Wolf Fever

Chapter 22

THEIR BACKS TO RYAN, NORTH 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.

He strode after her, glancing over his shoulder at Jake. “We’ll let you know if we encounter any trouble or, if not, when we reach the hospital.”

Jake gave him a stiff nod.

“Be careful,” Lelandi said to Carol.

“You take care of yourself,” Carol said, her look worried. Then she headed out of doors.

As soon as Ryan and Carol were secure in the truck, he tore off for town. “Had any more visions? Anything about your shifting or the men and the net? The men who were shot?”

She leaned against the seat and ran her hand over his plaid. “No. If I’d had a vision, I might have been able to stop the shift.”

“I know you don’t believe it now, but the sooner you embrace our ways, the easier it will be for you to adjust.”

“Thanks for having faith in my other abilities anyway.”

“If you’d danced any longer with me at the gathering the way that you’d done, I would have believed in anything.”

She chuckled and then grew serious. “Believing in my sixth sense scares you.”

He cast a wry smile at her. He didn’t scare easily, but yeah, knowing a person could have glimpses of future trouble was a bit unnerving. Not only that, but the fact that she could touch an object and gain insight about it seemed too surreal to be true.

She let out her breath. “I thought you ought to know that your sister called me back and talked to me further about you.”

His neck muscles tensed. God only knew what Rosalind had told Carol. That he’d kept a portfolio of pictures of her? That he wanted her to be his mate even before he realized that was the issue? His sister had already stirred up enough trouble.

“She said you used a fake psychic once who got you into real hot water over a case of slander. So I understand how you would feel that we’re all frauds.”

“I didn’t think you were a fraud, exactly.”

“Right. I just make up stuff because I’m such a great storyteller.”

He rubbed his temple, getting himself deeper into this. “I had to know that you were for real, Carol. From the time we met, I’ve tried to debunk your ‘visions,’ at least in my own mind. It didn’t work. Either you had hearing like Silva, which you couldn’t have had as a human, or you just happened to be at all the wrong places at the right time. And that was too much of a coincidence. Unless you were seeking to learn the truth about the murder.”

“And you suspected I might be?”

“No. You’re a healer. First and foremost. If you investigate anything, it’s related to helping others to heal. Murder cases are not your forte.”

“Hmm.” She unsnapped her seatbelt to slide across the bench seat, snapped on the belt in the middle of the seat, and snuggled up next to him.

He wrapped his arm around her and held her close as he steered the truck with one hand. “About the night you saw some of our kind shape-shifting, I agree with you. You couldn’t have witnessed such a thing in the dark. Not without our wolf’s vision.”

“But you’ve never sounded like you believed me. Well, maybe an inkling. Yet you continued to question me and offer other reasons why I thought I had visions.”

He shook his head. “I was grasping at straws, and all of them vanished before I could grab hold. No, I believe you’re the real deal. And I need your help.”

She looked up at him with a surprised expression. “My help?”

“In case I’m investigating a situation and you may be able to see something I can’t.”

“So, that’s what this is all about. You want me to be your mate so I can solve all your cases for you.”

Loving her sense of humor, he chuckled darkly. “Yeah, devious of me, isn’t it?”

She sighed. “I’ll help if I can. My visions aren’t always predictable. I can’t force…”

He looked down at her, his expression warning her he knew better.

“… always force them.”

“Only when you’re fighting the shift. And that was the other thing. You couldn’t fight the shift unless you were somehow special.”

“Special,” she murmured. “No one’s ever called me that. Crazy, yes. Well, not so much that word exactly, but Dr. Metzger inferred it.”

“Crazy, eh? You’re about the sanest person I know.” He gave her a warm squeeze. “For five months I’ve been thinking about you. Did Rosalind tell you that? That I’ve been fiercely distracted? She’s a gardener at heart, but she was doing some investigative work of her own, trying to discover what ailed me.”

“She said you have pictures of me. Were they good shots?”

“I figured she’d mention them. I took photos of many of Darien’s pack members.”

“Hmm-hmm, and I wasn’t under suspicion. Not really, according to Rosalind. So why the pictures? And why so many? Fess up, Ryan. You’ve always wanted me.” She rested her hand high on his thigh, the heat sizzling through his denims and arousing him instantly. “But now if you want me badly enough, you’ll have to deal with Darien.”

“I told you that if I’d wanted you, nothing would stand in my way.”

“Just a little psychic business.”

He sighed. “That wouldn’t have stopped me. See anything in regards to us being together?”