The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

knowing that it came from the wonder of fitting so perfectly with him.
    It had been good between them. Better than good. Amazing.
    Nathan finished buttoning his shirt, shoved the tails into his trousers. “I’ll call Osborne, let him know we’re heading back. You think Letty will notice if you sleep in my room?”
    “Yes.” Emma fished out her panties and jeans. “But she’ll get used to the idea.”
    Actually, Emma would have been surprised if her aunt didn’t already think that she and Nathan had been together all those years ago. She listened idly as Nathan spoke with Osborne, to Daisy’s faint bark in the background.
    Emma hurriedly shoved her jeans back down to her ankles. “Oh, my God. Nathan. Get out to your place. As fast as you can. Tell Osborne to get to Letty’s room, and take his gun.”
    He didn’t ask; he swung the Blazer immediately onto the road, repeated her instructions to Osborne.
    As she removed her clothes again, she explained. “I can hear Daisy barking. She doesn’t do that - she never does that. Except the night after I was bitten. She barked like crazy the first night.”
    Nathan nodded, his lips tight. Despite the two inches of snow that had fallen, a fresh set of tyre tracks led down the lane that her aunt shared with the Forresters.
    “Oh, shit,” Emma whispered, then turned to Nathan. His gaze was fixed on the road. “I’m going to change. I’m faster that way, quieter. He’s probably still in human shape.”
    “And he might have a gun,” Nathan said grimly. “So don’t you think you’re going anywhere yet. Emma! Dammit.”
    She heard his curse, the slam of his fist against the steering wheel, then the agonizing crack of her joints as she began her change.
    Letty’s place rose up out of the darkness like a gingerbread house frosted with white icing. Nathan glanced over at Emma, sitting up with her ears pricked forwards. “OK, I agree. You’re safer in that form. Harder to argue with too - which I’m sure you love.”
    Emma turned her head and grinned at him before facing forwards again.
    “There’s his truck,” he said, unsure if Emma’s wolf eyesight had picked out the extended cab pickup parked just off the lane. “He drove past the house. Then did he walk back to Letty’s or head out on foot to my place?”
    Emma gave an uncertain whine. Nathan pulled up behind the truck and drew his weapon. “Stay behind me.”
    He approached the truck slowly and noted the magnetic sign stuck to the door. Fuller’s Plumbing. He pictured its owner, Mark Fuller - tall, sandy-haired, easy-going - and shook his head. Jesus Christ. He’d played ball with Fuller in high school.
    In all the years since, he’d never heard a whisper of trouble connected to Fuller. In a small town like Pine Bluffs, word got around. If Fuller had even looked at a woman strangely, had an argument or made an unwanted advance, Nathan probably would have heard of it. But Fuller had managed to stay squeaky clean.
    Footprints led away from the pickup, heading further off the road, into the pine trees. “Do you hear anything from inside the cab?”
    Emma shook her head. Nathan checked the truck, found it empty. A bandage, crusted with dried blood, lay crumpled on the passenger’s seat.
    What had Fuller thought, Nathan wondered, when the bleeding stopped so quickly? When his thumb began to heal over? Did he understand what was happening to him?
    “This guy has the right smell?”
    In answer, Emma put her nose to the ground, began following the footprints. They led to his place, Nathan realized, jogging beside her. Fuller must have parked here rather than risk anyone at Nathan’s house seeing the truck’s headlights or hearing the engine.
    Nathan dialled Osborne’s cell, and was putting his phone to his ear when the gunshots cracked through the night. He broke into a run. Emma streaked ahead.
    He didn’t slow to catch his breath when Osborne answered the phone. “Who fired?” Nathan asked.
    “I did. It’s Mark Fuller, hopped up on something. He took off, out of the house.”
    “Injuries?”
    “Not me or Miss Letty, sir. I hit Fuller but it didn’t slow him down.”
    “Did he have a weapon?”
    “If he did, he didn’t use it.”
    All right. “Hold your position. We’re coming up on the house now.”
    Or he was. Nathan disconnected, searching for Emma. Her tracks followed the footprints across the wide, moonlit clearing that separated his house from the woods, but he didn’t see