Diablo Lake: Protected

by Lauren Dane

  Despite the horror of the situation, Aimee, as she looked back toward Bob’s wife, nearly drowned in the maelstrom of anxiety and upset rushing from her. The woman was on the very edge of losing her sanity and looking for something, anything to blame for it.

  Aimee made a convenient target and no one who’d brought her there had even given a thought to what it would be like for Bob’s wife. Only how it would hurt Aimee.

  The carelessness of it sent rage through her like nothing else in the campaign had done thus far and had her rushing down the steps toward the other woman, her magic seeking to soothe and calm. After this business was concluded though, she’d do everything she could to be sure Dwayne Pembry never held office again.

  She let her magic trickle out slowly, siphoning out the anxiety, letting in the calm soothing energy in its place. Holding a hand, palm out, she said softly, gently, “I know you must be upset and feeling betrayed and confused. Would you like to sit down? You’re looking a little pale.”

  “I don’t want anything from you people!”

  In a regular town this sort of public display would be disturbing, but to an outsider the sight of shoving and posturing that the shifters got into and the magic that’d heated and grown sharp and barbed around the witches had been a nearly physical thing.

  Her confusion seeped from her pores and broke Aimee’s heart.

  Behind her there was a scuffle until Dwayne stood at her side, crowing about her scandals and how it made her unfit to be mayor.

  That was the final straw.

  Aimee spun to face him. “This woman has been horribly used already by her husband. And you and your son go and victimize her all over again. Just more men using her up to suit your motives. And for what? A job you sucked at and barely seemed to want until I showed interest.”

  He pointed at her. “You’re a damned whore just like your friend and you think you can come in with your holier-than-thou attitude while you open your legs to married men? You think you can take my job and my son when you’re not worthy of either. You need to be knocked down a few pegs.”

  Before she could do anything, it was Mac’s fist that shot out, popping his father smack in the jaw, sending him stumbling back several feet as people began to push and shove. There was yelling and punching and all that shifter nonsense. Blood already hung in the air, the greedy darkness of her power rose to echo it.

  “Knock it off this instant!” Miz Rose waded in and got knocked aside in the scuffle.

  Everything went silent for a moment until the gasps started at the sight of a little old woman getting sent reeling by a bunch of giant shifters who’d become a knot of fists and snarling.

  Witches, determined to protect Miz Rose, waded into the fray to grab for her before she really got hurt.

  Her dad had gone into cop mode and was shouting orders and using the force of his personal magic to push groups of shifters back, away from the stage.

  God only knew where her mother was, but Dwayne better be hoping someone had gotten her out of there and out of striking distance until she cooled down.

  At the double doors leading to the front walk, Jace hauled his wolves outside, though Aimee didn’t fail to notice the elbow he shot to Darrell’s head as he got close enough.

  The utter chaos and violence of it was enough to snap her out of it. She turned and calmly but firmly took Bob’s wife’s elbow before steering her out of the main room. The other woman was stunned enough to let it happen, but the tumult of emotions still churned around her like a storm.

  Aimee paused once they’d gotten to the back-hallway waiting room leading to the city administrative offices. She kept her voice as calm as possible. “I’m sorry. I know what you think. But you’re wrong. I had no idea he was married until long after I’d stopped seeing him. If I’d have known I never would have gone near him.”

  “Why did you apologize then?”

  “Because you’re a person and I’m a person too. I’m so sorry he betrayed you and I’m even sorrier you got dragged into something like this. You did nothing wrong.”

  Bob’s wife sighed out on a sob. “They, the father and son, came to my house and told me, in front of my kids. There are pictures of him with other women. He told me you were one of them and they’d bring me to you to confront you.”

  Oh, those assholes were going down. She’d find a spell to make Dwayne’s left nut swell up to the size of a softball and turn orange. Yeah. That would do it. He could suffer while he thought about how he had nothing left because he was such a spectacular dick he’d brought it all on himself.

  “I can’t speak for Darrell and Dwayne. They’re also totally in the wrong here. But I didn’t know and maybe none of those other women did either.”

  Katie Faith popped in, watching Bob’s wife warily. “I’m sorry you were used this way, ma’am, but Aimee did not know he was married. He’s a pig. I’m sorry about that too. The guy who brought you here? He cheated on me and stood me up at the altar, so I know from jerks, I tell you. But I also know the blame for this falls on your husband’s head, not hers. He has an apartment in the city. Did you know that?”

  “Katie Faith!” Aimee exclaimed. “Not the time for that.”

  “I knew it! He told me that apartment was something he and some of the people at his work paid for so if they needed a temporary shelter space for a client, they used it.” Her sobs turned into wails.

  Seriously, how on earth did she miss what a spectacular garbage can Bob was?

  Miz Rose entered, heading over, her gaze assessing Aimee’s emotional state first and then she turned her attention to Bob’s wife.

  She pointed and said something under her breath and fortunately, the chair was close enough for them to drop Bob’s wife into, propping her so she wouldn’t fall off. Given the strength of Miz Rose’s knock-’em-out spell, Bob’s wife would be out awhile.

  “I honestly don’t know why you won’t tell me that spell,” Aimee said. She’d been after it for years, but Miz Rose had told her she wasn’t ready for it.

  “I think it might be time to share it with you. Not this moment though. Right now you need to tell me just what in the hell is going on here,” Miz Rose asked calmly.

  Aimee told her, red faced and humiliated.

  But by the end, Miz Rose shook her head, clucking her tongue. “How could they do this to you? They’ve just turned the town upside down, torn apart families. Quite possibly their own. Scarlett looks hopping mad at Dwayne so I don’t think she knew about this stunt.”

  “That’s the least of the problems with this,” Katie Faith said. “Dwayne and Darrell violated the town rules. They sure as heck didn’t get permission to bring an outsider to town. She doesn’t know what we are, but she knows we’re not normal humans. Tomorrow she’ll have started to piece it all together and then what?”

  Miz Rose nodded. “I’ll be making the charge on behalf of the Consort shortly. He’s unfit to hold office one more day and he’s most certainly unfit to hold governance over a pack of werewolves when he has no discipline at all. The magic in this town doesn’t much want to succor and nurture Dwayne Pembry. That could easily bleed down to the rest of the wolves in the pack and then what?”

  “I feel kind of bad for the rest of the Pembrys though,” Aimee said. “Aside from a few, they’re all pretty nice.” And she most definitely felt bad for Mac, who’d either have to fall under his father’s rule after this terrible breach of the law, or challenge him immediately.

  Neither thing would be easy for him.

  “What if Mac doesn’t love me anymore?” she asked quietly.

  “Mac punched his father in the face when he called you a whore. He still loves you. And he’ll know you well enough to talk to you before making any judgments.” Katie Faith frowned before hugging her tight. “Things are going to get harder before they get easi
er on that, though. Jace says all sorts of pack law stuff is about to happen as well. And in the end, if Mac is somehow so stupid and selfish he doesn’t love you, well, we’ll have to hate him forever then like his dumb brother Darrell.”

  Nadine and TeeFaye barreled in and held up at the sight of the unconscious woman in the chair and the rest either crying or comforting the crier.

  Her mother pulled her into a very tight hug. “We know the truth. I already told your dad about this so he knew as well. Even if the truth had been that you slept with a married man for years I’d still love you even as I kicked your butt for making bad choices. Luckily for us both you did the right thing.”

  Aimee took a deep breath, letting these women make her feel better, and once she got herself centered again, she looked around them at the chair.

  “What are we going to do about her?” she asked, tipping her chin toward the still unconscious Bob’s wife. “And we need a name because I can’t keep calling her Bob’s wife in my head.”

  * * *

  “She didn’t know.” Jace caught up to Mac as they stood on the grassy patch in front of city hall. “Did you? Were you part of this?”

  Mac turned to Jace, wanting so much to punch someone else he could taste how good it would be to watch Dooley’s head snap back as blood spurted from his nose.

  “You think I’d do that to her? Or to that sad woman they dragged into town? I found out this morning that he’d hired a private detective and that they’d dug something up on Aimee. I’ve been out all day trying to track them down and stop whatever it was they’d planned.”

  Her face... He’d watched her composure slide and then crumble. Knew she’d felt the blow his father and brother had so calculatedly tossed at her. Knew too, that no matter the truth of it, he’d love Aimee Benton until the day he died.

  Because her instinct was to help the woman who’d been tossed into the situation without any warning. That was the heart of his woman. Kindness. Compassion. Not malice.

  Jace cleared his throat. “Okay. That’s what I figured, but I wanted to be sure. She’s got a tender heart, but I expect you know that and will go out of your way to reassure her that you still love her.”

  Mac sighed. “I got this. Thanks though.”

  Jace nodded and melted away, off to deal with his own pack problems.

  His uncle approached with Huston at his side. “We’ll be meeting at my parents’ place. Your Nan wants it that way,” he added before Mac could ask.

  Better out there than in town. Better away from his father’s house. Because he planned to strip all the power from Dwayne Pembry and take it, along with the rest of the pack, for himself, and he wanted it done on ground that celebrated all Pembrys, not just a few.

  “Okay. He knows that?” Mac asked, meaning his father.

  “Your grandmother told him herself. Mac—” his uncle lowered his voice “—you know the witches are going to file an official complaint. Ray Ruiz said to expect one from the cats too.”

  Mac was going to have to take over the pack and discipline his father and brother and it would be painful and something he’d never be able to take back, and he needed to do it pretty soon.

  “I need to find Aimee first. Then I’ll meet you out there.”

  “No more being on your own, Mac,” Huston said. “You’re going to be Patron, you need security. That’s the way things go. We’ll wait for you right here and drive over together. Tell Aimee I said hey and to not sweat the small stuff. We know her heart and I hope she finds it in her to forgive the Pembry wolves for this mess.”

  Of course his cousin wouldn’t turn on Aimee. But hearing it for sure made Mac straighten his spine and head out in search of his woman.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  He found her in an intense discussion with Miz Rose and a bunch of elder magic users. Bob’s wife, Nancy he’d learned her name was, lay sprawled in a chair but someone had tucked a coat around her and she was breathing, so he’d just leave that be.

  Her gaze found his and he saw it, the fear, and it broke his heart a little. Instead, he smiled. “So about my family, huh?”

  “I didn’t know. I swear to you,” she said, coming toward him.

  He pulled her to his body, hugging her long enough to assure man and wolf that she was all right. That they were all right.

  “I love a weirdo witch who’s a badass but not malicious about it. That’s what matters to me. I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it. I found out just hours ago and I’ve been trying to track my dad down ever since. I didn’t know about it before today, I swear to you. I wouldn’t have allowed it.”

  “Never even occurred to me to think you were part of this mess.” She rested her forehead on his chest for a moment.

  “Okay, so we got an unconscious human who was brought here without sanction,” Miz Rose said, moving Aimee to the side to poke the spot her head had been.

  “Yes, ma’am, I know and I apologize on behalf of the Pembry pack.”

  Her face went very serious then. “You know we have to file an official complaint. Your father and brother have broken our most important law. I’m going to have to use magic on this woman’s memories. But her children know about the cheating so we can’t take that away. That’s a lot of messing around in her head. We have rules too and you make us bend them to protect everyone else in town. I don’t like having my back up against the wall like this. Especially because your daddy and brother made this very big mess to start with.”

  Damn, she was scary for such a sweet-looking old lady.

  Fortunately for Mac, he was used to sweet-looking women being totally strong and in charge so he’d managed to get himself maneuvered to jump away if she decided to get mean.

  Mac said, “You can fix it, right? Even if it takes a lot of magic, you can wipe her memories of this place enough to keep us all safe? And the kids? Do I need to get them?”

  “Jeez-a-lou, no! Leave the children wherever they are. At least if they’re with their daddy, he can’t be out with one of his girlfriends. We’ve been working out just how to do this so we can accommodate as much of her actual memories as possible. A memory alteration will be better than a total wipe of what happened. She’ll have to live knowing her husband is a total moron and her kids will too. I’ll do what I can about making sure she doesn’t remember Diablo Lake, but I can’t erase Dwayne and Darrell though I’ll do my best to make it fuzzy. One of the cats will help us get her back to where her car is parked so we’ve got the heavy lifting and sneaking covered. It should work, because who in their right mind believes there are towns in the mountains where werewolves run city hall?”

  TeeFaye jumped in, “Not for long. The city council will be voting tonight to use an emergency order to suspend him from office. The election will go as planned next week and my daughter will be mayor in this town. And if your parents know what’s good for them they won’t show their faces in town for a good long time,” she said. “I like you, Mac. And I know my daughter loves you. But no one will be allowed to do this to my child without punishment. You can do it, or I can do it. But it’ll be done. Are we clear?”

  “Don’t you think he’s got it hard enough?” Aimee asked her mother as she came to stand at his side, taking his hand. “Imagine if you had to go and punish me and maybe even kick me out of town?”

  TeeFaye was unrepentant. “I don’t need to worry about his feelings. I’m worried about you. That’s my job and I can’t help it if his parents don’t do theirs.”

  Mac wrapped an arm around Aimee’s shoulders and squeezed. “It’s okay. She’s right to be mad. I’m mad too. And I will handle it for the pack and then for me. Because your daughter is everything to me and what Dad and Darrell did, just on that level, means they’ve pretty much destroyed our family.”

  “Let’s get moving on Nancy over there. I want her back
home before she’s gone long enough for anyone to call the authorities,” Miz Rose said, snapping out orders and getting people moving.

  Leaving him alone with Aimee.

  “Thanks for defending me,” he told her.

  She took his hand in hers, kissing his knuckles. “Thanks for defending me. I’m sorry you have to do this with your family. What can I do to make it better? How can I help?”

  He took her face in his palms and kissed her. “You already do make it better. This is Pembry business. It’ll be ugly and I don’t want you to see it. Call me selfish. Are you going to get Nancy home?”

  “No. I’ll stay here. I need to help get the witches calm and get everyone home before too long. Miz Rose will take Nancy to her car, which is in a mall parking lot somewhere. I want to check on a few of the older folks in town who were here tonight. Lots of excitement and I don’t want anyone having a heart attack if I can help it.”

  “You do realize everything you just said was about you taking care of everyone else. Like my brother, Samuel. I hadn’t known you’d been so good to him but I wasn’t surprised. Thank you. He’s the one who tipped me off today.”

  Her expression brightened. “He did? I knew he meant it when he said he wanted to turn his life around. He idolizes you, you know. Oh, and hey, I guess I should leave off checking in on any Pembrys? Will you all be out at your pack meeting?”

  “Just the elders tonight so pack wolves will be home. But...if you go visiting anyone, will you take a friend along?”

  “You don’t think anyone would hurt me?”

  He shook his head. The ones he didn’t trust would be the ones getting punished. But he couldn’t be everywhere at once and he didn’t know the extent of this plan between his dad and brother. If something happened to her, he’d never forgive himself or his wolves.

  “I don’t, no. But things are unsettled. Wolves are upset and you know our control is at its lowest when we’re worked up.” It had just been a full moon a few days prior as well. No use tempting fate. “If you want to go tomorrow and check on Pembrys, I’ll come with you.”