The sentence drifted off when he lifted the trunk lid and stepped back. “Well, will you look at that? This may turn out all right after all. Get on over here and shut me in, Missy. We’re wastin’ moonlight. You may be only two days old, but if need be, you got enough cunning to get us through the gate.”
Tommie closed Samuel in the trunk, got in the car and started for the gate, wondering if this was real or she’d finally succumbed to insanity. She’d been caged and kidnapped, was witness to two killings and had committed assault. She’d broken into the clinic and broken two inmates out. She’d become an arsonist and now a car thief and all in two days.
But the most incredible of all was her discovery of wolvers. She’d watched a man turn to wolf, and wolf to man and she couldn’t decide which she found more exciting, the man or his wolf. If this was the Land of Insanity, she thought she might like to stay a while.
She didn’t have to use her cunning or anything else to get through the gate. The guard was too busy watching the arrival of the fire trucks and other emergency vehicles to pay much attention to the boss’s car. When there was a break in the procession, he waved her through, eyes still glued to the Gantnor Clinic.
It took her a few minutes to work her way through the traffic and rubberneckers that clogged the road out front, but the street where Bull had parked was empty. The high wall blocked the view of all but the roof. She double parked by the truck and waved to Cora as she got out and ran to the trunk.
“I’ve got him,” she called, “I’ve brought Samuel.”
Cora, who was a head taller and many pounds heavier than her mate, enveloped Samuel, crushed him to her massive bosom, and began to cry.
“You fool wolver. I thought I’d lost you for good this time.”
Samuel maneuvered his head to the side until it was free. “Now, lovey, you know it’s going to take a lot more than that to kill me.” He tried to pat her back, but his arms were pinned. “Let go of me now, Mama. I can’t breathe and you’re embarrassing the lady. Where’s Molly?”
Cora immediately let him go. “She’s walking and calling and crying her poor heart out. I can’t get her to stop. We saw him. We saw Eli. He ran right down that road.” She pointed away from the direction they came. “Didn’t hear us, didn’t see us.” Her lip quivered. “He’s gone wild, hasn’t he, Samuel? He’s done it this time, hasn’t he?”
Tommie wanted to be anywhere but where she was. As a social worker, she tried to keep an emotional distance from her clients. Finding a balance between caring and burnout was a necessity. But Cora was different from the moment she met her. The heartbreak in this woman’s voice touched her deeply.
“I’ll move the car. They’ll be looking for it soon,” she interrupted awkwardly.
Samuel jumped on it. “Not until we empty the trunk. Help me get this stuff in the truck.”
Tommie got her first good look at the contents and blanched. When she was finally caught, theft of firearms would be an additional charge.
After that, it was a matter of waiting. Tommie sat with Cora in the truck, but Samuel refused, saying he’d been cooped up enough. Instead, he paced; twenty steps along the sidewalk ahead of the truck, turn, march back, and pace twenty steps to the rear. He was like a sentry on duty and it was driving Tommie crazy. Cora evidently felt the same.
“Worried myself sick that they were going to kill him. He’s been back an hour and I could kill him myself,” she complained to the windshield. “Molly, too. She knows better than to chase that wolver when he’s on a tear. He’ll come home when he’s damn good and ready and not a minute sooner. He’s always been that way. She’s got cubs that need worrying about. Eli can take care of himself. Always has.”
She sounded angry, but her wringing hands gave her worry away. Tommie reached over and covered them with one of her own. Cora gave her a weak smile.
“You’re a good girl. I knew that right off. You have your own worries and here you sit comforting me. Your man will be fine. He’s a prime alpha if there ever was one, a prime looking one, too. Don’t you worry. He’ll be back in your bed five minutes after the moon sets.”
“Oh. No. You don’t understand. Bull and I aren’t ... um... mates?” Tommie wasn’t sure if that was the right word.
“If you ain’t, you’re gonna be. I could see his wolf shining through his eyes, same as I can see yours. He’s your man, all right, and your wolf knows it.”
“No, Cora, he’s not my man. I’ve only known him for two days. I’ve only known about wolvers for two days. I didn’t know I had a wolf...” Tommie stopped because Cora wasn’t listening.
“Samuel? Did you know about this?” the woman called out the open window. “You hear what she’s saying? She’s saying she didn’t know about her wolf.”
Samuel stopped his pacing and trotted back to the truck. He stuck his head in the window and spoke to Tommie. “I said Cora would want to hear it, not tell it without me.”
“I haven’t told her anything.”
“Yes you did,” Cora interjected. “You told me you’d only known about wolvers for two days.”
“Good.” Samuel climbed into the back seat. “That’s as far as I got, too.”
“How come you aren’t crazy with it?” Cora asked and Tommie started to laugh.
She spent the next hour telling them about her life. How different things looked from this new perspective. More and more made sense and the couple’s questions were reflections of her own.
“Sounds like this Gantnor knew something about us way back then. Did your folks know?”
“They loved me.” Tommie was sure of it, but that didn’t answer the question. “I’m pretty sure my mother didn’t. My father may have.”
Her mother grew to hate Gantnor as much as Tommie did and she feared him long before. “It was my wolf who saw him as a danger first, but I didn’t understand what she was trying to say. I don’t think my mother ever liked him.”
Her parents had an argument once when she was very young. She was already in bed and it frightened her because she’d never heard them so angry before. That was why she remembered it so clearly. It was about Gantnor, though they never said his name, and it was about her.
“We owe him everything we have,” her father shouted.
“Then give it back.” Her mother’s voice was angry. too. “We don’t need any of this. We have what’s most important and he can’t take that away. We have the papers to prove it.”
“Those papers aren’t real.”
Her mother’s cry had frightened her more than anything, but the next day, everything seemed normal.
“Gantnor arranged my adoption only I don’t think it was legal. That’s what he was holding over their heads.”
“No pack’s going to let one of their own be stolen.”
“No pack, Samuel, but what about outcasts or rogues. Who would know? You remember Joe Powell?” she asked her mate. “They named him after his birth certificate, not the other way around. His folks started using Powell, too. His folks were like us,” she explained to Tommie. “Worked day labor, cleaned houses. Had no papers, paid no taxes. Joe’s folks wanted better for him, so they found him a birth certificate from a dead boy. When Joe was our age, he collected Social Security on that name.”
So maybe Thomas wasn’t a mistake after all and maybe her adoptive parent’s name wasn’t Bane.
Tommie had more questions about being a wolver and they had more questions for her, but there were no answers for the biggest ones. What was her real name? How had Gantnor found her? And how had she not gone feral?
Chapter 15
Bull looked around the encampment and wondered how the hell he’d gotten himself into this mess. An old school bus, more rust than yellow, was parked at one end. A pickup truck, older and in worse shape than the bus, stood at the other. In between the two was a cluster of tents, older and newer, and mostly misshapen.
“You’d be surprised what folks throw out,” Samuel told him on the ride. �
�Pole breaks, toss the tent. Sleeping bag gets a tear, toss that, too. Saw a couple once had a knockdown, drag-out fight. Up and left the whole kit-n-caboodle behind and never came back.”
While Samuel had never seen the place, he assured Bull that it would be a good one. Cora had chosen it and she knew what she was doing. Bull guessed that she did. This late in the year, there were few campers in the park and those were near the entrance to the campground where they had access to electricity, water and bathroom facilities. The upper area, called primitive, was deserted, which suited the wolvers’ needs, and as long as they paid the off-season rate, no one cared how long they stayed. How they paid for it was questionable.
Samuel shrugged and grinned when asked. “This and that. We work when we can find it.”
“What will you do when it gets cold?”
Another shrug and grin. “Move south or dress warmer. Move south and it’s gonna cost you. Snowbirds fill the parks in their fancy RVs. Can’t stay more than a few weeks in any one place. Go north and you can settle in for the winter with no one knowing you’re there. You can hunt and fish and pack in the rest, but work’s harder to find. Wherever we are, it can’t be worse than where we came from.”
“How long have you been living like this?”
“All my life, though we’ve only been on our own for six months. Packs like the one we came from change Alpha’s pretty regular. We had a spate of bad ones, each worse than the last. Me and Cora decided to head out and a few more came with us. The Alpha wasn’t happy about it, so we’ve been lying low, keeping our heads down, under the radar, so to speak. I don’t know how long we’ll last, but we’re giving it our best. What we need is a good Alpha to lead us.”
Bull ignored the hopeful look. “What about you?”
Samuel raised his stump. “I became an omega the day I did this. I don’t run well as a wolf and I’m not much good in a fight. How long you think I’d hold the throne.” He laughed. “Besides, as an Alpha, I’d have to set Cora aside and find me a Mate. Cora and me are true mated. I couldn’t do it and if I could, she’d give me twenty-four hours to change my mind and then she’d kill me.” He laughed again. “She’s the one should have been born with her parts hanging out instead of in. She’d make a good Alpha.”
In his travels, Bull had met only one small pack that lived like the one Samuel spoke of. He’d heard of them, though. They were gypsies. Their Alpha’s had nothing to do with the Convocation of Wolvers, and they were viewed with suspicion by most established packs. Like the old song claimed, they were known as tramps and thieves and occasionally a whole pack was wiped out when the thievery drew too much attention, or so rumor claimed.
“Did you ever think about settling down in one place, to live in houses, and find steady work? I’m asking, not criticizing. No offense meant.”
Bull couldn’t criticize. He’d lived pretty rough himself for a few years when he was young. He’d liked it, but he’d liked it more when Eugene Begley found him, gave him a permanent base and training, and permanent employment.
“None taken. Takes money to buy land and build houses and packs like ours don’t have any. Me and Cora thought about it once though, way back when we had a young Alpha who thought he’d found a way to do it. He said he’d found another small pack that had land, but needed an Alpha. We had an Alpha and a Mate, but no land.”
“What happened?”
There was another shrug and Bull sensed it was a sad one. “Didn’t work out,” Samuel said, but before Bull could ask why, they were pulling into the park and the old man was smiling again. “Here we are, boss. Home, sweet home.”
Cora was waiting for them. As soon as they pulled in, the bus door opened and she was hurrying to meet them. She looked expectantly at Samuel and when he shook his head, she shrugged.
“Didn’t think you would,” she said to Bull, “You won’t find Eli unless he wants you to.”
“I’ll find him. I always do.” The words came automatically. At that moment, Eli was the last thing on his mind.
Cora didn’t argue. “Then you’re welcome to stay here until you do. I had that set up for you.” She pointed to a narrow, yellow nylon tent. “It’ll be a bit cozy, but I didn’t think you’d mind.”
Bull nodded, but he wasn’t listening. His eyes were scanning the campsite, searching.
Samuel laughed. “Come on, Mama. Bull don’t need a babysitter and you can harass the man tomorrow. Come on, old girl, you and I have some catching up to do.” He gave her rear end a swat. “I’ve missed you.”
Bull didn’t hear them say good night, but he did hear Cora’s high pitched giggle as the bus door closed behind them. It made him smile.
He grabbed his gear from the truck and went directly to the yellow tent. His wolf howled inside him when Tommie wasn’t there. He moved from tent to tent, quietly searching for her scent. All he smelled was sex. He wasn’t the only one called to go over the moon. There were at least four healthy males in this pack. In the last two tents, he scented cubs ranging from urine scented pups to the sour odor of adolescent cubs who had yet to learn the value of deodorant. The last tent belonged to the female, Molly. She was alone, though Eli’s scent lingered everywhere.
Eli could have been fucking Molly’s brains out and Bull’s wolf wouldn’t have cared. It was becoming frenzied in its urgency to find Tommie. Bull raised his head and breathed deeply. He turned and followed the scent of chocolate.
He found her sitting in a rickety lawn chair in the woods about fifty yards from the campsite.
“Enjoying the view?” he asked quietly. A scrawny looking cedar stood a few feet in front of her. A torn plastic grocery bag hung from a lower branch.
She didn’t turn around to look at him. “I thought wolves were supposed to move like shadows through the forest. You sounded like an elephant.”
“I didn’t want to frighten you.”
“Too late. You already frighten me.”
“Why? You told Cora I was a big pussycat.” He walked up behind her and laid his hand on her shoulder. She shivered under his touch.
“I lied.” She tilted her head back and leaned against him, her head touching the button of his jeans. “Do you know the woods aren’t quiet at night? All the noise scared the shit out of me when I first came out here.”
“Then why did you stay?” His cock had begun to harden with the knowledge she was close the minute he exited the truck. Now, it swelled painfully against the zipper of his jeans.
“Because when they’re making love, wolvers make more noise than the forest creatures. I felt like a Peeping Tom. You’re laughing, aren’t you?”
There was no point denying it. Her head was bouncing with the movement of his belly. “Welcome to Wolver World. Most of us have a pretty casual attitude about sex, particularly under a full moon.”
She giggled softly and moved her head to a more comfortable position, though less comfortable for him.
“So I heard. I’m glad I stayed. It’s good to face the things you fear. After a while, I wasn’t frightened anymore. My wolf liked it, too. She and I are learning together. We’ve lived in the city too long.”
“And me?” he asked. “Are you still frightened of me?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Her hand took hold of the one at her shoulder and she held it as she arose and circled the chair. She was still holding it as she leaned into him and raised her lips to his. “But it’s good to face the things you fear.”
~*~
Having ascertained that Bull was as interested in this sexual interlude as she was, Tommie was ready and eager for the crushing pressure of his kiss. She’d thought about little else for the last few hours. She didn’t lie when she said she felt like a Peeping Tom, but it wasn’t the sounds that sent her fleeing to the woods. It was her own thoughts of Bull.
Every soft sigh had her imagining his touch against her skin. Every moan of pleasure became his hands fondling her breasts. She closed her eyes to the rhythmic sound of coupling and dreame
d of Bull between her legs pumping into her, driving her to the heights of ecstasy. When her hand slipped between her legs to follow her desire, she knew she’d reached her limit. She had to get away before her imaginary lovemaking was overheard.
Her fear was real, too. She understood the call of the moon and the sexual hunger it engendered. She’d felt it before and had indulged in it to excess before she went to battle against the control of the thing inside her. But what she felt in the past was nothing compared to her feelings now for this man, this wolver she barely knew.
His kiss surprised her with its gentleness. He touched his lips to hers and withdrew, touched and withdrew, attending to the corners of her mouth with tantalizing delicacy before sucking tenderly at her bottom lip. Her initial tenseness left her and she followed his lead, teasing and enticing his mouth with hers.
He pulled her closer. Their hands still entwined, crushed against his chest. Her body swayed with his to the music of the forest surrounding them. She floated in his arms, secure in their strength. Her feet followed the movement of his as if they’d partnered in this woodland ballroom many times before. She laughed softly and he chuckled in response when he gently pushed her away and twirled her under their joined hands.
This time when he drew her into his embrace, his kiss had more urgency to it. She could feel his heart pounding against the hand held to his chest and her heart matched its beat. They drew apart and as they came back together, his hands slid over her back to her bottom and he lifted her. She knew what he wanted of her and she wrapped her legs around his waist, centering their apex over the bulge in his jeans. This placed her head above his and when he groaned with the pressure her locked ankles applied, Tommie kissed him.
There was no gentleness to it. Her hands gripped his shoulders and her mouth descended on his. There was a moment’s hesitation on his part and then he responded with all the aggression she’d first expected. One hand was left supporting her rear while the other gripped the hair at the back of her head and forced her mouth onto his. The fire of his hunger fed hers and the flames of desire engulfed them both. He snarled against her lips. She took his lower lip between her teeth and pulled. Tongues touched, licked and fought for control. Teeth clashed. Mouths devoured.
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