The Keeping

by Nicky Charles

  Composing herself, she took a deep breath and explained what she had discovered in a relatively calm and collected manner. Beth frowned and called Josh into the room—he’d been watching TV in the den and staying out of Beth’s way while she painted; this was one of the secrets to their long and successful marriage, the woman had informed Mel earlier.

  After hearing the details, Josh frowned and decided to take a look around himself. “No point in calling the police just yet. This is a small town and we don’t have our own police force. The OPP—the Ontario Provincial Police—are in charge, but it’s a large area and it could take up to an hour for a patrol to get here depending where the nearest cruiser is. I’ll check the cabin out and if someone really has broken in, then we’ll call.”

  “But what if someone’s in there?” Mel twisted her hands in agitation. She didn’t want Josh to face an intruder. What if the criminal was armed?

  “Honey, did you have anything valuable in there?”

  Mel mentally searched her luggage. “Not really. Just my laptop.”

  “Well, then. He’s probably long gone, if robbery was his motive. It wouldn’t take long to search a small cabin and steal a laptop”

  Reluctantly, Mel agreed, but told Josh she’d go back with him so that if there was trouble, she could run for help. Beth had him take a baseball bat along for protection, just in case. He’d scoffed at the idea, but gave in to keep her happy.

  Josh made small talk on the way to the cabin, showing no signs of being worried about what he would find. “So did you manage to find Ryne’s place yesterday?”

  “Um… Yes, I found it. The map you drew was very helpful.” Mel didn’t mention the little adventure she’d had afterwards. As it was, she was sure Josh thought she was over-anxious and worrying about nothing. There was no need to add to his dubious impression of her.

  “I’ve been by his place a couple of times, but never up to the house. He bought the place from the Nelsons. They were an older couple who wanted to retire to Timmins. Everyone in town figured the place would be on the market for years—no one moves to Stump River, you know. So we were all surprised when Ryne bought the place practically the day it went on the market. Why he and his friends moved up here, none of us can figure out. Mind you, we’re not complaining. It’s nice to have some young blood in the town.”

  Mel murmured non-committally and filed that bit of information away for future reference. It wasn’t much, but compared to what she already knew about the man—which was next to nothing—well, she’d take what she could get.

  By this time, they’d arrived at her cabin. While Mel stood some distance away, Josh went inside and looked around then came back out, with an I-told-you-so expression on his face. “There’s no one inside Melody. And no sign that anyone but yourself has been in there.”

  Breathing a sigh of relief that some pervert hadn’t been going through her underwear drawer, she led Josh to the side of the house, pointing out the mysterious footprints.

  “See? There’s one set facing each direction, like someone entered and then exited, but there are no other prints showing how the person came or left.”

  Josh rubbed his chin. “Well, that is a bit puzzling. Let me think about it.” Just as she had, he stared at the ground, the roof, the walls, and the porch.” He got down and pressed his hand to the ground, observing the imprint it made in the soft mud. “Huh… Only explanation I can think of is that the ground was frozen when this fellow came around. It still goes below freezing most nights, but the ground nearer the house would have been softer from the heat seeping out—these cabins aren’t very energy efficient, you know—so his prints would show here, but not farther away.”

  Mel nodded slowly. It sort of made sense. “But why was someone here in the first place?”

  Shrugging, Josh wiped his muddy hand on a handkerchief he pulled from his coat pocket. “Most likely a transient. He was probably looking for a place to spend the night or wondering if there was anything worth stealing. You know, I’m not a skilled tracker or anything, but these prints could be days old. See how the dog prints are on top of the man’s? No telling exactly, when any of these were made.”

  “Are you sure they’re dog prints? Couldn’t they be from a wolf?” Mel was thinking of the wolves she’d encountered on Ryne’s property. Had they tracked her here?

  “Wolves? I suppose. But they don’t usually come near town unless the hunting is really bad, and the winter wasn’t that harsh this year. Nope, these are most likely from a stray dog.”

  “Oh… Okay.” Mel felt a bit deflated as well as relieved at the logical explanation Josh had come up with. As usual, her imagination was getting the best of her. She wasn’t exactly sure what she thought was going on, but it hadn’t been anything as mundane as what Josh had come up with. “Well, I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

  “No problem. I know how skittish you ladies can get. Better to check it, like Beth said. Then everyone can rest easy.” With a nod of his head, Josh headed home.

  Mel watched him leave and then went inside. She walked into her bedroom and looked around. Everything was as she’d left it. Approaching the window, she pushed the curtain aside and stared at the casing. It was old, but in good repair though there didn’t seem to be a locking mechanism. Crime in Stump River probably wasn’t a major concern so no one worried about locks on windows. She’d heard that rural areas could be pretty lax when it came to home security.

  She chuckled. What would they think if they ever saw her apartment in Chicago? She had deadbolts, chains, a keypad, and a peep hole to check who was at the door… At times, she felt like she was in a prison, but crime rates were high. If you didn’t want to become another statistic, you did what you had to.

  Experimentally, she tried to open the window and was surprised when it slid open with hardly a sound. Josh obviously kept the cabins in good repair. She pulled the glass down and studied it carefully. There were fingerprints on the glass pane. The first set were obviously her own, but who owned the others? Had Josh tested the window? He might have, but she didn’t think he’d mentioned it, nor had she heard the window sliding up and down. Of course, she hadn’t been listening for it either and it was very quiet.

  Biting her lip, she stepped back and jerked the curtain into place. Had someone been in her room last night? Watched her sleeping? Touched her? Kissed her? Intimately caressed her? The very thought made her skin crawl and bile rise in her throat. She rushed to the bathroom and leaned against the sink, panting and sweating, willing the contents of her stomach to stay down where they belonged.

  After a moment, she began to regain control of herself. She leaned over the sink and splashed cool water on her face and then grabbed a towel to absorb the droplets. Staring into the mirror, she patted her face dry while noting her pale skin and dilated eyes.

  This is ridiculous, she scolded herself. No one was in your room. It’s like Josh said; the footprints are probably old. No one was here—it’s just your darned imagination working overtime. A bit of trivia popped into her head and she stood up straight, the beginnings of a smile forming. As a matter of fact, it couldn’t have been last night. She remembered hearing the weather report on the radio while driving back to the cabin. It said that the temperatures had been above freezing the previous night. The ground would have been soft. Anybody out there would have left lots of footprints, not just one set. Feeling relieved, she stuck her tongue out at her reflection and mentally chastised herself. See? It was nothing. No one was there except your phantom lover.

  With a much lighter heart, she breezed into the sitting area and pulled out her laptop. There was no phone so she couldn’t access the internet, but she could work on a few articles that she had started awhile back. As she plugged the machine in, Mel decided to ask the Kennedys about getting the phone hooked up. At least she’d have access to dial-up. It would cost a bit, but she could justify the expense to Aldrich. He wouldn’t be pleased about having to wait for her reports nor wou
ld he like having to leave messages for her with the Kennedys. The man was way too uptight for that sort of arrangement.

  Mel happily settled down and spent the rest of the day working, totally unaware of the controversy she was creating in various locales across the continent.

  Chapter 10

  Ryne glared at his Beta then abruptly turned away to stare out the window. Bryan was just teasing him, but his comments were hitting a little too close to home.

  “Aww, come on Ryne. If she’s just a human female, then why are you letting her get under your skin?” Even with his back turned, Ryne knew Bryan was smirking.

  “How many times do I have to tell you? She isn’t getting under my skin.”

  “Of course not. I just imagined the fact that you kept Daniel and me away from her yesterday.”

  “The less she saw of the pack, the better.” He answered in clipped tones.

  “And naturally, you had to drive her home.”

  “She was dizzy. It wasn’t safe for her to drive.”

  “Well, what about going to see her last night?” Ryne turned, ready to deny the accusation, but Bryan just shook his head and kept talking. “You said you were going to see Lucy, but it wasn’t her scent on you when you came home. And I talked to Lucy today at the diner. She didn’t see you last night.”

  “All right.” Ryne sighed gustily. “I went to see the girl, but only because she had a head injury. I got to thinking that she was alone and could have a concussion. Someone had to check on her, to make sure she didn’t fall into a coma.”

  “Yeah, right.” The two men stared at each other for a moment. Ryne’s face darkening while Bryan just kept grinning wider and wider. “Face it, boss. She’s caught your fancy. Why fight it? The way I see it, she’s here for a week or two. Use the time to your advantage. Bang her a few times and get her out of your system.”

  The comment didn’t sit well with Ryne and he growled a warning.

  Bryan threw up his hands and backed out of the room. “Okay, I get the message. I'm dropping the subject for now. Don’t go all Alpha on me.”

  As the door slammed shut, Ryne relaxed and slumped down on the sofa, rubbing his face with his hands. What was the matter with him? Bryan was right. Melody Greene was just a human female. She was cute, but irritating, nothing that special really. So why was she running through his head?

  He couldn’t believe what he’d done last night. The idea of her alone with a head injury had bothered him all evening. After pacing restlessly, and driving his friends crazy with his miserable attitude, he’d announced he was going into town to see Lucy. And he had planned on seeing her—a romp with Lucy usually left him feeling relaxed and mellow. It was just that he was going to check on Ms. Greene first.

  After parking the car down the road, he’d changed into his wolf form and silently padded up to her cabin. No one had noticed him sniffing around the building. When he had heard her ragged breathing, he transformed back to human and peered in the window. She was lying in bed, obviously distressed, and without thinking, he opened the window and climbed in.

  She was apparently in the throes of a nightmare, thrashing about on the bed. He had gripped her shoulders, turning her over and commanding her to look at him, thinking that if she wasn’t dreaming, she’d feel better. It was only later that he realized how foolish he’d been. What if she had completely woken up? Seeing him, uninvited in her bedroom in the middle of the night, would have had her screaming the house down. No amount of fast talking could have explained his way out of that one.

  Thankfully, she’d only partially opened her eyes before closing them again, a blissful smile on her face as she relaxed against him. Then, without him even realizing it at first, his wolf slipped past his guard and took over. He found himself pressing a soft kiss to her lips, just offering comfort, of course. Only it hadn’t stayed that way. She’d kissed him back and before he knew it, he was lying on top of her, caressing her, while she moaned in pleasure.

  He should have stopped then; he knew it, but his wolf didn’t care. She’d tasted so good; the smell of her arousal had thrown all common sense out of his head. The feel of her body pressed against his, her soft sighs and smooth skin, the way she moved under him, needing him, begging him in her sleepy voice…

  Ryne could still taste her, still remember how her pebbled nipple had felt against his tongue, still recall the slick moisture that had seeped from her body onto his hand as he moved his fingers within her. Her body had clenched around him, her head thrown back, and mouth opening in a silent scream as she came. It had been such an erotic sight, watching her orgasm. Her uninhibited response had left him hard and aching, but he’d wrenched back control from the beast within, knowing he couldn’t ease his discomfort with her.

  Instead, he’d covered her up and left. Once outside, he’d morphed back into a wolf and run through the woods until he could run no more; the ache in his body replaced by exhaustion. For a moment he had considered visiting Lucy as he had initially planned. She would have taken him in, regardless of the late hour, but he had no heart for it. The very idea seemed wrong; to go from one woman to another. He had some scruples. Not many, but they were there.

  And so he’d headed back home. At least Daniel had been in bed, but Bryan had still been up, watching a movie. Ryne had known he must look a mess, his hair tangled, his breathing rough, the smell of sweat and sex emanating from him. Their gazes had locked and Ryne, even though he was Alpha, had shifted uncomfortably under his Beta’s gaze. Bryan hadn’t said anything. He’d merely sniffed the air, frowning until he placed the scent. After giving him a considering look, Bryan had simply nodded and turned back to his movie.

  Ryne had stood in the entryway, inexplicably unsure of what to do. He’d felt the need to explain and even opened his mouth to do so, but then shut it again. How could he explain what he himself didn’t even understand? Instead, he had slowly walked to his bedroom, climbed into bed and stared at the ceiling most of the night.

  Melody Greene was bad news. No, not the girl herself, but what she represented. Ryne was too smart to be able to attribute her arrival to coincidence. Just a few weeks ago, some woman had been in his old home town of Smythston asking about him. Now, a woman was in Stump River, also wanting to see him. In all the years that he’d openly shown his photographs, no one had ever wanted to interview him, except for the local paper. But now that he had basically vanished, there was a sudden interest.

  If he was vain enough, he might have thought that his talent was finally drawing interest from the art world. While it was a possibility, it was more likely that the interest being generated was because of that one damned picture. God, he wished he’d never taken it, let alone had it enlarged and professionally mounted. Why hadn’t he left it as a snapshot in a family album?

  Sighing deeply, he steepled his fingers and pondered what he should do about the problem Melody Greene was about to create. He hadn’t told Bryan, but just minutes before his friend had come in, Ryne had called his brother Kane to double check some facts about the inquisitive person who’d been asking about him. He’d been hopeful that it hadn’t been Ms. Greene, but of course that would have made things too easy. Instead, Kane had confirmed that it was the same person and that had led to a very uncomfortable conversation about options.

  If he ignored her, would she go away? Instinctively he knew she wouldn’t, not given the fact that she’d travelled all the way to Stump River—and he was still puzzling over how she’d found him. For some reason, she was extremely interested in him, either due to her own curiosity or because someone was paying her. Most likely it was the latter. She’d been too shocked when he’d mentioned the boys were wolves—correction when he’d told her the supposed ‘dogs’ were wolves. There had been no ‘ah-ha’ moment passing over her face, no hint of prevarication. If she really knew what she was looking for, she would have figured it out then and there. While she might be a bit quirky, she wasn’t stupid. Her repartee with him proved that.
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br />   So, how to proceed? Did he grant her an interview and tell her a bunch of lies? No. Lies could trip you up too easily. He couldn’t tell her the truth. It went against The Keeping and he didn’t know if she could be trusted. Just a generation ago, the solution would have been simple; kill her and dispose of the body. She’d become simply another statistic. A young woman travelling on her own mysteriously disappears in the wilderness. Her car is found, abandoned by the side of the road. Years later, bones turn up and the verdict would be that she’d left her car, possibly to take a picture and got lost or was attacked by wild animals. It was efficient, but in this day and age more likely to lead to complications, especially if she had a family that might come looking for her.

  Ryne smiled grimly. Death was still a possibility—neither he nor Kane had ruled it out—but it was always a last resort. They’d both agreed on that before ending their conversation. Leaning his head back, Ryne studied the ceiling and hoped for inspiration. The Keeping was their most important law. It wasn’t just a matter of what he wanted to do. It existed to protect the whole pack, even the whole race. Their safety took precedence over the individual every time. If Melody Greene became too nosey, if it appeared she was on the verge of discovering the truth, well then…

  Getting up, Ryne walked over to the cupboard where he kept the liquor. Pulling out a bottle of whiskey, he took a swig, not bothering to dirty a glass. The golden liquid burnt as it slid down his throat and joined the knot that was forming in his stomach. “Here’s to you, Melody Greene.” The sound of his mocking toast filled the silent room. “Why the hell did you come here, and fuck everything up?”