by Renee George
I tied my ankles, my right ankle really sore after running and jumping and doing everything the doc told me not to do.
Ludlow was too stoned to be scared, so I tried to unnerve him. "You know you're being tracked. The sheriff has half the town out looking for you. I'm not the only one searching for Lisa and Bobby."
The mention of his brother's name did the trick. "Bobby?"
"Yes. Your mother is really worried. She gave us some of Bobby's clothes to track him."
Ludlow shook his head. "No, no, no. This is Luke's fault. All his fault. I didn't do it. Any of it."
"That's right," I said. "It's not your fault. I bet killing Luke was an accident. Trying to pin his death on the werewolves was self-preservation, right? I get it."
"You know I'm not as dumb as most people think I am," he said. He pulled out a bag of powder, he scooped a little out with his knife and snorted it off the edge. He did it again and held the point of the knife out in my direction. "Your turn," he said.
"Uhm, no thanks." I tried to take a step back and stumbled against the door.
"Do it or I'll cut you?" Ludlow said. "I'll make you bleed."
"Ludlow," I heard Cal say. "Let Dakota go. You don't want to hurt her."
"He has a gun!" I warned him.
"Shut up, wolf. You don't know what I want," my captor scoffed. "But you're right. I don't want to hurt her. I want to make her feel good. But if you so much as rattle the stall door, I swear, I will gut her like I gutted the goat." I shuddered as he shoved the knife into the powder again and put it in front of my face. "Now snort this before I decide to dump the whole bag down your throat."
"Don't do this," Cal said. I could hear the agony in his tone. "I swear if you hurt her I will kill you."
"Violence is not the answer," Ludlow said. "That's what Mom always says. But dad liked to knock us around, so while it wasn't the answer she wanted, it was an answer all the same." He laughed. "Come on, Bambi. Take a bump. It will free your mind."
I leaned forward, my nose perilously close to the blade, while keeping a sharp eye on the gun. "Cal," I said. "Are you there?"
"Yeah, Dakota. I'm here. I'm right here."
"I'm falling in love with you," I told him. "I just want you to know...just in case."
"You're getting out of here, Dakota. We both are. Just..."
"Shut the hell up! Gah. I can't take all the pathetic love stuff. I want to party." He thrust the knife at me, and it scratched my cheek. The drug powder burned in the wound before it started to go numb.
He shook the pistol at me. "Just in case you get the idea that I won't shoot you." Blam! The gun went off, and I cried out when the hot bullet grazed my left thigh.
A roar that shook the rafters drove me to my knees as Cal's half-form towered above the stall door.
"I'm okay!" I warned him. But it was too late, because Ludlow pointed the gun at Cal and he pulled the trigger again. Blam! I screamed as Cal went down. The noise startled Ludlow enough to stagger him. I'd never done a partial transformation, but I willed my arms and shoulders to take on my powerful doe form, and when my thick muscles had appeared, and my hands became hard hooves, I reared back and began to pummel Ludlow about the face, neck, and chest. One of my blows knocked the gun away, and he dropped the knife trying to defend himself against my kicks. I screamed my rage, and only when he was on the ground and no longer moving did I stop.
"Cal!" I shouted as I flung the stall door open.
He had had a wound in his upper right arm, but he was sitting up, much to my relief. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine. I'm more than fine." I dropped down beside him. "You scared the crap out of me."
My radio flared. "Lisa and Bobby have been found. All teams come back to base."
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
Cal looked past me to Ludlow's still body. "Did you kill him?"
"I don't think so. But I beat his head in pretty good, so I'm not sure what kind of life he'll have."
Cal pressed his palm to my cheek. "You scared the crap out of me. No more running into danger, okay?"
I nodded. "I scared myself."
"And, about what you said...I'm not falling--"
"It's okay if you don't feel the same way," I told him. "I know I can't be your one. Your real mate, but I'll take what I can get. I want to be with you as long as you'll have me."
Cal's brow crinkled. "What are you talking about with this 'the one' stuff?"
"It's okay. Etta told me about you all. That lycanthropes can only mate with lycanthropes, and one day you will find that special someone. But I figure as long as I keep you here and away from any hot wolves you haven't already met..."
"First, Etta was raised by a puritanical maniac who believes the only way lycanthropes can stay strong is by not contaminating our blood lines with other species. So he told her that bullshit to keep her from dating outside of town. That kind of thinking made us sterile for years. And I think Chavvah Smith is proof that his theory is bunk. She is part coyote, part wolf. Could that happen if lycans couldn't mate with therians?"
"Okay, I feel dumb."
He nodded. "Etta should feel dumb. Second, I'm not falling in love with you, because I'm already in love with you, so I'm in for however long you want me. The rest of my life would do me just fine."
"Deal," I said. The sound of voices from our group nearing the barn, told me that most of them had shifted back to human. They must have heard the shots.
"We're okay!" I yelled. I grabbed the radio. "This is Dakota Thompson. We have Ludlow Davis captured in Robyn Smith's barn."
A low moan from Ludlow drew our attention.
"Tell Doc Smith he's going to need medical attention."
Cal grinned at me. "Such a bad ass."
"I'm your bad ass," I said then grimaced. "I really do need to work on my sexy talk."
"You do just fine," Cal said. "Just fine."
Chapter Twenty
I stretched out in bed after sleeping the sleep of the dead. Twelve hours straight. As stiff and sore as I was, I doubted I'd moved even an inch.
Lisa and Bobby, it had turned out, had not been kidnapped by drugged out Ludlow. Apparently, Bobby had ran away from home, called Lisa, and begged her to come with him. Since she is fourteen, hormonal, and in love, she said, yes. Mom has grounded her until she's old enough to vote. She says they will renegotiate the terms of the grounding at that time. After a cursory exam, Doc said that Ludlow would eventually recover to stand trial for Luke's death and for the drugs.
After everyone returned home, Cal dropped me off at home. I couldn’t tossed and turned in bed before I grabbed a change of clothes and drove straight to Jo Jo’s. Best decision ever.
And I slept with him.
You know, actual sleep.
"You snore," Cal said, snuggling up behind me.
I rolled over to face him. "Do not."
"How do you know? You can't hear yourself when you're sleeping."
"Is snoring a deal breaker?"
"Nope," he said. He wrapped his arms around me, and I laid my head on his chest. "Not a deal breaker."
"Then, fine, I snore." I kissed his chest. The hair tickled my lips. "You are hot," I said.
"Thank you," he replied.
"I mean like heat hot. My back is all sweaty from you being pressed up against me during the night."
Cal chuckled. "Is that a deal breaker?"
I snorted. "Not hardly."
I'd put on one of Cal's t-shirts to sleep in, and he was in nothing but his boxer briefs. These ones had a dancing rooster on them, and they said, my cock knows all the right moves. I laughed with gusto. "Sunny said I'd have dancing chickens in my future." I gave him a sly wink. "But what I want to know, is if it's true?" I asked, snapping the band of his underwear. "Does your cock have all the right moves?"
He pulled me up into his arms and kissed me in a way that made my eyelashes curl. "I can tell you," he said. "Or I can show you."
"Oh, I
'm all for a personal demonstration." I grinned at him. "You know, a try before you buy situation."
"Is that a challenge?"
I giggled. "Possibly."
He rolled over on top of me, then went up on his knees between my thighs. He bent over and slid the t-shirt up my torso. He kissed my inner thigh, and I squirmed. A demanding ache pulsed at my core, and I soaked my panties.
Cal licked them and growled. Oh, the big, bad wolf fantasies flashed before my eyes as I knew, he was about to feast. He slid my underwear down my legs and off my feet then used his hands to spread my thighs. He stroked a finger over my throbbing clit.
"Oh, God," I moaned. He slid the finger inside me, and I began to shake. "This is going to go quick," I warned him.
He chuckled, and it got me in all my low places. His eyes were half-lidded as he lay down between my knees and licked the slit of me.
"Yep, yep," I said, my voice strained.
He laughed then.
"It's not funny," I said.
"No," he said. "It's sexy as hell." He curled his tongue around my motherload and sucked it between his teeth.
"That's it!" I exploded around his finger as the orgasm rocked me hard. Cal kept with me, stroking and licking until I finally stopped shuddering. I let out a stuttered sigh. "Okay," I teased. "I'm good."
"Yes, you are." Cal moved up my body, and somewhere along the line, he'd managed to lose the dancing cock undies. "Now, I'm going to show you just how good I am." He slid inside me, his thick girth stretching me wide. I groaned at the weighted feel of him as he began to move with me. I swallowed, my throat dry from moaning my pleasure with his every thrust. After a few minutes, the burn of desire began to build again as our bodies danced like old lovers. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he began to thrust harder.
"Oh, God, Dakota. Yes. You feel so good," he said. ''So good." His eyes rolled back a little on an up thrust. "So tight. Damn."
I rocked against him, loving the friction of his body against me as he made me his completely. The well filled once again, threatening to spill at any moment. "Oh, oh," I said. "I'm-- Ah!" I quaked, grasping and pulling at him as my lower body detonated.
"Christ," Cal muttered then threw his head back as he came so hard I felt him pulsing inside me. By the time we were finished, we were both quivering bodies of used up, but in an awesome way, flesh. When he softened enough to pull out, he dropped beside me on to the bed, a fine layer of sweat on his skin. "Jesus, woman. You're incredible."
"You can keep the underwear I told him. You were not oversold. Your dancing cock has all the right moves."
"You are still not alone in the house," Jo Jo yelled from the hallway.
Cal and I stared at each other then laughed. Then we rested, then we made love again. And when Jo Jo complained again, we laughed again. And we repeated the activity over and over, with minor food and pee breaks until the next day.
I hated getting out of bed on Sunday. Worse, I hated that I'd been roped into singing at Luke Dwyer's memorial service. Mom had called to remind me bright an early. Cal promised to show up for moral support. Thank heavens, because I wasn't sure I would make it through the afternoon without him.
The sky was overcast as I drove down the road toward town. I could not stop thinking about Cal. I'd never had anyone make me feel the way he did. I didn't have to act with Cal. I was a total dork, and he liked that about me. Heck, he loved that about me.
I was grinning like a fool when my truck suddenly lurched forward, sputtered, popped, and I managed to get it off to the side of the road before it came to an abrupt halt. Nooooo! I tried turning it over and was rewarded with a clunk-clunk.
"Son-of-a-biscuit eater." I texted Cal. Truck dead. No resurrection imminent. Come pick me up.
I waited for his response, but when nothing happened, I pulled up my contacts to phone mom. As luck would have it, though, Mrs. Dwyer's sedan drove up behind me.
Jack Trevors was driving her again. He got out and walked up to my door. "Do you need help?"
"My truck finally bit the dust."
He gave me a lopsided smile. "You're a mechanic, right?"
"Yeah, yeah," I said. "I always thought I'd have time to get around to it, but I guess not."
"Why don't you ride in with us? I can drop you off at your house, and Mary Ann would appreciate the company. She's had a few really difficult days. Yesterday, the sheriff told her about Luke and, well, you know. I'm really worried about her."
I didn't want to ride with Mary Ann, but I remembered Mom's words. The woman had lost her only child, and that loss runs deeper than all others. So, I nodded. "Sure. I'd appreciate it." I grabbed my phone and my purse, put the hazard lights on, before leaving my truck.
I climbed in the back seat of the car with Mrs. Dwyer. She wore all black, including a black hat with matching lace to cover her eyes. "Hi, ma'am. Thank you for offering me a lift."
"Of course, dear." She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. "I'm not ready for today."
"Me either." I meant the singing of course, but I let her read into it whatever gave her comfort. All the time I had dated Luke, I never really saw Jack Trevors with the family, so it kind of surprised me that he was driving her around. I wonder if they'd started expecting more from Jack when they gave him a place to live. I knew first-hand how expectations could lead you down a path you didn't want to take.
"Hey, Jack. How did you like your apartment there on the lake front? I'm looking for a place, and I heard they were nice."
"Good. A little expensive, but there is the view."
Mrs. Dwyer clasped her hands and picked at her nail. The new polish from Friday was now chipped and damaged. A casualty of stress and grief.
"I can't even imagine what you're going through," I said. "Losing your only child is such a terrible thing."
From the driver seat, Jack said, "It'll all be over soon."
My blood went cold, and I felt as if death passed through me. "What did you say?"
"It'll all be over..." He peered at me through the rearview mirror, his expression one of a man caught by his own dumb-assery. "Soon." Jack was the man who'd shot me with the tranquilizer dart. He'd drugged me and had tried to frame Cal and me for Luke's death. But why? Why go through all that trouble? He wasn't even on anyone's radar.
My phone buzzed. Just out of shower. Coming to get you, he texted. Stay put.
Mrs. Dwyer leaned over to look at my text. "Is that your new friend?" she asked.
I nodded. With Luke's mom staring over my shoulder, I worried if I just came out with, hey, I'm trapped in a car with a murderer, Mrs. Dwyer would lose it and put us both at greater risk. Instead, I tried to let Cal know what was going on without putting us in more danger.
I typed as fast as my fingers would allow. Mrs. D and Jack T picked me up on the road. Taking me to town. Jack says, it will all be over soon.
Wavy dots .... More wavy dots ... Meet you in town. If I can't find you, I'll see you on the full moon.
Chapter Twenty-One
"She knows," Jack said.
"Shut up, Jack," Mrs. Dwyer said.
"I'm telling you, she knows."
"Let me think," she said.
I tried to get off another text, but the older deer shifter slapped my phone from my hand. It landed in the floor. When I tried to pick it up, Jack slammed on the breaks, skidding on the road and throwing me into the back of the seat.
Mrs. Dwyer looked concerned. Apologetic even, but she wasn't trying to help me.
Oh, heck, no. "Jack killed your son."
"How do you know?"
"Because the last thing I remember was him telling me it would all be over soon. Why are you protecting him?" I made a grab for the door handle, but the locked engaged.
"Child safety locks," Jack said. He had a gun pointed at me now. "Don't move."
"Her wolf is on the way, Jack." Mrs. Dwyer said. "We need to move."
"I think we should kill her," he said.
"I guess
it's a good thing I don't pay you to think!" Mrs. Dwyer screeched. She took a deep breath, reached into her hand bag, and pulled out a syringe.
"What is that?" I scooted toward the door. I did not want to be tranquilized again.
"It's pentobarbital, enough to kill an adult therianthrope." She stared at the clear liquid with a longing I didn't understand.
"You were always planning to kill me?" I asked.
"Oh, child. This was for me, not you. It would have been my final act after burying my youngest son."
Youngest? "Luke was an only child."
"No," she said. "I was married before I met Jonathan. I used to be an integrator, you know."
"Yes. Mom told me the story of when you first moved to town. You became fast friends."
"Your mom is a special woman. That's why this is so difficult."
"Why did Jack kill Luke? Why are you helping him?"
"I didn't kill the spoiled brat," Jack said. "I kept him from destroying himself as long as I could. I protected him. Until I couldn't." Jack stared at Mrs. Dwyer. "That's what older brother's do."
I blinked, trying to process what he was saying. "But you're... you're not a deer?"
"My dad was a coyote. I got my beast from him. He told me my mother died, but I found out the truth three years ago when he got cancer. He confessed that she was alive, and he told me where she lived. When the Tri-State Council had their meeting here, I used it as an excuse to get to know her. So, she could know me."
"I know more about both my sons than a mother should ever know," Mrs. Dwyer said. She sounded exhausted. "One is a rapist. The other is a sniveling man barely able to take care of himself, let alone a simple thing like, framing a wolf for Luke's death." She shook her head. "You just had to put Dakota at the scene. After I told you I didn't want her involved."
"You killed him," Jack said. "I just covered it up."
"Poorly," Mrs. Dwyer admitted.
Oh. My. God. I felt like I was in the middle of a made for TV drama. "I know you loved Luke. I know you're grieving. That's real. So why did you kill him?"
"I've already said. I found recordings." She shuddered. "He recorded his awful acts against those women. I can't forgive myself for bringing such a monster into the world. Even so, I hadn't meant to. I'd just been so angry. I lashed out." She held her hand out and each one of her nails elongated and thickened like talons, only they were hard like hooves. I'd heard of people controlling aspects of their shift, but this was next level. She examined her hands. "I cut his jugular. He bled out in minutes." She blinked at me. "I'm sorry we got you involved in this Dakota. I've always liked you, but I think Jack's right. I can't let you live. I couldn't save one son, but I can save the other." She popped the plastic cap off the needle of the syringe. "I'll find peace another way."
