Her answer was to wrap herself around him and hold on with arms and legs while he carried her down the hall to their room. She kissed her way down to his neck and sucked on the pulse there. He tossed her down on the bed playfully when she changed her suckling to a bite.
“Hey! You looking for trouble?”
Alex leaned up on her elbows. “Hell no. I found trouble. I’m looking to play with my trouble.”
“Always happy to help my mate.”
Mate. Such a glorious, scary word all wrapped up into need. She wouldn’t have it any other way. She reached her arms out ready for him to take her out of her mind with pleasure. “Then prove it,” she dared.
Nolan moved fast and held her hands over her head before she could blink. “I plan on it. Over and over.”
He stroked down her cheek and lazily began unbuttoning her blouse one-handed. His lower body kept hers pinned, and she squirmed in anticipation. His deft fingers moved her shirt apart and undid the front clasp of her bra in less than a minute. Her nipples hardened into peaks, and she wanted to beg him to take her, to suck on her breasts until she screamed in ecstasy.
“I intend to,” he answered her thought aloud.
“You’re taking too long,” she said, arching her back to thrust her boobs upwards. “What are you waiting for?” she taunted.
Chapter Five
Yakima, Washington
Lisa struggled to keep her mind on the plain, white dishes, but there was only so many ways to think of a dish with no design. Everything else had been cleaned so spotless, even the rug seemed to shine. Poor Marty and Elizabeth had taken to hovering in their room, the only place which hadn’t seen the backside of her ruthless scrubber and feather duster.
Tonight is Joseph’s pack trial.
Still struggling with her own morality regarding the difference between pack law and human law, this one added another element. Personal vengeance. What he’d done to her didn’t deserve death, did it? Then she would remember the women not in her care anymore, or the sad faces of the families, and no longer be sure of what she believed.
The complicated rules of living in a pack were there to protect them from slaughter and bigotry by those not affected. They couldn’t go to regular doctors, and most of their kind died if caged for long periods of time. Jail was a death sentenced prolonged—even more torturous and inhumane than a quick kill by the pack leader in a fight. Back and forth her mind went.
She grabbed a plate out of the sink to rinse it under the warm water, but she’d pulled it too fast, and the soapy glass flew through her fingers and crashed into the wall behind her. Quick footsteps headed down the hall toward her direction, and she wanted to yell at them to go away. She didn’t because they had no way of knowing she had just been clumsy and wasn’t hurt, so she bit down on the urge to yell.
Still, she worked to hold back the growl threatening to come out. Gingerly picking up the shards of white, glittering glass, she put the big pieces in a cardboard box from her trip to the store and the smaller ones directly into the kitchen garbage.
“Lisa,” Elizabeth said carefully. “Are you all right?”
Just peachy-keeno. I’ve been so grumpy the pregnant lady is walking on eggshells around me. Damn it. Disgusted with herself and her preoccupation for her one time lover and his fate, she shook her head. “I’m fine,” Lisa replied. “I dropped a plate because I moved too fast with wet fingers.”
“Honey, can you go in the other room?” Elizabeth asked Marty who kissed her on the cheek and complied, but not before giving Lisa a worried look.
“I’m sorry if I frightened you,” Lisa said.
“I’m fine. I’m worried about you,” Elizabeth said in her frank way Lisa was starting to get used to. “You’ve been scurrying around here all day, punishing your poor, lovely house for something I’m sure it didn’t do,” she added with a touch of humor.
Lisa appreciated it and gave Elizabeth a wry smile. “I guess so,” she admitted.
“You want to talk about it? I know you haven’t known me long, but you are saving us, protecting us, and caring for our baby. The way I figure it, that makes you family.”
Lisa sat back on her heels and slipped on the water which had dripped on the floor, landing on her backside with a grimace. “I don’t know what to say,” she managed after a second.
Looking suspiciously as if she was trying not to laugh, Elizabeth responded, “If you’re not hurt from your fall, just say what’s troubling you.”
“That’s just it. I think what’s troubling me the most is that Joseph’s fate no longer seems so bad. I used to have a hard time with pack law. I knew I had come to see the logic in it, humans being what they are, but it still disturbed me. Today, I realized my mind was going through the motions of the argument, but there was no heat involved.”
“Why? Is Joseph of particular concern to you? Or is it learning of the ways of the pack? It took me a long time to get used to having to follow the rules of two cultures,” Elizabeth said.
Finished picking up the glass, Lisa stood up and resisted the urge to rub her bum where she’d landed. Instead, she shrugged her answer to Elizabeth and carried the cardboard box and the bag with the glass out to the alley to her garbage can. Always on alert, even at home, she automatically scanned the area as she’d been taught to do during her Elite Guard training. In the process, she froze, her hackles raised.
The shadows had moved.
She listened intently and watched the area for five minutes. Stray pieces of garbage lay about on the ground, giving the alley an abandoned feel. The darkness pulsated, and her heart rate shot up. But whatever it had been no longer stayed in the shadows where she’d thought. Telling herself to quit jumping at the slightest provocation, she quickly put the metal lid on the can that she’d held like a shield.
When she came back in, Elizabeth remained there, leaning against the counter. Elizabeth had grown up as Lisa had, with parents and family who didn’t live by the pack. Except she’d had the added problem of turning into a wolf at inopportune times.
Maybe she could explain. “Come on,” Lisa said. “Let’s at least get you comfortable.”
She led the way to the living room, sat in her favorite chair, and picked up her crochet project. When becoming a werewolf, she’d nearly given up her crafts, but they’d become her lifeline for dealing with being different. Now she hid behind the project, putting up a small barrier because she was about to break down a larger one—her past. She fumbled with the hook, nearly dropping her yarn. The silence stretched as she prepared to tell her painful story, and she appreciated Elizabeth’s discretion in waiting to speak.
“It’s a long story, not particularly ugly, but sad. You still want to hear it? At least, the short version?” she asked her new friend.
“Only if you’re ready to tell it,” Elizabeth said softly. “I sense personal pain.”
Marty, who’d put an arm around his wife when she sat on the couch next to him, gave her a squeeze, and Lisa felt the crunch of her heart. They had what she’d dreamed of having with Joseph, once upon a time. The brittle core of ice where her heart used to be froze another degree. For her, it would never be a reality.
Lisa closed her eyes to try to figure out where the beginning of the story really was. “I met Joseph at a zombie conference in Seattle. This was before it was quite the thing it is now, but still large enough for goers to be somewhat anonymous.”
“We’ve gone to a few of those conferences,” Marty said. “They’re a good way to meet people, and have a good time.”
Lisa looked at him in surprise. “I kind of figured, well,” she stumbled, “I thought he was just trolling. Hadn’t considered how many of the weres would be interested in going. Seems like you’re your own supernatural presence in reality. Why would you want to go to conferences where people acted like vampires, and zombie killers, and—” Their faces were impassive, but a glimmer of an idea had taken root.
Elizabeth took pity on her confus
ed silence. “It’s a good way to find out who’s really against the supernatural and want to kill them or are only playing pretend because it’s in vogue.”
“And vampires, zombies?” Lisa asked.
“Did you not know all legends have a grain of truth in them?” Elizabeth asked instead of answering her directly. “You’ll need to speak to your Ulfric. There must be a reason he hasn’t brought it to your attention.”
Frustration gnawed at her but not because of the Ulfric’s reticence. No, she’d closed her eyes. She had been unable to deal with her own heartbreak and hadn’t fully assimilated into the pack. Always, she reserved a piece of herself back, held onto her human world she’d so willingly given up.
“It isn’t the Ulfric’s doing but my own,” Lisa replied sadly. “And it explains so much. Anyway, this dashing man ran into me, and I dropped all of my lovely paraphernalia. The crush of people kept tromping on them as I tried to get to them first. The thing is, he picked them up with me, profusely apologizing the whole time. So nice, and he was muscular and taller than most of the men I was acquainted with. I stood and stared at him when we’d finished gathering my things. I was in my last year of schooling for midwifery. I’d already passed my nurses exams. Yet I stood there, like a teenager with her first crush.”
“Weres can have that effect on humans,” Marty said. “There’s something in our makeup that draws them like moths to a flame, and it tends to manifest sexually. Oooph,” he replied looking at his wife who had cracked him in the ribs with her elbow. “What was that for?”
“You’d best not be knowing anything about the sexual manifestations of human girls and werewolves!” Elizabeth teased—mostly.
“By the time I figured it out, I’d met you, and it was too late. Ow,” he cried out indignantly. “Now what did I do?”
“I’ll give you too late if you don’t keep it in your pants,” Elizabeth said but winked. “Let’s let Lisa get back to her story.”
Lisa smiled at their banter, and a piece of her heart began to unthaw—a small barely perceptible warming, but it was there. She lowered her crochet work. They didn’t know it, but they’d released her from some of her built up guilt and self-derision. Being naïve and inexperienced in the ways of men, she’d studied the signs and watched out for players and their vibes. She’d prided herself at being able to protect her heart and body from sleazy seducers. Then she’d gone and let one turn her into a supernatural being. Not trusting herself or men ever since, she’d been very lonely and full of shame.
“He walked around with me the rest of the day, helping me carry things, buying me a drink, basically being a really sweet guy.”
“And you fell in love at first sight,” Elizabeth stated.
“I guess it was kind of predictable now that I look back at it. I’ve tried not to these many years. It’s painful to realize how naïve I’d been when I thought myself to be sophisticated and mature. We dated, one thing led to another, and we became lovers. Eventually, he told me about himself and what he was.”
“And you weren’t repulsed?” Elizabeth asked in mild surprise.
“Not in the least. I felt as if he’d given me a great treasure trusting me with his secret. He convinced me to hide our relationship since his family would likely retaliate because I wasn’t good enough. After he told me he was a werewolf, he admitted the reason was I wasn’t a werewolf. If only I’d be willing to change, so I offered to. Anything to make being with him acceptable to his kind.”
She paused, that moonlit night when he had taken her blood and given of his for the third time washing over her, the joy, the pain, the love, the betrayal. Swallowing hard on the lump trying to choke her, she continued. “As you must have figured out already, he changed me. The last night of the exchange was the last night I saw him as my lover. He promised to meet me for my first full moon to help, but he never showed up.”
“He didn’t show up!” Elizabeth exclaimed. “What kind of bastard changes over a woman he professes to love then doesn’t help her through it?”
“The kind who’s already married. The kind who betrays his pack. The kind getting a pack trial tonight.”
Lisa heard of stunned silence before but had never been in the midst of one as she was now. Their silence rang with shock. Their movements halted; faces frozen in the moment. A freeze-frame in time, as if time itself would not move forward until they did.
“You and Joseph?” Elizabeth finally blurted out at the same time her husband said, “Joseph made you an aswan without helping you?”
A little unaccustomed to being in the happy arena, particularly in recent times, Lisa’s laughter felt rusty but good. She’d been afraid of their rejection once they had learned her to be an aswan. Instead, they were indignant on her behalf, and Elizabeth’s eyes were full of sympathy as she put the pieces together faster than her husband.
“I get it now,” Elizabeth said more softly. “Joseph isn’t just another werewolf to you. You, more than anyone, could speak out against him and reveal his betrayals. I hope you have since learned we do not leave our aswans to the night or the lonely dark without comfort and guidance.”
“I have. There has been one other aswan as they wanted to be married,” Lisa said. Her heart ached at both the similarity of her situation and the following differences to the couple she saw at the pack meetings.
“He needs to be drawn and quartered for what he did to you alone,” Marty said quietly. “It’s not just about you,” he added at her protest. “It’s for the protection of the pack. You get people making random wolves without teaching them and helping them on their first full moon, soon we’ll be hunted. And that’s if none of them die during the exchange.”
This time, Lisa put her crochet down in her side basket as a chill swept her being. Die? Joseph never mentioned it. “Die,” she repeated her thought when she found her voice.
“Many humans can’t make the change. So many have died during conversion. It’s recommended you seek pack permission before trying to convert one over. Sometimes we find people’s heritage which suggests their ancestors were pack who lost the ability or who had children outside the pack. As far as anyone knows, there hasn’t been a death among those ones before.”
“Joseph never mentioned it,” Lisa said in a small voice.
“Maybe he doesn’t know,” Elizabeth said, hushing her husband with a small gesture. “Either way, I think you should go and be sure to stand proud if he sees you. Show him you made it and you have importance in the pack. Whether or not he dies tonight, you’ll have stood up to him and shown him you hold no secret longing for him. How many times have you seen him since?”
“I’ve avoided him and hid myself. He never came with his wife for the OB care. I’m sure he knows my name, but it’s a common name he wouldn’t have paid attention to,” Lisa said as if her heart had not broken into a million crystal shards cutting up her soul the first few times she’d seen him after becoming werewolf.
Elizabeth pursed her lips and Lisa waited for more questions. Instead, Elizabeth stood up, walked to her, awkwardly bent over with her extended belly, and hugged her. “Come on,” Elizabeth said, pulling her up. “We need to go see what’s in your closet.”
Lisa followed the other woman into her own room and watched while Elizabeth tore ruthlessly through her closet—hangers in and out, a few things tossed to the side, then, “A-ha! This is what you’re going to wear,” she said holding up a black sweater-type dress with a wrapped waist tie on it.
The wrapped tie formed a sarong and had stunning beadwork forming a large flower across her stomach when on. It was beautiful, the rich colors vibrant against the black. She started to debate as Elizabeth handed her the dress, “But—”
“No buts. You’re also going to wear black leggings and those long boots you wore the other day with the silver buckles on the side. And I have the perfect jewelry to match. Now hurry up and get dressed. I’ll be back to help you with your hair,” she threatened as she left.
<
br /> Lisa sat down on her bed still holding the garment in front of her. Her polite houseguest had turned into a bossy, managing type. She grinned. Elizabeth would make a good mother. Soon, Lisa got undressed, put on the dress and leggings, and was scrounging in her closet for the boots when there was a knock on the door. Elizabeth came back in, her hands full of stuff.
“I’ve sent Marty to the store for a very specific item I saw there today. I told him to hurry up. We want to leave in time to be in a good position. I’m not familiar with your pack’s meeting place, so we’ll need to scope it out.”
Lisa walked in a daze as Elizabeth led her to the bathroom and sat her on the toilet. She meekly let her patient-turned-friend take over her looks, trusting the woman who always seemed to know what to wear when. Even with the limited attire at her disposal from the frantic pack, Elizabeth managed to look gorgeous. Her husband had confirmed she had a natural flare when Lisa had asked him one day.
On went goop, off came the goop, then other things she had no idea what they were. Normally, she washed her face with water, soap if she was really grimy, and applied sunscreen. Sometimes she wore eyeliner, mascara, and lip-gloss when she dressed up for an event. That was about the extent of it anymore. When younger, she hadn’t worried about the sunscreen or taste, and had worn her eye shadow to give herself a goth appearance so popular with her friend set.
Elizabeth worked without speaking other than an occasional mutter under the breath. In a half an hour, Marty came with a thick, black headband with silver, metal beads around the perimeter of the band. His wife kissed him then shooed him out with the admonition to make sure he was ready when they were.
Another half an hour and Lisa stood in her boots as ordered, and did a pirouette type move for approval.
Elizabeth nodded her head. “Perfect. Not too sweet, not too hard. Now we need to get your emotions regarding the harsh pack laws under control. Whether you agree with them or not, you understand they’re necessary to protect our people?”
The Midwife's Moon Page 5
