CASSIE

Nausea quickly gave way to anger.

I scrambled across the floor so quickly that I slipped in the dead wolf’s blood and nearly fell on my face on top of his mangled corpse. The only thing that kept me from falling was reaching out to hold onto the arm of the callous werewolf.

Which brought me very close to his body. His tattooed body… The man — er, werewolf — was like a walking dream. It was hard to keep my eyes from roaming over his perfectly defined body even if I was still pissed at him. It took everything in me not to stare too hard.

He’s even more muscular that I had imagined, I thought.

His body was crisscrossed with scars and ink that only made him look more dangerous and that much more attractive. And his skin radiated so much heat that I thought I would break out in a sweat. Being so close to him only made me feel more flustered, which, of course, only served to piss me off even more.

How dare he be so freaking sexy?!

Unaffected by my proximity, the werewolf shook my hand from his arm as if I were no more than a speck of dust. It was both shocking and offensive. I had at least expected him to be more thrown off by the fact that I no longer looked like someone’s great grandmother. But he hardly gave me a second glance after his initial shock.

Without another word, he walked out the door.

I remained glued to the spot as I breathed deep and hard. My eyes were riveted to his body as I stared at his strong legs and wide back. My heart was racing as he casually strolled to his motorcycle.

I continued to watch him. I was amazed at how unaffected he was by it all. He had killed a boarder, left a bloody mess in Cookieville and then strutted away. Was none of this out of the ordinary for him?

He hopped on his bike and he kickstarted the engine to life. It roared so loud that it felt like it echoed through the trees surrounding us. Not even bothering to look back, the werewolf rode down the street. I watched until the red glow of his taillight faded in the darkness.

Then I turned around to face the mess that was still on my hands. The pool of blood continued to grow and I winced. The werewolf had told me to take care of the body.

But how the hell was I going to make a corpse disappear?

VON

As I raced down the road, I took a glance at the rearview mirror. There was nothing but darkness behind me, but I still couldn’t look away.

Was it right to just leave her like that?

Rather, was it right to leave her to deal with the feral werewolf’s body when it was so obvious that she was in over her head? I probably should have offered to help her, even if she would have protested. She was clearly incompetent as a witch and I doubted that she’d be able to find a spell to help her get rid of the corpse.

My wolf gnawed at me, willing me to go back and see her again. It had taken everything in me to keep from turning around. I knew she was watching me, but I pretended not to notice for her sake and mine.

Ignoring my growing sense of guilt, I knew there was no way that I could stay. Not after her glamour was removed. Seeing her — the real her — had stunned me and totally thrown me off of my game.

It was no wonder why my wolf had been acting feral. Cassandra — if that was her real name — was hotter than anyone I had set eyes on in a long, long time. The way her hair cascaded down her shoulders made me want to wrap my fist around the thick locks as I held her close. Her curvaceous body practically begged me to claim her as my own. And those lips of hers…

She had literally taken my breath away.

And I couldn’t afford that.

No matter how much I wanted her, I couldn’t afford to give into my desires. It would only lead to the kind of trouble that I couldn’t afford to deal with. Better to let her figure out how to handle the body than risk losing control.

The moon was still full, and while the memory of Willow had been pulled, I wasn’t sure if the potion she gave me would be enough to tame me all night. I wasn’t in the mood to kill again. Twice in one night was more than enough. If I had stayed…would that tally have risen to three?

If I gave into my baser instincts, it wouldn’t be long before the hunter became the hunted.

Shaking that off, I turned off the main road and headed towards a campsite that I knew well. I had to stay away from the pack and I had to stay the hell away from that witch. I would find my secluded spot to set up camp and wait out the full moon.

Only then would I be able to trust myself. Only then would I be able to keep my feral desires at bay.

CASSIE

I have to be smart about this. Real smart, I thought.

Despite the blood, the mangled corpse and my initial bout of nausea, I was far less repulsed by the killing than I should have been. As I stared at the body, all I could feel was a growing sense of weariness. It was up to me to figure out how to dispose of it.

Back in Atlanta, the cops would have been called. They would have had a team from the coroner’s office, who could bag, tag and carry away the body. I would have had to give a statement and then later I would have had to make an appearance in court to state what happened and defend myself.

But I wasn’t in Atlanta and paranormals never called any outsiders for help. We took care of things on our own.

I was struck dumb by the impact of my own thoughts. Had I really just referred to myself as a paranormal? Sure, I was technically a witch, but was I really one of them?

No, of course not. Never.

I was going to be a lawyer. As soon as I had the money, I would go back to Atlanta and study to become a lawyer. I would live my life as a normal person who didn’t have to deal with werewolves or witches or any of that shit.

But until that day came…

I jumped into action, ready to clean up and forget that night had ever happened. I shut off the lights, flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED, grabbed two rolls of paper towels to control the spread of blood on the formerly pristine floors of Cookieville.

None of that would have been necessary if that werewolf had just kept his snout out of my business. Sure, the boarder was seconds away from reuniting me with my aunt, but that didn’t mean I wanted the scary hot werewolf to rip his throat out and leave the mess for me to clean up.

His being super hot and super strong did not give him license to save my life!

I was on the verge of figuring out how to handle the feral boarder when he came in and used violence instead. Right? I was totally capable of handling things, though I had a hard time convincing myself of that. Mostly because it wasn’t true.

With a sigh, I realized that there was no way a mop and some paper towels were going to be enough to clean up the bloody mess. Maybe the scary hot werewolf had been right. Maybe there was a spell to handle it.

Grabbing my aunt’s book of spells, I rifled through it until I found a return to earth spell. It was worth a shot.

About ten minutes later, I stood in my aunt’s garden drenched in sweat and breathing hard. The poor garden had not been faring well since she died. I lacked my aunt’s green thumb and wasn’t sure that’d change anytime soon.

Let’s get this over with, I thought.

Bending over, I unrolled the tarp and deposited the boarder’s body onto the dying flowers. It had been a bitch to get it out of the bakery and I knew my back would be killing me the next day. With fingers crossed, I recited the spell and watched in relief as the body dissolved into the earth.

My growing sense of relief and accomplishment was tempered by a growing sense of paranoia. I looked around the woods, the property and even up at the sky. What if someone had seen me?

Shit. What if that mysterious werewolf frames me?