Tara set about unpacking her bag, showered, and then crawled into a deliciously comfortable bed. She had been asleep in moments.
This morning she put her hair in its usual braid, put on a blue workout tank and yoga pants with her running shoes, grabbed her iPod and headed out the door. She started out with some light stretches, rotating all her joints, to loosen up the stiffness from yesterday’s climb. Today she was going to jog rather than a full out run to check out the best paths to take. Until she knew the area better, she didn’t want to go too fast. A run through the trees wasn’t exactly a flat, open jogging trail like she was used to.
With Breaking Benjamin blaring into her ears, Tara took off. It didn’t take long to realize she’d be better off, sticking to the dirt road rather than jogging through the trees. They may be scenic, but exposed tree roots, low hanging branches, and thick beds of wet leaves covering the ground were a definite hindrance. Plus, she seemed to be heading up an incline. Tomorrow, she would make sure to follow the road heading back into town.
She veered slightly to get back out of the woods, toward the road. She had originally decided against that because it was narrow and would barely fit two vehicles passing each other, much less adding a pedestrian to the mix, and she had noticed it had rather deep ditches on either side, but how much traffic was there really in Malsum Pass?
She was just congratulating herself on a rather impressive jump over a fallen tree, when she saw him walking toward her, once again dressed in T-shirt (black today), jeans, and work boots. Wanting to make a better impression on the man this time, she pulled out her ear buds, and pasted a smile on her face. Today I will show him that, yes, I am able to carry on an intelligent conversation with a handsome man.
He was frowning at her and shaking his head as he approached and the next thing Tara knew, he had bent forward and heaved her like a sack of laundry over his shoulder, his arm clamped around her thighs.
“Put me down!” Tara screeched.
“Shush before I smack your ass. Damn foolish woman! What do you think you’re doing?” He growled.
“I was looking for a decent place to run. I wanted to run through the woods, but changed my mind when I saw it would be too difficult and was heading back out to the road, now put me down!”
He swatted her ass. It didn’t hurt, but it did snap her temper. “You arrogant, insufferable, asshole, how dare you treat me like this? I could have you arrested for assault! Put me down this instant!” She said, kicking her legs and hitting his back.
He dropped her. The bastard actually dropped her! He didn’t lose his grip because of her struggling nor was it an accident judging by the smirk on his face, he’d simply let go and let gravity do the rest. Tara had been lucky to fall in a rather thick bed of leaves. She gawked up at him with her mouth hanging open in disbelief.
Before she could berate him further, he leaned down and pointed a finger in her face. “This isn’t New York, sweetheart, or wherever else you’ve lived and I may be an arrogant, insufferable asshole, but I’m not the only thing out here you need to be aware of. If I hadn’t come straight at you, you never would have realized I was there with your ears full of fucking music instead of your surroundings. This isn’t a god damn city park; it’s a forest and home to black bears, bobcats, and coyotes any one of which could have taken you down before you even knew it was there. Hell, do you even know what to do if you see one?”
Tara felt incredibly stupid for not thinking of wild animals. She licked her lips. “I’d probably run away.”
He stomped away from her muttering under his breath and then came right back to her. “Running is the worst thing you can do. It’s like saying ‘please chase me’!” he said in a poor imitation of a girl’s voice. “I don’t care how fast you think you can run, they are faster and they will catch you.” His voice softened just a hair, “Stay aware, and if you ever see one, do not run. Raise your arms to make yourself look as big as possible and make noise to hopefully scare them away. Never turn your back on one. And for God’s sake if you ever see a baby animal come spring, stay the hell away from it; where there’s a baby, there’s a protective mother who won’t hesitate to attack.”
He offered his hand to help her up and she reluctantly took it, brushing the damp leaves off her now equally damp ass.
“Be careful on those ledges you were climbing yesterday, too,” he added, motioning for her to walk back toward her house. “Timber Rattlers like to nest in those rocks.”
Tara blanched. “I thought rattlesnakes were only in dry places like New Mexico and Arizona.”
“Nope” he said shortening his stride to match hers. “Get yourself a sturdy pair of hiking boots and wear long pants on those ledges; watch where you’re putting your hands when you climb too. If you want to run, take the road back toward town, it’s pretty well maintained, and if you want to explore the woods, give me a call. I live right up there,” he said motioning back behind them up the road. “I’ll come with you.”
Willingly spend more time in the presence of the man that made her feel like a complete idiot? Tara would take a pass.
He seemed to read her mind, or maybe he could guess by the look on her face, but he sighed. “I’m sure your grandpa would be glad to come out and walk the woods with you.”
They walked in silence. The man had sort of saved her she supposed – at least to his way of thinking. She really hadn’t thought of wild animals and not being able to hear something approach she would have run (literally) right into trouble. So, bonus points for him there, but he’d also manhandled her, assaulted her posterior, and dropped her on the ground so a big old negative one hundred for that.
As for his advice, she’d have to start carrying her gun with her. She wouldn’t want to shoot an animal, (well, except maybe the snakes), but the loud noise should be enough to scare them away. “I have a gun and a permit to carry in both New York and Virginia; do I need to go to the town office to get one for here or can I get the forms for it on-line?”
He seemed startled by her request, or maybe it was just surprise that she owned a gun at all, but regardless he chuckled. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises? You don’t need a permit to carry in Vermont. You can look up the regulations on-line, but you’ll probably find they’re a lot less complicated than your other two states.”
She nodded thoughtfully, “I’ll do that.”
When they were walking up her drive Riley noticeably stiffened and said rather forcefully “Get in the house, now.”
She gawked at him. What the hell? But then she noticed he was looking up toward the ledges rather than at her so she followed his gaze.
“Is that a wolf?” She asked her eyes going wide.
“Get in the house now, Tara. I mean it.” And he gave her a small push toward the porch.
Tara didn’t argue; he’d already proven that he knew this area and she didn’t and she certainly wasn’t going to put herself purposely in danger just to satisfy her curiosity. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t satisfy it safely.
She ran up the stairs to her bedroom which had a nice view of the ledges and the animal that sat on them. Tara was no expert, but it looked like a wolf. She’d seen some at a zoo exhibit but this one was much larger; was that because it wasn’t kept in captivity or was this some hybrid wolf mix? Whatever it was, it had a beautiful red coat that seemed to fade to a tan color on the outside of its front legs with white on the sides of its face, under its muzzle and down its chest. It turned its head toward the trees and then stood to trot off into their concealing cover.
Tara moved away from the window and went back downstairs to look for Riley. He wasn’t in the house, and a quick look out the windows didn’t reveal him in the front or back yard. He was gone.
Riley stood in the trees above the ledges and watched Tarvahl trot toward him and then shift when he was out of sight of the house. “I take it L.J. went to see you this morning.”
Vahl nodded and brushed tears from his eyes, snif
fing. “She’s so beautiful. I didn’t even know she existed.”
“Did you stash some clothes nearby?” Riley asked putting his arm around the older man who nodded and pointed a few yards away.
He stayed silent until Vahl was dressed. “L.J. told her who you were, she didn’t know about you either – hell, she didn’t even know about L.J. apparently, not until Marisol died and she found some letters.”
Vahl nodded again. “He told me.”
“My point is, you probably could have just walked up to her door and knocked, or called her and set up a meet. You didn’t have to shift and take the chance of scaring her.”
“I just wanted to see her first. I guess I had a hard time believing it. I mean, I figured Marisol ran off because we were forbidden to be together. She told me she loved me. How could she truly have loved me, Coop and deny me my first born? I didn’t even know she fucking existed! I would have moved heaven and earth to find her! Twenty-eight god damn years I’ve been denied. I feel like killing something.” He growled.
Riley nodded. He would feel exactly the same in Vahl’s situation. “Come on up to my place. It’s early, but we can kill a couple of beers, then you can go talk to your daughter and get to know her.
Vahl nodded and they walked in silence to Riley’s house. He went to the fridge and pulled out a beer to offer to Vahl but the older man shook his head and then spoke. “Marisol was quite a girl, you know. She was beautiful, but she was crazy too. I’m not talking mental institution crazy but crazy wild. I think it was because she couldn’t shift, she felt she had to push the limits in other things – prove she was worthy to be around us full blood kids.”
Riley nodded as he poured himself a cup of coffee and offered one to Vahl who took it before he continued. “I don’t know if you and your friends ever went to the gorge, but it was a favorite hangout for us when we were teens.” He chuckled, “We use to see who could climb the highest up the rock face before they jumped into the water. Marisol held the record.” He shook his head. “It’s amazing we all didn’t kill ourselves with the shit we pulled. She was one crazy determined lady, let me tell you. She played hard and she partied harder.”
Vahl sighed. “My father was an asshole. He was adamantly opposed to the plan to mate pure bloods to non-shifters in hopes of increasing the population but he was out voted. That didn’t stop him from trying to control me though. I was forbidden to go anywhere near a non-shifter, but especially Marisol. He considered her an abomination.” Vahl snorted. “The man obviously knew nothing about child rearing or he would have realized that forbidding it only made it more appealing.” His look turned sad, “He was always horrible to her, said some really nasty things. I always assumed she left because he never would have allowed her to become my mate.”
“It could have been part of the reason,” Riley said. “He may have scared her enough where she didn’t want to tell you about the baby.”
Vahl nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “The last time I saw Marisol we were supposed to meet up at a party. To tell you the truth, I was so shitfaced she may have been there and I hadn’t noticed, but when I checked with my friends when I finally heard she was gone they said she never showed. I didn’t even know she was gone until the night after when L.J. cornered me.” Vahl ran a hand through his hair, and blew out a breath shaking his head. “The man was feral, demanding to know what I had done to his daughter. He was a wreck. Having my own kids now, I completely get it, but at the time I thought he had gone off the deep end. He wouldn’t even look at me for a year. The entire town assumed that Marisol had either ran off with some guy or just decided to get the hell out of this town. She wasn’t exactly popular since she couldn’t shift.”
Vahl took another drink of his coffee and cleared his throat. “I have to assume Tara can’t shift since she knew nothing about us.”
Riley sighed, “As it turns out, Marisol put her on a medication to suppress it. My thoughts are that your daughter should be able to shift if we can get her to stop taking it.”
At Vahl’s shocked look, Riley repeated what L.J. had told him and what he planned to do about it.
Chapter Seven
Addie had left Tara a list of numbers by the house phone since she couldn’t get cell service out here. One of them was Riley’s or rather, Coop as Addie had written and she picked up the phone at least three times to call him and ask about the wolf but each time she hung it up. The rude man had just left – again – without a word. She would have to amend her mental title for him to the rude arrogant ass.
She’d stripped out of her damp running clothes, not failing to notice the wet bits of leaves and brown pine needles that had stuck to her backside despite her attempts to brush them off. She showered and redressed and then made herself breakfast. She was happy to see Addie had picked up some instant oatmeal and orange juice as well as bagels and cream cheese. Settling on a bagel and O.J., Tara contemplated what she wanted to do today. Her grandpa had said he had to work in the morning but would stop by with Addie later in the afternoon. She was kind of leery of exploring outside too much considering her confrontation with him earlier, as well as a wolf rather close to the property.
She could brainstorm a bit for her next screenplay, but her brain was feeling a bit scrambled right now with all of the transitions in her life – that might be best left for a bit; though she probably should send out an e-mail to her agent as well as some of her friends to let them know where she could be reached if they needed to call her.
What she really wanted to do was finally meet her father. Her grandfather had made it sound as though he would be really accepting of her and she just wanted to jump in head first – the problem was the bitchy step-mother. The last thing she wanted was a confrontation with a stranger. Tara chuckled; she was in a fairy tale complete with the evil stepmother. And brothers! Oh my God, she had brothers now. All her life growing up as an only child she had longed for siblings. She had been so lonely. Her mother and Matty were too busy all the time to do much in the way of playing and play dates with friends from school were only on the occasional weekend, the rest of the time she was alone. She had begged her mom for a pet to at least spend time with but her mother had adamantly refused. The one time she had found a stray kitten and attempted to bring it home with her the poor little thing had hissed at her and fought to be let go so Tara had had no choice but to let it be. Eventually she had immersed herself into an imaginary world that had led to her current career but siblings would have been so much better. And now she had three! She really hoped they could be close – the kind of siblings that picked on each other but had each other’s backs too.
Her mind made up, Tara grabbed the keys to her car and her purse. She wouldn’t knock on their door (even if she knew where that door was), but she could head into town and see if she might spot a Pierce. Apparently they were easy to identify.
She had stopped in at the small grocery store and put a couple of things in her basket so that she could wander the few isles without notice, but no luck. She checked out the post office to enquire about acquiring a box, but no Pierces there. She even braved Lucy at the diner for a cup of coffee, again nothing. She was about to pop in and visit her grandfather at The Powder Keg when she noticed a sign across the street from his shop that she hadn’t seen before: The Stag. It was obviously one of her grandfather’s designs with the big slab of wood and a carved deer head with a large spread of antlers. The name of the bar burned into the surface and the lacquered finish just like her grandfather’s sign for his shop. As she got closer she noticed the neon lights that weren’t yet lit advertising different types of beer.
It was rather early, and she doubted a bar would be open, but she gave a tug on the door and it swung toward her. “In for a penny, in for a pound,” she mumbled and stepped inside. The interior was dim, rough plank wood seemed to be the theme throughout as it made up the floors, walls, and open beam ceiling. A huge jukebox sat just inside the door, there were two pool tables o
n the left hand side of the bar and three electronic dartboards to her right. Chairs were set upside down on top of the tables that occupied the central area, a sure sign that they weren’t actually open and three almost identical redheads – one behind the bar and two on the business side – swiveled toward her and pinned her with a look.
Well, so much for just getting a peek. Tara hadn’t actually thought about what she would say to them once she found them. Good plan, Tara, way to be prepared.
They moved toward her and then around her, basically boxing her in. Their eyes moved over her as if to study every inch; one of them sniffed loudly. Okay, she was officially uncomfortable.
“We’re not open yet.” The tallest said. She wondered if he was the oldest: Conner. They all looked so much alike with their dark red hair that was worn overly long and slightly shaggy, dark brown eyes, and red beards – even on the youngest.
She wondered if she should take the easy way out, apologize for coming in and make her escape or if she should just be up front with them and let them know who they were to each other. She took a deep breath (and wished she hadn’t when stale beer and staler popcorn hit her nose), then squared her shoulders. She could do this. “You guys are Conner, Jacob, and Zachary, right?”
All three took identical stances, arms crossed, feet spread apart – she’d find it amusing if they weren’t so big and intimidating with frowns on their handsome if hairy faces. The tallest seemed to be the spokesperson for the bunch. “Who’s asking?”
“I’m Tara and I’m your sister.”
Silence… If this was one of her movies they’d cue crickets chirping right about now.
Then suddenly, the tallest of them grabbed her by the arm and yanked her toward a back office with the other two following and Tara scrambled to keep up. The men in this town certainly had a knack for manhandling women. “Zack,” the one who grabbed her arm yelled over his shoulder, “Lock that door!” As soon as they were out of the main part of the bar he turned and hissed at her. “Jesus Christ, lady, do you have a death wish?”
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