Changing Hearts

by Marilu Mann

  They watched as Micah got into the beat-up pickup and turned it around. For some insane reason, the license plate caught Joie’s eye. What on earth is Micah doing here if he lives in Wisconsin? As the truck started down the driveway, the tension in Malcolm’s body slowly faded.

  “Malcolm? Do you have to leave?”

  “Soon, baby, soon.” He turned and suddenly his eyes were glowing at her. “Don’t be scared. I won’t let anything happen to you. Not to either of you.” He spared a glance for Tante Kay, then pulled Joie hard into his arms. She felt his heart beating strongly in his chest.

  She sighed as she wrapped her arms around his waist again. Joie heard Tante Kay go back inside though she and Malcolm stayed on the porch holding one another.

  Joie glanced up at him after a few minutes, biting her lip. Curiosity won, she had to know what was in that box. “Malcolm? Something fell out of your jacket earlier. A small box. Can I ask what it is?”

  “Where’d you put it?”

  “I left it on my nightstand.” She glanced at him, unable to tell if he was angry or not. Malcolm sighed deeply then led the way back into her room.

  He picked up the box. It surprised him to realize she hadn’t opened it. He turned the knob. “These are my parents. This was taken on, I don’t know, maybe my fifth birthday. Before all the shit went down with them.”

  He handed her a faded, much-folded picture. The woman in the photograph smiled at the little boy holding her hand. Her hair looked to be the same cinnamon brown as Malcolm’s. It was impossible to see exactly what color her eyes were but Joie would bet they were just as golden as her son’s. The man also smiled at the camera.

  Malcolm looked a lot like his father, though he obviously got his coloring from his mother. The little boy in the picture had a huge smile on his face. A missing front tooth completed his grin and he looked like any child who was loved and taken care of. It broke Joie’s heart to think of how much he’d lost. How had that joyous little boy wound up as the hardened man in front of her?

  “This belonged to Tonio. The first human I ever really trusted.” He handed her a medallion. It wasn’t very big, but it was heavy. Joie turned it over in her hand.

  “Saint. Blaise?”

  “I don’t know, Tonio said I needed it more than he did. Six weeks later he died. I found this next to his body.” Malcolm handed her the only other thing in the box, the slug.

  Joie took it from him then looked up at him. “Do you know who Saint. Blaise was?”

  Malcolm shook his head. Joie smiled as she turned the medal over in her hand. “Saint. Blaise was a healer and the patron saint of wild animals. Legend says the animals would find their way to him when they were hurt, though they would never disturb his prayers. Why have you kept these all this time?”

  “Beats me.” Malcolm took the items back from her, not even glancing at the photo, and shoved them inside the box. He pulled Joie against his chest, wrapping his arms around her again. “Just pieces of the past, baby.”

  He seemed content to just hold her, and then he stiffened against her.

  Slade released her slowly, waiting until she met his eyes again. “I have to go somewhere now. Don’t worry about me.”

  “Don’t worry? You’re kidding, right?” Joie stood and watched as he stripped again. Slade handed her his jeans as she trailed him to the porch, holding them against her chest.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I need to cover my tracks a bit. If Micah found me, others can too. Just stay close to the cabin or at least close to Tante Kay today.”

  “Okay.” They stepped out onto the porch together. “Malcolm?” She put her hand on his arm then wrapped her arms around his waist. “Please be careful.”

  “I will.” Slade tilted her head back, kissed her hard, then stepped out of her arms. He winked and shifted.

  Hoping he wasn’t too late, he took off toward the road. There was still one small matter he needed to talk to Micah about. No way would he let Micah get away without answering one more question for him.

  Slade covered ground fast, running full out for the road, hoping he’d be in time to stop Micah before he got too far. The roads around here were mainly gravel so no one who valued their vehicle, or their life, drove too fast. The main road was paved, but it took some time to get to it.

  He rounded a bend and saw the truck just ahead of him. Releasing his animal more fully, he put on a burst of speed and caught up to the truck just five miles from the cabin.

  Micah must have seen him in the rearview mirror because he jammed on the brakes. Slade stopped, breathing hard, to watch as Micah got out of the truck. His features wary, he stood beside the truck.

  “What do you want, Slade?”

  Slade took another deep breath, proof that he honestly wasn’t one hundred percent cured, and changed. “I want to know how the fuck you found me, and I want to know how the fuck you forced me to change during that fight.”

  Micah simply stared at him. “It wasn’t hard to find you after you came back to New Orleans. Are you really that stupid? Did you honestly think you could get that close to the compound without someone scenting you?”

  “Then why didn’t they tell Maggie? Why didn’t you tell Maggie?”

  “They came to me because they trust me. I didn’t tell Maggie because I despise her more than I despise you. You’re Alpha, Slade. That still counts for something to some of us. I respect the position even if I have no respect for the person holding it.”

  “You’re not even Pack. Why do you give a shit what happens to them?”

  “Because I grew up in a Pack and I know what it truly means to be Pack, Slade. Do you? All your life you’ve fought to be part of something. Now that things have gone against you, you turn tail and run? I thought you were better than that, at least.”

  “You never thought I was better than that. You never thought I belonged.” Slade knew he sounded like a two-year-old but what Micah said was so fucking true. He had always fought for a place to belong. No one had ever wanted him just to want him.

  Not until Joie.

  “Answer my question, Micah. How did you force me to change? No one has that kind of power.”

  “Power? You think that’s power? Little brother, you don’t know what power is!” Micah actually laughed. Slade stared at the other man as his whole body seemed to glow. “That’s magic, Slade, magic you’ll never know because you won’t open yourself up to it. You won’t open yourself up to anything or anyone. That’s why you’ll never be a true Alpha. You might be the strongest, the fastest, but you’ll never truly be Alpha until you learn to care about those in the Pack who aren’t as fast, aren’t as strong.” His voice spread his contempt easily.

  “Spare me the rhetoric, Micah. I took care of the Pack. I took care of everything for everyone in the compound.” Slade stood in the road, glaring at the other man. His hands were loosely fisted at his sides, ready to fight if necessary.

  “Did you? There were more challenges and deaths during your reign as Alpha than at any other time in Pack history. You had your own personal agenda for the Pack, Slade, and it involved making shifters known to the world. There was a time when you didn’t care how you achieved that, as long as you could make others, especially humans, fear you. Well, your protégés are following in your footsteps. Only now you’re their target.”

  Micah took a step toward him, the rage in his voice clear. “They don’t care how many of us they hurt. They don’t care how many humans find out about us, as long as they get to their prey.”

  Shaking his head, Micah looked down at the road then up at the sky, obviously reining in his temper. The glow surrounding him faded as he exhaled strongly before meeting Slade’s eyes again. “Ask yourself this, Slade. Did the Pack follow you because they trusted you, or because they feared you?” Micah stared at him for a long moment then sighed deeply and got back into his truck.

  Slade stood perfectly still, watching Micah drive away. Just before the truck disappeared
around a bend, he picked up a large rock and threw it as hard as he could in the direction of the truck. Looking around, he realized he stood bare-assed in the middle of the road. Not so good on self-preservation today.

  Slade shifted back to his animal form. Loping toward the bayou again, he angled away from the cabin instead of toward it. He needed time to process what had just happened and he didn’t need the distraction of Joie just now.

  Could it be true? Had everyone followed him out of fear?

  Of course they had. That’s how he’d been taught, that’s how he’d led. Thinking back over his interaction with the rest of the Pack, he moved close to a large willow tree and crawled under its drooping branches. He shifted back to human, then leaned against the trunk of the tree. The canopy of leaves covered him from all but the most astute viewer.

  Maggie hadn’t been afraid of him but she hadn’t really liked him, either. She’d only been fucking him because he could cater to her particular needs. Maggie liked rough sex, the rougher the better. She’d made him bleed a few times though he’d never allowed her to permanently mark him. Slade absently rubbed the spot on his chest where Joie had bitten him. She hadn’t broken the skin but the area still felt a little tender.

  Cutter, his second-in-command, definitely hadn’t liked him. That was why he and Maggie had cooked up the scheme to get rid of him. Of all the seconds in the Pack, he had trusted Cutter.

  None of the others were men he could call his friends. They were all Beta to his Alpha. None of them had even stepped into the Challenge circle after his first fight. Hell, he didn’t even remember the name of the wolf that had first challenged him for Alpha.

  Curtis had been so sick—out of his mind, really—that he allowed the challenge while he still lived, saying he’d step down for anyone who could win in the circle. Other Challenge fights for various things had gotten out of hand under Curtis’ control. One young wolf had even been blinded in a fight over a female before the other males intervened. It wasn’t long after that Slade had come into the Pack.

  Hearing about Curtis’ illness had spurred him to challenge for Alpha when he had intended to wait a few years. Slade had won after only one fight.

  Curtis had stepped down. Slade had taken over and immediately implemented his own way of doing things. The Pack had been looking for strength, and they’d found it in him. None of them knew he had his own agenda, his own reasons for wanting to be in charge. They’d found out soon enough when he started tightening things up. Maggie had been his ally then, listening to his plans, helping him implement them.

  For the first month or so he’d run the Pack like his own personal army, forcing the stronger males to take charge of the weaker ones. When he’d seen who could lead and who would follow, he’d started making more plans, including some of the stronger males in his inner circle.

  One of those plans involved getting rid of all the humans in the compound. At the time, he’d been sure they could be stronger, better without the humans. He wanted them to fear him, wanted them to know there really was something out there bigger and badder than they were.

  He’d despised humans because they were too frail, too breakable and because a human had caused every hurt in his life. Now? Now he’d give his own life for one particular human. Joie.

  Slade banged his head against the side of the tree. What had he done? He’d put his own ideas into action without any thought of the future. If he’d succeeded in making shifters known to the world, did he really think the humans would accept them as leaders or would they hunt the shifters down?

  He laughed out loud at his own arrogance. Humans always kill what threatens them, what they don’t understand. History proved that often enough.

  Now what should he do? He couldn’t go back to the Pack, not knowing that he and Joie were mated, not with his track record toward humans. The Pack would never accept her and he wouldn’t be with anyone but Joie from now on. She was his, end of story.

  And Joie, could he ask her to live her life behind the gated compound walls? No, she’d wither and die there without her Tante, without her medicines, without her animals. Sure, she could treat the Pack, but would that make her happy?

  He really had no place to go. He couldn’t go back to the Pack and be their Alpha again. He couldn’t go back to Joie and expect to live with her, live in her world. He was a shifter, not a human. He didn’t know how to live in the human world anymore.

  Slade propped his arms up on his bent knees and dropped his head onto his arms. “What the hell do I do now?” The squirrels rustling in the trees overhead had no answers for him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Midmorning rolled around and still there was no sign of Malcolm. Joie bit her lip as she stared out the kitchen window again. He’d run toward the road, so that was the direction she expected him to come from.

  Joie and Tante stayed near the cabin just as Malcolm had requested. They worked with the injured animals, made more powders and refilled Tante’s satchel with fresh bandages and the makings for poultices.

  They ate a quiet lunch at noon, still without any sign of Malcolm. Tante got up at one point, checked to make sure the shotgun still held silver shot, then took her seat again. Joie knew from that action that Tante felt the same nervousness she did. With every strange sound from outside, Joie got up to look out the window. Finally Tante had had enough. She left the room, returning in moments with a deck of cards.

  “Sit you down, child. We’ll play some Bourré.”

  “Tante…”

  “No. Sit down. We’re not gonna discuss this. We’re just gonna play cards.” When Tante’s jaw firmed that way, there wasn’t any arguing with her.

  Joie finally sat, letting loose with a deep sigh as she did so. Tante started dealing and they were soon engrossed in their cards. Neither of them heard a car, but they both heard the footsteps on the porch.

  Joie went to the door with Tante on her heels. They looked out at the woman standing there with her hand raised to knock. She was attractive and they both knew right away that she was like Malcolm and Micah—a shifter. She did nothing to hide the glow of her eyes.

  “Hello. I’m looking for Slade.”

  “He’s not here.”

  “But he’s been here?” She stepped forward and both women stepped back. She came into the house uninvited, staring hard at Tante Kay, then harder at Joie, her nostrils flaring slightly. They in turn studied her.

  “Who are you?” Tante Kay’s voice sounded harsh in the sudden silence.

  “My name is Margaret. I’m…a friend.” The disdain in her voice echoed on her face as she stared around the humble cabin.

  “Margaret? Don’t you mean Maggie?” Joie’s voice came out as pure ice.

  Maggie smiled, the type of smile that made Joie want to slap her silly. “Oh, so Slade’s mentioned me?”

  “Briefly.” Joie looked at her again. Maggie was attractive, but harsh looking. Certainly not what Joie had expected of Malcolm’s former lover. The woman’s hair had obviously been dyed blonde because her roots were beginning to show. Her eyes were an indeterminate shade between blue and green, her jaw was strong and her lips full.

  She wasn’t beautiful in the conventional sense, but something about her compelled attention. She had a definite presence.

  Maggie smiled, showing a lot of teeth, which made everything she said sound like a lie. She also had a tendency to talk with her teeth slightly clenched. With her hair pulled back into a ponytail it was hard to tell the length. She stood about five feet nine or ten inches and had rather large shoulders for a woman.

  Not surprisingly, she had large breasts as well. Joie knew Malcolm liked women with large breasts, and cattily, she wondered what happened to all that silicone when Maggie was in wolf form. Maggie still rambled on about her relationship with Slade, giving more detail that made it sound as though they’d been the best of friends.

  Every word she said sounded good, but Joie could hear the lie behind her words. From her ex
pression, Tante Kay could hear it as well. She had stopped talking and just listened to Maggie going on and on about trying to find Malcolm. Maggie didn’t know that they knew the truth about how she’d tried to kill him.

  Maggie’s smile disappeared as she stepped forward. The look in her eyes scared Joie. Without consulting Tante, Joie reached for the shotgun propped in the corner. Maggie stopped as Joie pointed the twelve-gauge right at her chest.

  “If you take another step, I’ll shoot.” Joie held the gun steady though she shook inside. She knew how to handle the weapon, knew it would show.

  “Will you? You’d better be fast, human.” Maggie’s eyes narrowed and her features took on a sharper cast.

  “Take another step and you’ll see how fast.” Joie raised the barrel of the gun slightly, aiming right for the center of the other woman’s chest.

  “You take care, le Loup féminin. This load of silver shot will stop you in your tracks.” Tante Kay moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with her goddaughter and leveled a pistol at Maggie.

  Maggie growled, her nostrils flaring again as she stared at the two women facing her down. Her hands clenched into fists. Joie suddenly tensed. She knew Malcolm was coming. She could feel him. She tried to send him a mental note the way she knew he communicated with Tante Kay, but she got no response.

  Malcolm’s footsteps sounded on the porch outside and Maggie’s eyes widened. She turned toward the door with a nasty smile on her face, one that didn’t reach her eyes.

  Malcolm stepped inside the house, took one quick look at the tall blonde in front of him then drew back faster than Joie could really follow and punched her full in the face. Maggie obviously hadn’t been expecting a frontal attack because she went down like the proverbial ton of bricks. Malcolm stood over her growling until Tante Kay touched his arm.

  “You took care of that one for sure.” Tante Kay laughed even as Malcolm continued to glare. Suddenly one of those rare smiles broke across his face and he started to laugh with her.

  They were completely ignoring Joie, and the fact that Malcolm stood naked in the living room, as they laughed together. Joie propped the shotgun up in the corner again, shaking her head at them.