“No. But I guess I should. I forgot about it until now. He isn’t the first person to rub me wrong. And I’m sure he won’t be the last. I don’t know how you can stand it. Part of me wants to avoid touching anyone just to keep from feeling the nausea that can accompany it.”
Melinda smiled. “I know what you mean. I’ve spent years avoiding human or shifter contact.”
“Anyway, I can’t tell you what his opinions are about mixed matings or ménages, but I can tell you he’s evil. I nearly jumped out of my skin when he shook my hand. It was late. The middle of the night, but his touch unnerved me like nothing I’ve ever experienced.”
“I believe there are those who have secretly been lying in wait for an opportunity—or an excuse—to come out of the woodwork. They must have been taught hatred by their parents.” Melinda jumped from the swing and paced. “I detest the idea that there could be individuals who have been waiting for an excuse to pounce. They might be gathering, even now, to press their agendas. If that’s so, what do we do, Mimi?” She stopped walking back and forth to seek the guidance of their grandmother.
Mimi’s swing still swayed, but she did nothing to stop it or perpetuate the movement. “I worry you may be right.” Her voice was soft. Too soft. Defeated. “I’m concerned for the future of our people if they insist on holding on to such antiquated ideas about mating. I’ve been troubled lately, even in the night, waking in a sweat.
“I’ve never been one to have visions. My powers have always been more of a feeling, a vibe if you will. Sometimes I get a sensation from a situation—other times it’s from an individual. Never have I had visions like the ones flitting through my mind lately.
“I’m not sure if I’m imagining things or if there’s an explanation for my increased sense of urgency, but in any case, I tell you both now—something huge is coming. Bigger than any of us can predict. It won’t be pleasant. There will be deaths involved we cannot control. There will be heartache the likes of which we’ve never experienced.
“Our way of life is in jeopardy.”
Laurie held her breath during this speech. She knew each detail was important. She had only known Mimi for six months—and only seen her a handful of times—but she felt the sick drop of her stomach that made her swallow back the need to vomit.
It was powerful. Mimi wasn’t one to waste words. If the woman spoke of a doomsday, every single shifter in the area needed to be aware. The fact that they were instead at strife, on the edge of war, raised a red flag that flew strongly above them, screaming for attention.
The spirit guides were angered. Or were they? Did they instead have a purpose in mind?
Laurie couldn’t halt the growing sensation that she was the problem, not the solution. If she hadn’t shown up on the mountain that day… If she hadn’t mated with her two wolves… If she hadn’t defied the long-standing practices of both local townships and rocked their boat…
But she had. And perhaps she had been hasty and wrong to do so. Maybe she wasn’t truly meant to be with Zach, but rather had forced the issue by putting herself intentionally in his path that day.
She’d known this might happen.
Hell, she’d counted on it.
And from the moment she met him, she’d brought nothing but trouble to his family, his job, Corbin, Corbin’s parents. Even Corbin’s job was likely on the line now that she’d touched that crazy deputy from his station who had nothing but evil in his thoughts.
She wasn’t meant to be here at this time.
She knew it with her entire soul.
All the signs pointed to that end.
Now, she just had to figure out what to do about it.
Chapter Thirteen
Mary’s hands shook as she opened the front door to her small preschool. What the hell had she become?
She didn’t recognize herself. What she’d considered gospel, literally and figuratively, for her entire life was slowly being stripped away. If she had been in her own hometown and put in front of a similar set of circumstances, she knew she would have reacted with the same intensity as the rest of the members of her congregation.
The reason? She was close to them. She didn’t believe they could do wrong. She’d known them her entire life.
But she was not at home in rural Oklahoma now. She was in her new town—where she’d lived only six months—and she found herself questioning the people who should be her peers.
Bottom line—she simply didn’t know any single person in town well enough to trust every word they said. And that was how she ended up doubting their choices.
Right?
She dropped her purse next to her desk with shaky hands. She knew she was lying to herself. She squeezed her eyes shut and leaned on the edge of the desk, gripping it with both hands. Her reason for doubting her faith and questioning the other parishioners of her church had nothing to do with how long she’d known them.
If she was honest with herself, it was the discovery about her own sexual orientation that rocked her world and caused her to question her beliefs. Before she’d met Jazmine, she’d never once realized she was attracted to women. She’d dated men her entire adult life. No, she hadn’t found herself overly interested in any of them, but that was a far cry from deciding she wasn’t fond of men in general.
She flopped down in the chair behind her desk and stared blankly into the room. No one else had arrived yet.
She was exhausted.
When her phone rang, she picked it up and smiled. Jazmine.
There was no denying the effect that woman had on her. Just seeing her name on the caller ID calmed her and made her heart race at the same time.
“Hey,” she breathed into the phone.
“You make it to work okay?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Yep. Still freaking out about that truck going by us last night?” Jaz chuckled. She was far less concerned about getting caught with Mary than vice versa.
“No. I’m sure you’re right. Whoever it was didn’t see anything.”
“Anything else happen this morning? I know you have to be tired. I am too. But you sound more off than usual.”
“I never slept at all, actually. There was a message from Ada, the pastor’s wife, when I got home. They freaking filled Zachary Masters’s condo with natural gas during the night. I didn’t get the message they were meeting until I left you. I called the cops anonymously. Oh, and they’re meeting again this evening.”
“Jesus. Those people won’t let up. Are you going to attend? I’m worried about you. I don’t want you to do anything dangerous.”
“I’m okay. I can’t pull out now. That would look even more suspicious. Besides, Lord knows what they might do next. Someone could have died in that condo. But guess what? No one was home during the night. And how do I know this? Because there’s an informant on your end of the lake.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yep. Some guy named Pete. I think he’s a deputy. He knew Laurie, Corbin, and Zach were in Sojourn last night. He even knew there was a gathering of Native Americans, who attacked them at home. While that was happening, freaky church members from my end of town broke into Zach’s condo and turned on all the gas burners with no flames.”
“Shit.” Jaz sounded far more concerned than usual.
“Yeah, shit. This situation is out of control and way too organized. It’s like a conspiracy of people from both towns working together for a common goal. If I don’t keep my head in it, who knows what might happen?”
“Okay, you’re right, but you probably need to speak to someone. Is there anyone you can trust?”
“Yes. You.” She chuckled. “And I’m talking to you right now.”
“Anyone else, funny girl?”
“Nope. And I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag until I’m sure I’ve sucked these weird folks of every possible piece of information. If I go to the sheriff’s office, I’m no longer any good as a spy.”
Jazmine laughed
hard. “Baby, you’re so in over your head. Since when did you decide you’re an undercover operative?”
“Since people from both your town and mine decided to take the law into their own hands. I may not agree with everything the Masters are doing, or at least supposedly doing, but I’m damn sure God didn’t send me here to stand as judge and jury. If crazy Native Americans and crazier whites are meeting to plot murder, someone’s got to step in. Do you know of anyone else in as sweet a position for that as me?”
“No. You’re right.” Jaz blew out a breath. “And what about this Ada woman? I can’t believe anyone is stupid enough to leave all that information on someone’s answering machine.”
“I know. It’s insane. Who would do that? All the more reason I need to stay on course. Obviously I’m well-trusted. I can’t blow that right now. It could be the difference between life and death for three people.”
“I don’t like it. What if something happens to you?”
“Then you won’t have to sit in your car in the middle of the night several times a week hiding your relationship with me from everyone we know.”
“That is so not funny, Mary.”
“I know.” Mary sighed. “I’ll be careful.”
“Call me every single time something changes, okay? I’m scared.”
“Got it.”
»»•««
Melinda took Laurie to pick up her car from Corbin’s apartment after Laurie enjoyed a lovely lunch with her sister and grandmother. They even called her mother, Joyce, and put her on speakerphone so the three of them could catch Joyce up on everything happening.
Joyce made it clear she was worried about her daughters. The situation sounded dangerous. The reality was that underlying all other issues was the fact something was disturbing nature. Mimi, Melinda, and Laurie all agreed on that issue.
The strange snowstorm was just a beginning. More was coming. A bigger storm? Another earthquake? Would people be injured, perhaps killed? This event wasn’t as clear as the last two incidents that occurred when Melinda met her mates and before that when Rebecca met hers.
It was easy for Melinda to know in her gut that Rebecca wasn’t meant to participate in her Spartan race. She ended up being needed to care for the injured from the earthquake.
It was also simple for Melinda to recognize that the casino project on the reservation was doomed. The site made her sick, and not just because she was opposed to the construction. The place literally crawled with evil. Predicting an accident at that location was also a breeze. But what did the planet want from them this time? It was unclear to Laurie and even Melinda.
Laurie pondered the possibilities while she drove to the Sojourn sheriff’s office. The more she questioned things, the more she found herself thinking she was the common denominator in every event of the past week.
She felt sick to her stomach when she arrived at the sheriff’s office. And she approached Corbin with a knot in the pit of her belly that grew with every passing moment.
The only conflicting unexplainable emotion was her reaction to Corbin.
Her mate made her entire body come alive as soon as she stepped in the room. His face lit up when he spotted her unexpectedly heading his way.
Her heart raced at the thought of touching him. Even that one miniscule act made her nipples pucker and her clit jump to life with anticipation.
How could this feeling be contrary to what Nature intended? Was it possible the spirit guides were not in cahoots with Fate? Perhaps even though she was destined to mate with her two men, that wasn’t what the universe saw as the best option. Insane. But it was the only solution Laurie could currently come up with.
She shook her crazed thoughts from her head and let Corbin envelop her in an embrace when she reached his side.
“Melinda take you to get your car?”
She shrugged out of her coat and hung it on the back of a chair. “Yeah.”
“You spent all this time with Mimi?”
Laurie nodded. “She’s a truly remarkable woman.”
“That she is. A pillar in our society. I’m confident we have her to thank for the countless lives that have been saved over the years from various atrocities. She might not always be spot on or know precisely the details, but she still nails everything in the end. She predicts things. It may be unconventional, but I don’t know anyone who would ignore her sometimes unusual requests.”
Laurie swallowed back her fears. She blinked several times to avoid tears. What if Mimi was wrong this time? “Have there been a lot of natural disasters in the area over the years?”
Corbin frowned. “No. Not that I recall. Not before the earthquake and then the strange happenings at the casino site. I wouldn’t really call that event a natural disaster. It’s hard to say how much of that problem was human involvement and how much of it was Nature trying to keep that casino from being finished.”
“And then the snowstorm the other day.”
He shrugged. “Babe, I hardly call that a disaster.”
She nodded, still thinking about the types of things she’d witnessed and learned about.
“What are you thinking?”
She couldn’t answer the question. She wasn’t entirely sure herself. There was no way to put her thoughts into words. What she knew was her gut told her something huge was imminent. Why? What? And what was she supposed to do about it?
She stepped out of Corbin’s grasp and rubbed her arms. “I don’t know. Gut feeling. Something’s off. And I get the impression I have some part in whatever Nature is warning about.”
“Warning? You think there’s another storm coming? Or an earthquake?” He grabbed her hand and tugged her toward a chair next to his desk. “Sit.”
As she lowered herself into her seat, he did the same behind his desk.
She shook her head. “It’s not that specific. It’s more of an upheaval in the air. It’s like the oxygen is thicker or something.” She sighed. “I know that sounds absurd. It’s the best I can do.”
“Like that feeling you have in the calm before a storm or in the eye of a storm, yeah?”
She smiled. “Yes. Like that. The still, threatening thickness. Exactly that.”
Corbin looked out the window. “Well, I don’t see evidence of any storm, so we should be okay for now, yeah?”
She shuddered. “There was no warning about the snowstorm last week either. It came out of nowhere. Even I didn’t have more than a few minutes of intuition. Although, it could be argued that I had only been in town a few days. Perhaps my skills weren’t quite honed yet.”
“That could make sense. Do you feel like your abilities are in full swing now?”
She shrugged. “No idea. I don’t have a way to compare. But from my conversation with Melinda and Mimi, I’m catching up fast.”
Suddenly, Laurie’s hair stood on end, goose bumps rising on her arms. She lifted her gaze a second before a man with an exasperated expression and one hand rubbing his forehead stepped from a large office along one side of the room and cleared his throat. “I need every man on deck. We have a problem.”
Corbin glanced at Laurie, and she gripped the arms of her chair with so much pressure her fingers hurt. “That’s my boss, Josiah Richards. The sheriff.”
She let her gaze roam back to the sheriff.
“There’s a geyser on the northwest corner of the reservation. It’s spewing hundreds of feet into the air and freezing and making it impossible to pass on the highway between here and Cambridge. The fire department’s on the way. I need six of you to go assist.”
Laurie froze in her seat. Another crazy unexplained incident?
She grabbed Corbin’s arm. “A geyser? Is that a natural occurrence? Or manmade?”
“Should be natural. But I wouldn’t rule out anything today.”
The sheriff wove through the desks of deputies until he arrived at Corbin’s side. He smiled at Laurie, though his brow remained wrinkled in concern. “Sorry. We haven’t had a chance to mee
t. I’m Josiah. We’ll have to catch up later.”
He turned toward Corbin and set a hand on his shoulder. “I need you to go.” His look was pointed.
He knew. Laurie realized he knew more than the average human or shifter in the area. Corbin must have explained things to him or at least told him about her and their unconventional mating.
“Of course.” Corbin stood.
Richards switched his gaze to Laurie. “You’re welcome to tag along.” His face was still tight with concern.
Was he asking her to go along or just being polite?
Suddenly she wanted to get a reading from him. It wasn’t something she’d ever considered before recent history. As far as she knew, in the past, she’d never had the ability to sense anything about people she touched. But after meeting Pete, she was hyper aware of the possibilities.
And apparently Mimi and Melinda could both get a vibe about people by touching them—often to their chagrin.
She nodded at the sheriff. “I’ll follow Corbin, if you don’t mind.”
He smiled at her again. “Of course. Though I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to get through to Cambridge. I’m concerned the road will be blocked. The temperature’s dropping rapidly also. If that water is landing on the road…” He shook his head in dismay.
She understood. The entire surface would be ice.
Corbin grabbed his jacket and shrugged into it. He handed Laurie hers from the back of the chair.
Before she put it on, she reached out a hand toward Richards. “So nice to meet you.”
He clasped hers in both of his. “My pleasure. Hopefully we can meet again soon under better circumstances.”
She blew out a slow breath, relieved to find that Sheriff Richards gave off no vibe of ill will. For a second she wondered if she should mention the incident with Deputy Pete. She still hadn’t told Corbin or Zach. It was the least of her concerns right then. And besides, what the hell was there to say? Yeah, guys, that man gives me the creeps.
Corbin stared at her funny as they headed for the car. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She tugged her keys out of her pocket. “I’ll follow you.”
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