Terry Spear’s Wolf Bundle

by Terry Spear

  10/6 Darien spoke to me about Lelandi’s crying spells. They’re much more pronounced than for a normal pregnancy. The only thing I can attribute it to is the possibility that the babies aren’t Darien’s. I don’t want to speculate further about that.

  Lelandi reread the entry. Did Darien know? What about the rest of the pack? Silva. Maybe Larissa had told her. Or as bad as the news was, maybe not. No wonder Larissa was so distressed.

  10/20 Lelandi had to be hospitalized for dehydration. Darien says she’s not eating properly. Too ill with morning sickness.

  10/24 Autopsy revealed cause of death: broken neck from strangulation. Deemed a suicide, considering suicide note found in patient’s handwriting, past history of severe depression, and previous suicide attempt.

  10/26 Autopsy of fetuses indicate the DNA does not match Darien’s.

  Tears streaked down Lelandi’s cheeks, and she quickly brushed them away. How could her sister have done this to Darien? To the family? She’d shamed them all. It was bad enough that she’d mated another wolf when she was already mated, although Lelandi could forgive Larissa’s transgressions considering how cruel Crassus was. But how could Larissa have conceived someone else’s babies?

  And who was the villain who seduced her sister? Silva said Larissa was seeing a miner. The only one she knew was Joe Kelly. If not him, would he know her sister’s lover?

  She couldn’t believe how bad the situation with her sister was turning out.

  “Doctor,” Ritka said from down the hall, jarring Lelandi from her morbid thoughts. “Mrs. Waverly wants more medication, but she’s had enough morphine to put a cow under.”

  “Mrs. Waverly’s bone cancer has spread to many of her vital organs. She doesn’t have long to live. She’s entitled to whatever pain medication helps ease her suffering. Anything else?”

  “Just Willy Wilkerson. His lungs sound like they’re full of fluid. Might be pneumonia. And Ural seems to be regaining consciousness.”

  Ural was here? Unconscious! Lelandi ground her teeth. That’s why Deputy Trevor was here. Damn Darien and his men.

  The doctor and Ritka walked past the office and Lelandi didn’t stir.

  Once they’d reached an exam room, Doc Oliver said, “Mrs. Wilkerson. We’ll have Willy on medication and better in no time.”

  Lelandi refiled her sister’s health records and made for the door. Whether Trevor liked it or not, she was going to see her cousin and find out what they’d done to him.

  The door eased open and Lelandi’s heart nearly quit. But it wasn’t Doc.

  Joe Kelly hurried inside and shut the door. Snow covered his coat, hair and whiskers, and his eyes had a madman’s look. “Searching for Larissa’s file?” He pulled a gun out and motioned for Lelandi to back up against the wall.

  A sickening feeling rippled through her. Her gaze shifted from the gun to his grim face. “You were the father of her triplets, weren’t you?”

  “We thought Darien knew. But he either pretended not to, or was too arrogant to believe someone else had captured his mate’s heart. All that crap about dream mating.”

  Hoping for a distraction, Lelandi backed toward the desk where she could reach the caduceus paperweight. Then she recalled her gun. Hell, she could have used it on the wolf stalking her. Slipping her hand into her pocket, she realized with a sinking heart she’d exchanged jackets with Cody. Oh, god, an underage lupus garou had her gun filled with silver bullets. Darien would kill her if this lunatic didn’t beat him to it.

  Joe waved his gun at her and spoke in a hushed voice. “Silver bullets, Lelandi. So don’t try me. She was my one true mate. She told me everything about that abusive red mate of hers, how she couldn’t stand Darien’s touch, but went along with the mating so he’d protect her against Crassus. Not to mention that Darien insisted she was his because he’d seen her in the damned dreams. When I saw you, I figured you were the one he dreamed of.”

  “What…what are you going to do?”

  “Clean up loose ends.”

  Which meant? He’d kill Doc because he’d known about the pregnancy. She lunged for the heavy brass paperweight, but Joe grabbed her arm, and they fell to the floor with a thud. “Shit, woman. I’m not going to kill you. I have to get rid of the medical records.”

  She didn’t believe him for an instant. She and Doc knew about her sister’s babies. Why wouldn’t Joe kill them both? Hell, he had silver bullets in his gun. Why would he even be armed if he didn’t intend to murder someone?

  She tried to squirm loose, but Joe kept her effectively pinned down.

  “Listen, I’ll get the records for you and you can leave,” she coaxed.

  “Nice try, Lelandi. What would prevent you from telling Darien everything you know? Even if you tried to keep your promise, he could force you to tell him the truth. I’ve made arrangements with your cousin Ural to take you away from here, and I want to stay with the pack. So you’ll have to leave,” he whispered against her ear.

  And Doc? She wanted to ask him what he intended to do to Doc, but she had a pretty good idea. She feared Joe would be desperate enough to do anything to cover up his deeds.

  “Okay, I’ll go quietly with you. Let’s get the files.” She hoped she could come up with a plan before anyone got hurt.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Ritka hollered down the hall at someone. “Visiting hours are from ten to five, and as far as I know you don’t have any relatives in the hospital.”

  “I need to see the doctor. It’s an emergency.”

  Carol Wood?

  “Oh, no you don’t. Darien already said you can’t have a job here.”

  “It’s urgent and has nothing to do with working.”

  Joe pulled Lelandi off the floor and motioned for her to brace the wall. Then he began shuffling through the files.

  “You can’t go down there to see him! He’s with a patient right now!” Ritka’s footfalls pounded after Carol Wood’s.

  Then a thud sounded against the doctor’s door. Carol swore, but the door banged open, and she fell into Doc’s office, landing on her hands and knees.

  Lelandi and Joe froze.

  For a heartbeat, both Ritka and Carol stared at Joe and Lelandi, then Ritka shouted, “Deputy Trevor! Break-in in progress!”

  Joe whipped the gun around and fired two shots at Ritka, the gunfire exploding in Lelandi’s ears. She leapt at Joe and seized the weapon as Ritka crumpled to the floor. He thrust Lelandi aside. Carol screamed and scrambled to her feet, but Doc Oliver appeared in the entryway, blocking her escape. Joe fired at Doc. Clutching his chest, his eyes round, he collapsed. Carol dashed out of the office, and Lelandi dove for the brass weight.

  With a lightning reaction, Joe struck the butt of his gun against her head and sent her sprawling. Flashes of pain streaked through her skull. Momentarily, she saw nothing but blackness, heard nothing, felt nothing. But then files crashed to the floor while Joe ransacked the file cabinet, until he found Larissa’s. He shoved it inside his jacket, went to the window, and jerked it open.

  A mixture of snow and ice blew into the office, chilling her. She blinked her eyes, trying to clear her head.

  Where the hell was Deputy Trevor? And what if Doc Mitchell arrived with Caitlin and became embroiled in this mess. And the other teens, too. She could see Cody and Anthony trying to rescue her.

  Doc Oliver groaned. His face was sickly pale. Lelandi crawled over to him. Ritka was out cold, and Carol had vanished. Lelandi ripped open Doc’s shirt and meant to dig out the bullet with her fingers, but Joe grabbed her hair and yanked her back. Pain shot through her scalp. “Time to go.”

  “No!” she screamed, wanting to save Doc, and clawed at Joe’s fingers to free herself.

  Joe seized her arm and wrenched her to the window.

  “You hadn’t done anything wrong before this. Why now?” Lelandi struggled to break free of his iron grip, trying to control her tears. She couldn’t fall apart now.

  Carol peeked through t
he doorway with a cell phone to her ear.

  “Get the bullets out of the nurse and Doc! They’ll kill them. Don’t wait for help!” Lelandi shouted, hoping the bastard wouldn’t shoot her, too.

  Joe shoved Lelandi through the window, and she fell into a blanket of snow. Before she could move, he climbed after her, then aimed through the window at Carol. Her heart in her throat, Lelandi scrambled to her feet and jerked his gun arm upward. The gun went off with a bang, and the bullet struck the ceiling. Bits of plaster and paint snowed down on the desk. Carol screamed and ducked down the hallway.

  “Damn it, woman. I ought to kill you.”

  Lelandi believed he would anyway. “Why shoot Ritka and the doc?” she sobbed. She hoped Carol could save their lives.

  “Doc knew about your sister’s pregnancy. Larissa was certain of it. He’d have told Darien, and by pack law Darien would terminate me.” He yanked her toward a pickup.

  Lights flashing and sirens wailing, several vehicles surrounded the hospital.

  “Shit.” Joe took off running, pulling Lelandi into the woods.

  Hell, not again. “You can’t outrun all of Darien’s pack,” Lelandi said as Joe nearly pulled her arm out of the socket, tugging her over the rough terrain.

  She stumbled knee deep in a snowdrift, and he yanked her up. She growled. He gave her a slight smile, then they scrambled down a steep incline, half-sliding, half-falling until they reached the bottom of the ravine. He pulled her across a brook, the icy water freezing her to the core again. The snow was still falling so heavily and the wind blowing it so hard, she could barely see.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  Joe dragged her up the mountain on the other side. “Climb,” he hollered at her.

  She balked.

  He pointed the gun at her temple. “Darien can’t save you here. If I put a bullet in that pretty head of yours, they wouldn’t arrive in time to get it out. So climb. It’s your only hope.”

  Clenching her teeth, her hands numb from the frigid water and her wet clothes sticking to her like icy Saran Wrap, she struggled to make the climb.

  “Keep going straight up,” he ordered.

  She looked up, but couldn’t see where he had in mind to take her. They couldn’t climb mountains all day. Unless…She glanced back at him. He was to the right of her, resting while she did.

  “Go!”

  Unless a cave was up here. She began climbing again. Maybe a secret hideaway where he’d taken Larissa? Lelandi wanted to empty her lunch and kill the bastard for shooting Doc and Ritka.

  Men shouted on the ridge from the direction of town. Darien and his men were coming for her. Her heart lifted, but Joe’s expression turned darker. “Move!”

  She tried to make it appear she was too weak to climb quickly, although as frozen as she was, it wasn’t all pretense. He drew closer and struck her in the shoulder. She gasped and nearly fell. Her heart pounding furiously, she clung to the rugged rock face, her fingers so numb she couldn’t feel the jagged edges, wishing she could have put Caitlin’s gloves on.

  “Move, damn you! Quit stalling. Larissa wasn’t half as capable as you, and she made it up this ridge twice as fast as you’re going.”

  “I’m half-frozen,” Lelandi snapped back.

  She moved at the same pace as before, hoping she wouldn’t fall to her death on the icy mountain, until she saw the ledge he pointed to. He yanked her up the last few feet and pulled her into the cave. Hopefully, someone in Darien’s party knew about it.

  “Was this a silver mine?” She tugged Caitlin’s gloves out of the pocket and shoved her icy fingers into them.

  “Until it played out seventy years ago. Then it shut down.” He grabbed a lantern and lighted it, despite not needing it. But even the flicker of flame radiated a tiny glow of heat she welcomed. Inside the cave, it was slightly warmer than the blowing snow outside, and he handed her a hardhat. “Put it on.”

  He was going to shoot her in the head with a silver bullet, but now he wanted to protect her from falling rocks? That was the least of her worries though as they traveled deeper into the bowels of the cave. The walls drew closer, the passageway narrower, the ceiling shorter and Lelandi began to feel hemmed in. “Does this open up pretty soon?”

  He shook his head.

  “They came this way!” Darien shouted.

  Lelandi’s spirits soared when she heard Darien’s voice. But it was so far away, she imagined they hadn’t even begun the climb up the mountain.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked Joe, raising her voice, hoping her words would carry through the cave and back down the ridge.

  “Shut up!” Joe yanked her deeper, and she gave a hopeful smile, thinking Darien might have heard Joe’s yelling if her words hadn’t carried that far.

  Water glistened off the granite walls and dripped on her hat, and she jerked her head to look up. The place smelled like wet earth and the air turned colder. She shivered.

  “Forty-four degrees down here no matter what the temperature is outside,” he said.

  Still, it was warmer than the raging blizzard outside. But her wet clothes made it feel colder.

  The ceiling sank so low, they had to crawl. The rough stone tore at the gloves, and her jeans were no protection for her knees, bruising with every inch she traversed. The place reminded her of the time she got lost in a cave of tunnels, playing hide-and-seek with her brother and sister, then fell into a small hole she couldn’t get out of. Boy, were their parents mad. But since then, she cringed whenever she had to go into small places, even as a wolf.

  Joe forced Lelandi to go first, and her breathing grew more labored. She attempted to steady her breathing, calm her racing heart, ignore the tightness in her chest. But nothing was working. Time seemed to slow and the fear of dying in the tomb-like tunnel escalated.

  She paused for the third time, trying to get her anxiety under control, hating that she couldn’t manage it.

  “Don’t tell me you’re claustrophobic,” he snarled.

  “Well, I am, damn it. Larissa wasn’t. She could hide in the smallest caves back home, curl up in one and wait my brother and me out when we were playing hide-and-seek, but I can’t do that.”

  “Why?”

  As if she’d tell the bastard.

  When she didn’t answer him, he laughed. “Doesn’t matter. Just suck it up. Now move!” He shoved at her butt and she kicked back with her foot, connecting with some part of him…probably his head as it was so hard.

  He yelped. “Damn it, Lelandi, you’re asking for trouble.”

  Rocks tumbled together from up above, but the cave was so narrow at this point, she couldn’t look back to see what had happened. The sound of falling rock sent chills racing across her skin. Buried alive in a rock tomb came to mind.

  “I have a little surprise waiting for them.”

  What was this maniac planning? As she reached the opening into a large cave, the mountain shook and rumbled.

  “What have you done?” Her heart nearly stopped. Darien? His men? What if…what if anyone was badly hurt or killed in the rock slide?

  She scrambled into the cave and Joe followed her out of the tunnel, her boot’s imprint on his forehead.

  “I made some assurances that if anyone tried to come in here when Larissa and I were having our special time, they couldn’t tell anyone, and if they did manage to survive, they wouldn’t be able to locate us.”

  He was crazier than she suspected. “But you’ve locked us in a tomb.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Two more tunnels lead out of here that are never used.”

  Another rumble of rocks shook her. She looked back at the tunnel they’d come from. Joe seized her arm, but she jerked free, her teeth clenched, tears filling her eyes. She’d found her soul mate only to lose him? “If you killed Darien, you might as well shoot me and get it over with.”

  “And if I haven’t? Would be a shame if he found you dead, too.”

  He was right, the bastar
d. If Darien found her dead, he might not get over the grief. A clear plastic bag drew her attention, a pile of furs folded inside.

  “I brought them here for Larissa and me, except she died before we had the chance to use them. I tried to convince her to come away with me, but she was afraid Darien would come after us. He still thought the triplets were his. He would have killed me and taken her back if he’d had to tear the world apart looking for her.”

  He grabbed Lelandi’s arm again and yanked her toward another tunnel. “This one’s shorter, not as narrow. After we make it down the mountain, we’ll backtrack to town, pick up my truck, and be on our way.”

  “You don’t need me. Darien won’t care what happens to you if you leave me behind.”

  “Darien took Larissa from me. Now you’ll be her. Just like everyone thought in the beginning anyway.”

  “But he’ll look for me, just like he would have searched for Larissa. He’ll never quit coming after us.”

  “If I’d risked it last time, maybe Larissa would still be alive.”

  As much as she didn’t like the idea, Joe might be right. If Larissa had left with this man, whoever wanted her dead might not have bothered to kill her.

  “You said you were taking me to Ural. That he knew where my parents were. Were you telling the truth?”

  Chapter 19

  BLOCKED FROM HIS BROTHERS AND THIRTY OF HIS MEN. MORE stones rained down from the initial explosion that rocked the mountain. Darien choked on the dust and rubbed his eyes so he could see the mess he was in. The rocks barricaded the tunnel entrance and no one had made it inside but him.

  “Everyone all right out there?” he yelled, hoping to hell no one had been caught in the slide.

  Jake hollered, “We’re fine. You?”

  Highly pissed. “Fine here.”

  He listened, trying to hear any sounds indicating where Joe Kelly and Lelandi were. Nothing. At least Darien could still go after them.

  Sam shouted from the other side of the blockage, “We could move the rocks, but it will take hours, boss. Mason and I used to come in another way. Less hard on the knees.”