by Zoe Chant
But then the voice came back, stronger. “That was you and three of your friends. I don’t hear any other men here tonight, and I got a few of my friends along with me. I don’t think you’re gonna have much success against us all.”
“Want to bet on that?” Carlos asked mildly.
A nasty laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I do.”
Carlos looked back at Pauline. Part of him was grateful that she wasn’t a more combat-ready shifter, like Lynn and Stella’s lynx forms, because there was nothing to stop him from telling her, “Stay inside. Keep back. If they get in, get back into the bedroom with the kids and get them out the window.”
There was always the possibility that the wolf pack had the place surrounded, of course, but Carlos planned on being enough of a problem for them that any rearguards would be called forward to deal with him.
She nodded, pale but steady. “Nate, Stella, Lynn, and Ken are on their way.”
“Good.” He just had to hold the wolves back until they got here, then.
He took a deep breath. There were a few strategies available. He could make use of the defensive structure that was the house—there were four walls and a locked door currently between him and the enemy.
But that would direct the wolves at the windows. And there’d be a greater chance of them choosing the back windows to try and sneak up behind him. Which was where the kids were.
On the other hand, if he opened the door, they’d have one big, recognizable target to deal with, and he had confidence in his ability to keep them occupied.
With that in mind, Carlos made his move.
In one smooth motion, he unlocked the front door, threw it open, and leapt forward, shifting as his feet left the ground.
Ryan had quick enough reflexes to get himself out of the way. The wolf behind him, already shifted, didn’t. Six hundred pounds of adult male tiger landed on him, knocking him to the ground with an ominous crunch.
Carlos left him motionless on the ground and whirled, meeting Ryan just as he shifted and lunged. They clashed, and pain ripped through him as Ryan’s teeth closed on his shoulder. Carlos growled and broke free, swiping at the wolf’s face and catching his ear with a wickedly sharp claw.
Ryan retreated for a moment, and Carlos leapt to take up a position in the open doorway. The narrow opening meant that no one could attack him from behind, but he would still be enough of a threat that the full force of the pack should focus on him, rather than aiming to enter the house from behind.
He hoped.
But sure enough, the other wolves were coming forward, slinking around the corners of the house where they’d been lurking in the shadows. Only four of them in total, counting the one Carlos had taken down first, who still hadn’t moved. This might be a winnable fight, then, even if reinforcements didn’t arrive soon.
Then Ryan growled, and they all attacked at once.
Carlos found himself in a blur of claws, fangs, and fur. One of the wolves was skinny and ragged-looking, so Carlos got in a hard bite on his throat—not enough to kill him, but enough for him to fall back, gasping for breath.
However, that targeted movement left his flank open for another attack, and he felt claws rip through his fur at the same time as Ryan leapt for him. Carlos reared back to meet the charge, and they clashed with a shock of impact and pain. The world tilted, and they were rolling.
He had to stay in the doorway. He couldn’t leave the doorway open, leave the house vulnerable for the other wolves to get inside.
With a mighty heave, Carlos wrenched them over so that the two of them—Ryan’s teeth fixed in Carlos’ side, Carlos’ claws digging into Ryan’s front legs—blocked the doorway. The other two wolves wouldn’t be able to get into the house without going through them.
And being caught in a tight grapple like this, although he could feel the deep pain of Ryan’s teeth and knew that he wasn’t coming out of it without a serious injury, meant that the other two wolves couldn’t attack. They were moving too fast, and there was too much of a chance of hitting their leader.
Especially since none of these wolves were formally combat-trained. It was clear in their sloppy movements, the way they held back and let their leader do most of the real attacking, and weren’t at all effective as a unit.
Carlos tore his way free from Ryan’s teeth, feeling blood run down his side, and roared. He had the satisfaction of seeing the raggedy wolf flinch away.
Ryan didn’t, of course. He circled around Carlos, watching him with cold, calculating eyes.
Carlos caught his breath, watching not Ryan’s eyes, but his chest muscles, looking for the tightening that would precede another strike.
He saw it a split-second before the attack happened, and he was ready. But Ryan’s second was attacking at the same moment, and as Carlos met Ryan with a vicious snap of his teeth, the second wolf lunged for his throat.
This must have emboldened the smallest one, because Carlos felt a third set of teeth close on his already-injured flank.
Come on, Sheriff, he thought grimly. Come on...pack.
He’d go down protecting Pauline and the kids if he had to. But he didn’t want to have to. He wanted the life he’d seen stretching out before him, and he was damned if these pathetic excuses for men were going to take it from him.
Then he heard a window break inside the house.
***
Pauline
Nate had assured Pauline that he, Ken, Lynn, and even Stella—who Pauline hadn’t thought was much of a fighter—were on their way, driving as quickly as was safe through the back forest roads to get to Pauline’s house.
So Pauline was left with nothing to do but wait. While Carlos fought for her and the kids.
She’d never wished so hard for a different shifted form. A lioness, or even a lynx like Lynn and Stella. Something with substance, with powerful jaws to protect her kids with.
But no, she was stuck inside, with nothing for her owl form to do. While Carlos roared and growled, and she caught glimpses of his orange fur mingled with gray wolves as they clashed and rolled and bit.
Then she heard Drew make a startled noise, inside the kids’ room. Pauline darted in just in time to see Drew stumbling back from the window—and the wolf on the other side.
“What’s happening?” Troy’s tiny voice piped up.
“Nothing, honey,” Pauline said, determined. The wolf had seen them, and its mouth was open in a terrifying approximation of a grin.
He backed up, aiming for the window. Pauline’s eyes narrowed.
“Pauline, you should take the kids and stay back,” Drew said, nervousness filling his voice. “I’ll—I can—”
“No, Drew.” Pauline made her voice absolutely firm, allowing no wavering. “Put the kids in the closet, stand in front of it, and shift. Okay?”
Drew was already hauling Troy and Val out of bed. “What is it?” Troy’s voice spiraled up, “Drew, what—”
Drew shoved them both in the closet, hissed, “Stay quiet and keep still,” and then shifted.
The wolf was running for the window, picking up speed. Pauline shifted.
The wolf hit the window with a crash. Broken glass went everywhere.
But now, of course, there was a problem. The wolf had to get through the window, which wasn’t huge, without tearing himself to pieces on the shards of glass still hanging onto the window frame.
As he backed up to consider the situation, Pauline fluttered up and out the window, her smaller form making it through without a problem.
The second she was out in the night air, she beat her wings as hard as she could. Gaining height, gaining, gaining—
She could see that below her, the wolf had tilted his head up to see what she was doing. Good. Very, very good.
She went as high as she could in as short a time as she could manage.
Then she lifted her wings and dove.
The wind whistled through her feathers as she fell like a rock. The wolf pulled back, startled at
the sight of her—but didn’t turn tail and run, like he should have.
Because she landed, claws out, right on his face.
He howled in pain, striking out on instinct—but Pauline had already pulled away, flapping back inside the window. When she looked out again, the wolf’s face was a bloody mask, and he was retreating back into the trees.
Drew, meanwhile, was in his young, rangy wolf form, crouched in front of the closet, ready to fight any larger, stronger adult wolves who might’ve come in to attack his siblings.
Pauline’s heart went out to him. She shifted back and came forward to touch his fur. “It’s okay,” she told him. “He’s gone.”
Drew hesitated—and then they heard the most beautiful sound Pauline had ever heard in her life.
Sirens.
***
Carlos
Carlos was caught.
He couldn’t get inside to help Pauline and the kids without bringing the other wolves with him. And it was taking every ounce of strength he possessed to hold off three opponents by himself—if he tried to take on another...
He had to trust that Pauline and Drew would be able to take care of it themselves. Even though he should be there.
The desperation he felt fueled a burst of ferocity, a roar building in his chest. His tiger exploded out of the three-way hold he was in. He was bleeding freely now, but he couldn’t feel it; adrenaline had forced any awareness of pain from his mind.
He crouched, facing three furious wolves, eyes darting from one to the other. He could see them bracing, wondering which of them it would be—
Carlos pounced. The weakest wolf went down underneath him, at least one leg out of commission from trying to brace against Carlos’ weight. The other two were on him immediately, of course, but he was ready to tear away and spin around to do it again—he didn’t know how many times he could do this before his injuries caught up with him, but—
A wailing sound split the night.
It took Carlos a long moment to process it for what it was: police sirens. At first it had sounded to him like the cry of yet another animal.
But no, that was definitely a siren.
And it was coming closer.
Thank God.
And then—even sweeter—Pauline appeared in the doorway, whole and uninjured and clearly worrying about him. She took in the scene, and Carlos met her eyes, trying to telepathically communicate stay back, stay safe.
Ryan reared back, eyes darting around to take in his two fallen pack members. Carlos saw him make the decision to abandon them and run. Those yellow eyes fixed on the dark woods behind the house, and Ryan swung around—
Carlos pounced again.
This time, he wasn’t aiming to hurt, maim, or even disable. He just wanted to keep Ryan right here. At the scene of his crime.
That was the tableau the flashing lights illuminated, as the sheriff’s Jeep pulled up to the scene, followed by the deputy’s car.
“Freeze!” came her echoing voice. “Everyone shift back to human, now.”
Carlos obeyed, backing away from Ryan’s wolf body—and stumbling as one of his legs threatened to give way underneath him. Pauline was at his side instantly.
“You’re hurt,” she said frantically. “Carlos—are you—”
“Fine,” he assured her, mostly sure that that was true. “Shifter healing. I’ll be all right. Nothing vital was hit.”
He was doing a quick self-assessment as he spoke, and he was reasonably sure that he was telling the truth.
“NOBODY MOVE,” the sheriff barked. “That includes you, Pauline. Everyone stay still, stay human, and keep your hands where I can see them.”
Slowly, Ryan shivered, and shifted. His two conscious friends did the same. The first wolf that Carlos had taken out was motionless on the ground. The sheriff motioned her deputy over to him.
The man crouched next to the fallen wolf and reported, “He’s alive. Not in great shape, but alive.”
“Good,” said the sheriff. “All right. All of you are coming in with me to explain what happened tonight.”
“The kids are inside,” Pauline said.
The sheriff’s mouth went grim. “Well, that’s going to affect how kindly I take to the aggressive parties,” she said. “All right. Everyone to the station. Now.”
Another car turned into the drive, and she spun around to face it, then relaxed. It pulled to a stop with a spray of dirt, and out jumped Ken, Nate, Lynn, and Stella.
“Is everyone okay?” Stella ran forward.
“Everyone’s alive, and everyone who needs medical attention is going to get it,” Sheriff Dale told her. “I might want to deputize one or two of you to help me with this.”
Ken and Nate stepped forward immediately, but the sheriff pointed at Lynn. “You, come on.”
“We can help,” Ken insisted.
“I haven’t known you since you were five years old,” Sheriff Dale said, “so forgive me for choosing the person I’m most confident in. Let’s go.”
Lynn knocked her shoulder against Ken’s as she passed by; Carlos interpreted it as partly, Sorry you don’t get to help, and partly gloating.
“Come on, all of you,” the sheriff said. “We’ll sort it out in town.”
But Carlos could see the expression on her face as she looked at the wolves—and how that expression changed when Drew appeared in the doorway with Val in his arms, holding Troy’s hand.
“Hi, guys,” Dale said, her voice suddenly much gentler. “Everyone okay? Anybody hurt at all?”
Drew shook his head. “We’re okay,” he said. His eyes flickered over the people gathered out front. “One of the wolves came to the back window. But Pauline fought him off.”
Carlos turned to Pauline, full of a sudden, intense mixture of pride and concern. “You—”
“I’m fine,” she said. “He didn’t touch me.”
Carlos pulled her into a hug. “Brave.”
The sheriff had come up to greet Drew at the door. She crouched down to say hello to Troy. “We’re going to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again,” she said. “I promise you. Okay?”
Troy hid his face in Drew’s leg, and the sheriff stood up. “I have to apologize to you,” she said quietly. “I let you go thinking that you’d be safe. I mistook the amount of danger you were in. I should’ve taken you and your siblings into custody and kept you there until the danger was gone.”
“I didn’t think, either,” Drew said faintly. “I didn’t realize they’d look for me here. I thought we’d be safe.”
Carlos’ heart broke. He squeezed Pauline’s hand and came forward. “Well, we can all go to the police station together, huh?” he said to Drew. “And then we’ll definitely be safe.”
Drew’s eyes went wide as he looked at Carlos, who was, he realized, alarmingly bloody. “Are you okay?”
“I’m completely fine,” Carlos said firmly, which was a bit of a lie, but one he felt no guilt over whatsoever. “You ready to go?”
Drew looked at the sheriff, then down at Troy, and then at Carlos and Pauline. “Yes,” he said. “Let’s all go together.”
“Great, glad we agree,” said Sheriff Dale dryly.
***
Pauline
The rest of the night was long, cold, and brightly lit. But Pauline couldn’t be sorry about any of it, because the sheriff let one of them stay with the kids the entire time. She gave her own story alone while Carlos cradled a sleeping Val in one arm and a grumpy Troy in the other, and then they switched places.
“Shouldn’t you have gone to a hospital?” she said in the one private moment they had during the handoff.
He shook his head. “I told you, shifter healing. It’s all superficial.”
She had to doubt it, but he didn’t look like he was about to pass out, and shifters rarely got infections, so she let it go. If he wasn’t on his way to healing by tomorrow, they could have words about it.
So she sat in the room Misty had given th
em with the kids, holding them tight and soaking in their warmth. Troy had, fortunately, not processed a great deal of what had happened back at the house—he knew that bad guys had shown up and he’d had to hide with his sister, but he seemed to have the impression that Pauline, Drew, and Carlos had all fought them off by punching them in the nose a few times, and Pauline was very happy to let him continue with that impression.
Drew was off being questioned separately. Pauline desperately wanted him here with them, so she could wrap an arm around his thin shoulders and reassure him that everything was going to be okay from now on.
Because it...was. She thought. She thought it was.
They’d have to see.
After a long, long time, Misty appeared in the door to their little room, followed by Drew, and then by Carlos, who had to duck to come through the small doorframe.
Pauline wanted to leap to her feet, but Troy had fallen asleep, and she wasn’t about to disturb him.
But it turned out that she didn’t have to. Drew came over of his own accord, sat next to her, and said, “Sheriff Dale says it’s going to work out.”
Carlos came up and sat on his other side, reaching out a long arm to pull them all into a hug. Pauline looked up at Misty, daring to hope.
Misty nodded. “I’ve interviewed everyone who was there tonight, and the conclusion seems very clear to me. Ryan and his friends attacked the place with the intention of doing harm to minors, and you and Mr. Gonzalez, here, risked your lives to protect the children. I’ll be recommending to CPS that you, Pauline, be the first choice for a permanent placement—I understand that you and Mr. Gonzalez will be getting married?”
“As soon as possible,” Pauline said firmly.
“CPS is welcome to look into my financial status,” Carlos said comfortably. “I think they’ll find that our combined household will be more than capable of supporting three children.”
Pauline felt Drew jerk in surprise. “You—you have money?” he asked, as though he were trying to hold back the words but couldn’t quite manage it.
“I just retired from a pretty successful business career, kid,” Carlos told him. “I have more money than I know what to do with.”
