Pack Balance

by Crissy Smith

  “Hi, Josiah,” Julie said quietly. “What’s this guy’s story?”

  His partner glanced back at him. Cooper raised his eyebrows and tilted his head slightly in the direction of Julie. He needed Josiah to take care of this. Cooper had to get away from her so he could get himself under control. Just hearing her voice was screwing with his body. His cock was hard, his pulse raced and the wolf side of him wanted to howl. The itch under his skin was starting, like when he needed to shift.

  “I think Grant needs you,” Josiah told him with a wink.

  Cooper managed to grunt before he rushed off, taking the excuse of talking with the officer even though he knew Josiah had made it up. He walked fast, avoiding the numerous cops and onlookers who milled around. Now that the excitement was over, hopefully the public would take off. He spotted a quiet, shady spot against the building and had to keep himself from sprinting to it.

  He placed his fist against the old brick as he lowered his head. Cooper drew in a deep breath through his nose then exhaled from his mouth. He repeated this several more times before he felt that he finally had control of himself once again. Turning, he placed his shoulders against the building and looked over to his partner and the one woman he’d never thought he’d see again.

  She had her back to him now, so he could take his time looking her over. Julie had always been on the tall side for a woman. She was five foot seven, which matched his own height well. Tonight, she had her long brown hair braided down the back, the end reaching a few inches from her pants. She wore the usual Clear Creek EMT uniform of black cargo pants and red T-shirt, but she didn’t look like the other paramedics Cooper was used to dealing with. No, she was unique, special, and once, a long time ago, she’d been his.

  * * * *

  Julie brushed her bangs out of her eyes as her partner Shawn Hargrove took the front of the stretcher to lift their patient into the back of the ambulance. She didn’t want to look behind her, but she just couldn’t resist. Cooper Grainger. She hadn’t thought that she’d run into him so soon after returning to Clear Creek and her old job. No, if she’d known that tonight would be the night that she’d see him again, she’d have prepared herself better—she scoffed—if that would have been possible.

  “That was awkward. What’d he say to you?” Shawn asked her as she followed him into the vehicle.

  Realizing that she needed to get out of her own head and start thinking about her patient, filled her with guilt. Sure, the guy on the stretcher was stable for now, but she had a job to do. “Nothing,” she answered her partner. That was the truth, wasn’t it? Cooper hadn’t spoken to her at all. The hurt and pain in Cooper’s eyes told her volumes, though.

  “I’ll finish taking his stats and you can get us out of here.” She really, really wanted away from this scene.

  Cooper had looked good, but then, he always did. There was so much that she wanted to say. Little by little, she’d been forming a plan. The first move had been returning home. She knew how badly she’d hurt him. God, he still might never forgive her, but she had to try. She’d returned to work just that week. Okay, so she was a coward. Julie should have gone to Cooper the minute she’d gotten back into town. The chances that he wouldn’t want anything to do with her were high, but she had returned for him. That had to count for something. Now they’d run into one another and she hadn’t been prepared. Crap! She’d screwed up again.

  Shawn frowned at her while he walked backward to leave the ambulance. He hadn’t forgotten that she’d skipped out on him either. It would be easier to gain Shawn’s forgiveness, though. Shawn knew what had happened and although he was disappointed in her, he understood. Shawn would be on her side. That’s what friends were for. Josiah had been just as surprised as Cooper to see her, but he’d recovered more quickly. He’d given her all the information he could on her patient before turning his back on her. That had hurt. At one time she’d considered Josiah one of her best friends. Of course, that had been when she and Cooper were together and before she’d hurt Cooper so badly.

  “You sure you’re all right?” Shawn asked, as he stood by the open doors.

  Julie lifted her head and peered past him. Just her luck—she could see Cooper and Josiah huddled together on the sidewalk with their heads close together. What were they talking about? Her? Maybe. But both men were dedicated cops, and chances were their attention might have gone right back to the case they were working. Cooper could have moved on already. He might be settled down with a woman who accepted him. Julie wanted to be that woman and hoped it wasn’t too late. She could have stayed away but she’d never stopped loving Cooper. She didn’t think she ever would. She had to get him back before he forgot all about her and what they’d shared. Her timetable had just jumped forward. She needed to talk to Cooper. She shook her thoughts from her head. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Shawn nodded before he slammed the doors closed. Julie looked down at the patient on the stretcher. He was resting comfortably for now. They needed to get him to the hospital so they could find out what drugs he’d taken. She wasn’t sure whether or not he was a shifter or a human. That wasn’t something that was noticeable unless the shifter wanted it known. She had plenty of experience with that.

  How could she have known Cooper for so long, slept beside him and started making a life with him when he’d been keeping such a huge secret? Had she missed the signs, or had Cooper just been so good she hadn’t stood a chance of realizing he was keeping something from her?

  She didn’t have the answers any more now than she did a year ago when she’d left. Trying to make sense out of anything that had happened that night long ago was like banging her head against a wall. It didn’t matter anyway, not really. That was what she’d decided and why she’d come home.

  In her heart she knew Cooper was still the same man that she’d fallen in love with. She just had to accept that there was a huge part of him he’d left out.

  The engine started, and she braced herself on one of the hand rails. As the ambulance merged with traffic, headed for the hospital, she went to work on recording the information on her patient. His first name was Kenny and he was homeless. He was also on some kind of illegal substance. She slid the blood pressure band around his arm and turned it on. As that test was running, she checked his eyes, nose and mouth. The familiar routine of taking care of someone in need relaxed her. It didn’t matter to her whether or not this man was good or bad, homeless or rich. What was important was that she could help him.

  His blood pressure was good and everything else was normal. There wasn’t anything else to do except watch him and make sure he was safe during the ride.

  She took a seat next to the stretcher and glanced out of the two small narrow windows at the back of the ambulance. She couldn’t see the bar or cops any longer. They’d moved away from the area and closer into town. She was getting farther from Cooper. That thought make her ache.

  It had been two weeks since she’d packed up her things and driven her old Jeep toward Clear Creek. Her brother Garrett had been happy to put her up in Kermit for the time she’d stayed with him, and she felt a little guilty about leaving him alone again, but she’d finally gotten the courage to follow her heart. A year ago when she’d showed up on his doorstep, she’d only been planning on staying a week or so. A week had turned into a month and as she’d struggled to understand what had happened with Cooper, she’d grown comfortable in her brother’s home. But it was when her father had told her and Garrett that he might have cancer that Julie put off leaving for a while. Two months after she’d arrived, she’d taken a part-time job as an EMT. She’d wanted to be close to her parents when they had doctor visits and at the end, the chemotherapy. The EMT position at least allowed her to make money while she was in Kermit.

  Her brother worked at one of the fire stations and had put in a good word for her. It had been nice spending so much time together and they’d grown closer than ever. Garrett had never met Cooper, although her parents had
when they’d visited Clear Creek for the previous Christmas. That had been two weeks before she’d run away.

  The health scare had brought the entire Sullivan family closer. Luckily they’d caught the small tumor in her dad’s stomach early and after twelve treatments, he was on the road to recovery.

  She’d been so relieved that her father was going to be okay. She’d even debated about staying in Kermit, but she couldn’t get her mind off Cooper or the events that had sent her running.

  They’d been on a date when her entire world was rocked. Cooper had held the door open for her as they’d left her favorite Italian restaurant. She’d heard a muffled scream, not really placing it for what it was until later. Cooper had pushed her back into the restaurant yelling at her to call nine-one-one. She had, but she’d also followed him into the alley. There, what she’d seen still gave her nightmares. Two giant wolves had cornered a woman at the end of the dark alley.

  Julie had watched in horror as Cooper ran at the two animals, yelling at them. She’d wanted to shout at him to shoot them, but she hadn’t been able to make a sound. The woman who’d been screaming had remained cowering as the two wolves stalked toward Cooper.

  In an instant, Cooper had been howling and his body had started to change. It had been both horrible and frightening to watch as his clothes had torn and his body had reshaped itself. She’d wanted to close her eyes. She hadn’t wanted to watch anymore. Instead, she’d witnessed Cooper’s full transformation from human into a wolf shifter.

  Of course, she hadn’t known that was what they called themselves back then. It wasn’t until a month later when the announcement had come from the Wolf Council and other shifter organizations that they were real, did she start to understand that what Cooper could turn into wasn’t just a fairy tale. No, the man she loved was half animal. And she was a horrible person who had darted into the alley as Cooper had fought two beasts and ended up running from him. The only thing she’d done right that night was when she had grabbed the young woman to take her to safety.

  As she’d yanked her to her feet, Julie’s gaze had met Cooper’s. Eyes that were so familiar to her had widened in surprise. She’d run then, sprinted out of the alley with her hand wrapped around a stranger. Police lights and sirens in front of the restaurant had been all she could see. She’d collapsed into the arms of the first uniformed officer she’d seen. There was no way to explain what had taken place.

  Lucky for her, she hadn’t had to. Josiah had shown up and taken over the scene. Julie hadn’t talked to him, but she’d been able to see the worry on his face every time he’d glanced her way. By the time Cooper had stepped out of the alley, Julie had thought she’d lost her mind. If only things had been that simple.

  Chapter Two

  Cooper rubbed his fingers over his forehead. The headache that had started a little while ago was now pounding and making him sick. He paused outside the room where Jordan was being held.

  “We don’t have to do this now,” Josiah said.

  They did though. Cooper couldn’t let this hot lead in the case go just because he felt like his entire world was falling apart, again. “I’m fine,” he lied.

  Josiah shook his head. “At least take some aspirin, you stubborn fool.” He held out a packet to Cooper.

  Grateful, Cooper took them and tore open the package with his teeth. He popped two pills in his mouth and used his coffee to wash them down. At least that took care of one of his problems. He didn’t even want to think about what the reappearance of Julie into his life meant—not that he expected to see much of her. Julie had obviously returned home and hadn’t gotten in touch with him. He’d tried. God, he’d tried so hard to explain things after he’d shifted that night. If he could do things over again, he would share his secret with her as soon as he realized that he was in love with her. Instead, he’d done what he’d always done and kept the other part of him hidden. Only his partner had known he could shift into a wolf, since that had been before the shifters had gone public. And Josiah had figured it out after them working together for a year, catching small signs that Cooper hadn’t known he was showing his partner.

  “She’s back.” Josiah leaned closer as he lowered his voice. “That has to count for something.”

  Cooper snorted. “Does it?” It was the question he kept asking himself and now that he’d said it out loud, Cooper felt like an idiot.

  “She didn’t have to come back,” Josiah pointed out.

  “Her home is here, her job. That’s why she returned,” Cooper said.

  “I think you’re wrong. You were so shocked from seeing her that you didn’t really see her,” Josiah told him.

  Cooper frowned. “That doesn’t even make sense.” He relaxed against the wall and took another drink of his coffee. It was bitter and scorched but he didn’t expect anything different at the police house.

  “She watched you,” Josiah said. “As you walked away, she didn’t take her eyes off you. And there was longing, regret and a spark of hope. You know I can read people, and Julie is not over you.”

  The ache in his heart seemed to grow bigger. He wanted to believe his partner, but he wasn’t sure he could make it through another heart break. “Fuck, I need to shift.”

  Josiah laughed. “Well, let’s get our interrogations started so you can do that.”

  Cooper drained the last of his coffee then tossed the paper cup into the nearby trash can. “Okay.” He pushed himself away from the wall and strolled to the door. He opened it and saw Jordan with his arms folded on the table and his head down. Jordan didn’t even look up when they entered. Cooper slammed his hand down right next to Jordan’s head.

  Jordan popped up and if he hadn’t been handcuffed to the metal ring in the table, he’d probably have fallen.

  “You’re sleeping?” Cooper asked with disgust. “Really?” Did this kid not know how much trouble he was in?

  Jordan scowled back at him. “Can’t say your place is very entertaining, so there’s not much more to do.”

  Cooper had to give Jordan credit for trying to remain tough. The punk didn’t have a decent bone in his body. He was probably proud to have been arrested—something to add to his street cred. Cooper shook his head and sat directly in front of Jordan. As he’d discussed earlier with his partner, Josiah stayed back against one wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “I hate for you to tell others I’m not a good host, so why don’t we get started,” Cooper said. “You’re facing some very serious charges.”

  “And you’ll fix them for me?” Jordan sneered.

  Cooper shrugged. “You help me and I help you.” He leaned forward. “You’re in serious shit, Jordan. There is no one here to help you. We’ve got your buddy Kade. Kenny is under police guard at the hospital. One of them will talk. So why don’t you do yourself a favor and don’t waste my time.”

  “Talk to you? I’m not a narc!” Jordan exclaimed.

  “Assault on an officer,” Cooper reminded him. “You’ll do time for that. Is that what you want? Go to prison when all you have to do is answer some questions?”

  “I’m not telling you anything,” Jordan said. “I’ll be a hero in jail and you know it. You will just help my reputation.”

  Cooper glanced over his shoulder at his partner. “Guess I owe you a hundred bucks.”

  “Yep, and don’t try to get out of it this time.”

  “I can’t believe he didn’t talk,” Cooper stated as he stood.

  Josiah stepped closer.

  “Of course,” Cooper continued. “That doesn’t mean I can’t make the others think he did. I wonder what Kade will give me if he thinks Jordan rolled.”

  Josiah laughed. “I’m not taking that bet.”

  It was the oldest trick in the book. Cooper was taking a chance, but he figured Jordan really didn’t want to be known as a snitch. “We’ll let Kade leave first, if he cooperates. That way he can start the rumors about Jordan before Jordan even gets out.”

 
“Fuck you!” Jordan yelled. “No one will believe I ratted.”

  Cooper had been making his way to the door. He glanced over his shoulder at Jordan with his best surprised expression. “Sorry. I forgot you were here.”

  “You’re such a dick,” Jordan said.

  “Well…yeah,” Cooper agreed easily. “Now, what were you saying?”

  “I’m not saying shit,” Jordan replied.

  Cooper grinned. “That’s not what I’m going to tell Kade—or Kenny, when we talk to him. I hear that he’s almost ready to be released from the hospital. Maybe Kade won’t give you up to the neighborhood but Kenny doesn’t have any loyalty to you.” Cooper mixed enough truth in to cover his lie. And he could lie to a suspect. He had no idea how Kenny was doing. He’d asked Grant to check into Kenny’s condition and hadn’t gotten word back yet. He did know that if Kenny survived, he wasn’t Jordan’s lackey like Kade. He’d have no problem spreading rumors where Jordan was concerned. Kenny was only friends with the person who could get him drugs at that moment. He only looked out for himself.

  “You can’t tell people I talked to you. You’ll get me killed,” Jordan told him. His voice wavered slightly.

  Perfect.

  Cooper shrugged. “The thing is, I don’t really see that as a bad thing. You’re a drug pusher and I’ve spent a lot of years putting people like you in jail. But you just get out again.” He turned to his partner. “This idea is sounding better and better.”

  “I’m going to hurt you one day,” Jordan spat at him. “You think you’re so tough. Well you won’t be when me and my boys get done with you. You’ve been making lots of enemies on the streets. I won’t even have to pay to have you messed up. The boys will do it for free.”

  Oh yeah, he had Jordan scared. The only way he’d be so stupid as to say that to Cooper while in custody was if he was about to shit himself in fear. Well, Cooper wasn’t going to put up with that crap. He was a damn good detective and he would not back down, especially not to some punk who needed a good ass whooping.