Desert Bound

by Elizabeth Hunter

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. In fact, reptile shifters tend to catch on to those changes more quickly than other shifters. Maybe because your natural form is so different from your human one. You recognize the signs earlier.”

  “I… When I wake up sometimes, I feel these little pins and needles in my legs. Kind of like when your arm falls asleep. But all over. I’ve never had that before. Is… is that one of the signs?”

  Oh yes. This girl was not far off from her first shift. Ted nodded calmly. “It is. So you’ll probably shift in the next year or so. Are the tingles painful?”

  The girl’s face had paled, but she answered. “No. Just kind of itchy.”

  “Totally normal.”

  “Will you talk to my mom?”

  “Mmhmm.”

  “And there’s no way of knowing what I’ll change to?”

  Ted smiled. “Sorry.”

  Kasey sighed. “Darn.”

  She leaned forward and tucked a curl of Kasey’s dark hair behind her ear. “I bet it’ll be something really cool.”

  “Snakes are scary. Not cool.”

  “They’re totally cool.”

  Kasey finally smiled again. “You’re kind of weird, Doctor Vasquez.”

  “I am. Thanks for hanging out with me anyway.”

  She giggled, then she stood up and got her backpack before she turned back one last time. “You’ll talk to my mom? Make sure she knows everything so I can’t hurt anyone?”

  “I’ll call her this afternoon, okay?”

  Kasey nodded, and a little of the fear lifted from her eyes. “Thanks.”

  Ted walked Kasey out to the waiting room and caught Josie’s eye. She gave her the “call me” sign and then waved at the two younger boys as they left the office. Kasey had been her last appointment of the day, so she trudged back to the office and started her charts, wishing she could curl up and take a nap. Or shift and hunt something small and tasty.

  Her cat had been restless all day. It wanted Alex. They hadn’t slept apart from each other since they’d come back from Las Vegas. In fact, it was starting to seem a little ridiculous that he even kept the trailer. Smiling, she decided to talk to him about moving in that night. There was no denying that they were together now. Even her mother was only throwing up token objections. She knew it was useless to argue when Ted had her mind made up.

  Speaking of her mother…

  “Teodora?”

  Lena Vasquez only ever knocked out of politeness when Ted was at work, no matter how many times she’d tried to explain HIPAA. Luckily, she didn’t come to Ted’s office often, and she had the manners to never intrude on exam rooms. Ted’s office, on the other hand…

  Lena walked in. “Hello, mija.”

  “Hey, mom.”

  “Is your work done today?”

  “Last appointment just left.” She waved to her computer. “You’re only interrupting paperwork. What’s up?”

  Lena sat down. “Has Alex called you?”

  Ted blinked. “Uh… no.”

  Why was her mother asking about Alex? So far, her attitude toward her daughter’s renewed relationship with Alex McCann was to pretend as if it didn’t exist. Ted figured her mom would come around sometime after she and Alex started giving her grandchildren.

  “What’s going on?”

  Lena actually looked nervous. Which made Ted nervous. Because Lena didn’t really get nervous. She may have not been in the elder’s seat, but everyone in the clan knew her mother ran it. Technically, it was her Aunt Paula and her Grandfather Gabriel, who ran the cat clan of Cambio Springs. They did have the final say, but the day to day headaches were sorted out by her mother. She was the most dominant female of her generation, and no one had challenged her authority once she’d reached adulthood.

  So her mom being nervous made Ted doubly so.

  “What’s going on, Mom?”

  “I heard some of the teachers talking at work today. McCanns. There’s a pack meeting tonight.”

  “Alex didn’t tell me, but then, I haven’t seen him today. We’ve both been working.”

  “It sounded serious.”

  She tried not to react, but she was worried and a little pissed off. Her mother didn’t lie and didn’t exaggerate. So if she said it was serious, it was serious. Alex hadn’t bothered to call or even leave a message all day, and he usually did. Which meant that he was avoiding her.

  “Why did you think it was serious?”

  “Those girls were throwing off scent like a fight was coming. They were nervous about it. The wolves aren’t like that about most pack meetings.”

  “I don’t know anything about it.”

  Lena looked annoyed. “He doesn’t tell you these things and he calls you his mate?”

  “I don’t know what he’s thinking, because I haven’t talked to him today, mamá.”

  “It’s disrespectful. To you and to your clan.”

  “It’s nothing but a rumor at this point, and I refuse to overreact until I’ve talked to Alex.”

  There was a gleam in Lena’s eye that Ted couldn’t interpret.

  “You’ve grown with him, Teodora.”

  “Sorry?”

  “You’re more patient. Calmer. Not so quick to react to things. I’m… impressed.”

  Compliments from her mother were so rare that Ted had to catch her breath. “I have to be patient. I’m mated to a wolf.”

  “Are you mated? Truly?” Lena’s head was cocked to the side. She wasn’t antagonizing, she was truly curious, so Ted decided to be honest.

  “He makes my lion curl up and purr. He always has.”

  “He soothes you.”

  “Yes.”

  “I never had that with your father.”

  The lump formed in her throat, just like it did whenever her mom talked about her dad.

  “You did, mamá.”

  “Not in the same way. He wasn’t like us.”

  Salvador Jimenez had been one hundred percent human, but had considered Cambio Springs his home and its shifters, his people. Because of her mother. Her dad had adored her mother. Her father had been the kind of man who didn’t just put up with having a strong-willed wife, he reveled in it. He never attempted to curb her mother’s dominance. Sal was a man’s man, but more, he was Lena’s man. He’d taken her name when he married her. Given their daughter the gift of that history.

  Her dad, somewhat surprisingly, had always liked Alex, even when they were friends in high school.

  Her mother had not.

  “So, we wait?” Lena asked.

  “Only thing we can do. I don’t know what’s going through Alex’s head. He’s been busy. It might not be a big deal, so he forgot to mention it. Or it might be a big deal and he’s trying to figure out how to manage me.”

  “Manage you?”

  Ted smiled. “He tries.”

  “Dios mio. You’re the one who wanted him. That’s all I’m going to say.”

  “Did you hear who called it?”

  “Alex’s father.”

  So it was a big deal.

  Her mother read her annoyed expression and said, “You’re mated to an alpha wolf, mija. You’re going to have to figure that out on your own. I tried to warn you. This was your choice.”

  “He’s not the alpha, mamá.”

  “He will be.”

  Ted’s eyes met her mother’s intense stare.

  “He will be, Teodora. And maybe sooner than you think.”

  Alex didn’t come to the house after work. He didn’t call her. And she didn’t call him. She called Ollie.

  “I’m kicking myself, Ted. I don’t know if the old man planned it this way or if it’s just a coincidence. But I’m kicking myself for losing it the other night. I met him for coffee this morning and that knee’s not one hundred percent.”

  The knot twisted in her stomach.

  “He didn’t come home?” Ollie asked.

  “No.”

  “Shit. He’s
probably trying to get his head around things. He didn’t expect this.”

  “Is it what I think it is?”

  Ollie was silent for a moment. “Yeah.”

  Her heart started to pound. “Ollie, where is it?”

  “Do not go out there.”

  “Is it Hopkin’s ravine?”

  “You go out there and you screw him. You screw yourself. You screw this town. Do not go out there.”

  “If he gets hurt—”

  “He’s a wolf, sweetheart.”

  “I know that.”

  “He’s a wolf.”

  Sitting down had become too difficult, so she stood and she paced.

  “I can’t do this. I can’t just sit here and do nothing while he’s out there.”

  “You’ll sit there and wait for him, because this is something he has to do. And he can’t have your help doing it.”

  “Ollie—”

  “It’s who he is, Ted. It’s always been who he is. He’s been preparing for this since he was fourteen years old. Do you understand me?”

  Ted was silent, because she couldn’t wrap her brain around that knowledge. Cats didn’t establish dominance the way wolves did. It wasn’t ingrained in them the same way. It was political. Personal. Dominance could shift over time and often did.

  But Alex had lived with the knowledge he might have to kill his own father since he’d been fourteen years old.

  She prayed he wouldn’t have to. Prayed that the stubborn old man would yield, so his son wasn’t forced to do something that would haunt him. If Robert McCann had been older, he could have yielded the fight without damaging his pride. But Robert was still in the prime of his life; he wouldn’t allow himself to yield without a hard fight.

  “Ollie, this is because of me.”

  “No, Ted, this is because Alex’s old man is kind of a bastard.”

  “Alex loves him.”

  His voice softened. “He loves you more.”

  “Ollie…”

  “Are you going to go out there?”

  She whispered, “No.”

  “Good kitty.”

  She didn’t want to laugh, but she did.

  “You want me to come over, sweetheart?”

  “Not right now. If it gets bad, I’ll call you.”

  “Want me to call Jena or Allie?”

  “Maybe Allie.”

  “I’ll call her.”

  Allie knew more about the pack than Ted did, but being a fox, she wasn’t a full member. Allie would be able to calm her down. Then she realized it was already late and the kids would all be in bed.

  “Ollie, can you watch the kids?”

  “I’ll take care of it and send her over. You just stay there. Don’t leave the house.”

  “Okay.”

  “You promise?”

  “I promise.”

  A half an hour later, a silent Allie came to the house and wrapped her arms around Ted as soon as the door opened. The tears Ted had been holding back pooled in her eyes.

  “Inside,” Allie urged. “Come on, chica. Hold it just a few more minutes. Let’s get you behind closed doors.”

  Because Ted couldn’t show weakness while her mate was battling for his life. And on a night like tonight, every eye in the desert could be watching.

  Chapter Twenty

  He didn’t call Ted. He stared at his phone for a while, but he didn’t call her. She’d be pissed, but he could handle her being pissed. What he couldn’t handle was her being scared.

  And she would be. Because she wasn’t stupid.

  He got out of the car and slammed the door, ignoring the quiet murmurs of the other wolves nearby and the rumble of thunder in the distance. The ravine was too soft to drive into, so they had to walk. Most did in human form. A few trotted past in fur. Alex wished they were gathering for one of the good reasons. A marriage. A new baby. But they weren’t. And Alex could tell by the way everyone was walking and casting furtive glances at him. They all knew why they were there.

  He’d been expecting something since Vegas. Since his father knew that Alex had claimed Ted in a permanent way. But he hadn’t expected this. Not yet.

  His knee groaned in protest as he walked over the uneven ground. He’d be more comfortable on four legs, but he didn’t shift. Not yet. There would be things to say first.

  Alex heard Jeremy approach.

  “How’s the knee?” he asked quietly.

  “It’ll be fine once I shift.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yep.”

  Jeremy glanced at the sky. “Is it going to rain on us?”

  “Do I look like my sister?”

  Jeremy wasn’t officially his second, because Alex wasn’t officially the pack alpha. But the relationship was there. And if tonight went as he expected, that responsibility would shift from his uncle to the cousin standing next to him.

  Willow was waiting for him on a rock near the edge of the ravine.

  “I am so pissed at him I don’t even know what to say.”

  He hooked an arm around his sister’s neck and kissed her forehead. “I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been.”

  “This doesn’t need to happen, Alex. Not now.”

  “I know. But it is.”

  “Why is he pushing this?”

  Jeremy said, “You know why, Wil.”

  Alex’s anger at his father only grew when he saw the tears in his sister’s eyes. Willow rarely cried.

  “He knows what this is doing to Mom, and he doesn’t care.”

  He squeezed his hand on her shoulder, then let her go.

  “Willow, we need to worry about the rain?”

  “We’ve got a couple hours. And I don’t smell any water in the ravine.”

  Willow and Jeremy fell behind him as he walked into the wide ravine in the middle of the desert. Hopkin’s Ravine was a wide spot in a river that had shifted course sometime long before any people arrived. The walls were high and heavy rock had tumbled into the sand below, pushed to the sides by sudden streams of water that still occasionally flashed during monsoon season. Winter rains could be just as dangerous.

  Over time, the ravine had formed a natural amphitheater that the pack used for meetings. Most of the time, those meetings were to announce good news or settle the occasional dispute.

  Not tonight.

  The sand shifted under his feet as he walked into the ravine with Jeremy and Willow behind him. His pack watched him approach, but no one spoke. He took a seat, leaning against a boulder as he had so many times before. Small clutches watched him. Some human. Some wolf. Parents with teenagers. A few mated pairs, but only a few. McCann wolves were encouraged to look outside the pack for their mates, though a few were married to other shifters in different clans.

  But none of them were the alpha.

  His father stood next to his Uncle John at the top of the circle. His arms were crossed over his chest as he watched his children walk down. His uncle stood beside and a little behind him, as he always did. Usually, Fate balanced the two branches of the McCann family. The alpha came from one line. The water witch from another. But Fate hadn’t been quite so balanced when it came to Robert McCann. He’d sired only two children. One was the future alpha. The other the most keen water witch in decades. Proving to most of the town that Fate liked Robert a hell of a lot more than anyone else did.

  Some alphas faced challenges periodically. No one challenged his father.

  “You ready?” Jeremy asked.

  Would he ever be ready to challenge, fight, and possibly kill his father?

  “Yeah, I’m ready.”

  Robert waited ten more minutes for everyone to settle, and still hardly a word was said. Then, with the half moon shining down on his steel-grey hair, he stepped forward and started talking, and the walls of the ravine carried his voice to every ear.

  “Alex McCann, do you claim a woman as your mate?”

  The old man wasn’t wasting any time. Fine by him. Alex stepped forward, and
made a point not to yell.

  “I do.”

  His father’s eyes held his. “Who is your mate?”

  “My mate is Teodora Vasquez.”

  A heavy silence fell over the ravine. He only heard the wind and his sister’s desperate whisper, “Don’t say it, Dad.”

  But Robert wasn’t looking at his daughter.

  “I do not allow this,” he said to Alex.

  In a blink, Alex’s clothes ripped to shreds as he shifted and leapt at his father.

  Thunder boomed closer as Robert met him in mid air, his black wolf meeting Alex’s silver-grey with a vicious snarl as the wolves around them howled.

  He went for his father’s throat, but Robert ducked his head and hit Alex with a ripping bite to his shoulder.

  Alex faltered, but didn’t go down. He snapped his teeth in his father’s muzzle, biting down until Robert was forced to let go of his hold.

  They fell back, circling each other, tails held high and fangs bared.

  Robert growled, blood dripping from his torn muzzle. Alex was silent. He didn’t want this. He’d never choose this. But his father had.

  And his father would lose.

  The knee Alex had injured days ago still ached, but he ignored it, the surge of adrenaline pumping through his system as he felt the energy change around them. He didn’t have to look to know that every pack member had shifted. Howls and yips sounded around him, and he heard the flap of wings overhead.

  The birds had come to watch.

  Robert lunged forward, his black pelt blending seamlessly into the shadows as he attacked his son. Alex dodged to the left, then circled around, trying to attack his opponent’s neck from the side. Robert was too quick and twisted away, rolling—briefly exposing his vulnerable belly—before he was on his feet again.

  But Alex was relentless.

  He continued attacking, circling the older wolf, trying to wear him down.

  The black wolf was smart and swift, but the raw power of the grey was starting to wear on him.

  Alex drove forward, snarling as he met his father and they crashed together.