Werewolves and Chocolate (4 page)

The gas pump clicked and Kyle pulled back,
sighing in regret. “Soon. Go on back into the car before you freeze.”

“Good idea.” She was both turned on but
shivering with the cold.

Jake returned to the car as well, giving
Ellie a soft smile before he checked Taggert again. Kyle sat down and shut the
door and Taggert woke up.

“How are you feeling?” Jake asked him.

“Better. I think I finally stopped bleeding
all over your car.” Taggert sniffed and growled. “Dammit, will you two stop
arousing that girl? Open a window or something.”

Ellie flushed, burying her face in Kyle’s
coat so she wouldn’t say anything offensive to her mates’ friend. But oh did
she want to.

Kyle let out a rumbling growl. “Taggert, if I
hadn’t taken a vow—”

“Oh, chill out.”

“We’re almost there,” Jake murmured.

Thank the gods, Ellie thought.

CHAPTER FOUR

Ellie jiggled her leg, then realized how
nervous she was as they drove down the long gravel road. She’d never been to
any of the werewolf clanholdings. She hadn’t met many werewolves at all, for
that matter. After she, Jake, and Kyle had mated, and Moira had scared off the
Hagalaz wolves that were attacking Kyle with her powerful magic. Later, the
three of them had met with Jake’s and Kyle’s parents for dinner in Bloomington.
Instead of meeting at the clanholding they’d gathered at a restaurant. Her two
lovers had both suggested she didn’t need to get thrown right into the full werewolf
culture right away.

When the three of them had initially mated,
she had been afraid what it would mean for her to be bound to the shifters.
They had both assured her over and over that being mated to two werewolves
wouldn’t mean she had to change her life, and she could still get her Ph.D. in
astrophysics.

Moira was a priestess, a powerful mage, and managed
the SpiralStone retreat center. She had invited one of the Uruz shamans to
SpiralStone so Ellie could get a slower introduction to all of it. Ellie was
grateful to Moira for bringing Cassia to her, as the shaman had told her that
hormonal birth control pills weren’t necessarily effective for mated shifters,
something about the mating magic. Cassia had given her an enchanted bracelet
instead. Ellie’s inner scientist would have been more dubious if she hadn’t
seen the magic of Kyle and Jake shifting, or Moira calling down a storm.

Ellie was also grateful the Uruz shaman was a
woman. She’d have had a difficult time discussing those things with a man.

She looked up and, in the morning light
through the snow, she saw the outline of a large house, and then other
structures beyond. Some were smaller houses, others were cabins in the treeline
of the forest past the barn. Kyle parked the car in the gravel lot past the
house and Ellie saw two wolves run past them toward the house. She imagined the
wolves would have heard them coming and sniffed them out before allowing them
into the inner sanctum.

Though it was snowing, several people came
out of the main house to the car. Kyle stepped out of the vehicle and she heard
him exchange words with the people approaching. The back doors of the car were
opened and Taggert was helped out by the greeting party.

Jake opened Ellie’s door and threaded his arm
through hers. “Let’s get you inside. There will be breakfast.”

Inside the house there was a huge dining room
and kitchen similar in some ways to the SpiralStone retreat center. The buffet
table held large catering pans full of eggs and bacon. Taggert was carried down
the hall further into the house. Ellie sighed in relief, hoping the other
wolves weren’t jackasses like Taggert. She breathed in the scent of the food
and her stomach rumbled. “The food smells fantastic.”

“This is how we learned to cook for big
groups,” Kyle said, placing his hand at her back. “Come on, let’s eat.”

“Yes, please join us. You’ve had a long
drive. I’m Felicia, it’s nice to finally meet you.” A tall, wiry woman with
reddish-brown hair dressed in a gray flannel shirt and blue jeans thrust out
her hand and Ellie shook it

“Nice to meet you too.”

“This must be Ellie.” A blond man larger than
Taggert approached her.

She felt Jake and Kyle tense on either side
of her but they didn’t bar his way. She took his hand when he offered it. “I’m Matthew,
the Alpha of this clanholding.”

“Pleased to meet you, Matthew.”

The door opened behind again and a woman came
in out of the cold, pulling off her hat and shaking snow out of her curly blonde
hair. Ellie recognized Cassia, the shaman.

“Hi Ellie, Kyle, Jake. Thank you for bringing
Taggert here. Where is he?”

“They’ve just brought him in. I’ll take you
to him.” Matthew gestured toward the hallway.

“I’ll catch up with you later, Ellie. Jake,
Kyle.” Cassia nodded at them all then hurried after Matthew.

“Let’s get you some breakfast.” Felicia
approached the three of them with plates. All of the sudden there were too many
people crowded around her but Ellie tried to suck it up and smiled. Ellie
noticed that Felicia seemed to look older than any of the other shifters she’d
met so far. She appeared to be in her late thirties or early forties, but Ellie
knew that shifters often aged differently from humans.

Jake took Ellie’s coat and found her a corner
of the table where she wouldn’t be surrounded by others. Trust Jake to notice;
Kyle was more of an extrovert and didn’t understand getting overwhelmed by too
many people. The three of them dug into their food. Ellie was consistently
boggled by how much food Jake and Kyle managed to put away, but even she was
hungry after the road trip.

Matthew returned after a few moments and sat
at the head of the table. “Taggert is still unconscious. Can you tell me
anything about what happened?”

Kyle grunted. “He has been mostly passed out
since he collapsed on our doorstep. He said he was tracking a Hagalaz and he
killed him but that’s how he got injured.”

“Aye. And?”

“He told us the Hagalaz mercenaries got
caught up in something and a bunch of them were killed. They had hired out to a
Fae lord,” Jake said. “He overheard things at a meeting between the Hagalaz and
another. He heard that the Hagalaz wolves after Kyle died in a battle.”

Matthew’s eyebrows lifted. “Well, that’s good
news for all three of you then.”

“Had you guys heard anything about this
Hagalaz fight?” Jake asked.

“Cassia received a request for assistance
from a wereleopard shaman but she was busy here. Sarah was in a hard labor.”

“What did the Hagalaz get themselves into?”
Kyle shook his head.

Felicia folded her arms, scowling. “Some of
them will do anything for money.”

“It puts us all at risk,” Matthew said with
some vehemence.

“So do some of their breeding practices.”
Felicia stood to bring another tray of food to the table. Ellie saw her
forehead was furrowed in a frown. “If they keep kidnapping people it’s going to
eventually get noticed.”

“If there weren’t already so few of us, I’d
say we purge the lot of them.” Matthew let out a growl.

A shocked gasp slipped out of Ellie.  

One of the werewolves further down the large
table snickered. “I think we’re shocking her,” he said.

Felicia gave her a sort of vicious grin. “Maybe
your mate wasn’t quite ready for us, Kyle.”

Jake stood. “Maybe the reason we’ve kept away
from you is because you guys are assholes to humans.”

Felicia snarled. “You can only play human so
long, Jake. And the three of you are already practically betraying the pack.”
Then Felicia gave Ellie a scathing look. Ellie wondered what pack dynamics Jake
and Kyle hadn’t told her about, but she decided to bite her tongue for the
moment.

Jake pulled Ellie with him toward the sink.
Kyle followed them and they washed their dishes. Kyle was shaking mad, his
teeth gritted. Jake turned to face the shifters. “We should probably be on our
way. It’s a long drive back.”

Matthew stood as well. “You can’t go now. We
have to discuss this issue with Taggert.”

“What’s to discuss?” Kyle asked, and Ellie
could feel under her skin that his temper was beginning to fray.

“Well, there’s a dead Hagalaz in your city
and we don’t know where. Did you think to ask him about the body so someone
could go do cleanup?”

Jake nodded. “He was in and out of
consciousness. He said his wrecked car and the body were hidden.”

“I can tell you where it is now,” Taggert
said, slowly limping into the room. Cassia stood at his side and helped him to
the nearest chair.

“Taggert. I’m glad to see you are well.
Felicia, will you get him a plate?”

“Of course.” The taller woman brushed past
Ellie, and Ellie wondered again what she had done to offend her.

“He’ll need several days to heal yet, but the
worst is past.” Ellie noticed Cassia looked a little haggard; the healing
seemed to have taken something out of her.

“Sit,” Matthew held a chair for her.

“Any chance a wolf could get some food? Those
strawberries didn’t take much of the edge off.”

“You ate the strawberries?” Jake gaped at Taggert.

“What?” Taggert asked, a breakfast sausage
already in his mouth.

“What’s this?” Matthew asked, confused.

“The love birds had a romantic weekend
planned. They packed some chocolate covered strawberries in the cooler.
Apparently those were off limits.” Taggert went back to cleaning the plate he’d
been given.

Jake shook his head. “Never mind. Look, if
we’re needed to talk about pack issues fine, but Ellie needs a place to rest.”

“Of course.” Matthew took a look at a diagram
on the wall. Ellie realized it must be a rendering of the property, though she
didn’t understand all the symbols. “We set aside the cabin on the north
treeline for you. Just across the parking lot, with the red door.”

“I saw it. I’ll take her over.” Jake handed
their plates to Kyle. “I’ll be right back.”

Jake grabbed her coat and helped her into it,
then took her hand and guided her out the door. She sighed in relief.

“I’m sorry Taggert is so rude.”

“Is it because I’m human?”

“In part. He’s also just rude. But yes, a lot
of werewolves don’t like human mates.”

“Why?”

“We live in fear of discovery. Plus, humans
dilute the bloodline.”

“That’s why Kyle sometimes has trouble
shifting.”

“His grandmother was human. All of us have
human blood, but the more we bring human blood in, the more we seem to get shifters
with difficulty.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, the problem is, there are so few of us.
We can’t all find mates from within the werewolf packs.”

“Is that what they meant about Hagalaz? Their
breeding practices?”

“The Hagalaz more actively discriminate
against humans, as you know. Kara can’t really live amongst her own pack
because of her mate David.”

“Kara, Kyle’s ex lover? The reason the
Hagalaz hate Kyle in the first place?”

“Yeah. What David told you was true—he is
able to be whatever he wants to be and live his life, but what it meant for
Kara was she had to leave the pack. If she hadn’t, the Hagalaz would have
forced abuses on her mate. And they seem to blame Kyle for her leaving, even
though she already lived on their fringes or he’d never have even been with her
in the first place.”

“I see.”

“The problem is there are a few Hagalaz who
have seriously mistreated their human mates. It’s really sick. You’d have to be
totally deranged. You’ve been gifted with a mate, and to harm them, or force
them…it’s not right. But, it’s another pack, and they live by different rules.”

“Uruz wouldn’t do that then?”

“No, never. Uruz still don’t trust humans,
but Uruz wouldn’t ever hurt a human. Taggert might tease you, but he’d protect
you.”

“That’s reassuring.”

Jake grinned at her as he opened the cabin
door. “Faugh, it’s still cold in here. Let me crank up the heat.” Jake fussed
with the propane heater while Ellie stomped her feet and shook her hands to try
and get more blood flowing. “It’ll warm up more now.”

“Do you have to go back?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Whatever information Taggert
uncovered needs to be discussed, and then we figure out how to deal with it.”

“Are we going to be stuck here for a while?”

“I hope not.”

“I have to be back at the lab on Monday.”

“Don’t even worry about that.” Jake reached
over to caress her hair spilling out of her hat. “Come here, I’ll warm you up
for a moment before I have to go back.” She nuzzled against his neck and he
growled. “Stop tempting me.”

“What?”

“You smell so damn good.” Jake nudged her
head to the side and kissed her. She gasped and he hauled her up against him.
She wrapped her fingers around his suspenders and tugged them down, and he
chuckled, leaning her back onto the bed. “Like the suspenders?”

“I figured you wore them to torment me.”

“Maybe. Gods, sweetheart. It felt so good
being inside you.”

“You were being mean.”

“Mean?”

“You were teasing me.” She arched against him
and he sucked in a breath.

“I was getting you ready. Know why?”

She couldn’t answer. All she could do was cry
out as he rocked his erection against her center.

“Because I was going to fuck your sweet
little ass while Kyle took your pussy.”

“Now you’re being really mean.” Her legs
climbed up around him so she could grind against him harder, even though they
were both clothed.