His Wolf (Wolf of My Heart)

by Linda Palmer

  I walked over. “What do you do with the pictures?”

  “I make postcards, greeting cards, and stationery that some of the local souvenir and gift shops sell for me. I also sell them as stock art online.”

  “I’m so amazed.”

  Erik rolled his eyes as if to make light of what he did and gave me a grin.

  I wanted to kiss it, an odd reaction considering I barely knew the guy and he had a tendency to get on my nerves. “That earns you a living?”

  “That and my guitar. I’m the live entertainment at Sasparilla Sam’s, Burger Bay, and Run for the Hills Caf��.” He pointed to a leather case propped against the chair I’d hidden behind earlier.

  “You have a great voice.”

  His eyebrows shot up.

  I hummed “I Won’t Give Up.”

  Erik’s face turned as red as the berries on the holly bushes outside his cabin. “You heard that?”

  “Yes, and it was amazing, even to my wolf ears.”

  He scuffed his boot against the slatted floor and didn’t say anything. I wanted to laugh. Surely he wasn’t shy. I mean, he sang for a living before a live audience, didn’t he? “Would you tape this cut of mine together?” I showed him my wrist, now minus the gauze and bandage he’d put on earlier. It didn’t seem to be as red as before.

  “Okay.” Erik got the first aid box again, and, while I held the edges of my injury together, he put some antibiotic ointment on the cut and taped it as tightly together as he could. “Better?”

  I checked it out. “Much, thanks.”

  He put up the kit. “Guess I should get going. You’ll be okay here alone, right?”

  “Sure. Or I could go with you. Wouldn’t you like some shots of a wolf that isn’t wounded?”

  His face lit up. “I would, yeah. But that’ll mean another bandaging job when we get back.”

  “I don’t mind if you don’t.”

  “I don’t. Tell me more about Goddess Danu.”

  “Her name means ‘the flowing one’ and she’s considered the most ancient of all the Celtic deities. She’s popular throughout Europe. The Danube River supposedly gets its name from her.”

  “Sweet.” He got very quiet. “You know what would be way cool?”

  I shook my head.

  “If we dressed you up like a goddess in the spring, I could take some photos that explore the myth a little.”

  He thought I’d still be in his life then? I hid my smile of pleasure.

  “I know this isn’t Ireland, but the mystical cards I make by manipulating shots are my most popular. I guarantee anything with Danu on it would sell like crazy. So what do you say?”

  “If we’re still together. I mean if we’re still friends.” I tried again. “Let’s see what happens between now and then, okay? I’ll just go and, um, shift now.” I pointed toward his bedroom, the one with two beds in it.

  “I’d love to see how that works.”

  “And I’d love to let you, but I have to strip or sacrifice my clothing, so���”

  “Oh, um, right. Forgot that.” Now his face matched the blood racing through his jugular. I could see it pulsing from where I stood. His heart had to be pounding.

  I had no idea why. “I’ll just be a sec.” I got all the way to the door before I turned to him and smiled, a calculated move. “I noticed you have two beds.”

  “Yeah.”

  “How would you feel about renting one of them to me? Just until I figure out what to do about the truck. I have money.” When he didn’t answer right away, I shrugged. “Never mind. It was just an idea.” I ducked into the hall, had a second thought, and ducked back out. “You’re not worried about the wolf thing, are you?”

  Erik still said nothing.

  “I’m always me, you know. Just in a furry body.”

  “You can shift any time?”

  “Yes, but full moon shifts are best because I can transform back into my human form whenever I want. NFM transformations—that’s non full moon—are different in that I have to remain a wolf for a few hours before I can be Bronte-girl again. Not sure why that is.”

  “You’re welcome to stay for a while. Do you have insurance on the truck?”

  “No.” I moved right along so he wouldn’t ask questions. “Thanks for letting me stay. I’m sure the money will help you out, and I’d definitely rather be here than Branson. It’s just so pretty, you know?”

  “It is, yeah.” He waited.

  I went into his bedroom, stripped, and shifted. Erik gasped when I showed my face again and joined him by the door. Guess it was still a lot to take in.

  “You, er, make a beautiful wolf.”

  Aw, thanks. I gave him the equivalent of a wolfy grin.

  He managed a grin back and even chuckled as he walked out the door with me right behind him. We walked those woods for hours without me feeling any ill effects from my sore muscles, a shocker. Erik the photographer called directions to me the wolf, which was hysterical. I’d have laughed if I could.

  “Tip your head a little. Yeah, that’s great.” Ching-click. “Now look straight at me. Awesome.” Ching-click.

  Since I’d never done anything even remotely resembling modeling, the whole experience was a trip. I couldn’t wait to see the photos. When we began to lose light, Erik motioned for me to join him in tramping back to the cabin. We hadn’t made it ten yards before I caught the scent of something���different.

  Different, but the same, actually. It was a musky aroma that reminded me of Yarbrough. I paused and sniffed the air. Was I smelling another werewolf? The moment I wondered, I knew. A werewolf had moved through these woods and not that long ago. Why? Was it after me? Suddenly all those tracks came to mind. I’d never been so spooked.

  Though my first instinct was to run, I didn’t let myself. Instead, I put my nose to the ground and trailed the scent.

  “Bronte? Where’re you going?”

  I ignored Erik, following my nose off the path we were on. I saw wolf tracks here and there in the shallow snow sheltered by pines. Hot on the trail, I picked up speed and soon left Erik behind.

  “Bronte? Bronte! Come back!”

  How could I bother with Erik’s feelings when the enemy lurked? I couldn’t. If I was in danger for whatever reason, then he was, too. I had to get to the bottom of this. But soon the trail ran cold, and since it grew darker by the second, I decided to give up and return to the cabin. I’d been a wolf long enough to shift back easily, which was a good thing, but I’d have to figure out what story to give Erik, which wasn’t.

  I found him pacing the porch when I got there and climbed the steps.

  “Where the hell have you been?” he asked even though he knew I couldn’t answer.

  Slipping past him, I went inside and straight to the bathroom, where I quickly shifted, washed up, and dressed.

  The moment I got back to the living room, he started in on me. “I’ve been worried sick.”

  “Why? No one asked you to.”

  He ignored that. “It’s dark, and it’s cold. I thought you’d gotten lost.”

  “I’m a wolf, Erik. Wolves don’t get lost.”

  “Then what took you so long?”

  “I smelled something. I wanted to know what it was.”

  “Something as in food? You said you didn’t like raw stuff.”

  “And I don’t. I wasn’t tracking food. I was tracking���something else.”

  His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What?”

  “If I knew, I wouldn’t have tracked it.”

  Snorting his impatience, Erik went into the kitchen and began putting out food for our dinner. The way he slammed things around told me he was pissed. But I couldn’t tell him what I’d been tracking without sharing a lot more than I wanted to. So I got pissed, too. For that reason, our supper was a little tense, with both of us practically snarling. The hamburgers he’d cooked were delicious, and I’d have loved to tell him so. My pride wouldn’t let me. Toward the end of our si
lent meal, the sharp crack of something just outside the window made me jump a foot out of my chair.

  Erik gave me the oddest look. “It’s just a branch, breaking from the weight of the snow.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “What did you smell out there? And don’t tell me you don’t know. I think you do know, and I think it has scared you half to death.”

  With a sigh, I opened my mouth to lie yet again. But that’s not what came out. “I may be in trouble.”

  Chapter Five

  Erik thought about that for a sec. “What kind?”

  “I’m not sure.” I sighed again. “You know that truck I wrecked?”

  “Yes.”

  “It wasn’t mine.”

  “You borrowed it from someone?”

  “Um, not exactly.”

  Erik’s eyes flashed. “You stole it?”

  “Yes.”

  His mouth fell open.

  “It’s not as bad as you think, okay? If you’d been in my shoes, you’d have done the same thing.”

  Erik scooted his chair back and stood. After getting the first aid box from the counter he silently motioned for me to join him as he walked over the fireplace. After poking it a few times, which sent sparks flying and revived the flame, he sat on the couch. I slowly followed, settling next to him. He held out his hand for my injured wrist. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”

  As if. I reluctantly stretched out my arm. “My last employer wasn’t a very nice man. In fact, he’s in prison now, which is exactly where he needs to be. I took his truck because he owed me for work I’d done.”

  “So you really did steal it?” Erik shook his head as if he couldn’t quite wrap it around the truth.

  “I had no choice, okay? I had to get away, and his truck was just sitting there.” My gaze locked with Erik’s. “It was old. A work truck that had definitely seen better days. I didn’t think anyone would miss it.”

  “But someone has.”

  “No. Yes. Well, maybe. I can’t believe anyone wants that old thing back. It was beat up and nasty before the accident.”

  “And now it’s totaled.”

  I had to look away. “Yeah.”

  “Does he have family?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  Erik eyed my cut. “This sure looks better.”

  I realized he was right. I also realized that some of the purple bruises on my arm were already to the greenish stage, as if they were on a healing fast track. Wasn’t sure what to think about that.

  “How long did you work for him?” Erik asked.

  “Eighteen months. And ‘work’ doesn���t exactly describe what I did. I slaved for that man day and night.” For free.

  “Night?”

  Trust a guy to jump to wrong conclusions. “The relationship was strictly business.”

  Erik was silent for almost a minute as he bandaged my wrist. I noticed that his Henley matched his eyes, which were almost tawny for some reason. I decided it must be the cabin lighting.

  “Stealing is stealing, Bronte, no matter why you did it.” He snapped the lid of the kit shut. “And now I’m involved in your drama. Aiding and abetting, I think it’s called.”

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t deny that. “I know, and I’m sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen.” Unable to sit still any longer, I jumped up and began to pace in front of the fireplace. “Things got seriously complicated for me the first time I shape shifted five months ago. I hate what I am now. Hate it. If I weren’t a Were, I’d go straight home, reenroll at MSU, and get on with my life. But no, I’m stuck in fantasy land, missing my dad and dealing with stuff that defies belief.”

  “You don’t want to be a wolf?”

  Could he have sounded more shocked? I didn’t think so, and pivoted to face him. “Of course not.”

  He sat back. “But shifting is your birthright.”

  Or not, but I didn’t tell him that. Instead, I switched things around. “Are you saying you’d like to be one?”

  “Hell, yeah. It’d be, like, the coolest thing ever.”

  “Oh my God.” I flopped on the couch. “I can’t believe you said that.”

  Erik got a faraway look in those brown eyes of his. “Just think about it. A wolf is part of a pack.”

  “Which is only good if you’re the Alpha.”

  He ignored my cynicism. “But they still run free in the wild, a mystical species revered by humans everywhere on the globe. And the whole mating for life thing? Awesome. Just awesome. Shifting—the actual process, I mean—must be the neatest feeling ever.”

  “It’s okay, I guess,” I murmured, giving in a little. “What I dread is the call of the full moon. The next one is just a couple of days away, but I’m already feeling antsy.”

  “Antsy how?”

  “I’m restless from the inside out, if that makes sense. Anything unfinished begins to haunt me. I want to go somewhere, do something���like see my dad in Lake Village. But how can I?”

  “Are you afraid you’ll accidentally shift in front of him?”

  “That’s not possible���or maybe it is. I mean, I’ve heard of involuntary shifts resulting from extreme shock or sudden danger.”

  “But during the full moon you can shift right back into a girl. That’s what you said earlier.”

  “Yeah.” I shook my head. “I don’t exactly know why I’m worried about seeing Dad. Maybe I’m afraid he’d somehow sense the change in me. I have to be different.”

  Erik nodded silent agreement. “I said I’d go with you. I could be a buffer just in case things got crazy.”

  So he’d meant that. “You were actually serious?”

  “Sure.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  That seemed to satisfy him.

  “Sorry I’ve been so rude tonight. I’m not used to having someone worry about me.”

  “And I’m not used to worrying about anybody. Truce?”

  “Truce.” We shook on it. Since I was standing, I stretched and then glanced at my watch: 9:00. Too early for bed. “No TV?”

  “Can’t afford the dish.”

  “Got any cards?”

  “Nah.”

  “Books?”

  “My granddad had a few.” He pointed to one of the shelves framing the fireplace.

  I walked over and read the titles: A History of WWII, The Bourne Identity, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Dream Catcher, Raise the Titanic! Nothing worked for me, at least in my present mood.

  “We could talk.”

  “Excellent idea.” I walked back to the couch. “Let’s start with you telling me more about yourself.”

  He didn’t seem to like my plan much. “I’ve told you everything there is to know.”

  “You didn’t say why you were living with relatives.”

  “To save money while I built up a career for myself. Uncle Greger had extra beds. I borrowed one in exchange for helping him with stuff at home. His wife Marsha works all hours in real estate. He’s got three sons, two of which are in college. The other one is in high school. Uncle Greger coaches football. My cousins all play. So to say they’re consumed by the game doesn’t begin to go there.”

  “I’ve known guys like that. So you’re not into sports?”

  “I like a lot of sports, just not the ones they obsess over.”

  I tried to guess his age. “How old are you, anyway?”

  “Twenty. You?”

  “Nineteen.”

  “You’d be what, a sophomore at MSU if you went back?”

  “Yes. Do you have any college hours?”

  “One semester. Wasn’t for me. All I’ve ever wanted to do was sing and play guitar, and I don’t need a degree for that. I figured I’d give Branson a try, and if that didn’t work out give college another chance.”

  “You could always major in music.”

  He shrugged that off. “I’m determined to make the performing thing work. And it has. I know I’m a lot more confident than when I sta
rted out. My voice has gotten better. My playing, too, and I’m managing to pay my bills.”

  “Will you sing something for me now?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m great with crowds, but not so hot one-on-one.”

  “Hm. Tell me about Gilda.”

  “Won her at the county fair last year.”

  “She loves you.”

  “Only because I feed her.” Silence fell over us and lasted several long minutes. Erik finally faked a yawn and stood. “I think I’ll clean up and hit the sack. It’s been a long day. I’m beat.”

  “Which bed is yours?”

  “The one on the left.”

  “Okay. Mind if I stay up for a while?”

  “My cabin is your cabin. I’m going to throw some more logs on the fire, which I do every night. But I should warn you that the bedroom will still be chilly, so you should dress warm. Turn off the lights when you’re through in here.” He yawned again, a real one this time. His eyes watered, anyway. With a nod, he left me. Moments later, I heard the shower running in the bathroom.

  I cleaned up the kitchen first thing, which took no time. After returning to the couch, I got the afghan off the back of it and covered my legs before snuggling into a sofa pillow. The fire burned golden-red, crackling and popping as it consumed the logs Erik had earlier thrown in the grate. I watched it for a good while, my thoughts on the werewolves I’d tried to track that evening. Oh, how I hoped I hadn’t put Erik in any kind of danger.

  I liked him. As in a lot. If we’d met in other circumstances, I’d have told him that, too. I wasn’t as shy around guys as I’d been pre-kidnapping. Guess my dealing with the pack could be credited for that, even if most of them were long-distance dealings via the phone or email. But things were different now. I was different now. Though Erik seemed fascinated by the wolfy side of me, I felt sure he didn’t realize the full impact that my being a shifter could have on his peaceful life. And not just because of The Arm.

  Being a shapeshifter was biologically confusing, and I had questions no one could answer. For starters, I wondered about the biting thing. What, exactly, had caused me to become a shifter? Yarbrough’s saliva? Or maybe he had venom instead of saliva. If so, wouldn’t swapping spit produce the same results? Specifically, were my kisses now toxic?