by C. C. Dado
“Not monster.” Kimber’s face scrunched up into a frown at Max.
Max looked sufficiently scolded before nodding in agreement at her, turning her frown back into a hundred-watt smile.
Usually Sunday pack meal was one of Zeus’s favorite times. He loved the community coming together and going for a run afterward, but today the person currently taking up every corner of his mind was a stranger in the woods. All he wanted to do was leave and head to town. He was going to find out exactly what the guy’s story was tonight.
Christian must have sensed his eagerness to leave. “After dinner, let’s talk,” he said, directed at Zeus.
“Sure thing.”
They all returned to eating until someone noticed the smell.
“What in all that is holy is that smell?” Seth asked in a fake retch, shoving his nose into the crook of his elbow. Zeus knew it was Kron but had to agree it was one of the worst things he’d ever smelled. It was like someone had opened a bag of rotten broccoli.
“Oh shut up,” Max told Seth, getting up and gently pulling Kron out of the playpen behind him.
“Here, I’ll go change him,” Alicia said, rushing over. “At least this one I can touch.”
Nope, not even looking up at her, Zeus thought, feeling her eyes still burning into his head.
“Stop it, stop it right now!” Max angrily said to Seth, who was wafting the air in front of him.
“Okay, you two, quit,” Christian told both of them. “Seth, my mate is a little overly emotional and exhausted, so he’s defensive over the kids.”
“I am not overly emotional,” Max said, his chin starting to tremble as his eyes welled up with tears.
Seth instantly got up from his seat and went around the table to throw his arms around his best friend. “I’m sorry. You know I’m always here for you if you need help. I mean, I don’t really know how to take care of babies, but I can definitely help with Kimber. Kimber, do you want to bake cookies with me later?”
The big-eyed toddler nodding as she chewed her dinner made Zeus smile. His family was like a living roller coaster.
Christian watched proudly over their show of support.
Alicia brought Kron, who was of course crying, back in, and tried to hand him to Max, but Max just pointed her over to Zeus, making everyone at the table sad for him.
Zeus set the baby on his lap, leaning him back up against his wide chest. The baby seemed content to sit there and watch the people at the table.
“Don’t look so sad. You’ll make the baby sad,” Christian said, watching Max turn his frown into a fake smile. The tiny giggle from Zeus’s lap shocked everyone.
“Holy shit,” Max gasped.
“Don’t swear around the kids.”
“Did you see that? I made him laugh. He looked at me and giggled.”
The happiness on Max’s face spread throughout the table as he started changing his face from a frown to a smile over and over, always getting the same giggly response from Kron. After a bit he started yawning and dozed off in Zeus’s lap. Max took him and laid him back in his playpen with the most heartfelt look on his face Zeus had ever seen.
Christian gestured toward the hallway leading to his part of the main lodge, away from the rest of the pack. Apparently it was time for that talk.
“WHAT HAVE you found so far?” Christian asked as the door closed behind them.
Zeus was conflicted about his answer, which was a weird feeling for him. His loyalty to his alpha and his pack had never been in question, but now he also felt an unexplained loyalty to this stranger.
“I think he’s here because of Kimber and Kron.”
“Get rid of him.”
Zeus saw the look in his alpha’s eyes. If he didn’t do it, Christian would.
“It’s more complicated than that. I need more time.”
“I will not risk my family.”
“I’m not asking you to. I’m asking you to give me a day. Keep Max and the kids on the commune.”
“Why?”
“Because something else is going on. I’m not sure what it is yet, but none of it fits. I saw him recognize the kids, but the man I followed into the woods last night is broken. He’s sick and hungry. There’s more to this.”
Christian contemplated Zeus before responding. “Twenty-four hours, that’s it. You can head out. I do not want him out of your sight until this is figured out or he’s gone. If you need extra men, just call me. I’ll give everyone your goodbyes.”
“Thank you,” Zeus said, heading out the side entrance, relief coursing through his body.
BY THE time he made it back to town, the tourist day was starting to wind down. The pack would just be getting ready for the run. Zeus discreetly scanned the area as he pulled up in front of the bakery. The stranger was there. Zeus could sense it. He spotted him in the rearview mirror, across the street. His eyes locked on to Zeus’s truck, and he abruptly turned, heading around the side of the building toward the woods.
Zeus greeted the shop owners as they closed up, making his way into the shadow of the forest. He made the decision not to shift, quietly working his way back to the makeshift camp. There the intruder was, frantically pacing between two giant evergreens. Zeus’s stealthy movements didn’t give the stranger a chance to run before he was shoved up against a tree, Zeus’s thick forearm at his throat.
“What are you doing in my town?” Zeus’s frustration over his unanswered questions came through in his speech.
The authentic fear in the stranger’s eyes made Zeus pull back just a bit.
The man tried pushing himself away from Zeus, like he was trying to climb the tree backward. “I…. I… was… j-just….” He looked like he was about to hyperventilate.
Zeus’s urge to protect him flared up, making him feel like he was at war with himself. “I’m not going to hurt you,” Zeus said, instantly changing his tactic. This man was not a threat, but someone was. Zeus removed his arm from his throat, while still keeping him held against the tree until he had some answers. “Who sent you here?”
The stranger lowered his gaze to the ground. The scent of emotions rolling off him was thick with shame and guilt.
“I need you to answer.” Zeus’s tone indicated a threat.
“I don’t know,” he responded, looking like he might start to cry.
Zeus took a second to really look at him, struck by the fact that this stranger, partially covered in the grime of the woods, was actually beautiful. He looked tired and scared, but handsome in a way that made Zeus’s breath pause. Zeus mentally shook himself, pulling his thoughts back to the present conversation.
“You don’t know who sent you here?”
“No,” the man said adamantly. “I mean, I’ve seen him, but I don’t really know who he is. A guy came to my house. He had all this paperwork. My parents passed away a few months ago. He said my mom had stolen from them and that I owed her debt. He said they could take everything. We lived on a small farm. My parents were just gardeners. It’s all I have left of them.”
“What were you supposed to do to pay their debt?”
“He gave me a list of places and a picture of two kids and told me to find them,” he said, shame clear in his voice.
“Were you told to hurt them?”
“No,” the guy practically yelled. “I was just supposed to keep an eye out for the kids and if I saw them I was supposed to contact him. This was the last town on the list.”
“I know you’ve seen them. Is someone on their way here now?”
“No. I haven’t contacted him,” he said.
Zeus was no longer confident in his ability to scent out a lie after Seth having been able to fool him. He stared at the man, trying to gauge the sincerity of his words.
“I swear. I didn’t call anyone.” His head fell back against the tree, like he knew Zeus wasn’t going to believe him.
“Why?”
The stranger looked around the woods like he was lost, finally settling his gaz
e back on Zeus. “When I came here, all I could think about was protecting my home, my farm. That’s it for me. It’s the only place I’ve ever lived. I don’t know anything else. But when I saw those kids in real life, I knew I couldn’t contact him. I don’t know what is going on, why he’s looking for them, but I got this sick feeling in my gut when I saw them. I can’t explain it, but I knew he would hurt them.”
Zeus saw the pain in this stranger’s eyes and knew he was telling the truth. He still had a lot of questions—for instance, if this was Kimber and Kron’s pack looking for them, why send this person who was completely unprepared for the task? Why wouldn’t you send a pack tracker?
“What’s your name?”
“Toren,” he said, almost too quiet for Zeus to hear.
“Toren?” Zeus rolled the name off his tongue, liking the way it sounded. “I have a lot more questions before we’re through. And until I get all my answers, I’m your new shadow.” The lack of response had Zeus continuing. “Since I can’t bring you into town until I’m a hundred percent convinced you’re not a threat, we might as well get comfortable.”
“I don’t… I can’t….” Toren seemed unable to finish, like he was overwhelmed at the very thought.
Zeus picked up a small tree branch that had fallen and started snapping it into pieces and tossing them into a pile. “It’s going to be getting cold soon.”
“I can leave. I won’t ever tell anyone about the kids.” Toren’s words came out faster and faster as he spoke, reaching into the lean-to for his backpack.
“You’re not leaving.”
“Why?” Toren asked, the fear clear in his voice as he looked down at the ground.
“Until I figure this out, both those kids and you are in danger. Do you think this person is going to forget about you if you don’t contact him? You can’t just go back home. And if you tried to tell them you didn’t find the kids, they would know you were lying.” Zeus knew as soon as he said those words he couldn’t let Toren leave Easter Valley. He was now Zeus’s to protect, the same as his pack, and a part of him settled with the rightness of it.
Toren looked defeated at Zeus’s words.
“Why don’t you sit,” Zeus suggested, gesturing to a fallen tree. Zeus grabbed some twigs and dry brush, pulling a lighter out of his pocket, and prepared for a long evening.
He had some things to figure out with the alpha if Toren was going to stay in Easter Valley.
Chapter 6: Mine
TOREN DOZED off shortly after Zeus started the fire. Zeus eventually carried him inside and laid him in the lean-to.
In the morning Zeus sat around the still-burning fire as Toren woke.
“I’m going to go get food. You understand you can’t leave here, right?”
Toren sat up, looking torn over his need to leave and his hunger. He finally nodded, his hunger apparently winning.
“We’ll get this figured out, Toren. I promise you.” Zeus’s words seemed to have made Toren relax. “And Toren, I’m sorry about your parents.”
Toren thought that over for a moment, before responding, “Thank you. They were very much in love. My only solace in this whole thing is that they went together. I’m pretty sure one would have died of a broken heart without the other.”
Zeus acknowledge that statement with a soft smile, thinking how that really did happen in his culture, and headed to the bakery.
Christian had said Max refused to close it another day, so he was there with him. Thankfully Monday mornings were usually pretty slow tourist days. Max was still filling the display cases when Zeus walked in.
Christian acknowledged him with a nod as he tried to help Kimber get out her coloring book and kept the other hand wrapped around Kron on his hip.
“Seriously, wear the front pack,” Max said, coming around the counter to take Kron.
“Yeah, I’m not wearing that,” Christian said, handing Kron over. The baby looked undecided on how he felt about that until Max started changing his expression from happy to sad, making Kron smile and gladly let himself be handed over.
“There’s my boy,” Max said, the pride and happiness so clear in his voice.
Christian’s smile reflected the same.
“Unca-Eus,” Kimber said, forgetting about her coloring and happily trotting over to see him.
“Hi, baby girl.”
“Hey, why don’t we go in the kitchen and have Uncle Seth make you something amazing for breakfast,” Max suggested.
She didn’t think twice before heading back through the swinging half doors.
Christian waited until Kimber was gone before looking toward Zeus for an update.
“Did you find him?”
“Yeah, I found him. And I was right, he was sent here to find the kids.”
“Since you are here alone I will assume he is no longer a problem.”
A shame Zeus had never experienced washed over him at not obeying his alpha, but he knew this was one order he could never obey.
“Zeus?”
Zeus inhaled, his desires to protect so conflicted inside him. “I think he needs our help as much as those kids do.”
“No.”
Zeus was taken aback by the power rolling off the alpha, forcing him to bare his neck in response.
“He is not staying in this town. Go find him and get rid of him, today.” Christian turned like the discussion was over.
“No.” Zeus fought his loyalty to respond, the struggle clear in his voice.
Christian turned back to Zeus.
Zeus stared into his alpha’s eyes, pleading with him to understand. “You are my alpha, and I will lay down my life for you, but I will not lay down his.”
Christian seemed to deflate at his words. “What’s going on, Zeus?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I’m confused,” Zeus said, rubbing a hand over his shaved head like the answers were in there if he could just get them out. “He was sent here to find them, but he never notified anyone when he did. He said he couldn’t. The man that sent him was threatening to take his home. He’s scared, Christian, but he’s no threat to those kids.”
Christian stared at him so hard Zeus could feel his struggle over what to do.
“And there’s something else.” Zeus paused, trying to find the words to explain something he didn’t understand himself. “I feel drawn to him. I cannot hurt him, Christian. My wolf will not allow me to, even if I wanted to.”
“Is he your mate?”
The words caused his stomach to clench. “I don’t know that either.”
“That isn’t a thing that is a maybe. Either he is or he isn’t. Your wolf would tell you.”
“He’s human.”
“So? Look at Jack and Seth. Apparently our pack is a wolf/human pack.”
“It’s not just that. It’s like the feeling that he is my mate is right there but, like, out of reach. I can’t really explain it.”
Christian stared at him for a long time before responding. “If you truly believe he is not a threat, then I want you to bring him to me.”
“Not if there’s a chance you’ll hurt him. I’m loyal to you as my alpha, but you will have to go through me to get to him.”
“I won’t hurt him. But their pack is hunting the kids,” Christian said. “If you trust him, he may be our best chance at making them believe they’re not here. Bring him to the lodge tonight.”
“You want me to bring him to the commune?” Zeus asked, not sure he had heard him correctly.
“How long have we been friends, Zeus?”
“Life,” Zeus responded.
“Have you ever gone against me for another?”
“No, and I’m sorry I had to now.”
“You are my beta. Whether this is your mate or not, you have claimed him as yours. I will honor that. We’ll protect them, all of them.”
“Thank you, Christian.” Zeus headed toward the door.
/> Chapter 7: Welcome to Easter Valley
THE CLEARING was empty when Zeus arrived, instantly causing his pulse to race. The tall evergreens surrounding the area made it darker than the day warranted. He noticed Toren’s bag still stuck in the corner of the lean-to and relaxed, comfortable in the knowledge that he wouldn’t have left without it.
Toren came walking into the clearing a few minutes later, his hair damp and his shirt stuck to him like he had put it back on when he was still wet. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Zeus standing by the tree. “You’re back.”
Zeus found himself studying him instead of responding. He looked different without all the grime. His features were so handsome, yet guarded, like he trusted no one.
“Why are you wet?” Zeus asked, realizing as soon as he said it that Toren had obviously bathed in the stream. Zeus was mesmerized by a drop of water running out of his hair and down the side of his face.
“I found a stream and needed to bathe,” Toren admitted, looking down at the ground.
Zeus could smell his natural scent better now. And there it was again, that feeling that his wolf wanted to claim him as his, but like Zeus, he was unsure. He also caught the subtle hint of monkshood. He needed to figure out how Toren was ingesting it.
“You need to be careful of what you eat in the forest,” Zeus started.
“I grew up on a farm, remember, and my parents were master gardeners. I know what not to eat.”
Zeus walked closer to him. “Have you ever heard of monkshood?”
“Yes, my mom grew it in her greenhouse.”
“Why would your mom grow a poisonous plant in her greenhouse?”
Toren smiled a little at that. “My mom grew everything. And it’s not poisonous in small doses. My mom made her own medicines out of her plants. I used to get seizures when I was a teenager, so she grew the aconitum for me. There’s a small dose of it in the medicine I take to stop them from happening. I haven’t had one in years. It does make me tired, though,” Toren admitted.
Zeus wasn’t sure what to say to that. He could smell the sickness on him, but it didn’t smell like any illness he had smelled before. All he could smell was the sickness from poison. He would talk with the pack doctor and see what she thought.
