by Terry Spear
Lelandi sighed. “How sweet of them to send me flowers.” She wondered which of the twins had found her crying over her sister’s letter that night. But she couldn’t help feeling touched that they cared enough to send her the carnations.
“Another anonymous guy. You sure made a stir.” Silva handed the card to Lelandi, then ruffled through another vase of flowers. “I don’t see who this one is from.”
“Stay around and get to know me, why don’t you, honey? I’ll be seeing you. A fun-loving lupus garou,”
Lelandi read out loud. “I’m surprised these guys showed any interest.”
“It’s the alpha in you. Turns them on.” Silva bent down to retrieve a card off the floor. “Here it is.” Her brow furrowed and she cast Lelandi a condemning look. “I thought you said your parents were dead.”
Chapter 11
EXPECTING TREVOR TO CATCH EVERYTHING SILVA AND Lelandi secretly discussed while he was listening at the guest bedroom door, Darien sat in his favorite leather chair in the living room and motioned to Tom to get on with the abbreviated meeting.
“Uncle Sheridan called and said he’s reconstructing the crime scene over the coffee-drugging incident at the hospital. And Doc Oliver hasn’t fully recovered from the coffee,” Tom said. “One of the lab technicians discovered it was that date rape drug, GHB.”
“Crap. Any fingerprints?”
“Tons. Problem is everyone uses the coffeepot.”
“All right. What have you got for me?” Darien asked as Sam served up the pizza.
“Carol Wood wants to work as a nurse at the hospital, but I heard you told her no. She asked if I’d try to sway you.”
“I still say no. If she doesn’t like working as a school nurse, she can move to another town.”
Jake lifted a slice of pizza from his plate. “She’ll be trouble. I’ll bet my paycheck on it.”
“Other news, Tom?”
“The town is gearing up for the fall festival. Uncle Sheridan is pretty mad that he has to be here again during the activities. That was one of the real reasons he took a vacation,” Tom said.
“He can concentrate on the shootings.”
“Yeah, but he says his men will be so busy with the influx of tourists…”
Darien motioned to Mason. “I need you to coordinate a thirty-man call-up police force for backup.”
Mason raised a can of beer in agreement. “Will do, Darien. I know you didn’t want to have the fall fair again, but it brought in around seventy-five thousand dollars to small business owners when revenues are way off this time of year. Good for the bank, too.” He grabbed another slice of pizza. “Until we have our first good snowfall and the ski slopes open…we need to do something. The Silver Town Train Ride through the mines hasn’t brought in much in the line of profits this summer either.”
Darien didn’t like the sudden swell in the human population. Too many things could go wrong. But he did believe in his peoples’ say in matters that affected their well-being also. Not all pack leaders would agree.
Tom cleared his throat and flipped over another page from his notepad. “A family of five wants to join the pack.”
Darien took a swig of beer. “Why are so many wanting to move into the town?”
Tom shrugged. “What do you want to do?”
“Has Uncle Sheridan checked them out?”
“They came in during the evening of the shootings. I figured that might change their minds, but they still want to be considered for inclusion in the pack.”
“What’s the breakdown of the family unit?”
“Father, mother, brother of the head of household, and sixteen-year-old twin daughters.”
Jake gave a small smile. “As long as it’s not any more cantankerous young males?”
“Yeah. Have Uncle Sheridan find out what they expect to work at here, their former job skills, training, any past records of problems, why they want to join our pack in particular. Where are they staying in the meantime?”
“Hastings B&B. Bertha knows the drill. She’s taking notes and having them watched when she can’t. What do you want to do about the Woodcroft boys?” Tom asked.
“I thought Uncle Sheridan was taking care of it.”
“He deferred the decision to you about setting the punishment.”
“Have the boys paint the school walls. Carpenter Myers can oversee the job to ensure they do it right. Mason, I want you to arrange that.”
“Will do.”
Tom waited further word, but Darien shook his head. “Should be enough. Did Uncle Sheridan explain to the boys that their parents didn’t pay taxes to support the school? That only the humans pay them and the silver mine subsidizes the rest?”
“Some have grumbled that they want their kids to go to the school instead of homeschool them,” Tom said.
“No. Just like with a human nurse working at the hospital, a testy lupus garou teen trying to prove something to one of the humans could get out of hand. We school our own. Several families are happy to teach the kids of other families who are too busy working.”
Tom made a note. “We’ve got another gray wanting to learn all he can about the operation of our town.”
Darien finished his beer. “Why all the interest? We’ve had three in the last month.”
“Word’s getting around we’re a model town,” Jake said. “How many leaders do we know who can boast running their own towns since their inception without human interference? Even though we try to maintain our shabby look to discourage too much interest, some alpha pack leaders want to build something like we have.”
“All right, same as with the ones who want to join the pack, Tom. I want the guy watched. Do a background check on him. Report anything suspicious to either Uncle Sheridan or me. With this situation with Lelandi and her sister, we can’t be too cautious. Any other business?”
Jake raised a finger. “Rosie delivered twelve vases of flowers for Lelandi, but she told me secret admirers sent four of them.”
Darien snorted. “Hell, what next? Have the anonymous buyers traced.”
“And then?” Jake asked.
“I’ll talk to them.”
Tom chuckled, but quickly coughed to cover his response when Darien gave him a sharp look.
Trevor hurried into the living room, his face hard. “I thought her parents were supposed to be dead.”
Darien stared at him. “What? Who?”
“Silva said Lelandi got flowers from them.”
Lelandi stared at the card signed: Love, Mom and Dad, typical order called in and signed at the flower shop. “It has to be a sick joke.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked up at Silva, but disbelief filled her face. “Bruin’s deputies told me my parents had died in a car accident. He put me under guard, but I escaped shortly afterward. They murdered my parents because Larissa ran away. I kept wanting my parents to move, but they wouldn’t budge. I knew our pack leader would take revenge.”
Silva pulled a chair over to the bed and took a seat. “What if your parents’ deaths were faked? What if this Bruin character wanted you to look for your sister, then he’d know what became of her? Maybe he had you followed? The guy wearing the hooded copper coat, maybe?”
“He put me under armed guard. He said he’d have me mated to his brother after he declared…my sister was dead.”Bruin? Oh hell, she’d let the pack leader’s name slip.
“Her husband? Bruin’s brother?”
Why did she have to mention his name? Great, just great. “What do you know about my sister?” Lelandi asked, before she gave away her whole frigging past.
She had to get off this pain medicine for good. Although she was surprised after Ritka had said that the Green Valley deputy knew who she was, Darien never mentioned it to her. Maybe it was a hoax.
“I’d never tell anyone else what Larissa told me in private. But I thought you should know. She was really worried someone would find her. I assumed it was her red pack or her family. That they wouldn’t approv
e that she’d taken a gray mate, although she said she was a loner and had no living family.” Silva glanced at the card in Lelandi’s hand. “I never in a million years dreamed she might have been mated and the guy was still alive. Do you think he’s the one who put a contract out on her?”
“But someone was blackmailing her before this. That makes me think it was someone else who knew she was mated, and she didn’t want him to tell Darien.”
“Yeah, that’s a pretty low blow for a pack leader. So,” Silva said, her eyes round, “was the other guy she was mated to high up in the chain?”
Lelandi ignored the question. “He’s abusive, drinks too much. I…I wanted my family to leave—to find my brother. To settle somewhere new. But…they wouldn’t.”
Silva patted her hand. “Ties too strong to the pack?”
Lelandi didn’t say anything. They had no ties to the pack—usurpers. Just a connection to the land. But revealing too much wasn’t a good idea. As if she hadn’t already.
When she didn’t respond, Silva took up the slack. “Darien said he’s returning you to your pack. But I figure the way he kissed you means he’s changed his mind. You don’t want to return to them, do you?”
Lelandi’s face heated. “They killed my parents! I’m not returning. The pack leader will force me to mate his brother. I won’t go back.”
“You can’t run off on your own on some wild lupus garou chase looking for your brother either. What if you never find him? You could be found out, hurt, killed. What about this guy in the copper coat? Is he a family member, or one of the pack?”
Lelandi shook her head.
Silva took a breath, then abruptly changed the subject. “I tried to get Larissa to tell me what was bothering her. I thought maybe it was the pregnancy. Hormonal imbalance kind of thing. ”
Her sister had been pregnant? Lelandi stifled a cry and tears pricked her eyes.
Silva’s eyes widened. “I…I thought you knew. Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry. I’ll get you a box of tissues.” She hurried into the attached bathroom and opened a cabinet.
Lelandi couldn’t believe her sister had been pregnant when she couldn’t get that way with Crassus. Had she been taking birth control measures behind his back? No wonder Darien was so devastated. Not only had she died, but his offspring had as well. Oh, god, the travesty of it.
Silva returned to the bedroom and put the box of tissues on the bedside table. “Something about Darien and your sister’s relationship was all wrong. Do you believe in soul mates among lupus garous?”
“No.” Lelandi dabbed her eyes with a tissue. No. She didn’t believe in such a thing even if a hunk of a lupus garou had invaded her dreams for the last several months. Alpha pack leaders often decided who could mate. But she’d never heard of their kind finding their own soul mate. Silva studied her so intensely, Lelandi finally opened up as she pulled the covers to her chin. “I’ve had really vivid dreams, and I sure wish the guy was real.”
Silva’s eyes widened. “Omigosh, you’ve been dream mated with…with…” She looked down at the floor, then gave an almost imperceptible smile.
“What?”
Silva’s gaze shifted to Lelandi. “Dream mating. That’s what Julia Wildthorn, the romance writer, calls it. When soul mates can’t locate each other in the real world, if one has the ability he or she can reach out to the other, offer the bond that unites them. If the other accepts, they’re dream mated.”
“I don’t understand how she can make all that stuff up. She says the lupus garous talk like humans in their wolf forms, stand upright even, and worse? Their clothes vanish when they shapeshift into the wolf’s form and reappear on their human form without any effort.”
“She can’t reveal our true nature,” Silva huffed. “Besides, I love how her lupus garous find meaningful, heartfelt relationships. We deserve something like that. Your sister said Darien told her he dreamed of her—that’s why he pursued her. Except she didn’t live up to his expectations in real life. Rumors abound that Darien’s grandfather, father, and a couple of his uncles were dream mated.” Silva took a ragged breath. “What if that’s the reason he went after her? Only she wasn’t the right one. What if you were? What if your sister realized this, too?”
Her heart racing, Lelandi stared at the bedcover, her thoughts in turmoil. What if everything Silva said was true? But she never saw her dream lover’s face. Never heard his voice. Couldn’t smell his scent.
Silva stood and looked out the window. “What if she was so depressed because she didn’t want Darien to learn you were the right woman, and she probably wouldn’t want you to know either? On top of that, she was mated to the beast before she met Darien, and she couldn’t let Darien know about that either? Damn, I could see why she was so depressed.”
Her sister couldn’t have done this to her. How could she? But to get away from Bruin and Crassus, Lelandi could understand why Larissa had left. She deserved to be loved.
Silva turned to Lelandi. “What did he look like? This guy in your dreams?”
“I…” She shook her head. She wasn’t sure.
“Maybe Darien isn’t the guy.” The elusive smile was fixed once again to Silva’s lips. “Another thing is…” She let her breath out. “I think Larissa had some affection for a gray working in the silver mine.”
In disbelief, Lelandi stared at her. Her sister couldn’t have been having an affair with someone else.
Silva dropped into the chair. “What if that had something to do with her depression? She’d found the real guy of her dreams, and she couldn’t have him. Three living male lupus garous at once who pegged her for their own is just not done.”
How could Larissa’s life have gotten so screwed up? Lelandi closed her eyes, fighting tears. “The medicine’s making me sleepy.”
Silva didn’t move for what seemed an eternity, and then she stood. “All right, honey. You get some sleep.” She strode to the door and closed it behind her.
If Larissa had had a lover, who else had known? How could she have done this to Darien?
In the hall, Trevor talked to Silva in a hushed voice. “Darien can’t believe in dream mating. Damned hogwash if you ask me. That’s why he mated the red?”
“Sounds to me like it,” Silva said. “But I think he got the wrong girl.”
Then everything grew deathly quiet.
Lelandi’s head was spinning out of control. The damned medicine? Or Larissa’s unbelievable sordid tale of the double mates, and a lover to boot. But was Lelandi really Darien’s dream mate? What if she wasn’t and she fed into his delusions that she was? She’d be no better than her sister, and she couldn’t do that to Darien. Not after all he’d been through.
The medicine slipped through her blood, and Lelandi fell into another world, always the forest, near the creek where the water flowed over rounded stone in a never-ending, steady stream, crystal clear, but silent.
“Lelandi,” her dream lover whispered to her while she read his lips. Why couldn’t she see more of him? Speak with him? Know him. She pressed her fingers to his mouth, and he kissed them.
No, no, she wanted to read his lips. “Say something,” she implored, but he took one of her fingers and sucked.
Her skin heated with desire, but she shook her head, pulled her finger free, and tried again. Pressing his fingers to her lips this time, she said her family name, “Wildhaven.”
But he didn’t repeat the word.
“What…is…your…name?” she asked. Could he see her face when she couldn’t see his?
He kissed her lips, licked them, pressed his tongue into the seam, but she was determined to learn who he was. She pushed at his chest. “No. Tell me. Who are you?”
He shook his head. Not understanding? Or not willing to tell her? Did he already have a mate?
Oh, this was so ridiculous. He was just a fantasy lover.
She turned away from him, wanting him to be real, not some made-up illusion. He ran his hand over her shoulder with a tender ca
ress, tickling her. She closed her eyes. He melted her annoyance, stirring a flicker of flame deep inside her. He licked her shoulder, touching her bare hip, not pressuring, using the most sensuous of tactile explorations. Trying not to give in to the lust, she clenched her teeth, lifted his hand from her hip, and moved it to her mouth.
“No,” she mouthed against his hand.
She wanted him to communicate to her. But instead of helping, he pulled away…and vanished.
“No!” She felt the soft bed in the guest bedroom beneath her, and saw Tom sitting in a chair watching her, his look startled. She sat up taller in bed and frowned at him. “Are you all right?”
Although she felt remiss in not saying something earlier, it was the first time she’d even thought about asking him about his injuries. Then again, she hadn’t been herself with all of the medication she’d been on. For the first time since the incident, she felt clearheaded, without any chest pains, just some strange prickling where her healing properties were busily taking care of the injured areas. Maybe by morning, she’d look and feel as good as new. Then again, maybe not.
Tom smiled at her finally, and she imagined he’d been half-asleep, he was so slow to react. He touched his temple where the bandage was gone. “Just a scratch and it’s nearly healed. Head wounds bleed a lot, so I had to get a little blood. Jake wouldn’t give me any. Said he’d used all he could spare on you.” He winked, the most devilish twinkle in his light brown eyes. “Pretends he doesn’t like you, but his actions tell another story.”
Pulling her covers higher, she gave a ladylike snort. “Right. Nurse Grey forced him to give blood the second time. Probably the same the first time around, too.”
“He’s all show.”
She didn’t believe it for a minute. “He didn’t like my sister, did he?”
“He didn’t like that Darien was upset about what to do concerning her. She was deeply troubled, but she wouldn’t let anyone close enough to find out what was wrong. Jake doesn’t like the silent suffering type. Get it out in the open and deal with it. That’s his motto. I figured whatever nightmare she was living, she couldn’t handle on her own, but she didn’t feel confident enough in herself even to tell Darien. Considering how she was mated to a red, and someone was blackmailing her to keep quiet about it…” He shrugged. “She hadn’t known Darien that long. Probably was afraid he’d want to kill her for what she’d done.”
