by Tasha Black
“This is mine now,” she said, squeezing her other hand tightly. “And if you ever fuck with anyone in my pack again, I will rip this off and serve it to you before I tear your throat out with my teeth.”
From somewhere in the darkness of the trees, Erik let out a low whistle of admiration.
Ainsley sprang to her feet.
The male prostrated himself and backed away.
A sharp tangy scent told Ainsley he had peed a little. Again, her wolf pranced in her chest.
She turned her back on him, posturing a complete lack of concern, and padded over to Erik for her dress.
Erik’s eyes were wide.
Ainsley raised her arms and he slipped the dress over her head, allowing his hands to caress the flare of her hips as he pulled it down.
“I’m sorry,” a deep, soft voice came from behind her, “I heard there was no alpha in Tarker’s Hollow.”
“You heard wrong,” she said, and began to walk toward Erik’s house. Erik scrambled along in her wake.
“Wh-what do I do now? Do I have to go?” the stranger implored.
Ainsley stopped walking.
“I’m sure I could find a use for you,” she said, with her back still to him. “You’ll have to think of a way to prove your loyalty first.”
Ainsley strode away again and Erik followed her.
There was silence in the woods behind them, but she could still smell the fear and excitement of the strange wolf.
CHAPTER 17
Grace squared her shoulders and let her feet beat a tattoo across the courtyard of the college campus.
The gray cobblestone circle she followed linked the Performing Arts building and the back of nearby Scott Hall. It was one of the few wide open spaces between the wooded paths. Students lounged in small groups, leaning against the campus map carousels and trying to look cool. They had only been on campus a few weeks.
They were all so young, just kids, really. It was hard to believe that Grace herself had been a college student a few years ago.
Now, instead of trying to maintain a 4.0 GPA and still get boys to notice her, she patrolled the campus, investigating an assault and a possible abduction, with about the same amount of success.
Today had been absolutely frustrating, with nothing but dead ends to support her suspicion that Garrett Sanderson had attacked Sadie, and a preponderance of hearsay that made it sound like Garrett’s version of things might just be the truth.
She had talked to Lilliana’s landlady, who had never heard anything about a relationship with a professor. Of course she might never have heard anything about anything - Grace had had to practically shout at Mrs. Hay to get her questions across. It was quite possible that Lilliana had entertained guests in the rented room on her third floor, or even bared her soul in a heart-to-heart confession that Mrs. Hay wouldn’t have even noticed because her hearing was so poor.
Then Grace had talked to professors, who were no help at all. Grace had to wonder if they had some sort of fraternal code requiring them to protect each other when it came to their personal lives. She supposed police weren’t so different.
Grace was determined not to let the whole day be a waste. It was a long shot, but she’d decided to canvass the area outside Scott Hall.
Grace scanned the courtyard. She spotted a group of kids smoking near the back entrance to Scott. They looked pretty comfortable. Maybe they had hung out there before, maybe it was a regular gathering place. If so, they may have seen something.
She headed over. As soon as they saw her coming, they threw away whatever they had been smoking. She realized belatedly that she shouldn’t have been in uniform for this. Oh well, too late now.
“Good evening, kids.”
They nodded and grinned nervously. The leader of the group was a tall young man wearing a flannel over a Green Lantern t-shirt.
“Good evening, Officer,” he said brightly.
One of the girls looked like she was about to cry. Grace hoped she had learned her lesson.
“I’ll tell you what, if you can help me with what I’m looking for tonight, I won’t try to figure out what you were smoking just now.”
There was a perceptible change in the atmosphere and even one audible sigh.
“What can we help with?” Green Lantern asked.
Grace pulled a photo of Lilliana out of her pocket. It was just an enlargement of her Louisiana driver’s license from a few years ago. She worried that without the garish color of her hair and lipstick, Lilliana didn’t look much like herself. But her FaceBook page and Twitter feed were set to “private” so Grace couldn’t get more recent pictures that way without an injunction. And there was no time for that.
“Have you seen this woman?”
The kids leaned in.
“Her hair is red now, and she wears bright lipstick,” Grace suggested.
The girl who had been ready to cry a moment before said, “Oh!”
“When did you see her?” Grace asked.
She tried to keep all emotion from her voice in order not to scare the girl. She hoped the girl wasn’t lying just to save her skin about the pot.
“It was last night. She had on a yellow raincoat. I noticed her because her hair was almost as bright as the raincoat. And it wasn’t even raining.”
Grace nodded evenly. She was telling the truth about seeing Lilliana at least.
“Do you remember where you saw her?”
“She was going into Scott Hall, right here.”
“Was anyone with her?”
“No. But… Well, that was later.”
“Did you see someone else enter the building?”
“Yes, a guy with a cane. He was old but sorta… hot.”
Garrett.
“Did you notice anything else?” Grace asked. “Did she seem upset?”
“I wasn’t really paying attention.” The girl’s eyes darted in the direction of the joint they had tossed, then back to Grace. “I guess she was walking kind of fast,” she said uncertainly. “But the man, he was walking fast too - I noticed because he had a cane and all. You wouldn’t think he’d be going so fast, would you?”
“That’s an excellent observation,” Grace said. “I’m going to give you my card in case you remember anything else, okay? Please write down your info here in case we need you.”
The girl hesitated to take the pad of paper.
“I’m not worried about anything you were doing with your friends tonight. You seem like a nice kid though, and if I ever see it again, I will hunt you down. Okay?”
The girl nodded quickly and wrote down her info. Grace asked for her student ID and snapped a quick picture of it with her phone, then handed her a business card.
“Thanks for your help!”
“You’re quite welcome, officer!” Green Lantern said bravely, as soon as it was clear she was really leaving.
She smiled and headed for the back door of Scott Hall, where the girl had indicated.
The hallway was slightly warmer than outside. Grace’s footsteps rung on the marble floor as she counted three doors off the main hall.
The first was the administrative office where Garrett worked. She could see the cubicles through a large window.
The second bore a metal plate that said Storage Closet.
Lilliana’s words came back to her - He didn’t know I was listening, because I was in the storage closet.
She opened the door to find two rows of metal bookcases with old fashioned paper filing boxes on their shelves.
The third door was unmarked. The lights were off, but there was movement inside. Remembering the chase through the college woods, Grace popped the snap on her taser’s holster and rested her hand on the cool plastic. With her other hand, she reached for the brass knob.
Without warning, the door burst open.
Grace stepped back just quickly enough to avoid being smacked in the face with it.
Carol Lotus, from the World Literature department, popped out with
an armload of papers. When she caught Grace in her periphery she startled and dropped everything. Pieces of snow white paper filled the air and fluttered across the hallway.
“Oh! Officer Kwan-Cortez,” Carol said in her usual quavery voice. “You gave me quite a fright. I was just closing up shop. What brings you to our hallowed halls?”
“Sorry to scare you, Carol.” Grace bent to help her retrieve the papers. “Let’s get you picked up and maybe you can help me.”
When the last of the papers was stacked neatly on Carol’s desk in the admin office, Carol turned to Grace.
“What can I help you with?” she asked.
Grace pulled the wrinkled picture of Lilliana out of her pocket and smoothed it on the table between them, facing Carol.
Carol’s face froze and began to turn pale.
“This young woman is missing,” Grace said.
“I-I need to sit down,” Carol whispered. She lowered herself slowly into the wooden student chair, leaving Grace to sit on the office chair behind the desk.
“Do you know who she is?”
Carol nodded.
“Lilliana Atwater.”
“A source told me that she was seeing a professor. Do you know who she was seeing?” Grace thought she already knew the answer.
“Oh dear. This isn’t easy to say. But in the circumstances of course, well, There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth as Count Tolstoy would say,” she laughed nervously and fiddled with one of two tea cups that sat on her desk.
Grace waited.
Carol sighed, put the cup down, and folded her hands in her lap.
“I’m seeing Lilliana,” she said in a voice free of its usual quavers. “I’m not proud. Although she’s a teaching assistant here she is still a student at Penn. And younger than I.”
Grace waited again. But Carol seemed to have unburdened herself as much as she would without prodding.
“Did you see Lilliana last night?”
“We meet in the office after hours sometimes.” Carol smiled sadly. “She was supposed to come last night, but I had a meeting that ran late. I thought she got tired of waiting.”
Grace had a flash of Lilliana waiting in the hall for Carol, and ducking into the storage closet when she heard Garrett approach.
“Thank you for your help,” Grace said. “She hasn’t been missing long enough for it to be official. No one has filed a report. But if she doesn’t turn up soon I may need a statement from you.”
Carol pressed her thin lips together miserably, but nodded.
CHAPTER 18
Erik’s heart was still pounding from the confrontation with the strange wolf in the woods. He knew that his wolf would have been able to run off the tension, but there was no instinct to shift.
And something was wrong with Ainsley. Her nature would normally have had her crowing about the victory. But her mind seemed to be a million miles away.
She had refrained, with difficulty, from mounting the stranger. It was natural that she wanted to - he wouldn’t have held it against her if she had. Though it would have been painful to watch and he was deeply grateful that she hadn’t. Maybe she was feeling guilty about wanting to. Ainsley didn’t know nearly enough about being a wolf.
She didn’t seem to be in the mood to dissect it though. And a small part of Erik worried that he might not want to talk about it with her. Was she even attracted to him without his wolf? He was pretty sure he didn’t want to know the answer.
At any rate, he hoped that the fight had mellowed Ainsley out a bit. Being on good behavior with Ophelia was crucial.
He glanced over at Ainsley. They were both a mess. Ainsley’s dress was wrinkled and there was dirt on her cheek. He was still sweating from his mad dash through the woods to find her.
He’d been stunned to find himself winded. The pain in his ribcage must be the “stitch in the side” characters in books were always getting after they ran too far, too fast.
Amazing.
Too soon, they reached his house. Ainsley bounded up the steps.
“Ainsley,” he heard himself say.
She turned, and her look of determination was indescribable.
“Let’s get this over with,” she said.
He nodded and they went in.
Ainsley immediately cocked her head.
Erik listened hard and heard sounds upstairs. Odd, Ophelia was supposed to be in the guest room.
Ainsley was up the stairs before he could stop her. Erik followed, ready to protect his mate from herself, if he could.
Ophelia was lounging on his bed, her suitcase open on top of his bureau. He tried not to notice the silky, lacy underthings in it.
“I took the liberty of moving up here since you won’t be in town during the duration of my stay, Erik.” She turned without waiting for him to acknowledge her. “And you must be Ainsley Connor.”
“What do you mean he won’t be in town?” Ainsley spat.
“Ainsley,” Erik answered quickly. “There’s a pack in Copper Creek, Pennsylvania - it’s a mining town. There’s been a mining disaster and the pack is in trouble. Ophelia has asked me to go there and help.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Send your foreman if they need help. But you’re not going anywhere.”
“Sit down, Ainsley,” Ophelia commanded.
Ainsley sat immediately in the bedside chair. The look of horror on her face at being compelled to obey the other alpha’s command would almost have been funny, if Erik hadn’t been so afraid for her reaction.
“Ainsley, it is not uncommon for a new alpha to need to be reminded of their place in a larger pack,” Ophelia said, stretching and standing in one fluid movement. “I am willing to overlook that outburst.”
She approached until she stood directly over her chair, looking down her nose at Ainsley.
“Now,” she said with icy calm. “I can continue to compel you to stay in line, or you can learn to behave respectfully to your superiors and make it easier on everyone.”
She paused and the tension in the air almost hummed.
“Can you keep it civil, Ainsley?” she asked.
Erik willed Ainsley to remember the pack.
“Yes, I can.” Ainsley’s voice carried no inflection.
Erik held his breath and hoped it was enough to satisfy Ophelia.
“Excellent!” Ophelia said, the tension in the room diffused, for now. “Do you know why I’m here?”
Ainsley shook her head.
“I am here on behalf of the Federation to judge your suitability as pack leader and to report my recommendation.” Ophelia placed one hand on the back of Ainsley’s chair and squatted down to look Ainsley in the eye. “I asked to come here, Ainsley.”
Ophelia let her words hang in the air for a moment. Ainsley slowly raised her eyes to meet her gaze.
“There are so few female alphas.” Ophelia said. “I thought I might be able to offer you the advice you need to succeed. As long as you follow my lead, I see no reason to pull you out of this pack.”
Comprehension seemed to dawn on Ainsley. Erik watched her face move through emotions quickly: frustration, anger, curiosity…
“Do you have any questions for me, Ainsley?” Ophelia asked.
“Do you really get to decide who is alpha? I thought that was up to the pack.”
“If we feel someone is not fulfilling their duties we are sometimes required to step in. Most alphas are groomed and trained for the position from an early age. You turned your back on your pack, so you have not been properly prepared.”
Erik waited for Ainsley’s hackles to stand up, but she was laudably calm.
“May I have some time with my lieutenant to make preparations for his absence?” Ainsley asked.
“Very well,” Ophelia said, standing. She turned to Erik and he felt himself nearly paralyzed by her dark gaze. He could only imagine what her power would have been like over his wolf.
“Don’t exert yourself too much, I may s
till require your services later,” she said.
He gulped, ripped his eyes from hers and nodded.
Ainsley slipped off the chair and down the stairs as though her tail were between her legs. He followed her, trying to read her mood.
They didn’t speak until they were outside in the field.
“Let’s go to our spot,” Ainsley whispered.
He nodded and took her hand. They walked silently through the tall grass, bathed in moonlight.
At the end of the grass, a stand of bamboo led all the way down to the creek. Erik had cut a wending path through it last month. They made their way through the bamboo to the edge of the creek.
Silently, they followed the water until they reached the cave and the giant sycamore - the setting for so many of their happy childhood memories. Erik always felt a sense of timelessness in this place.
“What are we going to do?” Ainsley asked, breaking the silence.
“Maybe it’s best for me to leave, while we figure out how to get my wolf back. If Ophelia finds out, I’m in real trouble. Any progress on that?”
Ainsley took both of his hands in hers and squeezed.
And that was when he knew.
“Julian says there is no way to reverse it.”
The ground seemed to fall away beneath him. He struggled to stay calm, be strong for Ainsley.
“Okay, that gives us a course of action then.”
“What do you mean?”
The love in her eyes almost unseated him, but he managed to hold on, to do what was right.
“I am no good to you without my wolf. You need to find a new mate, as soon as possible, to secure the future of the pack.”
“That’s ridiculous, you’re my mate.”
“You only inherited your wolf on your father’s side as it is. You need to mate with a wolf or the next alpha by inheritance will be uncertain. This is bigger than you, Ainsley.”
“No, we don’t need an alpha by inheritance.”
“How many young wolves are there in town, Ainsley?”
She paused, thinking.
“The pack won’t have to worry about staying under the Federation’s radar if they just die out,” he continued. “This is your responsibility now.”
