Wolf Fever

Chapter 4

LELANDI SMILED AFTER CAROL AS SHE BOLTED OUT OF the house. Lelandi could talk until she was blue in the face, trying to get Darien to listen to her about Carol’s special circumstances, without making a difference. Either Carol’s desire to save Chester’s—rather, Ryan’s—butt would change Jake or Tom’s interest in Carol, or maybe Ryan was her match.

Whatever Lelandi could do to help, she was ready. She was certain that the right man would work wonders in helping Carol accept what she was now. And time was running out. Soon, Carol would inevitably shape-shift and when it happened, Lelandi prayed that Carol was at home or with their own kind only. Lelandi had convinced Darien to continue to allow Carol to work at the hospital, but he’d nix that before long if Carol didn’t shape-shift soon.

Lelandi’s best friend, Silva, sauntered into the kitchen, bottled water in one hand and a red ribbon in the other. Her dark curls piled on top of her head, she was wearing short shorts, a pair of thigh-high boots, and a short-waisted shirt that showed off her navel. Lelandi swallowed a grin.

Sam had better get off the fence about making a commitment to Silva, or he was going to have a lot of competition on the playing field today.

“I heard McKinley sneaked around the grounds last night to see Carol,” Silva said, brows raised.

Lelandi shrugged.

Silva grinned. “He did!” Then she frowned. “Ohmigod, the bachelor males will be out for blood if he shows up at the festivities.” Silva leaned over the kitchen sink and looked out the window. “You should be with her, don’t you think? I mean, both of us. If we chaperone her, McKinley won’t come near, and Darien and his brothers won’t have to hurt him.”

She turned to Lelandi. “So what did happen last night? I heard Carol was in the woods with him. Alone.”

Not about to tell anyone what Carol had shared with her in confidence, Lelandi sighed. “What about Sam? Is he going to protect you in the game of tag?”

Silva laughed. “Hell, if he doesn’t, it’s his problem, not mine.”

But Lelandi knew Silva wanted Sam, and he truly wanted her. She wasn’t sure how to get them to finally capitulate and become mates. Lelandi rubbed her stomach absently. She thought she’d gotten the two of them going in the right direction.

“Come on, Silva, let’s have some fun.” And she prayed that fun was all they’d have—and no male battles of wills.

Carol backed up closer to the woods, where maybe Ryan could sneak out and talk to her while everyone was busy playing tag. But then she saw four men combing the woods. Ryan would never manage to talk with her alone again.

“Come on, let’s get a ribbon,” Lelandi said, joining her and tugging at her arm to get her to move closer to a group of men and women, mostly men, who were dividing up ribbons. Blue for one team. Red for the other.

“Smile. The world isn’t going to end. We play games like this all the time, both as wolves and as humans, although not in mixed forms. It’s our nature to show solidarity, teamwork, and cooperation. It’s who we are and how we survive. Besides, Darien’s brothers will protect you from the big, bad wolves.”

Carol wasn’t worried about the game as much as she was worried about the battle that might ensue if Ryan showed up. And now she felt as though she was a pawn in the scheme of things—the much sought-after conquest of a bunch of mate-hungry bachelors.

Laughing at herself over that, she told herself she’d believe that when she saw it.

Lelandi motioned to Sam, Silver Town Tavern’s bartender. “He’ll watch that the males don’t get too frisky with you.”

At six-four, Sam was a formidable foe. He stroked his black beard, his dark eyes surveying the crowd, the breeze tugging at his shoulder-length ebony hair. He looked more like a grizzly than a wolf in disguise.

Carol was actually hoping for a bit of friskiness. Anything to show she was still alive. She didn’t think Sam would watch her as much as he would his waitress. Already, he was eyeing Silva with lustful interest as she joined Carol and Lelandi.

“Are we ready to play, ladies?” Silva winked at Carol. “Ryan McKinley is one determined wolf, so I’m betting he’ll be here. Despite,” Silva said, motioning to the woods, “Darien trying to ensure he doesn’t come that way again.” She waved her red ribbon. “What team are you all going to be on?”

Lelandi waited to say until Carol spoke. Carol let out her breath and took off toward the table. “Blue.” She glanced over her shoulder at Silva. “Then I can steal your tag. Without getting myself into too much trouble.” She smiled.

Silva laughed. “You’ll be fine, sugar. Never doubt yourself.”

His expression dark, Jake appeared out of nowhere. From the look on his face, Carol figured no one had seen any sign of Ryan yet. Jake headed in her direction, and she assumed that was the end of playing any game. But he gave her a small smile and took a blue ribbon from the ones piled on the table. “I’ll watch your back.”

That’s when Darien showed up. He saw Jake with Carol and then chose a red tag. Lelandi smiled and then tied a blue tag around her belt at her back. Since Darien was making Carol attend some archaic gathering that evening, she changed her mind about going after Silva’s tag and intended to target his instead.

Squeals from the kids—playing the same game but for junior-sized participants in another field—drifted to where Carol was, and then the signal came for the adult game to begin. Tom rushed to get a tag to join Carol’s team. She should have known the two brothers would be her knights again.

At first, it was a mad race, with everyone running everywhere to grab tags. Some of the more beta bachelor males didn’t look directly at Carol, but she had a sneaking suspicion they’d target her every bit as much as the ones who eyed her with a smile. That’s when Sam joined her, and she gave the bachelors a devious smile. She had a whole team of alpha male bodyguards to watch her back.

Darien observed Lelandi, who was eyeing him with a challenge. But as soon as he ran for her, she darted to get a tag from one of the bachelor males who went after Carol. Carol forgot about Ryan, about Darien’s desire to have her mated, about the bachelor males’ interest in her. She forgot about the gathering tonight and about shifting. All she thought about was getting Darien’s red ribbon while he attempted to get Lelandi’s blue one.

Close enough for her to hear, Jake chuckled and said to his younger brother, “Normally, no one but Lelandi would have the nerve to go after Darien’s tail. Except for you and me when the time is right.”

Deep down, Carol wanted the pack leader’s ribbon, if only to prove he wasn’t as much in charge of her as he thought.

She believed she was free to grab his tag when two men appeared in her peripheral vision, heading straight for her. They were not only protecting their teammate, but their pack leader, while also taking the chance to get her tag.

Like a hefty football player, Sam tackled the one man, landing the guy flat on his back with an “oof.” Jake went in for the kill, so to speak, with the other guy. Smiling, Jake winked at Carol in the interim, which gave her the go-ahead to try for Darien’s tag again.

Lelandi whipped around and danced in front of Darien, keeping him distracted as he tried to get her ribbon so Carol could snag Darien’s.

By accident, Carol groped his buttock, her face heating with embarrassment. Then she went for the ribbon prize with one last-ditch effort. And came away with… air.

Leaning against one of the tables piled high with ribbons, his arms folded across his chest, Ryan McKinley watched Carol glide and shift and dodge the brutes who went after her, her whole body in motion like a swiftly twirling exotic dancer. Exquisite and mesmerizing. He couldn’t recall a time when he’d enjoyed watching a game this much. Normally he preferred playing. Spectator sports were not his thing.

Carol, not any of the other women playing the game, was the one who captured his imagination. Her cute little ass wiggled in her tight jeans as she leapt back and forth, her hands outstretched and ready to grab Darien’s tag. Her agility, her quickness, and the laughter in her smile and eyes made her a pleasure to watch.

Her eagerness to go after the real prize, when no one else would dare, made Ryan smile. Too bad he was here just to clear up the matter of this psychic business. Although the mystery business with the red in the woods the previous night was another situation he needed to clear up by letting Darien know about it, if he didn’t already.

A man tried to reach Carol, shoving at Sam to get by him, and every muscle in Ryan’s body tightened. He fought against dashing out into the playing field to protect her. She already had such a force of bodyguards that she didn’t need him. And he didn’t want to dwell on why that bothered him.

He hadn’t expected her to play the game so enthusiastically. More reserved, a non-participant, maybe. But not as a wildcat going for the gold. And that gold was Darien’s ribbon. She had nerve, or maybe she didn’t realize what taking on the male alpha leader meant. The fact that she doggedly went after him showed real strength of character. Ryan couldn’t help being impressed. Damned impressed.

She ducked another man—an eligible bachelor, no doubt—and whipped around, stripping him of his ribbon instead. Already, she had three tucked in the front of her waistband, the vixen.

Lelandi caught Ryan’s eye, raised her brow, and smiled. At least she wasn’t against his being here. Her gaze shifted to where Carol was maneuvering again around Darien’s backside.

Silva suddenly noticed Ryan and shook her head. Then a tall man wearing barber’s quartet clothes attempted to approach Carol, but too many others blocked his path. The man danced around like a red-and-white barber’s pole, minus the blue stripe, as he tried to reach her.

Jake saw Ryan, stopped playing the game, and stalked toward the outsider, his eyes narrowed and his jaw taut. Ryan figured Jake would tell him to leave. But instead, Jake joined him, leaned his backside against the table next to Ryan and then folded his arms.

“What are you doing here?” Jake’s voice was dispassionate, which surprised Ryan, as if Jake had half expected Ryan to show up and didn’t care one way or another.

But Ryan didn’t take Jake’s tone for complacency. All three of the brothers could easily be provoked if they thought any of their pack members’ welfare was in jeopardy.

“I’m here to finish my report. Couple of details I wanted to clear up with Carol.”

“Nothing more than that?” Jake sounded skeptical and turned his attention back to Carol. “I never expected her to be like this… so spirited. Or to enjoy herself so much. I’m glad to see it finally.”

Surprised she’d been unhappy with the pack, considering how cheerful she looked, Ryan frowned. His first thought was that Darien’s pack members weren’t treating her well. He quickly reconsidered, thinking it might have to do with her having been so recently turned.

“She’s not content with being one of us?”

“She’s learning to adjust.”

That didn’t bode well. When Jake didn’t say anything more about the matter, Ryan asked, “What are the problems?”

“Everyone’s different in how they handle being turned. Some embrace the changes. Some don’t.”

That didn’t settle the unease Ryan felt about the situation. “And she’s fighting it.”

“You could say that.”

Ryan had never considered that Carol might not like being a werewolf, nor that anyone would be unhappy with his or her newfound abilities. Quicker healing properties, the ability to see at night, and heightened senses of smell, sight, and hearing. Increased longevity. Wolf’s stamina. Of course, he’d been born a lupus garou, so it was hard imagining someone dealing with the changes overnight.

He rubbed his chin and watched her further, seeing the way she really was getting into the game. From his observations of her, he couldn’t visualize her as a woman who was at odds with her werewolf half. She looked like she was having the time of her life. Even last night when she had hunted him down, she had to have appreciated her wolf’s nocturnal vision and enhanced sense of smell, which had helped her to locate him in the dark.

Carol went after Darien’s ribbon again.

Ryan smiled at the determination she exhibited and the way Darien appeared not to mind and even seemed amused. “I didn’t think Darien would look so pleased that she’d attempt to best him, even though he appears to be fighting against showing his feelings.”

Jake laughed. “He wants to encourage her to be one of us. I believe if anyone else tried for his tag, other than Lelandi, you’d see some real aggression. Not that he’s making it easy for Carol, mind you. It’s not our way. If she grabs his tag, she’ll have to earn it. But it’s been difficult getting her to open up since she was turned. And Darien can’t help but be relieved.” He looked at Ryan. “Did you know that she hasn’t shape-shifted yet?”

Ryan schooled his look of disbelief. “Someone who’s newly turned isn’t able to fight the change for that long. Maybe for a couple of weeks at most, plus the time period when the new moon is out and only royals can change. But five months? She must be shifting when no one’s around.”

Jake shook his head and watched her again. “I don’t believe so.”

“In her room at night, then?” Ryan asked. “You can’t be watching her 24-7.” He folded his arms. “She’s changing.” No way could a newly turned werewolf possess the inner strength to fight the moon’s strong pull for that long.

Ryan watched the barber trying to skirt around Tom and a couple of other men on Carol’s team, but the man was unable to make any headway. She deserved someone better than a man who dressed as if he were still living in the past.

Figuring he’d better address another concern that would interest Darien and his pack, Ryan said to Jake, “When I came by the house last night, I discovered a red wolf in the vicinity, male persuasion. He took off running west when he saw me. I tried to locate him to learn who he was and what he was doing in the area, but I lost track of him. Any relation of Lelandi’s? One of her old pack members who might be trouble?”

Jake’s expression showed raw disbelief. “We didn’t catch wind of him. Just you. Trying to conjure up phantoms to explain your reason for skulking around the woods near the house last night?”

“Research.” Ryan shrugged. “I like to tie up all loose ends before I close a case for good.”

“Like?”

Ryan gave him a small smile. “A matter Carol can clear up for me.”

Jake nodded. “You don’t think she’s psychic. No matter how much we want to believe otherwise, she knew things that should be impossible to know. Trust me on that. I wasn’t sure I accepted her claims right away either, although Darien did. He was concerned that what she had envisioned could get herself and Lelandi killed.”

“Everything can be explained scientifically. She overheard conversations, saw things she wasn’t meant to have seen. But not as a future vision.” Yet, what if she truly had envisioned what she said she had?

“Have fun proving otherwise. So what happened with the red wolf? Lose him?” Jake’s voice dripped with cynicism.

“Like you said, you couldn’t detect his smell. Too many of our kind are beginning to use hunter scents to prevent detection. Which can mean only one thing— he’s up to no good.”

“Not like you, eh?”

Ryan smiled broadly and straightened a bit. “Finding the bad guys is my business, whether they’re cheating on their spouses—humans mainly, of course—or perpetuating insurance fraud or some other socially unacceptable deed. It’s my job to expose them. I do happen to be one of the good guys.”

“Come on, McKinley. Don’t tell me you’re not intrigued by the unmated red. She’s unique, interesting, and easy on the eyes. But you’ll never score with her if you don’t believe in her abilities.”

She was a hell of a lot more than easy on the eyes, and Ryan couldn’t understand why Jake wasn’t interested in having her for a mate. Unless he didn’t want to deal with a woman who supposedly had second sight.

“So tell me the truth. What’s keeping you from pursuing her?” Ryan asked.

Jake gave a sly smile.

What the hell did that mean?