How to Howl at the Moon (14 page)

Lance hated that. The poor guy was struggling enough. Why? Where were Tim’s family and friends? Who was Marshall? And why weren’t Tim’s plants coming up? He
seemed
to know what he was doing. At this point, Lance would be happy to see Tim succeed at anything, even if it was growing cannabis. Hell, he’d roll a doobie in celebration.

Christ, he’d gotten way too attached. Maybe
his mother
had been… not entirely off base? Right-ish? It galled him to admit it.

He heard a muffled cry. Lance tensed, his head rising and his ears tilting toward the bedroom. “No! Stop it!” Then, “Dad, no!”

Lance jumped to his feet and ran into the bedroom.

Tim was having a nightmare. He was tangled in his sheet
s
and sweating, even though the house was cool. His face was relaxed and strained at the same time. “Not my fault!” He jerked in his sleep, like he’d been hit. He whimpered in pain.

Lance didn’t think about it. He jumped onto the bed and lay down next to Tim and nudged Tim’s face with his nose. He whined.

He felt it when Tim woke up, the dark pull of the nightmare evaporating. He could hear the pounding of Tim’s heart, smell his fear. Tim threw an arm around Chance, pulled him closer, turned his face into his pillow, gave a quivering sigh, and went back to sleep.

Lance stayed.

Party Hounds

LANCE PARKED in his mother’s driveway on Saturday night, dreading the evening. He’d much rather be hanging out at Tim’s. But Lance was already skating on thin ice with Lily. He had to show her he was perfectly capable of not going over to Tim’s house, that he was not spending too much time over there as a dog.

Even though he was totally spending too much time over there as a dog.

He grabbed the case of Samuel Adams from the passenger seat and got out of the cruiser.

Inside, the pack gathering was as rambunctious as usual. His brothers Lonnie and Ronnie were there with their wives and broods. Fred Beagle, from the post office, was chatting
in his usual animated fashion
with Daisy, from the diner. The newly quickened members of the pack were in attendance, including Gus, the bulldog. He appeared much less lost than he had when Lance had met him for breakfast. His eyes were bright with happiness, and he eagerly stood close to Bill McGurver, drinking in everything the man said.

Lance envied Gus his simple enjoyment of company. Maybe somewhere along his genetic pool, he’d become too human. Usually, he liked these gatherings. Even though he never said much, he liked having all the pack in one place where he could see them, assess their wellbeing, know they were safe and in good spirits. It was… less fragmenting when they were all in one spot. But that night far too much of Lance’s nature was focused on Tim and wanted to be
there.
It just wasn’t the same.

Bill McGurver noticed Lance, gave him a nod and a smile from across the room and then,
as if remembering, looked guilty.

Yeah, Bill, we’ll have a little talk about your epic betrayal to my mother later.

Lance greeted his nieces and nephews, kissed his sisters-in-law on the cheek, traded jibes with his brothers, and at long last, as if running a gauntlet, got the case of beer into the kitchen. His mother was there stirring a huge pot of spiced peanut butter cider and chatting with a voluptuous dark-haired woman. The woman was Lance’s age, and she wore a tight gold sweater. She managed to display her assets while coming off as classy. She was just the type his mother would—
Uh-oh.

“Lance!” His mother came over and gave him a one-armed hug. She relieved him of the beer. “You remember Janine Donegal? She recently moved back to Mad Creek.”

Lance did recognize her now, more by her smell than anything. The Donegal family had been in Mad Creek for a good twenty years. Janine’s parents were both second gens that had met in Mad Creek. That was the sort of bloodline his mother praised. The last Lance had heard, Janine had taken a high-flying lawyer job in San Francisco after college. He had nothing against Janine, she was pretty and no doubt intelligent, but he didn’t like mother’s yenta-ish scheme. Lily was being so obvious she might as well be skywriting it.
Lance + Janine 4ever.

“Welcome back.” Lance held out his hand, and Janine shook it, sliding her hand along his first in a typical quickened rub. Her grip was firm, and her smile was genuine.

“Hi, Lance! I remember you. Always the quiet one of the Beaufort brothers! So you’re the sheriff now? Your mom was just telling me about it.”

I’ll bet she told you my underwear size too, the side of the bed I lie on, and about the pulled muscle in the groin I got last year.

“Yup. It’s not terribly exciting in a place like Mad Creek, and I like to keep it that way. What brings you back?”

Janine shot Lily a knowing look. “Does anyone ever leave Mad Creek for long? It gets wearying not being able to be yourself out there. I’d been hoping to move back for the past few years, but my firm got bought out last month and it was a great opportunity to grab a decent severance package. I’ll be setting up a small legal practice here.” She gave Lance a cheeky grin. “Maybe I can represent all those criminals you rake in.”

Lance snorted. “I’ll do my best to stir up some traffic for you.”

Janine’s mother stuck her head in the kitchen doorway. “Janine? Are you busy? There’s someone I want you to meet.”

“Nice seeing you again, Lance,” Janine said before slipping away. Her pleasant grace and straight-forward cheerfulness
was
appealing. If Lance remembered correctly, her people were descended from Labradors. She could be a big help to Mad Creek, especially if she was willing to take on pro bono work. The people who needed the help most here didn’t have money.

“I see you approve,” Lily said, with a dog-that-ate-the-bone smile. She pulled a tray of meatballs out of the oven. “Hold that bowl for me, would you?”

Lance held the bowl while his mother discharged the meatballs into it. “You’re real subtle, Mom. I can see the grandpups dancing in your eyes.”

Lily gave a nasty little chuckle that Lance didn’t care for at all. “Oh, aren’t you the center of the universe? As it so happens, I intend nothing of the kind. My role is simply to bring the single young people of our community under one roof and provide food and hospitality. How they pair off is their own affair. I happen to think you’ll have to work for Janine if you want her. She’s quite a catch.”

He grunted and set the bowl of meatballs on the table. “See, that right there is how you
should
feel. But the day you let things take their natural course without interfering is the day I shift into a walrus.”

“You have put on a few pounds. And you’re getting a bit long in the tooth.”

“I have not put on a few pounds!”

“Evening.” Roman Charsguard wandered into the kitchen holding two bottles of wine. He was red in the face and smelled of uneasiness. “Didn’t know if I should bring red or white, so….”

His mother took the bottles with a big smile. “I’m so pleased you joined us, Roman!”

“Well. You sort of blackmailed me.”

“Oh, fuff! I would have given your mail back eventually. It’s on the hutch in the dining room. But don’t grab it and run! You might as well eat while you’re here. We have plenty of
food.”

“Lance,” Roman nodded at him.

“Hey, Roman.”

Roman was ill at
ease in the house, or maybe it was the crowd. But Lance was happy to see him out for a change. He had to admit, his mother did work wonders in their community. That was Lily. She was the best of times and the worst of times all
rolled
in
to
one tight little border collie package.

Lance clasped Roman’s shoulder, giving him what he hoped was a grounding pat and turned them both toward the living room. “Hey. I got th
e report
on that black truck you saw. It’s legally registered in Los Angeles, and it’s not missing or stolen. But I thought—”

Lance’s words, and the thoughts behind them, evaporated, never to be heard from again.

Across the room was Janine. Janine was talking to
Tim Weston
.

Tim.

Weston.

It was strange and disturbing seeing him someplace other than his house, his house where he was just Chance’s human. Here Tim was a young man at a party talking to a beautiful woman, familiar and new at the same time. He looked really good. He had on a dark green button-down shirt that brought out the gold tones in his sandy brown hair and his hazel eyes. It was tucked into fitted jeans that showed off his long legs and slim hips. He looked tall and shy. And from the way Janine was looking at Tim, he was very attractive.

Of course he’s attractive. He’s attractive to
you
, isn’t he?

“Lance, is something wrong?” Roman growled, reading Lance’s tension and going instantly on guard.

Lance hurried to reassure him. “No! No, it’s nothing like that. Honestly. I just… excuse me for a minute. I need to talk to my mother.”

Lance dragged Lily out the back door where they’d be less likely to be overheard. As usual,
she didn’t take him seriously.

“Oh, relax! Don’t have a conniption fit. I met Tim while I was out shopping, and he seemed like a nice boy and so very lonely. So I invited him to the party. Half the town’s here anyway. It’s no big deal.”

“But it’s a pack party!”

Lily waved a dismissive hand. “We have humans in the pack.” They did, but the few they had were spouses of quickened or those, like old Doc Benton, who knew about the pack by necessity and could be trusted not to tell outsiders. “Besides, I told everyone there would be a human who isn’t in the know here tonight. No one’s going to howl at the moon. Well, not literally anyway.”

Everything Lily said made some sort of sense by itself, but the whole thing wasn’t computing. Lily had clearly run around Lance, but he wasn’t sure how far she’d run around him or what the full implications were. What was she up to?

“But… but what if Tim
is
growing you-know-what! I’m still investigating him!”

Lily snorted. “Any fool can see that boy is not a drug lord. And if he does grow a little pot, well, big deal. I used to enjoy reefer now and then. It makes you nice and loose for sex.”

“Mother!”

She rolled her eyes. “I swear, we should never have let you play
fetch
when you were an adolescent. Obviously one
of those sticks
got lodged up your behind. Now I have to go back in and stir that cheese sauce or it’ll burn. Try to socialize, Lance. You might actually enjoy it.”

Lance followed his mother back inside, huffed his way past her in the kitchen to show his displeasure, and stalked into the living room. He found himself marching right up to where Tim was being chatted up by Janine Donegal.

The presumptuous bitch.

“Oh. H-hi, Sheriff.” Tim recognized him without his uniform. That was a good sign. But he also looked skittish and unhappy to see him.

Lance
’s
stomach sank.
Oh yeah right
. He himself had moved ahead in his feelings about Tim. But Tim was still standing still at that ‘bat-shit crazy sheriff guy’ first impression (okay
third impression—at least he’d done the fruit basket). And Lance realized that this right here—this
party—
was an opportunity. It was a chance to talk to Tim
as himself
and maybe push past that point. And suddenly that seemed like the most important thing in the world.

Lance crowded into his rival’s space a little more, nudging Janine out of the way.

“Hmm. Right.” She sounded confused. “Excuse me. I’ll, uh, go see if Lily needs help.”

Lance was staring at Tim’s face and ignored Janine, though he was puffed up
in a
possessive
warning
. Tim had his eyes slightly downcast, which more or less translated to Lance’s chest. His face was a little pink. Neither of them responded.