Wolf Fever

Chapter 3

THE NEXT MORNING, APPREHENSIVE AS TO WHETHER Jake or Tom had caught up with Ryan last night, Carol hurried to dress in jeans, her favorite soft violet sweater that always made her feel ready for any adventure, and a pair of tennis shoes. If the brothers had had heated words with Ryan, no one had said a thing about it to her. Which made her worry more that they were hiding the truth from her.

Sneaking away to see Ryan privately was going to be a real challenge, if Darien and his brothers hadn’t warned him off and Ryan still managed to slip into the festival. Not knowing what to expect at the spring affair, since only werewolves were allowed and she hadn’t been to one before, she had been excited to participate.

She had barely slept, wondering what Ryan had wanted of her and hoping he hadn’t gotten into a lot of trouble with Darien and his brothers the previous night. Not to mention that twice more the damned hot flashes had invaded her body, an annoying prelude to the shift. Thankfully, she’d been able to stop it both times with a recurring vision of the man in red and white stripes.

Festive pipe-and-whistle music could be heard playing in the meadow near the woods, and that lifted her spirits. Darien’s pack gathered in the meadow for werewolf-only functions due to its private location, and the music made it sound like a fairy troupe had descended on the area.

Downstairs, she smelled bacon frying. Had to be Jake. He was always up the earliest and loved to cook.

Then the aroma of rose and lilac wreaths pelted her senses—the fragrance of spring, well, and summer. The roses and lilacs had arrived, compliments of the local florist shop, while the rest of the flowers were grown in Lelandi’s own garden. Everything from the staircase to the fireplace mantels was decorated in nature’s finest: pine cones, feathers, crocuses, tulips in red, purple, and yellow, and a soft sprinkle of white lights—as if a floral garden had found a warm, cozy niche in a spacious wolves’ den to escape the still cool spring weather.

What really enlivened her step was the notion that she would meet with Ryan again and learn why he wanted to see her. Was he interested in her? It wasn’t that she didn’t want a mate; she simply wanted some choice in the matter. So far, she hadn’t been attracted to anyone in the pack except Darien’s brothers, and they weren’t showing any interest back. Maybe the reason she’d had the vision of Ryan was because he was the one meant to sweep her off her feet.

Or not. Her visions could be irritatingly deceptive, unenlightening, or just plain ominous.

When she entered the kitchen, Jake’s back was facing her while he turned bacon in a cast-iron skillet. “Morning, Carol,” he said without turning around.

She lifted her nose and took a whiff of him. He had a spicy scent, a fresh woods smell—as if he’d just been outside and brought in another load of firewood. Even though it had been five months since she was turned, she wasn’t used to everyone using their sense of smell to know she was around. She kept thinking they had psychic abilities like she did, although Lelandi assured her they didn’t. Except for Lelandi’s strange ability to feel her brother Leidolf’s strong emotions.

Leidolf. He was now a red pack leader in Portland, Oregon, and totally intriguing. He had been single and very available but not interested in a newly turned red. Nope, he was a royal. That meant his lineage could be traced close to the first lupus garou, and very few humans had tainted his family’s line. She would have tainted it big time if he’d ever thought of mating her. But only a couple of days ago, Lelandi had sprung the news on them: it looked like her brother had finally met his match.

Jake scooped some eggs onto a plate, rousing her from her thoughts about Lelandi’s brother. Jake was an interesting character. He was tough, hiding his emotions, and dark and brooding like his older brother, Darien. But unlike Darien, Jake wore a beard, and his eyes were nearly black. Whenever he had the time, Jake headed into the wilderness, not to hunt or fish or be a macho man, but to take pictures of wildflowers. And he played down the fact he did.

“Eggs, bacon?” he asked.

No longer did she crave fruit for breakfast. Eggs and bacon were much more her style now. She let out her breath in a heavy sigh, hating all the changes she’d experienced.

Jake cast a small smile at her over his shoulder. “Don’t tell me you used to be a vegetarian and have been keeping it secret from us these past few months.”

“No.” She didn’t even bother to hide the annoyance in her voice.

He chuckled. She’d heard him arguing with Darien, that she needed a mate and in a hurry. But Jake wasn’t offering himself. And as sweet as their youngest brother, Tom, was, he didn’t seem interested, either.

So what did that leave her? A mess of males of various ages, all bachelors, who were dying to locate a female for a mate because females were so rare, or so she’d been told. Sam the bartender was a hunk, but Silva and he were a match, although they were still in the courtship phase of their relationship. Lupus garous did not have casual sex, so that meant the courtship would probably end soon, as hot and heavy as the petting was getting between them.

“It’ll get better.” His tone more serious, Jake set the plate piled with eggs and bacon in front of her. “You’ll adjust.”

“Right.” She didn’t believe she ever would.

“Darien says you’re fighting the change. Five months.” Jake’s gaze pinned her with the accusation. “Can’t put it off forever, and if you keep trying, it’s bound to get you in trouble.”

“I’ve heard the lecture before, Jake.”

“Yeah, but you should heed the warning.” He finished his coffee and went back for more. “If you don’t change, you’ll force Darien’s hand to ban you from working at the hospital.”

She stifled a gasp. Darien couldn’t take that away from her. Could he?

Jake cast a sympathetic look at her. “You won’t have any control over the change pretty soon. All of a sudden, you’ll be ripping off your clothes and turning wolf anywhere at any time. Wouldn’t bother the rest of us, but what would human patients think? We can’t let them know what we are. And you’re a big risk right now.”

She couldn’t allow the shift. She’d felt the urge growing as the full moon approached, but from what Lelandi said, any time the moon was out, even half moon or crescent, lupus garous could change. And they had to at least once during the cycle. Lelandi didn’t have to, being a royal. She could change anytime or not at all. Except for one time: when Lelandi had feared for her brother in his fight to the death with Larissa’s murderer, she hadn’t been able to shift back right away.

Carol thought that was part of the reason she herself feared if she shifted, she’d be a wolf forever. But the vision she’d had worried her even more. The red doctor from Lelandi’s former pack, Dr. Weber, would shift and then be unable to shift back. At least she thought that was the case.

Certain Darien and the rest would all shake their heads at her in disbelief, she hadn’t voiced her concern to anyone yet. But she had to. Lelandi was like a sister to her now, and if anyone would believe her, Lelandi would. Or at least Carol hoped she would.

Sitting across from Carol, Jake smiled. A gleam of mischievousness sparkled in his eyes as he paused, his fork carrying a scoop of eggs to his mouth. “Ready for your coming out?”

She ignored him and poked at her eggs.

“Darien won’t wait much longer. Not when ten of the men in our pack are insisting he make you available to court.”

Her lips parted for a second, and she couldn’t disguise her surprise quickly enough. Darien hadn’t allowed the men to get close to her? To an extent, she was relieved to think the bachelors hadn’t just been avoiding her because she was such an oddity. And that Darien was concerned enough about her well-being to wait until she was more ready for this.

But she was incensed that she would be treated like a heroine in some historical romance. Available to court. Right.

“Oh, come on, Jake. It sounds like medieval times instead of the twenty-first century!”

She wrinkled her nose in annoyance at the disagreeable thought. Even though she loved reading romances like that, she didn’t want to be treated like one of those women. Although, in the fictional versions, they always eventually ended up living happily ever after.

“Hey, when a shortage of women existed in the Old West, women were prized. You should feel honored. Besides, we’ve told you we base a lot of what we do on age-old traditions. When a good thing works…” He shrugged.

“Honored? Ha! All a man wanted then was a woman to darn his socks, cook his meals, and warm his bed.”

Jake smiled. “No need to darn socks or cook meals here. Warming beds…” He raised a brow, his smile still lingering. “…that’s another story.”

She gave him an annoyed look. “I feel pushed into making a decision I don’t want to even consider right now.”

He shook his head, his tone an attempt to be reassuring. “You’re not going to be made to do anything right away.”

She didn’t believe that for a minute. And “not right away” meant what? She had days? Weeks? A few months to make a decision? She understood their concern—that she had to be watched constantly, that a wrong move on her part could put them all in jeopardy, and that having a mate would help her adjust more easily to her new role. Still—

His chestnut hair lighter than Jake’s and his eyes more amber, Tom sauntered into the kitchen and cleared his throat. “Give it a rest, Jake.”

Tom was always her knight when she needed one, but even he had kept his distance as far as any kind of emotional attachment since the Thanksgiving feast. She’d wondered if Jake and Tom had only stuck close to her then because Darien had told them to watch her, to keep the other males away from her until he said the timing was right.

She harrumphed under her breath, and Jake raised his brows. “Got something you want to share?”

She cast him an irritated look and chomped down on another piece of bacon.

“Mervin’s real interested,” Jake said.

She didn’t care that Jake was teasing. She was tired of the conversation.

“Jake.” Tom slanted him a warning look. Being the baby of the triplets, even only by five minutes, Tom couldn’t help that the pecking order was well established. Jake wasn’t about to listen to his younger brother.

“Get free haircuts if you mated with him,” Jake persisted.

“He’s the barber. He doesn’t cut women’s hair.” Carol knew Jake’s comment was intended to ridicule her for having a chin-length haircut and not growing it longer like other lupus garou women. That she wasn’t going to change.

“A bunch of us are going for a romp through the woods late tonight,” Tom said casually. “Did you want to go with us, Carol?”

“Thank you, Tom, I’d love to.” Not. Poor Tom. His heart was in the right place; he kept trying to make her feel like one of the pack. But she couldn’t shift. Not willingly. For five months, he’d been trying to encourage her to really join in and be one of them. “But not tonight.”

Jake and Tom shared looks—as if they agreed their houseguest was impossibly difficult to deal with.

To change the subject to one she wanted to resolve, she asked, “When is Puss going to be allowed to come home to me?”

Even if it wasn’t her home, and even though she stopped to visit him at the kennel every night after work, she wanted her fur ball curled up in her lap at night when she relaxed and read a book or watched TV, or to play with him with a flashlight beam as he tried to capture it, or to run her hand under the covers as he tried to tackle the hidden object. Sure, Doc Mitchell, the vet, let Puss have free reign over the clinic and kennel, but she wanted Puss home with her to cuddle and play with! She’d considered sneaking him home with her, hoping Darien would see how much her cat meant to her.

Her words met with silence, and then Lelandi and Darien walked in. He had his arm wrapped around her waist, and they both looked perfectly satiated. Carol caught herself before she shook her head, wistfully wishing that she had someone in her life like that. They seemed perfect for each other, even though they had their disagreements. Carol would cheerfully suffer discord with a prospective mate, if she could have the glow that Lelandi had worn ever since taking Darien on.

“Good morning, everyone,” Lelandi said, giving Carol a big smile. With her long red hair curling over a navy blue velour running set, Lelandi looked ready to compete in the festival games, although Carol had heard that Darien had suspended the tug-of-war competition. He wouldn’t say why, and no one would even speculate, which she thought was odd.

Casting a cursory glance at Carol, Darien was back to his business look, as usual. “Jake, I need you to make arrangements for a gathering tonight.”

Jake turned his attention to Carol. Great. What now?

Could they be thinking of having her debut to polite society as if she’d just reached the age of maturity and was eligible to “court” like they did in the Regency novels she loved? Some regions still held coming-out parties or balls for groups of well-connected young women. She supposed she was now well connected—if living with Darien and Lelandi was the werewolf equivalent. Yet presenting her to “werewolf society” at her age seemed preposterous.

“Did you have a coming-out?” she asked Lelandi. She’d learned Lelandi’s mother and father had both come from pack-leader families, so she imagined they’d been high in werewolf social circles.

“Oh, yes.”

Carol fidgeted with the napkin in her lap. “But you mated with Darien,” she said pointedly.

“Um, yes. I wasn’t quite in the market for one of my pack members, not when the man of my dreams kept coming to me in my sleep.” Lelandi glanced at Darien, who reached for her hand and squeezed.

Carol loved how the two of them looked at each other, as if the world stood still while they searched each other’s souls in that powerful moment.

However, the point she was trying to make seemed to be lost, although she didn’t figure it had any bearing anyway. Darien would have his way in this, no matter what.

As if reading her mind, he said, “It’s our way, has been for centuries. Not all find mates this way, of course, but…” He shrugged.

What was left unsaid was more telling than anything else. Carol sat taller and tried not to frown too much. She had been doing a lot of that lately, and her mother had always said that if Carol continued with it, she’d have wrinkles permanently etched in her forehead. “But since I’m newly turned, I have no choice, right?”

“Oh, no,” Lelandi said quickly. “The choice of who you want to see, date, and mate is up to you. Up to both of you.” She gave Darien a look indicating he’d better agree.

Jake gave Carol an evil smile. “Mervin’s invited, right?”

If the table leg hadn’t been in the way, Carol would have kicked Jake.

“Sure, if he’s interested.” Darien carried plates to the table for Lelandi and himself, set them down, and then pulled her chair out for her as she brought their mugs of coffee.

“He’s interested, all right. Real interested,” Jake said.

“Guess that means I’m forgoing my romp in the woods tonight,” Tom said with a sigh.

Avoiding a look at Carol, Darien sat at the table. “No need to. Jake can handle it.”

“I’ll help him out.” Tom gave Jake a look like he’d better behave or else.

Why couldn’t Tom be interested in her? She’d noticed that when Lelandi and Darien were together, or Sam and Silva, she smelled a distinct sexual attraction between them. She hadn’t noticed that special scent whenever any male was near her. Which meant? She guessed no one was that interested. Heck, she hadn’t had a real boyfriend since she’d started nursing school four years ago, and now that she was a werewolf, she couldn’t even excite a bunch of horny wolves who didn’t have mates.

The way Lelandi was casting surreptitious looks, Carol knew she wanted to speak to her about something out of the guys’ earshot. Probably sisterly wolf advice about meeting with a man alone in the woods. Even if he’d been a wolf. At first.

Darien quickly devoured his breakfast, kissed Lelandi’s cheek, and then said to his brothers, “Come on. The celebration doesn’t truly start until we show up.”

She knew that included Lelandi, but… something was being left unsaid.

Jake and Tom glanced at Carol. Yep, the secret society of wolves, and she really wasn’t part of it. The men hurried to leave while Lelandi began clearing away the dishes. Carol rose to help her.

“What did he want, Carol?” Lelandi asked casually, but Carol noted the disapproval in her tone of voice.

Trying to appear nonchalant, Carol asked, “Who?”

Lelandi turned and touched Carol’s arm in an appeasing way, her eyes worried. “I can’t imagine what it’s like for you trying to adjust to our ways, but you have to realize Darien only does what’s best for you and for our people.

“I hadn’t wanted you to be changed against your will or to suffer as you did. But I thank God you survived the attack. You’re like a sister to me now, always and forever.” She hugged Carol and breathed in deeply. “Always know that.”

A feeling of belonging washed over Carol briefly. She was glad to have a sister when both she and Lelandi had lost their own. She expected Lelandi to say something more about Ryan, to warn her off him, but for whatever reason, Lelandi continued to rinse the coffee mugs and put them in the dishwasher without saying another word. Maybe she figured Carol wouldn’t listen anyway. And she had that right. Carol couldn’t be a beta like most of the people in the pack. Most of the time, she wouldn’t roll over and play the subservient wolf unless she felt she had no other choice.

The issue of the vision she’d had the day before kept plaguing her. She knew she had to tell Lelandi. Even though the more she considered it, the more she was afraid Lelandi wouldn’t believe her.

Keeping her hands busy so speaking about the subject would be easier, Carol rinsed off a dirty dish and put it in the dishwasher.

“Lelandi… I… well, I know it’s sometimes difficult for others to believe how I can see things that haven’t happened yet. Until they can be proven. I mean, if I give a warning and then whatever I predicted actually occurs. Then it’s perfectly verifiable. I know sometimes you feel that’s true even when the vision hasn’t come to pass, but sometimes…” She shrugged.

Lelandi set the washrag on the tile counter and stopped wiping off bread crumbs and coffee spills, her expression an attempt at neutral, but her jaw tightened marginally. “What’s the matter?” Her voice was even but tinged with concern.

“It’s…it’s just that I saw Doc shift into a wolf and then, well, he couldn’t shift back.”

Lelandi’s brows rose, and then she smiled. Any hint of concern vanished, and she went back to wiping the counter. “He changes back. We all do.”

“That one time you couldn’t.”

Lelandi paused and looked thoughtful. “Yes, but that only has to do with my strong feelings for certain people. It’s only happened twice, each time when my brother nearly died. It took a couple of hours, maybe longer, to turn back into my human form. Then I was back to normal. No one that I’ve known during my long years of life has had trouble shifting form.”

“Even newly turned wolves?”

“Did you see yourself in that predicament? Unable to shift back?”

Carol slowly shook her head. But she figured the only reason she didn’t see that was because she refused to change and was able to fight it successfully. For how long, she wasn’t certain. She also noted that Lelandi didn’t exactly answer her question. “Have any newly turned wolves that you know of been unable to shape-shift back?”

“Not that I’ve ever heard of. Besides, Doc’s a royal red like me. No human influences in his roots for generations. So like me, he can change at will.” Lelandi smiled and patted Carol’s shoulder. “Doc Weber will be fine. You said your visions were brief glimpses of the future. So he shifts, and you just don’t see him change back. He has to shift back eventually, only you don’t see a vision of that. That’s all.

“Really, Carol. I’ve explained how I was tied to my sister’s and brother’s stronger emotions whenever we were in close proximity to each other. That’s all the problem was with my inability to shape-shift back. Don’t worry.”

But Carol did worry. Lelandi was right that Carol couldn’t see a lengthy video stream of what would occur, but just like Lelandi felt strong ties to her brother’s emotions, Carol had strong feelings with her visions. And she knew something was horribly wrong. It had to be that Doc couldn’t shift back. She couldn’t imagine what else the matter could be.

She sighed. Until she could see something more that would convince Lelandi, she knew she’d never get anywhere on that front. Might as well talk to Lelandi about what Carol knew was bothering her. “In the woods last night… Ryan said he had something to ask me. That’s all.”

Lelandi stopped rinsing the sink out and turned to gape at Carol. “Ryan?”

“Um, Chester Ryan McKinley, but he asked me to call him Ryan.”

“He changed from a wolf and stood naked in front of you to speak?”

Carol shrugged. “It was no big deal. I’d had a vision of him, and I needed to know who he was and what he wanted. He couldn’t very well answer me as a wolf. And, he was a perfect gentleman, just as he always was with you.”

Her green eyes narrowed, Lelandi gave a ladylike snort and tucked her red curls behind her ears. “He was a gentleman with me because he knew he’d be a dead man if he was anything but. Men are wolves, no pun intended. Lusty wolves.

“If he’s got any ideas about you—which he very well may have, now that you’re one of us—you’d best stay clear of him. Darien and his brothers will make short work of him if he interferes in pack politics. He’s not here by invitation, and last night he trespassed in our territory without permission. Darien’s quite incensed about it.”

Her heart sinking, Carol glanced out the kitchen window. She was a healer by trade, and the last time she’d watched out the sunroom windows was when the pack gathered in the meadow to take down a murderer. She couldn’t deal with this part of being a werewolf. Maybe subconsciously that was another thing that bothered her about being a part-time wolf. If she changed, would she have the urge to kill?

With shaking hands, Carol put the last of the dirty silverware in the dishwasher. “I’ll…I’ll see you at the festival.”

She rushed out of the kitchen to warn Ryan to leave right away, if she caught sight of him first.

Lelandi called out to her, “Don’t get in the way of Darien’s handling of our pack, Carol.”

Right, when she was already an outsider with so many strikes against her, what did another few matter?

Why did the men in Darien’s pack still want her? Were they just desperate? She’d seen them smile as if they were interested. She guessed they hadn’t approached her yet because of Darien’s ruling. But still, she was bothered by the niggling thought that they would get a lot more than they bargained for if they pursued her. She didn’t think any of the beta males could deal with her uniqueness.

She sighed and shoved the sunroom door open.