Grayslake: Furrever Yours (Kindle Worlds Novella) (2 page)

“Where am I?” the girl mumbled through her split lip, and blood began flowing again. Heather peered at her lip. Hadn’t there been four splits before? Now there were two, and they were not as deep as they had been twenty minutes ago.

“You’re at Grayslake Memorial Hospital.”

Suddenly the girl went rigid with terror. At the same time, Heather heard Sheriff’s Knox’s deep voice from around the corner. “What room is she in?” he asked.

The girl’s face went white, and her bruises stood out in stark, horrible relief, like black roses on a field of snow.

“Don’t let him get me,” she pleaded, as blood dribbled down her chin.

Her fear was so obvious that Heather didn’t hesitate for a moment. She opened the door to the room and the girl bolted out, and Heather followed her.

“This way,” she said in a low voice, gesturing urgently.

She led her down a hallway to the supply room, punched in the code to open that door, and then out the door on the other side, and finally out behind the building. They were standing by the dumpsters. One of the street lights was out, and it was dark and creepy.

She led the girl to the far end of the parking lot, glancing behind her to make sure that they hadn’t been followed, and then stopped. The girl stood there barefoot in her hospital pajamas, hugging herself and looking small and vulnerable.

“That man who was looking for you – is he the one who hurt you?” she demanded of the girl.

“No,” the girl said, shaking her head, and Heather felt a wave of relief. The thought of Knox doing something like this…it made her physically ill.

But still. The girl had been terrified when she’d heard his voice. “Then why are you running from him?”

The girl hesitated, then stared at the ground and mumbled, “He’s friends with them.”

That hit Heather like a hammer blow. Knox was friends with someone who’d beaten this skinny young girl to within an inch of her life? How could that be? She’d seen him deal with a few domestic violence cases, and he’d been furious – at the perpetrator. In fact, one time he’d grabbed a man by his collar, dragged him away from his cowering wife’s hospital room, and threatened to break every bone in his body if he ever came near the woman again. The man had fled Grayslake and he hadn’t been heard from since.

“That…that doesn’t seem like Knox,” she protested.

“I swear, he is friends with them,” the girl said, looking at Heather with huge, scared eyes. “Please don’t let them get me. They’ll kill me. I have nobody else to turn to.” Then she looked around, her eyes wide and fearful, and took a couple of steps back. “He’ll find me out here. He’ll scent me.”

Normally that would have sounded crazy – but this was a girl who’d turned into a wolf when she was unconscious. And Knox’s habit of sniffing at the air when he thought nobody was looking suddenly made a lot more sense.

Could he turn into a wolf too?

Heather made a snap decision. She was about to do something crazy – but this whole night had been crazy.

“I’m Heather,” she said. “I’m a nurse’s aide. What’s your name?”

“Margaret.”

“Do you know this area?”

“No, I’m not from Georgia.” She didn’t sound like a southerner; she had more of a northeastern accent, Heather thought.

“Sugar Creek is less than a quarter mile from here, due south.” She pointed in the direction of the creek that gave the nearby county its name. “If you ran in the water, would that throw him off the scent?”

The girl nodded. “Yes, it would. I can shift and get there fast. You know about us?” she said hesitantly. “Not many humans do.”

“A little,” Heather lied. “Knox is one of you?”

“Yes.” Margaret glanced fearfully at the hospital.

“Okay. Once you you’re sure you’ve shaken Knox off your trail, go to my house and wait for me. My house is at 1372 Green Street, three miles from here. It’s one mile off of Route 27, which is the main road through town, and you’ll have to find it yourself, I’m afraid. It’s that way.” She pointed in the direction of her house. Then she pulled out her keys and detached her house key, and handed it to the girl. “My house key. You can go hide out there. I won’t be home for a little while – I work ’til 6 a.m. Do you think you can find your way there?”

“Yes. I can cover a lot of ground in wolf form. Thank you,” the girl breathed, nodding. She quickly stripped her clothes off, and shifted back into wolf form as Heather watched in fascination. Then she grabbed the pajamas off the ground and ran into the woods.

Heather dashed back inside. She’d been off the floor too long.

As she hurried to make her rounds, Amelia waved at her and trotted over. “Hey, remember that assault victim? Have you seen her? She’s not in her room, she’s not in the bathroom, and nobody can find her. It’s weird. She didn’t go out through the ambulance bay either, and all the other doors you need a code to open.”

“No, I was just looking for her too,” Heather said. “I’ve looked all over – I even went out back. I didn’t see her anywhere.”

“Did she say anything about where she might go?” Knox asked from right behind her, making her jump.

Her heart thudded in her chest as she turned to look at him.
He’s a wolf
, she thought as she met his gaze.
He’s a human being who can literally turn into a wolf
.

“She didn’t talk to me, because she was unconscious the whole time she was here,” she told him coolly. Her body was doing that thing it always did when he got close to her – she could feel a dampness in her panties, and her mouth went dry. But now she was angry at herself for reacting that way to him. Was Margaret telling the truth? Was he friends with an abuser?

“She was beaten up
really, really
badly,” she added, meeting his gaze boldly. “Lip split open, bruises all over her body, her hair was matted with blood. Have you arrested the person who did it?”

“No, I need to talk to her first,” Knox said. “I need to get a statement from her. And with her being that badly injured, she could suffer a brain bleed, she could be hemorrhaging internally… We’ve got to find her, fast.” He looked genuinely worried – but why had the girl been so frightened? There was no faking that fear.

“So she’s from Sugar Creek?” Heather stood her ground. Nothing about the evening made sense – and it wasn’t just the fact that she’d seen a girl turn into an animal. Why was Knox searching for a girl who was from out of state? And for that matter, she suspected that he’d come by earlier to look for the girl. There was no other reason for him to have stopped by. He’d used going to the men’s room as an excuse so he could walk around and try to pick up her scent.

So somehow, he’d known the girl might be heading to the emergency room.

“You know where she is?” Knox asked, frowning, and she saw his nostrils flare slightly. He’d avoided the question.

Was he scenting the air to see if he smelled the girl on her?

“I haven’t seen her since she was first admitted,” she said. “I helped get her into bed, then the doctor and nurse came in, and I had to go attend to some other patients.” That should explain why the girl’s scent was on her.

I’m going crazy. I’m standing here figuring out how to outsmart a werewolf.

“Why would she know where the girl is?” Amelia said, with an undertone of annoyance in her voice. “She just said she went looking for her and couldn’t find her.”

“Right. Well, call me right away if she comes back here,” Knox said, and he headed for the exit.

He was going to look for Margaret. Would she have enough time to escape?

An idea flashed through Heather’s head.

“Excuse me, I have to go check on a patient,” she said.

She hurried into Crazy Phil’s room. He was thrashing around and muttering incoherently. Heather gulped hard, then thought of Margaret and the fear in her eyes. She had to slow Knox down.

She quickly untied Phil’s restraints. He leaped out of his bed and lunged for her, and grabbed at her throat. “Werewolves!” he screamed. “They’re coming for me! They’re coming for us all!”

Crud. He was actually telling the truth about werewolves, wasn’t he?

She staggered back and fell against the supply cabinet, fending him off by flailing her arms at him. “Help me!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “Phil got free, bed 14 – help me!”

Within seconds, the curtain flew aside and the room filled with nurses, and two security guards. Phil grabbed her arm and held on with a death grip.

Then Knox came barreling in. He elbowed the others aside and grabbed the guy’s arm. He squeezed it so hard that she heard a bone crack, and wrenched Phil off of her. Phil screamed in pain and fell backwards, collapsing into a heap on the floor.

“Werewolves,” he whimpered.

Knox quickly pulled her to her feet, and Heather slumped against him, her knees weak. She found herself pressed up against his chest, trembling with the adrenaline rush.

Knox’s big, muscular arm was looped around her, and he stared down into her eyes, his thick, dark brows knitted in concern.

“Are you all right?” Knox rumbled, and again she could have sworn his worry was legitimate.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said. She could feel the thud of his heartbeat; was that because of her? She should step away, but she didn’t. She glanced over at the nurses and security guards; Phil was still shrieking and thrashing, distracting them. “Thank you,” she added.

He stared down at her and let a long, long moment pass before he finally let go and stepped back.

“You should be more careful,” he said to her. “When you’re dealing with that kind of patient, don’t go into the room alone.”

“Yeah, you’re right, that was foolish of me. But I thought he was restrained.”

He glanced towards the exit; he was going to go after Margaret.

“Oh,” she whimpered, “I think twisted my ankle.” And she stumbled and fell into his arms.

“You should get that X-rayed,” Knox said, looking worried, as he carried her out of the room.

Behind them, she could hear Phil’s screams as they held him down and injected him with Ativan. Now they’d have to set his arm too. Good thing they were in a hospital.

“No, no, it’s not broken. Look, I can move it.” She wiggled her foot, then quickly manufactured a wince. “Can you just carry me into the break room?”

Amelia hurried up to her and handed her an ice pack, then ran across the hall to convince a naked granny that she needed to get back into bed.

Knox carried her into the break room and kicked the door shut behind him. She looked around; there was nobody else there.

She and Knox were alone in a small room, and she was nestled in the arms of the man she’d been lusting after for the past year.

He stood there, not making any move to put her down, and she rested her head on his shoulder. She could feel his hard muscles bunching up, and she leaned her head on his shoulder. He breathed in deeply – inhaling the scent of her hair, she realized.

So he didn’t find her smell repugnant.

After what felt like a full minute, he sighed and very carefully set her down on the couch. Then he sat down next to her, broke the capsule inside the ice pack, shook the pack, and wrapped it around her ankle. His big hands were surprisingly gentle.

“How’s that?” His voice was a deep, sexy rumble, and he looked her right in the eye.

“Much better, thanks.” She smiled at him gratefully and leaned back against the couch arm. “You’re good at that.”

He leaned back against the couch and looked at her with an odd mix of tenderness and longing. She could see it burning in his eyes. She wasn’t imagining it.

“I’ve got to go,” he said with a heavy sigh. “Don’t want to leave you here like this, but I need to find that girl.”

“You didn’t say what her story was,” she said. “You must at least have an idea of who hurt her like that. I imagine you can’t wait to make an arrest.”

She wanted to hear that he wasn’t really working with whoever had hurt Margaret. Craved it.

But instead of reassuring her, he stood up and looked down at her resting on the couch. “You have any idea where she might go?” he asked.

Heather felt a rush of disappointment. It didn’t matter how hot Knox was, or how much she yearned for him; her job was to help people like Margaret. She had to put her feelings aside until she knew what was what.

She sat straight up, swinging her legs down. “You keep avoiding my questions about her,” she said. “Why?”

“Active investigation.” He shrugged. “Heather. Listen. If you see her, you need to call me. She’s in danger, and if you get involved, you could be too. And just…be careful.”

“What do you care?” she said. She was starting to get annoyed with all his secrecy and mumbo-jumbo.

“What do you mean?” He actually looked hurt. “Of course I care about your welfare.”

“Since when? From the minute you first met me, you’ve acted like I have a case of full-body herpes.”

He made a spluttering noise at that. “I have not!”

“Excuse me, I am on the receiving end, and you most definitely have. You run a mile the minute I walk into a room.”

He gave her a pained look. “It’s not like that. I don’t want it to be this way between us. It’s…complicated.”

Us? He’d said “us”. So he thought about her too. But never did anything about it.

“Complicated like you’ve got a girlfriend?”

“No!” he blurted out. “God, no. I haven’t been with a woman since— Heather, I have to go. Please remember what I said about being careful.”

He rushed for the door, but then stopped and looked back at her with a look of pure, aching longing. “I just want you to know one thing. If anyone tried to hurt you, I’d kill them.”

Heather sat there staring after his retreating back and wondering. He hadn’t been with a woman since…when?

* * * * *

It had been a long, frustrating night. Knox had traced the girl’s scent from behind the hospital and down to the creek, and then he’d lost her. Smart girl. The Southeast Alpha, who was the Territorial Alpha for all the packs in the Southeast, including Knox’s, was pissed. The Northeast Alpha, whose son was supposed to be marrying Margaret next week, was beyond pissed – he was boiling with rage. The dark was melting away now, and the glowing orb of the sun in the east bathed the distant hills in glowing red and yellow, but Knox was in no mood to enjoy the sunset.

He paced back and forth in front of the Grayslake Itan’s home. It was a large, Southern-style residence with columns and a broad front porch.

Knox’s Beta, Clarence, stood there with his arms folded across his broad chest, scowling. He didn’t like being in bear territory. Neither did Knox, but he had no choice at the moment. Fortunately, Ty Abrams, Itan of the Grayslake clan, had recently reached a truce with the local wolf pack, which made it easier for all the wolves in the area to have a semi-civil conversation with the bears.

Or at least a conversation which didn’t end with blood spilled in the dirt.

Knox had swung by the Abrams property to give them a piece of his mind. Several of them were gathered on the front porch, and they did not look happy.

“How could you have lost her?” Knox growled at Virginia, who was one of the nurse’s aides at Grayslake Memorial, and also a bear shifter from the Grayslake Clan.

Knox had put out the word to all shifters in the area to notify him immediately if they spotted Margaret, and to keep an eye on her until he got there.

“Excuse you,” Virginia snarled right back at him. “This is a wolf issue. Not my problem. In fact,” she sneered, “you’re lucky I even called to let you know she showed up in our E.R. Next time I won’t.”

Ty Abrams, the Itan of the Grayslake Clan, let out a low, rumbling, growl, and Virginia’s whole posture and attitude changed immediately. Ty was a large man, with broad shoulders and a fierce glower, but it was more than his expression or his size. There was an aura of strength and danger roiling about him. It was why he was the leader of the Grayslake Clan, and the other bears quailed when he was angry.

She hung her head submissively, her shoulders slumped, and she stared down at the ground.

“Itan,” she mumbled.

Ty’s Enforcer Van, who served the same role for the bears as a Beta did for the wolves, looked at him stood back, a look of anger wrinkling his forehead. Clarence met his gaze steadily. “You’ll do what
I
command,” Ty ground out. “And if any Alpha or Itan or leader from any species calls you up and asks you to keep an eye out for a shifter showing up at the hospital, then you will call me, and tell me, and I will decide what you do next.”

“Yes, Itan. Of course, Itan,” she mumbled. She risked a pleading glance at him. “I did call you and tell you as soon as I heard about the search for the girl, Itan.”

Knox couldn’t fault her for that. She answered to Ty, not to him. What he could fault her for was letting Margaret walk out of that hospital.

“I scented wolf in her room,” he growled at her. “As in, at some point, she must have shifted. Now, the curtains were drawn, so maybe nobody saw it happen. But maybe they did. That means a risk of exposure, which doesn’t just threaten us, it threatens all shifters. Why weren’t you watching her room?”

“I couldn’t,” Virginia whined. Her gaze darted to Ty and then back to Knox. “I’m on the opposite side of the E.R. They divide up the rooms between me and the other nurse’s aide, and I had rooms one through ten. She was on the other side of the E.R. Heather would have been assigned there – she had eleven through twenty.”

“Where were you when she disappeared?” Knox demanded.

Virginia went pale and swallowed hard.

“Answer him,” the Itan growled.

“I was…I was on a coffee break,” she said miserably. “She’s a wolf, I didn’t think it was a big deal what happened to her…”

“Damn it to hell!” Ty growled at her furiously. “You didn’t think at all! An unconscious shifter in the emergency room is likely to spontaneously shift. And expose us all to humans. You should have at least stayed on the floor until Knox showed up.”

“And now we have absolutely no fu— Uh, hello. We have no darned idea where she is,” Knox said as an attractive pregnant woman marched out the door. She had a pleasant round face and brown curly hair and a little up-turned nose. Her stomach was just starting to swell.

“Language!” the woman said, looking indignantly at Ty. Mia, his Itana, the female leader of the clan. A small boy, bear cub, trotted along next to her, holding her hand. His name was Parker; Knox had heard something about her and Ty adopting him after his parents had been murdered by his uncle.

She patted her rounded belly protectively with her free hand. “You’re setting a bad example for Parker, and for our bun in the oven. See, our guest isn’t swearing.”

She was the only bear in the clan who could get away with talking to Ty like that.

Ty shot a look at Knox as if he’d like to eviscerate him with his claws.

Knox smiled at her, flashing an innocent smile, just to annoy Ty, because he really wasn’t crazy about wolves. “Oh, no, ma’am, my grandmother raised me
never
to swear around a lady,” he said with exaggerated politeness, and he saw Ty’s eyes glow with rage.

“Swear jar,” Mia added to Ty. “You owe five bucks. Don’t think I’ll forget. And did you offer our guests a drink?”

“Oh, I couldn’t impose,” Knox said. “We’ve got to get back out there and keep looking. The Northeast Alpha’s going to blow a gasket if I don’t track this girl down. But thank you for offering. Itan, Itana,” he added, with as short a nod of his head as he could get away with and still be respectful. The truth was, he didn’t want to enter a bear’s house, and he didn’t want to hang out with them long enough to have a drink. Although Mia wasn’t too bad. Then again, she was only part bear, from what he’d heard, so maybe that was why.

He turned to go, then glanced back at Ty. “You’ll let us know if you hear anything?”

“Yeah, we’ll let you know,” Ty said, looking annoyed. “But you wolves need to start taking care of your own problems. We’re not here to clean up your messes.”

Clarence stifled a snarl and speared Ty with a look of pure hatred.

That did it. Knox straightened up and fixed Ty with a stone-cold glare. Ty couldn’t get away with disrespecting him in front of his Beta. “Is that so?” he said coldly. “We wolves wish you’d take care of your own problems too, like when you went to war with the hyenas and you had to go running to the Redby Pack to save your furry asses. Sorry, ma’am,” he added to Mia, and fished a five-dollar bill from his wallet. “That’s for the swear jar.”

Ty met Knox’s eyes and let out a low, rumbling growl. Mia let out a snort of impatience, muttered,
“Men,”
and grabbed Parker and hustled him back inside. Knox kept staring at Ty, steadily. Shifters could instinctively sense who was stronger, and that determined their pack or clan hierarchy. Ty and Knox were about equally matched. Of course, they were on bear property, so Ty would have plenty of backup and Knox only had Clarence.

Still, Clarence would go down fighting. He’d die before he let anyone get at Knox.

After a moment that stretched out for eons, Ty finally growled, “Get the hell off our property.”

Knox lifted his lip in a snarl. “With pleasure. Didn’t want to come here in the first place. Wouldn’t have had to, if
your
clan member hadn’t screwed up and risked revealing us to the entire human species.” He shot a withering glare at Virginia, who looked away and hugged herself, near tears.

He and Clarence climbed into Knox’s patrol car and left the Grayslake bears’ property, fuming.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to work directly with the bears too often.

And this situation was a highly unusual one. Shifters healed fast, and rarely needed hospitals. When they were badly injured, they always went to their pack or clan healer.

Except when they were afraid to. Except when they felt they couldn’t turn to their own kind for help.

This whole situation was making him uneasy.

Eugene Hanson, the Northeast Alpha, had put the word out that this girl had run out on an arranged mating to his son, Kevin, and they wanted her back.

Eugene was based in Pennsylvania, and his son had founded a small pack nearby, and he’d been looking for a suitable mate. Margaret Romaine was the one he’d selected.

When Eugene had called Knox, he’d made it sound as if this girl were a thief and possibly mentally unstable, somebody who’d stolen cash and credit cards from Kevin and then gone on the run. And he’d told Knox there was a good chance she might be showing up at the emergency room in Grayslake soon.

He’d been deliberately vague about the injuries the girl had suffered, though, getting downright snappish when Knox had tried to press him.

“I’d like to make myself a new bearskin rug, is what I’d like to do,” Clarence growled, his voice slicing into Knox’s dark thoughts.

“Good thing we don’t have to deal with them too much,” Knox said with a shrug. “They’re not worth the trouble, unless they keep up the attitude, in which case they might be worth the trouble. Of course, they’ve got that truce with the Redby Pack. Effin’ politics.”