Shifting Positions (17 page)

Gina shot her a quizzical look as she loaded in the last box of napkins. “It’s full of wolves,” she hissed, glancing from left to right to make sure she wasn’t being overhead. “You know how dangerous and unpredictable they are. Just look at what happened to poor Dave.” Her lips firmed into an angry line. “I told him not to go work at the lumber yard. If he had to go work for a wolf, Frank Kolter should have been the last on the list. He’s an arrogant, conceited, loathsome speck of dog shit and a worthless father. He and his shifter sons think humans are their play toys and I’m sick of it.” She reached out and slammed the truck door with enough force that Tess winced, sending a silent apology to her new baby.

Pulling the not-quite-familiar-any-more mask of serenity over her face, Tess leaned a hip against the rear fender, and watched in silence as various emotions crossed Gina’s face.

Recalling what happened the other day in the café between Kyle and Gina, Tess could easily understand and most definitely agree with a dislike of one particular wolf, but lumping all shifters into the same category was completely unfair. The degree of hatred shooting from Gina’s light brown eyes did make Tess wonder if something specific caused the biased feeling. If she’d warned Dave not to take a job at the lumber yard years ago when he first started, then Gina’s attitude wasn’t a result of her time with Matt. But maybe being with Matt only exacerbated it.

Hmmm.

“Gina,” she started only to be stopped by the other woman’s hand waving her off.

“Just…forget I said anything. I’m just restless and well,” she laid her hand over her tummy, “crampy. You know how it is.”

Aided by a sudden and stiff breeze, Tess subtly drew in a deep breath, and knew Gina was lying. There was no hint of pending menstruation, but there was a whole lot of musk and the scent of Matt West. Knowing that the other woman had left Matt’s bed before coming to work was way more information then Tess ever wanted to know. How did the wolves handle knowing these things all the time? Ugh!

She grimaced. “Yeah, I know how it is.”

The relief in Gina’s face was clear. “Well, you’d better get going.” Tess dug out her keys, looked down at them and contemplated. “Gina, if you need someone to talk to….”

“Thanks, but I’m good. Like I said, just that time of the month.”

“Okay then. Thanks for your help.”

“Anytime,” Gina responded with a cheerful and completely fake smile. “Drive safe,” she added as she walked back inside.

Closing her truck door, Tess stared in the rearview mirror, angled to picture the door Gina had entered. “Cramps my ass. What’s really going on, Gina?”
Well
, she thought,
I have a good thirty minutes to ponder that
.

Then she shifted into gear and took off for the Moon Haven.

“We may have a problem.” Dean said abruptly.

“Of course we do. It’s the full moon. We always have problems.” Caleb growled into his cell phone. He in fact was returning from a problem featuring a half-dozen drunken tourists and a brawl at the Alehouse, and it wasn’t even ten yet.

With Phil on the roster to run and hunt with the cubs tonight, Derek Givins barricaded at the Moon, Jason Rusing handling an injury involved fender bender in town that was blocking traffic, and one of his human deputies calling in sick with the flu, Caleb and Brandon were running themselves ragged. Though the full moon normally brought out the odd in humans and fur in shifters, tonight seemed especially chaotic.

Neither he nor Brandon had made any headway in the Collins case and he missed Tess.

And that was the crux of everything. Tess was in heat, it was the full moon and Caleb wanted his mate in the most primal manner. Unable to be with her, and knowing his mark was absent on her delectable body, only increased his unease.

He felt his fangs start to push through his burning gums. With a muttered oath, he shoved all thoughts of his mate aside and focused on Dean. “What’s going on?”

“We’re missing six shifters.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that six of the two hundred plus wolves that normally stay at Moon Haven have yet to arrive.”

Caleb pondered this a few moments. “Maybe they changed their minds or are running late.”

“Plausible of course, except that about an hour ago I had to intervene in an escape attempt by a dozen young shifters, already in wolf form. Everyone knows the rule on the full moon. Once you’re in, you don’t leave until morning.”

Frowning, Caleb maneuvered his truck onto the highway from the bar. “That’s rare.”

“Very. The thing is, when I forced Tim Bronson back to his human form and demanded an explanation, he seemed…confused. Said he caught a scent too irresistible to ignore. Without the fur, he’s still a little twitchy, but he’s controllable.” Caleb glanced in his rearview mirror as headlights flashed briefly before turning in the opposite direction. “Want me to head your way?”

“Where are you?” When Caleb told him he’d just left the Alehouse, Dean said, “Might as well. Maybe you can sniff something out. I can’t smell a damn thing with all this wet fur.”

“Wet fur?”

Dean chuckled. “One of my deterrents, or did you forget about the extensive sprinkler system I had installed?”

Caleb ran his tongue over his teeth. “No comment.”

“In spite of the stench, that’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time.” Which only meant his alpha needed a life, and a wife. “I’ll be there in twenty.” He hung up the phone and, with one hand on the steering wheel, he turned the Silverado into a careful u-turn. When his phone rang again, he didn’t bother to check the readout. “Bennett.”

“Hi, Caleb. It’s Tess.” Despite the instant pleasure at hearing her voice, the wariness in it caused him concern. “What’s wrong,
m’lupa
?”

She hesitated. “I’m sorry to bother you…”

“You are never a bother,” he rushed to say, feeling like a damn teenager with his first crush.

“Remember how you said I might have some visitors of the furry persuasion the night of the full moon?”

His smile dropped in wattage. “Got a wolf or two howling out the window?”

“More like twenty.”

“What!?” Caleb roared. “Are you sure?”

“Definitely. It’s weird. There are about a dozen young ones sitting and staring at the house just inside the clearing. Four adults are circling them, yapping every few minutes. Then there are a separate bunch of adults that look to be play-fighting and every now and then, one of those will run around the house. I’ve never seen anything like it. I didn’t know if it meant something?” She posed the last as a question.

This time his u-turn consisted of burning rubber and squealing tires. “Did you go out today? Anywhere? Walk around the block, go to the grocery store?”

“Actually, yes.” Tess told him about the situation with the refrigerator truck and how Dolen asked her to help fix dinner at the Moon Haven.

When she finished Caleb let out a string of harsh and inventive curses. He knew about the incident of course, but he never imagined Tess would somehow get involved. Hell, an unmated female in heat, and with the full moon, would catch the attention of every free shifter within a twenty mile radius, and she’d been at the compound for hours. No wonder there was an escape attempt. The irresistible scent was Tess.

Caleb clenched his jaw so hard he cracked a tooth. “Don’t go outside, lock the doors and for God’s sake, get away from the windows.”

Silence met his statement for a moment. “Do not tell me they are capable of jumping through a closed window. They’re triple-paned for God’s sake!”

“To get to you, yes.”

“What?”

“Damn it, woman, you’re an unmated female in heat. The bloody wolves would claw through a solid steel door to get to you.”

She gasped. “And then what? Try to do me? In wolf form? That’s disgusting!” He closed his eyes briefly. “Right now most of them are more wolf than man. They’re not thinking like a human. They are working on instinct rather than logic. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

She made a disgruntled sound deep in her throat. “Yes. The wolves would do a knothole if it smelled like me right now.”

Amazingly, Caleb felt a chuckle rumble in his chest. “That about sums it up.” She sighed, the breathy whisper teasing his senses, and his cock. “Do you think, if it’s not too much trouble, you or one of your deputies could make a trip out here?” With his foot to the floor, Caleb answered. “I’m already on my way.”

“Oh. Oh, good.” There was a pause, then, “One wolf just came up onto the front porch.”

“Didn’t I tell you to get away from the window?” Frustration ate at him like acid. Why wouldn’t the woman listen?

“He’s not doing anything, except. Oh my God. It’s my father!”
What?
“What?”

“Caleb, my dad’s out there!”

Suddenly a howling came over the line followed by multiple answers that made his hackles rise. “What’s going on?”

“I thought you wanted me away from the window?”

“Damn it, Tess!” he bellowed.

After a moment’s pause he heard her suck in a breath. “It looks as if he’s making a stand, protecting the house. Wait.”

Caleb’s hand tightened on the steering wheel and he glanced at his radio. At the speed he was going, he knew he couldn’t safely keep Tess on the phone and call Brandon for backup, and he’d be damned if he hung up on his mate. “Tess.”

“Oh God, Caleb, they’re moving in. They’ll tear him to pieces!”

“Don’t you dare,” he shouted in helpless rage as he heard the deadbolt click. “Damn you, Tess, don’t you dare go outside!”

“I can’t just watch them rip my father apart, Caleb. I’m not that cold!”

“Tess? Tess!”

Impotent fury and blinding panic wrapped his heart in thick chains as he realized she’d dropped the phone to defend her father. Red lights danced in front of his eyes and he struggled to clear his vision, reaching for the radio after hooking the cell, his thin connection to Tess, to his waist.

With sirens wailing and lights flashing, and after what felt like years, Caleb turned onto the dirt road that led to the Gentry House. Never easing on the gas, he bumped and cursed and roared up to the house, slamming into two wolves and knocking them back ten feet as he braked hard. He wasn’t worried about the wolves, they’d live. It was Tess he was panicked for.

Jumping from the truck he barreled around the hood, and instantly froze as something whizzed by his ear and landed behind him with a soft thump. Turning, he saw a brown wolf convulse and then drop, a bright pink dart sticking out of its hide. Glancing up, he spotted Jackie and Ruth at a bedroom window, both holding dart guns. Once would fire while the other reloaded, and though they were missing more than they were hitting, the sight was shocking and awe inspiring.

The near miss forced him take a mental step back, and instead of racing in with his claws blazing, he used years of honed police skill to take in the scene. There were a helluva lot more than twenty. At least a dozen wolves were drugged, another eight were down and bleeding, the two he’d hit were unmoving. Toward the porch another six were fighting each other. Caleb recognized Phil and one of the other pack leaders sent to run and hunt with the cubs this night.

Now they were defending his mate. Pride blossomed in his chest.

A glance over his shoulder and into the woods showed two other wolves watching over a dozen cubs that alternatively let out cries of terror and empathy at what they were witnessing. To his left, another six adults eyed the scene with indecision. With a low snarl from Caleb, they whimpered in fear and turned tail. Darkly pleased, he turned back to the house and saw one lone black wolf at the bottom of the porch steps, obviously older by the amount of silver in his fur, desperately fighting a much younger one. Tess’s father was bleeding from numerous cuts and obviously tiring as he barely managed to avoid a deadly snap of teeth.

Tearing his gaze away, he searched frantically for Tess. When he finally spotted her behind her father on the porch, he let out a roar of fury. She looked fragile compared to the two grey wolves she valiantly fought off. He could see a cut on her pale cheek and the rip in her sweater, exposing her slim ribcage. Her sweatpants were torn in several places and worst of all, he could smell her blood. Even as he called on his beast he recognized both Frank and Kyle Kolter as her attackers.

Instantly the change came on him. Bones snapped and re-aligned, muscles elongated and reshaped themselves. Chocolate brown fur sprouted from his taut skin. Within seconds he shifted into a two hundred and twenty pound wolf. Blood lust gleamed in his amber eyes. Razor sharp fangs glinted in the white light of the moon. Instincts took over and, with another mighty howl, he reared back on his hind legs and swiped at the wolf attacking Tess’s father with enough force to send it flying head over tail. The animal staggered up with an angry snarl and an impatient shake of its head that sent droplets of blood arcing into the night. It turned, lips curled back in a menacing sneer, and stopped dead. Its snout lifted high, sniffing the air. When the beast realized who had attacked him he immediately dropped on the ground and rolled over, exposing his belly in submission and whining

Disgusted, Caleb abandoned the young wolf and loped past Tess’s exhausted father. Just then a dark grey wolf tumbled down the porch steps to land at Caleb’s feet. As Frank rose on shaky legs, Caleb didn’t take the time to stare him down or wait for a submissive pose but instead latched his sharp teeth onto Frank’s neck and forcefully flipped him onto his back. Then he dragged the whimpering wolf away from the steps and into the snowy clearing, next to the first wolf he took down. As he turned away, two pink darts sailed behind him to tag both downed wolves.

Wickedly satisfied, Caleb bounded up the porch steps. With a flying leap he crashed into Kyle just as the wolf crouched to spring on Tess. They landed with a bone-jarring thud on the porch slats, the wood groaning under the violence of the impact. The same odd scent he and Brandon noticed in the woods filled his nose, stunning him for a moment. But a moment was all it took for Kyle, in a flurry of claws, to break free and ram into Caleb’s neck, snapping his head back. Before the other wolf could go for his jugular, Caleb rolled to his right, slashing his massive claws along Kyle’s side as he lunged forward.