Pack of Her Own
Gwen Campbell
Book three of Western Wolves
Helen thought a vacation visiting her BFF in Wyoming would be fun. And those werewolf guys were über-delicious. Too bad car vs. elk never turns out well for the humans in the car. Helen’s only chance at survival is a bite that will save her life…and change her forever. Now she has to deal with single males looking to get to know the pack’s newest female, a best friend who loves her but has no idea how to help a were who wasn’t born that way, and a humongous, brown-eyed, sweet-talking were who changed her—and loves her. Dealing with these males could be harder than learning to walk on four legs.
A Romantica® paranormal/werewolf erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave
Pack of Her Own
Gwen Campbell
Chapter One
“Thanks for picking me up from the airport, Wally. You saved me a huge cab fare.”
“Are you nuts? Let the best friend of my pack’s Alpha Female take a cab?”
Helen grinned at the humongous guy in the driver’s seat. The Wyoming Deputy Sheriff coat he was wearing made him look extra big.
“Fina says you’re studying organic chemistry. Do you like it?” Wally asked.
“I love it. I’d like to work in the food industry someday.” Helen blushed. “Don’t get me started talking about school. I’m boring and nerdy when I do.”
“I’m far from bored,” he insisted. “I love food.” He patted the tight stomach beneath his uniform. “And, nerdy or not, you’re still pretty. While you’re here, if it’s okay, I’ll call you. Maybe you’ll invite me over or we could go out.”
“I’d like that.” She examined his profile. “So you’re really a werewolf, huh?”
“Natural born.” He winked, then turned onto a side road crowded by tall pines. “All that time you were growing up together, you never suspected Fina was a were?”
“It never came up,” she answered dryly. “Not until…” Her voice faded.
“Not until those rogues back in Tennessee kidnapped you last spring to force Fina to come back.” His hands tightened on the wheel and his knuckles cracked ominously.
Helen nodded. “Thank you for coming to rescue me.”
“Wasn’t just me. Hell, every male in the pack fought for a spot to come help.”
Wally wasn’t handsome. The angles of his face were too severe. Still, they were tempered by an easygoing kindness reflected in his brown eyes. “We’ll be at Fina’s place in twenty minutes or so,” he said in a brighter tone. “How do you like Wyoming so—”
The humor on Wally’s face disappeared so fast, Helen stared at him. That’s when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the elk running onto the road. She felt a sickening lurch of inertia before pain exploded inside her head.
* * * * *
“Did you have to change her?” Fina packed a huge presence into a tiny frame.
“There was no time and no choice,” Wally whispered. “If I’d done nothing, she’d be—”
“Will you two stop yelling?” From her hospital bed, Helen grumbled. Her brow furrowed when she blinked, squinted and focused on the IV in her hand.
Fina hurried to her friend’s side. “You’re awake, thank God. Do you remember the accident?”
“I remember an elk. Don’t you people have fences?” She winced. “Why is everybody yelling? Including me?”
“Um, your hearing is going to be better than it used to be.” Wally took her hand just as he had in the cab of his demolished pickup truck. She remembered that. She also remembered the cop presence of mind he’d shown when he’d crawled over to her in the overturned cab. How he’d tended to her, called for help.
Wally continued, “You had an intracranial bleed. The doctors have kept you in a medically induced coma for two days.” He gave her an encouraging smile. “There’s a cut on your forehead but it’s pretty much healed now. It’s kind of cute, actually,” he added as he touched her face.
“Okay.” Helen looked up at the ceiling. “How come I feel so good? And did somebody call my mom?”
“Not yet.”
“What do you mean, not yet?”
Wally answered, “You’ll need time to adjust.”
“Adjust to what?”
“Your injuries were bad, Helen. If I’d had any other choice, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Done what?” she asked with rising suspicion.
“You were dying,” Fina interrupted, sounding on the verge of tears. “He saved you.”
With the tips of his fingers, Wally brushed the base of Helen’s neck. “I bit you, here. I changed you.”
“No. That does not mean what I think it does.”
He nodded slowly. “You’re a were. Like us.”
* * * * *
The inside of Fina’s home was comfortable and bright. The bright part caught Helen off guard, considering the place was made of logs, and she stood for a moment in front of a massive window looking out over fields, a barnyard and animal paddocks—one holding black cattle, the other sheep.
Wally came up behind her, took her arm and settled her onto a big, comfy leather sofa. “You just got out of the hospital. You should rest.” His voice was a low, determined rumble. In it, her imagination heard the wolf inside him. Actually, it was kind of sexy…and high-handed.
“Stop fussing,” she complained when he tried to put a blanket over her legs. “I feel great, which is really weird considering my head was nothing but watermelon mush three days ago.”
Judging from his expression, the analogy horrified him and Helen toned down her annoyance. “I’m sorry. This whole accident-healed-werewolf thing has got me unhinged.”
“Even more than before?” There was laughter and a deliberate tease in Fina’s voice when she stepped into the room. She directed one of her mates—Nath, the one with the tan and dimples—to take Helen’s now-battered suitcase to the guest room.
Helen remembered Nath. He was one of the weres who’d come to Tennessee to save her from those rogues. Shuddering, Helen remembered their deranged smiles and the sounds they made when they…turned. Shaking her head, she realized she was smiling when she thought about strangers coming to her rescue.
Fina continued, “Seriously though, I’ve never known somebody who’s been turned. Natural-born weres only.” Fina shrugged, sat down beside Helen and held her hand like when they’d been little. “I have no frame of reference for how hard this will be for you. Not being able to help you is frustrating the hell out of me.”
Helen leaned her head on Fina’s shoulder. “I don’t know either.” She cleared her throat, hoping her voice would sound less rough. Less…weak. “It’s hard to step back. You know—grasp. But I think I’m certain about one thing. I like being alive.”
Wally let out a sigh rife with unspoken emotion. Without asking, he sat on her other side and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. It should have felt too intimate. It didn’t. Helen leaned into the unexpected rightness of the contact and closeness.
“Who the hell am I to force someone else’s basic identity to change?” He sighed again and looked down at her. “That’s what I’ve been asking myself ever since the accident. But knowing you’re as happy to be alive as I am to have you that way makes it a little better.”
“You’re so sweet.”
“Ah shit. Next you’ll be saying I’m a nice guy.”
“Not out loud. Promise.”
“Brat,” he teased back, and gave her shoulders a careful squeeze.
Grinning, Fina released her hand and stood. “Lunch?” she asked. “Yes, Wally, I know you’re starving. You’re always starving.”
He flashed her what was obviously a rehearsed, innocent grin.
“Helen?”
/> “You know, I am hungry. Maybe something with beef in it? No offense to the pretty cows outside.”
Fina laughed and began rummaging around in the refrigerator. “Steak sandwiches? And I’ve got a hunch you want yours rare.”
Helen felt the corners of her mouth go down. “But I like mine medium-well. At least, I always used to. How do you know? Is it a wolf thing?”
“Rare meat is something we all crave. For the rest of us, being able to assume the shape of our wolves comes with puberty. I’m thinking your ability is going to come all at once.”
“Sweet Jesus save us. Put that pan down and step away from the stove.” Nath came back into the room. He held out his hand. Sheepishly, Fina handed over the cookware and turned to set the table.
“You’ve tasted her cooking?” Helen teased.
“Oh yeah.” With no further comment, except for a faint shudder, Nath made quick work of setting out rolls, cheese, and began slicing onions and dropping them into a sauté pan.
The doorbell rang and Fina went to answer it.
“So we hear you’re our newest pack mate.” Two big men, ranchers from the looks of them, followed Fina into the room.
Helen blinked. They were smiling down at her with more affection than she was comfortable with and one was holding a big bunch of flowers. The other was carrying a box of what smelled like fresh-baked goods.
Her mouth watered just a little, and it wasn’t just because of the smell. Both men were big, with shoulders that would put a linebacker to shame. They were cute, brown-haired and shared the same blue eyes.
“You’re…” She paused, trying to remember their names. “Josh. And Simon. You came out to Tennessee last spring when those…” Her voice trailed off and she shuddered. Would the memory always make her react like that?
“Yes ma’am.” Josh tugged off his Stetson with one hand and held out the flowers in the other. “Rogues. They’re an abomination. It was a pure pleasure going out there and sending them back to their maker.” His smile got broader, revealing white teeth that looked a little too sharp. Maybe that was just her imagination.
“Our mother’s the finest baker in the county,” Simon said and set the box on the coffee table. “She sends her regards and said she’d drop by this evening, if you’re up to having visitors.”
“Notice you didn’t ask first,” Wally cut in.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at work? Or don’t my tax dollars pay your cop’s salary?”
Wally stood up so quickly Helen’s eyes missed it. He turned to the new arrivals and growled, literally.
“Down, boys,” Fina’s voice was low and she spoke deliberately. Nath stepped up behind her, arms crossed over his chest, and glared at the three other males. The wooden spoon in his hand lessened his looming-threat presence a bit, but not much.
“Since Wally changed her, Cutler gave Wally the day off to help Helen work through the transition.” Cutler was Fina’s other mate and the local sheriff. He was also this pack’s Alpha—the highest-ranking position, if Helen remembered correctly. “Play nice or I’ll send you all home.”
The three males glared at each other then, as if by mutual agreement, backed down. They turned back to Helen and their smiles kicked it up a few notches.
“You know how to ride?” This was from Simon, who looked to be the younger brother. “We’ve got some riding stock out at our place. We could ride over to our parents’ ranch sometime when you’re up for it. Mom’ll put on a great spread. She’s dying to meet you.”
Smooth as a cat, Josh slipped around Wally, took Helen’s hand and kissed it. “May I escort you to the table, pretty lady?”
“Huh.” Fina headed back to the kitchen. “Never knew Dorothea’s sons were that smooth.”
“Why do you think Cutler and I kept you away from them?” Nath leaned over Fina, kissed her ear then returned to the stove.
When lunch was served, Helen ate three steak sandwiches—two more than her usual—and couldn’t pack in enough salad and baked beans.
“How come I can eat so much all of a sudden? I was lying in bed for three days. Shouldn’t I not want to eat anything but Jell-O?” Deliberately, she pushed her plate away, then realized she was staring at it longingly.
“If you were still human, sure,” Wally answered in that calm, deep voice Helen was beginning to adore. “Your cells are storing energy. Your body’s instinct now is to keep the reserve it’ll need to facilitate a change.”
“A change?”
She nodded gratefully when Wally held up the bowl of tomato, cucumber and Feta salad. He began refilling her plate, as well as topping up her milk glass. “Human to wolf and back. As a human, and I know you’ve experienced some of these changes already, your senses are more acute. That’s the wolf lending its strength to the human.” She ate the rest of the salad with embarrassing speed, impressed by Wally’s calm, confident manner. She figured he was probably a really good cop. “Gonna get off my soapbox now but if I could make any suggestion, it would be to just give yourself a couple of days to get used to your new abilities. Take it in a little at a time and take the time to adjust.”
“We’re self-employed so we’d be more than happy to help.” Josh smiled broadly as he picked up two empty plates. “For starters,” he said as he paused beside her, “this is nuzzling. It’s a social thing.” Lightly, he grazed her cheek with his. “It says hi, welcome, and comforts us at the same time.”
Helen sat up very straight. After the nuzzle, she’d heard him inhale and felt his breath stir her hair. “You’re smelling me,” she blurted out. “Why is he smelling me?” She resisted the urge to lift her arm and give her pit a sniff.
Shaking his head, Wally stood, picked up a serving platter and, as he walked by, cuffed Josh on the back of the head. “Weres with half a brain will explain before they shock the hell out of you.” He glared at Josh then put the platter in the sink. “Humans seek first sensory input through their eyes. Weres? It’s our noses. When you meet another human, you expect them to look at your eyes. When you meet another were, you’ll focus on their scent.” Slowly, telegraphing the move, he held his forearm beneath her nose. “Go ahead. It doesn’t offend us. We’d expect you to do it.”
Tentatively, Helen took hold of Wally’s wrist and inhaled.
“My scent will tell you my age, health, if I’m mated or not.”
Wally’s scent was a complex layering and she couldn’t identify most of the subtleties. It was also delicious. Without thinking about it, Helen firmed her grip on him and inhaled again.
He looked down at her, cleared his throat and grinned like a happy, naughty kid. “Fina’s scent will be different, other than the obvious. She’s mated so you’ll smell her mates too. That mating mark is cell-deep and permanent…not something casual contact would leave on her skin.” Gently, Wally maneuvered her clear of the brothers and stood her next to Fina. Fina stood, hugged her friend, then held herself still without letting go.
Helen inhaled, startled by the new complexity of the scents that made up Fina.
“I guess it will be like a blind person suddenly being able to see. You know what a duck is, what it sounds like, how it feels…but when you see one for the first time, you haven’t got a clue what it is.”
Everyone fell silent then Wally nodded. “Yes. There’s a whole new vocabulary in your senses now. You’re smart. You’ll pick it up quick.”
Chapter Two
“There’s no full moon. There’s supposed to be a full moon.” Helen’s skin itched with nervous energy. They were in a forest in the middle of nowhere, just her and Wally.
He started pulling off his sweater.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting naked. You can’t change into wolf form while you’re dressed. Well, you can but the shift in mass will shred everything and you’ll be riding home naked.”
“You didn’t say anything about naked,” she blurted out.
“Didn’t want to throw you off your game.” He g
rinned and undid his belt buckle.
He removed all his clothing as if it was no big deal. Helen knew she was staring and couldn’t help herself. Wally was just…huge. His arms were thick and defined. His pecs popped beneath a dusting of brown hair that arrowed down to…oh my.
“Growing up were, you get used to being naked for pack runs.” His voice was deeper than usual, quiet and intimate. “Want me to turn my back?”
“Yes,” she muttered and stared at his round, hard ass as she yanked off her clothes. Grabbing his t-shirt off the ground, she held it in front of herself. For the last week, since waking up in hospital, Helen had felt…different. All her life she’d been alone in her head and that was the way it was supposed to be. But now, at times, she sensed someone else. It wasn’t someone telling her to build a death ray or anything. The someone was just quiet, confident and seemed to see the world in simple straightforward terms. She also stayed in the background as if she was new to all this as well. Trying to figure her way around. “Okay,” Helen sighed resignedly. “You can turn back.”
Wally looked at the t-shirt but didn’t comment. “Quiet your thoughts. You’re two creatures now, separate yet together. Hear your inner wolf.”
“My inner what?”
“Work with me here. Just listen.” Wally breathed slow and even. “She’s instinctual rather than intellectual. She’s also the reason you survived, so show her some gratitude by letting her out for a run.”
Helen shut her eyes and matched her breathing to his.
“Let your conscious mind recede. Your wolf will know what to do. The physical change will hurt but only for a few seconds.”
“Now you tell me,” she mumbled, as if she was drifting to sleep. Suddenly it felt as if her sinews were snapping free and she dropped to her hands and knees. She cried out and didn’t recognize the sound of her voice. Her tongue felt thick, her jaw became unbearably heavy—until her neck muscles expanded with a screaming ache and absorbed the weight.
The pain stopped. Everything looked too sharp, too close. She took a step, stumbled, and stared at the four splayed limbs supporting her.
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