Yours, Mine and Howls: Werewolves in Love, Book 2

by Kinsey W. Holley

  For the first time since she woke up in the back of the Cherokee thirteen years ago, she didn’t feel in control. She’d dropped the reins, and her life was galloping away without her.

  Her body vibrated with pent-up energy. She itched to run—fast, far, for a long time. But she couldn’t go running through unfamiliar terrain, after dark, with God knew how many wolves watching her.

  She smelled Dylan before he poked his cold, wet nose at her, trying to lick her face. On two feet he had to be asleep before she could peck him on the forehead. On four feet he turned into a big, hairy, kissy monster.

  “Stop! Don’t lick my face. I know, I love you too. Come on, roll over.” Some wolves wouldn’t deign to be petted and scratched like dogs. Dylan was still too young and frisky to care.

  Clouds obscured the half moon. A faint, fuzzy glow illuminated the yard and the fields and woods beyond. She petted Dylan, and she rocked, and she listened to the voices and noises coming from the cabins on either side of the main house. When she got tired of all that, she started obsessing over what Seth had just done.

  Why hadn’t he bothered to warn her? Do you trust me? didn’t constitute a warning. They’d been here a few hours, and already a door had been slammed in her face. Acting on impulse, rather than planning and forethought, led to blunders like this.

  She heard the front door open and knew it was him; she could already identify his scent. He ambled over to the swing set with a loose, sinuous gait.

  Embarrassed at the way she’d lost her temper inside, she concentrated on scratching Dylan and ignored Cade looming above her.

  “Dylan, I still need to talk to Ally. Go run.”

  Dylan ambled off.

  “I think your cousin is an honorable wolf.”

  “He is that. Absolutely,” she agreed quietly, staring at the ground.

  “If an honorable wolf is willing to kill and lie for you, I suppose you aren’t a bad person, no matter how much you annoy me.”

  Condescending creep.

  Cade smoked.

  Ally swung.

  Time passed.

  “Seth just told me one hell of a story.” Now he spoke gently, no mockery in his voice.

  She looked up. “You believe him?”

  “I believe people who aren’t lying to me.”

  “So you’re telepathic.”

  He grinned around the cigarillo. “I’m a wolf of much power.”

  “Good for you.” Bullshit. Wolves didn’t possess Fae talents. Wolves and Fae couldn’t even produce children together. She tucked her hair behind her ear and put her head back down.

  “Are you going to cry?” Now he sounded worried.

  She started to laugh, but stopped before it turned into a sob. “No. I don’t cry in front of people.” She quit swinging for a minute. “I might throw up, though.”

  “I’d prefer that to crying.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “Can’t help it. Female tears annoy me.”

  She looked up and laughed shakily. “Me too.”

  He stared at her in silence, and she looked back down at the ground. Unnerving though it was, she enjoyed being the center of his attention. She liked the way he scared her, and it scared her that she liked it.

  “Why’d you do it?” His drawl had gotten more pronounced since they’d started arguing at dinner, and it sounded appallingly sexy on him.

  Her heart stopped for a moment. What had Seth said? “I had to.”

  “No, Ally, you didn’t. That’s just the point. You didn’t have to do any of it. You could have called the cops, you—”

  “There wasn’t time.”

  “You could’ve let Guy take Dylan.”

  She gaped at him in shock, blinking back the tears suddenly pooling in her eyes. “How could I do that? How could I ever do something like that?”

  “I’m just trying to understand how an eighteen-year-old girl faces down a wolf drunk on moonshine. Not many young girls would risk their lives like that, not even for family.”

  The wave of relief nearly knocked her over. Seth had told MacDougall what he needed to know and nothing else, just as he had promised.

  She debated for a moment over how honest to be.

  “I lost my parents when I was eight. My aunt Jackie raised me, and I loved her—she was barely twenty-one when she took me in—but she died when I was sixteen and I stayed in our trailer by myself.”

  “You didn’t have other family?”

  “I did. I had Seth and his mom, and some others. I didn’t want to live with them. They gave me money here and there, but otherwise they left me alone. I didn’t really fit in. I read books and made good grades and didn’t drink and screw around and I wanted to go to college.” She shrugged. “I was lonely and sad, and Dylan made me feel necessary. Gracie loved him—she did, but she was weak. She would never have given him up, but she’d take all the help I gave her. And when Guy showed up that night, I thought, ‘Hell no. I won’t let you hurt him’.”

  “So you faced down a drunken, rampaging wolf alone.”

  “It wasn’t like I was unarmed. I had a silver-loaded shotgun.”

  “You missed.”

  “This is true." She paused. “I’m a much better shot now.”

  He grunted in exasperation as he ground out the cigarillo. “You shouldn’t joke about it.”

  “Well, I’m not used to talking about it. We haven’t even told Dec the real story.”

  “What about Dylan?”

  “What about him?”

  “How much does he remember?”

  Oh God, no. She tried to keep the panic out of her voice. “He says he doesn’t remember any of it. We don’t ask him about it and we don’t talk to him about it. Look, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I’ll leave if you want me to, but don’t ask him about that night.” She stopped, wondering what else she could say to make him understand. “Please, Cade. Leave him alone.”

  Once more Eir’s words echoed in her head. Yours to raise, yours to protect.

  She didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want him to see the way she fought so hard to keep from crying. So she stared at his boots.

  An instant later, he was on one knee in front of her.

  He brushed the hair from her face, his fingers lingering for a second on her cheek. As he put his hand under her chin and tilted it up, his voice flowed through her, low and soft. “I know bad memories, Ally. I know what it’s like to remember things you wish you didn’t, things that still scare you no matter how old you get. I would never make Dylan talk about this.”

  He dropped his hand to her throat, running his palm lightly up and down, his thumb tracing her veins. His touch didn’t disconcert as it had earlier, when they shook hands. Now it warmed and enervated. Ally closed her eyes. A small sigh leaked out as all the fear and tension drained away, leaving her deflated. A wolf’s thumb on the jugular should make one real damned alert, but she was relaxed, even drowsy. She didn’t want to cry anymore. She just wanted him to keep stroking her like this. If she fell asleep, would he carry her inside? That would be nice.

  “You really are extraordinary,” he murmured.

  Before she could rouse herself to speak, the plaintive howl of a frightened wolf split the night.

  Her eyes flew open. “That’s Dylan.”

  She tried to stand up, but he pushed her back down. “You stay here.” He took off in the direction of Dylan’s howls, coming from the woods behind the little cluster of buildings.

  “Hell with that,” she muttered, and took off.

  Chapter Eight

  She plowed into him when he came to a sudden halt. They were about a half mile from the house, amid dense trees.

  Cade paused for a second before running forward to grasp the legs of a figure dangling from a noose. She gasped.

  It was Aaron—the wolf from the restaurant where they’d stopped that afternoon.

  Cade lifted the body up so that the rope went slack.

  “He’
s not dead,” she said stupidly.

  “No, he’s not.” Cade fumbled in his front pocket with one hand while holding up the wolf’s legs. He pulled out his cell phone. “Call 911 and get back to the house. Go!”

  She took the phone and sprinted for the house, Dylan on her heels. Wolves met her as she raced out of the trees. Some were on two feet, some on four. Michael took some wolves and went to help Cade.

  Sitting in the living room with Shawn much later, she asked, “Who was that poor wolf?”

  Shawn shook his head. “Name is Aaron Stapkis. A good guy, just nineteen. His father is the Seattle Alpha, real old school.”

  “Old school?”

  “Unpredictable, ready to rip some fur the minute someone looks at him cross-eyed. Most Pack Alphas used to be like that, back before we came out. Now it’s just the older ones. Stapkis lost his wife last year. It makes some wolves a little funny in the head. He’s always hated Cade.”

  “Why?”

  Shawn shifted and stretched, rubbed his neck and didn’t say anything. She waited, careful not to press him.

  “Well, see, when Cade came back here fifteen years ago, he contacted some of the younger wolves born in the pack with us, back when Louis and Eirny were alive.”

  “You were in the—? Wait, back when who was alive?”

  “Louis and Eirny, Cade’s parents. Louis was the Alpha.”

  “How do you spell his mother’s name?”

  Shawn looked puzzled. “E-i-r-n-y. She was from Iceland. It was some kind of Viking name, I think. Ally? What’s the matter?”

  “What? Oh, nothing. Sorry, you just reminded me of something.” It couldn’t be a coincidence—Eir had said that Dylan’s line was precious to her. Ally resolved to learn more about Eirny MacDougall. “Never mind. You said you were in the pack?”

  “I was born in it, like Cade.”

  “Where’d he come back from?”

  “Savannah. He and Carson went to live with Louis’ family after Louis and Eirny died.”

  She wanted to know more about that but couldn’t think how to ask without looking even nosier than she probably already did. “So Cade came back and started calling the wolves he’d grown up with. Did they want to come back?”

  “A few. But others started showing up—Lones, or wolves who were unhappy in their birth packs. They were all Cade’s age or younger, and all of them were unmated.”

  He took another pull of beer. “See, a pack is really made of families. Until we have wolves with wives and kids, most packs won’t recognize us. Anyway. Nobody cared about the Lones, but the Pack Alphas didn’t like losing their youngest and strongest. They started talking about Cade luring their wolves away. He wasn’t—he isn’t, I mean—they just come because they want to.”

  “So did the Pack Alphas do anything to stop their wolves from leaving?”

  “I don’t know anyone who’s been, like, punished or anything. Besides, Cade’s loaned money to a lot of wolves for business. He’s like a—what do you call it—a guy who loans money to new companies…”

  “A venture capitalist?”

  “That’s it—he’s a venture capitalist. Even older wolves in the Ten Packs—they have business with him, and he’s helped them make money.”

  “Cade sounds pretty smart.”

  “Oh yeah. Not just head smart, but people smart too, you know? He just knows who you can trust and who’s no good. He’s always been that way.” Shawn’s voice faded as he walked into the kitchen to get another beer.

  “So Stapkis’ son left his father’s pack to come out here?” she called.

  “Huh? Oh yeah.” He sat back down on the large leather couch. “We’re getting bigger. We’ve got a couple of wolves in town who’ve gotten married. We’re the first new pack in over a hundred years. But until Cade came back, Stapkis was the biggest Alpha in the West. Aaron joining us makes Rufus look weak. He doesn’t want Rocky Mountain recognized. Cade’s supposed to go to Denver Friday to meet with Stapkis and two other Alphas.”

  “So Stapkis’ son is here with Cade’s pack, and Cade’s supposed to meet Stapkis this week, and now Cade has to tell him his son tried to hang himself.”

  They thought about that for a moment.

  “Holy shit,” was all she could think to say.

  “Yeah.” Shawn took another pull on the bottle. “Man, I hope Aaron makes it. I had no idea he was depressed or anything. Suicide’s a huge deal with wolves. We don’t kill ourselves much.”

  They heard the front door open. Cade came in talking to a wolf Ally didn’t recognize.

  “Michael’s going to stay there ’til three,” she heard him saying. It was just after midnight. “I want someone in the room with him at all times, so he doesn’t wake up alone. Anyone can go see him, but you need to make a schedule of four hour rotations and get people signed up.”

  “Got it. I’ll check back with you in the morning.”

  The door closed.

  Cade looked surprised to see them when he walked into the living room. “Hey. I didn’t expect anyone to still be up. Shawn, you hear what I was saying about making sure someone’s in the room with Aaron?”

  “Yeah. I want to go to the hospital tomorrow. How is he?”

  MacDougall ran a hand through his curls, looking haggard and haunted. His formerly crisp white polo was wrinkled and dotted with coffee stains. “Aaron’s in a coma. Dylan found him just in time, but they can’t tell the amount of damage yet.” He heaved a sigh. “Goddamn it. I had no idea the wolf was in trouble. I should’ve sensed something.”

  He headed for the room behind the fireplace. “Shawn, get some rest. You’ve got a long day tomorrow.”

  Ally made up her mind as he walked away. “Cade, can I speak with you?”

  He turned to her. “I’m really beat. Can it wait ’til the morning?”

  “I don’t know. It’s about Aaron Stapkis.”

  “What about him?”

  She stopped, suddenly self-conscious, and wondered if she should just tell him everything, here in front of Shawn. He sensed her hesitation.

  “Shawn. Go get some sleep.”

  Shawn didn’t protest being ordered off to bed like a child. He gave Ally a wide smile and a good night.

  On his way out, he stopped and hugged his Alpha tightly. Cade returned the hug, ruffling Shawn’s bright red hair and planting a kiss on top of his head. Pack wolves were more demonstrative than Lones, but Ally doubted Cade MacDougall went around hugging and kissing all his wolves like that.

  Watching Shawn leave, she asked, “Does everyone just do what you tell them?”

  He gave her a tired smile. “Yes. That’s why I’m the Pack Alpha. What did you want to tell me about Aaron?”

  His stare was direct and unnerving. “I saw him at a restaurant this afternoon, talking to another wolf. It sounded like they were having an argument, and—”

  He raised an eyebrow and held up a hand to stop her. “Wait. Not here. In my office.”

  He closed the curtained French doors and sat behind his desk, motioning her to one of the two leather chairs in front of it.

  There were no Scandinavian-style pieces like those in the living room and the bedrooms she’d seen so far. This furniture was what she’d always thought of as high cowboy. Cade’s huge kneehole desk faced the foyer. Made of a dark, rough-hewn wood, it had a lovely dark green leather top.

  A bookcase armoire covered almost the entire back wall of the room. It looked like something behind the bar of a fancy saloon in an old Western. It even had a large mirror stretching the length of it. People facing Cade’s desk were forced to either focus their attention on him or look at themselves in the mirror.

  Taking her seat, she resolved to keep her focus on him for as long as she could handle it. It wouldn’t be that difficult. She’d never liked looking at herself, and she welcomed an excuse to stare at him.

  MacDougall leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair again, tugging at his dark curls. She found it
strangely comforting to recognize a fellow hair torturer.

  “Okay. You saw Aaron at a restaurant this afternoon. Can you describe the man he was with? How’d you know they were arguing?”

  If she recounted the conversation, he’d have more questions about her, questions she didn’t want to answer. But a guy’s life might be at stake here, and she remembered Seth’s words earlier, about finding a new way to live. The small bit of honesty she’d tried so far tonight was like standing up straight for the first time in years, long after you’d grown used to the weight pressing on your shoulders.

  She briefly explained the visit to the restaurant and what she’d overheard. “I got a good look at Aaron, but I didn’t see the wolf he was talking to, except from the back.”

  He frowned. “How did you know they were wolves?”

  “I…I can just tell.”

  “Of course you can.” He did deadpan sarcasm quite well. “You can just tell werewolves by barely looking at them.”

  “Yeah, I guess it’s from living with three of them.” She tried to smile and couldn’t quite make it. She tucked her hands under her legs to keep them out of her hair. Of course he could smell her nervousness.

  “How close to them were you sitting? At the next booth over?”

  “I don’t know— I mean, no, not right next to them. No. I was some distance away.”

  “Some distance away. But you heard the conversation clearly, even though you weren’t looking at them. You weren’t looking at them, were you?”

  “No. I didn’t want them to think I was listening, so…”

  “But you were listening.”

  “Yeah, but not on purpose. I mean—”

  “So you inadvertently heard two wolves having a confidential conversation clear across a restaurant.” He sat forward now, leaning on his desk and watching her closely. His expression was blandly polite, his posture tense. He smelled agitated. She reminded herself not to meet his eyes.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes what?”

  “Yes, I heard two wolves having a private conversation clear across a restaurant, and no, I wasn’t looking at them, and no, they didn’t realize I could hear them.” She blew out a long breath, leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.