“Where’s her wolf?” Jericho asked.
“Lying on top of the dead body.”
Shit. That sonofabitch must have pissed her off something fierce to make her wolf take claim of his body like that. “Her wolf knows me, Austin. She trusts me. I can get close to her and get her out.”
“I don’t want her out,” Austin said calmly. “Out means trouble. She’s covered in human blood, and we got Shifters out there looking for a reason to shift. There’s already talk about how unfairly we’re being treated, while the other Breeds get to practice their magic. If she runs into the crowd, that’ll be like the gun they fire off at the races. It’ll start a riot if everyone starts shifting. Lexi and Ivy went to find a crate. If you want me to lock your ass up in there, then I have no problem with that. But if she doesn’t shift back, we crate her home, and you’re going to be the one to put her in there.”
“We need to get April out,” Reno said, his voice caged with fury.
Austin tossed him his phone. “Call her up. She’s fine.”
Reno turned around with the phone pressed to his ear.
Jericho stepped forward, locking eyes with Austin. “Let me in.”
“You sure? She could go wild on you. Izzy has blood in her mouth, and you know how hard it is to come down from that. I went in and tried to force her to shift, but I have little control over the human inside. She bit me,” he said, holding up his left arm. Dried blood streaked down the back of his forearm from a set of puncture marks.
“Why don’t you stay out here and shift to heal up. I’ll go calm her down.”
Austin stepped aside. “Be my guest. I may have control over my alpha enough to shift here, but I’m taking the stitches on this one. Don’t shift, Jericho. I’m warning you. I want everyone to keep their animal in check. I have a big fucking mess to clean up here, and I’m only doing it because it took place in your trailer. Do you realize what kind of trouble she’s caused by killing a human? This involves all of us now, and I don’t need this kind of trouble surrounding my pack.”
Jericho glanced back at Reno, sitting in the grass with his knees pulled up, talking on the phone and clearly stressed out. He was holding his palm out and moving it in a motion that looked as if he were calming someone down.
That someone was April.
Jericho opened the door, and a low growl rumbled from the left. “Easy, girl. It’s just me,” Jericho said, stepping into the trailer.
Her lips peeled back and she bared sharp canines. She had beautiful white fur that made her ebony nose stand out. The same nose that was sniffing the air as he slowly took a seat on a bench to the right.
The scene was gruesome. Jericho’s eyes roved around the room at spatters of blood everywhere—visible even in a dim room lit by a small lamp with low bulb-wattage. She must have latched on to his jugular. What the hell did that bastard do that had made Isabelle’s wolf lash out so ruthlessly?
It looked like he’d tried to run away. His arms were contorted in a peculiar manner, and Jericho couldn’t see his face—only a pool of crimson surrounding his head like a halo. Isabelle’s wolf had snuggled up beside his chest as if she were claiming her prey.
“Isabelle, you were always one badass wolf,” he said coolly, half smiling. The ring she had taken off his finger was sitting on the counter, and her clothes were in a pile right below. “Why don’t you shift back now? It’s over.”
She growled, telling him it damn well wasn’t over.
“Jericho?” April said in a weak voice from the bathroom. Isabelle’s wolf lunged at the door and made her scream. Her wolf had never met April, and that was a common reaction.
Jericho stood up and reached for the door, expecting Reno to come barging in. Instead, he heard his brothers arguing outside.
“Shut up!” Jericho yelled. “You’re pissing her off.”
Her wolf growled with each breath. Jericho knelt down and crawled toward her fearlessly—head first, neck extended.
He looked her square in the eyes. “You know deep down I’d never hurt you, baby.”
Isabelle’s wolf snorted and released a high-pitched whine. Her tongue swept out a few times, and she looked around, confused by her surroundings.
“That’s just April in there, and you’re scaring the piss out of her. Come over here, baby. I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. If you want to stay in control and keep Isabelle sleeping, then fine by me. But we’re going to put you in a crate and take you home where you can run around the property and roll in the dirt all you want. Yeah, that’s right,” he said, watching the light glimmer in her eyes. “I know you’re a dirt roller. I still remember the time you went rolling in the mud back in Seattle. Poor Isabelle woke up covered from head to toe like some kind of swamp creature.”