“You think you could eat a whole elephant?” Adam asked, deadpan.
Brandon appeared to consider the question.
“Maybe, it all depends.”
“On what?”
“How big the hole is.”
Both of them laughed at the stupid joke. Adam didn’t know if it was really funny or if he was that tired. Maybe, it was relief that he’d managed a small crack in the wall that surrounded the pack’s inner circle.
Chapter Seventeen
Brandon Starr leaned against the track fence and waited. It wasn’t such a hard duty, watching the cheerleaders practice.
Athletic girls bouncing up and down was an uplifting way to pass the time. On the other side of the field, football practice was in full swing.
He watched Karen execute a double back flip and bounce back up into place. He flashed her a grin and a double thumbs up sign. He noted, but ignored, the hoo-has in the stands behind him, yelling their guts out, hoping one of the cheerleaders would notice them.
As if.
Brandon, unlike the hormone driven jerks behind him, wasn’t here to letch all over the girls’ practice.
Though, a suppressed part of him appreciated the girls efforts in an elemental way. The monster inside him stayed in a cage deep inside, far apart from his own impulses.
Brandon tried to push his confusion about Adam aside to focus on the cheerleader training. Karen always asked him for his opinion afterward. She valued his input. That’s what friends were for.
His mind kept turning back to last weekend and helping Adam with the wiring and that yard light. Sunday, they started finishing out the house. That’s what Adam called putting in all the final touches like flooring, cabinets, and painting.
Mostly all Brandon had done was carry out trash and use a pole sander to smooth down the sheetrock seams until he was white as snow with the dust. The fifty bucks the alpha had handed him had shocked and made him suspicious.
“An honest wage for honest work,” Adam told him. He’d never expected to be paid for his efforts.
Brandon pulled the Los Lobos cap from the cargo pocket of his new jeans. Both were more unexpected surprises from the alpha. He put the cap on to shade his eyes.
All the guys had gotten new clothes that fit, but none of them had one of Adam’s construction caps. Not even Bradley. It gave Brandon a little thrill, a feeling that he was special. Special to the pack leader in a good way. That scared him, too.
It reminded him of the day Adam had called him to his office. Instead of hurting him there had been some kind of blood bonding ceremony.
Garrick had never done anything like that. The only special feelings Garrick Moser had given where those of the special torment he’d liked to inflict.
“Hey!”
Brandon jumped and blinked at the hand waving in front of his face. Karen smiled the smile she reserved just for him and slipped her arm through his.
“You were a million miles away. What’s up?”
Brandon shrugged, embarrassed. He’d missed her big finish.
“I’m sorry. You always do perfect cartwheels anyway. I liked the back flips, but you might want to involve the other girls more. I got a whiff of anger when you started off on your own.”
Karen sighed.
“Oh. I get on a roll and you know. …” She shrugged.
Brandon smiled. The other girls wouldn’t stay mad at her for long. No one could.
“I know, Tigger. You should start gymnastics again. You miss the solo competitions.”
Karen made a face at the nickname. He’d called her that since third grade, but only in private.
“It’s the individuality I miss.”
She sighed, then paused to send a bright smile and wave at one of her fellow cheerleaders leaving the field. Karen turned back to her friend.
“But Bradley would have a fit.”
“He only spazzes like that when he can’t keep tabs on everyone. Things are changing.”
“Really. Ya think?” Karen smiled past her sarcasm and bumped Brandon with her hip. “I think the biggest change so far is Adam, chasing his tail, trying to figure out how to make up with Mom.”
Brandon frowned. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Adam and Ms. Ridley together.
“Oh good grief. I think he’s good for her.”
“Maybe,” Brandon conceded. “I just don’t want her hurt. None of us do.”
Karen let him take her book bag as they started off of the field. She bumped him again. She knew Brandon and the pack better than anyone else.
“Hey, Brandon!”
One of the other cheerleaders called and waved. He sent a polite wave, smiled back her way, and shifted Karen’s heavy bag. He never understood why she insisted on carrying every book home every night.
Of course, he had his work planned out in the first six weeks. His electives were always something not cool. Who wanted to hang out with a guy who took Home Ec?
“Sooo, what do you think of Heather?”
Brandon remembered the girl who had waved at him. He shrugged. Heather had only a fraction of Karen’s charisma and sensitivity. It was like comparing a tiny star to the warmth of the sun.
“She’s nice, I suppose.”
Karen snorted.
“Oh, come on. She likes you.” Karen’s tone turned cajoling. “She thinks you’re sweet.”
Brandon ignored the comment. Karen had otherworldly charisma, but he could ignore it. Bradley couldn’t. His brother took one look at Karen’s pretty brown eyes and turned into a puppy.
“She wants me to see if you’d meet us after school for tacos.”
He was really out of his comfort zone.
“Look. Bradley said that it’s not safe to go wandering around right now.”
Actually, it was Adam who said it first, Brandon knew.
“Oh, pffft.” Karen waved a hand. “Bradley’s got issues. And Adam needs to learn how to find the florist. That apology sucked the other day.”
Her laugh was like music in the air.
“Mom’s so PO’d. If you mention Adam’s name, she goes off on a rant. I’ve never seen her like that. Not even over my dad.” She paused as her mood dimmed a bit. “But that’s probably not saying a lot, huh?”
In Brandon’s opinion, it did. Her dad was a major jerk off and her brother was following his dad’s footsteps.
“I’m sorry about Matthew.” He offered Karen nodded, momentarily subdued, and then she brightened.
“Oh, come on. Please go with us?” She batted her eyelashes. “Please? She thought you didn’t like her until I told her you were really just shy. Please?”
Brandon sighed. Okay, so he fell for her charisma, too. He just held out longer than Bradley would have.
“Do I have to sit by her?” He felt embarrassed by the whiny tone.
Karen stopped and looked up at him. A look, pity he guessed, flickered behind her pretty eyes. That bothered him. Brandon didn’t want Karen to pity him. Everyone else either pitied or looked down on him.
“Have you ever thought about talking to someone? A counselor?”
Brandon pulled away from her. He stared as if she’d grown another head.
Suddenly, there was a shortage of air. He felt sucker punched by his best friend.
Staring down at the puzzle like pieces of broken curb by his feet, Brandon tried to calm the swirling emotion.
Bradley was close. Close enough to keep an eye on his girlfriend. Brandon tuned and took off across the parking lot.
“Brandon? Wait! I’m sorry!”
Karen ran after him. She wasn’t supposed to do that. Brandon turned to tell her to leave him alone, to go with Bradley, when he saw the four guys move in behind her from the parking lot.
Apparently, the guys didn’t notice Bradley or see him change directions for the parking lot. The wind came from the wrong direction for his brother’s scent to carry.
Brandon let Karen catch up, and then pushed her behind him. She squawked
but stayed when she saw the four football goons.
Brandon’s nose flared at the stink of coyote that the breeze blew off of them. It wasn’t a big school. Coyotes and the wolves knew who was who without the smell.
The four boys spread out in a wide loose circle around them. Coyotes were, as a general rule, bullies and cowards. Other weres weren’t as strong and didn’t heal as fast as the wolven.
Bradley had proved on the playground that he’d retaliate against any were that messed with his pack brothers. There was a kind of truce among the younger set of shape-shifters. The only exception had been when Garrick was involved. Garrick was a whole other set of rules.
“Well, well, well. What have we got here?”
The leader, Nick McRay with orange, spiked hair, was stocky with the sort of permanent tan that mixed race human offspring often had. Like most of the were-coyote young, they had similar coloring, but were shorter than Brandon and heavier. All of them were on the football team and proud of the privilege.
Nick stuck his hands in his jeans pockets and sauntered up to them.
Brandon kept a hand on Karen, trying to keep them all in his sight. His lip curled and a snarl escaped. Bradley was walking casually, nearly to the curb of the parking lot.
All he had to do was hold out until his brother arrived.
“Watch your place. We know what you are.” One of the coyotes sneered at him.
“You’ve got no rights over me.”
Brandon voice was much calmer than he felt. He had good practice at hiding his scent emotions from monsters scarier than these bozos. Garrick was dead, he reminded himself. A fine tremor started under his skin, urging him to action.
“That’s not what we heard.” Campy McRay sniggered.
Not funny at all, but then the coyotes were an inbred lot. Brandon knew that for a fact. Just like he knew that he’d die before he let any of their pack touch him again.
He growled low, warning them off. The tremor in his body turned into an itching, signaling that the Change wasn’t far off. Only his loyalty to Karen kept him from running, or maybe fighting if he had to.
“What are you after?” Brandon’s voice was gravelly. He was close to the change.
He growled again when Nick tried to look past him at Karen. “Well?”
Nick shrugged and winked at Karen. Brandon felt her disgust. The coyote leaned in toward Brandon.
“I’m delivering a message. You guys trespassed on our hunting grounds. Benj says that he wants com … compen … payment for every acre of our woods you stole.”
Nick looked proud of his delivery despite his illiteracy.
Brandon didn’t like Nick or any of the coyotes. Their opinion didn’t matter one bit to him. Having Karen believe that he was pathetic spurred him to do something he wouldn’t have done otherwise. He antagonized them.
“We didn’t steal anything of yours so back the fuck off.”
One of the coyotes lost his temper and jumped at Brandon.
“I’ll take it up now!”
Brandon crouched in front of Karen, letting himself change enough for claws and fangs to defend with.
Nick caught his coyote brother mid-jump and gave him a short shake.
“Chill, we’re not here to fight.” Nick eyed Brandon. “Yet.”
“You butt-sniffers going to back away from my brother? Or am I going to have to make rugs out of your mangy hides?”
The werecoyotes started and turned to look at Bradley lounged against a brand new blue Camaro. Bradley smiled his trademark, bad to the bone, sharp-toothed smile.
“I know none of you are stupid enough to try anything with my girl. Hmmm? Nick?”
Nick paused. His hand went to his chest and rubbed absently where Bradley had once laid open the coyote’s chest in a playground fight. The bully had had enough sense to stay away from the wolven pack brothers. Until today.
Nick backed down, his aggression folded away until Brandon was sure the coyote was about to hit the ground and grovel like a dog. All of the coyotes watched Bradley warily, with the respect due him. His brother was going to be alpha one day.
“We were just passing on a message.” Nick said.
“Yeah? Spit it out so I don’t have to play fortune cookie with your jaw and rip out your tongue to read it.”
Nick started to growl but remembered himself and cleared his throat. He nodded.
“Benj wants the coyote hunting grounds back. Tell your new leader to cut his losses and turn what’s ours over. He wants to be paid for the trouble too. Or else.”
Nick looked uncomfortable giving out the ultimatum to Bradley. He then looked meaningfully in Brandon’s direction.
“Benj said he’d take the same arrangements he made with Garrick.”
Bradley lunged faster than any human or were. His hands became claws that wrapped around Nick’s thick neck. Bradley slammed the coyote onto the hood of a compact car. He shoved his face into Nick’s.
“Here’s a message for you, Nick. Anyone touches my brothers, or what’s mine, and I’ll rip out your intestines.”
He released the coyote and let them disperse. Luckily the class bell had already rung. There weren’t more than a couple of bystanders, both students who walked away rather than get involved.
Brandon shivered uncontrollably while his brother looked him over. When he finished, Karen fled to her boyfriend’s arms.
A pain made Brandon look at his fisted hands where claws had pierced his palms.
Blood ran over his hands and dripped on the pavement. He concentrated, shifting back into a fully human state.
Bradley reached out and laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Concern reached out to him through the pack bond. Karen watched Brandon, her worry added to Bradley’s.
“We’re not going to let them do anything. Adam wants to protect the pack.” She glanced at Bradley. “Right?”
His brother looked in the direction the coyotes had gone. Bradley nodded.
“Yeah. No one’s gonna touch you. I’ll make sure.”
Brandon shook off his brother’s hand, and their pitiful attempt at comfort. There wasn’t anything that could be done anyway. Not if Adam wanted to make a deal with Benjamin Gates.
Brandon’s chest tightened painfully. There was something he could do.
He ran.
Chapter Eighteen
“Hi, Mom.”
Diana looked up from her papers to see her daughter standing in front of her desk.
She glanced at the clock.
School was definitely out, but her daughter didn’t often come to the insurance agency where Diana worked. School practice and hanging out usually took up Karen’s free time before Diana insisted she be home.
Karen drifted over to the chair across from the desk and fell into it. Her book bag thunked onto the floor beside her. Despondency radiated from Karen in waves.
“Did you and the girls have another disagreement over the routines?”
Karen shook her head.
“You and Bradley have a fight?”
Karen shook her head again. She stared at her two toned Nikes.
“You are going to have to help me out here, hon.”
Karen sighed and rubbed her red-rimmed eyes with one hand. She’d been crying recently.
“It’s been a rough afternoon.”
Diana waited for her to elaborate, but Karen slumped back in the seat and chewed on a thumbnail. Diana heard the rustle of plastic as Karen toed the wastebasket, lost in her misery.
Diana made up her mind. Reaching under the desk, she flipped the computer tower off and picked up her purse. The papers she shoved aside for tomorrow.
“Come on. Let’s go get something to eat.”
All afternoon Diana had been plagued with an uneasiness that made her want to snatch up all the kids and tuck them somewhere safe.
She reminded herself again that the wolven pack was not her business. Adam, pushy aggravating male that he was, had the boys’ welfare taken ca
re of.
“Carol, I’m leaving early,” Diana called out.
She slid her purse over her shoulder and headed for the coat rack, where Chase’s beautiful duster hung, minus the gun. Diana couldn’t make herself handle the thing, even to practice. It sat safe in her lock box. Guns gave her the heebie-jeebies.
After prying the story about werecoyotes out of Brandon later, Diana felt more secure knowing the gun was there.
Perversely, she didn’t think she could actually use it against anyone. She needed to give it back before someone got hurt messing with the thing. Like her.
Werewolves or wolven, now werecoyotes, she didn’t know what was next. Her whole world had been shaken up. Oh, after meeting Jax, the gnome, she’d known there were other things out there. But it wasn’t real to her. Now she knew.
She wondered how she’d managed isolate herself from supernatural creatures for so long. She’d known the boys from the pack for years without realizing what they were.
Chase and Tank had said her scent gave her away. Apparently, the boys had been in on her secret for years while keeping their own.
Diana wasn’t stupid. Blind maybe. Karen and the boys contributed to that. She was a little hurt that none of them trusted her with the truth.
After experiencing a little of Garrick Moser’s evilness through Brandon, Diana could see how the boys would be careful of who they let know of their secret.
Carol called out a goodbye and Diana gathered up her daughter and herded Karen out to the car. What she needed was a night free of wolven and other bogies.
Diana was beginning to worry about her daughter. Karen had such a bright personality. She never held a bad or sad mood for long. They were nearly to Athens when Karen finally focused on her surroundings.
“I thought we were going home.” Karen said the statement like a question and looked around the car with worry on her face.
“No. We are eating Italian tonight.”
“But there’s an Italian place in Palestine.”
Diana nodded and turned toward her second favorite eatery.
“There are also shape-shifting wolves and coyotes. I’d have gone all the way to Tyler, but a gnome and a witch lives there. A hereditary witch, not a theological one. There’s a difference,” she clarified.
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