Isabel and the Werewolf Beast (Vampire Tales #1)

23. Dante

Chapter twenty-three

Dante

M aximus glided into the forest so elegantly, I saw the way Isabel said vampires are refined and werewolves aren’t. I’d agree with her on my part but as I’d met no other werewolves apart from Asher, and he was as wild as me, then I wasn’t one hundred percent certain of the truth. Those books had held part truths aplenty. Deciding which was fact from fiction would be a matter of trial and error.

I glanced to my left and right searching for Asher. If he was out here, then he was staying hidden because of the vampire. I hoped he didn’t decapitate this one too.

Maximus stopped and turned back to face me. “What are you waiting for?”

I shrugged and said, “I can catch my food.” Since I couldn’t very well tell him I was searching for my brother.

Maximus scoffed. “In the state you’re in, you wouldn’t catch anything.”

“I’m stronger than I look.”

He glared at me down the length of his nose. “I doubt that, but we’ll see once we find Silas.”

“We?”

“You didn’t think Lucian would let you go by yourself, did you?”

“I suppose not.” I sighed.

Which meant Asher wouldn’t be able to join me on the hunt. If he was still around that was.

“Hurry then.”

“Wait,” I said. “Silas’s trail starts here at the edge of the forest.”

“You were serious about his scent?”

“Deadly.”

“Fine. Sit. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes with your dinner.”

“I’m not a dog,” I called after him, but he’d dashed into the forest so fast, his form disappeared between the trees.

Damn Maximus as I sat on the ground only because my legs were weak from lack of food and sitting in the cavern for so many days, not because he’d told me to. It was more than that though. My heart ached in a way I’d never experienced before knowing Isabel.

Maximus returned and dropped a dead rat in my lap.

I growled.

He laughed and dropped a large hare from his other hand. I flung the rat into the undergrowth. As hungry as I was, I wouldn’t lower myself to eating vermin, especially with this arrogant vampire watching me. I stretched around me and stacked sticks in a pile.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m making a fire to cook the rabbit.”

“You’re not eating it raw?”

“No.” I sneered. “Stop treating me like a dog.”

Maximus lounged against a tree and watched me with a new fascination. I didn’t like his intense gaze, but I set to work skinning the hare and lighting the fire.

“We’d save more time if you ate it raw.”

“I’m not an animal.”

No matter how many times I’d thought that myself since becoming a werewolf.

“So, you plan to eat its guts and all since you haven’t gutted it?”

I held my hand up. “I don’t have a knife, do you?”

“Why wouldn’t you use your claws?”

“I can’t shift unless it’s under a full moon.”

“You’re joking?” He shook his too-handsome head. “You’re not though, are you? Your pack didn’t teach you?”

“I don’t have a pack. Only a brother.”

“You’re a curious werewolf.” Maximus stepped closer and picked up the rabbit. He slid a knife from under the sleeve of his shirt and with one quick slice, he gutted the rabbit, grasped inside and yanked the innards free, and threw them into the forest to rot with the dead rat.

“That’s what Isabel said.”

Maximus placed the hare over the fire and spun the stick. He stared at the spinning carcass for a long time not saying a word. The scent of cooking meat filled the air and made my stomach twist in pain. My mouth watered. I longed to lunge across the short distance and devour the entire hare in one bite.

“Here.” Maximus held the hare out to me .

I took his offering and ripped a leg from the hare. The meat broke away with ease. I placed it to my mouth and let out a groan of approval. Before I knew it, I’d devoured the hare until there were only bones left.

“Will that tide you over until we find a deer?”

“Why are you being so nice to me? I thought vampires killed werewolves?”

“We do. As for being nice…” He shrugged. “Lucian turned Isabel and me around the same time. We’re kind of like a vampiric brother and sister.”

I stood, sensing the strength returning to my limbs from the food fueling my system.

“Did you go to the academy together?”

Maximus slid his knife back into his sleeve. “Isabel told you a lot.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“She must have liked you to tell you so much.” He walked further into the forest. “Don’t be fooled into thinking that means I won’t kill you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Vampires wanting to kill werewolves. Tell me something new. Why do you want to kill us?”

He fell silent as we walked through the trees. I didn’t think he would answer me and then he said, “I don’t know.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange you want to kill us with no reason?”

“I’m sure there’s a reason, but I don’t care. Getting Isabel’s head back is all that matters.”

“Agreed,” I said. “See, werewolves aren’t so bad that you have to kill us.”

“Give it time. I’m sure you’ll do something that will tip the scales.” Isabel’s vampire brother pointed. “Now hunt.”

“This whole dog thing is getting annoying.” I stepped further away from him and sniffed around the trees .

I turned off all other thoughts and feelings and focused on the scent I remembered. The rage I experienced when I saw Silas holding Isabel’s head. And there it was. Faint but a trail. I squatted wishing I could shift into my wolf shape. A wolf’s nose would be better for this than my human version. I rubbed the moonstone between my fingers, concentrating on calming my emotions as I dug deeper and deeper inside myself for the center that would free me. It seeped up to me from the depths of my being. My limbs contorted so quickly that I didn’t have time to suffer any discomfort at the change.

My wolf nose surged toward the scent.

“I thought you couldn’t shift?” Maximus asked.

I turned my snout toward him and growled.

Maximus pointed at me. “If you lied about this, then what else did you lie about?”

My body contorted to my half-shifted shape. Anger coursed through every inch of me. Despite the wolf being more animal, this shape was the one that felt more volatile regarding my animalistic urges. They currently told me to end the threat of the vampire beside me.

Instead, I said, “I didn’t lie. It was the moonstone that Isabel gave me.”

His gaze flicked down to the necklace. He dug inside his shirt and drew out a matching necklace.

“Lucian gave us these.”

“Isabel told me.”

“If she gave you that necklace…” He shook his head. “Never mind that now. Find her head.”

“I have his scent. He headed south.”

“Let’s go before his trail grows cold.”