,” Karol replied dryly. “I’ve got pepper spray and I know how to take care of myself.”

  “I know.”

  Damn, she loved and hated how his words kept sending shivers up her spine.

  “I could drive you home,” he offered.

  That was right. She didn’t really want to lug around all this cash while she was job hunting. “Actually, I was planning on job hunting around here.” She walked farther into the living room and dropped the bag on the couch. “Maybe you could hold on to this for me instead and drive by later to drop it back off at my place if you’re really that serious about me keeping it.”

  “Done,” he said easily.

  She frowned. “You really should rest though. You look like hell.” Well, he did and he didn’t. He was still damn sexy even when he was beaten up.

  “I will.” He grinned. “Good luck job hunting.”

  “Thanks,” she said as she almost tripped, walking to the door. He had the most endearing smile she had ever seen. She let her hand hover above the doorknob. Then she looked behind her for one last glimpse at Casey. “Later.”