Wolf

by D. M. Turner

  The floor creaked and groaned softly behind her. Tanya’s shoulder brushed hers. “So, you want to start on one side and I’ll take the other?”

  “That would probably get us done faster. Just put everything into trash bags. We’ll sort it out later.” She pointed to the box of bags she’d dropped on the floor inside the door.

  They worked in silence for long minutes. Thuds, thumps, and scuffling at the other end of the trailer said their helpers had arrived and gone right to work. Donna was grateful to be able to stay in her bedroom, unable to see what the others thought of the home they’d walked into.

  Donna glanced over her shoulder at Tanya, who worked quietly but steadily. Too quietly. Donna had never been a chatterbox, but most of the girls she’d grown up around had never seemed to shut up. Had Tanya been more talkative before her abduction?

  “I’ve never worked with another woman who’s so quiet.” She bit her tongue. How had she let that thought slip out?

  A soft smile lit Tanya’s face. “I’ve never been particularly outgoing. I generally have my face in a book.”

  “I know how that goes. I don’t think I’ve emerged from a book for very long since I first learned to read. I graduated from high school in the top five of my class, earned a full scholarship to NAU.” She frowned and shoved some of Tommy’s books and matchbox cars into a bag. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to use it now.”

  Tanya chuckled. “Are you afraid you’ll get upset and eat someone?”

  Donna raised her brows and stilled to look at the other woman. “Oh, man, I hadn’t even thought of that. I was thinking more along the lines of someone finding out what I am. I don’t want to be a lab experiment.”

  “Yeah, I thought of that, too. I’d rather be dead.” Her flat tone on that last word sent a chill up Donna’s spine.

  “You don’t want that right now, though, do you?”

  “Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I kind of go back and forth on the whole thing.” Tanya frowned and dropped to her knees to dig under one of the twin beds. “I keep learning things piecemeal, and I hate that. I wish I could sit down and read a book that explained it all. Get it over with, no more surprises. I hate this piece-of-information here, another-tidbit there, but Ian says no one has ever written any of it down. They’re afraid it’ll fall into the wrong hands.”

  “I suppose it never occurred to them to fictionalize the information, so if anyone found it, they’d think it was just a story, huh?”

  Tanya’s hands stilled. She sat back on her heels, a speculative look crossing her face. “Fictionalize? You know… I bet that never occurred to them.”

  Donna shrugged and went back to work. “Think about it. If someone wrote about your life, or mine, who’d believe it was real?”

  “Good point.” She opened the drawer in the nightstand between the two beds, pulled everything out, and put it into a bag.

  The silence grew and became uncomfortable again. She searched for some topic, any topic, to trigger another discussion. “Do you believe in God?” Ugh. Hopefully that didn’t cause offense. Wasn’t religion one of the subjects to be avoided even among friends?

  “Yeah, I do. I’ve spent my whole life in church.” Tanya didn’t sound offended. That was encouraging.

  “Are you certain He exists?”

  “I have my doubts at times.” She shrugged. “Sometimes I think it’d be easier if I didn’t believe. Then I wouldn’t have to try to figure out how it all fits. All the bad stuff. You know?”

  Boy, did she ever. Donna nodded.

  “Then I realize how much uglier life would be without Him. If God’s hand wasn’t at work in our lives, that would mean everything is meaningless. Nothing has purpose. We live. We die. That’s the end.”

  Well, that was certainly depressing.

  “Somewhere in Scripture, Paul said if Christ is a lie, Christians are most to be pitied. That seemed weird when I first read it, but I’ve since realized he was right. If God doesn’t exist, if Christ didn’t die for our sins, we’re a pitiful lot. We seek to live by a standard the world can’t understand, going against the flow. Christians all over the world are persecuted and even executed for their faith. If it’s a lie, what are they dying for? What are they being tortured and mutilated and imprisoned for? Nothing. If we’re following someone who doesn’t exist, we’re the biggest fools of all, throwing our lives away on a fantasy.”

  “I hadn’t really thought of it that way.” Donna frowned. “The alternative is far worse. My mother never had any use for God. She used to put me down for having faith. She said it was a crutch for the weak-minded, those who can’t cope.” She snorted. “The irony of that coming from someone who needed drugs to cope with everyday life doesn’t elude me.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “I hate to think of her spending eternity in Hell… but I can’t change her choice to reject Christ.” If she let herself think about that too much, it would rip her heart out, and the grief would finish her off. She couldn’t let that happen. She had to stay strong for Tommy, like Ian had said.

  Okay, Lord, I don’t understand why You’ve done this, allowed all of it, but I don’t see that I have much choice but to trust You with the outcome. Help me see why my life was spared, why it’s become what it is, and what that means for the future. Help me stay strong for Tommy, and give me wisdom to tell him about Mom. Oh, God… help us both with that.

  “Well, I think we’re done.” Tanya stood, hands on her hips, in the center of the room and pivoted in place.

  Donna glanced around. Other than furniture and trash bags stuffed full, the room was empty. Drawers stood partway open. The closet was open and empty. “It looks like you’re right.” She grabbed a pair of bags. “What do we do with them now?”

  “The SUV. Isaac traded vehicles with Colin.” Tanya hefted another pair of bags without a hint of strain and carried them down the hallway, moving sideways to keep from bumping into things.

  Donna halted just inside the kitchen.

  The living room and kitchen areas had been cleared of everything, including furniture. The dingy carpet looked even sadder with so much more of it showing. The linoleum, too.

  A man emerged from Mom’s bedroom with a box and went straight outside after a brief nod to Tanya.

  Tanya glanced back and smiled. “Are you coming?”

  “Uh… yeah. Right behind you.” She quickly caught up to the other woman and followed her out the front door, down the steps, and to an SUV waiting in the driveway. She tossed the bags she carried into the open back of the vehicle then turned to glance around.

  Colin stood at the end of the driveway of a trailer across the street and two down, talking to a woman Donna could only assume was the neighbor who lived there. Mom hadn’t wanted them to associate with the neighbors, especially after the one had led Donna to Christ a decade before.

  Tanya and Donna returned for more bags. When they came back out, Colin crossed the street to join them, taking one of the bags from Tanya with a warm smile. He put each bag into the back of the vehicle. “Is that about it?”

  “One more trip will do it. We tossed everything in the bags to sort out later.”

  He nodded. Then he pointed toward the trailer across the way where he’d been. “Mrs. Hansen knew a couple of families who can use the furniture. Isaac and O’Neil are hauling things to them right now. She also knew some women who can use your mom’s clothes. I’ve never seen a woman get teary-eyed over a bunch of old clothes before. She said the Lord provides in strange ways.”

  Something good had come out of her mom’s death? Really? Neighbors she’d never even known had been helped. You knew this would happen, didn’t you, Lord? “That’s wonderful. Thank you for taking care of it, Colin. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.”

  He smiled and nodded. “You’re welcome.”

  Two men rounded the end of the trailer, with three young men Donna’s age or younger in tow. One of the men grinned and motioned toward
the trio. “A neighbor volunteered slave labor when she found out what we’re doing.”

  Colin chuckled. “Excellent. The more hands, the faster the work goes.” He glanced at Tanya and Donna. “Are you ladies finished in there, other than the last bags to bring out?”

  “Yes. The twin beds, nightstand, and two chests of drawers in the bedroom at the other end can go if you’ve found someone who needs them.” She headed for the trailer. “I’ll grab those last two bags to get them out of the way.”

  She returned to the SUV quickly with the final load, only to find Colin and Tanya seated side-by-side on the tailgate of the SUV. He had an arm around her, his nose buried in her hair.

  “Uh, I hate to interrupt….”

  Tanya blushed.

  Colin grinned and hopped to the ground to take one of the bags.

  Still pink-cheeked, Tanya slid off the tailgate to get out of his way.

  He had them stowed in no time, slammed the tailgate, and lowered the lift window. He turned and smiled. “Where to now, ladies?”

  “Home.”

  Tanya and Colin both raised brows and gave her questioning looks.

  Donna shrugged. “Home is where Tommy is. We have a new home now.”

  And a new way of life. They’d find their way. Together. With the help of a pack of werewolves they’d only just met. For some reason, that no longer seemed so frightening.

  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. - Rom. 8:28

  Campbell Wildlife Preserve

  Friday, September 4, 2015

  CURLED up at opposite ends of the couch in the living room in front of a low-burning fire, Tanya and Donna watched the flames and enjoyed the peace of the night. The sun had long since gone down. The moon had yet to rise. A week had passed since Tanya and the rest of the werewolf pack had pulled Donna out of captivity. She seemed to have taken the werewolf thing in stride, probably due to her eleven-year-old brother Tommy’s enthusiasm. He’d been even more excited to find out he wouldn’t have to return to public school and would, instead, be home-schooled by the pack.

  “Who better to teach history than men who’ve lived it? Brett even teaches it at university level, for Pete’s sake,” Ian had pointed out when Donna expressed concern. “Add the fact Brett and I are writers, Tanya’s got a year to go on an English degree, Graham’s a math whiz, nobody knows more about computers than Carlos, and Jeremy’s a doctor, and we’ve got every subject covered.”

  That had put an end to Donna’s concerns.

  Pack member Peter turned out to be a lawyer, specializing in family law. He was seeing to guardianship issues, making sure Tommy could stay with Donna permanently without the state hassling her or the pack. He didn’t anticipate trouble but wasn’t assuming there wouldn’t be any.

  Tanya shifted her gaze from the fire to study the woman sitting at the other end of the couch. “How are you doing with your mom and all?” They’d found out the day after the rescue that Donna’s mother had died of a drug overdose the night after she and her brother disappeared. The police suspected it was intentional. Donna had said her mother couldn’t deal with everyday life. The disappearance of her children had apparently been beyond her already limited ability to cope.

  Donna sighed and wrapped her arms more tightly around her legs. “Okay, I guess. I’ve expected Mom to die of a drug overdose as far back as I can remember. Now that it’s happened, I feel… numb. No grief really. I mean, I don’t feel the need to crawl into a hole somewhere and cry. It’s almost… a relief. The saddest thing is, her death makes life easier in a lot of ways. At least now I don’t have to leave Tommy with her. I worried about going to school and him being alone with her, especially with his special needs. She tended to neglect him.”

  “You didn’t have an easy life with her, and you wanted better for him.”

  “Yes.” A soft, small smile eased strain from her face. “That’s happened since the attack that nearly killed Tommy. You and the pack. Everything’s changed, and it’s all for the better.”

  Shock rippled through Tanya. “Even the fact you’re now a werewolf?”

  “Yeah. I mean, how can it be horrible when it’s helped Tommy so much? He’s thriving for the first time in his life. I can’t see that as a curse or an illness. I just can’t.”

  “What about for you? Is it such a blessing for you personally?”

  “I’m adjusting.” Donna chuckled. “I had a professor during the first summer session who seemed to go out of his way to tick me off. I realize there were some real dimwits in my class, but he didn’t need to treat all of us like morons. The fact I came straight out of high school and into a college class without taking a summer break didn’t score me any points. I don’t have him this year, which is probably a good thing since he’d be certain to set off my temper. Then again, he could handle it even if I went wolf right in front of him, seeing as how he is one.”

  “Brett? You had Brett as a teacher?” Eek. She wouldn’t wish him on anyone. He’d been known to rant about the idiocy of the current youth. The fact he was proven right by some of them on a routine basis only reinforced his disdain and bitterness.

  “You’d think a guy who has to maintain such tight control of his own temper wouldn’t be so quick to annoy the heck out of others.”

  “Maybe amusing himself that way helps him cope with the stupidity he perceives around him?” Tanya grinned.

  “He probably gets off on seeing how many students he can drive into the grave through stress.”

  They laughed.

  “What’s so funny, ladies?” Colin exited the hallway, squatted in front of Tanya, and gently gripped her bare ankle.

  “Talking about one of the professors at the university.” Donna winked at Tanya, who chuckled.

  “Ah.” He nodded then grinned. “So how did your first week of classes go? Either of you eat anybody?”

  “No.” Tanya smiled. “But we still haven’t discounted the possibility it’ll happen.”

  He chuckled. “Listen, Dad asked me and Brett to run into town.”

  Tanya nodded. “Okay.”

  His gaze flicked to Donna. “Mind if we take Tommy?”

  “If he wants to go, you’re welcome to him. He’s all yours.” She grinned.

  “I’ll tell him you said that.” Colin chuckled, squeezed Tanya’s ankle, and released her to get to his feet. “We’ll be back in an hour and a half or two, most likely.”

  “See you when you get back.”

  They waited until Brett and Colin walked out the front door with Tommy running ahead to break the silence.

  “That man of yours sure is a hottie.” Donna sighed. “And he’s so sweet.”

  “Yes, he is.” One of the few people who actually made her feel safe.

  The front door opened, and one of the pack wandered through. Dark chocolate skin. Dark brown eyes and hair. Peter, the lawyer? No, maybe it was Jeremy, the doctor. Wait, no, maybe it was that other guy? What was his name? The one who always seemed to know everything about everyone in the pack. Good grief. Hm. Eventually, she’d get names and faces to stick, instead of simply recognizing them by scent as “pack”.

  Whoever he was, his dark eyes lingered on Donna.

  She stared back long enough that his gaze dropped to the floor.

  He made his way toward the far end of the house. To see Ian, probably.

  “So, tell me, do these guys always come and go like this?”

  “No. Brett and Graham are the only ones I see much throughout the week. Isaac comes once or twice a week with supplies from town. The rest of these guys I don’t recall seeing much except on full moons.” Which would be why she couldn’t put names to faces. Was Donna the reason they were traipsing through? “I suspect you’ve peaked their interest.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I haven’t seen O’Neil all week, and Isaac barely acknowledged your existence when he was here las
t night.” And she was pretty sure David was the other one she hadn’t seen. She couldn’t remember what job he performed, but he had a wife. If she was right, the mated wolves were the only ones not sniffing around.

  “Is that supposed to mean something?”

  “O’Neil and Isaac are both mated.”

  Donna gave her a blank look. “Meaning?”

  “Everyone else you’ve seen wandering through is single, and therefore stopping by to check out the new unmated female.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Believe me. Werewolves take this whole mated-unmated thing very seriously.” Might as well lay it out there. “If you decide to stay, you’ll be expected to choose a mate.” She lifted a hand. “Now, before you panic like I did when those words were said to me, let me explain what that means. The process of ‘choosing’ a mate merely means you let your intention to marry someone be known. Think of it as an engagement. How long the engagement lasts before the actual marriage is up to you and your significant other.”

  The frown that had appeared at Tanya’s original declaration hadn’t budged. “How long have you and Colin been… engaged?”

  “Ian announced it to the pack on July thirty-first.”

  “Have you set a wedding date?”

  Tanya lowered her gaze to her drawn-up knees. “No. I haven’t taken that step yet. Every time I try, I get all panicky. After what happened….” She sighed and made eye contact again. “Well, you know better than anyone.”

  Donna nodded, her expression solemn. “Are you afraid Colin will hurt you like that?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Absolutely not. I just… I don’t want to hurt him by freaking out if he touches me… wrong. He doesn’t deserve that.”

  The other woman cocked her head in thought. “I know I’ve only been here a week, and it’s been a rather nuts one, but I’ve noticed you don’t seem to have any trouble being affectionate with him in wolf form.”

  “The wolf… takes away the fear. She likes to touch and play.” She laughed softly. “It sounds goofy to talk about myself in the third person like that, but I don’t feel like I’m entirely me in that form.”