Crawford didn’t even bother to reply, just headed for the rec hall, beer in hand, which was fine by Ty. He headed for his private quarters to check on Riley.
* * *
Whenever decisions became difficult to make, Jess found that making a list of pros and cons helped her to sort things out—in this case, her attraction to Ty and whether she should encourage it or not.
She’d managed to exchange her pajamas and bathrobe after breakfast for just as comfortable soft sweat clothes. She’d tried working on her lesson plans like she normally did on Sunday, but the thought of those broad shoulders, and the memory of Ty’s kiss, had become a constant distraction.
On the paper in front of her she listed several pros. “Responsible.” Any man who’d willingly step up to meet his obligations as the parent of an unborn child and had his own business had something going for him in the responsibility department.
“Good-looking.” The second she finished writing it she crossed it out, not because it wasn’t a good thing, but more because it wasn’t an attribute that was truly a plus when it came to planning a future.
“Polite. Protective. No, scratch that, too.” She had way too many protective men circulating in her space lately.
“Sense of humor.” That was important, especially when it came to kids. She’d seen too many dads who were rigid and too serious with their kids. It didn’t help either the kid or the parent, especially once the kid got to be a preteen.
Under cons Jess began another list. “Secretive.” He wasn’t secretive in a bad way, rather in a way that made her curious. And since curiosity got the cat in trouble, she figured it was likely bad for schoolteachers, as well.
“Hotheaded.” And hot handed, if she was being honest with herself. Ty was definitely the physical type, which normally was a good thing, except when you were trying to avoid being intimate.
“Loner.” That definitely didn’t blend well with her family.
“Too charming.” Although she was certain that wasn’t a con, in this case she decided to count it as one because it muddled her ability to think clearly. He didn’t seem like the settling kind.
Jess tapped her lip with the end of her pencil. Of all the cons, that one troubled her most. It would be so easy to get wrapped up in a guy like Ty, only to find out he’d taken up a job doing something dangerous and was flying out of the country weeks before the baby was due.
In a town like Sinclair, there were plenty of military families. She saw them all the time at her school. Dad would sometimes be gone for months, even years depending on the circumstances. As close-knit as her family was, Jess couldn’t imagine living like that, no matter how much she loved the guy.
“Attracts trouble,” she added. Between the weirdos who had zeroed in on Ty at the bar, her brother getting hurt and the pregnancy, Ty seemed like the type that was flypaper for freaks and problems.
She folded the paper in half and shoved it to the edge of the desk in what had been her dad’s office when the house had been a bed-and-breakfast. This was her comfort spot, where she could feel connected to him. While he’d never let the boys play in here, he’d let her set up her dollhouse to play bed-and-breakfast in the corner of his office while he worked. She was much quieter. That helped.
It also made her feel the loss of him when she was twelve more acutely. All of a sudden she wasn’t Daddy’s girl anymore, or Mama’s angel. She was just the little sister in a house full of boys who didn’t understand her or know what to do with her.
Jess sighed. “Well, that didn’t help one bit. Now what?” She glanced at her lesson plans. Ty had mentioned perhaps taking her out to lunch today, but she’d neither heard from him nor seen him, so she was betting he either forgot or got caught up in some problem. She imagined there were a lot of questions to answer and people to deal with, considering what had happened at his school. The morning news had even mentioned the animal attack and the temporary closure of the program.
If nothing else she ought to give him a call and let him know about the doctor’s appointment she’d made after he’d left yesterday. But doing so still felt awkward to her. It was too...personal. And yet, logically, she knew she’d already been as personal with him as a person could be.
This whole backward-start-to-a-relationship thing really stank. It left her twisted up without the benefit of knowing him well enough to know what he was thinking or how he’d react. How in the world had her parents managed? And yet they had.
Jess picked up her cell phone before she chickened out.
“Grayson.” His tone was clipped, short, hard and took her aback for a second, making her stomach tie into a tighter knot.
“Hi, Ty, it’s me.”
His voice instantly softened. “Hey. How are you?”
“Good. Um, I was wondering how my brother was doing.” Jess bit her lip. God, she sounded like an idiot. Her voice had wavered slightly. What was she, a damn teenager?
“I’m with him right now. You want to talk to him?” The uncomfortable pressure inside her released. All worries about how she did or didn’t sound to Ty fled. Jess slid to the edge of her chair. “Yeah. That would be great!”
She heard the muffled sounds of Ty talking to Riley in the background, and the rasping movement as the phone slid across Riley’s stubbled cheek.
“Hey, Jess.” He sounded tired.
Her grip on the phone tightened as she stood up and started pacing. “How are you feeling?”
“I’ve had better days. Worse ones, too. A few stitches. Still got all my body parts that matter.”
Jess came to a sudden stop and stiffened. “You’re missing some?”
Riley laughed, the sound rasping and launching him into a coughing fit. “No. Just pulling your leg.”
“You gave us all a bad scare, you know that, don’t you, grunt.”
She could almost see him smile. Their nickname for him had changed from runt to grunt when he’d told them he was going into the military.
“Yeah. The risks of the job, and all that.”
“But you weren’t even deployed. It was just supposed to be training.”
“Do you really think we train easy so we can fight hard?”
She sighed. Just because that’s the way it was didn’t mean she had to like it. Frankly, she kind of blamed Ty for not having more precautions in place. “I guess not.” She paused for a second, worried that she might be tiring him out, but curiosity got the better of her. “What happened?”
The pause stretched on the phone. “I don’t really know. Got knocked down from behind, there was a lot of pain, and the next thing I know I’m lying in a bed, stitched up and staring at the ceiling.”
“Oh.” Well, that was less than helpful. Maybe he’d suffered a concussion on top of everything else. Hearing his voice and knowing he wasn’t unconscious and on some kind of life support made a world of difference, but it still didn’t completely reassure her. He sounded different.
“Hey, Jess, love you. Can you tell the biggins I’m okay?”
She smiled slightly against the phone. “Yeah. I’ll let Davis, Ed and Paul know. You just keep getting better and perhaps we can come see you soon.”
“Yeah. Talk to you later.”
The energy on the phone changed instantly the moment Ty came back on. “Jess, I’m kind of tied up here this afternoon, taking care of some things. Maybe we can do lunch tomorrow?”
“I’ve got school.”
“Yeah. Forgot that. Rain check?”
“Sure.”
* * *
Ty could tell he’d let her down. The Alpha in him cringed. That made two strikes. He’d let Riley get hurt on his watch and he wasn’t doing a very good job of forming any kind of relationship with his mate. How the hell did he think he was going to keep a pack together?
“Did I do okay?” Riley asked as he sat up in bed, his manner eager.
Ty gave him a half smile. “You did great, kid. Sounded like you were sicker than a dog.”
Riley’s face split into a smile. His dark bruises were already fading to a dull yellow. “Healing fast is the least of your powers now. You’ve likely already noticed your improved hearing.”
“Yeah, kinda giving me a headache.”
Ty nodded. “It will for a few days. It takes time to adjust. Once you’re fully recovered, we’ll head out and I can show you the basics of telescoping your vision to see farther and how to shift into your wolf form.”
Ty reached out to him with his mind. Remember that you can always reach the other members of your pack through mental communication. It allows us the greater advantage of being able to talk to one another while maintaining silence on a hunt.
This is so freakin’ cool. Riley’s voice in Ty’s head bubbled with excitement.
“You sure you’re okay with all this?”
“Oh, hell to the yeah. If I’d had any idea this was possible, I would’ve asked you to bite me the first time we met.”
Ty pulled back slightly and caught Riley’s gaze in a serious stare. “You know you can’t tell her about it. You can’t tell any of them.”
The smile on Riley’s face faded slightly. “Yeah, I figured.”
“There’s going to be a lot I need to teach you. But for now I want you to rest up. Finish healing. Get your strength back.”
“Can I go out on recon with you and the vampire tonight?”
Riley had taken Crawford’s presence in stride. Ty had to give him points for that. Kid didn’t seem too shaken up about meeting a full-fledged vampire, even after having been attacked by them, or in finding out he’d been bitten and was transitioning into a Were. He was going to make a fantastic Beta to the pack, once his puppylike enthusiasm toned down.
“No. Not a smart tactical move until you’ve worked with your new skills a bit. You’re still healing, too.”
Riley looked deflated by the news. “You really expect me to just sit here and watch TV, sleep and eat?”
“Yep.”
“That’s weak, man.”
“First rule of the pack, kid. I’m Alpha. That means my word is law.”
Riley glanced at him and nodded.
Ty handed Riley a piece of paper and a cell phone. “Crawford and I will be back before oh three hundred. If we’re not, or if you can’t reach me by speaking to me in your head, call this number and speak only to Achilles. He’ll know what to do.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good man. Rest up.”
Good hunting. Riley’s voice echoed in Ty’s head. The kid had caught on quick to how packs communicated.
Stay inside. And no shifting until I get back.
Riley grumbled as Ty slipped out of the cabin. The clouds overhead were dark and threatening and smelled of ozone and rain. A storm was blowing in.
Crawford walked toward him from across the compound. He’d put on a black leather jacket. “You ready to go hunt these reivers down?”
“What’s the deal with you vampires and black leather?” Ty gibed.
“It makes us look badass.” The smug tone in Crawford’s voice was annoying.
Ty snorted as he stripped bare and crouched down, splaying his fingers into the earth. “Yeah. See, that’s the thing. Weres don’t need anything to make us look badass. We just are. First one to tag a reiver wins.” It took only seconds for him to shift into his wolf form, but the sound of bone and skin, ligament and nerve reforming made Crawford flinch.
“Dude. That was gross.”
Ty gave the vampire a wolf’s grin, flashing white canines far bigger than Crawford’s fangs. He took a deep inhale to scent a trace of the vampires, then coiled his muscles tight and sprang off running into the woods. Crawford had enough speed to keep up with him and their pace ate up the clicks quickly, taking them deep into the forest.
Massive old-growth trees, their lower branches heavy with coatings of pale green lichen that hung off them like funky hair, dominated the landscape, marching up to the base of the high and snow-capped Olympic peaks. Ty tried to stay well below the alpine zone, preferring not to leave easily followed tracks in the snow.
They stopped for a moment to gain their bearings. Ty tasted the salt wind blowing in off Puget Sound, but the stench of the vampire next to him made it hard to catch the more elusive scent of the reivers. The differences were subtle, but definite.
Ty knew Crawford wouldn’t be able to understand him speaking in his wolf form. None could, unless they were shifters like him, or half-breeds who were part Were, like Raina and Slade. He settled for yipping to get Crawford’s attention and scraping an arrow in the dirt with his paw.
Crawford sank to his heels. “How far?”
Ty pawed the dirt six times.
“Six clicks?”
Ty nodded. Crawford eyed him suspiciously. “Damn. You can understand what I’m saying, can’t you? I thought you’d be dumber in your animal form.”
Ty growled low.
“No offense,” Crawford said, holding up a hand. “It’s just a common assumption among vampires that your human nature is subverted by your animal instincts when you shift.”
Ty huffed, shaking his great head, making the silver-gray ruff about his neck puff up slightly, along with the dark ridge of hair along his back.
They took the next six clicks at a slower pace, scouting and looking more keenly for signs of the reivers or their Thralls as twilight fell, forcing Ty to rely on his other more acute senses. There were faint smudges of dark blood here and there along the animal paths in the wood that by scent alone Ty knew weren’t normal. Discarded, decaying bodies, human and animal, were scattered sporadically throughout a four-click radius around where the attack of his students had taken place.
Ty shifted into his human form, steam rolling off his bare skin in the night air. “Well, we know one thing. This is their hunting ground.”
“Or part of it, anyway.”
“But that’s not the four-trillion-dollar question.”
“What is?”
Ty looked into the darkened woods holding their secrets close. “Where’s their damn nest?”
Chapter 9
The moon rose over the tips of the Cascade mountain range in the distance. An owl, hunting by the growing light, hooted in the boughs of the huge fir trees. Pale green moss hung from the branches, making it easy to imagine they were in the bayous of the Deep South, all except for the lack of water underfoot and the far taller height of the trees. They climbed over a thousand feet in elevation and the air up here was a damn sight colder than in the lowlands.
Ty’s breath hung in crystallized white clouds in front of his face. He glanced at Crawford. The vampire didn’t breathe at all. Ty examined one of the dark smears of blood/ichor mix. “This isn’t fresh. They haven’t been back since the attack. Now what?”
“If what you’re looking for can’t be found, then you’re looking in the wrong place,” Crawford answered.
Ty glared at him. “Thanks for the philosophy lesson. You’re the damn vampire. How do we find these bastards?”
“If they’re building an army of Thralls, they’ll need a place big enough to house them, keep them close together so they can have better control over the hive mind. It’ll also have to be close enough to people that they can bring in newbies to turn.”
“So we’re looking for what?”
“A big space close to a supply of food, but scary or dangerous enough that you wouldn’t get a bunch of traffic. Abandoned warehouse or factory, something along those lines.”
Ty’s brow rose. “You do know we’re in the middle of the back forty to nowhere, right?”
“Any caves around here?”
Ty shook his head. “Not the kind of terrain for that sort of thing.” He thought about the peninsula. When he’d been searching for territory, he’d deliberately stayed east of the coast, not wanting to encroach on a pack already there. The big mountains of the Olympics and the harsh environment they created made living close to nature too much of a challenge to locate there.
That had limited his choices. Either go north on the Olympic Peninsula looking over the narrow strip of salt water to the shores of Canada or try south, closer to Seattle out on the Kitsap Peninsula. He’d gone south, but that didn’t mean the reiver vampires had. They’d want to stay within travel distance of the Cascade Clan, but not close enough to be dangerous—just as he’d done with the coastal Were pack.
“They’ve got to be north,” he said, more to himself than to Crawford.
“Why?”
“Gut feeling. That’s where I’d go if I were trying to avoid the Cascade Clan but wanted to be close enough to cause trouble.”
Crawford shrugged. “Makes sense. Anything up there they might use?”
“Possibly.” Ty glanced at Crawford. “Want to visit some historical sites?”
Crawford shifted his weight. “What are you thinking?”
“There’s old concrete military bunkers out toward Port Angeles, built to house big guns guarding the Strait of San Juan De Fuca. Used to be part of Camp Hayden in World War II. They’re pretty damn close to big caves. Big underground warren of rooms. Easy to secure. Half buried in the hills.”
Crawford’s fangs glinted in the light as he smiled. “Sounds promising. How do we get there?”
This time it was Ty’s turn to smile. “Follow me.”
“Only if you either put your fur coat back on or get dressed. I’m not looking at your naked ass all the way there.”
Ty obliged him by shifting.
* * *
An hour later they were nearing the top of Striped Peak. The mountain tipped up in a heavily forested point out of the coastal land, looking down on the coastline. But even five miles in, Ty’s sensitive ears could pick up the roar of the surf against the rocks.
One Night With the Shifter Page 10
