Snake Charmer (Shifter Squad Book 6)

by J. C. Diem

  Still recovering from the anesthetic, Zeus sensed me and gave me a fuzzy mental woof of greeting. I’m glad to see you, too, I told him. Try to get some sleep. We have a long trip ahead. I wasn’t sure how far away we were from our compound, but it had to be a fair distance.

  “I don’t know what trouble she’s gotten herself into,” I heard Shauna say when Mark closed the door. “But she seems like a good kid. You’re not really going to lock her up, are you?”

  “No. I’m taking her back home where she belongs.”

  That surprised her. “Are you taking her to her guardian?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t elaborate that he was my guardian as well as my boss.

  “Good. I’m glad you arrived in time to stop the Sheriff from forcing me to put her pet down. He’s a good dog and he doesn’t deserve to suffer that fate.”

  “Thank you for taking care of Zeus and for allowing me to take him with us.” As always, Mark was unfailingly polite.

  The vet gave Mark instructions on how to care for my guardian then he climbed back in and set the vehicle into motion again. He waited until the town was just a distant blur of lights in the rearview mirror before he pulled over. Leaving the engine running, he climbed out and stood on the side of the highway.

  Guilt hit me when he put his hands over his face in a sign of distress. I climbed out and joined him. “Are you angry with me?” I asked in a small voice.

  He gave a muffled laugh then dropped his hands to his sides and turned to me. To my astonishment, tears stood in his eyes. “No. I’m not angry. I’m relieved beyond my ability to express to see you alive and well. Not to mention human again.” He put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me in for a hug. Instead of rejecting me like Reece and my father had, he was welcoming me back as if nothing had happened. “Don’t ever disappear on me like that again,” he said in a mock stern tone. As proof that he loved me, he kissed my temple, ignoring my filthy hair.

  “I’ll try not to,” I replied with a laugh that was almost a sob. I couldn’t make a promise that I wasn’t sure I could keep.

  “Let’s get back on the road,” he said when a gust of wind hit us. “We have a long way to go before we’ll reach home.”

  Our compound near Denver was just one of many that the PIA had built for our team. It wasn’t really home, but it was the closest thing I had to one now.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Five

  Mark didn’t ask me any questions during the long night. I dozed off after a few minutes of travel and he woke me a few hours later to trade places. We stopped every now and then to check on Zeus to feed him and to make sure he was comfortable. He was happy to be with us both and staunchly ignored the pain.

  It took us three nights and days of constant travel to reach our compound again. I was in dire need of a shower by then and I couldn’t wait to change into my own clothes. Mark drove the last leg of our journey. My heart constricted when the gates of our compound swung open. Fresh grief at losing Reece welled. I’d been trying not to think about him at all for fear that I’d lose control again.

  Mark drove up the long driveway to the base and backed the SUV into the garage. Glad to finally be free of the vehicle, I lifted Zeus to the ground. He was feeling well enough to be able to limp without assistance now. After a brief trip outside to mark his territory, he followed us inside.

  Kala and Flynn were sitting on one of the black leather couches in the living room. They surged to their feet when Mark opened the door. Their expressions were hard to read. Like Mark, I couldn’t tell if they were angry with me or if they were happy to see me.

  Nervous and afraid that they were disappointed in me for running off and leaving them, I cleared my throat and spoke. “Hi.”

  “Hi?” Kala said incredulously. “That’s all you can say after disappearing for nearly an entire month? Hi?”

  She leaped over the couch and lunged at me and I put my hands up to defend myself. Instead of punching me in the face as I half expected her to, she wrapped her hands around me and crushed me to her in a hug. “We thought you were never coming back,” she said gruffly.

  I heard tears in her voice and had to swallow down a lump in my throat. “If it wasn’t for Zeus, I’d still be a werewolf right now,” I admitted.

  Flynn ambled over at a more sedate pace and wrapped his arms around us both. “We missed you,” he told me. I heard both pain and admonishment in his tone. I’d put them all through hell while I’d been gone.

  Leaning back, Kala wrinkled her nose. “When was the last time you had a shower?”

  “The night before I left on my unexpected journey,” I said dryly and glanced at Mark.

  He nodded permission for me to get cleaned up. “Take your time to freshen up. There’s no rush.”

  Flynn groaned in disappointment. “We’ve been waiting for weeks to find out what happened to you.” At Mark’s frown, he sighed. “I guess a few more minutes won’t kill us.”

  I smiled at his anguish then told Zeus to remain behind as I took the spiral staircase up to the second floor. He negotiated his way around the couch and flopped down onto the rug. Kala and Flynn followed him and took a seat on the couch so they could lean down and pat him. It was heartwarming to see that they’d missed him while he’d been gone.

  It felt strange to enter my bedroom again. It seemed like months rather than weeks had passed since I’d last been here. It took a lot longer than a few minutes to wash the grime out of my hair and from my skin. When I finally felt clean again, I didn’t bother to blow dry my hair, but toweled most of the water out of it. When I’d finally combed the knots out, I dressed then joined the others downstairs.

  Kala had made coffee and I gratefully took a cup before sitting on the couch beside Mark. It was far better than the sludge I’d been offered at the sheriff’s office or the takeaway coffee we’d had during our long journey home.

  Mark waited for me to take a sip before launching into a question. “What happened to you after you transformed into a werewolf?”

  “I don’t remember much,” I said to his disappointment if not surprise. “I vaguely remember leaving the compound and heading to the mountains. I found a cave and I’m pretty sure I ate the bear that was living there.”

  Kala held up a hand to stop me. “Wait a minute. You ate a bear?” At my nod, she snorted out a laugh. “You’d better not tell Ranger Delgado about that. He’d be pissed.”

  Bruce Delgado was a werebear who we’d met a few weeks ago. He was a park ranger and had been caught up in our hunt for the succubae.

  Mark frowned at the interruption then motioned for me to continue.

  “I don’t really remember much more than that. I hunted and slept most of the time.” My brow wrinkled when something floated to the surface of my mind. “I think something strange happened when the moon became full, but I can’t remember what it was.”

  “You were already a wolf,” Mark pointed out. “To my knowledge, no shifter has ever changed into their were-form when it wasn’t a full moon before. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if something strange happened.”

  “Did it have anything to do with Reece?” Flynn asked.

  That sparked a short-lived memory. I remembered a flash of pain and rage then the sensation faded. “It might have,” I conceded. I wanted to ask if they’d kept in touch with him, but I couldn’t force the words out. Reece had left me and I had too much pride to beg for scraps of information about him.

  “I called Reece to check up on him,” Mark said, accurately reading my expression. “We didn’t speak for long, but he said he was fine.”

  My answer was flat. “That’s good.”

  “I can’t believe your plan worked,” Kala said to Mark before the mood could plummet further. “Zeus led you right to her.”

  “Not quite,” he corrected. “He led me to a veterinary clinic and I learned what had happened to Lexi through the receptionist. She was only too happy to tell me about the vagabond teen who had been arrest
ed for grand theft auto.”

  I was lost for a moment before I realized what he’d done. “You put a tracker in his collar?”

  Mark nodded modestly. “After you left, Zeus stopped eating and he wouldn’t stay away from the gate. He even tried to dig his way under it. It was my hope that he’d be able to follow you so I bought a collar and attached a tracking device to it. I was able to follow his progress as he made a beeline straight for you.”

  “Kala and I wanted to go with him when he started to follow Zeus two nights before the full moon,” Flynn told me. “But it would have been too dangerous for us to leave the compound then.” They’d had to remain behind so they could be locked away in their enclosures during the full moon.

  “You had no way of knowing whether Zeus would even be able to find me or if I’d attack you on sight if he led you to me,” I said to Mark.

  “It was a risk I was willing to take,” he replied with a shrug. “I’d have done the same for any of you.”

  “Of course you would,” Kala said affectionately. “You’d walk into hell itself if you thought you could save us.”

  He seemed almost embarrassed by that and cleared his throat uncomfortably before returning to our main topic. “I followed Zeus’ signal on my tablet, stopping to rest for a few hours when I grew too tired to drive safely. I was asleep when his signal stopped moving the first time. When I woke and saw that he’d become more or less stationary, I figured you were somewhere on the mountain range. When he went on the move again, I knew something was wrong.” At my enquiring look, he elaborated. “He was moving far too quickly.”

  “That must have been when I was carrying him down the mountain,” I said.

  “I put my foot to the floor, hoping I’d arrive in time to avert whatever disaster had happened to either you or him.” He was still tense from the uncertainty of not knowing what condition I’d been in. “When I finally tracked Zeus to the vet, I discovered I’d arrived just in time. The vet told me the Sheriff ordered her to put Zeus down for attacking a man.”

  My expression darkened and Kala exchanged a wary glance with Flynn. “Relax,” I told them both. “I’m not going to lose it again.” Not yet anyway. My rage flared at hearing how close Zeus had come to being murdered, but I still had a handle on it. “Zeus didn’t attack anyone. I had an encounter with two hunters when I was chasing a goat on the last night of the full moon. They followed me to the cave and one of them shot Zeus when he thought he was me.”

  “What did you do to them?” Kala asked. Her golden brown eyes were wide in trepidation.

  “Nothing that they didn’t deserve,” I said darkly. “I bashed their heads together and knocked them out.”

  “I assume you’d reverted back to human form before this happened?” Mark asked and was stunned when I shook my head.

  “Dawn had already come by then and I was still a wolf.”

  “How did you manage to change back?” Flynn queried. His green eyed stare was intense.

  “I’m not really sure. I think I had some kind of titanic struggle with my wolf then my human side won and I changed back.”

  “Do you think your link to Zeus helped?” Mark asked. He was as shrewd as ever.

  “I think he’s the only reason I’m here now,” I said simply. “Without him, I’d still be living in a cave and snacking on anything I came across.”

  “I’d like to know how you managed to resist eating any humans,” Kala said. “We checked to make sure no chewed up bodies were found in the wilds and that no one had gone missing in the area,” she added at my raised eyebrow.

  Flynn slumped back against the couch. “Can you imagine how horrible it would have been for us if we’d had to hunt you down for breaking the rules?”

  A chill went down my spine at the thought of them having to put me down. “Thank God it didn’t come to that. Seeing Zeus get shot was the incentive I needed to change back to a human again.”

  “He was lucky he only received a leg wound,” Flynn said. Zeus’ ears pricked at hearing his name mentioned, but he was too comfortable to move. “What did you do when you changed back?”

  “I stripped one of the hunters down to his undies and stole his clothes,” I replied and Kala sniggered at the image that conjured up. “Then I lit a fire and dragged both men over to it. I left them snuggling together for warmth.”

  Her snigger turned into a full chuckle. “I bet they were happy when they woke up.”

  “Not really,” I said with a guilty grin. “I also stole their truck.”

  “I take it that was the grand theft auto you were arrested for?” Flynn asked.

  “Yep.” At the disapproving look Mark sent me, I explained. “I had to get Zeus to a vet and it was faster to take their truck. By the way, you can take the cost of his operation out of my pay.”

  He waved the offer away. “Zeus is a member of the TAK Squad. The expense has been covered.”

  Kala bent to pat the object of our conversation. “I hope he’ll be okay. He looks so scrawny.”

  That brought a fresh stab of grief and guilt. Zeus had suffered the most while I’d been away. He’d pined for me and had half-starved himself in his efforts to find me.

  “He’ll be fine,” Flynn said. “I’ll bet you a hundred bucks he’ll be ready to play fetch within a week.”

  Kala grinned and accepted his challenge. “You’re on.”

  Mark and I shared a rueful smile at how quickly her moods could change. We’d only been reunited for a short while and I already felt like I’d never left at all.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Six

  It wasn’t easy being back in the compound again. I was trying to suppress my pain that Reece was gone. He’d chosen a pure blood wolf to be his true mate and had discarded me like a piece of trash, but our bond still hadn’t been broken. It was distant, but I could still feel him. If I allowed my control to slip for even a second, would I sense the love that he felt for his true mate? Would I feel it each time they slept together?

  Cradling my mug in both hands, I realized I had to know. I couldn’t live in the dark like this. It would be like a knife to the gut, but I had to find out. Lifting the mental barrier, at first I felt nothing. Then Reece’s emotions came through. He sensed me and reached out. Mark had informed him of my disappearance. Reece might not love me, but he was still concerned for my welfare.

  Are you alright? It was strange to have his voice in my head at such a great distance rather than up close and intimate.

  No, I answered bitterly. I’ll never be alright again, but that isn’t your problem now, is it? He remained silent and I picked up his remorse for dragging me into this life in the first place. He masked his other emotions so tightly that I couldn’t sense them. He was so good at keeping me out that I doubted his feelings for Gloria would leak out onto me. I’d learned what I wanted to know and now it was time for me to withdraw. I hope your new life is everything you hoped for, Garrett, I said sadly. That was his real name after all. I won’t bother you again.

  He faded from my mind and then I was alone in my head. It would probably be for good this time. One thing I’d sensed before he was gone was that he hadn’t become bonded to Gloria yet. I wasn’t sure why they hadn’t formalized their union and I didn’t care. I guessed I’d know when it happened when our bond was severed. Until then, I resolved not to reach out to him again. I’d only be causing myself more pain if I did.

  Taking a shaky breath, I turned to my team. “What did I miss while I was gone?” I’d lost the only man I would ever love and now all I had was the Shifter Squad and our missions. I needed something to keep me busy or I’d be in danger of going crazy from sheer grief.

  “You didn’t miss anything,” Flynn said. “We were too concerned about finding you to take on any new jobs.”

  My remorse increased at learning they’d neglected their job in favor of searching for me. “How did you explain my absence to your superiors?” I asked Mark.

  “I didn’t tel
l them you were missing,” he said with a shrug. “I advised them that we were taking some time out to recruit for a new team member since Reece decided to leave.”

  “I bet they took that well.”

  “They’ve ordered me to monitor Nina Carter’s pack closely,” he said with a wry smile. “I had to lie and say that we’d executed the rogue wolf.”

  The rogue had turned out to be Reece’s little brother, Gareth. He was mentally defective and took after their equally disturbed father. Both had enjoyed killing humans when they’d turned.

  “How are you feeling, by the way?” Kala asked me. “Has the taint spread to the point where you feel the urge to drink blood yet?” Her question was only half joking.

  As a werewolf, I enjoyed eating raw meat and licking the blood from my meals. As a human, the thought revolted me and I made a face. I had a brief flicker of memory of drinking the blood of an animal while in my werewolf form, but it disappeared before I could grasp it. “Not yet.”

  Inspecting myself mentally, I didn’t feel any different. Maybe shifting for so long had slowed the process of me being turned into the undead. It might have slowed, but the taint was still there. My soul was still torn between two opposing forces and there was only one way I could be saved. We’d have to hunt down my mother and end her miserable life before I would be free.

  “How urgent is it for us to go after your Mom?” Flynn asked me bluntly.

  “I’m not about to lose my reflection in a hurry,” I said in a weak attempt at a joke. “I think I have at least a few more weeks before I’ll be in danger.”

  The team exchanged glances then Mark reached a decision. “I think you need more time before we confront Katrina.” He meant I needed time to heal from Reece’s rejection. “If you’re up to it, there is a job we should probably look into.”

  “I’m up to it,” I said and hoped it wasn’t a lie.

  “It’s in Texas,” he warned me. “Will that be a problem?”