“Spying on you?” he said, astonished.
“My family sent someone here to keep an eye on me. And you admitted that you’ve been talking to them since I got here.”
“They did not send me here to keep an eye on you. And yes, I did call them to smooth things over with them. You and I are going to be together forever, and they will always be your family, so I need to make peace with them.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “I just finished promising your family that I would do anything to keep you safe. I always keep my promises. And you are not going to work for the Wardens.”
With a wave of queasiness, he saw her pull off her wedding ring and toss it to him.
“I knew this would happen,” she said. Tears spilled onto her cheeks, but her expression was determined. “That’s why we can’t be married. I can’t have you spying on me and acting as an extension of my family, and I cannot stop doing my job; it’s too important, and few other people have my powers. I just put off telling you because I wanted to pretend to be your wife for as long as I could, but we’re done, Carver.”
“Hold on a minute, right now!” He moved towards her and she took a step back.
“You cannot tell me what to do!”
Then she climbed into the Warden’s car, and his stomach turned over as he watched his wife drive away with another man. He desperately wanted to shift and run after them, to haul the Warden out of the car and kill him, but that would solve nothing. He couldn’t force Virginia to do anything against her will; he wasn’t that kind of man.
He should have told her that he was calling her family. He hadn’t thought she’d take it well, given how frustrated she was with them.
He should have explained to her the reasoning behind his ultimatum. How much he loved her, how he couldn’t stand the thought of losing her, of her being exposed to any danger.
He swore furiously as he walked back to town. He should have, he could have… Was it too late now? Had he lost his only chance with her?
Chapter Nineteen
Virginia sat behind the wheel of the car that Warden Kostechi had loaned her, uncertainty rumbling through her. She felt like she should leave the honeymoon lodge and go stay somewhere else, but something was nagging at her. Carver was infuriating in many ways, but she really didn’t believe that he was a liar.
So if he wasn’t the one her family had sent to spy on her, who was?
Whoever they were, they’d have to be physically close to keep an eye on her. The sheriff’s packmates were patrolling the whole area, so they couldn’t be camping outside somewhere.
They’d have to be in one of the cabins.
She thought of the loved-up couple who’d been staying in one of the cabins and had never emerged. Not even once. And they hadn’t chosen to move into the main building, even when everyone else had. Now, that was kind of suspicious.
She climbed out of the car and trudged through the snow to the cabin, which was located towards the back of the property. When she got there, she stood outside the door and sniffed at the air. The scent was very, very familiar, but it wasn’t anyone who was related to her.
It was Sally. Not just Sally. Sally and…Edward?
She banged on the door. Nobody answered. She heard movement inside the cabin.
“Sally, Edward, open the damn door! I know you’re in there!” she yelled.
She heard rustling, and then banging, and then Sally flung the door open, looking sheepish. She was wearing a lacy, see-through nightgown and crotchless panties.
“Um. Hello,” she muttered, red-faced. “What a surprise. Seeing you here. Amazing coincidence.”
Virginia sniffed the air again. “What the hell are you wearing? My God, I smell sex. So much sex.” She stared at Sally in astonishment. “You two have been having lots of sex. I am so confused right now. Also wanting to rip both your heads off, but mostly confused.”
“Well, let’s stick with the confusion,” Sally said hastily. “Come on in,” she added as Virginia pushed past her into the room, which looked as if a hurricane had swept through it. Clothing was strewn everywhere. Panties hanging off the bedpost. A bra dangling from a ceiling fan.
Edward was standing by the bed, in his boxer shorts…holding a purple plastic vibrator. “Oh!” he said when he saw Virginia staring at him. He quickly tossed it onto the bed.
“Sorry!” he squeaked.
“You came up here to spy on me.” Virginia swung around to glare at Sally. “How could you do that to me?”
“Well, aside from the fact that I didn’t have a job and your family offered to pay me, I also wanted to make sure you were okay. You got married so fast, I was worried that something was wrong.” There was a pair of binoculars on the windowsill, behind the closed shade. Ugh. They’d been watching her.
“You two are together. I thought you hated Edward.”
“You were the one who told me to tell him how I felt.” Sally’s smile vanished as she spotted Virginia’s ringless hand. “Wait, you don’t want him for yourself, do you? You and Carver broke up and now you want Edward? You can’t have him!” she wailed, rushing over to him and throwing her arms around him, and he hugged her back, shrinking away from Virginia as if she were about to abduct him. “He’s mine!”
“For God’s sake, I do not want Edward!” Virginia yelled. “And I don’t know what’s happening with Carver! Sally, I don’t get it. Every time Edward came close to us, you turned and ran.”
“Well, of course,” Sally said, as if it should be obvious. “I couldn’t stand watching how much he wanted you, when I wanted him to love me that way.”
“But…when I told you to just say how you felt, I thought you had a crush on my brother Pierce. You had feelings for him. You got upset every time he came to the club.”
“Oh, god, you thought I was talking about him?” Sally waved her hand dismissively. “Eww. Please. I was upset because Edward was there ignoring me. If Pierce was there at the same time, I didn’t even notice. I had a crush on your brother for a little while, but then I moved on. He’s way too full of himself.” She looked at Edward lovingly. “I wanted a man who’s humble and sweet and devoted.”
Virginia choked back a laugh. “Well, none of that describes my brother, that’s for damn sure. But…Edward, you came up here to stalk me.”
Edward shook his head vigorously. “No, I came up here to be with Sally while she spied on you. I went out for a run to scout out the area, and that’s when Carver grabbed me. I couldn’t tell him why I was really here, since it’s supposed to be a secret. And I’d do anything to help my hunny bunny wunny.” He gazed lovingly at Sally.
“Ack.” Virginia took an involuntary step back, fighting the urge to barf. If Carver ever dared to call her that…well, they were through, so it wasn’t an issue. Weren’t they?
Edward glanced over at Virginia. “I was heartbroken the day you told me to leave you alone. And then Sally called me that afternoon. When Sally told me she loved me, it took me a couple of days to process it. But then I thought about it and I realized that my feelings for you were just infatuation. Sally actually loved me for myself, and that made me fall in love with her. I realized how much better she is than you. How much sweeter, and kinder, and prettier, and—”
“All right!” Virginia said with exasperation. “I get the picture.” She narrowed her eyes at Sally. “So. That’s why you didn’t call me back all that week. And why you cancelled on the casino.”
“Of course, why would I want to go out when I had the best man in the world at home waiting for me? Isn’t he just the sweetest bestest darling cuddlebuns?” Sally cooed at him. “And soooo sexy. We’re going to get married and then come back here on our honeymoon. Won’t that be romantic? And we’ll rent the same cabin. Just me and my handsome sweetums.”
“If you’re trying to get rid of me, it’s working. Ack, quit that!” she added as they started kissing passionately. “Could you even wait until I leave, you exhibitionists? No? All righty then.” She turned and ran
out of the room.
Back at her car, she sat in the driver’s seat and tried to decide what to do next. Was there any point in trying to work things out with Carver? He’d told the truth that he hadn’t spied on her. While she was angry that he’d talked to her family without telling her, she also had to appreciate that he wanted to be with her so badly.
The Wardens were going to be descending on this area in force, looking for the two creatures. How could she save them? She needed to try to communicate with them again. She’d given up too easily before.
She went to her car, stripped off her clothing, and set it down in the driver’s seat. Then she shifted, dropping to all fours and feeling the wind ruffling through her fur.
She didn’t get very far before she smelled two things: Natasha, and silver.
A quick search revealed Natasha trotting through the woods, wearing a gun-pouch. They were used by shifters who needed to be able to carry a gun while in animal form. And Natasha must have silver-coated bullets in the gun.
She easily caught up with Natasha, and they both shifted, standing barefoot in the snow. Natasha looked at her with annoyance and dislike, clutching her gun defensively.
She seemed much healthier now; apparently the days of rest really had helped her.
“Why are you out here hunting, alone?” she asked Natasha.
Natasha’s snorted. “I could ask the same thing of you.”
“I’m not hunting.” Virginia looked at her coolly. “You’re keeping some kind of secret about this village. Something big.”
“Spare me the paranoid conspiracy theories.” Her lip curled in contempt. “I see what’s happening here. You and your husband are looking for a place to start a new pack. You’re trying to take over my clinic. Your husband is undermining my husband’s status as Alpha, making him look bad.”
Virginia let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Carver doesn’t have to do a damn thing to make your husband look bad. He’s a weak Alpha, and he needs to step down, because he’s not serving the needs of your pack.” Natasha let out a bark of rage. Virginia ignored her.
“And as for me trying to take over as healer, your own nurse begged me to come to the clinic and help out, and thank God she did,” she continued.
“Well, if you’re not trying to take over our pack, then you’ll be on your way soon.” Natasha, like everyone else, glanced at Virginia’s bare ring finger. “Sooner rather than later, apparently. No need to stay here now that the honeymoon’s over,” she said with a sneer.
That stung, but it was true. Virginia nodded. “You’re right,” she said, and Natasha stared at her in surprise. “However,” she continued, “I need to pass my concerns about you and your behavior on to the Wardens.”
The surprise was replaced by a dark, ugly anger, and Natasha’s hand flashed up, clutching the gun. The gun full of deadly silver-coated bullets.
“Not if I kill you first,” she snarled.
Dear God, the bitch really was crazy. Virginia felt anger and shock surge through her. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You’ll be put to death.”
A mad light glowed in Natasha’s eyes. “If they never find the body, they’ll blame it on the beasts.”
Virginia thought quickly. Pride. Natasha was all about her foolish, bitter pride.
“You’re doing this because you royally screwed up. You caused those genetic mutations, and you just can’t bear to face your failure,” she guessed.
“Failure? What I did was a success. I am the first healer ever to have cured Con-Rab,” Natasha bragged.
Contagious Rabies? That was impossible. It was a rabies that had mutated to become airborne. It affected only shifters, and even a healer couldn’t cure it.
“Even you aren’t capable of that,” Virginia argued. Feed her ego and keep her talking…maybe someone would come along and spot them.
“Of course I am. When I moved here, I originally did it for the sole purpose of testing the serum I’d developed without people watching over me and interfering with my work. I gave it to a local family who had shown up with the symptoms of Con-Rab, and they were all cured. So, of course, it made sense for me to start giving the vaccine version of it to all the people who came to the clinic.”
“How would you know if a vaccine had worked?” Virginia demanded.
“Well, by injecting them with Con-Rab after I gave them the vaccine, of course.” At Virginia’s expression of horror, she sneered. “You’re just like all the other jealous, short-sighted bureaucrats who wouldn’t let me carry out my experiments. I suggested to the Council of Elders that they let me experiment on prisoners who were condemned to death, and on the mentally defective and other undesirables, and they refused. It’s their fault this happened. I could have perfected my formulas on the dregs of society instead of having to conduct experiments on the general population.”
The light was beginning to dawn, and Virginia felt sick and horrified. “All those people with genetic anomalies…”
The healer’s face fell. “Everyone who took the vaccine was immune to Con-Rab, but a few months after I gave them the vaccine, they got sick. Very, very sick. By that point I’d injected half the town. If I’d been able to do more experimenting, perfect my work…”
“You had to stay here and cure the sick people,” Virginia said. “That’s what’s been draining you.”
“Yes. The sickness won’t go away, it keeps pushing back, and I have to heal them again and again. Over the years it’s been draining my energy, but I realize now that all that I have to do is pace myself. I can take one solid week off every month and I’ll be fine.”
“Why didn’t they turn you in?” Virginia demanded.
The healer’s face flushed. “Because they had no idea that the vaccine is what caused it. I told them that they had some kind of terrible contagious virus that only I could cure. I told them if they went to the Council of Elders, the Elders were likely to remove them from town and quarantine them forever, or do experiments on them. I told them that was common practice among the Elders, and that I had been asked to do such experiments myself, and that was why I quit travelling the country and stayed here to settle down.”
“So here you were, the big famous healer, trapped in this little town,” Virginia marvelled. “Living a lie.”
Natasha glared at her. “I am not trapped. I’m married to the Alpha, I am a vital part of the community, and I have a son I love very much. I stayed here for my family.”
“You stayed here because you had to keep it quiet, or the Council of Elders would have killed you,” Virginia said angrily. Then a horrible thought dawned on her. “Oh God, tell me you did not experiment on your own child.”
“Of course I did. My vaccine was at the forefront of shifter medicine. I was protecting him from a deadly disease,” Natasha said with wounded pride.
A voice cracked through the air. “You bitch.”
They both turned to face Sheriff Marsh.
He’d managed to creep up on them by staying downwind, and both Natasha and Virginia had been distracted by their heated confrontation.
He was pointing his gun at Natasha. His face was distorted with fury.
“I should kill you right now,” he raged. “You did that to our son? You’re the one who poisoned him?” Then tears flooded his eyes. “I thought you loved us. How could you?”
“I do love him! I’m the only one who can keep him alive,” Natasha said quickly. “She’ll ruin everything. You have to help me. Even if you want to leave me, you need to at least keep me alive. Without me, Kyle will sicken and die. Shoot her. She’ll ruin everything.”
His hand wavered.
“She’s lying!” Virginia snapped. “You just heard her admit what a liar she is. There are thousands of healers across the country, many of them who are extremely powerful. I already sent some people’s blood off to be tested by the Council of Elders. Healers will come here and they can help these people. They can find a cure, or at least keep it at bay.�
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Natasha flashed a look of fury at Virginia. Then she turned her attention back to her husband.
“Are you going to risk your son’s life finding out?” Natasha demanded. “Kill her! We can go on the run. I can keep him alive. You have to kill her. It’s her or Kyle.”
Sheriff Marsh stared at Virginia, his eyes growing huge. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, and pointed the gun at her head. Virginia braced herself for the sharp stab of silver, for the searing agony that would consume her alive.
Then a startled look crossed his face. He smelled something. He smelled it at the same time Natasha and Virginia did.
“That’s my husband,” Virginia said, the words falling naturally from her lips. “He’s very close. If you shoot me, he will hear the gunshot, and you two won’t have time to stage a damn thing. It’s over.”
Natasha promptly shifted, and turned and ran. Marsh swung the gun to point it at her, then he stood there blinking back tears as she vanished into the woods.
“Carver!” Virginia screamed. She heard him crashing through the woods to get to her.
She turned to Sheriff Marsh. “Does your son have anyone else to care for him?”
Tears trickled down his cheeks. “Nobody else in my family. Not after my sister died.”
“Then I’m not going to tell Carver the part where you were going to kill me, but you will step down as Alpha. You don’t deserve to lead a damn cub scout troop, much less a pack. You will tell your pack tonight.”
Chapter Twenty
“I still can’t believe it,” Sally said, shaking her head in disgust. “I hope when they find that bitch they skin her alive.”
“I hope they can save all the people she poisoned,” Edward said anxiously. He and Sally sat in front of the fireplace at the lodge, no longer hiding now that they’d been discovered. Their hands were entwined.
“You see why I love him?” Sally cooed. “Because he’s the sweetest fuzzy wuzzy ever.”
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