by Alisa Woods
She planted a hand on his lips, forestalling it. “Food. I require food.”
He smiled and kissed her hand, then pulled it away so he could speak. “Promise me something first.”
She leaned down to kiss him quickly on the lips. “What do you want so badly that I haven’t already given you, Mr. Hartman?” She smirked.
“A fair point,” he conceded. Then he let his expression grow serious. “Promise me you won’t do anything rash about… about your wolf.”
She frowned and pulled away, rolling off him. “That’s not your concern.” She folded up her legs and crossed her arms around them.
He reached out to her knee to keep her from locking herself away any further. “Just promise me you won’t try to get rid of it, whatever that means, until after we’ve found the Wolf Hunter.”
She slid a look to him, interested. “Why?”
He shrugged, trying to play it cool. “We might need you.”
She frowned, then bit her lip… and finally nodded. “Alright. I won’t do anything until we’ve caught that guy. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop working on the serum.”
Serum? Jesus Christ. He tried not to let that show on his face. “Work on whatever you like,” he said tightly, pulling back from her. “Just promise me you won’t do anything until we’re sure he’s caught for good.” He shook a finger at her as he rose from the bed. He was only buying time—he knew that—but that time would give him a chance. To romance her some more. To spend endless hours making love to her. To show her what she could have… and what she would be missing if her wolf was suddenly exorcised from her body. Or killed by some crazy serum. Man, that was so messed up it gave him chills.
“I promise.” But her expression was locking down more each second.
“I’m going to clean up,” he said, deciding it was time to get some air. And some time for both of them to think about what had happened between them. “Meet you in twenty to raid the fridge? Mama River usually stashes the leftovers there.”
She nodded, and he reluctantly left her alone in her room.
Troy took the world’s shortest walk of shame, quickly showered, and hustled to finish up before Zoe was done. He parked himself outside her door, waiting. There wasn’t much traffic in their wing of the estate. Not that he really cared if people saw him pathetically waiting outside her door. She was taking so long, though, he started to worry that he had missed her.
Finally, she opened the door and seemed startled to find him there.
He took her hand as if that was the most natural thing in the world and led her down the hallway and toward the stairs at the front. She seemed tense at first, but as they walked, the silence grew comfortable, and she relaxed.
The great room of the estate was pretty well cleared out—dinner was hours ago—but when they arrived in the kitchen, Mama River was there… and she didn’t look happy.
Her arms were tightly locked across her chest, with one hand clenching a cell phone, and the other gripping her upper arm. She was glowering at the floor, shaking her head, and almost didn’t seem to notice them stumbling through the open kitchen door.
He and Zoe exchanged a look of concern.
“Everything okay, Mama River?” she asked.
The older woman looked up. “I’m honestly not sure.” She held out the phone. “Grace says the mayor didn’t go back to his office. And he’s not answering his phone. She says that’s unusual, and from what I know of the man, he takes his responsibilities seriously.”
Zoe grimaced. “He sure seemed freaked out by the white wolves and their magic.”
Mama River shook her head, placing the phone on the counter and patting it, thoughtfully. “A man in his position shouldn’t be disturbed by magic. Not in Seattle.” She frowned and went back to glowering at the floor. “I didn’t figure him for a bigot.” Then the delicate wrinkles around her eyes gained depth as she scowled harder. “I thought there was more to the man than that.”
Zoe sent Troy a distressed look, and he felt the same thing that was wrinkling up her brow—Mama River was normally calm and peaceful. Nothing ruffled her. She was always steady as a rock. But she was clearly wound up about this issue with the mayor. Troy didn’t know the man at all, and he didn’t necessarily trust him, but he had to agree that a few white wolves tossing around magic balls shouldn’t freak him out. Not with everything that had gone on in this city.
“It’s not like the mayor doesn’t know about magic,” Troy said in a soft voice, slipping his hand into Zoe’s to give her a reassuring squeeze. “And as far as I can tell, he’s been looking out for Grace Krepky. At least, that’s what she’s been saying. That doesn’t sound like a bigot to me.”
Mama River nodded and looked up. “That’s what I thought, too. But for him to disappear like this…”
Troy could tell the worry in her eyes was more than she would have for just any stray wolf who came through her door. This thing with the mayor was personal. As Troy was struggling for something to say to reassure her, Mama River’s eyes drifted to where Troy and Zoe were holding hands.
The small wrinkles and frown that scored her face disappeared into a smile. “Well, at least someone has found their mate.”
Oh no. Zoe dropped his hand like it was on fire and even took a step back like he suddenly had a contagious disease. Troy fought through the stab of pain in his chest and managed to force out some words. “We’re not mates, Mama River. Just…” He couldn’t help glancing back at Zoe—she was furiously biting her lip, like she was both worried and holding back at the same time. Troy swung back to Mama River. “We’re friends. Good friends, but just friends.”
Shit. His wolf howled a protest at that, but Troy tried to put the force of conviction into his words.
Mama River wasn’t buying it in the least. She arched an eyebrow and smirked at Troy. “Well, it’s certainly a good thing to be friendly with your mate.” She tipped her head to him. “Or possible future mate.” She chuckled—their awkward fumbling through this moment seemed to amuse her. Troy guessed that was an improvement, even if it made them squirm.
The matriarch of the River estate shuffled over to the refrigerator and started pulling out leftovers. She let them continue to squirm without training her gaze on them, busying herself with gathering up food. “I imagine you kids are a little hungry.” There was still a laugh in her voice that made Troy’s stomach tighten.
He glanced at Zoe—she looked like she wanted to disappear into the floor.
“Starving,” Troy said, trying to keep his voice light and deflect attention from Zoe. “You have something there for us?”
“Just sandwiches and a little leftover meatloaf and potatoes,” Mama River said, pulling out the dishes. “I’ll let you sort through it yourself and decide what you want.” She swung the refrigerator door closed and turned to face them again. “You know, we have plenty of room in the estate, but if you want to share room… or move to one of the cottages out back…”
Troy stepped forward and snatched one of the dishes off the counter. It looked like the meatloaf. “That won’t be necessary.” He was trying to deflect this to a new subject before Zoe decided to just bolt from the room. He waved her over from the door where she was hovering like she wanted to flee. “Come on. You better pick out what you want—no guarantees they’ll be anything left when I’m done.”
Zoe shuffled with bent shoulders over to the counter. She couldn’t look any more awkward if she’d actually twisted herself into a pretzel.
Troy step back, holding the sigh inside, and let her have first pick of the food. She sorted out a few sandwich makings and grabbed a loaf of bread off the counter and the plate. Mama River crossed her arms again, leaning back against the refrigerator and watching the awkward body language in the growing silence.
“There’ve been many blessings come through this house in the days since my husband left us,” Mama River said.
Troy prayed that they weren’t about to get a lectur
e on the joys of mating.
“Looks like to me like you deserve all the blessings that come your way,” Troy said, hoping to forestall it. He gestured to the food—Zoe had an arm full and was shuffling toward the little table tucked in the corner of the kitchen to make her sandwich. She left most of the food behind. “You seem to take care of anyone who comes through the door. In my crew, we have a name for people like you.” He gave Mama River a flirtatious grin.
She scowled and shook a finger at him. “Don’t you flirt with me, Troy Hartman. You save that for Ms. Wilding.”
His heart twisted, but he kept the smile and pressed on. “We call people like you Guardian Angels. We see them all the time when we go out on a call—the one person who is the calm in the storm, looking out for everyone else, making sure that everyone feels loved and safe. And even when the worst things are happening—which is usually the case when a crew of fireman shows up at your house—there’s the one person who’s going around and making sure that everyone is accounted for, right down to the pets and the teddy bears.”
She was shaking her head at him, but there was definitely a smile sneaking out. “You’re as smooth talking as the mayor,” she chastised lightly, but Troy could tell she didn’t mean it.
However, he meant every word. And he wasn’t the kind of guy to hold back from saying things that should be said—he’d seen too many people with too many regrets, right there at the worst time of their lives, wishing they had said something as Troy and his crewmates were hauling their loved ones away on a gurney.
“You’re something special, Mama River,” Troy said softly, “and if that fool of a mayor has run off without telling you that, then I’m sure he wasn’t worth your time to begin with.”
That brought some of the lines back to crease the edges of Mama River’s eyes. “Robert Truhall may be many things,” she said softly in return, “but I very much doubt that a fool is one of them.”
Troy lifted his hands. “I’m just saying…”
That brought back the smile to Mama River’s face. Troy snuck a glance at Zoe, and the awkwardness seemed to have fallen off her body. She was picking at her sandwich but not eating it.
“But you needn’t worry about me, Troy Hartman,” Mama River said, patting his arm and digging out a plate for him.
He started to pile various leftovers on it—the rest of the meatloaf, a big heaping scoop of mashed potatoes, and some kind of vegetable medley.
As he popped it in the microwave, Mama River laced her fingers in front of her and leaned back to examine him again, from head to toe. Apparently, his little speech was a good enough distraction to keep her attention from making Zoe any more uncomfortable.
“One by one, I’ve watched my boys find their mates,” Mama River said, in that calm, cool voice she usually had. “And now the Wilding family…” She looked to Zoe. “The Wolf Hunter has done terrible things to your family, Zoe. But I’ve seen them, one by one, find their mates, their one true loves, amidst the hate and the fear and the horror that evil man has wrought on our city. And you may not realize this, but that’s tremendously important to the rest of us.”
Zoe frowned and flicked a look to Troy. He just shrugged, not quite sure what Mama River was getting at.
She looked back to Mama River. “What do you mean?”
The microwave beeped, and Troy took out his food, joining Zoe at the table and tucking in. He truly was ravenous. He gestured to her to eat, and she finally took a bite of the monster sandwich she’d crafted.
Mama River took her time answering. “I mean that joy and love are contagious things.” She gestured to Troy and Zoe at the table. “When I see two young people finding themselves and finding each other, it fills my heart with a joy that is difficult to express. I knew that joy once, with my own mate, and since he’s been gone, the joy of others has filled that hole.”
Troy paused in his eating, uncertain what to do—small tears had started to leak from the corners of Mama River’s eyes. Zoe looked alarmed as well.
Mama River chuckled lightly and wiped at her eyes. “You’ll have to forgive an old woman for being sentimental.”
Troy had a lump in his throat that was definitely not meatloaf.
Mama River sniffed a little. “I’m just saying, if you find something wonderful, don’t shove it away. Love is for the lovers, but like any magic, it affects far more than just the two people it happens between.”
Troy wanted to get up and go hug Mama River, but he didn’t feel like he could do any such thing. Fortunately, Zoe was already out of her chair and halfway across the room. She threw her arms around Mama River, and the two women hugged. Just watching them made Troy have to turn away for a moment to get a grip on his emotions.
He knew exactly what she was saying, and he wanted that for Zoe. Badly. He wanted her to embrace her inner wolf so she could embrace this love between them that was growing. He didn’t know if Mama River had any idea what was actually going on, but he hoped her words were reaching into Zoe the way they were reaching inside him.
Mama River patted Zoe’s back and hugged her again, then chuckled softly and pulled back. Holding Zoe’s face in both hands, she said, “You deserve all the good things, Zoe Wilding. I hope you find them and grab hold of them.”
Zoe looked like she was about to cry, and that finally released Troy from his paralysis in the chair. Just as he reached her and landed a touch at the small of her back to let her know he was there, there was a loud knock at the front door.
“I’ll get that,” Mama River said with a smile for the two of them. She hustled out of the kitchen.
Troy pulled Zoe into his arms and gazed down into her tear-glassed eyes. The tears hadn’t quite crested and fallen—she must be working hard to keep them inside. He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “She’s a smart woman, that Mama River.”
Zoe snorted a small laugh and blinked her eyes fast. “Not smart enough to not fall in love with the mayor.”
“Sounds to me like the mayor is the stupid one in that pair.”
Zoe nodded her agreement. “But he’s not a wolf. It would be… difficult for them.”
Troy knew they were talking about more than Mama River and the mayor now. And it was true there was a gulf of distance between Zoe, the magic-wielding, powerful witch-wolf, and him, the ordinary brown wolf who scrabbled his way out of the shifter gangs.
“No more difficult than half the pairings I’ve seen around here,” he said, holding her gaze. “Emily was a human before Noah claimed her and turned her into a wolf. Jared is an ordinary wolf, and he’s mated to Grace, a white wolf. So is your cousin Terra, mated to Kaden, who’s a white wolf. Why not us, Zo? Mama River’s right—we shouldn’t let anything unimportant like that stand in our way.” Dammit, he really needed to tell his mouth to shut the fuck up sometimes. He hadn’t meant to go so far with it.
But Zoe wasn’t closing up on him again—instead, she was just searching his face with those beautiful dark blue eyes.
A gasp came from the front room.
Something was wrong.
Zoe sucked in a breath. “The front door—”
Troy was already on it—he was half way out of the kitchen before Zoe had even moved. But when he dashed through the dining room and broke into the great room and saw who was at the front door, he slowed his pace.
It was the mayor, looking haggard with his tie half loosened and a five o’clock shadow on his face. “Please, Eleanor… let me come in.”
“Yes, of course.” Mama River stepped back to let the mayor through the front door.
He was a wreck, wearing the same clothes he had been this morning, as far as Zoe could remember, only now he was a disheveled mess. A pinched look in his eyes, his tie loosened, and his white shirt rumpled and dusty with the sleeves rolled up, as if he had been digging ditches for the bulk of the day.
“What’s the matter?” Mama River asked, her voice tight, a scowl darkening her face.
The mayor only had eyes fo
r her—he barely flicked a look to Zoe and Troy. They both stood a few paces back from the front door that Mama River had closed behind the mayor.
“I have to leave, Eleanor,” the mayor said. “But I didn’t want to leave town without saying goodbye.”
“Leave?” Mama River’s scowl had grown darker by the second. “Why are you leaving?”
Zoe had no idea what was going on—why would the mayor run off in a panic only to come back saying he was leaving again? She was thoroughly confused, and a quick look to Troy showed he was just as perplexed.
The dark circles under the mayor’s eyes grew more haunted. “I’m not…” He seemed to struggle for words. “I’m not who you think I am.” Then he slid an uneasy look to Zoe.
Troy’s hand instantly found hers, and he edged in front of her, as if he expected the mayor to somehow leap across the half dozen feet between them and attack her. The mayor grimaced when he saw the protective stance Troy was taking.
But he directed his question to Zoe. “Are you one of them? A white wolf like Grace and the others?” He flicked a glance at Mama River’s face, which had an open look of surprise. “And I suppose, Daniel now, too.” He focused on Zoe again. “I just need to know, Zoe. Please.” The haggard look on his face softened into a kind of desperation that worked its way through Zoe’s chest.
She still didn’t know what was going on, but if he already knew about all the others, it shouldn’t make a difference whether she was or not. “Yes, I’m a white wolf, too.”
Mama River raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t look terribly surprised. The mayor, on the other hand, literally staggered back and braced a hand on the door. “How many more are there?” His voice was a harsh whisper.
“Why do you want to know?” Troy asked, an edge in his voice.
The mayor flinched away, nearly flattening his back against the door. “I just want to know…” He swallowed visibly. “How many I’m responsible for.”
