by Abby Blake
Three miles away, Aiden could swear he tasted the woman’s essence on his tongue. He rolled onto his back, draped an arm over his eyes, and mumbled to no one in particular, “We need to get the fuck out of here.”
Zeb answered with an affirmative grunt, obviously as painfully aroused by the mating dream as Aiden was. “I need to run,” he managed to force out a moment later.
“Me, too,” Aiden agreed as he rolled out of bed and dragged on some clothes. If they went far enough out of town, there was very little chance of them being seen, and if they headed in the same direction the silver wolf had gone, then maybe they had a chance to apprehend the rogue at the same time.
They slipped out the door of their room, quietly tiptoed their way to the front door, and disappeared into the night.
* * * *
Louise was kind of glad that the sheriff was on vacation. Normally Tuesday was her day off, but with the sheriff unavailable she was needed to work every day for the next two weeks. Technically, she was on call twenty-four-seven, but considering yesterday was the most excitement they’d had since Jed Hawthorne had imagined shooting Andrea in her jewelry store, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Louise glanced at the computer and wondered what her friend was doing. When Andrea had first moved away, they’d spoken every day on the webcam. But of course, marrying three millionaires, designing award-winning games, and making unusual, highly sought-after jewelry tended to take up a lot of Andrea’s time these days, so their discussions had become less frequent.
Maybe that was where her dream had come from last night. Louise had always been a little curious about the sleeping arrangements in Andrea’s home but had never quite built up enough nerve to ask her. Maybe last night’s dream was just her imagination filling in a few blanks.
She knew she was lying to herself but didn’t really have the energy to do anything about it. She jumped as the cell phone beside her elbow rang. It was barely five in the morning. She’d come straight here the moment Cal had left her bed and headed home to do the morning chores on his farm. She hadn’t even canceled the diversion of the sheriff’s line from her cell phone.
“Sheriff’s office.”
“Oh, Louise, I’m sorry to call you so early, but there’s an awfully strange noise coming from my neighbor’s barn. Ordinarily, I’d call Jesse Calhoun—he’s Henry’s nephew—you remember Henry, don’t you? God rest his soul—but as you probably know, he’s off on his honeymoon, and that nice Mr. Jefferson is taking care of things while he’s away. His new wife—that’s Jesse’s wife, not Mable Jefferson—is such a lovely young woman. Can’t say the same thing about Mable. But anyway, I’m sure they’re going to live a happy life together—Jessie and his wife, that is, not Mable—because as you know living a good, happy life is very important. Did I tell you that Mr. Thomson and I have been married for forty-eight years come this fall?”
Ethel Thomson continued to talk about everything and anything that popped into her mind as Louise gathered her keys, locked up the office, and climbed into her car. A few minutes later she was halfway to the Thomson farm even though she was still waiting patiently for the woman to get to the point.
It was obvious that Ethel was quite lonely while her best friend, Mavis, was off visiting her grandchildren in California. Louise smiled softly. Sometimes serving a community involved listening to people as much as protecting them. Ethel was well into her rant about a niece who was too focused on her career to find herself a good husband when the noise she’d called to report happened again. But this time it sounded close enough to Ethel’s home to be heard through the phone.
“Mrs. Thomson, I need you to make sure the doors and windows are locked and that you stay inside until I tell you it’s safe to come out.”
“Of course, dear,” Ethel said with a mildly disgruntled harrumph. “I’m not silly enough to go outside with that racket going on. It’s not like I’m one of those ridiculous young things in a horror movie who goes outside even though the entire audience is yelling at them not to.”
Louise considered calling Cal, but that would mean disconnecting from Ethel, and it was becoming more and more obvious that the woman was talking nonstop because she was scared out of her wits. Whatever was going on in the Calhoun barn was not the usual animal disturbance.
Of course she could have called Cal or Aiden or Zeb or even all of them and then called Ethel back, but after her confusing dream earlier this morning, she’d just as soon avoid all three. At least until she could figure out what was going on in her head.
Louise turned onto the dirt road that led to the Calhoun and Thomson farms, switched on her flashing lights briefly so that Ethel would know it was her, and then turned the car toward the barn where everything was supposedly going on. She had to get out of the sheriff’s cruiser to open and close several gates before she reached the barn, but each time the noise she’d heard over the phone had been absent. The silence, however, didn’t stop her from unsnapping the buckle on her gun holster. This time she’d shoot first and worry about the animal afterward. Zeb had been damn lucky. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t get off quite so easily.
But as she quietly slipped into the barn, she heard the one thing she hadn’t been expecting—human voices.
“Just come back with us, and we’ll sort it out.”
Was that Aiden’s voice?
“I can’t,” a stranger’s voice said tiredly.
“Josh,” a third voice said quietly—was that Zeb?—“at least give the alpha a chance to understand what happened.”
The entire barn was in shadow, but Louise didn’t want to alert them to her presence by using her flashlight. Something told her this conversation was important, even as bitter disappointment burned in her stomach. Even when she’d thought they were lying, she hadn’t really believed Aiden and Zeb were criminals. But what else could they be? They were trespassing very early in the morning, having strange conversations with an unknown acquaintance in a town a long way from their supposed home.
She crept through the dark, feeling her way, moving slowly so as not to alert them to her presence. She finally found them talking at the far corner of the barn. Aiden and Zeb literally had the other man cornered. It was hard to tell in the small amount of moonlight, but she rubbed her eyes twice before deciding that, yup, they were definitely naked, and it wasn’t just her libido doing some wishful thinking.
But as she watched, both Aiden and Zeb seemed to sniff the air. Zeb turned and looked at the exact space where she was hiding, almost as if he could see her in the dark.
“Goddamn it, woman,” he said in an exasperated tone. “I’m going to spank your ass when we get home.” He marched over to the spot where she crouched against the wall. Even in the dark she could see his hard cock bobbing against his stomach as he moved. “What are you doing here?” He leaned over, grabbed her by the arm, and dragged her to her feet.
She wrenched her elbow from his hold, absently noting that his grip had been firm but not painful. She took a deep breath, trying to get her thinking back on track. “I’m doing my job, asshole. You’re all under arrest for trespassing on private property.”
Zeb shook his head tiredly but then reached out a hand and cupped her cheek the exact same way he’d done in her dream earlier. “Stay here, baby girl. We’ll deal with you in a moment.”
He turned away from her, and she finally noticed the disarray around her. It looked like there had been one hell of a fight. Firewood, tools, and hay were scattered everywhere. She was still looking around when Zeb spoke to the man she assumed was Josh.
“Just let us take you back, and we’ll sort this whole mess out.”
“I can’t,” Josh replied angrily. “You know what they’ll do to me. I can’t leave her unprotected.”
“Her?” Aiden asked, sounding confused. “Her who?”
“I can’t do it. I won’t. She needs to be protected.”
The man’s voice got more hysterical with every word, but then he d
id something that made Louise certain that she was dreaming. God, she hoped she was dreaming, because otherwise she was completely insane.
The man named Josh dropped to all fours and changed into a wolf. Stunned, Louise stood frozen as the wolf from yesterday ran past her, knocking her ass over tit.
* * * *
Aiden moved faster than the human eye could see, but it wasn’t fast enough to save Louise. She landed hard, very hard, but it was what she landed on that had his heart in his throat.
The earlier fight had knocked most of the machinery and tools from their hanging spaces on the wall, and Louise had landed right on top. Judging by the blood frothing at the corners of her mouth, at least one of those tools had gone through her lungs.
“Don’t move, baby girl,” Zeb said as he carefully stepped through the mess of tools, trying not to jostle anything. Tears blurred Aiden’s vision as he heard her heartbeat speed up with panic. He was fairly certain adrenaline would be protecting her from the pain at this moment, but it was obvious by her reaction that she realized she was in serious trouble.
“We need to change her,” Aiden said as his wolf side seemed to howl painfully in his head. “She’ll die if we don’t.”
Zeb nodded, his eyes never leaving his task as he carefully moved away as many tools and bits of debris that he could. He finally managed to make a space large enough for him to get low enough to see what she’d landed on. He looked up at Aiden with glassy eyes. He blinked several times before turning to Louise.
“I’m sorry, baby girl, but if we don’t do this, you’re going to die.”
Chapter Three
Louise believed him.
She was already losing consciousness, her vision darkening around the edges as she struggled to breathe. She had no idea what they could do to save her, but she was willing to let them try. She’d seen enough car wrecks to know that even if the ambulance did get here on time, she was unlikely to survive long enough to make it into surgery.
She must have passed out for a moment because she opened her eyes as the men lifted her off the ground, the sharp implements that she’d landed on tearing open the skin as they moved her away.
She wanted to scream but barely managed a whimper, her vision darkening once more as she succumbed to the pain. But then she was being carried in someone’s arms. “It’s going to be okay, sweetheart.” Aiden’s voice was hoarse, but he sounded very relieved.
“Get some sleep, baby girl, while I get things cleaned up.”
She closed her eyes, willing to follow Zeb’s bossy order…just this once.
* * * *
Zeb paced at the end of the bed. They’d brought Louise back to their hotel room, hoping she’d finally get some rest. Almost as soon as the transformation was complete, she’d gone back into deputy-sheriff mode and insisted on contacting the woman who’d made the report of noises in the barn.
Annoyed at himself for not realizing that Louise wouldn’t have been there otherwise, Zeb had held her in his arms as she’d spoken—well, listened was probably a more accurate description—to the old woman for over an hour. Thankfully, Louise had explained the noises and damage to the barn with enough detail for it to sound like a real story. Aiden had moved around the barn, putting things back where they seemed to belong. Their earlier fight in wolf form thankfully hadn’t broken too many things, and most of what was on the ground had fallen from the hooks on the wall. They’d done the best they could to clean up the human blood, but at least by having the deputy sheriff around they could pretty much pass it off as animal blood and avoid anyone looking more closely at it.
She stirred in her sleep, and both Zeb and Aiden stopped to look at her. It was obvious she was dreaming, but she said the one word guaranteed to make him feel like a load of crap—Cal.
They hadn’t had a chance to explain to Louise what they’d done when they’d changed her. She most likely had no idea she was a werewolf now—probably didn’t even believe such things existed—but it was the changes to the life she so obviously enjoyed that were going to cause them all the most problems. The fact that she’d have to give up her current lover was only one of the issues they would need to face.
“I should probably call the alpha,” Aiden said as he once again sat himself in the chair beside the bed where Louise slept.
“He’s not going to be happy.”
“No shit,” Aiden said sarcastically. Not happy was a major understatement. Their alpha was a mean son of a bitch who insisted on micromanaging every aspect of pack life. He was going to be furious that they’d changed a human without his approval. Their only saving grace was that Louise was their mate, and even alphas couldn’t interfere in true matings, otherwise they’d likely face the same type of judgment that Josh had feared.
A niggle of doubt ran through Zeb as he thought of the werewolf they’d been trying to apprehend. They didn’t know the full story of why he was considered a criminal, but they’d believed in their justice system enough not to question it too closely. Yet now, faced with the need to explain their own actions, as defensible as they were, Zeb’s faith in his alpha and the pack laws they lived by was suddenly very shaky.
“Maybe we can delay our report for a few days.”
Aiden looked surprised by his suggestion but nodded in agreement.
A short while later, Zeb was busy planning how to track down Josh by hopefully following his scent to the woman he’d said needed his protection, when Louise stirred and opened her eyes.
* * * *
Louise slammed her eyes closed almost immediately. Why was it so bright in here? And why did she feel like she had the mother of all hangovers? Surely she hadn’t been drinking on duty.
“Swallow,” Aiden said in a deep voice as he touched a glass to her lips and lifted her with an arm under her shoulders. She downed the water gratefully, her mouth so dry that she lifted her hands to try and take the glass from him. But Aiden pulled the water away and lowered her shoulders back down onto the mattress.
“What happened?” she managed to ask in a croaky voice.
But memories flooded her brain, and she jackknifed into a sitting position. Her head pounded, her vision swam, her eyeballs felt way too big for their sockets, but she forced herself to look around.
Aiden slid onto the bed, wrapped his arms around her, and pressed her head against his warm chest. “Relax, sweetheart, you’ll feel a little woozy for a few more hours, but it will pass.”
She snuggled into his solid warmth even as her conscience yelled at her not to. She was dating Cal Sanders and shouldn’t be cuddling up to near strangers, but somehow it felt right to be here, as if this were where she belonged.
“What do you remember about this morning?”
“The barn, naked men, a lot of pain.” She opened her eyes as she realized she should still be feeling the pain. “What? How? Why aren’t I in the hospital? Why don’t I feel any pain? Fuck. Am I dead?”
Zeb laughed softly as he sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed the hair away from her eyes. “No, baby girl, you’re not dead, you’re just a werewolf.”
Okay, it wasn’t nice to make fun of the sleepy person. She had a headache the size of Mount Rushmore, and they were cracking jokes.
“Very funny. Ha. Ha.” The words were mumbled, but she hoped they got her point. “What really happened?”
Aiden smoothed a hand through her hair. “We really changed you into a werewolf. It was the only way to save your life.”
“Fine, don’t tell me,” she grumbled as her eyes closed all on their own. She’d get some more sleep, but when the headache was gone she was kicking some joker ass.
* * * *
Cal worked like a demon. It was true that he had chores to do each morning, so leaving Louise alone in her bed wasn’t completely an asshole move, but he had to admit that the chores would have gotten done without him. It was why he’d hired a manager to oversee the day-to-day running of the farm.
He’d known for most of his life th
at his interests lay elsewhere, yet his family had lived on this land for generations, and staying had felt like the right thing to do. But with his father’s recent passing and his mother moving to live with his sister and her family, he wasn’t quite sure now why he stayed. His manager was more than capable of running and maintaining the property. It would always be Sanders land—he had no intention of selling—but he no longer needed to be here every day.
His chance to live his own life was finally here, so why wasn’t he taking it?
But his thoughts brought him full circle, and visions of Louise sleeping in his arms filled his brain. Louise Jackson had always been the brightest part of staying in the area, and their relationship had finally moved in the direction he’d always wanted. Louise loved her job as deputy sheriff, but they’d never discussed whether it was the town or the job itself that she loved. Maybe, just maybe, she’d be willing to come with him as he chased down his dream.
Decision made, he finished his chores, checked in with his manager, and then headed for the shower. Hope sparked in his mind as his future suddenly seemed within his grasp.
* * * *
Louise woke without the headache. The room was filled with the most delicious smell, and she sniffed a time or two before she realized it was coming from the tray beside her. Even before she lifted the lid she knew it would be T-bone steak, cooked medium-rare. She usually liked her steak well cooked and way smaller, but the big juicy slab of meat was suddenly very appealing.
She sat up, dragged the tray onto her lap, and started cutting before it even occurred to her to question the whereabouts of her men. Her men? Fuck. They weren’t hers. Cal was hers. Aiden and Zeb were strangers who’d turned her into a werewolf.
The fork froze midway to her mouth. Werewolf? They’d been joking, right? There was no such thing as werewolves. The fact that she was about to practically inhale a huge, barely cooked steak didn’t mean a damn thing.
