On the Edge (Adirondack Pack Book 3)

by K. C. Stewart

  Wait.

  “You aren’t scared of Sadie and Tyson?” she asked the cat.

  “Merow.”

  Owen had told her that cats usually hated wolves. It’s why he never had one. The cat finished his food and now set on cleaning his face with little licks and swipes to his head with his paw.

  “Would you like to come home with me?”

  It purred and butted its head against her knee. Mira took that as a yes, not giving herself the chance to change her mind and scooped up the cat.

  Although it wasn’t very fond of the car ride over to Owen’s, it didn’t give her much of a fight either. She was worried it would jump out of her arms since she didn’t have a carrier but the cat made no move to go and just purred at all the attention.

  She didn’t know how a cat would be received by the other people living in the house. Mira hadn’t exactly considered that when she took it from the Wick parking lot. This was one of those ask for forgiveness rather than permission moments.

  With coffee in one hand and a cat in the other, Mira ran up the steps as fast as her heels would allow. It was early yet and most of the people were still in their rooms getting ready so she didn’t run into anyone. At his door, she put in her pass code and slipped inside. The cat immediately jumped from her arms and began to stake the place out.

  Her office was next to Owen’s. Actually, it was half of Owen’s. He had recently built a dividing wall so that she could have her own area that wasn’t a glorified closet. Mira had told him that she was perfectly fine to use a room downstairs but he liked having her close. She wasn’t going to argue because she enjoyed the privacy, something her old office had little of.

  The door to his room was open and she peeked her head in. Owen was on the phone, probably ironing out last minute details for the meeting they were going to with the other Alphas. She left him to it rather than interrupt.

  In her own office, she dropped her purse on her desk and powered on her computer. She hadn’t come in yesterday so she had a few hours of work to do. The cat skittered into the room, did a perimeter check, head butt her legs and then ran out again. She smiled. He was happy. Hopefully, Owen was too when he found out what she brought him.

  *****

  Three pies were all he was getting out of her. Sadie had planned on a bit of variety for today’s dessert menu but Chuck had asked her to go see Lee this morning. Surprised was an understatement. Sadie had grabbed hold of his sleeve as he tried to walk away.

  “Hold up. Does Lee know I’m coming over?” Sadie asked suspiciously. She was not about to get accosted because Chuck decided to take matters into his own hands.

  “Actually, yes. She agreed to talk to you the other day. I didn’t want to spring everything on her at once so I let her get used to the idea for a day or so. Lee’s in a bad place right now, she needs people.”

  Sadie tried and failed to hide the bubbling excitement in her voice. “Should I call Tyson and Owen?”

  Chuck shook his head. “No. Baby steps, Sadie. Let’s not bombard her with everything. Just go over and see what she has to say. Be her friend.”

  Sadie didn’t like what he was insinuating. “I’ve been trying to be her friend for months now,” she said defensively.

  He looked tired as he ran a frustrated hand down his face. “That’s not what I said. Stop being defensive and go help Lee.”

  Chuck had never snapped at her like that. This rift that they had created between Lee and everyone else had to be hell on him, she realized. He hadn’t taken sides and had to juggle the aftermath.

  Sadie gathered her bags. “How bad is she?” she asked before leaving.

  The sorrow on his face worried her. “Bad enough.”

  There was something missing from Lee’s house when she pulled in the driveway. The house used to have this glowing pride about it. Lee took care in what flowers she put in the beds and her lawn was always impeccable. The inside was just as nice with places for everything, blankets laid artfully across the sofas and fresh cut flowers perfuming the air. Sadie had slept on her couch for two weeks after Jack had attacked her and she changed. Lee had been in a constant state of exasperation at Sadie’s lack of tidiness, especially in the kitchen.

  That touch of care Lee had given this place was nowhere now. Her grass was the longest on the block, weeds had encroached on the flowers to the point where you could no longer see the beautiful colors of her azaleas.

  Sadie knocked on the door but didn’t wait and went right in. She had a funny feeling in her gut that was telling her Chuck had been going easy on the “bad” description. After a quick intake of breath in surprise at the state of Lee’s house, Sadie called out a hello. There was no answer. “Lee? Chuck sent me. He said you wanted to talk.”

  Sadie made her way through the living room to the kitchen. Dishes were piled in the sink, the trash had begun to smell and the cabinet doors were open. Not in the way that someone was rifling through them but that the person was too lazy to close the door after they were done.

  “Lee!” she called out again. There was creak in one of the rooms down the hall. Sadie headed to Lee’s bedroom and pushed open the door. Lee was on the floor, propped up in the corner. A blanket was wrapped around her shoulders but even through the heavy material, she could see Lee tremble.

  Her eyes darted up to Sadie. “Chuck works fast,” Lee said hoarsely.

  “What’s wrong?” Sadie knelt down in front of her and pushed the damp strands of hair off her forehead. Her skin was on fire. “Are you sick?”

  She laughed, a hollow and broken sound. “You could say that. Oh shit.”

  Her face had gone white and Sadie was afraid she was going to be sick. Lee crumpled into herself with a moan. Sweat glistened off her forehead. Sadie jumped up and ran to the bathroom, she came back with a cold wash cloth and draped it over the back of her neck. The cloth seemed to settle her a little. Lee lifted her head enough so she could look at Sadie. There were dark purple lines under her eyes and it looked like she had lost some weight just in the few days since she had last seen her.

  “I can’t stop,” she said through clenched teeth. “I don’t know why but I just keep shifting.”

  “Shifting? So not the flu? Oh fudge.” This was not good. In fact, it was very, very bad.

  Sadie was rubbing her back with one hand telling her it was going to be ok, but with her other she was rooting around her purse trying to find her phone. “Just breathe. Come on, deep inhale. That’s it. Now let it out slowly. Slower. There you go. And another.” Her fingers brushed over the familiar screen and gripped her device.

  Lee was breathing but her eyes had gone glassy and her body stilled. The air energized like lightning right before it struck ground and Lee began to shift. It was fast and brutal. Sadie didn’t touch her while her body changed and contorted into a wolf. There was something distant and wild in the quick flashes of her eyes that she saw.

  Unsure of the mind frame her wolf was in, she backed out of the room and closed the door. With trembling fingers, she dialed Owen.

  *****

  He had two more alphas on board for the meeting. That made seven of them all together. They were planning it for two weeks from now. Owen didn’t want to give them a chance to back out.

  He had heard Mira come in twenty minutes earlier but he had been on a call. She had brought with her some unusual scents. Cats to be exactly. Mira smelled like a cat had rubbed all over her. Owen knew that it would be an entertaining conversation when he asked her about it but decided a refill on coffee was needed first.

  With his mug in hand, he went out to the kitchen. At first, he had walked right past the little intruder. He popped a K-cup into his Keurig and turned to lean back against the counter as he waited. That’s when he noticed the cat sitting on his couch watching him.

  “Hello,” he said in surprise.

  The regal looking cat who had taken over his couch as if it were a throne, blinked.

  Owen looked around but didn’
t see Mira nearby. “Uh…”

  As if having lived here all its life the cat stretched its paws out in front of him, and then his back. When he was limber he jumped off the couch and pranced over to Owen. The cat wound in between his legs, jabbering on in various pitches of “meow.”

  His coffee forgotten, Owen picked up the cat and was shocked when it didn’t hiss and squirm out of his arms. The little back cat pressed his head into Owen’s hand as he scratched under his chin.

  Owen smiled.

  “Did Mira bring you over?”

  The cat was in too much ecstasy to respond. He was purring and rolling, trying to get Owen’s fingers to scratch more.

  “Right, well, I think we better have a talk with Rabbit.”

  She was at her desk, biting on a pen as she frowned down at a stack of paperwork. Twice now in as many minutes he had been surprised. Mira, who had taken to dressing in jeans lately, was hugged in a skirt that silhouetted her curves. Under the desk, her foot bounced in a pair of heels that made his mouth go dry. She had taken care to dress that morning, But not just that, she had dressed to play up every one of his favorite features. Her hair was up and twisted in some sort of bun that left her neck bare. The blouse she wore was a rich blue, which matched exactly to the blue under layer in her hair. It made her pale skin look creamy and smooth next to the shock of jewel toned color.

  Mira looked up and caught him staring. At first, she smiled at him but then she got a glint in her eye. His Rabbit smirked, which directed his eyes to the full red lips in which he had fallen in love with at first sight.

  “I see he found you,” she said looking back down to her notes.

  “Huh?”

  “The cat.”

  Owen had forgotten he was holding a cat. “Yeah.”

  Mira laughed and pushed herself back from her desk. His mouth went dry when she stood.

  “He likes you,” she said coming over to pet the cat’s head. “Do you like him?”

  Owen nodded, took a breath and exhaled. “Yes,” he said proud of himself for forming a word. “They don’t usually like me.”

  “Which is weird because you are a vet.”

  He laughed. “Yes, it is. But at the office, the animals are usually scared regardless. What should we name him?”

  Mira quirked her lips as she looked at him. Owen followed the movement with a smile. “How about Bluto?”

  He blinked. “As in Animal House?”

  “No, but that works too. I was thinking along the lines of Bluto the Terrible from Popeye.”

  “So sure that he is going to be terrible? This sweet thing?” Owen held up Bluto and on cue, he gave her a cute little meow. Mira’s face melted.

  “Awww Boo baby, I didn’t mean it. You aren’t terrible.”

  After she had a chance to redeem herself in the cat’s eyes Owen put Bluto on the floor and it skittered away and out the door to explore. “So why did you get me a cat?”

  Mira slid her arms around his waist and into his back pockets. He obliged her by doing the same, only she didn’t have pockets so he left his hands rest on the curve of her ass.

  She lifted and eyebrow but didn’t comment. “Well, he likes shifters and I remembered you said once that you’d have a pet if you could. And cats are so independent, he’ll be happy to entertain himself when you aren’t here.”

  “That was thoughtful. Thank you. I think we are going to get along quite well.”

  She beamed. “Good. But see, I was thinking that maybe I should bring some of my stuff over since I’ll be around more.”

  This was news to him. “Oh? And why would you be around more?”

  Mira was trying to hold back a smile. “Well, we can’t have him growing up in a disjointed household. How would he explain to his little feline friends that his mommy and daddy sleep in different houses?”

  His heart skipped a beat when she said “mommy and daddy.” Was his Rabbit telling him that she was finally ready to move in with him and using the cat as an excuse? Who was he to burst her little fantasy since it’s what he has wanted all along?

  “You’re right,” he agreed and kissed her.

  “Of course, I am,” she said opening her eyes and smiling at him.

  “How much stuff are we talking?”

  She rubbed her lips together, wetting them before flashing those eyes of hers up to him and saying, “all of it.”

  This time, when he kissed her, he lifted her into the air. She squealed as he walked her out of the office, through the living room and to the bedroom. Owen dropped her on the bed. A piece of her hair had come undone and fell in her face. She blew it out of the way and rounded on him. “What the hell?”

  He stepped in and kissed her again. There were no words for how happy he was at the moment. Months of asking, badgering, begging, pleading and she finally was going to be here, with him, for good. He had her shirt pulled off and tossed behind him on the floor. Her hands were working on the button of his jeans when his phone began to ring in the other room.

  “Ignore it,” she said breathlessly.

  “Plan to.”

  Mira wiggled back into the center of the bed and then rolled over. She wiggled her ass and for a moment he was mesmerized, then he saw the zipper. Owen leaned over, one hand on the bed for support while the other, painstakingly slow, pulled the zipper down, one precious inch at a time.

  What kind of panties would she be wearing? He knew she favored those lace cheeky things but every now and then she surprised him with nothing. He was one more inch away from knowing when his emergency phone rang.

  Mira frowned having never heard the ring before. “What’s that?”

  He dropped his forehead to the small of her back and cursed. “I’m sorry. I can’t ignore that one.”

  Owen kissed her quickly and pushed himself back to his feet. The emergency phone was just that. Used only for fires, blood and death. Most the time people could reach him on his cell so it didn’t ring often. But he had ignored his cell earlier.

  “Yes?” he answered.

  “I need help.”

  “Sadie? What is it?” There was an unmistakable note of terror in her voice.

  “Lee. It’s Lee. I’m at her house and-” There was a loud thud. “Calm down! I’m getting help.” Another thud.

  “What the hell is going on?” Owen ran into the bedroom and pulled out two drawers of his dresser until he found a shirt.

  “Owen?” Mira asked slipping on her own shirt.

  “Lee keeps shifting. She was feverish when I got here, her house is destroyed and then she shifted. I told her I was calling for help and then she snapped and started running into the door.”

  “What is she doing now?”

  Mira was on his tail when he left the bedroom. He was looking for his keys when she grabbed her purse and whistled. She jerked her head toward the door.

  “I don’t know. It’s gone quiet.”

  “Alright, I’m on my way over. I’ll be there in five minutes. Don’t go in that room.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Sadie was waiting for Owen outside. She was on her phone, her lips pressed into a thin line as she nodded at what the person on the other end said. Her eyes flicked to Mira’s jeep and relief flooded into them.

  “Where is she?” Owen asked before Mira could even put the car in park.

  “The bedroom but Owen I need to warn you-”

  He slowed down but didn’t stop altogether. They could walk and talk.

  “She changed back.”

  That stopped him. “Already?”

  Sadie nodded. “Her speed is increasing. The first shift I saw took about two minutes. This one was one, maybe. I’ve never seen it done so fast.”

  She’d kill herself if she kept it up. Her heart wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of shifting that fast and that often.

  Owen found Lee just where Sadie had told him. She was on the floor, her cheek resting on the hardwood. A blanket had been thrown over her naked body, pieces
of shredded clothing decorating the area around her.

  Lee didn’t say or do anything to acknowledge that he was in the room. She just kept staring straight ahead, under the bed.

  Owen took stock of her. He checked her pulse and then her breathing. Lee moved without restraint. Her eyes glazed over in a kind of trance.

  “Lee, can you hear me?”

  Nothing. No sound, no blink, nothing.

  Owen picked her up and settled her on his lap where he could look into her eyes. She was all dead weight. Her body lay limp in his arms. Had he not felt her breath and heard her heartbeat, he would think she was dead.

  With a hand on her cheek, he turned her head. This time, her eyes shifted and she looked right at him.

  “Hey,” he said softly.

  Lee took a shuddering breath. He looked down at a small amount of pressure on his arm, she had put her hand on him and was slowly gripping him harder and harder with a shaking hand. The urgency he felt from her scared him.

  “What happened?”

  Her eyes were pleading with him, but he didn’t know for what.

  “Shhhhh,” said rocking her. “I’ve got you, Lee. Just calm down.”

  With trembling lips she said, “it's coming.”

  Owen brushed a hand soothingly over her hair. Her body was becoming stiff, her muscles clenching. “What is?”

  She didn’t have time to answer. Lee’s body contorted, her back arching in his arms. There was a short cry and then nothing. Owen was now holding a wolf. A panting, exhausted wolf.

  He didn’t change his position, he just kept petting Lee in an attempt to calm her. The front door opened and closed, rushed footsteps found them in the bedroom. Tyson stopped when he saw them. A strangled moan came from him as he dropped to his knees in front of Lee and ran a hand over her.

  “Goddammit. No. Is she?” he asked looking up at Owen as his heart broke.