Chapter Seventeen—Lucas

“Her Momma knows more about Sweeny’s daddy than she is letting on,” Lucas said to Theo. “She’s been spying on him.”

Theo tossed a rock into the bayou behind Lucas’ house. “Yeah? Why would she keep him such a secret?”

Lucas shrugged. “I’m guessing cause she knows what he really is, yeah.”

Theo sat down on the dock beside Lucas. “Damn. What’s she gonna do?”

“Call the number on the checks he sent her. They were from when she was a toddler, so it probably isn’t the same number, but it’s worth a try.”

Theo glanced over his shoulder. “Jaxson’s parents are forcing him to go have dinner with his eighty-year-old grandma for her birthday. I don’t know when he’ll be here.”

Lucas wasn’t too worried about Jaxson. At least he was part of a family that cared about him. Lucas' parents never said he scared them but he knew he did.

Once his daddy got the job in Texas, it wasn’t two weeks before they were gone. They both knew what granddaddy said about leaving Abita Springs. Lucas couldn’t—ever.

There would be no out-of-town college or moving to the beach to learn to surf, no. He’d be lucky to get a weeks’ vacation once a year.

“How’s your daddy been?” Lucas asked.

Theo tossed him a look. “Drunk, as usual. He did well for about two weeks at his new job, but I’ve smelled the beer on him again. I give ‘em another few days.”

At least Lucas’ parents fed him and pretended to love him. Theo’s parents couldn’t care less, didn’t even know he shifted.

Jaxson’s parents on the other hand knew, but ignored it. They never talked about it. Once his grandma explained that her daddy was a rougarou when Jaxson first shifted, his parents brushed it off. They never talked about it again.

Lucas hopped up. “You want to go on a run? I wanted to check on Sweeny’s house before bed.”

Theo shrugged out of his shirt. “Sure, let’s go.”

They both raced toward the woods, letting their wolves out once they hit the tree line. Most of the woods connected somewhere with an occasional trail across a highway, so when they started running, it didn’t matter which way, they’d eventually end up around Sweeny’s.

Lucas let Theo take the lead. They ran through the woods until Lucas figured out they were behind Jaxson’s house.

Theo shifted when the trees began to thin. “Do you see that?”

Lucas forced his wolf inside. “What the—”

Kurt sat on his tailgate that faced away from Jaxson’s house, loading a bow and arrow.

“Is that silver?” Theo asked.

The tip shined bright in the setting sun. Lucas could see it from the distance. “Yeah—it is. Hattie told Sweeny about Kurt believing Jaxson was a rougarou, yeah. It looks like he knows a lot more than we think.”

Kurt hopped off his truck, a big-eared basset hound following him. They paced him from the trees and watched him walk inside of the Broussard’s barn. Theo gestured for him to follow. Theo knew his way around Jaxson’s place better than Lucas.

The boards in the old barn were lose and easy to see through. Lucas bent down and squinted through the wood. Kurt walked around petting the horses and moving around some hay.

He stopped by the front doors and turned toward a target, aiming his arrow precisely, he let go. Theo flinched beside him. “Impressive,” he whispered.

His dog’s ears perked up, and his attention drew to the corner of the barn where they hid.

“What is it, boy?” he asked.

Lucas and Theo jogged to the tree line and watched as Kurt looked over the property.

“He’s a hunter,” Lucas said. “I know you read about those in the book, yeah?”

Theo nodded. “Yeah, and we're totally screwed.”

“No damn good,” Lucas said. “Let’s text Jaxson and let him know to watch his back. He needs to lay low for a while.”

Theo got out his phone and typed out a text. “Let’s get out of here.”

Lucas waited for several hundred yards before he transitioned. Kurt’s dog howled in the distance, and Lucas pushed further to Sweeny’s house. The woods turned quiet as they grew closer to Sweeny’s back yard.

Theo transitioned into his human form and grabbed his phone from his loose basketball shorts. Jaxson sent a thumbs up with a picture of his grandmother asleep in her rocking chair.

Lucas shifted and laughed. “I see he’s worried about it, yeah?”

Theo glanced forward. “That’s Sweeny’s back yard, isn’t it?”

Lucas looked up at the row of birds lining her fence. “That’s so freaky,” he whispered. “She can’t hear them—why are they there?”

“You think they sense her?” Theo asked.

“Obviously.” He drew near the trees, noticing someone’s silhouette danced alongside Sweeny’s house. Lucas watched with hate in his gut as Jeremy glanced inside their kitchen window—as Lucas did that first night.

He held something in his hand that Lucas couldn’t make out. “What is he doing?” Theo asked.

“I’m gonna kill him, yeah?” Lucas went forward but Theo stopped him.

“Calm down. He’s going into the woods, let’s follow him.”

They paced the trees as Jeremy walked toward the woods behind his own house. Halfway through the field he stopped. Jeremy’s head turned toward the woods where he stood.

“He can’t see us,” Theo said.

Lucas felt his energy change to something sinister. “He knows we’re here,” he said.

For several seconds he scanned the trees. Time seemed still. He started back toward the woods, leaving behind whatever it was that he held in his hand.

Theo started toward the field.

“It's a trap,” Lucas said.

Lucas’ heartbeat hammered deep in his chest. The urge to go see what he left threatened him but he didn’t.

“Spying on people isn’t a southern delicacy.”

Lucas turned. Jeremy stood beside them in the woods. He couldn’t gauge how he made it around to them so quickly.

“Why are you looking in Sweeny’s house?” Lucas asked.

Jeremy’s normally happy face looked detached. “I would assume the same reason why you’re watching me, hmm?”

Theo shifted on his feet beside Lucas. “It’s Lucas’ job to watch out for his girlfriend. Of course a strange guy looking in her window would make him curious.”

“Cut this crap,” he snapped.

The air shifted and a humid breeze blew against the forest floor, sending leaves into a whirlwind.

“I know what you three are, and I’m not scared of some furry dickheads that think they run this town. Now,” he said, stepping forward. “Stop following me or you might see something you don’t like.”

Lucas growled, his wolf trying to surface, but he didn’t need to give Jeremy the clarification.

Theo laughed beside him. “No one is scared of some sissy ass northerner that—” Theo yowled and dropped to the floor, his body seizing.

Lucas didn’t look away from Jeremy as Theo shook on the ground. He couldn’t kill them, he wasn’t powerful enough—Lucas sensed it.

“Not gonna help your wolf buddy, huh?”

Lucas stepped forward, knocking Jeremy’s concentration from Theo, who stopped screaming and crawled to his feet. “You go near Sweeny Harper again—and I’ll rip that ice cold heart from your chest, yeah?”

Jeremy glanced at Theo who heaved in silence.

“See you boys around.”

Lucas watched until he disappeared through the thicket of trees. “Are you okay?”

Theo nodded. “Yeah.”

Lucas racked his fingers into his hair and sighed. A crow flew from the depth of the field where Jeremy left his trap.

It was obvious that Jeremy wasn’t the person drawing Sweeny near—but he knew who it was.