“You shifted? All on your own? Holy cow, look at you!” There was a hint of pride in her voice, and it made him want to stomp around and crush beer cans with his bare hands, shred a big steak with his teeth, howl with smug satisfaction.
As he gazed into her beautiful blue eyes, something in Harry shifted. He got lost in the orbs, and he had no rhyme or reason for it. It just happened, deepening his earlier feelings until his chest ached.
“Hold tight, buddy,” Nina reassured Carl. “I got this.”
Alarm and panic seized Harry all at once. He tore his muzzle from Mara’s warm hand, whipping around in just enough time to see Nina begin to grab on to the chains tying Carl to the tree.
And she wasn’t gonna like it, but he had to take her out.
Or she’d kill Carl.
Apologies in advance, Crypt Keeper.
* * *
WITH a deep growl, Harry went for Nina. His leap in the air, silhouetted by the buttery moon, executed to perfection. He arced up and over, ramming his enormous body into Nina and knocking her almost clear across the large group of trees.
The sharp crack of wood reverberated through the trees, pinging against them, followed by her angry grunt.
“Harry!” Mara yelped in surprise. If this was another one of his angry outbursts because he was a werewolf, blah, blah, blah, she was going to show him what being-around-for-as-long-as-she-had was like when she wiped the wooded floor with him.
Nina rose like the Terminator, angry and snarling, her fangs sharp and gleaming. One minute she was down, the next she was up, launching herself at Harry and screaming, “I’m gonna cut a bitch!”
Marty flew between them, catching Nina by ramming her hands into her chest. “Knock it off, night dweller!”
“Hold up!” Darnell shouted, his large hand pointing upward. “Harry’s just doin’ right by Carl. Look up.”
All eyes followed Darnell’s finger.
Mara gasped when she saw what he was pointing out. “What the hell is going on?”
“Goddamn it, who the hell has it out for my zombie? Swear to Christ, when we find out who’s messin’ with us, somebody’s gonna fekkin’ well die,” Nina seethed, shaking off her anger with Harry and stomping toward a petrified Carl.
Mara gasped again when she saw the tree limbs above Carl’s head. Someone had rigged the chains binding Carl. If they’d tried to free him without seeing . . . She blanched, shivering harder. “Nina! Keep Carl still. I’ll get this.”
As Harry paced and huffed and Nina and Marty stroked Carl’s hands, still high above his head, Mara scaled the tree. If she was nothing else, she was a proficient tree climber after having two brothers to keep up with.
As the ax hanging over Carl’s head came into view, Mara cocked her head at the intricate, almost guillotine-like maze of chains and her brain raced. Who would go to this much trouble to hurt someone so helpless? What did Carl have to do with anything?
She began to attack the mess, carefully pulling and unwinding. “Hold on, Carl—I’m almost done!” she called down to the whimpering zombie. Her hands, though ice-cold, managed to move quickly, unlacing the chains and yanking the ax up and off the limb above Carl’s head.
Carl made a strange sound of relief when Nina pulled the remaining chains from his hands, lifting an arm and thumping Nina on the shoulder in his trademark sign of affection.
Nina pulled him into a hug, stroking the back of his head, her voice holding a hint of a tremble as she consoled him. “Jesus, dude. Who the fuck did this?”
Mara hopped down from the tree, reaching down to grab on to Darnell’s hand as he helped her off the last limb.
Carl grunted upon seeing her, dragging his stiff foot behind him; he fell into her in his zombie embrace. She gave him a gentle hug, pulling back to look into his fear-glazed eyes. “You okay, Carl?”
Carl tucked his head into her and snuffed against her shoulder before lifting it and giving her his lopsided grin. Then he set his sights on Harry; tripping and stumbling, he made his way to him, thumping him on the back, using the side of his hand to stroke Harry’s fur in jerky fashion.
Harry’s big body began to tremble and quake and in mere seconds, he’d shifted back to his human form without so much as a protesting groan.
And he was naked.
Even in the height of this madness, Mara found a way to appreciate Harry’s gorgeous physique. It made her shiver.
Harry, on all fours, didn’t even open his eyes, and he didn’t look up at the group. “I’m naked, right?”
“Like the day you were born,” Marty said on a snort, averting her eyes.
“Dangly bits and everything, dude. Look away, Carl—stranger junk alert,” Nina cracked, grasping Carl’s hand and using it to cover his eyes.