“No problems at the clinic, then?”
She shook her head. “Natasha hasn’t been back in for the last couple of days. I mean, there would be no point – she passed out the last time she tried to heal someone. I’m sure when we get ready to leave and I notify the Council of Elders of the issue here, she won’t be happy, but tough titty. A couple of weeks of rest are not going to cure whatever is wrong with her.” She paused. “Apparently she married the Alpha the year she moved to town, and they have a son. She really should let someone try to help cure whatever ails her, for their son’s sake if nothing else.”
“Yep. She should.”
Virginia looked at him with exasperation. “All right, whenever you feel a little more talkative, you let me know.”
Whenever you feel like telling me what you’re hiding from me and why, you let me know, Carver thought, but he only said, “I’ll do that.”
After he dropped her off, he headed back to the lodge. Before he headed out to meet the sheriff, he picked up the phone and dialed Bert.
“Carver, old buddy! So you heard the news!” Bert crowed.
“News? What news?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? Guess whose little princess is going to be having a baby brother in about another seven months?”
“Bert, you’re an animal! Congratulations.”
“Of course, I’ll never sleep again, and my wife’s moaning about how she just got her figure back, and…don’t take this the wrong way, but I assume that you and your wife are moving into your own house? We’re going to need your bedroom to move our daughter into at some point.”
“By all means. I’m very happy for you.”
“So,” Bert said, “if you didn’t call because you heard about the new cub, why did you call?”
Carver hesitated. He was a very private person. He wasn’t one to share his troubles with anyone, but the fact that Virginia kept lying to him was an ache that wouldn’t go away.
“Does your wife tell you everything?” he blurted out.
Bert laughed. “I doubt it. I mean, the important stuff, sure. I think. Why?”
“Let’s say your wife was keeping work-related stuff secret from you. What would you do about it?”
“Work stuff? I would assume she had a good reason for not telling me. I mean, when you work as a deputy, do you tell anyone every detail of what you’re doing? If you were conducting an investigation and it was supposed to be confidential, would you go home and tell Virginia about it?”
“Probably not,” Carver conceded. “But she’s a healer, not an investigator.”
“Well, there’s patient privacy and all that.”
“I guess,” Carver said. “All right, I have to get going. Congratulations again, and as soon as the honeymoon is over, I’ll be back to get my stuff. Couple weeks, I’m thinking.”
“Carver, I’ve known Virginia Battle a long time. She’s not the sneaky type. If anything, she speaks her mind to a fault.”
Carver let out a growl, then caught himself. He did not want to hear the words “fault” and “Virginia” in the same sentence.
“You know what I mean,” Bert said quickly. “She’s very honest. She doesn’t hold back – she says what’s on her mind.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll see you soon, Bert. Thanks.”
Carver hung up, only slightly mollified. Virginia was the honest type, he knew that – except now she was lying to him. Or at least hiding things from him.
Well, nothing to be done about it now. He hung up the phone and headed out to meet the sheriff and his pack.
* * *
Darlie rushed into the break room where Virginia was snacking on a sweet roll.
“We’ve got incoming,” she called out. “A badly injured sheriff’s deputy, and the sheriff has some minor injuries.”
“What happened? Is Carver all right?” Virginia dropped the roll and hurried out to the reception area.
“As far as I know. They only mentioned the sheriff and his deputy.” Darlie saw the look on Virginia’s face. “They would have told me,” she assured her.
The ambulance pulled in minutes later. The sheriff climbed out of the back, and two EMTs wheeled a stretcher into the clinic’s reception area. The shifter was in wolf form now, curled up on his side. He had been savagely slashed and had lost a lot of blood.
Virginia could smell it all over him – monster.
“He’s having a hard time healing,” one of the EMTs said. Adult shifters had strong powers of self-healing, but if their injuries were too severe, they needed a healer’s assistance.
She stood next to the stretcher and put her hands on the deputy’s flank. She slid her hands into his fur and pressed down, closing her eyes and concentrating. As she let her energy flow, she felt the taint of the monster, infecting him and fighting her. She poured in all her strength and absorbed the poison. The deputy’s flesh knit back together and the blood flow slowed and then stopped.
Within minutes, he sat up and shifted into human form, breathing hard. Virginia looked up and realized that Carver was there.
As the EMTs helped the deputy off the stretcher, she gave Carver a quick nod, then walked over to the sheriff, who had also shifted to accelerate his healing. He was sitting in a chair by the reception area. Darlie knelt next to him, pressing gauze bandages against his leg.
Virginia sat down next to him and laid her hands on his shoulder. She felt the same oddness when she healed him, the taint of the beast in his wounds.
When she’d finished, the sheriff shifted back into human form and stood. “Whew. That was a nasty feeling,” he said to her, shaking his head in dismay. “Never felt anything like it before. It was like being snake-bit but worse.” One of the other deputies handed him his clothing and he stepped into his pants.
“How many of those things are there?”
“There were two, but one’s probably dead, because we wounded it with a silver bullet,” he told her. “I’m surprised it didn’t die on the spot.”
“They overpowered all your men?”
“My men split up to cover more ground, so they got my man alone,” the sheriff said defensively.
“Peter?” Natasha stood in the doorway of the clinic. She finally looked better. Her hands weren’t shaking, her color was starting to come back, and the lines in her face were less pronounced. She had a young boy with her, who was clutching at her arm and looking at Sheriff Marsh anxiously.
They walked in, and she hurried over to the sheriff and stroked his arm. Then she glanced at Virginia resentfully. “She healed you? I could have healed you.”
“This isn’t a contest,” Virginia said between clenched teeth. Natasha ignored her, fussing with her husband’s hair and straightening his collar.
The little boy tapped the sheriff’s arm.
“Daddy, did the monster hurt you?” he asked his father.
“No, I’m just fine. Don’t you worry.” He gave the boy a quick hug.
The boy let out a growl. “It tried to hurt you. I want to help hunt for it,” he said.
Sheriff Marsh’s expression shifted. “Don’t even think about it,” he said to the boy. “We will handle it. We’re very close to catching these things. Now, promise me you won’t go out in those woods until I tell you.”
“But I could—”
“Kyle!”
The boy hung his head. “I promise.”
“All right, now let your mother take you back to school.” He glanced at Natasha, and patted her arm. “I’m fine, honey,” he reassured her. “I’ll see you tonight. Have some pot roast on for me?”
“Of course, dear.” Then Natasha walked over to Virginia. “I’ll be back at the clinic in one week,” she said, her tone neutral. Virginia could see the resentment in her expression, the furrowing of her brow.
Virginia shrugged and didn’t bother to reply. A week might be enough, it might not.
“Thank you for substituting for me while I recovered. See you in one week.” Nata
sha repeated loudly, and walked out with her son.
Carver gestured at Virginia to come talk to him. She walked over to where he stood; he still had the same guarded, unhappy expression he’d had that morning. “Virginia, I’m not sure when I’ll be available, but Clifford and Delores said they’ll pick you up,” Carver said. “We’re going after these things hardcore. The Sheriff’s bringing in reinforcements.”
Alarm rippled through her. “You’re going right back out? After what just happened?”
“The sheriff made a mistake in letting his men patrol alone. We’ll be dividing into groups of four from now on, and I’m organizing the search.”
Sheriff Marsh, overhearing that, looked startled and then angry. Virginia waited for him to argue…but he didn’t. He just turned and walked out of the clinic. There was open contempt on the faces of his pack members as they watched him go.
Not my business, Virginia thought. But she did have a problem that needed to be addressed.
“Carver, what are you upset about?”
“Are you telling me everything?” His gaze bored into hers, and she flinched. Had he overheard her phone call? She should have walked farther away from the cabin.
Well, no point in lying.
“No,” she said.
He stared at her for a minute more, giving her time to answer, but she stayed silent. Then he nodded and turned and left without a word.
Chapter Sixteen
Virginia sat at the edge of the clearing, in wolf form, staring at the main lodge. Carver had slept on the couch last night, and had been curt with her this morning.
Her secret meeting was tomorrow; should she just leave after that? Or should she tell Carver first, and at least give him the opportunity to make a choice?
Carver and the other men had received a report that the monsters had been spotted in the forest several miles to the east, so they’d all headed over there. That had given her the opportunity to sneak out, shift, and hang out in the woods so she had some time to herself. Carver would blow a gasket if he knew she was in the woods by herself, but she was very close to the main building. She could see it from where she was sitting.
She heaved a sigh, pacing back and forth in the snow. The more time she spent with him, the more she realized that she could see herself spending a life with him. He was sexy. He was funny. He challenged her, but in a good way. She needed to be with a strong man; she had a strong personality herself, and if she were with a weaker man, she’d run right over him and they’d end up hating each other.
He didn’t actually try to boss her around and run her life. Ever since the monsters had been sighted, he’d hovered over her protectively, but that was what an Alpha was supposed to do. She could hardly fault him for caring about her safety.
A gust of wind blew a terrible scent into her nostrils, and she froze where she stood. Then she started to run, but before she’d made it a few dozen steps, the beast was upon her. How had it moved so fast?
To her utter shock, it didn’t attack her. Instead it grabbed her and slung her over its shoulder, then ran to the west at top speed. It was incredibly strong and incredibly fast.
They ran and ran, the beast’s feet crunching through the snow, leaping over fallen logs, dodging around boulders. It shouldered through thick forest and branches whipped her face.
Finally they came to a clearing, and she saw that they’d stopped at the bottom of a stony hill with a small cave system inside. The beast carried her in and set her down, blocking the exit.
There was another beast there, lying on the ground, panting. It had a bullet wound in its flank, which was festering. That must have happened when the sheriff and his men had shot at them yesterday.
How was it not dead? Silver was deadly. Then again, it was only deadly to shifters, and God only knew what these beasts were. Not shifters, that was for sure.
She looked more closely at the two animals in the dim light of the cave. The monsters were covered with thick black fur, and their shape was like nothing she’d ever seen before. They were somewhat human in form, although bigger, probably seven feet. They were hunched over, and their faces were lumpy and deformed. They looked somewhat ape-like and somewhat wolf-like. They had large pointy ears and intelligent yellow eyes.
The bones of small animals littered one corner of the cave. The female lay on a bed off moss and leaves. This was where they lived, then, bringing their food back here.
The beast who’d kidnapped her pointed at his wounded companion. A female, Virginia saw. His mate?
She knelt down next to the female, feeling the feverish heat radiating from her body. This beast knew that she was a healer; he had scented it somehow. Was that why he’d been sniffing around her cabin? But he’d been sniffing around since she got here – before the female had been wounded.
Whatever. She was a healer, and she had a patient.
She put her hands on the beast’s flank and closed her eyes. As she did, she forced herself not to shudder in revulsion. It was wrong. Its cells were distorted, mutated. She concentrated on the healing instead, burning out the infection, killing the invading bacteria, and knitting wounded flesh back together. The animal’s hide sealed itself and the fever that had raged through its body cooled.
The female slowly rolled over and moved into a crouching position.
Virginia glanced up at the male, wondering what he would do next. Would he kill her now?
He looked at her and gestured at himself. He wanted healing too?
She put her hands on him and felt his wrongness cascading through her mind, his furious cells rebelling, but there was no sickness.
She pulled her hands back and looked at him.
He made a sweeping gesture, indicating himself and then the female.
She looked at him, puzzled. “Do you want me to cure you of…being a beast? Of whatever is making you what you are? I don’t know how.” He just looked at her. Could he understand her words?
She shrugged and held her hands open, palms up, signaling her helplessness.
The beast waited a long, long moment, and she stood there, breathing in the foul scent and trying not to gag. Finally he hung his head, in a clear sign of dejection and defeat, and moved out of her way, unblocking the cave exit. She could see moisture leaking from his eyes and running down his furry cheeks. He was crying, she realized, stricken.
“I can try to find help for you,” she said. “There are other healers out there, with different expertise than me. We can try to fix this.”
He just stood there, not moving, and finally she left the cave. A new understanding was dawning. The creature had smelled or sensed that a healer was there, and had wanted her to heal him and the female. That was why he’d gone into her room, and sniffed around the cabin.
Why had they never approached Natasha for help? she wondered, as she headed back towards the honeymoon lodge.
Her heart was heavy. She was leaving patients behind, patients who needed her help. They could have killed her, and they hadn’t. They had attacked the sheriff and his deputy the day before – but only because they were being hunted.
Still, there was the matter of that family who’d been killed long ago. Had they done that? She didn’t get that impression from them. They hadn’t even done that much to her room when they’d entered it. They’d knocked some things over, but that could have been because of their large size and clumsiness.
Would they have burned a house down? Was there even any proof that they were the ones who had been at that scene?
She wondered if they would know enough to flee that cave, now that she knew where their lair was. She somehow doubted it.
She stopped, pacing restlessly. She had to go with her gut on this one. Those things weren’t dangerous unless they were being directly attacked, and they wanted help. She wasn’t going to say anything to anyone about them yet. Now she knew where to find them, at least. And perhaps, now that they knew she couldn’t fix whatever ailed them, they would stop coming arou
nd the lodge. They were a good hour’s run from it. She was pretty sure that the only reason they’d come so close was because they’d scented her when she and Carver had gone for a run in the woods.
After all, if they had first been seen in town ten years ago, and hadn’t been seen since, as a rule they must try to avoid all contact with shifters.
She began rolling around in the snow to get their smell off her, until her fur was soaked. She rubbed up against tree bark. Then she ran towards the river and dunked herself in the freezing water.
She was thoroughly chilled as she ran back to the lodge, but the scent was gone.
When she got there, she hurried to the main lodge, shifted, and dashed inside, picking up the clothing she’d left in the mud room.
Carver was in the lounge with the sheriff and a group of the sheriff’s packmates. They were drinking Irish coffee and sitting grouped around the fire. Virginia couldn’t help but notice that the packmates were gathering around Carver, asking him questions, while the sheriff sat off on the sidelines, looking disgruntled.
Carver looked up as she strolled in.
“Where were you?” he asked. “Is your hair wet?”
“I just went for a very brief run near the cabins,” she said. She held up her hands. “If you don’t want me to do it again, I won’t.”
“I don’t.” He frowned at her. “We didn’t have any luck today. Can I talk to you for a minute?”
She nodded and followed him out of the lounge. As they left, he called out to the men there, “I’ll meet up with you this evening for the patrol, and then we’ll go out on the hunt again tomorrow.”
“I think you just handed the sheriff his testicles in a box, figuratively speaking,” she said as they headed for their room.
Carver shrugged. “His fault. He really should step down. He’s a weak Alpha.”
“Him and his wife both need to retire,” Virginia said, shaking her head. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with them.”
Once they were in their room, he shut the door and turned to Virginia. “You were gone for a while. I was about to send out a search party for you. Did you really just go for a short run near the cabins?”
The Alpha Won't Be Denied Page 10
