Call of the Wild (5 page)

“I’ll look into it. For now, it’s getting late. You’re gonna want to head back to your sister’s house,” said Marc.

“Nah, I’ll find myself a spot to camp out. I’m not good company right now,” Aaron replied, getting to his feet.

“I tell you what. Why don’t you give me a lift back to my place, it’s another couple of miles up this road. You can have some food and I don’t know about you but I could sure use a cold beer and a shot of bourbon. Then, if you still feel the need, you can wander off into the woods. Or you can head back to your sister’s, or even bunk with the pack. Okay?”

Aaron gave the man a long look. He wasn’t pushing and he’d listened without comment. Besides, he didn’t really want to sleep in the woods. They were infested with wolves.

“Okay, hop in. I could use a drink or three. If you don’t mind, though, go ahead and shift back into your wolf. Something tells me driving with a wolf will look less strange than seeing me drive around with a naked dude in the passenger seat. I’m sure the ladies like to look, but I gotta tell you, man, it ain’t doin’ anything for me,” said Aaron.

Showing off, Marc dove through the still open door, shifting mid-leap. Aaron couldn’t help but be impressed.

Aaron had no difficulty finding the pack house. It was a large log cabin, three stories high, and hugging the hillside between the trees. From where he parked, he could see other small roads and trails.

“Where are all the cars? That’s a pretty big building,” he asked Marc.

“If you follow this road, it goes up and around to the back of the lodge. There’s parking there for five vehicles. Then down below, there’s a small clearing we also use for overflow. Most of the pack arrives on four feet from individual family cabins dotted all over the surrounding hills. The women’s wing is on the left and the men’s is on the right, with family rooms in the middle. Think of the pack house like the main building of a summer camp, on steroids. Game rooms, dining hall, and lounges are just a few of the amenities. We also have a full service spa and salon and a small movie theater. The winters are long and wolves in general are happier in groups. We’ll give you the grand tour some other time. For now, let’s grab a couple of shots and beers and see what’s for dinner.”

Aaron agreed and the two men headed up to the lodge. Marc would have told Aaron to leave the keys in the truck in case it needed to be moved. However, since noticed Aaron had hotwired it, he sent a wolf to run over and get the keys along with a message letting Laura and Alex know Aaron was in safe hands.

*****

After eating and having a couple of drinks, Aaron was tired. The emotional storm he’d weathered earlier, along with the alcohol, had taken its toll on him. Suddenly, he didn’t feel like going outside to a cold camp, so he took Marc Hunter’s offer of a room in the pack house. Stripping off his clothes, he fell onto the bed. It was time to let his mind take a break. He didn’t even try to stay awake when he felt himself slipping under.

Before he went to his own rest, Marc made a stop in his office. He wanted to find out what happened to Kylie Morgan after Aaron had turned her over to her alpha. He wanted to find her, both for Aaron’s piece of mind and for Kylie’s.

He entered his office, where he ran his pack as well as his brokerage firm. Marc was responsible for managing the investments of the Wolf pack and the greater grouping of shifters in this enclave. Now that Laura had joined them, they often worked together. He was going to be much busier in the near future. Laura was turning over her long-term investments to him while she was busy analyzing the data in their ongoing struggle with the Shayatin and The Society.

Laura had successfully defended herself from a Shayatin wizard. The organization they were building in the cave system below her house had already prevented the death of some shifters who had been targeted by the bigoted members of The Society, a group out to kill all shifters. They were building the shifter equivalent of an army special-forces unit to protect them. They couldn’t exactly advertise their problems to the regular police.

While he waited for his private stand alone computer to boot up, he pulled open his right-hand desk drawer and grabbed a candy bar; he had a major sweet tooth. Leaning back, he enjoyed the nutty chocolaty goodness. He had it perfectly timed. Just when he finished, his computer was ready to go. The system was old but it was reliable and without an internal modem and no wired hookups, he didn’t have to worry about getting hacked.

Going into his files, he pulled up the territorial maps and directory of alphas from twenty-five years ago. Jacob North had been the Alpha of the Wolf pack in that part of Maryland at the time and, luckily, he still was. Next, Marc looked up the man’s contact information. It was only about nine o’clock in Montana, so it was about eleven o’clock on the east coast. He didn’t think the Alpha would mind the call under the circumstances.

“North residence,” said a woman’s voice.

“Jacob North, please, Marc Hunter calling,” said Marc.

“Hold on, I’ll get him for you,” she said.

A few moments later, Marc heard the phone being picked up and a gravelly voice came on the line. “Are Laura and Alex okay? What’s the emergency?”

“I apologize for the late hour. Everyone here is fine. I’m calling because Laura’s family has arrived and when I had a conversation with her oldest brother earlier, I discovered he has a link to your family. He once saved the life of a young girl by the name of Kylie Morgan when her brother and parents had been murdered. I was hoping to give him some news of her. He’s worried about Laura,” Marc added as additional explanation for his call.

“Oh, my. Well, that is welcome news. Even though we moved after the incident, I kept track of that young man for a number of years. Kylie has often mentioned wanting to thank him again.”

“How would she feel about getting that opportunity?” Marc asked.

“She married the son of a big businessman in Woodrow, West Virginia, name of Jeff Hendricks. The two of them have a very understanding boss. I think a visit to your neck of the woods would be an excellent idea. Kylie and Jeff would enjoy the trip. They have four children,” he added as an explanation.

Marc laughed. “That’s fine, then. We’ll make room here at the lodge for them to visit. Do you need me to make travel arrangements?”

“Actually, let me call her before we go making arrangements. Working as administrative assistant to that businessman and for the local Moose lodge, keeps her busy. While I believe Kylie is really going to be happy to see that boy again, I’ll let her speak for herself. Of course, he’s a grown man now. Is he married?” Jacob asked.

“I don’t think so. Laura would have mentioned it if any of her brothers was married. He was getting a lot of attention from Marsha Brady though, at the barbeque,” said Marc.

He knew what Jacob was asking. They had been speaking in one of the new codes Laura had devised a month ago, so they wouldn’t reveal what they were saying during a phone call. A big businessman was a pack alpha and any mention of a fraternal organization, or similar reference like that, meant a pack or clan of shifters. Jacob was also asking if Laura’s human brothers would need to find mates the way Laura had.

“I think Laura and Alex are hoping to recruit them into the new firm they’re opening. Nothing has been said about wives,” Marc said, letting Jacob know her brothers didn’t need to find mates. They would be transformed much like Laura had been.

“As I said, I kept track of Aaron Donahue. I couldn’t help but learn things about his father and brothers, too. Laura was rarely seen, though. I do remember when she was hit by a drunk driver. She’s doing alright now?” Jacob asked.

Every shifter in the U.S., even the world, wanted to know about Laura, the first changeling to join with the shifters in nearly a hundred years.

“She has settled in to her new house. She and Alex are really happy together. There’s a rumor they’re expecting a child. It’s too soon for an official announcement yet,” said Marc, giving the other alpha news every shifter would be anxious to hear.

The two men spoke for another fifteen minutes or so and then they said their goodbyes. As Marc shut down his computer, he wondered if he should tell Aaron about Kylie or let her arrival be a surprise. After leaving his office, he decided not to keep it a secret. Aaron deserved to hear the good news right away. He’d been through enough, and knowing Kylie was okay would help him heal from his boyhood trauma that much quicker. Hopefully, seeing Kylie and her mate, knowing how happy she was now, would help Aaron understand Laura’s new life better.

The next morning, Aaron was up early. Marc found him having coffee and eating a big breakfast. “I’m going to need to get in a workout soon. The way I’ve been eating, I’ll load on the pounds if I don’t,” said Aaron.

“Upside to being a shifter, it takes a lot of energy to shift, so we have really fast metabolisms, much like babies.”

Aaron nearly choked on his coffee. “Did you say babies?”

“Think about it,” Marc said, loading up a plate at the buffet. “Babies are growing fast, generating new skin, hair, and bone. They heal from small scratches and even more severe injuries faster than older children or adults. Shifters have to change their cellular structure at an even faster rate.”

“Okay, that actually makes sense, though the whole changing into an animal is still hard for me to get. I mean, how can you keep your identity when you have a much smaller brain?” Aaron asked before biting into his omelet.

“We don’t need all the areas we have in our human brain. For instance, we don’t need the speech center at all; we generally don’t have vocal cords to use it with. I’m over-simplifying, of course. I’m not a doctor, so I’ve never tried to work it all out. I’m just happy that it does work. You should talk to Mara, Frieda, or even your sister. The three of them have been trying to figure out the quantum physics related to shifting.”

Aaron nodded his head in agreement. “I didn’t pay much attention to where I was going yesterday. Can you give me directions back to Laura’s? I need to talk to her.”

“Sure, I can even do you one better. Several members of the pack work there. One of them can go along with you to show you the way.”

“Great, just let me know who they are and when they’re ready to leave,” said Aaron.

“You can head over after you’ve finished eating,” Marc said, picking up his own mug of coffee.

He looked over at his houseguest. He was in much better shape than the previous day. Marc wasn’t fooled, though. Aaron was the type of man who didn’t let his emotions out from under the tight rein he usually kept them on.

“I tracked down Kylie last night,” Marc threw out. Since he was watching closely, he saw the effect the news had on Aaron before he shutdown. The man was obviously bracing himself for bad news.

“She’s doing really well. She's been mated for over ten years and has four children. She’s asked about you over the years. Her alpha, Jacob North, has kept an eye on you, both for her and to keep his pack safe. He was planning to call her this morning and fill her in. If we can work it out while you’re here, she’ll come out with her family for a visit,” Marc told him, watching how he drank in every snippet of information.

“Good,” Aaron cleared his throat, which had suddenly roughened. Reaching for his water, he took a long drink. “It would be nice to see how she turned out. She was a cute kid.”

“She’s looking forward to seeing how the boy she knew turned out. I’ll let you know when I hear anything about their travel information,” Marc said, getting up to refill his plate.

He didn’t need any more food; he wanted to give Aaron a moment. Still, the cinnamon rolls looked really tempting. Grabbing a couple to appease his sweet tooth, he returned to the table and a much more composed guest.

*****

Aaron could have used some more time to himself to level off. He owed it to his sister to man up and apologize. His family deserved to hear about what happened all those years ago. And it would be better if they heard it from him. Knowing Kylie had survived made it easier. He still remembered her Uncle Jacob. To a nine-year-old, the man had seemed like a total badass. Just knowing an angry wolf was just beneath the man’s skin was enough to freak him out.

As he opened the door to the SUV and climbed in, he realized how lucky he’d been. He’d ridden right up to the man’s house with Kylie still in his backpack. No thought was given to the possibility of the hunters being there or Kylie’s uncle blaming him. He was damn lucky to have made it home.

His musings were interrupted by his passenger who gestured for him to make a turn on the road. The guy, who was introduced as Greg, hadn’t said anything up until then. Aaron appreciated his silence. In the short time he’d spent with the Wolf pack he’d noticed they all had great situational awareness. None of these guys would find themselves in a bar fight that had suddenly erupted. Not unless they felt like a fight. No, they would have seen the tensions developing well ahead of anyone else in the room. He had a small amount of the ability too. A soldier’s heightened senses.

Greg stayed quiet, only lifting an arm now and then to point him in the right direction.

With the shifters Aaron had met so far, the ability to gauge the situation seemed to be inborn and not taught. Then he remembered why they needed the ability and his jaw went tight. Well, he hoped his sister realized he would be parking himself on her doorstep for the immediate future. No one was going to harm his family. She would forgive him, that was the way she was. Laura had been the heart of their family since she was born. Because she loved him and had a soft heart, she’d make things good with everyone else; especially the way he could see, even with his brief glimpse into her new life, that she was worshipped by all of the shifters around her.