by Lynde Lakes
She inhaled a familiar scent approaching, closing in. Out of nowhere, Uncle Hugh in all his wolfish glory landed on top of the bigger werewolf and knocked him down. Then he and her alpha wolf circled the downed werewolf, growling with incisors bared. She closed in as well, mimicking their actions.
The downed werewolf leapt to his feet and raked his gaze over them. Apparently, finding himself surrounded and out-numbered, he fixed his piercing gaze on her, the weakest link. He leapt and knocked her down. She dodged and rolled out of his reach. For an instant, he glared at her with blood in his eyes, chilling her bones, and then ran into the night.
To her surprise, her parents appeared toting shotguns. Dad lifted the barrel, took aim, and fired. The retreating wolf yelped and ran on deep into the hills. Then her dad turned and aimed at her alpha protector. She wanted to scream. “No, Dad, don’t!” But all that came out was a high-pitched growl. I can’t let him shoot! She jumped her dad and knocked the gun upward. The shot went wild.
“What the hell?” Dad shouted.
“Run,” she yelled at her alpha wolf. This time her voice almost sounded human. Brian ran into the night and disappeared.
Dear God what if the killer werewolf is waiting just ahead for him. Did I save him from one danger only to send him charging into another—perhaps into the clutches of the throat-ripping monster and sure death?
****
Reeves, the commander of Rory’s body, waited in the darkness of the cave licking his wounds. He needed a doctor for the bullet wound. He knew one who, for the right price, would treat him and forget it. He gathered the moon poppies growing just outside the cave and jammed them into his mouth. He ate only enough to maintain control of his thinking and keep his savage bloodlust under control. In the midst of his moon-heat, he stayed in the shadows as he headed for the doc’s residence. He felt physically powerful yet he’d permitted those lesser werewolves to chase him away. He hated to admit that the younger werewolf was his equal in the fight. The skinny half-animal was skilled, well-trained, and moved as swiftly as a rattler. But the lightweight alpha couldn’t have run him off alone. It had taken the whole family. Reeves became one with the shadows, vowing that next time he wouldn’t take the chance of failure. When he cornered Valerie she would be alone. Totally alone.
****
Valerie’s parents said very little to her on the way home. No lectures, no reprisals for knocking Dad down. Probably because they figured until she was totally morphed she might take off into the night and follow the young werewolf.
Valerie suspected that Uncle Hugh knew the young alpha was Brian. He’d followed them. It wouldn’t be much of a jump to add two and two, especially after the way he saw them going at it in the pool. Why else would he have worked in concert with the alpha to run off the killer werewolf?
The next morning under the glare of the bright sun coming in the dining room window and over a strangely silent breakfast with her parents and uncle, Dad finally turned to her, his eyes soft and sad. “Don’t you get it, Valerie? You were lucky last night. We’re dealing with an inhuman, indestructible monster.”
She forced her head high. “I know.”
“All right. I’ll assume then, as the saying goes, that when you know better, you’ll do better. New subject—why you didn’t tell me about Brian?”
She stopped all movement and with a strawberry poised on her fork, she glared at her uncle. “Did Uncle Hugh tell you?”
“He didn’t have to. When you didn’t let me shoot the young wolf, your actions since Brian came to work here all added up. Besides, your story about meeting him on his jog never held water.”
“I was afraid if I told you, you’d fire him and he can’t help how he is any more than I can. And he hates his curse and wants the cure.”
“You and Brian were partially morphed. How did that happen?”
“We ate moon poppies and used a mind-over-matter technique that Victoria uses to reverse her morphing when the full moon is still out. Then when the cloud eclipsed the moon, the process progressed even faster, but the wolf attack complicated the transformation and we got stuck.”
“Don’t you realize I needed this information for our study?”
“This was the first time it worked for me. We were still in the testing stage.” She paused to calm her pounding heart. “Are you going to fire Brian?”
****
The next day, when Kyle told Brian that Damon wanted to see him immediately in his office, he felt sure he’d been found out and would be fired or worse. He hadn’t forgotten the stunned, heart-stopping feeling of having the shotgun turned on him. He hesitated at the door, sweat trickling down his back, damping the shirt he’d quickly shrugged into. Maybe Damon would try to capture him for one of his ghoulish studies. Perhaps I should just take off and live in the hills. At least I could watch out for Valerie. And other than a cure, that’s all I want.
Now that he’d seen the killer-wolf and learned he was a werewolf with blood in his eyes, he knew the creature was like none he’d ever known before. He remembered the acrid odor and the tombstone coolness the animal had emitted. He’d read the supposed myths about the walking dead in college and felt he just met one. What about the other wolf who seemed to be Johnny-on-the-spot when Valerie needed him. He hadn’t had time to question who he was, or why he acted like a protector instead of an aggressor.
Brian took a deep breath and rapped on Damon’s office door.
“Come in,” Damon called gruffly.
He squared his shoulders and shoved the door open with force. “You wanted to see me, Sir?”
Damon rolled his eyes upward. “Take a seat and I told you before to forget the sir title.
“Yes, Sir…or Damon, Sir.”
“Just plain Damon.”
Brian squared his shoulders again and sat down. “Damon, then,” he said with all the firmness he could muster. He hadn’t noticed the guest chair was so low before or that the boss’s chair was so high. Had the legs of the chair been shortened for this meeting? He watched Damon spread his files out wider, lean forward slightly, and steeple his fingers. Oh. God, I’m in big trouble. Brian knew from his experience as a cub member of a wolf pack that size and cool control mattered. And with Damon, he felt like a cub again and not the holder of the alpha status he’d earned the right to claim. The AC blowing against his damp shirt sent a chill down Brian’s back. His nerves jumped under his flesh. “Look, Sir, let’s not make this more difficult than it has to be.”
“I agree. Why don’t you start by leveling with me?”
“Am I fired?”
Damon laughed bitterly. “What good would that do? You’d only hang around out of sight, mooning over my daughter. I’ll feel safer keeping you where I can keep an eye on you.”
“Are you going to cage me up in your lab and do inhumane tests on me?”
“That hadn’t occurred to me, but if you want to volunteer—”
“No, Sir. Not unless you can guarantee it would lead to a cure for Valerie.”
“I can’t. But thinking of her like that couldn’t hurt. Being one of us, you should understand our special needs.”
“One of us, Sir…er…Damon?”
“I’m sure Valerie must have told you that our family is cursed.”
He nodded. “But she didn’t say you were all werewolves.”
“We’re not, but we’ve all paid our dues.” Damon stood and paced. “Can I trust you?”
Brian nodded again, and then realizing a nod wasn’t strong enough, he followed it with, “You absolutely can. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Valerie or her family.”
“The wolf who fought by your side to defeat Valerie’s attacker is my half-brother and also a werewolf. He’s Valerie’s protector.” Damon eye-balled him, his stare piercing. “Would you like to be her protector, too, and get paid for it? You can keep your landscaping job. This will be extra. It’ll require that you move into the mansion, room and board free, and stick with her. Not only when the
moon is full, but anytime she goes anywhere alone. It’s more than a full time job.” He steepled his fingers again, his gaze deadly. “And you have to keep your hands off of my Valerie.”
“I’m willing to protect her for free. But I can’t promise not to touch her. And I won’t lie to you.”
Damon strode over to him swiftly, hand raised as though to strike him. Instead he extended his hand. “I admire an honest man. Deal. You’re hired.”
Brian shook his head in disbelief. “May I ask a personal question?”
“As long as you don’t expect an answer.”
“How many years away is the perfection of the serum that will cure us?”
“Maybe months if we can get a couple of werewolves to volunteer to get tested.”
Brian laughed without humor. “I was waiting for you to get back to that.”
“Volunteer is the key word. You have no worries.”
“What if no one volunteers?”
“We’ll still find the cure; it’ll just take longer.”
Brian felt like a fish on a hook, being slowly reeled in.
“Don’t look so devastated. There’s another possible answer. For instance, our family curse can be broken by true love. When we love someone enough to sacrifice ourselves for them and then prove it, we are freed from the curse.”
Brian felt the hook deepen and the pace of the reeling quicken. “What if my curse doesn’t work that way?”
“Then, testing is probably the only answer for you. That is, if you’re in a hurry.”
Brian felt a cold sweat break out on his upper lip. What the hell have I gotten myself into?
****
The mid-summer sun slanted low across the azure-blue sky, into the rose arbor and fell at their feet. Valerie had the oddest feeling that something had changed between her and Brian. Her tension grew as the silence extended beyond her comfort zone. “You’re upset,” she murmured.
Without warning, Brian grabbed her, then roughly drew her into his arms and kissed her savagely.
She pulled away and stepped back. “What happened between you and my dad? Did he fire you?”
Brian’s expression lost its tension. His sardonic laugh snapped the morning air like a whip. “He hired me to watch over you. I told him I’d do it for free. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you.”
The fact that Brian felt so strongly about keeping her safe sent a surge of love to her heart. “So what’s the problem?”
“He ordered me not to touch you.”
“I hope you told him to go to hell.”
“I didn’t think it was advisable to use those words with my employer and a man who has the power to send me away.”
“So it’s hands off from now on, is it?”
“No. I politely told him that the hands-off thing couldn’t be part of the deal. And he hesitantly agreed.”
“So exactly what’s the deal?”
“I get to keep my job and move into the mansion, room and board free. In addition, he insists upon paying me to be your bodyguard and constant companion.”
She stepped closer, looked up him with a flirtatious grin, and toyed with the button on his shirt. “So why are you so mad?”
“He strongly encouraged, almost to the point of pressuring me, to volunteer for some tests. It didn’t like it. It felt like blackmail.”
“Forget it. He’s used to negotiating. And he likes to win in every deal.”
Brian frowned. The savage intensity that had glistened in his eyes earlier was gone but his tone was bitter. “We’re similar that way. But I still don’t like it.”
“There’s more to it. So why are you really so enraged?”
“I can’t pinpoint a reason. Guarding you and living in a mansion is a fantastic deal.”
“Right. And you don’t have to volunteer, so what’s the real problem?”
“Are you suggesting that the problem is within me?”
“You said it. I didn’t. But I know Dad and he no doubt cleverly planted the feeling that if you really cared for me you’d volunteer immediately. And now you feel guilty as hell for not stepping up to the plate.”
“You should go into mind reading.”
She laughed and sent him a sidelong glance. “So now what?”
Before Brian could answer, Kyle rushed up to them. “Miss Valerie. Your father has summoned you to his office immediately. It‘s important.”
She touched Brian’s arm. “Guess it’s my turn to sit in the hot seat. I’ll be back as soon as tell him what I think of him summoning me like a slave.
Chapter Eight
Damon flinched when Valerie opened the door of his office with such force that it slammed against the wall. Obviously, her hackles were up. And were there two reasons?
It depended if Brian had a big mouth.
“What’s the big rush, Dad? You had Kyle order me here on the double like I’m one of your employees.”
“Maybe because I’d like to hire you, or at least run an idea by you, and I needed an answer right away.” Good she was only upset about the manner in which he’d summoned her. Not the Brian thing.
“Thanks, Dad, but I don’t want to work for you.” She pushed aside the files he’d carefully laid out, rendering them askew and plunked down on the edge of his desk. “Besides, I’m swamped with my studies.”
“I doubt that.” She had two more years of college to get her master’s degree but— “You always find time for things you want to do. So hear me out, okay?”
She folded her arms. “Okay. Shoot.”
“I really need your help. As you know, your mom is already the head of two charities and I’ve gotten involved with a third called New Beginnings. It’s a project to assist the children of recovering addicts and you’re the perfect choice to head the project.”
“Other than the fact I care about kids, why me?” She toyed with his crystal paperweight, driving him crazy.
He fought not to grab it away from her. He didn’t think it wise to confess all the reasons he’d chosen her for the job, for instance now that the full moon was shrinking and losing its power over her, he wanted to give her somewhere else to put her passions and something to think about besides satisfying her wolf lust.
“Your central strength is your sensitivity. For this project compassion is an imperative quality for the leader. And you have the second essential as well.” He couldn’t help but laugh before he added, “It’s your unfailing Lamont determination that you inherited from your mom and me.”
She gave the crystal a big spin. “I thought you didn’t like that about me.”
He took a deep breath and fought not to grab the spinning orb. “I like it. It just gets in my way when our determinations clash. But you have all the important qualities, your intuitiveness about people and the grit to fight to make things right for the underdog. Will you do it and help me out?”
She met his gaze with a lupine steely look. “Does this mean you recognize that I’m twenty-one and capable of such a huge undertaking?”
He loosened his collar. “Of course. That’s why I’m asking you.”
“So I’m finally an adult in your eyes?”
Damon felt prickles at his neck, fearing where this line of questioning was leading. “What are you really asking, Baby?”
“Brian told me you ordered him to keep his hands off me. Since I’d be such an asset to this charity, why can’t you give me credit for managing my own relationships?”
“You’ll always be my little girl, and I get all these protective feelings bursting inside of me. Did he tell you he turned me down?”
She nodded. “We have no secrets.”
“Oh, really? Since I was hiring him to be your bodyguard and move into the house, I did more checking on him this morning. Did he tell you the old woman who raised him from about seven years old to manhood was considered a bit off and that she taught him her recluse beliefs? Do you want to give your heart to a guy with no sense of family? Imagine a man
with such strange beliefs raising your children.”
“You’re too late, Dad. I’ve already lost my heart to him. So, I guess you don’t want a CEO with such questionable judgment to head up your charity?”
Damon’s stomach knotted. How was he supposed to handle this new woman his daughter had become? How could he protect her? He had to try. “You’re wrong. You’re exactly the kind of leader I need.”
“Then I accept. But answer me this—why did you make Brian my bodyguard and invite him into the house if you thought he was odd.”
“I knew if I fired him, he’d only hang around in the hills, and I want a guy like that where I can watch him.”
She laughed. “Good answer, Dad. But it spite of all you’ve said about him, I also think you like him. Maybe you even think you can mold him into a little replica of yourself like you did with Rick. But Brian isn’t Rick.”
Damon shook his head. He was already learning that. He stuck out his hand.
She left it hanging there and looked at the chair in front of his desk. “You shortened the legs again, Dad, didn’t you? That’s so retro.”
He couldn’t stop a wry smile. She knew him too well. “Well is it a deal or not?”
Valerie gave the crystal a third spin. “It’s a deal.” Then she met his gaze square on and shook his hand firmly.
“There’s one more thing, Honey. I can’t control what you do with Brian, but please don’t get pregnant. And stay aware at all times that the threat of the resurrected dead requires you to be extremely careful and not let your guard down.”
“I get it, Dad. But it isn’t just me in danger. If that wolf is who you suggested, he wants the whole family dead.”
“I know and I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.”
She smiled and touched his arm. “We’re all here to help. You don’t have to do this alone, Dad. Trust us—share with us. Together we make a pretty good team.” With that she sashayed out of the room.
