His Wolf (Wolf of My Heart)

by Linda Palmer

  “Are you kidding me?” He’d never have survived it.

  “I was sick with worry, okay? About halfway there, Uncle Greger called, something he’s never done before. He said he’d just talked to my dad, who’d been trying to get me for two days. Wanted to know if I was okay. Since I hadn’t looked at my phone, I didn’t even realize he’d called. Anyway, Uncle Greger’s concern was so���uncharacteristic, I guess, that he caught me off guard. And before I knew it, I was spilling my guts. Naturally, he and my cousins volunteered to help rescue you.”

  “Naturally?”

  “Okay, so it was unnaturally.”

  “No, it was fate.”

  He shook his head. “Whatever. I couldn’t have done it without them. Or maybe I could’ve with your help. You’re one powerful goddess, you know that?”

  I just smiled. “Speaking of phone calls, do you have any idea where my new phone is?”

  Erik pointed to the glove box. I flipped it open and took out my cell, checking the battery, which was just below the halfway mark. I saw that Dad had called six times.

  I groaned and showed Erik. “Is it too early to call him?”

  “He won’t think so.”

  So my dad got a 4:30 a.m. call.

  He answered after one ring. “Are you okay?”

  “Am now.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Honestly, Dad. It’s so complicated we need a face-to-face. What will you and Megan be doing around noon?” I figured that would give me and my guy plenty of time to go home, clean up, and, if we were lucky, rest before heading to Lake Village.

  “We’ll be waiting for you and Erik to get here.”

  ****

  Dad met me at the door when we got to his house around 11:30. He took our jackets, which left me in jeans and a sweater. Erik had on jeans, too, and a thermal shirt in a deep shade of green that looked great with his dark hair. That dark hair was minus a bandage since his gunshot wound had already healed. Guess it was just a graze.

  My dad walked us straight to the kitchen, where Megan was taking a casserole dish of lasagna out of the oven. With her face a little pink from the heat, she reminded me a lot of my mom. I saw she had a salad and some bread, plus a great big German chocolate cake, my dad’s favorite.

  I waited until we were all seated at the kitchen table to tell my tale. My father didn’t even have to prompt me. It was time for the truth, and I knew it. “Dad, have you ever heard of the Goddess Danu?”

  He blinked at my question. Guess it was a little out of the blue all things considered. “In ancient Celtic literature, she’s the Great Mother of Ireland, associated with fertility, growth, plenty, abundance, agriculture, cultivation and nurturing of the land. She can supposedly embody any form suited to the situation, thus honoring diversity.”

  A textbook-perfect reply, of course. I’d expected nothing less.

  He blew on a forkful of pasta. “Why do you ask?”

  “Getting to that. Have you ever heard of Tuatha de Dannan?”

  “Yes. That refers to the children of Danu, supposed descendants of the goddess.” His eyes narrowed. “What’s all this got to do with me calling you ten times this week with no call back?”

  “You called me six times, and the reason I didn’t call back is that my kidnappers didn’t bother to get my phone when they carried me out the cabin door the other night. I guess I was lucky they grabbed my backpack.”

  Dad sucked in a sharp breath and began to choke on his food. Megan pounded his back until, red faced, he could once more breathe. “Come again?”

  “The creep that kidnapped me eighteen months ago? He wasn’t just any old creep, Dad, he was a werewolf leader in a gang called le bras du loup. ‘The Arm of the Wolf’ in English.”

  Dad just looked at me.

  “I’m one, too, by the way, and so is Erik. Weres, I mean, not gang members. I’m one because Yarbrough bit me. Erik is one because I bit him.”

  Dad seemed to be frozen to his chair, but Megan sure wasn’t. Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she leaned forward to hear more, and who could blame her? This was the urban myth to end all urban myths. “So it’s all true?”

  I nodded to her and then focused on my dad again. “The Corteggio—”

  He stopped me. “The what?”

  “Corteggio. That’s a sort of supernatural FBI. They keep order in the preter world. Anyway, they told me there’s a witch who can cure most werewolves, but her magic won’t work on me. Apparently Mom passed along a gene that made me special. Did you know that Erin Bronte O’Malley Hannigan was Tuatha de Dannan? As for Erik taking the cure, he actually likes being a wolf, and since he’s my life mate, he gets to stay one.”

  Dad made a choking sound.

  “Breathe, dear,” said Megan without taking her eyes off me. Her advice struck me as very ironic. “Do you have any magical powers?”

  “Megan!”

  My stepmother looked at her new husband, who clearly wasn’t handling my supernatural revelations as well as she was. “Sorry. Just curious.”

  As I bit back a laugh, Erik spoke up. “She heals really fast and helped me shift from a wolf to a guy in record time.” He quickly explained about the NFM thing. “She can control the weather, too. Clouds, wind, sleet, lightning, thunder. No problem for my Bronte.”

  Now Megan was beaming at us. She opened her mouth as if to ask another question.

  Dad cut her off. “Later, please. You were kidnapped a second time?”

  “Yeah. Saturday night by another branch of The Arm. But I don’t think any of them will be bothering me again.” I exchanged a grin with Erik.

  “I don’t suppose you’d shift for us���?” said Megan.

  Dad flicked a shocked glance at her.

  “After dessert, of course,” she hastily added, winking at us.

  Erik and I cracked up.

  Epilogue

  We staggered into the cabin when we finally got back home around midnight. Dad and Megan had delayed our leaving for hours after lunch, with both of them asking so many questions I’d simply run out of answers. Naturally we shifted for them. I actually thought my father might pass out from the shock of it. As for Megan, I made her promise not to tell her classroom of students eager to believe in the unbelievable. A story like ours could go viral in a matter of minutes.

  Since neither Erik nor I had rested the short time we were at the cabin earlier that day, we’d never been as exhausted physically or emotionally as we were that night. We didn’t turn on a light. We didn’t start a fire. Heck, we didn’t even undress. We just crawled between his sheets, nothing more than sleeping on our minds as we settled in, his front to my back.

  I’d just closed my eyes when Erik softly spoke. “We should probably buy a bigger mattress if we’re going to keep sharing one.” His words were warm and sleepy against my cheek.

  “Probably.”

  “This bond between us is very special, isn’t it?”

  “According to Danu,” I said. “And I’d never doubt her.”

  “Me, either. Just think about it���what we have is dual-natured for starters.”

  I nodded. “And supernatural.”

  “You got that right. Profound.”

  “And fulfilling.”

  Now he nodded. “Permanent.”

  “And fated.”

  He scooted closer. “Unique.”

  “And magical.”

  “Amazing.”

  “And sexual.” I waited for his response.

  “Sexual?”

  “A girl can always hope.” I rolled over to face Erik and kissed his whiskery chin.

  He sort of growled, a deliciously wolfy sound, and his eyes began to glow. “Okay, sexual. But not tonight.”

  “Definitely not tonight.” I smiled into the dark, wondering if he knew his eyes did that and already anticipating the discoveries that dawn and the rest of our lives would bring. “I love you, Erik.”

  “And I love you.
”

  “Forever?”

  “Longer, baby. Much, much longer.”

  Though he probably didn’t mean that literally, I had a feeling he could be right.

  I was Tuatha de Dannan, after all, and Erik was my destiny. Who knew what we could really do?

  Author’s Note:

  Read the story of Andee Rivera and Jonah Killebrew in My Wolf.

  Read the story of Cassidy Norris and Brody Anderson in Wolf Run.

  Read the story of Tehya Crane and Rhyan Knox in Wolf Way.

  Read the story of Skylar Walker and Zeke Sterling in Wolf Crazy.