Chapter Sixty-Three - Jessica

The wind blew through my wolf’s hair as the moon called to us.

I’d spent the next three hours eating with the pack and watching Jacob bond with Joey. It felt strange to see his attention turned toward her.

Maybe it was the freedom of having most of the town safe, or maybe he was tired and deserved to live a life where he was happy. Either way, it would take time to get used to it.

Mason and I weaved through trees, the canopy of leaves above us masking the moonlight in the cloudless sky.

The adrenaline in my wolf’s body as we raced toward town spread tingles along my skin. The entire pack raced along the side of the road leading into town with electricity running through us.

When we made it to the city limits, the vibe shifted.

Everyone grew on edge and determined to catch any lingering lycans. Jacob led us into the city limits carefully. The silence in the town felt off, even for this time of night.

They were afraid to come out. There was a fear in the air that I could taste. If the lycans hadn’t scared them, we did.

Jacob stopped by the courthouse and glanced around.

There was no one in sight. Human or lycan. Everyone was gone.

He dropped his head and began to sniff along the sidewalk until he stopped abruptly. His gaze shifted toward the bank’s roof. Two lycans stood there watching us as they had in the past.

Jacob shifted swiftly and took the Nerf gun from Aaron’s mouth. “Aaron come with me to get those two. The rest of you keep looking.”

My wolf took charge, sniffing the ground and following a scent she picked up. With Mason on my tail, I walked toward an alley between a barbershop and a small clinic.

Mason maneuvered beside me, not wanting me to walk into danger first, and stopped midway.

Something moved by a group of trashcans. My wolf ducked down and barred her teeth.

A stray cat scurried from behind the trashcans and ran for its life. I chuckled to myself as Mason nudged my side. His glowing golden eyes were full of laughter.

I hadn’t spent too much alone time with Mason while in wolf form.

I couldn’t explain the joy that being near him gave my wolf. It was indescribable. I knew our lives if I hadn’t turned out to be a wolf would have been amazing. But being able to shift and run with him brought us closer.

Mason pulled back, and just as swiftly as he blinked, something jumped from the top of the building.

In a blur of fur and fury, Mason tucked and rolled with a lycan. My wolf snapped into fighting mode and leaped toward them.

Mason snarled and nipped the lycan’s neck. The smell of blood filtered through my nose, and drew my wolf to a breaking point.

Mason howled as the lycan nipped his cheek. But it was short-lived.

My wolf grew unhinged, leaping forward and sinking her teeth into the lycan’s flesh. Jacob wanted to save as many people as we could. So, I dragged the lycan kicking and screaming from the alleyway.

Seconds later, Seth walked over and sprayed the lycan with the elixir.

The lycan arched its back, turned, and kicked until it shriveled into a small, old lady. I blinked, watching as Mason’s grandmother sat up and looked around.

Mason shifted immediately, while Seth gaped at her.

“Grandma,” he said, cradling her head.

“Where am I?” she asked, looking around. She looked disheveled and worn down. Dark circles hung beneath each eye. “What is going on?” She looked at me in my wolf form and shrieked. “Not again. Not again.”

Mason picked her up into his arms. “Tell Jacob I’m taking her back home. I won’t be long. She lives around the corner.”

Seth and I watched Mason run her away in disbelief. Jacob and Aaron jumped from the roof of the bank. Aaron held a small child in his arms. “Where’s Mason?” he asked.

“He took his grandmother home. She attacked us.”

Jacob sighed heavily. “Joey said there were probably ten more that didn’t show up to the festival. We’ve found three.”

Red and blue lights flickered across my gaze.

The sheriff’s car and a cruiser pulled up and blocked the road in front of us. “Damn,” Jacob hissed. “This isn’t going to be good.”

The sheriff got out of the car, bent down behind his door, and pointed a gun. “Drop the kid, and put your hands up. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

His gaze shifted to me, still in my wolf form and I growled.

“Back down,” Jacob whispered as Aaron sat the kid down on the pavement. "We can handle this without any bloodshed if we are careful."

“I want my mommy,” the child cried out.

Against my wolf’s wishes, I shifted in front of the cops. Two of them gaped wildly at me, while the sheriff pressed his mouth into a thin line. He whispered into his walkie-talkie and then two of the cops walked over as he ushered the child into his car.

The officer avoided eye contact with us as he shakily put Seth in handcuffs first.

Seth growled at him, but Jacob gave him a look to back off.

Slowly, they cuffed all of us.

The sheriff cleared his throat. “Where is the other one? Mason.”

No one said a word, we all held eye contact with him until he scoffed. “Fine, we’ll find him ourselves. Put them in the back of the cruiser. This is madness.”

We were all shoved into the back of a cop car naked. I’d been in plenty of compromising positions in my life but this had to be the worse one.

The drive to the station took three minutes because of the size of the town. The police station was bare of anyone other than the three officers when we got there. I didn’t know if half of the town had fled or what.

They sat us down in a row of chairs outside of the small cells. The sheriff looked at us with wide, fearful eyes. “If one of you turns into a wolf while you’re here…”

“You’ll what?” I asked.

The sheriff glared at me for several long seconds. I could feel Jacob staring at me to obey him, but my wolf wouldn’t let me.

“We saved this entire town from those monsters, and you’re putting us in jail?” I asked. "You're welcome."

One of the officers shifted nervously behind him.

He stared at me. “You look just like your mother, you know that?”

Dad scoffed a few chairs down from me. “Don’t bring her into this. We saved your life and this town. Let us go before they create more of those monsters.”

The sheriff sighed heavily, took off his hat, and swiped his palm over his head. “I can’t let you roam the streets…,”

“We’ve been roaming the streets since we were ten years old,” Jacob spat. “We’ve been protecting this town for decades. What are you arresting us for?

Turning into wolves? Since when is that against the law?”

The sheriff leaned back against the front desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “What are those things?”

“Lycans,” I answered. “Jamie at The Eagle planned to turn the entire town.”

I left out the royal bloodline part. One thing at a time. I was in his shoes not too long ago.

“Where is she now?”

“Dead,” Aaron said flatly.

One of the officers stepped forward. “What’s the stuff you’re spraying on them?”

“An elixir to cure them. The ones that will allow it. Some fight us too much," Liam said.

The sheriff nodded slowly and handed the keys to the officer standing closest to him. “Un-cuff them and load them up. We’re going lycan hunting.”