Chapter 225

That night, Noah and I had hamburgers for dinner while Jeffrey patrolled the outside perimeter. I told Jeffrey that he would probably be dismissed from guarding me now that Andrew and I had broken up, but Jeffrey only insisted that he stay on duty until he was directly told otherwise. This made Noah a bit uncomfortable, but as long as I was okay with it, he would allow it.

Noah and I were down to our last few bites when a pounding came at the door. We exchanged looks and shrugged. Neither of us were expecting a visitor, and Jeffrey would have just walked inside.

“Crystal!” Andrew’s voice called from the other side of the door. “Crystal, I know you’re in there! Open up!”

Noah and I stood up at the same time. I motioned for him to sit back down, but he shook his head.

“No,” he said firmly. “This is my house. I will not hide in it.”

I was a bit surprised by this sudden display of authority and strength in Noah, but I nodded and followed him.

The pounding continued as we approached the door. Even as Noah turned the doorknob, it continued. He nearly got a fist to his head as he opened the door, but Andrew stopped short and lowered his hand.

Andrew narrowed his eyes, bloodshot from intoxication, at Noah. I could smell the liquor on his breath from where I stood.

“Where’s Crystal?” he asked. “I want to see Crystal.”

“She does not want to see—”

“It’s okay, Noah.” I ducked under Noah’s arm and stepped in between him and Andrew. “Hello, Andrew.”

I saw, through the gap between Andrew’s arm and his torso, Jeffrey standing only a few feet away, waiting to see if there was going to be any threat. Somehow, I felt more at ease knowing that he was there to back me up in the face of Andrew’s drunkenness.

“What the Hell, Crystal?” Andrew demanded. “You left me with nothing but a letter, and then I find out on social media that you’re engaged to him?”

He jabbed an accusatory finger at Noah, whose upper lip lifted in a snarl.

I pushed down Andrew’s hand and shook my head.

“Leave Noah out of this, Andrew,” I said. “This is between you and me.”

“Why, Crystal?” Andrew’s face assumed an expression akin to sadness but mixed with anger and disappointment. “I thought that we were finally getting back to the way things used to be.”

I could feel my heart crumpling, but I steeled myself. I should have known that it wouldn’t be as easy as writing Andrew a letter and leaving, even leaving him for another man, but now I had to stick to my guns if I wanted this plan to work.

“I think that I explained myself enough in that letter.” I forced back every instinct that I had—to hold Andrew, to cry for him, to tell him that I was sorry. “But if you must know…”

I reached back and brought Noah’s face down to mine, kissing him deeply. He stiffened momentarily, then returned the kiss with as much passion. I took his hand on my hip and moved it to my stomach.

“I’m pregnant with Noah’s child.”

I heard a growl that rumbled the earth beneath us. I had not heard this growl since the vampires attacked me. It sent ice through my veins, and I clutched Noah tightly.

I turned my head to see a dark shadow flashing across Andrew’s face. His fangs and claws descended, and his snout began to grow. His legs, arms, and spine elongated, his bones audibly twisting and breaking to accommodate his new enlarged canine frame.

Before I could witness the rest of Andrew’s transformation, Noah grabbed me and threw me inside the house, as far from the action as possible. As I recovered from the tumble, Noah shifted into his own brown wolf form, breaking the doorframe with his new shape.

Another rumbling roar shook the ground. Suddenly, Andrew’s enormous black wolf form smashed Noah through the house, narrowly missing me as they skidded back into the dining room.

The black wolf tore into the smaller brown wolf before either could regain their footing. Blood splattered everywhere. The brown wolf scratched and bit at the black wolf, getting in a few good strikes, but to no avail; the black wolf soon had the brown wolf pinned and was attempting to go for his throat.

I paled as I realized that Andrew was about to kill Noah.

“Andrew! Don’t!” I cried, hoping that it would be like The Masque and that me saying his name would snap Andrew out of it.

It wasn’t.

The black wolf continued to strike at the brown wolf’s throat, but the brown wolf was not going down without a fight. The brown wolf tucked his head in to protect his throat, snapping every time the black wolf came within reach of him. However, the brown wolf was bleeding out, and his counterstrikes were starting to slow down.

Then another, larger brown wolf—almost as big as the black wolf—came charging in through the whole in the wall and headed straight for the other two wolves.

Jeffrey.

The larger brown wolf started scratching at the black wolf, trying to pull him off of the smaller brown wolf, but the black wolf was relentless. He could see that his prey was losing his fight to stay conscious and would soon lose his fight to stay in his wolf form, and the black wolf wanted to take advantage of it. The larger brown wolf used all his strength to try and pull the black wolf off, but the black wolf would not give up his prey with victory so close at hand.

Jeffrey needed help.

I quickly transformed into my full wolf form. I bounded over to the wolf pile. As the larger brown wolf pulled the black wolf back enough to create some space between him and the smaller brown wolf, I squeezed my smaller frame between them.

The black wolf wrenched himself out of the larger brown wolf’s grasp and lunged at the smaller brown wolf. When he saw my wolf form lying across the smaller brown wolf, shielding him with my body, the black wolf came to a halt. His ears lay flat on his head as he sniffed me uncertainly.

I snarled at the black wolf as he tried to get past me to the smaller brown wolf. He growled back at me, but I only continued to snarl at him. He hesitated, and that gave the larger brown wolf enough time to grab the black wolf by the scruff of his neck and pull him away.

When they were back by the front door—what had once been the front door—the larger brown wolf released the black wolf. The black wolf continued to stare at me as I hovered protectively over the smaller brown wolf. With a low howl of defeat, the black wolf transformed back into Andrew.

Sensing that the danger had passed, Jeffrey, Noah, and I returned to our human forms as well. Noah moaned beneath me as he bled from numerous scratches, bites, and gouges all over his body. I reached back and stroked his cheek gently.

“Don’t worry, Noah,” I said. “We’ll get you to the hospital very soon.”

“It’s really over, isn’t it?” Andrew’s pained voice scraped against my ears.

I turned to face him. His expression was neutral, but I could see in his eyes all the hurt that this had caused him.

“Yes.”

“Then I wish you nothing but happiness in your new life,” he said, though his tone sounded bland. “I will never bother you again.”

Andrew walked out the hole in the front of the house, stopped to pick up the remains of his shredded clothing, and then walked out of my life.