by Lauren Esker
Terry made no move to give them to her. "Why?"
"I need to pick up some stuff for Damon, and check on his sister."
All three of her relatives turned to stare at her. "Wait," Ava said. "You mean at the Wolfe place, don't you? Are you seriously thinking about going over there?"
"It's not like we can hide here forever," Julie said defensively.
"Yeah, kiddo, you can," Terry said. "If Damon is that worried about his sister, he can go check on her."
"Damon needs to sleep. And anyway, he'd be in danger if he went over there."
Terry bristled. "And you aren't?"
"I really don't think so. The Wolfes don't own the whole valley," Julie argued. "They don't own the police and the FBI. They can't just make me disappear, and they know it."
"Doesn't mean they'll remember in the heat of the moment."
He had a point. Julie certainly didn't want to admit that her main reason for going was to snoop around and try to uncover evidence to prove to the rest of Damon's pack that he wasn't a killer. "I'll be careful. I'll have my phone with me, and I'll call the police at the first hint of a threat, okay?"
"No, we will," Ava said, folding her arms.
"Yeah," Terry said. "You don't think you're going over there by yourself, do you?"
Julie looked helplessly at Grandma, but she could see no help was coming from that quarter.
"All right, but Grandma, if Damon wakes up while we're gone, please don't tell him where we are, okay? The last thing I want is Damon charging after me because he wants to protect me. We'll be okay over there, but he certainly won't."
"Explaining all of this to Mom and Dad is getting harder and harder," Terry moaned.
***
In the end, they took Ava's little Toyota—first of all, because most of the van's seats had been taken out to transport produce (it only had the two seats in front), but also because Terry successfully argued that the wolves had seen the van last night, and they didn't want anyone connecting Damon's escape to the Capshaws if they could help it.
"Not that you aren't giving them a huge honking clue by walking into their compound in broad daylight."
"It's not a compound, it's a farm." Julie leaned forward from the cramped backseat, one arm on each of her siblings' seats. "I wish you guys would stop acting like I'm going to be Daniel in the lion's den. I'm just going to go in and talk to people. Like neighbors do. And, if anything goes wrong, Grandma knows where we are."
"We," Ava said. "It's not just you, it's we."
"No, it's us," Terry argued. "You are staying in the car as a getaway driver."
This prompted another argument that lasted most of the way to the Wolfe farm.
In spite of her conviction that the Wolfe family wouldn't risk hurting her, Julie felt a chill as they pulled into the driveway. It was already pretty full; a half-dozen motorcycles and a huge black truck jacked up with a lift kit were parked behind the usual Howling Wolfe Farms truck that Julie had seen a hundred times in the farmer's market parking lot.
"Stay," Terry told Ava as they got out of the car.
"I'm not a dog. Jeez."
But she kept the engine running, and once they were out, she popped down the door locks.
Julie and Terry walked slowly toward the Wolfe house. As they did, various members of the family materialized from nowhere, until, by the time they got to the porch, there were eight or nine people leaning on the porch railing, watching them from the sheds, or lounging against the motorcycles. Most of them were full-grown men, and all of them looked dangerous.
Julie had no idea this many people lived here. In fact, she was pretty sure they didn't. She didn't know the Wolfe family well, aside from Damon, but they had all grown up in the same town, so she knew most of them by sight. Everyone in town knew Damon's cousins Brad and Barry, because they liked to tear around on their big Harley hogs, almost running over little old ladies and drag-racing down Main Street. And sure enough, she spotted Barry hanging over the porch railing—a chill ran down her spine at the sight of him. But most of the others were strangers.
Terry was clearly having similar thoughts. "You know who these guys are?" he murmured.
Julie shook her head. She kept one hand tucked into her pocket, firmly wrapped around her phone in case she needed to call for help.
"I don't know all of them, but that one—" He jerked his chin toward a particularly unpleasant-looking, tattooed individual leaning a hip on one of the motorcycles. "That's Doug Renner. He was in my graduating class, or would have been, if he'd actually graduated."
"Most of them are Renners." Julie felt cold. They'd certainly wasted no time in moving in.
When she and Terry mounted the steps to the porch, a scar-faced stranger and Barry Wolfe moved to block her path.
"Long way from home, aren't you, Bo Peep?" Barry asked nastily.
Terry's hands balled into fists.
"Bo Peep was the shepherdess, you dink, not the sheep," Julie said.
The stranger grinned, showing slightly yellowed teeth. "Oh, she's a feisty little one, isn't she? We could have a lot of fun with this one."
Terry made a low huffing sound in his throat, the sound of an angry ram about to charge.
"Cain, no," a sharp female voice ordered.
Vanessa stepped out onto the porch. Julie hadn't seen her since she'd gotten back to town, and even before that, she'd mostly glimpsed Vanessa from afar. But the Wolfe daughter had always looked beautiful and very well put together in the expensive brand-name clothing she favored. Now she seemed limp and wilted. Her hair hadn't even been brushed.
However, she didn't seem to be hurt, Julie noted, looking her up and down. Just tired and stressed.
"What are you doing here?" Vanessa asked the Capshaw siblings. "Have you heard from Damon?" Hope skated across her tired face. "Is he all right?"
Julie glanced at the looming stranger, who must be this Cain Renner guy Damon had mentioned. He looked like even more of an asshole in person, wide as a barn door and twice as thick. "Um, can we talk somewhere more private?"
"This way." Vanessa brushed past Barry and the Renners, leading the Capshaw siblings back down the porch steps and around the side of the house. The members of the pack watched them go, but didn't move to interfere.
Vanessa took them around the side of the barn. "It's not perfect privacy," she said. "Nowhere on this farm is completely private now. But I think we can speak without being overheard. Do you know where Damon is?"
Julie nodded. "I do. He's safe, for now."
"Oh, thank God." Vanessa wilted a little. "I was so terrified for him after he ran out last night. They think he tried to kill Dad, you know."
"You don't?" Terry asked.
"I had doubts at first," Vanessa admitted. "But it's just not like Damon at all. He didn't get along with Dad, but he wouldn't do something like this."
"How is your father right now?" Julie wanted to know. "Damon was worried his cousins would go ahead and, uh ..." She faltered. Finish him off seemed so cold.
"He's in bad shape, but he's still alive," Vanessa said. "Either me or Gray has always been with him. He hasn't woken up yet, though."
"Who is Gray?" The name sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.
"Graydon is Barry and Brad's younger brother. But he's all right in spite of that. He's always been pretty close with me and Damon. And he's a med student and former paramedic, so he's got a good reason to stay with Dad."
"I hope he's worth your trust," Terry said. "Because right now, your dad is the only person who can tell everyone your brother didn't do it."
"What does your mom think?" Julie asked. "Does she believe Damon is innocent?"
Vanessa glanced nervously toward the house. "Mom has never been a very strong-willed person. She believes whatever people tell her to believe. If Dad were awake, she'd take his word over the cousins'. But he's unconscious, and she has the cousins and Cain Renner—" She pronounced the words as if his name
tasted bad. "—trying to push at her with the alpha sense. Mom's never been able to resist alpha control at all."
"What about the rest of you?" Terry wanted to know. "Because, I hate to say it, but if you can be ordered around by an alpha, then it doesn't matter how much you trust the people staying with your father."
Or yourself, Julie thought. Even after what she'd seen in the woods all those years ago, she'd never fully realized how much of a reign of terror a bad alpha could have over his pack.
"I ... I'm trying," Vanessa said. She was pale. "Cain Renner wants to make me his mate. I'm thinking about letting him."
"Why?" Julie asked, horrified. "Wouldn't that just make it worse?"
"No. It's the one thing that would give me some power back over him. Just because Mom let Dad push her around doesn't mean that's how it has to work. She had power over him, too, through the mate bond, but she never used it." Vanessa's smooth brow furrowed, and she looked at Julie, then leaned a little closer to her. "You and Damon," she whispered, and Julie flinched. "I've wondered about it for a long time. Did you—Are you—Is he your mate?"
Julie felt her cheeks heat. She nodded.
Vanessa smiled a little. "I thought you were probably going to be, even back when we were teenagers. The way Damon kept sneaking out to find you ... I don't know if you know this, but future mates are often drawn to each other, even before they're old enough for the bond to kick in."
"I didn't know that. I really don't know much about your kind, Vanessa." But I'm looking forward to finding out. And somehow, it was a relief to find that Damon's sister didn't seem to hate her. If anything, Vanessa was being friendlier now than at any point when they were kids.
Terry spoke up. "So, I don't understand. If Damon and Julie were pulled together all their lives, is it that way with you and Renner?"
Vanessa shook her head vehemently. "No. God, no. Thankfully."
"Then how can a mating work between you?" Julie wanted to know. "I mean ..." She blushed. "I guess you could still have, uh. Sex. But all the rest of it, the mate bond and all of that ..."
"He'll force it." Vanessa clenched her jaw as if she felt sick. "An alpha can do that. In fact, as the pack alpha, I think he'd have to try harder not to. Obviously he thinks he'll be able to control me easily after he does it, the way Dad controls Mom. But I think I'll be able to push back much better if I'm his mate. And maybe if I do that, I can save my parents and brother, even if I can't save my pack."
"But you'll be bonded to him," Julie said. Damon's talk about consummation and for the rest of our lives came back to her now. It had seemed so romantic at the time, but with Vanessa, it was a travesty. "Forever."
"Only until one of us dies," Vanessa said. She was so pale now that her skin was almost translucent. She looked as if she might faint.
Terry reached out a hand to steady her. "Don't do anything yet, all right? There are a lot of other options."
Vanessa shrugged his hand off. "Name one! I don't think you understand how screwed we are. Wolves need an alpha, and if we don't have one, we'll come under the alpha domination of anyone else we're around, even a sufficiently charismatic and stubborn human."
"Isn't your dad still alpha?" Terry asked. "Even if he's hurt, he's not dead. I don't see how Renner could have taken over like this."
Vanessa dropped her eyes to the ground. "If my father was a trusted and beloved alpha, I think we could have resisted Renner's domination much better. The way it's supposed to work, the whole pack joins together under the alpha bond. And even losing my father shouldn't have shaken that completely. But there's been so much resentment toward my father, and infighting among the pack, that we were easy prey for a strong alpha like Renner."
"But that doesn't seem to have happened to Damon," Julie pointed out. "At least, they didn't use the alpha whatever to stop him."
"I think they tried," Vanessa said. "I certainly felt it. Damon was able to resist."
"How?" Julie asked. "Can you, too?"
"Damon has alpha potential. He always has. He just couldn't defeat our father, but ..." Vanessa hesitated. "I think a lot of it was because, deep down, he didn't believe he could. And he didn't want to be aggressive about it. Damon's never been that kind of person."
"Maybe he's going to have to turn into that kind of person," Terry said softly.
Julie only shook her head. If what it took to take over the pack was for Damon to become the kind of macho asshole that Renner was, or that his father had been—it wasn't worth it.
Vanessa gave the house another nervous glance. "I've been out here long enough. They aren't going to leave us alone forever."
"Before we go," Julie said, "we need to pick up some clothes for Damon. That's actually the main reason why I came."
"Why does my brother need clothes?"
"Because the ones he was wearing got all torn up and bloody when your pack tried to rip him apart." Okay, maybe there was still a little resentment.
Vanessa grimaced. "All right. Come into the house with me."
They went in through the back door. In the kitchen, Brad Wolfe was playing cards with two strangers that Julie guessed were more members of the Renner pack. Brad's sleeveless T-shirt displayed a bandage taped onto his muscular shoulder.
"Didn't know you liked mutton, Julie," Brad smirked as Vanessa went through the kitchen with the two Capshaws in tow.
"Choke on a bone and die, Brad," Vanessa shot back.
They climbed the stairs to the second floor. Julie looked around curiously—she'd never been inside Damon's home. There wasn't much to see, just some family photos on the walls. Honestly, it looked a lot like the house she'd grown up in.
More alike than we are different, Julie thought, recalling her words to Damon.
Vanessa flinched when a door down the hall opened and someone else came out. Julie knew immediately that this was another of the Wolfe clan, not one of the Renners—his resemblance to Damon was clear. He had similar bone structure, and black hair swept back in a ponytail. He was built more like Brad and Barry, though, heavy and muscular, rather than lean like Damon and Vanessa. He wore a loose dark T-shirt with a rock band logo and moved with a strange sideways twist to his gait, like there was something wrong with his hips.
Vanessa relaxed. "Hi, Gray. How is Dad doing?"
Graydon Wolfe shook his head. "Uncle Verne isn't doing well. I need to talk to—" He stopped; he hadn't noticed Julie and Terry in the dim light of the hallway. His pale gray eyes swept over them. "Who's this?"
"My brother's mate," Vanessa said. "And her brother. You can speak in front of them."
Graydon hesitated, then held out his hand. "Hi. I'm Graydon, but people call me Gray."
"I'm Julie. I live on the next farm over. This is my brother Terry."
Gray frowned. Like Vanessa, he looked tired; there was a light dusting of stubble on his sculpted jaw. "You're Capshaws, right? I can't quite remember what your shift animal was—goats, or—"
"Sheep," Terry said shortly.
"Sheep. Right." Gray turned to Vanessa. "Is there somewhere we can talk?"
Vanessa took hold of his arm and pulled him through the door she'd been aiming toward. Julie followed, and Terry brought up the rear.
This was clearly Damon's room. Julie hadn't realized she knew his smell, but it hit her as soon as she walked in. Otherwise, it was a pretty typical college-age male's room. Bookshelves held stacks of disorganized suspense and science fiction novels; T-shirts and other items of clothing were scattered about.
Julie noticed with interest that, among the posters on the walls of motorcycles and sports teams, there were also quite a few astronomy-focused ones. When she tipped her head back, the ceiling turned out to be decked with whole constellations of adhesive glow-in-the-dark stars.
Did Damon like space? Had he dreamed of becoming an astronaut? She would have to ask him.
"Speak," Vanessa said as she gathered up clothing at random, making it into a bundle. "Quickly. We can't leave Dad
alone too long."
"Your mother is with him. He'll be okay for a little while." Gray limped to the window and looked down. Julie couldn't tell what was wrong with him—whether it was a recent injury or a disability. When he'd reassured himself that no one was close enough to overhear, he said, "Didn't you wonder why there are so many Renners here?"
"Claiming new territory, I guess," Vanessa said, but she sounded uncertain.
"Yeah, but there's no kids or old people. Just young adult wolves in their prime hunting years."
"They're going after Damon," Julie whispered, horrified.
Gray nodded. "Brad and Barry may be jerks, but we're still brothers. They gave me a heads-up that Cain Renner is putting together a posse to hunt for your brother tonight, after dark. All the Renners and as many of the Wolfe pack as they can get to cooperate. They're going to sweep the whole area."
Julie's heart clenched.
Vanessa turned to Julie and Terry, her eyes wide and face stricken. "You have to get him out of town. I don't even know where is safe. Somewhere they wouldn't think to look for him. He can't hide out with relatives. They'll check everyone."
"He's probably safer with us than he would be anywhere else," Julie argued.
"Not if he's in the valley. They'll smell him out. And Cain might be able to use the alpha bond to find him."
Vanessa shoved the bundle of clothing into Julie's arms. "Please, go to him. Get him somewhere safe."
"Yeah, no," Gray said. "If she walks out of here with a bunch of his clothes, they'll know exactly where she's going. I could drop them off somewhere for you later." Seeing her uncertainty, he gave her a crooked smile. "Since my brothers are part of Cain's inner circle, they trust me okay. I don't want any part in what they're doing, though."
Julie reluctantly handed over the bundle. She still wasn't sure if she could trust Gray, despite how much he reminded her of Damon. But he was right. And she needed a friend on the inside.
Another friend, she thought, glancing at Vanessa. After all those years she'd spent in school thinking Vanessa was a stuck-up snob, she now wondered if the wolf girl had just been shy and didn't quite know how to make friends.
