by Zoe Chant
“Does he?” Pauline could hear the bitterness in her voice. “I’ve never been able to do anything real.”
“Because you didn’t have the resources,” Carlos said quietly. “There’s no shame in that. But one thing I have in spades is resources.”
Pauline blinked. She hadn’t thought about that.
“And now we’re mates,” Carlos continued. “So what’s mine is yours.”
Oh.
Pauline was left with the dizzying understanding that she was suddenly capable of much, much more than she’d ever dreamed of.
She fumbled with her phone and dialed Marsha’s number. It rang and rang, and eventually informed her that the voicemail box was full.
“I have to tell him,” she said urgently. She threw off the covers and stood up. “He doesn’t need to do this at all. We can provide for him!”
She glanced back at Carlos, suddenly self-conscious. “Not to—not to make statements about what you’re going to be doing with your money.”
Carlos stood up, too—every glorious naked inch of him, and despite the seriousness of the situation, Pauline found herself momentarily distracted—and took her hands. He kissed her knuckles and said, “Pauline, from this moment forward, I’m telling you: it’s your money. I trust you one hundred percent to do what’s right with it. And taking care of three kids with no parents seems like a great place to start.”
“Well, I’m certainly not going make unilateral decisions without even talking to you,” Pauline said tartly. “It’s not my money, it’s our money, how about that.”
Even that was difficult to understand. She was going to have to sit down and process through this sometime soon. And then sit down with Carlos and some financial statements and really work out what it meant, this is our money. And probably try not to faint in the process.
“That, right there, is why I trust you with it,” Carlos said, smiling.
“Okay.” Pauline blew out her breath, then looked around. “Clothes. Drew’s going to be here soon, and I’m going to have to try to convince him—show him—”
“He might not listen,” Carlos cautioned. “I bet that kid has a lot of reasons not to believe in fairy tales. And I’m not carrying a wand and summoning a pumpkin coach. He’s going to need some time to think about it, to reach a point where he trusts that what we’re saying is true.”
“But he’s going into something dangerous now!”
Carlos was getting dressed, quick and efficient. “And we’re going to do everything we can to prevent that,” he said. “But we can’t make his decisions for him.”
“Maybe kidnapping is an option,” Pauline grumped, pulling on a sweater.
Carlos kissed her forehead as it emerged from the neckline. “That probably won’t help with the trusting part of the equation.”
It was so frustrating. A solution existed. She just needed an independent, stubborn, scared seventeen-year-old to realize it.
She took a deep breath. “Well, this is what parenting would be like, I guess.”
“Frustrating and terrifying?”
Pauline nodded. “And more rewarding than anything in the world, eventually. I hope.”
She hoped.
The doorbell rang.
“He’s here!” Pauline yelped, and galloped out to answer it. But when she opened it, she was faced with a sleepy-faced Troy, holding a yawning Val’s hand—and Drew was halfway to his car.
“Wait!” she called. “Drew, wait, you don’t have to do this, I promise we can make is so that you don’t have to—”
Drew looked back over his shoulder, then shook his head. “I said I’d be there. If I don’t show up, they’ll come find me, and they’ll hurt the kids.”
“They might hurt you,” Pauline said desperately.
“Better me than them,” he pointed out. “But they won’t. They want me to do something for them. They’re not going to hurt me before I do it, that’d just be dumb.” He turned back to his car.
“No—” But he was already getting in, and Val was starting to cry.
“Hey.” Carlos squatted down and smiled at her. “Hi.” He waved.
She paused, blinking. Then, hesitantly, waved back.
“I’m sleepy,” said Troy, his lower lip pushing out. “I didn’t want to go out.”
“We’ll get you into bed in just a sec,” Carlos said seriously, and then looked up at Pauline. “He’s right, you know. They’re not going to hurt him.”
“They’re just going to make him do something that might hurt him.” Pauline looked out at Drew, who was fighting the car’s recalcitrant starter. “What if I followed him?”
“Pauline, another car would—”
“No,” she interrupted. “As an owl.”
Carlos stilled, staring at her. “I couldn’t go with you.”
“No,” she whispered. “They’d smell you. They’d know a tiger didn’t belong. An owl? There are hundreds of owls around here. And I could get help if something happened. He wouldn’t be alone.”
“You’d be alone.” Carlos was visibly working to keep calm. “And there’s no guarantee they wouldn’t hurt you.”
“They won’t know I’m there. I promise you, Carlos, I’ll stay an owl no matter what happens.”
She would, too, because there was no way she could claw a wolf shifter’s eyes out as a human woman.
But even that would only be necessary if it looked like Drew was going to get hurt. She really didn’t think it was going to be dangerous.
“But I have to go now,” she said, as Drew finally got the car started. “Carlos, I don’t want to do this if you genuinely think it’s too dangerous, or if it’ll put Drew in danger, but—”
“No, you’re right,” Carlos said. He squeezed his eyes shut and repeated, “You’re right. There’s no real danger. They won’t suspect an owl, they won’t know it’s you, and you’ll be able to learn what exactly Drew’s doing for them, and when, and where. And if he does it tonight, you can follow him. Yes. I hate it.”
Pauline leaned down and kissed him quickly as Drew pulled away, the car trundling slowly down the street, as though he was hesitating to leave them behind.
“I don’t wanna sleep here!” Troy interrupted the moment. Val was sniffling again.
“Thank you,” Pauline whispered to Carlos, and shifted.
She flapped into the air as fast as possible. She had a car to follow.
***
Carlos
Why did Carlos have to have a mate who was so damn smart, quick, and brave?
He pondered that question as he pulled the kids inside. Troy was dragging a duffle bag behind him that proved to have diapers, snacks, juice, and bedtime stories in it. The kids were already in their pajamas.
“Looks like your brother made sure you have everything you need,” he said cheerfully, swinging Val up into his arms, hoping he wouldn’t set off a tantrum. But she just kept up the sort of half-sniffle, half-whine that she’d been doing since Pauline left.
“He always leaves us stuff,” Troy said sullenly. “And then he puts us with strangers.” He glared at Carlos.
“Well,” Carlos said slowly, thinking carefully about what he was going to say, “this is Pauline’s house. You know Pauline, don’t you?”
Troy nodded reluctantly. “She gives us cookies and stuff.”
“Cookie?” Val perked up.
“I’ve got...animal crackers,” Carlos reported, digging through the bag. “Want one of those?”
Val stretched out a hand, practically diving headfirst into the bag as she reached for a cookie. Carlos handed it to her, and she attacked it immediately.
“You want one?” he asked Troy.
“No.”
“You don’t accept bribes, huh,” Carlos said easily, which surprised the kid into an almost-smile. “I can respect that. Listen, you don’t know me, and I get that that’s no fun. But I’m just staying with you until Pauline gets back.”
“She went after Drew,” Troy
pointed out. “What if something happens?”
“That’s what Pauline’s there for,” Carlos said. “She’ll make sure nothing happens. She’s a real tough lady, she won’t let anything go wrong for your brother. Promise.”
Troy thought this over. It was clear that he respected Pauline’s essential toughness. “Okay,” he said finally.
“Meanwhile, how about I put on a movie and we can all snooze on the couch for a bit until she gets back?”
“Snooze,” Troy said, with a little giggle.
“What,” Carlos said, raising his eyebrows, “you don’t like a good snooze now and then?”
“No!” Troy insisted. “I like playing.”
“Do you like...” Carlos found Pauline’s remote, and found that she did have Netflix on her TV, to his relief. He searched for kids’ stuff. “...any of this?”
“Voltron!” Troy shouted. Val shrieked an accompaniment.
“All right,” Carlos said. “How about we all sit and watch some Voltron for a bit. I think I remember this from when I was a kid, but you’re going to have to refresh my memory a little bit.”
Troy leapt on the opportunity to educate Carlos about big space robots, and Carlos led them all gently to the couch, settled in with Troy next to him and Val on his lap, and started the first episode.
Troy had an impressive, almost encyclopedic, knowledge of the show; Carlos suspected that the old couple who watched them used it to keep him occupied. He listened and agreed and asked questions, and meanwhile, in the back of his mind, worried about Pauline.
His tiger, especially, was extremely worried. Our mate is in danger, it growled in his chest. Help our mate!
We are helping her, Carlos pointed out. We’re caring for the cubs.
That mollified it a little bit. His tiger did appreciate the small weight of Val on his chest, getting heavier as she dropped into sleep.
Carlos sympathized with his tiger, though. He wished to God he could be out there with Pauline, but there was absolutely no way to guarantee stealth for a full-grown male tiger when surrounded by other shifters with functioning noses. Carlos was sure he’d have no problem staying invisible to human eyes in the forest, but if any of them were shifted? The game would be up, and Drew would be in much more danger.
So this was best. But it chafed.
Slowly, Troy was winding down. He yawned a few times. When the episode finished, Carlos asked, “Ready for that snooze?”
He sat bolt upright. “No!”
Carlos had to chuckle. “How about we get a blanket, just so we can be comfy, huh?”
Troy allowed that, so Carlos found one of Pauline’s beautiful afghans—locally made? he wondered—and tucked it around the kid. Val was totally out for the count, so Carlos took the time to extract the half-eaten animal cracker from her fist and get rid of it before it became one with the couch.
By the time he got back to the couch, Troy was asleep. Carlos smiled and left him to it.
He laid Val out on Pauline’s bed, on top of the covers with another afghan over her, and took a deep breath.
Help our mate! his tiger insisted.
We can’t leave the cubs alone, Carlos argued.
No wonder everyone said parenting was tough.
***
Pauline
Pauline flew.
Fortunately for her, Drew was crawling along, not too eager to get to his destination, maybe. He slowed down even more after he turned into the forest and the roads got less paved and less predictable.
Pauline kept pace. She was glad it was nighttime, so she could see everything easily, and it was less likely that anyone would notice her.
Drew’s car trundled along, getting far into the woods, before he pulled it off onto a dirt track, got out, and shifted.
His wolf paced swiftly through the woods, even faster than the car had been going, but Pauline kept pace easily. And soon enough, her keen owl eyes spotted another wolf, a huge gray, keeping watch.
When that wolf saw Drew, he trotted up, growled, and turned to lead the way. Pauline hung back to avoid giving herself away.
She followed the flashes of movement until she saw the leader. Ryan stood in his human form, tall and arrogant, waiting for Drew to come to him. Pauline settled on a branch, high enough up and far enough away that no one would notice her—but her owl ears could hear mice dashing through the underbrush below. She’d be able to hear whatever they said to each other.
Drew came up to the clearing where Ryan was standing, stopped at the far end, and shifted back. Too far away for Ryan to get at him before he could run, Pauline noted approvingly—but then the guard dropped to his haunches right at Drew’s side, still in his enormous wolf form.
“You made it,” said Ryan. “We had a bet on whether you were gonna pussy out.”
“What would’ve happened if I did?” Drew asked. His voice was steady, and his head was high, looking right at the man’s face.
“We would’ve come to find you,” Ryan said mildly. “And I don’t know what woulda happened, but those kids wouldn’t have wanted to see it. Or be in the way.”
Drew twitched. Pauline bit back her own fear and tried to think logically. Could the man be serious? Would he really risk his pack by attacking a minor? Surely that would get them into more legal trouble than they could handle.
Unless they were sure they could get away with it. After all, Pauline and Carlos were the only ones who knew that Drew had had any contact with the pack at all. And if they were shifted...well, the law enforcement in this town knew that a “wild animal attack” often wasn’t what it seemed, but proving that in court would be impossible.
And, Pauline remembered, they hadn’t hesitated to break into Stella’s home just a few weeks ago. Who knew what they would’ve done, if Nate and Carlos hadn’t been there to fight them off? She didn’t even want to think about it.
But it looked like she was going to have to. Drew, after all, was clearly thinking about it.
“I get the message,” Drew was saying. “Where is it?”
Ryan came forward and handed Drew a big plastic package. There was dirt clinging to it, as though it had been buried out here. Drew held it gingerly, staring at it.
Pauline desperately, furiously wanted to swoop down out of the trees and land, claws-first, on Ryan’s face.
But that wouldn’t help anything.
Prey, her owl thought, staring at Ryan.
Prey, Pauline agreed. Watch and wait.
Watch and wait, her owl trilled hungrily.
“What do I do?” Drew asked. He still had that defiant edge to his voice, but Pauline could hear the fear underneath.
“You’re going to drive north until you’re right at the border, and you’re going to meet your contact there,” said Ryan. “He’ll be driving a red pickup, and he’ll tell you he’s here for hunting season. He’ll give you the money, you give him the package—in that order—and you bring the money back to me. If you skip town with it, your little kid brother and sister will be the ones who suffer, get it?”
Drew nodded. “Got it.” His voice was quieter now.
“And you wait until you’re sure the sheriff and her deputies are nowhere around, you got it? The only reason you’re doing this is they’re on my ass twenty-four-seven. If they get a whiff of you, you’re no use to me anymore, and you don’t want to find out what happens then.”
Drew nodded again. “No sheriff.”
“We’re gonna teach her how things get run around here soon enough,” Ryan observed. “Back in my town, the law knows what’s what. She’s new. She’ll learn.”
Pauline’s talons clenched on the branch where she was perched.
“Is that it?” Drew asked.
“Yeah, kid, that’s it,” said Ryan. “Do your job, and I’ll see you back here with the money tomorrow night. Go on.”
Drew turned around and started back to his car. In human form, this time, and Pauline suddenly realized why this drop-off was difficult. The p
ackage couldn’t be carried along when someone shifted—usually, only clothes could come with a shifter, and even small items would be left behind. There was no chance of bringing that big packet along.
Pauline’s mind went to the possibility of creating a harness of some kind, to allow a wolf to carry it on its back—and then she shook herself out of it. This wasn’t a problem to solve. And clearly Ryan’s solution was just to find an innocent kid to do his dirty work for him, since he was having a hard time evading the sheriff in human form.
Drew trudged back toward his car. The guard wolf paced him for a while, but before he got back to the road, turned around and trotted back. Pauline circled around to make sure: yes, both men were now shifted, and headed away in a different direction.
She flew back to Drew, and kept pace with him until he reached the car. Then she spiraled down, lit on the ground, and shifted.
Drew started, arms flailing. The package slipped from his fingers and dropped on the ground, and he snatched it back up again. “Pauline,” he hissed. “What are you doing here?” He looked back over his shoulder.
“They’re gone,” Pauline said quietly. “I made sure before I landed. I promise. No one’s here.”
Drew bit his lip. “Did you hear all that?”
Pauline nodded slowly.
“Damn it.” Drew ran a hand through his hair. “Are you going to call the sheriff on me?”
“No!” Pauline came forward, reaching out carefully. Drew didn’t flinch away, so she put a hand on his shoulder. “Drew, I want to help you. I want to get you out of this mess, all right? I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
Drew’s shoulders slumped. “Too late. I’m in trouble no matter what I do. I knew this was dumb the second I went to the wolves, but I didn’t realize how dumb until they threatened the kids. And now I’ve got this.” He held up the package. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s got to be illegal. I could go to the sheriff with it, and she could arrest Ryan, but now I’m incriminated, too.”
“She probably couldn’t even arrest him,” Pauline said, resigned. “She doesn’t have enough evidence, I bet, or she already would have. Unless his fingerprints are on that.” She nodded at the package.