by MJ Compton
“I appreciate you helping me out, even if it was in vain,” Abby said.
Restin shrugged.
Abby turned to climb back into Restin’s Grand Cherokee when a familiar truck pulled up. Luke hopped out. He didn’t look happy.
“What’s going on here?”
Abby lifted her chin. “Macy asked Restin to drive us.”
“You don’t ask Macy to do things for you. You ask me.” He jabbed his chest with his thumb. He turned on Restin. “You can leave now.”
“What difference does it make?” Abby asked.
“You’re married to me.”
“You were up all night working. I thought you needed to sleep.”
“You cut me out of too much. You never told me you felt the baby move.”
He had her there. They never had a minute alone. Part of that was her doing.
Restin crossed his arms and leaned against the fender of his Jeep. “Macy thought it best to send a bodyguard with them rather than bring them down herself.”
Luke’s scowl didn’t fade.
Abby was annoyed. Macy could have told her the truth instead of saying she had other plans. These werewolves played loose and fast with reality.
“Thanks,” Luke grumbled. “I’ve got it now.”
“You sure?”
Luke bared his teeth.
Restin shrugged again, and then climbed into his vehicle.
Luke watched him drive away before turning on Abby. “I don’t want you going any place with him again. Got it?”
“No. I don’t. Macy trusts him, so—”
“I don’t give a vampire’s left fang what Macy told you. I don’t like Restin, and I don’t want him anywhere near you or my kid. Understood?”
Abby blinked. “Why?”
“Because I told you I don’t like him. He’s a bully with his own agenda that frequently means nothing good comes from his involvement. I could tell you stories about the scat he pulled with Tokarz and Delilah, with Stoker and Lucy to keep them apart that would make you wonder why he still lived.”
“If I have to have a bodyguard—your idea, not mine—and he’s the only one available, I’m not going to turn down his services,” Abby retorted. “Keeping you and me apart isn’t the issue. I am not your mate. You don’t have the right to bully me.”
Luke narrowed his eyes until they were blue slits sandwiched between his golden lashes. “I am that baby’s father, and I have an obligation to protect both it and you, despite your carelessness.”
“I’m no one’s obligation.” Abby turned and stomped up the porch steps. She didn’t care about the crime scene tape. The authorities should have been done in the house last week. She and Libby were moving home. She’d had all she was going to take of Luke.
She unlocked the door and pushed it open. Luke grabbed her arm, but was too late.
The stench was the first thing to hit her. Like rotting meat. Oh, there were traces of chemicals hanging in the air, but not enough of them to overwhelm the reek of whatever clung to the wall and the sofa.
“What’s that awful smell?” Libby asked.
Abby gagged. Luke yanked her out the house and shoved her head over the side of the porch, then held her as she lost her breakfast, muttering all the while about not contaminating the crime scene.
This wasn’t a crime scene; it was her home. The place she’d grown up. The shelter of all her memories of life before her father’s death. Gary hadn’t been able to taint those memories, and the ones he created in the house didn’t matter. Except maybe his murder.
Luke rubbed her back. Libby cried. Abby should have sent her back to Loup Garou with Restin.
“You okay now?” Luke asked when Abby finished.
She nodded and reached for her sister. Libby buried her face in Abby’s breasts. Hot tears dampened the front of Abby’s sweater.
Luke raked his fingers through his hair, which stood on end as if he hadn’t combed it that day.
“What possessed you to come here?” Luke’s tone was gentler. He didn’t have Restin to impress.
“It was our home,” Abby replied.
“Your home is in Loup Garou, now.”
“Why? So you can make me feel lower than a worm every time someone mentions mating? I’m not the most assertive person in the world, Luke, but I am not a doormat. You’ve scraped your crap on my back long enough.”
He looked stricken. As if she’d twisted his private parts or something.
“I’m not trying to hurt you.” His voice was hoarse. “And that baby is half mine. And—”he shot a quick look at Libby—“You know why I want her raised in Loup Garou.”
There was that. There was always that. And she was never going to be able to get away from that.
Libby pulled away from Abby. “How will Uncle Dougie find me if I’m not here?” Her eyes were bloodshot. Her pale complexion was blotchy from her tears.
“Do you really want to go with him?” Abby couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “He probably killed Gary, and he knows you can identify him. Maybe he wants to kill you, too.”
“Uncle Dougie loves me.”
“I love you, too,” Abby said.
“Luke doesn’t love me. And you’re having a baby that you’ll love more than me. I need to be with Uncle Dougie.”
Maybe Abby thought Luke had been angry when he found her in Oak Moon, but Luke was an amateur compared to Tokarz de Lobo Garnier, who showed up unannounced at Granny’s house.
“I resent being a prisoner,” Abby said to the pack alpha. Even Luke at his most rebellious never spoke to Tokarz in that tone of voice.
“Tough,” Tokarz replied. “Write a song about it and maybe I’ll buy it.”
Abby looked as if Tokarz had slapped her.
“I want to buy one of your songs now.”
She sank into a kitchen chair, mouth agape. Speechless.
Luke was surprised, too.
“Not the melody,” Tokarz continued.
“How do you know the melody?” Abby asked. “I don’t know how to score music.”
“Luke sang it to us.”
Abby jerked her gaze to his.
“I forgot to tell you.” Luke shrugged. “There was a lot going on.”
“Stoker and I have been working on another melody—one more fitting the mood of the lyrics than “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”,” Tokarz went on.
“Oh, okay,” was all Abby managed to say.
“I’ll have a lawyer draw up a contract when all this is over.” Then he mentioned a figure that made Abby’s eyes bug.
She simply nodded her agreement.
Luke didn’t say anything until he walked Tokarz to the front door. He glanced toward the kitchen where Abby lingered and made sure to pitch his voice low.
“You don’t need to pay her that kind of money. She doesn’t need it.” He opened the door and followed Tokarz onto the porch.
“Yes, she does.” The snow-scented wind ruffled the ends of Tokarz’s hair. “You’ve declared to the world she is not your mate. Therefore, she is not your responsibility. She has a child and a sister to support.”
“I’m taking care of them.” Luke clenched his fists. “That child is mine. And if you think by giving Abby all that money that she will take my baby and leave Colorado with it, you are so wrong.”
Tokarz studied Luke in the dimming light. “For someone who’s not mated, you’re acting an awful lot like a mate.”
“I’m an honorable werewolf.”
Tokarz snorted. “An honorable werewolf wouldn’t have fucked a human woman who wasn’t his mate. You’re omega. You have no honor.”
Stars burst in Luke’s vision, but Tokarz pinned him before he could attack. Tokarz’s
huge hand grasped Luke’s throat. “Once this situation with the kiddie porn is put to bed, Abigail is free to leave with her sister.”
“What about the baby?”
“What about it? It’s less than half werewolf. I’m not going to stop Abigail from taking the child with her.”
Luke’s jeans, flannel shirt, and heavy leather boots were a pile of tattered remnants as a powerful wolf went for Tokarz’s throat.
But Tokarz stayed one step ahead of Luke. He, too, morphed. The snarling of the alpha and the omega drew a crowd. Luke was furious and not easy to subdue. He knew Tokarz had every right to kill him for the attack, so he had nothing left to lose. Except Abby and the baby. Both were worth fighting for. Even after Tokarz pinned him, his teeth snapping at Luke’s exposed throat, Luke didn’t give up.
Tokarz shifted first and signaled Luke he should do the same. Rage still burned through Luke’s veins.
“I should kill you,” Tokarz said in a low growl. “You know that, don’t you? But if I kill you, who will be Abigail’s mate? Because you’re behaving exactly the way a mate would behave, Omega. Do I need to banish you to the top of the mountain to think about your position in the pack and what you’ve done so far to shame it further than by your inconsequential existence? Face up to your responsibilities. And I don’t mean your financial obligations or your treaty fulfillment, Omega. Next time, I will kill you. And that will be the end of your line, won’t it?”
“Rosie Dawn,” Luke managed. “My child will carry on the Thibodaux bloodline regardless of what you do to me.” Even in defeat, Luke couldn’t hide his defiance.
“Rosie Dawn? You know it’s a girl child?”
Luke bared his teeth and growled. Tokarz cuffed the side of his head before gathering the remnants of his clothes and sauntering toward home. Toward his mate and child.
Chapter 22
“Abby, Luke and Toke Lobo just turned into wolves. Real, honest to goodness wolves.”
Abby rushed to the sitting room window, where Libby perched with a book. Outside, two wolves snarled and fought. She thought she saw blood. Was Luke so jealous of her song-writing money that he would attack Tokarz, who was the leader of Loup Garou?
“Granny?” Abby’s voice quivered.
Granny scurried in from the kitchen and joined Abby and Libby at the sitting room window. “Oh, dear. Luke must have challenged Tokarz. This isn’t good. And it’s not something you girls should be watching. Come on. Come away from here.”
Abby couldn’t tear her gaze from the sight. The wolves were magnificent animals. She hadn’t really noticed anything about Luke the other times she’d seen him change, but now she could admire to her heart’s content.
He was sleek. Light-colored, like his blond curls. Even though the other wolf easily outweighed him, Luke had a litheness that was powerful in a different way. She would never be able to explain it, but he was even more beautiful in his animal form than he was in his human form, and he was a damn fine man.
“Why are they wolves now?” Libby asked.
Abby had not wanted to have this conversation with Libby, but since she’d seen the change, Abby had no choice.
“Luke wasn’t joking when he said Loup Garou is a town of werewolves. It even means werewolf in French.”
Libby stared at her. “There’s no such thing as werewolves. No such thing as ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies. That’s what Mama told me.”
“Mama was mistaken.” Abby was as gentle as she could be. “I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.” She would never forget the blast of heat, the shifting air pressure in her sinuses and the painful popping of her ears as Luke morphed into something that had terrified her.
“I saw it,” Libby said. “Their clothes ripped and went flying and then there were two wolves where Luke and Toke Lobo were standing.”
“It’s like magic,” Abby said.
“They look mean. Evil.”
“No.” Abby shook her head. “They want to protect us from whoever killed Gary.”
“Will your baby be a wolf, too?”
“I don’t know,” Abby confessed. “Granny, what do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Granny admitted. “No one knows. Marcus and Macy are the most water-downed lycans anyone has known. Your baby—less than half. But you’re bigger than a human baby would make you at this point in your pregnancy, and that’s a werewolf thing. No one knows.”
“Luke isn’t a werewolf?” Libby asked. “He looks like a werewolf. Oh, wait. Oh. They don’t have on any clothes.”
Abby dragged Libby away from the window. She didn’t need to see naked Toke Lobo or naked Luke. Abby could have watched naked Luke all night, but this wasn’t about her.
“You’ve never been safer in your life,” Granny told Libby. “Werewolves are very protective of their own, and Luke has claimed you both.”
Abby wished that were true. But she wasn’t going to mope, and she wasn’t going to stay where she wasn’t wanted. Tokarz’s generous offer was more than she’d ever allowed herself to dream she could make from her poems. She and Libby didn’t need to wait until Gary’s murderer was caught. As soon as Tokarz paid her, she could afford to vanish. Start her life over again. She could sell the house in Oak Moon. After being there that afternoon and smelling how Gary’s death permeated the rooms, she didn’t know if she could live there again. But selling the property—she could do that. She should have thought of that solution sooner.
Maybe it was time to ask for Tokarz’s help with all the paperwork Mama had entrusted to her.
“I want to watch TV, not go to bed,” Libby said, as Abby walked her to what had been Macy’s childhood bedroom. “My favorite movie is on. Miss Congeniality. Where the girl FBI agent goes undercover at the beauty pageant and beats up her boyfriend by singing. Gramps said I could watch it with him.”
”You can’t beat someone up by singing.” Abby placed Libby’s nightgown on the bed.
“Sing, instep, nose, groin. Sing.” Libby danced, thrusting her elbow behind her, stomping her foot. “What’s a groin?”
A question Abby wasn’t prepared to answer. “Settle down. Gramps likes his shows in peace and quiet. You need to be a good guest.”
Sometimes watching the way Libby bounced around was exhausting. Thank goodness they had an appointment with the specialist next week.
“I am a good guest. Marcus and Colette like me. They want me. They let me stay up and watch television. They aren’t trying to get rid of me.”
“Marcus and Colette don’t have satellite television, and I’m not trying to get rid of you.”
“Right. You need a babysitter for your stupid baby.” Libby pulled her sweater over her head. Static electricity danced in her hair.
Abby prayed for patience. “I don’t know where you get some of your ideas, but you’re wrong. Everything I’ve done for years has been for you.”
If only Libby knew exactly what Abby had done to keep her safe. That was one secret she hoped would go no further.
“Why are you being so difficult all of a sudden?” Abby asked. “You never used to be so belligerent.”
Libby yanked down her nightgown. “I don’t like it here. I want to go back to Oak Moon. I want to be with my own things again.”
“We’ll get the rest of your things when we figure out what we’re doing.”
“But you said we could go back to Oak Moon.” Jeans flew across the room.
Abby sat on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know, Libby. After being there today, it didn’t feel like home to me anymore. Since Mama’s gone, it’s not home. She’s what made it our home.”
Libby sniffled. “I miss my friends.”
“You can still see them every day at school.”
“It won’t be the same
thing,” Libby protested. “I won’t be able to do any of the after school clubs or sports or anything.”
“You never did,” Abby reminded her.
“But I had the choice.” Libby slipped under the covers. “Now I’m stuck here. Everybody my age is a werewolf. They scare me.”
Not quite true. At least, not how Abby understood things happened. Lycans didn’t start coming into their heritage until they were around thirteen. Up till then, they were like every other adolescent with rampaging hormones. And Libby hadn’t met any Loup Garou natives her own age.
“It’s Luke who is making us stay here.” Libby hugged her Santa Claus pillow. “I don’t like Luke, Abby. Can’t you find someone else to marry and be the father of your baby?”
“That’s not the way it works.” Abby liked Luke. Maybe too much. But most of the time she wished someone else was her baby’s father. Someone who wanted her as a person, not just a warm body in which to slake lust.
“Everyone here lives backward, too,” Libby continued, her voice a grating whine. “Sleep all day, up all night. And they’re always spying. Always watching everything I do.”
A minute ago, Libby had liked Loup Garou for its nocturnal habits.
“Because they’re trying to protect you, Libby.”
“I don’t need protecting. I know how to defend myself. Sing. Solar plexus, instep, nose, groin.”
“If your Uncle Dougie person killed Gary, he knows you can identify him. Maybe he’s scared you’ll tell someone,” Abby explained. Again. She knew this would be a conversation she’d have with Libby until Uncle Dougie was caught.
“Well, if he did kill Gary, then Gary deserved it. Gary was not a nice person. He cheated and he never paid what he owed.”
“Cheated?”
“That’s what Uncle Dougie said. Gary was a cheater and never paid what he owed.”
A memory washed over Abby. Gary and Mama. Arguing. Loud. Nasty. Abby had taken Libby and run to the school playground. Something Luke and the FBI needed to know. But first, she needed to secure . . .
