Of course, that was how Taylor found me a moment later when she came rushing to the kitchen door. Pants around my ankles, both hands groping my junk and the fucking trap still clamped in my sweatpants and grinning up at me like a set of evil silver teeth.
“Are you all right?” she gasped, giving me a worried look. She was still wearing my t-shirt but she had a towel in one hand, as though she’d been about to get in the bath.
“Fine…I think.” I tore my eyes from the crazy trap and realized what kind of a picture I must make. Damn it, so much for being Mr. Cool. “Uh—the trap,” I said, nodding down at the thing between my feet. “It was laying in the middle of the floor. I went to step over it and I swear it jumped three feet in the air and tried to bite me.”
To my surprise, she didn’t look incredulous at all. “It twisted in my hands when I got it off you last night and almost got me too,” she said, frowning. “But I pushed it over in the corner with the broom. And it was closed when I did that—how did it open up again?”
“Fuck if I know,” I growled, glaring down at the thing. “I only know the damn thing nearly made a soprano out of me just now.” I stepped out of the sweatpants it was still attached to and kicked them carefully to one side. “Throw me that towel, will you?” I asked, nodding at the towel she was holding in one hand.
Taylor threw it to me and I wrapped it around my waist, relieved to be covered.
“Do you think someone else could have come into the house and set it while we were in the other room?” she asked.
I shook my head. “All the doors and windows are locked. And I’d be able to smell it if someone else was in my house. You and I are the only ones here.”
“You know I didn’t do it because of the sun.” Taylor looked thoughtful. “And of course you didn’t do it. Do you think…” She looked up at me uncertainly. “Could the trap have reset itself? I know it sounds crazy but when I was handling it last night it just seemed so…so evil. It was like I could sense some kind of malicious intent coming off of it—like it wanted to hurt someone.”
“I guess it could be spelled to hurt someone—most likely me,” I said, frowning. “That’s pretty strong dark magic though. And we’d have to get a witch to test it to be sure.”
“I know a witch you could ask,” Taylor said. “I can get her information from Addison.”
“Get it,” I said, still glaring at the trap. "If somebody left a spelled trap on my land, I need to know it. Anybody who’d go to that kind of trouble isn’t going to give up easily.”
Taylor went pale—well, paler than usual, anyway.
“Do you think this has to do with me coming here? Coming to stay with you?”
I shook my head. “I doubt it. More likely to do with the fact that my land is right beside the place the local wolf pack runs on full moon nights. I didn’t know it when I bought this place or I would have looked a little harder.”
“You think they’re trying to run you off?” she asked.
I shrugged. “They made a few overtures but I put them off—I thought they got the message that I like going it alone.”
“Is that a problem for weres? When you decide to be a, uh, lone wolf, the other wolves don’t like it?” she asked.
I was surprised at the astuteness of her question.
“That’s it exactly,” I said. “Especially if the lone wolf is an Alpha. The pack leader might not want another Alpha near his territory. So it could be him.” I shook my head. “I guess we won’t know for sure until we find out who put down the trap.”
“I’ll get the information from Addison and set up an appointment with the witch—we can go tonight if you want to. Unless you’re going to, you know, change again,” Taylor said.
I shook my head. “I only have to change on the one night of the month the moon is fullest. I can hold it off all right the rest of the time. So don’t worry—you won’t have to see too much more of my wolf.”
“Oh really? That’s too bad.” To my surprise, she sounded disappointed.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Too bad? Why would you say that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just…I liked your wolf. He was so big and cuddly—kind of like a living teddy bear. He kept me warm while I was sleeping—I mean really warm and that’s hard for me. I’m always cold since I was turned.”
“He is actually me,” I reminded her. “I was the one cuddling you and keeping you warm last night.”