Her eyes slide, examining her options. Out the back and she’ll wind up in the main paddock and pasture. Out the front and she’ll be nearly nose to nose with Gabriel.
Decisions, decisions …
“What can I help you with? If you wanna learn to ride a horse, I can teach you. But I don’t do impromptu lessons.”
“Come out here and we can talk about scheduling something,” Gabriel suggests, his smile unfurling into a grin.
“I’m fine where I am,” Jessie says, her stomach churning as her feet remain still in the stall’s straw.
Her lips press together in a frustrated line, and she mentally berates herself. She’d known when he sniffed her in the hallway at Junction High that he’d be able to find her anywhere. She’d expected trouble, and yet, there she was, unprepared. Again.
“So when’s a good time for you to come back and start lessons?” she asks, her eyes scanning the area for potential weapons. Her gaze falls to the brush in her hand, and she smirks at her own pitiful luck.
Considering all she’s lost, the one thing Jessie Gillmansen has managed to keep throughout everything is a sense of humor. Certainly it’s grown darker and more fiercely cutting, but at least it’s remained.
She sizes her opponent up, glad she’s continued training in hand-to-hand combat with the only non-werewolf member of the Rusakova family: Alexi. He’s taught her to be swift and sly. To deceive with her body language.
And if there’s one thing Alexi’s good at, it’s the art of deception. History’s greatest traitors? Judas Iscariot? Benedict Arnold? They’ve got nothing on Alexi. His entire life’s a lie.
But the fact remains, no matter how well trained Jessie is, or how sturdy her farm girl build, she’s going to be facing down a werewolf. And that shifts all the odds against her.
He stands at the stall’s door, his hand resting on the handle, his face close to the wide-set bars. “Looks like there’s a schedule out here, a calendar of some sort,” he says. “We should look at it together. I’d hate to come up with a time that we find out later just won’t work.”
“How very considerate.”
He shrugs, the grin spreading to gleam maliciously in his eyes. “I do my best.”
Jessie’s hand slides along her hip, reaching subtly into her jeans pocket to withdraw her phone, but Gabriel notices and yanks the door open, leaping into the stall.
“I wouldn’t,” he snarls, grabbing her wrist and pulling her tight to him.
“Ow!”
“I’d say I’m sorry, Jessica, but I’m not. You’re the means to an end for me—the greatest gift I could give someone. The weird thing is I don’t even know why you’re so valuable to her. I mean, I get that you’re connected with curing werewolves. But we don’t want the cure. We’re happy being who we are. And that’s something most people can never say.” He pauses, stepping back to drag her forward. “And the fact you’re dating Pietr? I couldn’t care less. But you’ll help me achieve my goals. And I’m very much into achieving my goals. So come with me, like a good girl, and do exactly what I tell you to.”
“The hell I will!” Her booted foot slams down on his instep as her elbow catches him in the gut.
He’s barely winded.
She shoves away from him, past Rio, and falls against the door leading to the pasture. The rush of cold stings her face as she shoves the door open, but he’s grabbed her waist and hurls her to the ground. Rio snorts and dances away, struggling not to step on Jessie as she thrashes beneath her attacker on the straw-covered floor.
With a spin Rio jumps them, rocketing past, and out into the cold. The door swings back and forth, squealing, and Jessie pounds on Gabriel’s face and chest with all the strength in her arms and hands and all the anger roiling up inside of her—anger at him and anger at herself because she’s again playing the role of the victim.
Next time, she promises herself, I’ll be ready next time.
The only problem is, she needs to live through this time in order for there to be a next. She begins to wail on him with her knees and feet, kicking and yelling.
He’s unfazed.
She bites him.
He shouts in pain, blood pouring from the teeth marks in his ragged cheek, and rolls away from her.
With his pinched and sharp features, he probably wasn’t considered good looking before, but now the likelihood is even less.
But he’ll heal. Quickly.
It’s a blessing if you’re in love with a danger-prone werewolf like Pietr was before he took the cure, but it’s a curse if you’re trying to fight one off and you’re simply human. If you’re only a normal girl.
But Jessie hasn’t been normal for a while now, and the things she’s learned about what lurks in the small town of Junction has made her reexamine her lifestyle and choices several times.
She used to think Junction was just another dull small town with no excitement. Now part of her is wishing she’d been right.
She plows into the other stall door, forcing it open, and grabs the shovel leaning against the wall.
Gabriel is back on his feet and outside the stall right after her—just in time for her to swing the shovel and barely miss his head.
“Dammit!”
“Come on,” he coaxes, reaching his hands out, arms spread wide. He wiggles the fingers closest to the wall, a distraction Jessie’s seen Pietr and his elder brother, Max, use when they spar.
So when he comes at her with his other hand, she’s thinking about an important difference between werewolves and starfish. Other than being covered in fur. Or having to live in salt water.
And she strikes, the shovel’s blade pinning his hand to the wall for the space of a single, throbbing heartbeat. Caught, he struggles a moment before pulling free in a hasty blur of panic and rage.
With a soft thump, two of his fingers drop to the hay bale below.
Unlike starfish, werewolves can’t regenerate parts that are cut off. Like a middle and ring finger. Of course, unlike werewolves, starfish don’t have fingers to begin with.…
“No more scrrrewing around—” he growls, his face contorting as his teeth grow into wicked and curving ivory points.
Yes, if he’d ever been considered handsome before, he’s far from it now.
With a grunt of effort, Jessie tugs the shovel’s blade free of the wall and swings it again, connecting with Gabriel’s shoulder as his fist connects with the side of Jessie’s head.