by Terry Spear
“Where are we?”
“I took a detour a while back so we wouldn’t be on the main highway. It’s slower, but in case of shifting emergencies, I didn’t want to be so exposed on the highway. If we get desperate, we could stop early and get a hotel room.”
“We’ll never make it before that impostor claims my inheritance if we keep stopping.”
“I agree, but we won’t make it either if both of us have shifted into wolves in the middle of civilization while we’re driving.”
“What if I have to shift?”
“Just pull off the road somewhere that we can sit for a while without the vehicle being too noticeable.”
He got out of the vehicle, and they switched places. He hated that he didn’t have more control over his shifting. None of them worried about it back home because they always had one another’s backs. Living out in the country with the woods and lakes all around them, they felt relatively safe. Out here on their own? That was a whole other story.
“It’s okay, Owen. We’ll be fine. Just take a nap for a while.”
He appreciated that she was trying to sound like she wasn’t worried. But he knew better. He could hear the concern in her voice, no matter how much she tried to pretend everything was fine.
“Are you certain? We could just stop out here for a while. Maybe I can shift back after a bit.”
“An hour? Two?”
“Possibly three or four. Maybe more. Or a whole lot less. I never really know.”
“We need to cover more distance today.” Then she started driving on the two-lane country road, passing acres of plowed fields, a few scattered homes surrounded by trees, a few cattle ranches, and that was it.
Twenty minutes later, Owen couldn’t hold off any longer. “Gotta shift.”
“Okay, just take a nap. I’m sure you need to rest too.”
“Yeah, for tonight.” He winked at her, and she smiled at him.
He began stripping and shifted. He woofed at her and then jumped into the backseat so he could stretch out and sleep for a while. He hoped he could shift back in a couple of hours at most and that Candice would be fine until then.
* * *
Candice tried not to show the panic she’d felt when Owen told her he had to shift. He was her lifeline and she had to be his, but how long could she hold on? She had driven for about an hour and half—and was glad she had gotten that far at least—when she felt the craving to shift. At home, she was used to it. She’d just quit writing, save her manuscript, and either take a nap as a wolf, or run if it was later at night.
But out here like this, she felt vulnerable, and she was putting them both at risk.
She pulled off onto a farm road, not sure what else to do. She was glad Owen had taken them off the main highway though. If they’d parked on the side of the highway for hours, a cop might have stopped and checked out the car—and found two wolves inside. Then what? Call animal control? She could envision being tranquilized and taken to a facility somewhere far away. She was pretty certain a regular facility would be afraid to handle dogs that looked like pure wolves. She could imagine the media sensation surrounding that. Two Arctic wolves in two separate news stories—wouldn’t that cause some speculation?
She could envision Rowdy hearing about it and maybe coming to their rescue. But how could he intercede? Yeah, he knows the family who owns the wolf-like dogs, and he’ll take them in?
Now she almost wished they’d asked him to drive them down to Houston.
She pulled onto a dirt trail where farm equipment could be off-loaded to plow the fields. With winter in full force, no one was doing anything with the land right now. Should they leave the car and run for a bit? She’d rather stay with the car and protect it. But what if someone found two wolves sleeping in it and called the sheriff?
They might pack them off, thinking the owner was neglecting them. Of course, if they were running loose, someone might try to shoot wild wolves that would surely kill their livestock.
She glanced over the seat and saw that Owen was fast asleep. “Owen, I’ve got to shift.”
Owen quickly sat up and looked at their surroundings. He woofed at her.
“We’ll have to stay with the car. I’m afraid we might be shot if we run around as wolves. In the unlikely event someone tried to steal from the car—our laptops, wallets, or even the car itself—they’d change their minds in a hurry. I’ll join you in a moment.” She opened the windows a bit so they’d have fresh air, but not enough to encourage potential thieves to check out the car for easy pickings. She figured if anyone came near, they could make a ruckus, and whoever it was more than likely would leave the car alone.
Hopefully, if it happened, whoever came to check out the SUV wouldn’t call the sheriff.
Then she began to shift. There were houses around, but mostly set way back off the road and hundreds of acres apart, the homes surrounded by trees. No one should see them, unless they happened to be driving by.
She hadn’t encountered more than two cars in all the time she’d been driving, so she hoped if anyone passed them, he wouldn’t care that an SUV was parked off to the side.
As soon as she tossed the last of her clothes onto the passenger seat, she shifted, then leaped over the seat. She hoped Owen would be able to shift back, but he didn’t. She snuggled with him, and he licked her cheek. She licked his nose back, wishing they were somewhere safe and not out here like this.
* * *
As soon as Candice had calmly warned Owen she had to shift, he’d come fully awake and started trying to shift back again. Try as he might, he just wasn’t able to. Soon, hopefully. He’d given the situation a lot of thought before he’d shifted and come to the same conclusion. It was best to stay with the car. If they made it to Dallas and were still having issues, maybe they could contact the jaguars they knew there to take them the remaining three and half hours to Houston.
He’d slept enough already, but he didn’t want to sit up and watch out the window for trouble. Best to just rest with Candice. And he did end up falling asleep anyway, all curled up with her.
At some point, he became aware that a pickup truck was approaching them on the road. He lifted his head, though no one could see him in the car unless he sat up. He didn’t want to make anyone aware he was there in case the driver worried about the animal’s health and welfare.
Owen summoned the urge to shift over and over in a silent mantra to himself, hoping that whatever shifter god was up there would listen to him and grant his wish.
The truck slowed down as it grew nearer to where Candice had pulled off to park. Owen really didn’t like the sound of it. Candice had lifted her head like he was doing, not sitting up, trying to keep out of sight.
The truck pulled onto the dirt trail and parked behind their vehicle. A door opened, and then another. Suddenly, Owen was shifting as if his prayers had belatedly been answered.
Hell, now he was a naked guy in the backseat with a wolf. He leaned over the console and grabbed some of his clothes, mixed in with Candice’s things—bra and panties the most problematic. Why would a lone guy have a woman’s clothes all over his passenger seat and no sign of the woman?
He hurried to yank on his sweatshirt and struggled to get into his boxer briefs in the confines of the backseat as the men’s boots crunched on the soil with their approach.
Candice sat up now in defensive mode, her hackles raised.
“We’re good,” Owen said, yanking on his jeans and then his socks as the men placed their faces against the glass and peered in.
Candice growled and barked, and both men jumped away from the car.
Owen hurried to shove his feet in his boots, then climbed into the front seat, since the doors in back were locked. He opened the front door, stepped out of the car, and reached his hand out to shake the two men’s hands. The dark-bearded older man e
xtended his hand. “This is private property.”
“Yes, sir.” Owen shook the younger man’s hand. He had the same small eyes, long chin, and prominent nose that the older man had, probably a son. “I’ve been driving from northern Minnesota and got so sleepy that I had to pull over and sleep or fall asleep at the wheel. I thought I could last, but I just couldn’t.”
“Where you headed?” the older man asked.
“Houston.”
“That’s a fer piece. You’d better get some sleep at the next town.”
“I aim to. Thanks. Sorry for bothering you.”
“No problem. We don’t get too many people out here on the back roads that don’t belong, so we just had to check it out.” The man glanced at Candice. “Wolf?”
“Nah. Pure dog. But she looks so much like a wolf, I often get that. She definitely doesn’t howl.” He smiled at her, reached back, and petted her head. “She’s a good dog, but she sure keeps anyone at bay who thinks to break into my place.”
The men smiled then. “I can see why. Take it easy and get some real sleep.”
“Will do. Thanks.”
The men returned to their truck, and Owen waved at them, smiling like they were the best of friends, then climbed into the driver’s seat. “Hell, that was close.”
Candice woofed.
“I’m calling Everett and Demetria, the jaguar shifters living in Dallas who brought Corey home to Cameron and Faith. They said if we ever needed their help, we could call on them. Even though that’s a long way from here, we could still get in touch with them to help us out, just in case.”
Candice woofed, then climbed into the front passenger seat.
“If I knew of any wolf packs along the way that had royals, I’d give them a call, but other than Leidolf’s red pack in Portland and the few I’ve heard of in Colorado, I don’t know any close by.”
He called Demetria and Everett. “Hey, this is Owen Nottingham. I’m with the Arctic wolf pack that you brought Corey home to. I’ve located a woman who was turned a couple of years ago, so she and I have been having trouble with the full moon’s approach and involuntary shifting, but we have to go to Houston because she needs to sign off on her inheritance in a few days. Is there anyone who could maybe help us with this?”
“Hell yeah,” Everett said. “Demetria’s giving some classes to jaguar and wolf shifter parents to help them teach their children diversity and tolerance, but I’ll sure do it. You’re coming from up around Ely, Minnesota?”
“Yeah, and we’ve nearly made it to Topeka, Kansas. We don’t know how long it will take us to get to Dallas—I’m guessing about seven hours unless we have more problems. If you could take us from there to Houston and maybe help us out a bit if we shift while we’re down there, you would be a real lifesaver.”
“We’re coming to get you. I’ll bring Howard with me. He works with me on this new job. That way, one of us can drive your car. Plan to meet us about a half hour south of Tulsa. That will make it three and half hours for each of us, and hopefully we’ll connect about the same time. Just give us an update when you can. Demetria’s calling Howard now to let him know we have a mission to go on. If you have more trouble, just sit it out somewhere, and we’ll come to you. And good luck. We’ll see you in a bit.”
“Okay, we can’t thank you enough.”
* * *
Half an hour later, Candice leaped over the backseat, and Owen figured she was shifting. She did and began pulling on her clothes. “I’m so glad you called the jaguar shifters. But what if it was all for nothing? What if we don’t shift again except when we’re okay to do so? Then we’ve bothered them for no reason.”
“Then we’ll be lucky we didn’t shift, and we’ll be able to visit with them. After all, they went through a lot to bring Corey home. They even came to visit us—before I found you—to celebrate Corey’s and his brother’s and sister’s birthday like they had done back at Everett’s mother’s day care. They’re good people. And at least they don’t have any trouble with shifting based on the phases of the moon. I’m not sure about newly turned jaguars. Demetria and Everett were born that way. They started the United Shifter Force to help deal with shifter issues between the species. This isn’t like one of their usual missions, but it’s a way to promote goodwill between the wolves and jaguars. Besides, we’re already friends.”
“That’s great. Do any jaguars live in Houston?”
“I’m not sure. We were so glad to get Corey back, and so surprised jaguars shifters even existed, that we weren’t thinking about much else. Except that Christmas was approaching that time too.”
Candice climbed back into the passenger seat. “Christmas. We might not make it back in time to celebrate with the others.”
“We’ll have an after-Christmas celebration when we’re able to return. All that matters is that we gather the pack together and have fun. It doesn’t have to be a particular day.”
“Any regrets about being with me? I mean, wishing you had a wolf who was less of a detriment and more of a help on a trip like this? One who was born as a wolf?”
“I wouldn’t want you any other way. You’re perfect for me. This is what I call an adventure. So now, how were you going to portray me in your next book?”
She smiled and pulled her laptop onto her lap. “The heroine is tuckered out from a night of lovemaking with the hero and worried she’s going to shift because of the full moon. Then her mate tells her he’s got to shift too.”
Owen laughed. “Okay, don’t tell me. A farmer and his son chased them off their property and—”
“Nope. The farmer called the sheriff’s department because both of the shifters were still in wolf form and the farmer knew they were wolves. The sheriff didn’t believe anyone would have wolves in a car, so he called animal control. When the officers arrived, they were certain the two were wolves, so they tranquilized them and took them to a wolf reserve.”
“You were worried that would happen, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, I was. Weren’t you?”
“I was. So, what happens?”
“Okay, so they’re locked in a pen, no clothes, but the wolf reserve has a gift shop full of all kinds of wolf stuff—stuffed toys, sweatshirts, T-shirts, pictures, post cards, calendars, coffee mugs, you name it. It’s nighttime when they finally shift back. They move the platforms where the alpha wolves sat over to the side of the pen—which was a real job, believe me—and finally manage to climb over the fence. They can’t worry about what anyone thinks of two wolves moving the platforms around, which probably will be attributed to humans anyway, but the lock will still be untouched, so they’ll have an unsolvable puzzle to figure out.”
“If homicide detective Rowdy was around, he’d probably guess.”
“Yes. Especially since he knows where we’re headed. Wait, this is my story, not about us.”
Owen laughed. “It seems too real.”
“Okay, so then they have to break into the gift shop—can’t be helped—but it’s too cold to run around… Wait, I’ll make it summer. They can grab long T-shirts, and maybe the gift shop stocks shorts or something with wolves on them.”
Candice loved brainstorming with Owen. She was glad she had mated with him and hoped he never regretted that she was more newly turned than him.
They talked for an hour or so about how to get the fictional wolves out of the trouble they were in. Then Owen called to let Everett and Howard know they were still just fine, which he continued to do every hour on the hour.
Candice was still worried about the situation with her uncle. It was one thing to have one of the jaguar shifters drive them to Houston if either she or Owen, or both, turned. But actually meeting up with her uncle? And signing the paperwork? She could envision having to shift as she was holding the pen to sign the documents.
Still, she was relieved the jaguars would
help them out. Naturally, neither of them had any trouble with shifter issues when they met with Everett and Howard at a travel center.
“Any trouble?” Everett asked, shaking their hands. He was tall, green-eyed, and brown-haired, and didn’t look like he was anything other than a good-looking guy.
Candice tried to envision him as a jaguar, but except for his green eyes, she couldn’t. Howard was black-haired and blue-eyed. She had the same difficulty imagining him as a jaguar. Wolves, maybe. They were both sturdy men and wore pleasant expressions, but they had an intensity that made her think if anyone gave them any trouble, they could deal with it.
Howard pulled Candice into a hug and smiled. “I didn’t get to meet the whole family, just Corey, so I wanted to thank both of you for enriching our lives so.”
“Corey impacted my life in a big way too,” Candice said, although she had not previously believed that could ever be a good thing. “I wasn’t around when he got lost.”
“So, you mean Corey is up to his usual tricks,” Everett said, smiling.
Owen explained how Candice had been camping with her friends and had the misfortune to hand-feed Corey, who accidentally bit her.
“Fortunate for you though, right?” Howard said to Owen.
“Hell yeah. I saw this beautiful Arctic she-wolf across the river, but by the time I reached the other side, she had returned to a campsite and was in one of the tents. I followed them for some time as they hiked for several miles the next day, but I didn’t want to get too far from home without letting everyone know what was going on with me. Returning home was the hardest thing for me to do. Once I was back, I let everyone know I was in pursuit of a white wolf I believed was a shifter. Naturally, Gavin and David wanted to come with me. I told them they should probably stay with the pack, but I couldn’t deter them. Candice’s group ended up using canoes and were gone. I never found her after that.”
She smiled at him. “Until a few days ago. You know how it is. When you’re looking for something, you can’t find it. Quit looking for it and—”
Owen wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “I was still looking for you, but I had no idea you were the wolf of my dreams.”