by Kimber White
I drove through the gate.
Just as I knew they would, Dad and Grammy were waiting. They walked out from Grammy’s trailer. Grammy had armed herself with the shotgun again. Dad had the more lethal weapon, his modified AR-15. It carried the same toxin-laced bullets as my nine. Though, I imagine when all the rounds hit Derek at once, even he wouldn’t get back up.
I put my hands up, signaling to Dad to hold his fire. He gave me a slow nod but kept his shoulders tense. “Don’t do anything stupid,” I warned Derek.
He laughed. “You mean like let you drive me into this viper’s nest?”
I didn’t laugh back. I got out of the truck and walked toward my father. Derek slowly opened the passenger door and got out, hands held high. He followed me. Dad gave me a questioning look but didn’t lower his weapon. Grammy did.
She reached into the pocket of her shorts and pulled out a small, black whistle. Before I could tell her not to, she brought it to her lips, inhaled, and blew.
To me, it just sounded like a high-pitched whine, but Derek reacted instantly. Clutching his ears, he dropped to his knees and started to twitch. The Wolf Whistle. Another of Dad’s inventions in beta form. It shouldn’t do permanent damage, but it might incapacitate him until Grammy ran out of air. That was the problem with the sucker. A wolf can move fast enough to kill you before you can take another breath. Which was kind of why the thing was still in beta. Dad was hoping to figure out a way to recreate the sound digitally.
Sofie and Brutus dropped to the ground at Grammy’s feet. It didn’t impact them nearly as much. Domestic dogs aren’t anything like werewolves. Sure, they could hear the whistle, but with a fraction of the intensity.
I reacted on instinct, putting my body between Grammy and Derek’s. As soon as she dropped the whistle, he might not be able to control himself. He was just as lethal to her in human form as if he’d shifted.
Grammy’s face turned red and she sputtered her last breath. Derek leaped to his feet and moved toward her. I held my hands up, one palm toward Derek, the other toward my father.
“Everybody just calm down!” I shouted. “Truce! At least for five minutes. Are we clear?”
At the moment, it wasn’t my father or Grammy I worried about. It was Derek. His eyes had gone from gold to red and back again. It was the closest he’d come to outright shifting yet. But, when he finally locked eyes with me, his pupils flickered and went dark again. His irises turned amber, and he let out a hard, steady breath.
“Jessa, you want to explain this? We were worried sick. Why didn’t you call?”
I opened my mouth to answer, then clamped it shut. Where the hell did I start?
“Let’s go inside,” I suggested. “My trailer.”
“No chance,” Dad said. He slung his weapon over his shoulder and stepped forward. “Pole barn. Now.”
I nodded and shot a look to Derek. He narrowed his eyes at me but didn’t protest. I looked back at Grammy. Sweat glistened above her brow and her chest heaved with uneven breaths. While the rest of us more or less calmly talked, she seemed to be falling to pieces.
“Grammy? It’s okay.” I went to her and put my hands gently on her shoulders. She trembled so badly I don’t know how she stayed upright. Sofie and Brutus sensed her distress. They each took a position on either side of her, tails low, teeth bared, they growled at Derek.
“It’s okay,” I told her again. I bit my lip past the rest of what I wanted to tell her. It came to me unbidden. He’s with me. As soon as I thought it, a shudder went through me.
Grammy stuck out her hand and clasped mine in a death-like grip. She didn’t let go. Not even after we all walked into the pole barn together.
Dad did most of his experimenting in here. He kept everything locked in metal cabinets along the wall. The room had four long, white tables and a large cage against the corner, big enough for a person to stand in.
As Derek walked in behind us, Dad brought up the rear and pressed the barrel of his gun to Derek’s back. Derek let out an ominous growl, but obliged my father by putting his hands up. He nudged Derek forward, and my heart raced.
I walked Grammy over to one of the tables and helped her sit down in a folding chair. Then, I went to the cage and opened the door, knowing full well what Dad would want.
“Jessa,” Derek said through clenched teeth. I knew it was taking everything in him not to turn around. I was fairly certain that in these close quarters, even in his weakened state, Derek was fully capable of turning and disarming my father before he could react.
“Look,” I said, putting a gentling hand on Grammy’s shoulder. She still trembled and hadn’t said a word. “We’re all taking a lot on faith here. We all need to have a civil conversation. That’s not going to happen if Dad and Grammy are afraid you’re going to rip our throats out. Get in the cage. It’s better than a bullet in the back.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw, but Derek gave me a terse nod and walked toward the cage. He paused when he got to me, standing just a foot away from Grammy. She looked up and met his eyes. Something passed through Derek’s face as he looked at her. He cocked his head to the side and furrowed his brow.
“You’re . . .” he started.
“Derek, don’t.” I didn’t know what was happening, but being this close to Derek wasn’t helping Grammy’s anxiety. All the color drained from her face and she closed her eyes.
“Grammy? Are you okay? Derek’s not going to hurt you.” The instant I said it, I knew it was true. Had known it all along.
Derek slowly crouched down in front of her. My father kept his weapon trained on Derek, but he didn’t move. Derek did. He reached out and touched Grammy’s knee. A single tear fell from her eye. She looked at him; he’d brought himself down to her eye level. With my hand on her shoulder, and Derek’s on her knee, her trembling finally stopped.
She closed her eyes; squeezing them tight, she put a hand up to her forehead. She shook her head no then dropped her hand in her lap. When she opened her eyes again, she stared straight at Derek.
“Son of a bitch. Does she know?” Grammy finally said, her voice choked and small. “Have you explained it to her yet?”
Derek’s eyes flicked from mine to Grammy’s and back again. Fear prickled along my spine. What in the hell were they talking about?
Grammy looked over at my father. “Put the gun down, Thomas.” Her voice was flat. “He’s not going to hurt Jessa.”
“Not planning on taking your word for that one, Ma,” my father said, widening his stance.
“You don’t have to,” she said. “But, he won’t. Will you, Mr. Monroe?”
I stopped breathing. Derek’s pulse thundered inside of me, and I didn’t understand why. On some preternatural level, I knew the answer had something to do with why Dad’s bullets didn’t kill him. Why I couldn’t shoot him. And why, as Grammy said, Derek Monroe was never going to hurt me. Not ever.
“Well, shit,” Grammy finally said, dropping her hand hard against the table. “Didn’t see that one coming at all.”
Derek smiled. “Neither did I.”
She laughed. Hard and deep, until a different kind of tear fell from her eye. “Son of a bitch.”
“Grammy?”
“Monroe,” she said. “You may not have plans to hurt Jessa, but I can’t promise Thomas won’t put a bullet through you when you tell him. My advice? Get in the damn cage.”
Of all the things that happened that day, what Derek did next shocked the hell out of me most. He gave Grammy a slow nod and walked right past me and into the cage. Then, he gave me a quick wink that sent lightning shooting through me. Handsome. Devastating. I shook my head to clear it, slowly closed the cage door, and engaged the lock.
I turned to Grammy. Dad had finally lowered his weapon and came to her side. He stood behind her with both hands on her shoulders.
“What’s going on, Grammy? Somebody better tell me.”
Grammy just smiled even though that haunted sadness still creased her
eyes. “Well, honey, you can’t say God doesn’t work in mysterious ways. Lucky for you, it seems to have saved your life tonight.”
“Grammy?”
“Settle down, baby,” she said. “You’ll have lots of questions. So do I. But, near as I can figure, that wolf over there? Well, you’re his mate.”
Chapter Seven
Three things happened at once. Dad raised his weapon, the red laser centered right over Derek’s heart. Derek charged the cage door; dropping low, he jammed it with his shoulder. The bars bent but didn’t give way. And Grammy started to yell.
“Thomas, stop!” She heaved herself to her feet, waving her arms. Brutus and Sofie, drawn by the commotion, began to bark and howl, circling between Grammy and my father.
Derek charged the cage bars again. His wolf eyes glowed, and fur sprouted on his hands. The bones of his jaw shifted, growing long as his wolf struggled to get out. He was getting better. In the melee, I doubted he could feel it. His thundering pulse seemed to reverberate through me, but that had to be my imagination. No one else seemed able to hear it.
I backed away, taking slow steps toward the door. Too much. Too many sounds. Derek’s heartbeat. Dad’s shouts. Grammy’s pleas. Brutus and Sofie’s yelping. I pressed my hands to my ears, turned, and fled the pole barn.
Cool air hit my face as I ran back toward my trailer. Grammy’s words echoed in my head. You’re his mate. His mate. Mate.
No. No. No. No. No! My step faltered as I reached the back porch of my trailer. I tumbled to the ground, scraping the underside of my wrists on the stone path. I cut a deep gash in my right knee and blood flowed freely. I scrambled to my feet and grabbed the screen door handle, nearly ripping the thing off its hinges as I swung it open and ducked inside.
I slammed the door shut and ran to the kitchen. I turned on the faucet, letting cold water blast out of it. I stuck my hands beneath the stream to wash the dirt out of my cuts. His mate! Even across the yard, I swore I could still hear Derek’s wild pulse thundering in my ears. I stuck my head under the faucet, gasping and sputtering as water dripped over my neck and down my ears. It felt good, though. A shock to my system with a cold dose of reality.
Pulling my head back out, I cupped the cool water in my hands and gulped it down, half choking. But, my heartbeat slowed. Whatever imagined connection I had to Derek, it seemed to fade with the settling of my pulse. Grabbing a towel from a hook under the sink, I patted my face dry and walked back into the living room. I sank down on my couch and slowly let my head fall between my knees, airplane crash position-style. It helped. The urge to pass out slowly receded, and I came back into myself.
I blew out a hard breath and listened. Whatever was happening out in the pole barn, I didn’t think Dad had pulled the trigger. I hadn’t heard his weapon fire or felt anything from Derek. Felt anything from Derek? I was losing it. Straight up. It had been a stressful few hours; that was all. No wonder I was losing my damn mind.
“Jessa?” Grammy gave a soft knock at the door but didn’t wait for me to invite her in. She pulled the door open and stepped inside. The first rays of sunlight shone behind her like a halo. Her flip flops smacked against her heels as she came toward me.
Tiny details I noticed. She had dainty feet. Toenails painted siren red the way she liked from a pedicure two days ago when I took her to the mall. Not her fingernails, though. Grammy was a biter. She smoothed the stray hairs away from her face and smiled at me. When she took a breath before she spoke, I wished I could stop time. That fraction of an instant would mark the sections of my life as before and after. I wasn’t sure I was ready for the after. But it always comes anyway.
“We need to talk, sugar,” she said. “Scoot on over and lemme sit next to you. It won’t be as bad as you’re thinking.”
I bit my lip and moved to the end of the couch. Grammy sat right next to me, her hip touching mine. She gathered my right hand into hers and brought it to her lips, giving me a soft kiss across my knuckles.
“Did Dad kill him?”
Grammy smiled. “Oh, he tried. And he might not be done trying. You were smart to make Derek get in that cage. At full strength, I think that boy might be able to pull those bars apart. Which, all things considered, that’s a good piece of intel for the future. Thomas is gonna have to build something stronger for the next wolf.”
“Grammy.”
She smiled and gave me my hand back. Grammy stared at some point on the wall, her face taking on a dark expression. Then, a smile finally came back, crinkling the corners of her eyes.
“What do you mean I’m his mate? And what do you know about Derek? You talked to him like you two know each other. What the hell’s going on, Grammy?”
“Well, that’s three questions. Let’s stick to one at a time. No. I’ve never met that boy before. But I know what he is. I’m surprised you didn’t.”
“He’s a werewolf. What else did I need to know?”
Grammy leaned back on the couch and rubbed the top of her thighs with her palms. She was stalling. I turned to face her. She raised a brow.
“He’s an Alpha. A pack leader.”
I shook my head. “A pack leader? You mean the pack leader?”
“No. I would have said that if that’s what I meant. Derek Monroe’s not a Kentucky wolf. He’s from Wild Lake. Northern Michigan.”
“So what’s he doing way down here? You’ve told me all my life that Michigan wolves, or any foreign wolves, aren’t allowed to set foot in Ohio. They have a treaty with the Kentucky pack. Kentucky stays in Kentucky. Michigan stays in Michigan. Anybody crosses into the border states, they’re liable to start a pack war.”
“That’s right. And I don’t know why he risked it. Or more importantly, why he left his own pack behind. I meant to ask him, but things got a little confusing for everybody back there.”
“So make it simple. Tell me what you do know. Because I’m guessing it’s a hell of a lot. Werewolves are killers. I’ve seen what they do in Kentucky and when they cross the border. You and Dad raised me on it. I know wolves made those scars on your body. What’s different about Derek? Because he is different. I can feel it, Grammy. And I don’t understand.”
Her eyes were soft. She rested her hand on my knee. “He’s very different. Like I said, he’s an Alpha. A strong one. I could sense him miles away.”
“How?”
She leaned forward and pulled her long braid to the side. Turning, she exposed the back of her neck to me. There, at the nape, she bore a faded, crescent-shaped scar. A bite mark. I reached out and traced its outlines with my index finger.
“That’s an Alpha’s mark,” she said, sitting back. “Jessa, I was raised near Wild Lake. A little northern Michigan town called Oodena. My people, the Odawa, founded it long ago. When I turned eighteen, a pack of wolves kidnapped me and brought me down to Kentucky. It’s an old family legend, but I was sacrificed. They claimed me against my will. Now, I don’t care to tell you all of it. It happened so long ago, and I don’t like to remember. Truth is, I don’t remember a lot of it. Pain does that. Trauma does that. But, those wolves were brutal. They did things to me. Hurt me. Badly. I almost didn’t survive. They thought my Odawa blood gave me special powers that would turn me into a she-were. There aren’t many of them left, you see. But my powers? Nonsense. Superstition. This mark was made by the Alpha of the Kentucky Chief Pack at the time. Kentucky wolves are different. There’s only one Alpha and he rules as a ruthless tyrant over all the wolves. But, in Michigan, it’s different. Now, anyway.”
“Different how?”
“In the Wild Lake lands, there are many packs. Many Alphas. They cooperate with each other. Or so I’ve heard.”
I slid my arm around her shoulder. In my imagination, I saw Grammy as a young girl. Just two years younger than me. God. Ripped away from everything she knew and loved. She had to be so scared and so strong.
“How? How did you get away from them?”
A genuine smile lit her face. “Your grandfathe
r was a brave, brave man. Sexy as hell, too. He worked for a rescue organization based right here in Banchory. I wasn’t the only young girl who disappeared. Anyway, the wolves left me for dead when they figured out I wasn’t any use to them. Grandpa found me and brought me here. I couldn’t go back home by then. It was too dangerous. The Kentucky pack could retaliate against my family if they ever found out I’d gone back to them. I couldn’t take that chance. And by then, I’d been gone for two years. I was dead to them anyway. Plus, your grandpa was a good enough reason to stay in Banchory. I was safe here. The Kentucky wolves weren’t allowed to cross the border. Back then, they honored that pact. And any time one or two of them did try and break the boundary, we were ready for them. That’s how the Lyles got into the shifter bounty hunting business, Jessa.”
I hugged her. I’d always known Grammy was strong. Now, I knew she was an honest to God warrior.
“I knew Derek was an Alpha because of my mark. When the Alpha who did it to me made it, it connected me to him. I could feel his pulse. Hear his heartbeat. He used it as a way to keep me from running away because he’d always know where I was. It tethered me to him until the day that bastard finally died. Tormented me every waking hour and through most of my dreams for an entire year after I escaped.”
“Did Grandpa kill him then?”
Grammy shook her head. “Oh, he wanted to. Tried plenty. But no. My escape weakened him in the eyes of the pack and someone rose to take his place. That’s how an Alpha becomes an Alpha. He has to kill an Alpha and make the rest of the pack submit to him. I’ve heard they can break off and start their own packs too. But the Kentucky packs don’t allow that. It’s one Alpha and one Alpha only.”
“What about Derek? Why did you say I was his mate, Grammy?”
“What do you mean why, sugar? Haven’t you already figured that out?”
I rose off the couch and started pacing in front of her. “He hasn’t touched me. I mean, he didn’t bite me like you’re saying.”