Call Me Miz

by Sivad, Gem

  “Are you nuts?” Miz yelped, fumbling with the handle on her door. He clicked the locks and sped up. She’d just snapped the seatbelt on and scrunched defensively when a green screen of moving trees opened in front of them. The truck sped through and the fake foliage swung shut behind them.

  “What the fuck was that? And where in the hell am I?” Miz was unbuckled and ready to fight. She might not be able to take him but by God he’d wear her scratches when all was done.

  “Settle down,” he said, clicking the lock button, freeing her to open the door. She did, sliding out fast to stand in the middle of…nowhere. Trees.

  The monsters don’t wear brands on their heads saying “I’m a born killer”. She looked at Hank. “This is going to get ugly, isn’t it?”

  He snorted. “You always were a drama queen. I brought you here to do a healing. One of the deep kind.”

  She stared at him hard. “Who’s hurt and why aren’t they in the hospital?” It had to be someone on the run. She shook her head. “I’m not aiding and abetting a criminal. Kidnap a real doctor.”

  Thomas didn’t know what in hell was going on, but Miz and Wyatt were in a standoff. He didn’t like anything about the situation. The screen hiding the entrance to the enclave would fool anyone but another shifter. He’d been over it before the truck pulled through.

  The den would be someplace hidden but close. He kept his eyes on Miz; he’d scout later. She was adamant she wasn’t laying hands on anyone and Wyatt was just as determined she was. Thomas decided to listen to the argument before he allowed his jaguar to kill the bastard.

  “I need you to heal an animal. A wolf—like you did before.”

  She got pissed, well, more pissed. Thomas could see she was ready to boil. He didn’t have any trouble hearing her words.

  “Why you goddamned sonovabitch. You motherfucking excuse for a human being. You ditched me for that. I was too weird for you. Now you want me to do my healing thingy to help you out? Go to hell.”

  “It wasn’t like that. You don’t have a clue what it was about. And yes, you’re going to do your healing thingy and you’re going to do it right now.”

  They were once lovers. Thomas planned the number of pieces he’d tear Wyatt’s body into. Wyatt put his hand on her arm and the jaguar snarled inside. She’s ours. Kill him.

  Before he could pounce on Wyatt and tear his head from his body, Miz said, “No. It’s you who doesn’t have a clue what it was about. I killed that wolf. You left me standing in the woods and disappeared and the damned thing came charging at me. I killed it, or damned close. I laid my precious hands on that beast and took it to the ground.

  “Then I felt so sick at what I’d done I brought it back, but I could tell it wasn’t right. It staggered when it ran off. I think I cooked the poor thing’s brain.”

  “Reminisce later. Right now I’ve got another poor thing for you to cook.” He pulled on her arm and Miz glared up at him.

  “When I get finished today, take me home and that’s it. My business isn’t your business. Understand?”

  Wyatt nodded and agreed. The sonovabitch was lying through his teeth. Thomas wondered why Miz didn’t grab his hand or do her truth voodoo on him. It didn’t matter, there was no way she was going into a den of werewolves.

  The jaguar backed down the limb and leaped to a spot in another tree, than another. In two minutes he was in man form. In five he had his clothes out of the knapsack he’d carried around his neck and was dressed in sweats and tennis shoes, walking toward the two people in the clearing.

  Miz had about given up the idea of escape when her gaze shifted to the edge of the woods. It was impossible but true. Thomas stood in the shadows of the pines staring at her. Their eyes met. His gaze was piercing, fierce. She felt as if her very own private army had arrived.

  Well, all righty then. Hank didn’t seem nearly as scary. He followed her glance and said to Thomas, “Wondered when you were going to come down from the tree.”

  “Flimsy barrier, I saw right through it.” Thomas’ lip curled in a sneer as he answered.

  Miz stared, mesmerized as Thomas walked toward them, his stride as powerful and sinuous as any predator that walked the earth. He was sleek, his muscles rippling, sexy. A tide of possessive pride swept through her. Mine.

  Hank must have knocked her around on the way to the truck more than she’d thought. She shook her head, trying to clear the sound of purring in her ears.

  “Shep poking his nose in my business again?” Hank’s voice was gravelly, rough. Almost a low growl.

  “Seems like it,” Thomas answered. When he got within five feet of them he stopped.

  Hostility bristled between the two men. “You kill other scouts he’s sent or is it something personal?” He looked from Miz to Hank.

  Hank shot right back, “She’s not for the likes of you. She belongs here. Don’t get ideas different from that or you’ll be ash fertilizing my melon patch.”

  “I don’t see it as your business, Wyatt.” Thomas didn’t grovel the way most people did around Hank. It pleased her even as the whole conversation irritated her.

  “You have any idea what the outside world would do to her? With her?” Hank’s expression was grim.

  I beg your pardon? Guys, I’m here. Miz stared at the men who seemed ready to come to blows over her. Pitiful.

  “I’m not interested in either one of your thoughts on my future. If there’s really one of your sick pets layin’ at death’s door, get on with business, Hank.”

  Hank spun on his heel and walked to the granite wall of limestone forming one side of the clearing. Miz checked the truck and sure enough the keys dangled there.

  “Thomas,” she said. “I’m leaving. If you want a ride down the mountain, climb in.”

  She had the truck open and her foot on the running board when her hands started to pulse and the gift kicked in. The intensity of the pull stopped her in her tracks. She tried, really tried to break the gripping demand. Sometimes she could walk away. This wasn’t one of those occasions. She turned and moved toward Hank where he stood next to an opening in the cliff. Another frigging camouflaged entrance.

  Thomas caught her arm on her way past and said, “You don’t have to go in there, Miz.”

  “Well, yes I do. It would be best if you stayed out here.” She swallowed. He’d faced Hank Wyatt for her. She liked him better every moment. It would be a damn shame to scare him away. He already knew some of her gifts and he hadn’t run. But damn, healing was just ugly. She didn’t want him to see her do it.

  Chapter Seven

  It was beyond creepy. When she saw the interior of the cave she was glad Thomas had insisted on coming along. The mountain was a fortress inside. Hank led the way through a corridor lit by dim lights to a thick door more like a barricade. He touched his thumb to the keypad and the door opened.

  “Jesus, Hank. You’ve officially gone off the deep end.” Miz stared into the cavern, which held a better medical facility than the nearest town owned.

  “If you want to leave, Miz, I’ll escort you out.” Thomas laid his hand on her arm.

  Hell yes, she wanted to leave. But it didn’t work that way. Her hands pulsed and she didn’t need to ask the location of the patient. She walked to the examination table in the corner and stared at the she-wolf lying there.

  “Who would do such a thing?” Miz didn’t wait for an explanation, leaning over the animal as her hands went to work on the small timber wolf. She’d been beaten, her spine broken, one back leg pulverized. She whimpered in pain, begging Miz for help from liquid brown eyes.

  Again, the nasty gray poison swirled toxic and deadly inside the wolf. Miz pulled on the noxious stuff, pretty certain she needed to clear it out before she could fix anything else. She tried to wipe her face with her shoulder to clear away the sweat but Thomas was there, using his handkerchief instead.

  He blotted away perspiration and touched her side from time to time, his presence giving Miz strength. Thoug
hts floated through her brain. What the fuck is that stuff? I found it in the cat the other night. And just as quickly, Thomas muttered the answer. “Silver poisoning.”

  She had to stop twice to vomit. Each time, Thomas was there hovering next to her, not turning away with disgust.

  After she’d pulled the last of the deadly poison from the wolf and leaned ingloriously over a bedpan spewing out the filth, she was ready to begin pouring her healing power into the bones to reform and repair.

  Miz turned back to her patient and blinked in astonishment. The broken spine had already fixed itself. She went deep again. Tissue and bone knitted faster than anything she’d ever witnessed before. Her heat pulsed one last time and died. Miz slumped against Thomas.

  “I can’t do anything else.” It was a fact that when her hands quit, she was done.

  “She’ll be fine now,” Hank said from the other side of the table.

  “The back leg…” But even as Miz looked at the pulverized back it reshaped and regained substance. Miz watched in horror as the body of the wolf began to writhe and convulse. “Shit, something’s wrong.”

  “If you’re planning on keeping secrets, Wyatt,” Thomas began.

  “Too late.” Hank’s tone was regretful.

  Even as Miz watched, the back legs reformed into human limbs, the torso became human flesh and the wolf became a woman—Jenny.

  “I’m sorry, Hank,” she panted. “I couldn’t stop the shift once it started.”

  What the fuck? “What are you, some kind of werewolf or something?” Miz stepped back, bumping into Thomas as she distanced herself from the table.

  “Later, Miz.” Hank brushed aside her question and asked his own. “Jenny, who did this to you?”

  Two fat tears rolled down the face that had been wolf moments before. She whispered, “Milo.”

  “I don’t believe it. What in hell just happened here?” The words flew out of Miz’s mouth and she grabbed Jenny’s hand. “Who beat you and why?”

  She shouldn’t have asked. Dammit, some things were better left a mystery. Shit, Jenny started talking and everything Miz thought she’d accomplished on her own disappeared.

  Her best friend said, “When you started school, Hank sent me too. When you started talking about moving away, he arranged for our massage parlor to happen. You were too friendly with Milo and Hank didn’t like it. I lured him away.”

  “You sonovabitch. You stole my life.” Miz looked at Hank and dropped Jenny’s hand, seared by the truth. She glared at Jenny. “It was all a lie, the whole thing.”

  Jenny grabbed her hand back and stared into her eyes. “You’re my best friend. That wasn’t a lie. I hated the rest, but…”

  “But Hank said,” Miz whispered bitterly.

  “Milo wants the lumber company in. He owns a bar that’s two heartbeats from closing. I thought I had him fooled. I let down my guard.” Jenny shrugged and Miz realized for the first time she was naked. She dropped Jenny’s hand and gave her a sheet.

  “You might be comfortable lying around that way, but some of us in here are accustomed to clothes,” she said dryly.

  On the other hand, Thomas was watching Miz, not looking at the scenery. That pleased Miz more than it should have.

  “The beating, Jenny. Why?” Hank pushed at the other woman relentlessly.

  “Because he couldn’t find our den no matter how hard he tried and last night he went berserk. When I wouldn’t tell him, he said he’d been going about it all wrong. He had a tire iron he’d coated in silver.” Jenny shuddered and for a moment Miz swore she could see fur ripple under her skin.

  She looked around the interior of the cavern. “So am I the only one who didn’t know we humans are living among a pack of wolves?”

  “Time to put your big girl panties on, Miz. Did you think you’re the only one born strange in these mountains?” Hank’s voice was gruff.

  Miz looked at Thomas, who was apparently unfazed by Jenny’s change. She picked up his hand and asked, “Are you a werewolf too?”

  “No.” Truth pulsed in the one word. She relaxed. He continued his hold on her hand and added, “I’m a werecat—a jaguar to be exact. You met my beast the other night.”

  Miz looked at him, appalled. “I had sex with you.”

  He smiled. “We mated.”

  “Yeah, right.” Miz gave him a cynical glare. “I’m out of here.” She headed for the door.

  “Milo’s waiting outside, Miz. You siding with the likes of him?” Hank’s question made her pause.

  “Maybe I am. At least Milo’s human.” Her gaze turned to Jenny, reminding her of the noxious poison she’d drawn from the she-wolf. Milo had done that. Well there were inhuman humans too.

  “Hank, don’t kid yourself that I care what you think. You’re a dumbass, manipulative bastard.” Her gaze skated to Thomas. “So silver hurts you? The other night, what…?”

  “Silver-coated metal the same as he used last night on his tire iron—crude but effective.”

  “Where would Milo get enough silver for that?”

  “Every one of the items Bobby Jr. couldn’t replace was silver. We didn’t ask him to name his fence. That’s my fault. With the normals I try to stay neutral. I didn’t push enough for answers when we grilled him.”

  “First off, we didn’t grill him. I did.” Miz glared at Hank. “Second off, if what you say is true then Milo’s been planning this a long time.” Then she remembered Hank’s claim and asked, “How do you know Milo’s outside?”

  “I can smell him,” he snarled.

  “If that be the case, why didn’t you already catch him?”

  “I needed you to save Jenny first. Then, well, you and Milo are friends. I had to see which side you were on.”

  Miz considered bashing Hank in the head. He didn’t seem to have any scruples about messing with her life but had the nerve to suggest it was because she was untrustworthy.

  “It’s kind of hard to choose a team when you don’t know there’s a game going on. I’m a truth-sayer and I’ve been lied to and didn’t even know it. Given the size of this facility and its extravagance,” she swept the medical supplies with a glance, “I’d say there are more than a few locals who are…”

  Miz gulped. The magnitude of what she’d just learned hit her with full force. “How many, Hank? How many shifters are there here? And are they all wolves? And who was your resident pet doctor before you brought me in?”

  Thomas closed the distance between them, standing beside her as she turned again to leave. “Why don’t you do your truth voodoo on Wyatt if you want answers?”

  “Because it doesn’t work.” She would love to make Hank Wyatt blab his secrets.

  “She burned the link between us when she was seventeen,” Hank said flatly.

  “Why you liar. I did not. You…” A vision of the wolf racing at her appeared in her mind and she said weakly, “It was you.”

  “You were my mate. I knew it. I wanted to show you that day what I really am.” His laugh was bitter. “You showed me instead. Our link was gone when I finally shook off that healing. You’d burned away the bond.”

  “We didn’t have a bond,” she answered sharply. “We fucked.” As she said it she remembered earlier denying that to herself. “We fucked,” she repeated and was glad to see him wince.

  “I’m leaving.” She strode down the corridor toward the exit.

  “I’ll go first.” Thomas walked along, having the gall to try to manage her.

  “No,” she snapped.

  “Can you heal yourself if you get shot?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “Then I’ll go first.”

  She said fine and then stepped in front of him before he could get out the door. Sure enough, Milo faced the cliff when she emerged from the opening in the mountain. The gun in his hand tracked her moves but changed to target Thomas as soon as he followed.

  Before he decided to shoot someone, maybe her, Miz crossed to where Milo stood. “Why in th
e hell did you not tell me we were living among a bunch of beasts, Milo? I thought we were friends.”

  He looked relieved then apologetic. “Hell, I didn’t know which side you were on. You’re not really straight-up human yourself. That’s one of ’em over there, isn’t it?” He waved the gun at Thomas. “Wyatt’s bringing more in and it’s got to stop.”

  Miz stared at him in disgust. Nice to know nobody trusts me in these parts.

  Milo looked nervous when Thomas made the chuffing sound of a big cat. “Don’t move, shifter. My bullets kill the same as my traps.”

  He looked at Miz and said slyly, “I wasn’t sure Shep’s man was werewolf. Hell, I caught more than I’d expected. When you healed the cat, I wasn’t sure I’d caught anything but a wild animal. Not surprising around here the way Wyatt drags everything in. But lo and behold, the cat went straight back to Shep’s place and damned if he didn’t change too. It gave me the idea for the rest.”

  Miz stepped closer. She pulsed with pheromones. Though it disgusted her when Milo licked his lips, she leaned toward him.

  “You beat Jenny with a silver club?” She made her tone mellow, soothing.

  Milo grimaced. “It had to be done. She changed when I started hitting her and I knew I was doing the right thing. I drove past Wyatt’s place and tossed her from the car. Then I followed him when he came here.”

  “You threw Jenny from a speeding car?” She’d thought she knew this man.

  “They’re abominations, Miz. I’m cleaning out this den of wolves so the rest of us can prosper.”

  She slapped her hand over Milo’s free one. “Who did you tell?”

  “No one,” he answered. Truth.

  “Why not?”

  “I didn’t know who else was animal besides those two. I only knew about Wyatt because one day I was in a tree stand, hunting on Mr. High and Mighty’s land. He was walking through the woods and I didn’t miss the chance to kill the sonovabitch. With Wyatt dead we’d get the lumber companies here and business would be good for everyone.

  “I shot him in the back with a thirty-aught-six. The bullet hit him dead-on and I saw blood fly when he went down. But dammit, he jumped up, shook his head, staggered some and then shifted into a wolf.” Milo’s eyes got wild for a minute as he looked at her. She patted his arm.