by Keri Hudson
Caleb’s muscles contracted, pulling nearly to the breaking point, tendons straining to hold onto the bones. His toes twitched at the end of his rolling feet, hips slowly lowering to the mattress as relaxation finally swept over them.
Abigail leaned forward and onto his chest, red hair damp with her sweat as she rested her lovely face on his pecs, red with scratches, little bruises threatening to rise. He savored the feeling of her gentle weight on him as she cooed and curled her right leg up over his. She was a cuddlesome treasure, and Caleb took a deep breath of their mutual musk to revitalize him. He would give them both the chance to recover before taking her again, pushing her to new heights and reaching new depths, drawing them closer with every breath. Abigail was evolving, and Caleb was eager to watch her evolution, and to share it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Caleb sat at the dining room table, eating a sumptuous breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, hickory-smoked maple bacon, freshly baked blueberry muffins that wafted up steam when they were broken open, coffee and juices of three sorts including orange, apple, and carrot.
Jonathan glanced at Caleb and Abigail, more times than seemed necessary. Caleb wasn’t about to bring it up, as he knew the great man was going to sooner or later.
“Well,” Jonathan finally said, “I suppose it’s time to start thinking about the future.” Caleb and Abigail shared a glance, then looked back at Jonathan. Even Daniel seemed intrigued. He went on, “You’re my new head of security, Caleb… if you’ve accepted the position.”
After another glance at Abigail, he answered, “I have, with gratitude. I don’t think you’ll have need of much security now, if I may be honest.”
Jonathan shot him a little look, one brow raised, before he said, “Yes, well… I’ve been thinking of another business trip, an extended trip to South America. I’ll need my head of security with me at virtually all times, I’m afraid.”
This pulled Caleb and Abigail’s knowing attention to one another again, with more urgency than ever. One look into those flashing green eyes told Caleb that Abigail knew what this meant.
“Of course,” Jonathan went on, as if he had to, “Abigail here will have to stay behind, with Daniel.”
A long, mean stillness swirled around the table. Jonathan wore a little snicker, as if he’d outwitted Caleb and Abigail and even destiny itself.
Not this time.
“Then I resign,” Caleb said.
Abigail’s wide eyes and high red brows told Caleb how worried she was, Daniel’s instinctive panic only fueling her own.
“You know what that means,” Jonathan said. “If you leave, you’re gone… right here, right now.”
Caleb knew the gambit. Forcing Caleb to quit would force him off the property, leaving Jonathan to change his mind and stay to do as he pleased. Abigail’s dedication to Daniel was going to make it hard for her to follow Caleb, no matter how strongly she felt about her new lover. If Caleb stayed, he’d be dragged across Europe, perhaps lured into a death trap.
Missus Armstrong never came back, after all, a thought that clung to the back of Caleb’s brain.
But it was Abigail who broke the deadlock. “I’ll have to reconsider my employ,” she said, hoping the formality of the wording would help it slip by Daniel’s notice. The boy sat eating, looking on with interest but apparent confusion.
“Really?” Jonathan looked Abigail over. “You’ve been quite a valuable member of the staff here, Abigail.”
“She’s more than just staff,” Caleb said, “at least she should be, to you or anyone.”
“She could be as much to me as she wished to be,” Jonathan said.
Lulu stepped out from the house, sheepish and wide-eyed. “Master Armstrong, suh?”
Jonathan turned, like some slave owner from bygone times. “Yes, Lulu. The breakfast was excellent, by the way.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it, suh, but… I have to quit, suh. I’m sorry, but… I just can’t stay, suh.”
“Lulu,” Jonathan said, turning with what seemed like genuine surprise. “What’s brought this on?”
Lulu looked at Caleb, and no further explanation was needed. She’d clearly never come across such a thing as a shifter before, and she’d been nervous and superstitious enough as it was. So the news didn’t take Caleb by surprise, and he could hardly blame her. He half expected old Edith Mott to be leaving with her.
But Jonathan didn’t seem so understanding. “Lulu… we have an agreement.”
“I know that, suh, but… I just gotta go, I gotta go!”
Jonathan stood and turned. “First my wife, then these two, and now you? Edith! Edith!”
Edith scurried out behind Lulu, clearly not needing any explanation for the call. “I’m here for you, Master Armstrong, whatever you want.”
Caleb said, “There’s no real reason Lulu shouldn’t be able to leave, Jonathan… unless she’s taking a secret with her.”
“Excuse me?”
“The same secret your… your business took to Europe, that you went to… to resolve.” Caleb glanced at Daniel, certain that Jonathan understood his discretion. Abigail and the other women looked on in growing tension. Caleb went on, “The secret you had to make sure your… your business never leaked to the public. Lulu knows that secret now, she’s seen it up close, and you know that. Or… or do you? Maybe she knew before you left, and you knew that! She said the place wouldn’t let her go, and now I think I know what she means.”
“You know nothing,” Jonathan said, his voice low and cool, Abigail watching them both with pitched focus.
“I know everything I need to know. You finished your business in Europe, because it threatened to leak your secret. But there’s only one secret that we could be talking about, Jonathan, isn’t there?”
“Now you listen to me, Mr. Kahr. You all listen to me! I’m the master of this household, it bears my name!”
“And your son’s name,” Caleb interjected.
Jonathan pointed an angry index finger at Caleb’s face. “It’s his name when I die, Caleb! Until then, it’s my name and my family and I do what I want with it!”
“They’re people, not objects,” Caleb responded calmly.
“They’re whatever I say they are! And you, my friend, are obsolete in this house and in my employ in any capacity!”
Caleb shrugged. “Very well.”
“Very well,” Jonathan repeated, turning to look at Abigail and Daniel and Lulu and Edith, everybody looking on in silent shock.
Daniel said, “May I go to the bathroom?”
“Please do,” Jonathan said, eyes fixed on Caleb as the boy got up and crossed the living room to the bathroom.
Jonathan said to Caleb, “I’ll show you all very well! Things around here will go as I direct, and then they’ll be very well! Lulu, we signed a contract… you can’t escape it.”
“You don’t own her,” Caleb said.
“The hell I don’t!” He turned to Abigail. “And you… you’re staying here, whatever this… this mercenary here does.”
“No,” Abigail said, “I won’t! You’re horrible!”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
“Not in front of the boy,” Caleb said.
“Don’t tell me how to behave in front of my own son! You’ve got a lot of nerve. Your brother had it too. You go around like you’re better than everyone else.”
“I’m better than you,” Caleb said without pause, doubt, or fear.
“Are you sure you want to find out?”
“Whenever you’re ready, old man.”
Abigail held her hands out between them once more. “Gentlemen, please, we’ve been through this!”
“No, we haven’t,” Jonathan said to Abigail as he eyed Caleb. “Maybe that’s the problem.”
“Maybe that was the problem with your… your business in Europe… and with my brother.”
****
The shifter crashed through the doors from the backyard int
o the living room, glass shards from the shattered glass doors flying. Abigail screamed, and so did Lulu before running back into the kitchen and slamming the door behind her.
Caleb glanced at Abigail, terror on her gorgeous face, before they both turned to look at the bathroom door, where Daniel was beyond their reach. Both knew what Caleb would be doing next; it would be up to Abigail to get Daniel safely away from that monster while Caleb engaged in a death battle with the big ursine.
Abigail and Edith each ran from the table but in different directions as Caleb jumped on to the table, shifting in midjump. His four paws hit the big table, pushing away the plates and glasses. Already in his full lupine form, he readied to pounce on the ursine.
But before he leapt, Caleb couldn’t help but notice Jonathan standing just a few feet away. He’d shifted too, a big and burly lupine standing where he’d been, his clothes in scraps on the floor beneath him.
The ursine sized them both up. It reared up on its hind legs to display that incredible mass of muscle and fat and hairy hide, long black claws reaching out from the ends of brawny paws. It opened up its huge mouth to reveal long, white teeth and pink gums, jowls curling as it threw out a blood-curdling roar.
Abigail had wound up in a corner of the dining room, where she’d be trapped if she didn’t get out of there. But Caleb knew he couldn’t be worrying about Abigail. His attention was distracted enough by the revelation that Jonathan was a shifter, as he’d guessed; that meant Daniel was a shifter. Daniel was bringing the ursine in Jonathan’s absence. That meant he was in mortal danger from that ursine, who was making a move on them all in what seemed like an assault of deliberate desperation.
Edith was closer to the bathroom, but she was nearly paralyzed from fear. She was standing by the staircase, and when the ursine roared again, the old woman turned and waddled up the stairs, shaking her head and muttering what sounded like prayers to God.
Jonathan circled around the big living room to the ursine’s right. Caleb took the left flank, and the ursine seemed to know a charge would be necessary to prevent from being caught in a pincer attack.
The ursine attacked Jonathan first, who happened to be nearest to it. The big bear lurched, swiping its front right paw at Jonathan, roaring with every swipe. Jonathan snapped his jaws, jutting forward and back with every bite. He ducked the big beast’s swipes, but the ursine was driving him back fast, and it wouldn’t be long before the elder lupine was pinned and would be mauled the way Carl had been.
Caleb leapt from the dining table and flew across the room. But the ursine had seen him coming and retaliated, spinning and hitting Caleb hard with the back of his left front paw. The creature had incredible strength, and the blow aborted Caleb’s charge. It hit him hard, sending him flying back and into a corner of the room. Caleb smashed into a hutch, glass breaking behind him and cutting into his hide, shattered china falling among the splintered mahogany.
Abigail was staying low, inching around the proximity of the room, obviously hoping to stay out of the ursine’s purview. But her attention was on Caleb, her progress stopped as she looked at him with new concern. Caleb pulled himself up from the wreckage and shook it off. He glanced at Abigail and released a loud howl to signal her that he was still ready for battle and that she should progress toward the bathroom.
Daniel had been in there a long time, and Caleb knew he’d heard the sounds of battle. He’d already seen enough action at Armstrong House to know what was going on, and he was clearly doing the right thing by staying out of sight. But he was also trapped in that little room, he had to know that. If the big shifter got to him in there, he’d have no chance.
And his father seemed to realize that too, growling and launching an attack on his big adversary. Jonathan jumped onto the ursine’s back, biting into the back of the neck, the hump, anywhere he could get a purchase on the big bear. The ursine growled and shook as Jonathan delivered a series of vicious bites, each time digging deeper, shaking and pulling the meat from the bone.
The ursine spun, turning its head to bite at Jonathan’s hind legs. If he clamped down, he could either pull him off or pull the leg right off Jonathan’s body. But Jonathan was skirting the defense, working his way toward the ursine’s vulnerable vertebrae.
Caleb saw an opening and charged again. He knew it would never be a decisive strike, but it would fatigue the animal into weakness to where it could be finished off. And the move would further distract the ursine from Abigail as she slowly made her way around the walls toward the bathroom.
Caleb charged for the ursine’s rear. But the bear roared out its impatience with Jonathan’s attack and spun again, stopping short to throw Jonathan off his back. Jonathan flew across the living room and straight into Caleb, both lupines tumbling back in a tangle of limbs and jaws.
They recovered quickly, each lupe turning their attention to the ursine. The ursine looked from them to Abigail, clearly making the quick choice of who to attack. The two lupines were compromised, the girl was exposed, and the boy shifter was unprotected in the bathroom. But the ursine made its choice and jumped at Abigail. She was just passing the staircase, and she turned to climb them. The ursine landed on the bottom stairs with such force that it punched through them, forelimbs plunging into the shattered wood.
Abigail made it to the first landing, scrambling to keep running as the ursine wrestled to free itself.
Caleb saw his opening and Jonathan clearly saw the same thing. They charged at the ursine together, leaping onto the beast’s back, Jonathan at the still-open neck wound, Caleb tearing at the ursine’s backside. But their combined weight only pushed all three all the way through the fractured staircase and into the darkened space beneath.
The three creatures rolled and tumbled in a blind clash of teeth biting and claws ripping. The bear rolled, both Jonathan and Caleb scrambling to stay out from underneath that crushing weight. But even without sight, instincts and his other senses told Caleb what was happening, second by second.
The stench was thick in that darkened chamber, musk and blood and breath as teeth bit down, those terrible claws slashing and the crushing weight rolling. The three hit a wall hard, but it was no contest against their combined weight and force. The dark was quickly replaced by the bright light of the kitchen, the three smashing into the island in the center of the room.
Lulu screamed, leaning back against the counter, eyes wide with terror. She climbed up onto the counter, knees tucked up in front of her as the three massive beasts tangled in mortal combat.
Lulu cried out and sobbed as the ursine’s incredible weight pushed into the island and dislodged it, crushing the big block in a mess of splintered wood and collapsed plumbing. Water poured from the broken pipes as the sink shattered on the kitchen floor.
Lulu was apoplectic, pushing herself further into the corner, crouching down under the cabinets.
The ursine grabbed Jonathan with a combination of a strong bite on the back and front paws around his body, and threw him through the window and out to the backyard, another window smashing. Glass, wooden frame, plasterboard chunks followed the elder lupine on his journey to the porch.
Caleb jumped at the ursine to protect Lulu, biting into its left foreleg, pulling and shaking and reaching for the bone to crush and crack. But the ursine reached over and bit into Caleb’s own back. Its snout was shorter but broader and had amazing strength, and Caleb could feel those deadly fangs working their way toward his nerves, his bones.
Caleb had to get free of that deadly grip. The only way was to bite down harder, and even that didn’t help. The ursine pulled Caleb free and spun, swinging him around and throwing him against the refrigerator. Caleb dropped to the floor, atop the wreckage of the collapsed island, as the ursine turned on Lulu.
“No!” she screamed. “Please, no… no!”
Caleb leapt at the ursine again, but bad luck worked against him. Jonathan had recovered and jumped back into the kitchen to rejoin the fight, but he wound up smash
ing into Caleb just before he hit the ursine. Both lupines went tumbling back into the far corner of the kitchen.
The ursine turned again to Lulu, who was quivering in mortal terror. The ursine roared and broke through the door back to the living room. Caleb and Jonathan followed through the fractured doorway, leaving poor Lulu to shiver and shake, balled up on the kitchen counter and lucky to be alive.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Caleb and Jonathan jumped on the ursine again as the three shifters tumbled into the living room. The big dining room table was pushed but did not shatter, chairs sliding across the floor. The ursine threw Jonathan, but Caleb held tight and bit into the urine’s behind, a vulnerable spot and a way to disembowel and kill the big bear without further struggle. But the bear knew the danger of the approach, backing up and sitting down to try to crush Caleb’s head. But Caleb was able to snap and release, slowly eating away at the flesh while dodging those crushing blows.
The ursine swatted Jonathan away again and backed away from both lupines. They’d done some damage, but received a good deal as well. Caleb’s limbs were aching, his back stinging with pain from the big bear’s bites. But they were healing quickly, and the ursine was doing the same. The creature seemed to know it needed a bit of time to recover, and Caleb needed the same. But none could gain the advantage over the other, and the fight would only go on longer.
