Silver Moon (A Women of Wolf's Point Novel) (20 page)
Read Silver Moon (A Women of Wolf's Point Novel) Online
Authors: Catherine Lundoff
Tags: #fantasy, #werewolves, #esbian, #lycanthropy, #feminist, #middle-aged, #menopause
Becca yanked the door open and pulled her inside. “What is it?”
“It’s Shelly. She’s gone. She went out to check on the horses last night after we left and Pete fell asleep before she came back in. When he woke up, she wasn’t there. He took the dogs and went looking for her but he couldn’t find her.” Molly stopped to gasp for air.
The Nesters. It had to be them. Becca’s thoughts turned to the worst possibilities. Had they killed Shelly? She wanted to throw up just thinking about it. “Was there anything to tell what happened?” She imagined blood, bits of fabric, a trail of breadcrumb clues like on a TV show. Anything.
Molly grimaced and nodded. “There was blood, hers and someone else’s. But no body so we think they’ve kidnapped her, whoever they are. There hasn’t been a note or anything yet. Lizzie’s got the whole department down there checking things out. I heard about it at the post office and I was going to call here, but I thought you should hear it directly from one of us.”
“When are we meeting?” Becca’s thoughts were whirling. It wasn’t close enough to the full moon for Shelly to start to change, not unless that was something that came with a lot more control. So their alpha was still human for the time being, which could be good or bad depending on what the Nesters intended to do with her.
“Erin’s taking over until we get Shelly back. There’s a meeting tonight at her house, right after dark. Just the Pack this time. Erin and I, well, we’re wondering if maybe someone said something that tipped the Nesters off, maybe by accident.” Molly looked kind of green around the gills.
“One of the allies, you mean?” That was an unpleasant thought. It had been kind of wonderful for a few moments last night, knowing who to trust in town. But then she couldn’t imagine any of the wolves doing something like that, not even the ones she didn’t know that well. Then she remembered that Oya had been a wolf once and she started to reconsider.
If any of the wolves were thinking about what a cure might mean for them…
The thought popped out of the back of her brain, making her heart race. She nearly screamed, “No!” out loud before she got herself under control.
But no, that couldn’t be it. The other wolves were strong, she was the only one who had doubts. Even she hadn’t told Oya that they were meeting last night or anything else the Nesters could use against them. Something else occurred to her. “Maybe they already knew. Oya probably already knew where Shelly lived after all. They’re…they were family.”
Molly shrugged. “It’s possible, but Erin wants to eliminate all the possibilities. Pete said that she’d never been to the house.”
Becca nodded slowly. It made sense, but then Erin had talked about seeing lights in the mirror last night too. Why assume that someone said the wrong thing when the Nesters might have just been following them? Then a thought struck her: if they could follow Erin and her to kidnap Shelly at home, she was a sitting duck if they came here while she was working at the store alone.
Molly interrupted the tumult in her head with a small cough. “Got any water?”
Becca nodded and sent her back to the office fridge while she watched the street outside. Paranoia aside, there wasn’t much to see except Hal Kramer walking his dog down the street. A couple of cars pulled into the parking lot next door but she couldn’t see who was getting out of them, at least not from here.
She was being ridiculous. There was no point to kidnapping her too. Who’d notice?
Kidnapping, then curing Shelly, on the other hand, might just break the Pack.
She drew in a long shuddering breath and shook her head a little. Enough of this. If Shelly was in trouble and Pete might not make it in today, she had a business to help run. It was the least she could do for them.
Molly came out of the back room drying her hands on a towel. “Pete said Kira would come down this afternoon to try and help out. He’s working with the police today, but wasn’t sure how long that would take.” She took a closer look at Becca. “I know this is horrible, but we’ll get her back. And we’ll make them pay.” The wolf looked out of her eyes as she spoke, glowing bright and fierce and terrifying.
For a change, it didn’t make Becca flinch away. Instead, she nodded, her fears ebbing for the moment as a trickle of the wolf’s strength came back to her. “Thank you for coming to tell me. I’ll see you tonight.”
Molly left and the first customer of the day came in. Becca managed to get through the morning in a blur of suspicion, anxiety and paint chips. Anyone who came through the door could be a Nester. She reminded herself that she’d only ever seen a couple of them, never all of them at once. Rationally, she knew that they weren’t likely to come into the store but it felt like they might be capable of anything now.
As promised, Kira showed up in the afternoon and worked the register while Becca helped customers around the store. The kid had big dark circles under her red eyes and clearly hadn’t slept, but she took after her mom: no incorrect change and no public breakdowns. Becca only just managed not to pat her shoulder in sympathy; something told her that might be the last straw.
Finally when it was just the two of them cleaning up, Pete came in. Both of them dashed up to him. “Any word?” Becca demanded.
“Mom?” was what rolled out of Kira’s mouth. Then she burst into tears. Pete reached out and held her tight in a big hug. For a moment, Becca wished he could do the same for her, but that would be just plain inappropriate. But
nice,
she thought wistfully.
She made herself sound more adult than her thoughts. “Have the police found anything yet?”
Pete’s voice was low, barely above a whisper, like he thought someone else might hear him. “The Nesters have cleared out of their campsite. Henderson couldn’t find much there. Nothing to say that they did it except who else would do something like this?” His face was even more drawn than his daughter’s, and that was what made Becca remember her better self.
“Look, I’ll manage things up here. You and Kira go into the back and take a few minutes. There’s coffee and water back there and I picked up some of the those granola nut things that you like.” She took a deep breath and stopped herself short of making a shooing gesture.
Pete nodded and took Kira, still weeping, into the back. The door swung open as they disappeared and Becca turned, startled. Something in her expected Oya or maybe Scott. To her overwhelming relief, it was Erin.
Just not the Erin she had come to know over the past few months. This Erin was a wolf in human form, her body moving in hunting mode. Every muscle was stretched tight and her face seemed to be transforming into her wolf’s snout even though it was still broad daylight. She looked at Becca from the silver eyes of a nearly wild thing, the accountant so far in the background it looked like she wasn’t coming up to the surface again.
Becca walked up to her, moving slowly with her hands held out in front of her, fingers open to show they were empty. She managed to stop herself from holding one to Erin’s nose to sniff. Instead she reached for her friend’s arm. “Erin? Come over here and sit for a minute.” She towed Erin into the store and nudged her onto the stool behind the counter. “Are you with me?”
Erin looked at her, her expression still alien. Then she shook her head like it would rattle her thoughts into place. The wolf slipped away, bit by bit. “Oh God, Becca, I’m sorry! I lose my way sometimes, especially when I get freaked out.” She leaned her face into her hands, long fingers buried in her short-cropped hair.
Becca couldn’t see her face. “Hey, Erin. Look up, please.” Erin threw her head back like a startled horse, the whites of her eyes showing all around the pupil. The fully human pupil. Becca relaxed a little. “Okay, honey, okay. Just sit down on the stool and take a deep breath. I don’t know what to do either, except tear the place apart looking for her. We can get the posse together at the meeting.” She rubbed Erin’s shoulder, gingerly at first, then with greater ease as she felt the other woman’s tight muscles relax a tiny bit.
“The tear-the-place-apart plan has been going forward all day and will keep going tonight, with another big round of it coming after the meeting. I was wondering if you could tell me something. Did Sara—Oya—tell you anything more about that cure of hers? Like if she had a lab or someplace they were making it?”
Becca flushed. The number, Oya’s number, was still in the pocket of the shirt that she worn yesterday. It was like Erin knew it was there, somehow. Which would mean that she knew, or at least suspected, that Becca had been thinking about the cure, real or otherwise. She gave Erin a suspicious glance but the other woman’s expression didn’t tell her anything. Maybe she meant the question just the way it sounded.
“She didn’t say anything about a lab, but she did give me her number. I think she was hoping I’d call up and want to get turned into a Nester.” Becca scuffed at the mat with her shoe and studied the floor like it had answers. It took her a moment to grasp the implications of what she’d just said. What if she did what Oya was hoping for? The Nesters might tell her what they’d done with Shelly. If she was very convincing, they might tell her before anything worse happened.
She gave Erin a long, steady stare. “But I could do that, couldn’t I? You want me to call her and say I want the cure, don’t you?”
Erin’s face lit up. “Do you think she’d go for it? If you can get close to them, maybe find out where their real base is, then we can…” Her voice trailed off. “What the hell am I saying? This is much too dangerous. I should call myself. Can you give me that number?” She straightened up and set her jaw.
“Whoa there, Nellie. I can do this. Oya already thinks she’s got an in with me, that I’m vulnerable to her b.s. She’ll believe me if I call and tell her this is what I think I want. She might already know or at least suspect that you’ve taken over for Shelly for the time being. It’d be way more dangerous for you to try it.” Becca could feel herself becoming convinced. It had to be her and she could, no,
had
to do this.
Pete walked in from the back room. Erin met his anxious stare and shook her head. “Nothing yet, Pete. But we’ve got a plan. A couple of plans, even. We’ll get them in motion and I promise I’ll check in with you later on tonight.” She uncoiled from the stool and went over to rest one hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to get her back.”
Becca could feel her insides twist when she saw the sudden wild hope on his face. What if they couldn’t? They did have some kind of last resort though. What was it that Shelly had said at the meeting, something about turning the valley’s magic against intruders? It sounded like someone would die trying if they had to go that route. If they could even figure out how to do it to begin with.
But she wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up, not here and not now. That would only happen if she failed and she wasn’t going to. Instead, she stood up. “Looks like I need make a phone call. Can you manage here, Pete?”
~
Becca questioned her part in the plan all the way back to her place. She wasn’t ready to be a double agent. What if she really did get cured and forgot all about Shelly and the Pack and everything else? Or worse, she joined the Nesters and tried to hunt her former friends down? If it could happen to Oya, it could happen to her.
But if she didn’t do this, no one else would be able to. She knew that with bone-deep certainty. Oya thought she was the weak link and if that was going to help Shelly, she could go right on thinking that. All Becca had to do was to remember who she was and why she was doing what she was doing. That would have to be enough to keep her grounded.
When she got home, the mail had already come. She tossed it on the table on her way through the house. She’d look at it later; right now, she had something more important to do. She took the stairs at a dead run. Her shirt was hanging on the back of the closet door, Oya’s card still visible in the pocket. She pulled it out and went downstairs to find her cell phone.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she looked for that uncertain, scared Becca who’d talked to Oya outside the store. That was someone who’d think being cured might be their best option. She just needed to sound uncertain enough to make the Nester believe that she could be persuaded.
Then she dialed the number from the card. “Hello?” she said to the first beep, then realized that she was talking to voicemail. “Hi. This is Becca Thornton. I’ve been thinking about what you said, about what you’re offering. You were right: I do miss being normal. I…I guess I’d like to hear more.” She left her number and hung up.
It seemed like an instant later that her phone chirped at her. Her heart thudded as she recognized the number. “Hello, Becca. I’m glad you called.” Oya’s tone was full of righteous power, joy even. It was the voice of someone who knew she held all the cards and was looking forward to winning.
It set Becca’s back up right away and she had to choke back a few choice comments. At least it wasn’t the voice of a woman who’d question her timing, calling right after Shelly’s disappearance. Though maybe the Nester didn’t think she knew about that yet. Or maybe she was deluded enough to think that it didn’t matter.
“I still don’t know what to think about all this. I don’t know if I can trust you. I mean, I know I don’t want to be a monster but maybe you’re only trying to trick me. Maybe your stuff doesn’t really do anything.” Becca sounded whiny and wishy-washy even to her own ears.
Good, now don’t overplay it.
“There’s no trick, Becca. We can make you better, make you normal just like you used to be.”
However normal that was.
Becca kept that thought to herself. “Well, I want proof. Right now, I’ve just got you and your boytoy telling me you used to be like me. You have to show me something that I can believe.” She crossed her fingers, hoping this sounded right. It needed to be if she was going to find anything out about Shelly.
There was a moment of silence on the other end, like the Nester leader was thinking about what to do next. “All right, Becca. I can think of something you might believe. Are you at the store?”
“No. No, I had a headache this morning and called in sick. I’ll meet you at Millie’s. But just you, no one else.” Hopefully, Oya wasn’t wondering why she didn’t invite her and her crew over for lunch or something.
“Be there in an hour.” Oya clicked off and Becca’s whole body sagged in temporary relief. She’d done the first part. But this was just the beginning; she had to be careful not to get too confident.
She left a message for Erin. “She’s agreed to meet with me at Millie’s in an hour. I don’t know if you’re planning on watching the place or not, but I’m going to try and find out what I can from talking to her. I’ll also see if she’ll take me to the rest of them. I’ll leave my cell on so that Lizzie can track it or whatever it is they do with these things. Wish me luck.” She hung up and went upstairs to change, her nerves jangling.
What did a werewolf secret agent wear anyway? Whatever it was, it didn’t jump out at her from her usual outfits. She finally went with subdued and quiet, something that would make her blend in: beige shirt and blue jeans. A long-sleeved denim shirt completed her ensemble.
She studied herself in the mirror. Her face was still too tense, too much like she wasn’t sleeping enough. But a few moments with her makeup supply and she looked a bit less haggard, so that was something. She added small gold hoop earrings and ran a comb through her hair to try and get her unruly curls under control. Then she gave herself another quick scrutiny and shrugged. She’d done what she could.
She decided to drive to Millie’s since there was no point in looking hurried or nervous by showing up out of breath. It also occurred to her that she might need her car. She wondered what she was going to say, how she should sound to make Oya believe in her change of heart.
