Owl Be Yours

by RJ Blain

  “I hadn’t thought I needed to suggest she avoid wolves before we went on our flight. She wanted to hunt.”

  “Next time, perhaps specify wolves aren’t on the menu.”

  “Probably wise. How do you want us to help?”

  “You’re going to insist, aren’t you?”

  “Of course.”

  “You can start with helping us hide the first body.”

  “If you have a kill authorization, why are you hiding the body?”

  “It’s more fun that way.”

  Daniel clacked his teeth. “Does Mike not have any family who will miss him?”

  “His home pack disowned him when he kept his alliances with Brad after he went after me and Emily. They’re not going to miss him. In fact, when I called his parents to notify him of the kill order, they invited me to a celebration. I also received several offers to help. That’s how it goes with wolves, Daniel. Frankly, what we’re doing is a mercy. Had we turned him over to his home pack, they would’ve taken a lot longer to kill him.”

  I questioned the legal system and its base brutality, but then I considered my virus, which wanted me to join in and take some chunks out of Mike’s body and scatter it across the forest. That he’d even considered taking Brad’s twisted path infuriated me.

  I suspected it was the legal system’s way of bowing to the inevitable.

  One day, I’d try to figure out where the justice was in murder, but I could—and would—live with the idea we gave a merciful end to those who didn’t deserve it.

  I would’ve enjoyed killing Brad, but it would’ve been quick and brutal rather than long, drawn out, and torturous.

  After we killed Brad, hid the body, and made it through my wedding, I’d have to have a long talk with someone about my shady morality. Would Daniel attend sessions with me? I hoped so. He needed some evaluations on his shady morality, too.

  In the meantime, I’d go with the flow, count the evening activities as meeting the base requirements for Daniel’s challenge to rid the world of Brad, and get to the part I looked forward the most: a new life unburdened by the chains of my past.

  I had no idea if Daniel could fly while in his hybrid form; he stayed on the ground while helping the wolves deal with Mike’s body. In death, he remained a wolf, and I developed a healthy respect for Daniel’s talons, which did an admirable and efficient job of tearing through flesh and bone alike.

  I preened my feathers while watching the festivities below. The wolves dug so many holes they left the forest a tilled mess, and bits of body went into each one. Then, to make it even more difficult on investigators, they churned up the soil as far as I could see in any direction. Maybe one day someone would find Mike’s body, but if they did, I doubted anyone would think to test for human DNA in shattered wolf bones.

  Once finished, Daniel shifted back to an owl, joined me on my branch, and worked his beak into my feathers, grooming me to his satisfaction. It intrigued me Mike’s blood hadn’t survived through shifting; it didn’t for me, either, which had helped make my life much easier when in hiding. That dirt remained meant magic of some form.

  Maybe one day I’d ask Daniel if I’d inherited some odd magical ability from him or if all lycanthropes purged blood from their coats or feathers when transforming.

  “All right. Brad’s on the move and headed this way,” Miranda announced, pointing through the trees. “He’s coming from that direction. Daniel, you’re our scout. Locate him, return, and guide the pack to his position. Emily, you stick with me. I know you’d rather like to help, but you’ll go for his face, and we need the pack in position before you take any dives for him.”

  I appreciated that Miranda understood I’d be getting in my hits despite leaving the majority of the work to the wolves so they could earn her favor. I wouldn’t even do more than get my talons a little bloody.

  She needed the closure and new hopes for the future far more than I did.

  Daniel hooted and took to the air, winging away in the direction she pointed.

  “If we’re lucky, he’ll be a wolf, which is probable. It’s a lot easier to hide a wolf’s body. Unless there’s reason to believe it’s a lycanthrope, no one thinks to do anything more than a general species check when examining the bones, and lycanthrope wolves register as a mundane wolf when shifted. It’s only if they run additional scans they’ll pick up the lycanthropy virus, and most aren’t interested in testing animal bodies. It works in our benefit. If we’d waited for tomorrow, we’d have to either relinquish the body for proper burial or try to hide a human body. That’s much more difficult.”

  I glided off my branch and landed beside Miranda, fluffing my feathers and settling in to wait.

  Miranda’s wolves drew close, and except for a few licks, they ignored me and focused on her.

  I almost pitied Brad. Four wolves vying for Miranda’s attention would leave nothing but tufts of fur and scraps by the time they finished fighting over the body to impress her. No matter which one won, I’d sleep better knowing she’d be in good hands—or paws—until she and her virus recovered from Brad’s death.

  I hoped her virus proved somewhat sensible and picked one of the four contenders sooner than later.

  It didn’t take long for Daniel to return, and he circled until the wolves followed him, moving through the underbrush in eerie silence.

  “Brad must be close for Daniel to have found him so quickly.” Miranda snorted. “Typical. He stalks me, always.”

  He wouldn’t for much longer. I took to the air and circled around Miranda, following her slower march through the forest. She lifted her chin, but I couldn’t tell if she wanted to convince the world her pride remained intact or if she steeled herself for the price she’d pay for her mate’s death.

  I heard the growls before I caught sight of Daniel perched on a high branch. His attention remained fixed on the ground below. Joining him, I followed his gaze.

  I recognized Brad from the scars on his muzzle, his fur streaked white from where I’d torn into him. Miranda’s hopeful courters circled him, and while Brad growled and snapped his teeth, the others fell quiet. In their silence I heard their willingness to kill.

  I wanted to get in my blows, but I clutched the branch and remained with Daniel.

  I’d done my part, and moving on meant letting go.

  It didn’t take Miranda’s wolves long to tear Brad apart, and long after his death, they fought over his body while she watched in silence.

  It took us until dusk to collect Brad’s remains and give him a burial. As expected, Brad’s death hit Miranda hard but not in the way any of us expected.

  Grief, I supposed, took many forms. Miranda laughed until she cried, and when she couldn’t cry any more, she fell prey to her rage, cursing Brad for everything he’d done to her. She started from the night he’d ruined her life, leaving no stone unturned about how he’d treated her.

  To my guilt and shame, my first reaction was to be grateful it hadn’t been me. I’d lost my humanity to him, too, but I’d escaped his trap. Daniel’s love, unbeknownst to me then, had triumphed over Brad’s virus, clinging to me and giving me wings when I needed them the most.

  Daniel kept his word to help remove Brad from my life, shifting to his hybrid form and handling most of the disposal. I counted his contribution, which often involved helping the wolves dig countless holes and tear up the forest floor to make Brad’s final resting place a secret.

  Between the five of them, they tore up so much ground it’d take searchers months to find even one of the holes containing Brad’s bones.

  Covered in dirt with his head bowed with weariness, Daniel hopped to Miranda. “Do you need more time?”

  His question drew the woman up short, and she blinked as though realizing she hadn’t been alone during her tirade. She turned in a slow circle, taking in the torn ground and the removal of any sign of Brad’s brutal but quick demise. “No. I’ve given him too much time as it is.”

  Daniel rose
to his full height, towering over Miranda, and he stroked his beak over her hair, careful not to scour her with the curved tip. I recognized his preening as an owl’s way of offering comfort, platonic yet intimate. My virus didn’t mind, nor did I.

  Enough damage had been done for one night.

  “Your males will be at the wedding tomorrow, dressed properly as a candidate worthy of you. Tonight, you come home with Emily, and you two will become princesses for a night. To make sure they do this, I will accompany them for the night. We will discuss their prowess in detail, and you will decide which you want after the wedding. You and Emily can bury your pasts, enjoy the bottle of wine I’ve stashed in the fridge for your enjoyment, and do whatever it is women do when sharing space temporarily. I just ask you don’t break the apartment.”

  “We’re not going to break the apartment, Dan.”

  “Good. Tonight is your night to grieve. Tomorrow, things will be better, and when the curious ask, you can just shrug and suggest Brad had finally bitten off more than he could chew. Do make sure you specify you don’t care what had happened to him. Try to make sure my bride gets into her dress and shows up without incident. I’m trusting her with you.”

  “And I’m trusting you to bring all four of my wolves tomorrow.”

  “One to be your mate, the rest to be your pack?”

  Miranda rolled her eyes. “I’ll have enough trouble keeping up with one as my mate. Three extras would drive us all insane. We’ve come to an understanding.”

  “Good. I hope you can convince Emily to forgive me for robbing her of the ability to run over Brad’s body in her new truck.”

  “Ah, gave her the keys already?”

  “I figured you could drive her to the wedding site in her new truck. I’ll bring it around after we get in.”

  “Why don’t we all just head over to the site tonight? We’ll call it a pack sleep over, and don’t you give me any shit about being owls. Our pack is more than happy to welcome a pair of owls into the fold.”

  Daniel faced me, staring at me in silent questioning.

  Did he think I’d say no? I had no love for some wolves, but I had plenty of affection for Miranda. I hooted and bobbed my head.

  “She seems game, so sure. I’ll go get the truck and meet you at the end of the road. We may as well give her the next present tonight.”

  “Sounds good.”

  I understood why so many plans had changed the instant Daniel turned my bright baby blue Chevy Silverado onto the street leading to the little dead-end road I’d once called home. Once upon a time, the lot had been my dream, a place with enough woods and hills nearby to satisfy my virus.

  The last time I’d seen it, there’d been nothing but charred waste left. I hadn’t had much of a house, but it’d been mine, and I’d lost it.

  Someone had built the American dream on the lot with a white picket fence around a backyard, opting for a rock garden over grass and brush ripe for burning. To keep the property from being completely barren, someone had brought in and planted fruit trees, and several of them were large enough for us to perch in if we wanted.

  “You fixed it?” I whispered, and the tears I refused to shed choked off my voice.

  “The land and house were yours, and you had the property taxes on auto-withdraw. It’s been waiting for you to come home, and it seemed like leaving it to rot would be a worse crime. After the wildfire, the neighbors sold the land; the lots were still for sale, so I got a mortgage for the land.” Daniel parked the truck in the driveway and pointed to where my property had once ended. “I got three lots along that way for ten acres, there’s an extra ten acres in the back, and don’t ask me how many acres I got on the other side of the property. Miranda helped me negotiate for the land so I could afford it.”

  Daniel had done what? Stunned, I unbuckled my seatbelt and slid out of my truck, seeing the land with new eyes. With ten acres on one side, more than he was comfortable announcing on the other, and the backyard I’d always wanted but hadn’t been able to afford, everything I could see in the darkness belonged to me. No, to us. “How much was it?”

  “Too much,” he admitted.

  “Does my settlement cover it?”

  Miranda laughed. “She doesn’t like debt, Daniel. Just view your gift as making the arrangements so she can buy it. That can be her gift to you.”

  “And we’re having the wedding here?”

  “It would’ve been a little tacky, even for us, to kill that bastard in our backyard. But yes, the wedding will be here. Your boss, who will be at the wedding tomorrow, along with the rest of your co-workers, thought it might be too much of a shock if we surprised you too much at one time. He hadn’t realized your house had burned in the wildfire because you kept working like always and hadn’t seemed bothered by anything. The crew came over to make sure everything was ready, make certain the back was set up for tomorrow, and checked over everything inside. My job was to take you to work, help keep you distracted with presents, and keep you busy until after dark. That’s when Miranda cooked up the idea to lure Mike and Brad into the hills.”

  “You took us there on purpose.”

  Daniel killed the engine and hopped out of my truck. “I told you we had a new plan for his death. I just neglected to mention we’d moved the timetable up and went with simple, brutal, and remote. Now that we’re cleared out, a few friends are going to go to the spot and encourage the forest to grow a bit to make the whole area look undisturbed. If anyone wants to find them, they’ll have to dig up that entire mountain.”

  Miranda and her wolves hopped out of the bed of my truck and headed for the front door, and Miranda took out a set of keys and jingled them. “You two lover birds take your time. I’ll give Jacob a call and ask him to come around with the clothes and let him know you two are here.”

  They disappeared inside, leaving me alone with Daniel.

  “Have I met your challenge to your satisfaction, Emily?”

  “You have. Miranda looks happy.”

  “She’ll have a few bad weeks because of her virus, but yes. She’s going to be happy.”

  “Know which wolf is going to win her?”

  “Of course. Everyone’s known for a while which one would. Tonight really wasn’t about them confirming who’d be her mate but making it clear they’d stand together to bring her into their pack.”

  “Which one won?”

  “Luke, of course. That’s why I didn’t rip his face off for touching you. He’s going to be happily mated soon enough I could tolerate him near you. That was part of our plan, too.”

  “You’re a devious man.”

  “I’ll be anything you need me to be.”

  I could only think of one thing to tell him, and I smiled. “Be yourself. That’s what I really need.”

  “Gladly.” Daniel offered his arm. “Shall we?”

  The rest of my life looked like it was off to a good start, and I linked my arm with his so he could show me the world he’d built for me from the charred ruins of my past.

  About the Author

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  RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.

  * * *

  When she isn't playing pretend, she likes to think she's a cartographer and a sumi-e painter.

  * * *

  In her spare time, she daydreams about being a spy. Should that fail, her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until she is satisfied.

  * * *

  RJ also writes as Susan Copperfield and Trillian Anderson.

  If you enjoy using bookbub, you can follow RJ and her alter ego Susan there.

  http://thesneakykittycritic.com

  Magical Romantic Comedies (with a body count)

  Playing with Fire

  Hoofin’ It

  Hearth, Home, and Havoc
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  Whatever for Hire

  Serial Killer Princess

  Owl Be Yours

  Fowl Play (Sept 2018)

  No Kitten Around (Oct 2018)

  Blending In (Nov 2018)

  Cheetahs Never Win (Dec 2018)

  Saddle Up (2019)

  Grave Humor (May 2019)

  Dragon Her Heels (Late 2019)

  From Witch & Wolf World

  Series: Witch & Wolf

  Inquisitor

  Winter Wolf

  Blood Diamond

  Silver Bullet

  * * *

  Series: Wolf Hunt

  Wolf Hunt

  Wild Wolf (2019)

  The Edge of Midnight (2020)

  * * *

  Series: Nature of the Beast

  Pack Justice

  Dual Nature (TBD)

  * * *

  Series: Balancing the Scales

  Karma

  License to Kill (TBD)

  * * *

  Standalones

  Beneath a Blood Moon

  Shadowed Flame

  * * *

  Tales of the Winter Wolf

  (Short Story/Novella Collections)

  Omnibus - Volumes One-Five

  Volume Six (Aftermath to Winter Wolf.)

  Other Stories by RJ Blain

  Jesse Alexander Novels

  Water Viper

  Steel Heart (late 2018/early 2019)

  * * *

  Requiem for the Rift King (Epic Fantasy)