Wolf Fever (25 page)

The door to the sunroom slammed open, and Ryan said, “Shit. She couldn't have run off by herself. What the hell is she thinking?” He tore off for the sunroom with Jake and Lelandi on his heels.

But when they reached the sunroom, Mervin raced inside to meet them. “She, Carol… hell, she…” He motioned to her clothes piled up on the sunroom floor next to the couch.

“Shifted?” Ryan couldn't believe it.

“Yeah and went out the electric wolf door. I don't have permission to leave my guard post.”

“She's one of the ones we're guarding!” Ryan squelched the urge to call Mervin an idiot. Instead, he began ripping off his clothes.

“I'll call Darien,” Lelandi said. “Jake, you go with Ryan.”

“I have to stay and protect you. I'll call in more help.”

Ryan didn't wait to hear what else Jake decided. Instead, Ryan shifted and raced out the door. Mervin ran outside after him and pointed in the direction she had run. But Ryan could smell her just fine and took off after the footpad scent she was leaving behind.

He hoped the hell North and his men were nowhere about and that Carol wasn't too traumatized by what she was experiencing. He had no idea how she might cope with this aspect of her life, but he wished she'd let him be a part of it.

He'd run for about a mile when he heard the sound of gunfire. Hell. And then more. A wolf yelped in the distance. Then another.

He paused. Carol's scent headed in a different direction from the sounds of the injured wolves. Ryan lifted his head and howled. He was met with silence. He howled again, long and deep and low.

Except for the rustle of the breeze stirring the tree branches, nothing.

He took off after Carol's trail again. He had to find her and then locate the other wolves. Just as he ran down toward the river, he saw her, a beautiful red wolf snarling, her nose wrinkled, teeth bared, ears and tail held high, as she stood backed up against the water's edge, while three men taunted her with a fishing net.

It was North and two of his men, one of whom had grazed Ryan with a bullet.

T
HEIR BACKS TO
R
YAN
, N
ORTH AND HIS MEN READIED
a fishing net that was aimed at Carol. Her wolf posture indicated she was ready to bolt, and the men's bodies steeled with tension as they shouted to one another, “Don't miss her this time, damn it!”

“Hell, I'm not a fisherman, North!”

“Yeah,” another man said. “If we fish, it's with our teeth!”

Her red fur bristling and fluffed out to the max, Carol appeared larger and more threatening, yet she had the sense to skitter out of the way of the net. But she wouldn't go into the water where she could have easily escaped capture. Seeing this, the men kept her corralled with her back against the stream. As soon as the net landed on the ground, missing her, the men scurried to retrieve it, while watching her to make sure she didn't attack. Why didn't she just jump into the water and swim away?

At least none of them seemed inclined to shoot her.

Ryan kept running toward them. Concentrating hard on Carol, not one of the men realized the threat swiftly approaching at their backs. Ryan could have growled to warn them before he attacked. But he was worried that they might have guns and shoot him, and then he couldn't protect Carol. He targeted the man in charge, North. Even now, Ryan could see red, remembering
how the bastard had left Carol wet and naked, shivering on the frosty grass near Darien's house.

Carol glanced over at Ryan, her eyes widening, her ears flattening a little, her snarl vanishing. The men turned around to see what had caught her attention.

“Holy shit!” one of the men said, dropping the net and running for dear life.

North and the other man ran in a different direction. His wolf urges dictating his actions, Ryan fought the craving to chase any of them down and end their sorry lives, which would mean leaving Carol alone. He couldn't abandon her. Not with the possibility that the person shooting wolves might come upon her. Or that North or his other men might come back for her.

But mostly, he wasn't sure how she'd react now that she was wearing her wolf coat, and he had to be here for her more than ever.

Her ears perked up again, and she studied him. He loped toward her, hoping she wouldn't run off. He had no idea if she could understand their ways in wolf form. Not unless she'd grown up and learned their nuances. He grew close. Still, she didn't take flight. He stepped nearer, nudged the side of her muzzle with his nose, and then licked her face.
Come home
, he wanted to say to her.
Come with me.
But she seemed frozen in place.

He heard a couple of people running toward them and looked back over his shoulder. Christian and Jake, neither of whom had shape-shifted.

“What the hell's going on?” Jake said to Carol. “We're glad you shifted, Carol, but you need to return to the house now! Lelandi's going to have those babies early if she gets any more upset about this.”

Carol looked toward the house and then filled her lungs with air. Making up her mind, she loped toward the house, to Ryan's relief. He joined her and ran alongside her, his body lightly touching hers, trying to console her if she needed his support. He was sure she needed someone's.

Jake and Christian ran behind them, but at a human's speed, they'd never catch up. Jake was talking on his phone, giving Darien an update on Carol and the wolf shootings.

“All right, we'll hang tight until we get word from you. Yeah, she'll be all right. You know Carol. She always perseveres.”

Ryan was glad to hear the admiration in Jake's voice instead of condemnation. Carol needed encouragement more than anything else, and he planned to be her uncritically enthusiastic supporter helping her through the changes in her life.

When Ryan and Carol reached the house, Mervin was inside with Avery and Lelandi.

“Thank God, you're all right,” Lelandi said to Carol. “We heard shooting.” She rubbed her stomach in a worried way. “I put your clothes in your room.” She bit her lip. “And yours also, Ryan.”

He would have smiled at Lelandi's thoughtfulness, except for the seriousness of the situation. Instead, he followed Carol out of the sunroom, through the great room, and then up the stairs to her bedroom. He didn't even give a thought to the possibility that he might not be able to shift back, or that she couldn't. But when they reached her bedroom and he shifted, she didn't. He closed the door and dressed while she paced like a caged beast.

Shifting was so natural to someone born a werewolf that he didn't know how to explain what she should do. He thought the process would be innate, but apparently not. Or…

He didn't want to think about the doc. She couldn't be stuck in her wolf form!

He walked over and touched her neck. She stopped and waited. He wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged her, leaning his face against hers.

“You can shift back, Carol. Just will it. You're so distraught that you're not thinking clearly.” At least that's what he hoped the matter was.

For at least another ten minutes, which seemed an eternity, she stood there and breathed in hard breaths, her eyes gazing at him briefly. Then she focused on the dresser. It felt like she would stand there for the rest of eternity, just staring at the furniture, unable to do anything else.

“You can do it,” he encouraged and rubbed her head between her ears. Then he ran his hand over her back, attempting to console her. If she hadn't liked it, she would have growled or moved away, but she didn't seem to mind.

Still, when he stopped petting her to see what would happen, she didn't nudge his hand to encourage him to continue. And then she began to pace again.

Hell
. “Carol, you can do it. You can shift back. Close your eyes and see the change. Feel the heat, the swift transformation. Feel it.”

She suddenly ran into the bathroom and pushed the door closed with her nose.

She didn't want him to see her shifting? “Carol, shifting is a natural occurrence for us. It's a beautiful process, something to be cherished.”

Minutes later, she jerked the door open and scowled at him, naked and beautiful, her expression heated as she stalked toward her clothes laid out on the bed.

“For you, maybe, damn it, but not for me.”

He grasped her wrist to stop her from avoiding him and folded his arms around her silky body, holding her tight. Her armor instantly slipped.

“I thought I was lost to the wolf,” she sobbed.

He swallowed hard, kissed her on the top of her head, and held her close until the sobs died down. “You're all right, honey. You're going to be fine.”

“I'll never be fine again,” she said through the tears.

“You will. Together, we'll do this. I'll always be there for you.”

She looked up at him, her eyes shimmering with unspent tears. “You want me? Even as much of a mess as I am? You're a pack leader. You need a mate who can help you lead. Not someone who is totally clueless and doesn't even know how to howl or shift back. Or control when she's going to shift in the first place.”

“You'll be fine, Carol. What brought about the shift this time? Mervin came running to tell us you'd taken off. Did he accost you again?” Ryan tried to control the growl in his voice, but if Mervin had grabbed her again…

She quickly shook her head. “I was just sitting in the cold sunroom, trying to get warm while I drank the hot cocoa. I saw Mervin guarding the place and then glanced up at the growing moon. The damnable moon.”

“The moon has something to do with the change as it continues to wax. But the cold can, too. If we're in a really cold environment, we can shift into our wolf half so we can be warm.”

“Yeah, but you do it when you choose to. Not when the wolf chooses to.” She sighed deeply. “Ryan, I couldn't fight them. North and the others. The natural ability to defend myself came into play, the growling and snarling, the baring of teeth, but I couldn't attack them.”

“There were three of them, and they had a net. If you'd attempted to attack, they could have easily captured you with the net. Instinct warned you that using a defensive posture was the only way to deal with the situation.”

“I couldn't have killed them. Not any of them.”

“If one had tried to kill you or someone else, you might have seen it differently. That's not important. What
is
important is that you get the shifting under control. You could have escaped by swimming across the river, though.”

“I can't swim.”

He raised his brows. “Swimming is a natural ability for wolves.”

She frowned up at him. “Yeah, well shape-shifting is supposed to be a natural ability for us, too. And so is howling. Why couldn't I howl to let you know the three men were trying to catch me in a damned fishing net?”

He smiled. “You could have swum. Later, when things are more settled, I'll teach you how as a human. As for howling, you probably were too busy concentrating on the men and their net. If I had been in your fur coat, that's what I would have been doing.”

Jake hollered up the stairs, “Everything all right up there?”

Ryan rubbed Carol's bare arms and kissed her cheek. “You all right?”

She nodded and pulled away from him to dress.

“We'll be down in a minute. Everything's fine up here.” But Ryan had a new worry, and he was certain that was some of what was still bothering Carol. When would she next shift? And why hadn't she been able to conjure up any visions this time to block the need to shift?

Not wanting to see anyone in the pack ever again because of having turned into a wolf, Carol reluctantly went downstairs with Ryan to join Jake and Lelandi. She knew Lelandi had to be worried about her. Jake, also. But she didn't want to face them. She'd lost what little control she'd had over her shape-shifting ability, and now Darien was sure to ban her from working at the hospital.

Jake eyed Carol with too much concern.

“I'm okay,” she said, rubbing her arms and glowering at him. But she didn't feel okay. She felt that any little thing could trigger the shift again.

Lelandi crossed the floor, gave her a big hug, and rubbed her back. “You'll be fine, Carol. It's just the beginning. I swear you'll get used to it.”

Jake's phone rang. He whipped it off his belt and said, “Yeah, Darien?” His gaze shifted to Carol. “Shit. All right. I'll take her to the hospital now. What about Lelandi?” He glanced in her direction. “All right, she stays here with her guard detail. I'm on my way.”

He hung up and called someone else. “Deputy Trevor, three of our men have been shot—in their wolf forms. Not by North's men. By human townsfolk. Get the word out pronto that anyone who shoots a wolf gets
mandatory jail time. The sheriff's tracking the shooters down now, so he needs you to spread the word. I've got to get Carol to the hospital to help with the victims. Talk later.”

Jake motioned for Carol and Ryan to come with him as he called someone else.

“Sam, I want you to take care of the guard detail watching Lelandi. Silva can come and stay with her. I've got to get Carol and Ryan to the hospital. Some of our men have been shot in their wolf forms, and Doc Mitchell has disappeared. Yeah, I know. Talk about a hell of a mess. We'll leave as soon as you get here.”

Carol couldn't believe it. But then again, she'd felt deep in her bones that Doc's shifting into the wolf and not being able to shift back was only the beginning of the nightmare.

Lelandi rubbed her arms as she followed them into the great room. “You can go and help our men. I've got a guard detail already.”

“No,” Jake and Ryan said at the same time. “They're all betas,” Jake added. “Sam will be here as soon as he can.”

“I could run Carol over to the hospital until Sam relieves you, Jake,” Ryan offered, figuring this time they wouldn't have any trouble.

“No,” Lelandi said. “What if North and his men try to ambush you?”

“I need to take care of the men who've been injured,” Carol said, her voice resolute. “It'll take Sam an hour to pick up Silva and get here.”

“Ryan?” Jake asked.

On the one hand, Ryan wanted more protection for Carol. On the other, he knew she needed to get to the men and minister to them. He pulled out a gun.

“I can manage. Besides, North and his men are probably still running through the woods.”

Jake considered the gun. “Silver bullets?”

“No. Regular. It'll slow them down if they try to take Carol hostage again. It's unlikely they'll be out here watching what we are doing after the last fiasco—fishing for a wolf with a net. Are you all right with this, Carol?”

She was already headed for the door. He swore she would have been the first one on the scene to take care of the wounded on a battlefield, no matter what the threat to her own safety, and he couldn't help admiring her for the quality.