Half Wolf by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

Kaitlin had been the victim of a fledgling like these five, who were probably no more than a few months old.
    Whereas most vamps kept to the fringes of society, where they preyed on the weak and the feeble, this new breed took a bolder tack, slithering through the world as if they belonged there and had every right to hunt. Too many bodies turning up, unexplained, and law enforcement would call in the big dogs of crime fighting. If that happened, everyone Michael knew would be screwed.
    By monitoring this area around the college, his pack was doing its part, but Michael feared that the numbers were slowly shifting in vamp favor. Good werewolves didn’t create other Weres as a rule, either to support a larger pack or make a point. All it took was one good bite and some dribbled blood into a victim’s system, and vampirism could spread like a runaway wildfire.
    If these attacks continued and more and more vampires appeared, including some of the older and wiser versions, he’d have no choice but to call in some help of his own. A few choice words to Miami, and his father’s formidable friends would hit the trail.
    Damn it. He had never seen this many vampires in a single night. Not even in a couple of months.
    “Come on, you bastards.”
    He fought to protect his own secrets, swinging his arms, wielding his claws while in human form. The fighting seemed more personal when meeting these creeps eye to eye. This fight was terribly close to the school. His Weres were growling. The vamps were shrieking. Keeping the Were population out of the limelight was at the highest level of importance, and it suddenly seemed to Michael that the goal was about to get harder.
    Weres everywhere knew that rogue vampires were a threat to Were anonymity, and worked to stay steps ahead of the slippery fanged ghosts. His father’s pack had done a lot to make Miami safe and keep Florida Weres off human radar. That Miami pack was comprised of some of the toughest werewolves and Lycans Michael had ever seen. He had been raised among most of them and wondered if they were fighting their own battles on a night like this one.
    Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Kaitlin. She was leaning over the vampire Cade had trapped on the ground. He found this pretty brave of her, considering...and way too dangerous.
    Cade was waiting for her to take a closer look at his captive, perhaps understanding that one of these bloodsuckers had recently changed her fate. Kaitlin gazed at the vampire with a twisted expression on her face and one of her hands was wrapped around her own neck. Michael saw clearly that even as Kaitlin looked at the vampire, the possibility of their existence wasn’t sinking in. He supposed it had been like that for him, too, in the beginning, and until he’d actually faced the children of the night in a fight.
    “Cade,” he said in a cautionary tone.
    The big Were nodded and pushed Kaitlin aside. Blocking her view from what he was about to do, Cade delivered that vamp its final death blow with a sharp twist to its neck that was backed by angry, keyed-up muscle. The resulting explosion was the only sound left in the night before both Cade and Kaitlin were covered in a falling cyclone of ash.
    Michael sensed how badly Kaitlin wanted to scream, knowing she would do no such thing. Tonight Kaitlin had taken one more step toward that degree in animal she had mentioned, and he guessed that going backward wasn’t in her nature.
    “Maybe not so easy,” Rena observed, dusting herself off and turning to face the last remaining vampire, which was lunging for her. “Yet doable,” she added with a grunt.
    Michael watched Kaitlin’s gaze shift to Rena and her lethal takedown of that vampire before her wide gray gaze landed back on him. His nakedness made her uncomfortable. She looked only at his face. Her heart was thundering.
    For the first time in a very long while, he felt slightly self-conscious.
    And then the world again went