Malsum Pass

by Forrest, Kimberly

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Tara had walked back to her place, went inside and began to pace. She kept growling and couldn’t seem to stop it. She was frustrated because she wanted to talk to Riley but didn’t know where he was. The continual growls though were disconcerting. She tried to calm herself with breathing exercises but she was too agitated. She decided she would go for a run into town. She hadn’t had coffee or breakfast so she could stop at the diner. Maybe some conversation with Lucy would take her mind off Riley and keep her calm enough so she wasn’t acting practically feral.

  As she ran she thought about when she was young and began what she now knew was the transition. It was shortly after that she discovered that running helped calm her whenever she was nervous or agitated. Maybe it was a wolf thing, but she had made a habit of running daily to keep from being stressed.

  When she entered the diner the smell of bacon hit her nose and she growled. Jesus, Tara, get a grip! She sat down at the counter and smiled at Lucy.

  “Hey there, honey. What can I get for you?” Lucy asked with a smile.

  “Coffee” she said, but her voice came out deeper and gruffer than usual. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Coffee and some bacon and eggs please, Lucy.”

  Lucy frowned. “Are you okay, honey?”

  Tara nodded, “Just a bit of a frog in my throat.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Tara didn’t want to risk growling at Lucy so she pasted a smile on her face and nodded.

  “Do you want those eggs scrambled?” She asked, still keeping a thoughtful eye on her but Tara just nodded again.

  Constance Tully plopped down on the stool next to her and grinned widely. “Oh, Tara, perfect. I’m so glad you’re here.” She said waving her hands with her long fingernails painted baby doll pink. Once again she was dressed in black pants and a white blouse with another pair of suicide heels on her feet. Tara wondered if the black and white was some sort of dress code at the salon. She couldn’t imagine what possessed her to wear such shoes though if she had to stand all day to do hair for clients.

  Not wanting to risk saying anything she just smiled at Constance and concentrated on preparing her coffee that Lucy set before her.

  “So I’ve been telling everyone to come by The Stag tonight to have an early birthday drink with Conner. Jacob said he’d tend the bar so that Conner can drink. I’m going to bring some snacks and make a cake, it’ll be such fun. They have a jukebox there and plenty of room to dance, or play pool and shoot darts. Plus, Zack has to leave to go back to school on Monday so it’ll give all of us a chance to wish Conner a happy birthday and wish Zack good luck this term. Isn’t that the best idea ever?” Constance squealed.

  Tara smiled and then cleared her throat a few times just in case. “It sounds great, I’m sure it’ll be a lot of fun.”

  Constance looked around the room, leaned in close to Tara and then whispered “Plus it means I can give Conner his present early. The sooner he gets it, the sooner we can go get married.”

  She let out another squeal and Tara winced at the noise. Every eye in the diner was turned on Constance as she bounced happily in her seat, oblivious to the disturbance she was making.

  “About what time tonight were you thinking?” Tara asked.

  Constance waved one of her hands again, “Oh, any time after eight I’d say would be fine. It’s really casual.” Then she leaned in again and whispered, “I have a new top I’ll be wearing tonight. I had it designed especially for Conner.”

  Tara was imagining some low cut number in whatever her brother’s favorite color was and tried not to grimace. The poor girl was just trying way too hard.

  Lucy put a plate in front of her with a pile of scrambled eggs, bacon, and wedges of toast and Tara practically drooled she was so hungry.

  “Oh, that looks so good.” Constance said and reached one of those perfectly manicured hands toward Tara’s plate and Tara couldn’t do anything to prevent the nasty snarl that rolled out of her mouth.

  Tara clamped a hand hard over her mouth and looked at Constance in horror. Constance’s face was a mask of wide eyed amazement while Lucy was shaking her head.

  “Connie, you know better than to reach for someone’s food when they’re hungry.” Then addressed Tara, “Ah, honey, don’t look like that. It’s perfectly natural here. You go ahead and eat that and I’m going to call your daddy. He should be over at the town offices this time of day so it won’t take but a minute for him to get here.

  “I’m so sorry, Constance.” Tara gasped out.

  Constance just laughed and waved her hand again. “You should see me if someone tries to steal my dessert. I’d have taken the fingers off. Now I have a few more stops to make before work. I’ll see you tonight.” She said and then practically bounced in her insane heels out the door.

  Tara was mortified; she’d wanted to bite poor Constance for getting near her food. Whatever was going on, she wasn’t prepared for it. She had thought that she still had five days left before her transition and that she would go from perfectly normal her, start feeling the aches and put herself in a tub with some pain killers and emerge a few hours later as perfectly shifted her. Instead, there seemed to be some pre-transitional changes that no one had warned her about and she wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

  Her father arrived while she was gobbling down her food like a starved person and he kissed the top of her head before taking the seat Constance had vacated. He waited patiently for her to finish eating.

  When she finally lifted her head, her plate empty he asked, “How are you feeling, baby girl?”

  She sighed. “Now that I’ve eaten, I feel better, but this is all a bit much. I almost bit someone, Dad.” She replied sadly.

  Vahl nodded. “Lucy told me, also that you were growling when you first came in. Let’s get out of here and we’ll talk.” Then he threw a twenty dollar bill on the counter, before helping her out of her seat.

  “I could have paid for that,” she protested, but he shook his head, “My treat.”

  When they got outside he motioned her over to his truck and she climbed in. Once they were seated he turned to her and put a knuckle under her chin to lift her face so that he could look at her more fully. “Your eyes are normal. Open your mouth a bit for me.” When she did, he said “Your teeth are normal too. Are you feeling any of the muscle pain or prickles, anything like you felt when you were younger?”

  She shook her head, “I just felt really agitated earlier and I started growling and couldn’t stop so I decided to go for a run and then get breakfast. When I got to the diner I smelled the food and got growly again and then when Constance reached for my food, well, you know what happened then.”

  “Everything you’ve said is normal, sweetheart, but we don’t usually see those things until after the transition. I think that Doc may have been right, that you already went through part so that’s why you’re having some of these things happen now. You’re really close baby girl. Be prepared in case it starts earlier than you expected. Do you want to stay with me and Sherry for a few days so you’re not alone?”

  She wanted to stay with Riley, but she didn’t even know where he was right now. She growled and Vahl chuckled. “Should I take that as a no?”

  “I’m so sorry, Dad, that had nothing to do with you. Your offer got me thinking about something else.” Tara said, her face heating up.

  “Was it the same something that had you agitated this morning?” Vahl asked with a knowing look. At Tara’s nod he asked, “Riley?”

  “We had a fight – well, not really even a fight, more of a misunderstanding I guess you’d call it and I went to talk to him and he wasn’t there, so I have no idea what’s going on in his head. It’s very frustrating.”

  Vahl nodded. “Frustration and agitation will certainly get us growling, so don’t let it bother you. No one here will be offended if you growl. I will suggest that you eat often though. Allowing yourself to get too hungry will have
you reacting in ways you’re not going to like, as you found out with Constance. Now, should I drive you home or do you want to go somewhere else?”

  “Home” she said, secretly hoping that Riley would be there waiting for her.

  When they got to her house her father asked if she wanted him to stay with her but she shook her head. She promised to keep herself well fed and to call him if anything more happened and that she would see him that night at The Stag for Conner’s party.

  The house was quiet when she went inside and Riley’s clothes and boots were still in her bedroom. She sighed. She was tempted to walk back up to his house but dismissed the idea. Obviously he needed more time to cool off and she wasn’t going to push him.

  She went downstairs to the kitchen, turned on her laptop and made a pot of coffee. She had a bunch of e-mails she needed to tend to and decided that burying herself in work was probably the best thing she could do to keep her mind occupied. Besides, the Conner, Constance, Jacob love triangle had inspired some ideas and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to sketch out a few scenes.

  At six o’clock she made herself dinner and ate it while staring at the phone. Riley still hadn’t come by, but it was always possible he was off dealing with some call or issue. She’d see him at the party tonight, but did he even know about it? Should she call to tell him? She decided not to. Between Constance and the Malsum Pass grapevine he was probably more than aware. Besides, tonight was about her brother so it didn’t matter if Riley wasn’t there. She blew out a breath. Maybe if she kept telling herself that, she’d start to believe it.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  When she got to The Stag at about eight thirty there were already quite a few people there. She saw Lucy and several of the patrons in the diner from earlier, her father and Sherry and all three of her brothers. Jacob was behind the bar, his arms over his head motioning at her like she was an airplane he was guiding to the tarmac. She chuckled and made her way over to him.

  “What’s up, baby brother?” She asked with a grin.

  He snorted, but then his face looked positively gleeful. “You have to check out what Connie is wearing. Conner knows I’m going to rip on him, so he’s avoiding me.” He chortled like some sort of evil imp. She half expected him to start dancing a jig.

  “I’m assuming she’s wearing something low cut and sexy?” Tara asked smiling at Jacob’s amusement.

  “Oh, I wish! I’d be drooling if she had, but this is so much more fun than that.” He said, and motioned with his head over to where she assumed Constance was standing, and then he said, “I’ll be right back; I have to play a song for the birthday boy,” before he practically skipped over to the jukebox.

  Tara shook her head with a smile and turned to look for Constance. She was easy to spot over by the table they had set up for food. She had her back to Tara right then, her nearly white blonde hair pulled up into a high ponytail to fall to the middle of her back. Her top was baby pink and three-quarter sleeve that resembled a sports jersey with the number sixteen on the back in white but the small O the six normally made was in a heart shape. Other than that, Constance was wearing snug jeans and her usual dangerous tendencies in footwear – this pair of heels in pink. She looked a bit sportier than usual, but nothing to evoke the joy Tara saw in Jacob.

  “Did you see?” He asked, so excited that someone would think it was Christmas and he was five.

  Tara shrugged. “She hasn’t turned for me to see the front, but from the back she looks fine.”

  Just then, the song that had been playing: an older tune by Matchbox 20 ended and the new song started. Jacob let out a delighted laugh and put a beer in front of her as she recognized the tune as Goldfinger’s “I Wanna Marry My Stalker”.

  She saw Conner across the room talking with their father, stiffen and spin to glare at Jacob and then flip him off before turning back to Vahl.

  Tara turned back to face her brother. “That’s mean, Jacob. I know you’re picking on Conner but what if you hurt Constance’s feelings? She’s a really nice girl and she tries very hard, you know.”

  “Her head’s so full of wedding bells, she won’t even notice.” His voice took on a rather grumpy edge as he added quietly, “She doesn’t notice anything.” Then he grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around so that she could see Constance had finally turned. Tara couldn’t stop her mouth from falling open when she saw the front of that baby pink shirt. In white script was written Conner & Connie framed in a heart.

  Jacob pulled her back around as he laughed. “Now you see why I’m so amused. Conner is livid. He’s tried telling Connie at least a hundred times that they’re just not like that, but he’s too nice and she just refuses to hear it. She’s so set on marrying him that she won’t face reality.”

  Tara thought of the gift that Constance had spent so much money on and planned to give to Conner tonight. She couldn’t imagine what Conner’s reaction would be. She wasn’t sure who she felt worse for, Conner who would be put in the position of breaking her heart or Constance who would have to pick up the pieces of that broken heart. And then there was Riley who had purchased the means of Constance’s downfall, probably with full knowledge of what was going to happen. What had he said? Something about Constance was a big girl and needed to make her own mistakes and live with the consequences. She wanted to kick him; he’d helped orchestrate what would put two people in a very awkward position.

  “I should go say something to her, Jacob. She bought Conner a gift that was pretty expensive and it might push him over the edge. I don’t want to see Constance get her heart broken.”

  “Now hold on, little sister, I know you mean well, but this is between Conner and Connie. He needs to be more firm and make her understand and she needs to face reality. If her gift ends up being the push they both need, then you need to let it play out.” He nudged the beer bottle closer to her. “Now drink up and let those two handle their own issues.”

  Tara bit her lip in indecision but then nodded and took a sip from the bottle.

  The Stag was filling up rapidly and Tara left Jacob to deal with drinks while she went to mingle and wish her brother a happy birthday. There were a few people at a corner table that she didn’t recognize and was about to go talk to when she saw Riley come through the door. Her heart seemed to skip a beat in her chest; he looked so good to her. He was wearing a light blue button down shirt and had cuffed the long sleeves half way up his tan forearms, with jeans and boots. Tara studied the latter for a moment, wondering if they were the same boots he had left at her house, but these appeared darker, at least in The Stag’s dim lighting. She had seen him just that morning but she realized it didn’t matter how little time had passed, she had missed him.

  She caught his eye and smiled, but he didn’t return it, just nodded his head at her before making his way to Conner. She watched him smile at her brother and shake his hand and then give him a few hard pats on the back. Then he turned his attention to the rest of the people in the group, smile and say a few words before turning away. She expected that he would come over and speak to her, but he went to the bar to order a beer from Jacob and then turned to look out over the room without once glancing her way. He just stood there, watching the people and sipping from the bottle.

  You have got to be kidding me, Tara thought. They had one lousy misunderstanding, not even a full-blown fight and he was going to ignore her? Oh, I don’t think so you rude, conceited, arrogant ass!

  She took a deep breath to calm down and walked over to the bar. “Hi” she said, motioning to Jacob to get her another beer. When Riley just nodded again and lifted the bottle for another drink, she pressed on. “I walked up to your place earlier to talk to you, but you weren’t there.”

  “I needed to run.” He said.

  “Can we talk now?” She asked

  “Nope” That one syllable word that he made pop at the end so that it sounded like two set fire to her temper and a loud angry snarl burst out of her mouth.


  Before she knew it, Riley had grabbed her by the back of the head and pulled her tight to his chest, wrapping his other arm around her. He leaned back slightly to look into her eyes and she knew what he saw, she had felt the weird muscle spasm again before everything went sharp and yellow. Her gums had tingled and ached slightly in her mouth so she ran her tongue over them to discover fangs. Fear quickly replaced her anger.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I’m just grumpy but you need to calm down. Jesus, why didn’t you tell someone you started the transition earlier than expected? You can’t do this here. Don’t turn your head, but those people sitting at that corner table aren’t like us. They’re outsiders that asked for and were given permission to come photograph some areas of our land for a nature magazine. They’re here for the weekend. Can you get control or do I need to get you out of here?”

  She tried to answer him but all she could do was growl. She was panting with fear as she heard Riley say to Jacob “Get your dad,” before he scooped her up to bring her to the back office.

  He set her on the couch and crouched before her rubbing her legs. “Take deep breaths, sweetheart, you’re okay, you’re going to be fine. I’m right here with you.”

  Vahl burst through the door a minute later with Sherry on his heels. He took one look at her and swore. “Damn, it’s happening earlier than expected. Are you okay, baby girl? Are you in pain?”

  She shook her head, no pain but she was afraid.

  “I knew I should have stayed by your side today after what happened earlier.” Vahl said.

  “What happened earlier?” Riley demanded.

  “She was growling at the diner and snarled at Connie when she tried to snag some of Tara’s food, but Tara wasn’t in any pain then, either, so I just thought she was having a reaction to being hungry this close to the transition.”

  Riley nodded and continued to rub her legs.