by J. L. Wilder
But Wes wasn’t.
What if he told Lauren the truth and she responded by shutting him down? What if she told him to leave her alone again?
He didn’t know if he would be able to stand that.
Chapter Twenty-Five
LAUREN
When the doorbell rang, Lauren was sure it was going to be Felicity. She didn’t have any other real friends in the city. She knew that her cousin Matt was on her side, to an extent, but they’d been careful not to be seen together. Matt didn’t want Cody to see him fraternizing with Lauren, and Lauren respected his desire to keep his distance. It was better for them both if Cody didn’t realize that Matt thought badly of him.
When she opened the door, she was stunned to see Tina on the other side.
For a moment, she was genuinely afraid. Was it possible that Tina had figured out she’d been lying about her babies’ father? Was she here to exact some kind of vengeance?
Tina held out a pan. “For you,” she said sweetly.
Lauren blinked and accepted it.
“It’s banana bread,” Tina explained. “I baked it.”
I wonder if it’s poisoned.
“Thank you,” Lauren managed.
Tina looked expectant. It took Lauren a moment to figure out what she must be after.
“Would you like to come in?” she asked.
“Oh, thanks,” Tina said, stepping forward. “That would be great. I really feel like you and I haven’t had a chance to catch up since you came back to town. Don’t you agree?”
What the hell? “I guess not,” Lauren said cautiously. “I have some lemonade if you’d like some.”
“That sounds amazing,” Tina said.
Lauren led the way to the kitchen and indicated a chair. Tina sat down and waited as Lauren poured two glasses of lemonade and took a seat opposite her.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot when you came back to town,” Tina said.
“Maybe we did,” Lauren said.
“I hope you’ll accept my apology,” Tina said.
Lauren wasn’t sure what to say. To avoid answering, she took the banana bread to the counter, cut a few slices, and arranged them on a plate. She brought it back to the table and placed it between herself and Tina before taking her seat again.
Tina picked up a piece of bread and turned it slowly in her hands. “I shouldn’t have tried to have you exiled,” she said. “That was a mistake.”
“You think so?” Lauren asked. She did her best not to sound bitter or sarcastic. There was always a chance that Tina was genuine in her desire to make up with Lauren, and if that was the case, Lauren didn’t want to antagonize her.
“Cody made me see that it wasn’t the best idea,” Tina said. “And I hope you can forgive me.”
“You’ve been angry with me for months,” Lauren pointed out. “What’s changed all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know,” Tina said. “Maybe it’s the fact that you’re getting so big.” She hesitated. “You’re sure your babies’ father is human?”
Lauren felt a chill. “What do you mean?” she asked. “I think I would have known if he wasn’t.”
“Maybe he was hiding his true nature from you,” Tina said. “Could he have been a shifter?”
“Why are you asking this?”
“Well, you’re just getting so big so fast,” Tina said. “That’s a trait of shifter pregnancies, not human ones.”
“Have you ever even seen a human pregnancy?” Lauren countered.
“I’ve seen them on TV, just like you,” Tina said. “I know how human women look at four months, and they don’t look like that.” She gestured to Lauren’s body.
“I’m not a human woman, though,” Lauren pointed out. “I might have been with a human guy, but I’m still a shifter. My babies are still shifters. That’s why my pregnancy is progressing the way it is.”
“You’re absolutely sure?” Tina leaned across the table, her eyes bright.
She’s fishing for something. This is the real reason she came over.
Lauren couldn’t help thinking about all the time Jessica had spent hanging out with Tina recently. She truly didn’t believe her friend would have sold her out. But what if she had accidentally let something slip, something that had allowed Tina to guess that there was more to Lauren’s story than she was telling?
She’s angry at me. She’s not doing a great job of keeping that covered up. Maybe Tina’s starting to figure out what’s really going on.
She wasn’t sure why, exactly, she was so determined not to let Tina or anyone else know who the true father of her children was. Concealing the truth from Wes himself was one thing, but that ship had long since sailed. What was the point in keeping the truth hidden from anyone else?
She wasn’t sure. But she had a definite feeling that it wouldn’t be good if Tina found out the truth.
If she wanted to know for some harmless reason, she would just ask me outright. She wouldn’t fish around like this.
Lauren smiled. “Sure, I’m sure,” she said. “Like I told you, he’s just a guy I worked with at the restaurant in Palatine. I’ve known him for years. One night, we hooked up. That’s all there is to it.”
“It’s strange that you were able to get pregnant at all at your age,” Tina mused. “You’re, what, forty-five?”
“I’m forty-one, Tina,” Lauren said. “I’m the same age as you are. You know that.”
“Pretty late in life for a pregnancy,” Tina said.
“Well, it was a wonderful surprise,” Lauren said.
“But it’s that much harder for one of us to get pregnant by a human, isn’t it?” Tina said.
“No, I don’t think so,” Lauren said. “Shifter women are more fertile than human women, but I don’t think it actually matters who the man in question is.”
“I think you’re wrong about that,” Tina said. “Shifter men and women together are the most fertile pairing.”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you,” Lauren said. “It worked with a human man in my case.”
Tina regarded her silently for several moments.
Then she picked up her glass of lemonade and drained it in a single swallow.
“You enjoy that banana bread,” she said. She got to her feet and walked out.
Chapter Twenty-Six
LAUREN
Lauren slammed her living room window shut, but the sounds of the evening’s block party came through nonetheless.
She was not going out there, not on any account. She’d had more than enough of Tina for the day. She had no idea whether Tina would try to talk to her again or ignore her in favor of Jessica, but she wasn’t interested in finding out.
Wes wouldn’t be in the area. It was a good night to go for a walk in the woods.
As before, it felt wonderful to resume her bear form. It was like flexing a muscle that hadn’t been used in years, and she was surprised and gratified to find that it hadn’t atrophied at all. As a bear, she felt nothing but powerful. She left the lights and sounds of the city behind her, surrounding herself with nature. It was only when she was able to look back and see nothing but forest around her that she felt peaceful at last.
I hate to admit it, she thought, but I can sort of see why Wes would want to come and live in the wild like this.
She’d never thought that she would be able to understand his desire to live in the woods. But the two months she’d spent with the den had reminded her of everything she had been running from when she’d left.
The only difference between us is that I went the other direction. I went to the suburbs, where I could be fully human, and Wes left his humanity behind him altogether.
She’d never been able to relate to that. But as she roamed around out here now, she felt as though she could really relate to his desire to be among the trees.
And maybe that was what had driven him to leave for good. Maybe that was why he hadn’t been seen in the city in weeks. The den had simply bec
ome too much for him.
Jessica blames me, but maybe it isn’t my fault at all. Maybe he just needed a little peace.
Then again, maybe that was just wishful thinking.
She decided to make her way to the stream she’d been swimming in the last time she’d gone into the woods. She wouldn’t have to worry about Wes sneaking up on her this time. No one had seen him in this area in a long time. She would have the woods to herself.
She was just thinking this—how good it would be to be alone out here—when she heard voices.
“We have to make our move soon,” a voice was saying. “The longer we wait, the lower it gets.”
“We’ve already been waiting years,” another voice countered. “What difference could a few more weeks make?”
“Every day makes a difference now,” the first voice said. “Those parties are escalating. And if anyone tries to stop Cody from within, they’ll just be kicked out like I was. You all know that. We can’t afford to wait around.”
“Having more people thrown out might be a good thing,” someone said. “We could scoop them up. Use them. And they’ll be able to tell us just how bad things are. How low the treasury really is. You told us when you arrived, Emmett. That’s part of what convinced us that the time was right to attack in the first place.”
Emmett? Lauren was stunned. She moved closer, listening harder.
“We still haven’t made a move, though,” the first voice spoke again. “You say you’re ready. But how can I believe that you are? I want us to move on this. I’m ready to start the fight.”
It was Emmett, all right. Lauren recognized her cousin’s voice, even though she hadn’t heard from him in decades.
It was startling. She hadn’t expected to see him anywhere near the den. Matt had told her that he’d been run off, possibly even killed. She had assumed that even if he was alive, he would be miles away.
But he was here. And to judge by the conversation, he was planning to take Cody on for control of the den.
My God. How many people does he have with him? It sounds like he’s planning a war.
She sat back slowly, lowering herself onto her belly, settling her head between her paws.
It wasn’t typical for her to feel this kind of anxiety while in her animal form. It was much easier for the bear to turn off nervousness and focus on the moment, on what was going on in the here and now.
But she couldn’t help visualizing what was going on just a few yards away from her.
She didn’t like her den. She didn’t trust or respect Cody and Tina. But that was her home. And now it sounded as though they had enemies. Possibly mortal enemies.
What was Emmett trying to provoke them to do? Would they go along with his ideas? How many people did he have with him? How long had they been planning this?
And when would the attack come?
Was it safe for her to go back? Would it be safe for her children?
Emmett would never hurt my babies...would he?
She had been away so long that she had to admit she no longer had any idea what he might do.
The only thing she knew for sure was that he seemed dedicated to the idea of overthrowing Cody. And while that was something she agreed with in theory, the actual act of doing it seemed too dangerous to consider.
She didn’t want to stand here and listen anymore. She didn’t want to hear anything else they might have to say.
Slowly, she slunk backward, putting as much distance as she dared between herself and her cousin. She stepped carefully. If she so much as snapped a twig, he might be alerted to her presence.
Finally, when their voices had faded to a distant hum, she turned and ran as fast as she could.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
LAUREN
For what felt like a very long time, Lauren ran without knowing where she was going.
Her animal body had not been built for speed or stealth, and her confusion added to that fact. She felt like she was lumbering rather than fleeing. She felt sure that at any moment, the men who had been behind her would close on her and take her down.
No, not Emmett. He’d never do anything to hurt me.
Emmett had been one of her favorite cousins when they were young. He was a few years older than her, but he had never left her out of whatever the others were doing. He had picked her first for games of kickball in the street, even when she’d been too young to be a good player, just to show that he wanted her around.
She had looked up to him in those days. She’d admired him.
She had never imagined that things might end up like this.
Could he really be planning to go to war against the den? And what would that entail?
It would be normal for a man who wasn’t content with an alpha’s leadership to challenge him to a fight for dominance. That was the way these things were supposed to go. There would be a public battle, and the winner would be alpha. The loser would be exiled.
But in Emmett’s case, there had been no public battle. That was what Matt had told her. Something else had happened instead. Something terrible.
She was glad her cousin wasn’t dead. But now, she found herself wondering if she knew him as well as she thought she did. After all, it had been decades since she had seen him.
Maybe he had left the den deliberately. Maybe that was the reason there had never been a fight. But instead of fleeing to the suburbs, the way she had, maybe he had set up his own little den in the wild and prepared for the day he would come back to the city and take over.
I don’t understand, though. If they’ve been out here all this time, how come Wes never knew about it? He should have seen them, right? He should have known they were here.
Maybe he hadn’t been close by. Maybe he’d gone deep into the woods and had only come back recently.
She had to tell someone what she had seen. She had to let someone know that the den was in danger.
But who?
Not Cody, obviously. If there was going to be a war, she didn’t think she was even on his side. She wanted to keep the people she loved safe, but she had no interest in protecting his dominance.
Jessica? Jessica wasn’t even talking to her. If anything would get her to break her embargo, it would be something like this. But would Jessica even let Lauren through her front door to report on what she had seen?
It was questionable.
Nor did she want to bother Matt. He was too close to Cody. She knew he would take Emmett’s side if it came down to it. But Matt might be ordered to make some kind of report to Cody that would lead to Emmett’s whereabouts being outed. If it was an order to give information, he wouldn’t be able to resist.
There was always Felicity. But the problem was that Felicity was a gossip. She would hear what Lauren had to say, and she would gasp in all the right places. Then she would run off and repeat it to ten other people. Nothing would be solved, and the news would inevitably make its way back to Tina or Cody.
So she couldn’t tell Felicity.
But who else was there?
She slowed her pace, walking now, trying her best to move quietly through the brush. If Emmett and the men with him could have been hiding out here, who could say what else might be in these woods?
Looking around, she drew to a standstill.
She didn’t know where she was.
That wasn’t a tremendous surprise, of course, since it had been so long since she had spent time in these woods. Everything was unfamiliar now. The woods were a living thing, and these trees were different from the ones she remembered. They were twenty years older. Some had fallen down, and some had grown much taller. The familiar landmarks of childhood were gone.
Still, it was anxiety-inducing to be out here with no idea of where she was or how to get home.
She knew she could follow her own scent back the way she had come. But tracking her own scent was always more complicated than tracking someone else’s because she carried it with her. It was all around her all the
time.
She closed her eyes and breathed in, testing the air.
There was a familiar aroma on the breeze. And it wasn’t her own scent. It was something else.
Wes.
It couldn’t be him, of course. He’d been gone for a long time. But maybe...
She turned and followed the scent.
Sure enough, less than ten minutes later, she found herself standing in front of Wes’s trailer. She settled to the ground, staring at it, remembering the last time she had been here.
And suddenly, she knew that despite everything else that had gone on between the two of them, Wes was someone she could have confided in today. She could have told him about Emmett, about what she had heard.
Because he was the one person who was in the same situation she was in—detached enough from the den that he wouldn’t run to Cody, but still invested enough that there were people in the city he would want to protect.
He could have helped her decide what to do.
It’s too bad he’s gone.
But just as she was thinking it, the door to the trailer opened, and Wes stepped out.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
WES
Wes froze in his tracks. There was a massive bear fifteen feet from his front door.
It could only be a shifter. It was too big to be a normal bear, and the way it was staring at him was incredibly human.
“Show yourself,” he demanded, taking a step forward, preparing to shift himself if the situation called for it. He didn’t want a fight, but he’d fight if he had to.
The bear stepped backward.
Then it seemed to collapse in on itself, shifting, resuming human form, until finally, she rose to her feet before him.
“Lauren.”
She was shaking, stark naked. He stared at her for a minute, taking in her body. She looked just the way he’d imagined—her stomach beginning to swell, her breasts slightly larger than he remembered.
And I did that.
He realized he was staring and pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to her. She struggled into it.
