by Jane Jamison
“It’s no scam and you know it. Or at least you should. Even if you were raised without a male werewolf, you should’ve heard of it by now.” Casey put his arms at his side, his hands clenched into fists, and took a step closer to Dirk, a nonverbal threat if she’d ever seen one.
“She knows the connection is real.” Joe met her gaze, sending her a silent reminder of what they’d done in the restroom. “She felt it.”
Dirk’s broad brow wrinkled. “That’s bullshit. But you know what? It doesn’t matter.” His lip lifted into a snarl that reminded her of how he growled when in his wolf form. “I still claimed her.”
Casey and Joe acted like Dirk had sucker punched them. Joe made a sound deep in his throat that sounded like the moan a hurt animal would make. “I didn’t see any marks on her.”
What kind of mark does he mean?
“It’s healed.”
Again, the Colter brothers were caught off guard. Casey ground out his words. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” Dirk’s snarl morphed into an all-too-human sneer.
She was tired of them talking about her as though she didn’t exist. “I don’t know what’s going on here, and I don’t give a shit. I’ve got a son to worry about. You three can stand in the middle of the street and have a pissing contest for all I care.”
Only now did she notice several people watching. They must’ve given the citizens of Forever a real show.
But she had a son to take care of. “Hey, you.”
The man she’d pointed at lifted a finger to his chest. “Me?”
“That’s Carl Wineberger.”
“Whoever.” She tossed the word at Casey like a loaded grenade. “Mr. Wineberger, can you take me back to my RV?”
“I reckon I can.” Mr. Wineberger’s gaze shifted to the Colter brothers. “If they don’t mind.”
“Bonnie, come on. We brought you into town, and we’ll take you back.” Joe moved to take her arm, but she sidestepped out of the way.
“No.” She hated being mean to Joe, especially after what they’d just shared, but she had to consider her son’s well-being first. She only hoped that he’d gone back to the RV. “Great. Then can we leave right now?”
Mr. Wineberger checked with the Colter men again. They didn’t give any indication either way, which the man must’ve taken as giving him their silent permission. “Sure. My truck’s over there.”
Bonnie threw one last aggravated glance at the three men and strode to Mr. Wineberger’s pickup.
* * * *
Casey’s head was spinning. Bonnie had gone from having sex with Joe—at least he assumed that was what had detained them in the back of the diner—to hearing that another werewolf had already claimed her. It was insane to think that they’d already lost their mate to another, and he was trying to get his confused head around the idea.
“What the hell just happened?”
Joe didn’t answer. Instead, his brother zeroed in on Dirk. “It’s a lie.”
Dirk crossed his arms, a defiant gesture. “Is it? And how would you know?”
“I just would. I haven’t seen any mark or scar on her.”
Casey let his brother take control of the situation. After all, Joe would know as well as he did, maybe even more depending on what had happened in the diner, if she had a mark or not. He hadn’t seen one, but he hadn’t had all her clothes off, either.
“Scars fade.”
“I don’t believe she’d have anything to do with you. Not in that way.”
“Believe it, cowboy. I’ve ridden that filly lots of times.”
It happened before Casey could stop it. Joe lost his cool and started to shift, right in the middle of the town. “No, Joe, don’t. We don’t know who’s watching.”
Seeing the oncoming threat, Dirk started to change, too. Fur sprouted over both their faces and their images blurred as their bones broke and reformed. Their faces elongated, changing from human to wolf. Clothes tore as their bodies transformed, their forms growing larger in some places and smaller in others.
“Damn it, Joe, stop.” Casey glanced around him and was relieved when he didn’t see any strangers. “Don’t let him rile you, bro.”
“Move, Casey!”
He whirled around just in time to see Milly and Mack, both holding huge buckets. Guessing what was coming, he jumped out of the way. Milly and Mack stomped closer to the two shifters then swung the buckets backward then forward.
Dirk and Joe howled as the water drenched them. Casey couldn’t stop the smile that came, but he wiped it away as soon as Joe spun around to glare at Milly and Mack. But the deed had worked. Both Joe and Dirk reverted back to their full human forms.
“Crap, Milly. That’s icy cold. Why’d you do that?”
She handed her bucket to Mack. “You know damn well why. What the hell are you thinking shifting in the middle of town? And in daylight no less? What if some stranger drove through town right then and saw your furry butt?”
Joe looked sheepish. He shook himself, getting more water off his body. “Yeah, yeah. You’re right.” He cast a sideways glance at Dirk. “I shouldn’t have let him get to me.”
Milly rolled her eyes. “Seems to me you’d be better off letting Bonnie get to you. But what do I know? I’ll never understand males. Come on, Mack. Let’s get back to business.”
She winked at Casey as she strode by, and he resisted the urge to wink back. Instead, he tried to play intermediary between his drenched brother and the huge man slicking his wet hair away from his face.
“Look, Dirk, we don’t know what’s gone on between you and Bonnie.”
“And we don’t give a shit, either,” added Joe.
Casey shot him a look. “But as a male werewolf, you have to understand how the connection works. And we have that with Bonnie. Which means that you don’t. Not now. Not ever.”
Dirk narrowed his eyes at him. “That doesn’t matter. She’s mine and I’m here to take her back with me.”
Joe growled and stepped forward, once more ready to fight, but Casey blocked him. “Easy. Don’t let him get to you again.”
When Joe had calmed down, he continued, “I guess we’re going to have to disagree on that one. But what all of us think doesn’t matter. Bonnie’s the one who will decide who she wants, and it seems to me that she’d already told you, not once but twice, to take a hike. So why don’t you honor the lady’s wishes and run on back home? We’ll tell her you said good-bye.”
Dirk’s laughter rang out, rankling Casey’s nerves until he was tempted to shift, too. It would feel amazing to rip the man’s throat out.
“Well, isn’t that real kind of you? But here’s the thing. The way to Bonnie’s heart is through that kid of hers. And he already thinks of me as the man in his life. The way I see it, you’re screwed.” Dirk pulled out his car keys and hit the button. A shiny black car parked on the other side of the street beeped and flashed its lights.
He lifted his hand to his forehead in a mock salute. “I’ll be seeing you around, boys.”
Casey slammed his palm against Joe’s chest to keep him from launching his body at Dirk. “Let it be. Let’s concentrate on getting Bonnie on our side. And Harry, too.”
Casey waited until Dirk had pulled his car into the street and was halfway down the road before he turned to face his brother. “Now how about you tell me what went on in that restroom?”
The look Joe gave him could’ve wilted a flower off its stem. Joe turned on his heel and stalked to the pickup.
“Okay. That tells me there’s definitely something to tell. Joe! Hey, Joe, wait up!”
* * * *
Bonnie considered herself lucky when Harry came back to the RV later that day. Taking in his scowl, she decided to wait until she could sit him down and have a stern talk about his earlier behavior. She waited for him, her anxiety growing steadily with every passing hour. Every car that drove by had her holding her breath to see if it was Dirk.
Why had he come? Why couldn’t he let her go?
She hated to admit it, but she felt responsible for his inability to accept her leaving. In a way, she’d led him on, using him to help Harry, but never letting him get too close. She should’ve cut it off with him a long time ago, but she’d been desperate to find a male werewolf to help her son. So desperate that she’d welcomed the first shifter who’d come into their lives.
She glanced at her son, who was pushing his dinner around on a plate. The sun had set beyond the horizon, and she couldn’t put off the discussion any longer. “Harry, we need to talk about what happened in town today.”
As she’d expected, he didn’t respond. Instead, he slumped down in his seat even farther. She wanted to push, to make him tell her how he was feeling, but she knew she had to take it easy and coax him into talking. “You know what you said and did were uncalled for, don’t you?”
Oh, how she wanted to call him a brat. To tell him that he needed to grow up. But doing so would only result in either more sullen silence or a big fight.
“Are they your mates, Mom?”
She hadn’t expected that question. Yet now that she thought about it, she should have. “Honestly? I don’t know. This whole mate thing is coming out of left field.”
He pushed his broccoli to the other side of his plate. “Do you feel it?”
So he does know.
“The connection?” She struggled over how much to tell him and decided to tell him the truth. Except, of course, about the sexual part of it. “I have to admit that I feel something…unbelievable…with them. Whether or not it’s this thing they call a connection, I don’t know.”
She got ready to answer more questions, but they didn’t come. Taking that as a cue, she opted to address the other problem. “I need you to understand about Dirk, honey.”
His blue eyes, so much like her own, gleamed with unstrained anger. “What’s to understand? You used him, and now you’re throwing him aside.”
His words so close to her earlier thoughts threw her. “I–I didn’t use him. We were, we are friends. That’s all he ever was.”
“Not to me. He’s the only one who ever gave a damn about me.”
Was that what he really thought? Didn’t she count?
“Honey, that’s not true. You know I love you with all my heart.”
“You know what I mean, Mom. He was the one who taught me how to handle the shift. And he was going to teach me how to run with a pack.”
“You want to join a pack?
She understood that running with a pack was a werewolf thing and a part of most young werewolves’ lives. But to her it sounded like he wanted to join a gang. Was there a difference?
He picked up his knife and plunged it into his hamburger patty, dropping his gaze to the plate. “Sure, I do. That’s what I’m supposed to do.”
“I know I don’t know anything about running with a pack, but—”
He was on his feet, his anger boiling over and filling the air with tension. “That’s just it, Mom. You don’t know anything about being what I am. You read shit on the Internet, and you bought a few stupid books, but that junk’s all crap. Dirk was going to show me stuff, to teach me how to act around other werewolves, but now you’ve gone and ruined it all.”
“Honey, I had to end it with Dirk. He wanted more than I could give him.”
His ugly sneer cut her as surely as if he’d used a machete. “So why couldn’t you give him what he wants? What’s the big deal? You spread your legs for my so-called father and you’re going to spread them again for those two stupid cowboys.”
A flash of anger whipped upward from deep inside her. So far she’d managed to hold it in, but she couldn’t keep it contained any longer. Without thinking, she let the frustration, the fury, and the fear of the past few months fly free.
“Shut the hell up, Harry!”
He sat down, his eyes wide with shock. She’d never spoken to him so harshly before.
“Oh, my God, Harry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.” At least not in that way.
She could see him work to pull himself together. Aching to touch him yet realizing that was the last thing he wanted her to do, somehow she managed to keep her hands to herself.
“Bullshit. You’re doing a lot of things now that you don’t mean to do.”
He jerked away from her when she reached out, hurting her even more. “I’m sorry, honey. I’m really so very sorry.”
“Just leave me alone.” He crossed his arms and hung his head. “You don’t care about me. No one does.”
The pain in his voice shattered her heart. “That’s not true, honey. I care about you. I’d give my life for you.”
The howl that shattered the quiet outside drew their attention away from each other. Another howl, higher pitched than the first one, erupted on the other side of the RV. A few seconds later, as she held her breath, more howls filled the air.
She stared into the darkness surrounding their vehicle. Had a pack found them? The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. “Harry, put the shades down. Now.”
For once, Harry didn’t hesitate to do as she said. He tugged the shades down on his side while she hurried and did the same on the other side. More howls had her dashing to grab a sheet from the small storage supply as well as a roll of duct tape.
“Help me get this over the windshield.”
Harry grabbed hold of the sheet and stretched it over the glass. She took her end, tore off a strip of tape, and held it up, preparing to tape up her side.
Splat!
She yelped and fell backward. The body of a dead rabbit stuck against the windshield for a second then slowly slid down, marking its bloody path until it finally fell off. Laughter mixed with the howling.
“Mom?”
She could hear the sound of her little boy in the young man’s voice. “It’s okay, Harry. Here.” She tossed him the tape. “Hurry and get this sheet up. I don’t like them being able to see inside.”
Her hands shook as she lifted the sheet again and was finally able to get it taped to the wall over the windshield. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she kept glancing at the driver’s and passenger’s windows.
“Harry, grab a couple of more sheets.”
He rushed toward the back of the trailer.
The door.
She lunged for the door and flipped the lock a second before someone took hold of it and yanked. The door shook at the strength of the person, but it didn’t open.
Harry came back, and she took one sheet along with a few pieces of tape and covered the passenger side window. Harry did the same for the other one.
“What’s going on, Mom?”
She pulled him to her side and vowed she wouldn’t let whoever or whatever harm her son. “I don’t know.”
The howling came again. She shivered.
They’re all around us.
Pounding came from every direction, beside her, in front of her, behind her, and even above her. She let out another cry and clutched her son to her.
“Mom, where’s your phone?”
She whirled around, searching for her phone. Had she left it on the table? When she didn’t see it anywhere in the kitchen area, she rushed to the bedroom in the back of the RV. She almost cried for joy when she found it on top of her bed.
Snatching it up, she hurried back to Harry and came to a dead stop. Even from the back she could tell that he was starting to change. His shoulders were hunched and the muscles underneath his shirt flexed.
She hadn’t seen him shift in a long time, preferring to let Dirk help him through the transformations. Not only did she not want to embarrass him by seeing him naked, she was afraid. Afraid that he wouldn’t recognize her and strike out. But worse, she was afraid that he would know who she was and still make her the target of his rage.
“Mom.” His voice sounded strangled, choked.
“Harry, please fight it. You can’t change. Not now, please.” Had the howls of those tormenting them driven him into a shift?<
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He turned and she forced back the scream she felt rising to her lips. His face had mutated with his eyes blazing amber and his ears morphing into pointed wolf’s ears. Fur covered most of his face while long fangs peeked out over his large chin.
“No, Harry. Stop it. Fight it, honey.”
“No, Harreeeey. Stop it. Fight it, honeeeeeey.” A high-pitched voice mocked her.
Fear lodged a knot in her throat. Harry shook his head and started tearing at his clothes. She had to do something, anything to stop his transformation
She took the two steps that put her in front of her son and clutched his shoulders. The shirt under her fingers split apart to reveal more fur, but she hung on. “No, honey, you can’t change. You have to stop it right now.”
The mimicking voice echoed her. “Nooooo, honeeeeey.”
But Harry’s transformation continued. Saliva drooled down his chin.
“Harry, listen to my voice. You have to stay human. Please. Do it for me.” Yet she had to wonder if he cared enough to try and stop for her.
Another mocking voice rang out. “Pulease, honeeeey.”
“Don’t listen to them, Harry.” She stared into his intense eyes. His inner wolf was close to the surface, too close for comfort. But that didn’t matter. She had no other choice but to get him to fight it, to force it back into submission. If she didn’t get him to change back, he might take out his fear and rage on her. And even if he didn’t attack her, he’d run outside, straight into the waiting pack.
She gripped his shoulders even harder. He blinked, and she dared to believe that she saw his human side reflected in his eyes. “That’s it. Stay with me. I need you, Harry. We need each other.”
Whether it was what she’d said or the way she’d said it, she’d never know. And she didn’t care. Not as long as it had worked. Slowly, he drew in a long, shuddering breath. He slumped and the transformation reversed.
“Oh, thank God.” She pulled her son, back in full human form, against her.
“Mom.”
His weak voice sent a chill through her. “Yeah, honey?”
“Call.”
She nodded, turning him loose long enough to find the number. Joe’s digits came up, and she hit the call button. The phone on the other end rang once, then twice, then a third time.
