Karen turned her back to the window and gave Isadora a reproving look. “Helping them to preserve their family is more important than money.”
Isadora glanced up suspiciously. “Can I please check your license to practice law? I’m not sure you’re qualified. Oh, God, here he comes.”
“He who?” Karen followed Isadora’s gaze out the window. For a minute, she’d thought Isadora might have meant Ty, but it was just her father. His brown hair, shot through with gray, looked snarled, and his clothing was rumpled.
“He, the loser who does not deserve to share the same last name as you. I’ll see you later. I should leave before I say something I’ll regret. Oh wait, I never regret anything.” As Isadora passed Ellwood in the doorway, she snapped “Later, asshole.”
Ellwood turned to glare at her as she flounced off, then turned back to Karen. “You should fire her,” he said sulkily.
“She’s my only friend. She also works for free. I can’t.”
He shut the door behind him and turned the lock, glancing around nervously. “Am I safe now?” he asked. “The sheriff let me go this morning. He had the nerve to say I can never set foot in Timber Valley again.” He took on a wounded expression. Karen had no sympathy.
“That’s because every time you go there, you steal something,” Karen snapped.
“What am I supposed to do, Karen?” Ellwood collapsed into a chair facing her. “I’m an old man. I’m in poor health. I can’t work.”
“You’re in good enough health to break in to the Battle’s property and haul off a bunch of heavy saddles, not once, but twice.” She pinned him with an accusing glare.
“What? They know about the other time?” he sat up quickly, looking around him with a panicked expression as if he expected the Battles to come bursting through the front door at any moment and haul him away.
“You don’t need to worry about it,” Karen said irritably. “I got you off the hook for everything. However, to buy your way out of this latest caper, I have to put my career on hold and completely disrupt the kids’ personal life. I will be uprooting them and moving them in to the Battle compound for the next month, and living there myself so I can help out during the day. I will have to work at Ty Battle’s nightclub for a month straight to pay them back.”
“But I’m off the hook, right?” he said anxiously. She fixed him with a steady stare, until his gaze dropped to his lap and he sat there nervously drumming his fingers on his knees.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I really needed the money. I had a good buyer, and everything. He’s pretty pissed off at me right now, because I couldn’t deliver the goods.” His voice turned whiney and he shot her an accusatory look.
“Is that so.” Karen kept her voice flat and toneless.
“I was stealing the money for you guys, so I could help you out,” he wheedled.
She shook her head. “When I was younger, I would have believed you. Not any more,” she said. “You always said that, but you never came through for us, not once.”
He started to protest, but she barreled on. She wasn’t interested in listening to more excuses.
“I am starting a new law practice, or trying to, and then you pull this? Everyone knows it was you. Who wants a lawyer whose father is a criminal? And not a particularly talented one at that.”
He flushed with anger when she said that.
“You can’t talk to me that way. I’m your father. I stuck around after your mother dumped you.”
Karen rubbed her face with her hands. Dealing with her father and his mood swings was exhausting. Wheedling, threatening, defensive, self-pitying, demanding - he’d trot out whatever he thought would work on her.
He’d come back three months ago after a year long absence, and he’d found a new, tougher Karen. She’d finally given up on believing that he’d ever change. She’d just gotten her law license, after going to law school on a scholarship. She was no longer willing to let him come and mooch off the family whenever he felt like it.
He could sense it, and she knew he was getting increasingly frustrated with his lack of ability to manipulate her. Tough titty, she thought.
“You stuck around because I was working and paying the rent and buying groceries,” she pointed out.
He deflated visibly. “I’m sorry. I haven’t been a very good father. I appreciate you getting me out of trouble, I won’t go back to Timber Valley, and the kids can stay here at your house. I’ll watch them.”
She shook her head. “No, for obvious reasons. If I leave them with you, you’ll bring your criminal buddies around, or you’ll run off and leave them alone for days on end. The last guy you brought around was a felon who taught Riley how to pick locks and jimmy windows open. Those are skills that he should not ever need.”
“Riley could use a little toughening up,” her father growled. “But fine, if that’s the way you want it. I offered to help, you turned me down. Don’t say I never tried to contribute. So, I can stay at the house while you’re gone? It’ll be empty. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to,” he protested, as she shook her head.
“You may not. The last time you stayed at our house, Riley’s X-box disappeared and I had to pretend a burglar had broken in, so he wouldn’t know that his own dad had pawned his Christmas present. The people next door are my landlords, they will be home, and they have already been informed that nobody at all is allowed in my house for the next month. They are a pack of hyenas, and they bite.”
He stiffened. “Riley and Leah are my kids. I could just take them.”
Her eyes blazed with fury. “Try it. I’ll see you in court. Good luck finding a judge who’d award you custody. You’re a homeless criminal, and an alcoholic.”
“I just meant…You’re treating me worse than a real animal these days! I’m family!”
She shot to her feet. She was one pissed off Lynx. Nobody got between her and her brother and sister.
Fur tufted on the back of her hands, and her claws shot out. “That does it. The whole deal’s off. The Battles can have you. I’m calling them right now! Get out!”
“No! Don’t, please! I would never take the kids from you! I know I can’t take care of them! I’m an addict. You told me that yourself.”
“Yes, and you refused to seek help.” She was so angry she was shaking. Her face rippled, bones shifting, fur bristling just under the surface. Her Lynx battled to be free, to lunge through the air and tear and rend. She couldn’t do it; her animal wasn’t capable of rational thought when it came to her brother and sister. If she freed her Lynx, she’d probably battle her father to the death right there.
“You need to leave, now. I’ll go work for Ty Battle, for this one month but I don’t want to see you again, and I don’t want you to come visit Leah and Riley until you can show me you’ve successfully completed treatment for your gambling and alcohol addictions. If you can’t do that, then you don’t get to see them, and I mean ever. Come near us again, and I will go to court and get a restraining order. Am I clear?”
“Very clear. There’s no need to raise your voice. I raised you better than that.” He walked out, his gait stiff and his head held high.
“No, you didn’t,” she yelled at his retreating back. “Trust me, you really didn’t!”
Chapter Four
On Friday morning, Karen piled her younger siblings and three bulging suitcases into her car, said goodbye to her landlady, and drove to Timber Falls.
I am going to be living on the same property as Ty Battle for a month. How am I going to survive with my sanity intact? she wondered as she wound around the curves on the long road that led to the center of the Battle pack’s vast property.
The road was paved, and lined on either side with towering trees, ponderosa pines crowded with Douglas Fir underneath. She glanced at the trees longingly as she wove through them, exhausted by the weight of all the responsibility pressing down on her. She wanted to shift into Lynx form and disappear into the treetops, to stay h
idden forever in the dense green canopy and not have to think about Ty or whatever crap her father was going to pull next, or how every week she wasn’t sure if she’d earn enough money to buy groceries.
She couldn’t do that, though; she had a family. She had loans to pay back. Also, there was no place to buy chocolate in the woods, and she was a woman who needed regular infusions of chocolate to keep her sanity intact.
Camp had already started, and they weren’t supposed to have visitors except on Sundays when it was visitor’s day, so Virginia had agreed to come down to her family’s house to pick the kids up. The camp was located half an hour from the compound.
She glanced in the rearview mirror. Isadora was following behind her in her own car, for no real reason other than that she was bored and she always enjoyed sticking her snout in Karen’s business.
“Are we there yet?” Riley asked glumly. He’d reacted to the news of their trip into wolf country with the enthusiasm of someone being told they were going to have a root canal without anaesthesia.
“Aren’t you guys excited? This is going to be great!” Karen said brightly, trying to force cheer into her voice.
“A whole month living with dogs?” Riley scowled. “That’s your idea of great?”
“Wolves,” Karen said firmly. “Wolves. Watch it. If there is one thing I will not tolerate, it’s species prejudice.”
“Wolves and dogs are the same thing, aren’t they?” Riley was using his smartass voice. He’d been doing that a lot lately. Teenaged boys. What a joy they were.
Karen narrowed her eyes. “Well, let’s see. I don’t really know how to answer that, because you’re a bobcat shifter.”
Riley sat bolt upright. “I am not!”
“Oh, right, you’re a mountain lion shifter.”
“I am NOT! I’m a lynx, you’re a lynx, and you know it!” Riley was boiling over with righteous indignation.
“But you think that a wolf and a dog is the same thing? Is a Chihuahua and a Great Dane the same thing?” Karen demanded.
Riley shrugged. “Fine,” he muttered.
“So don’t be ignorant. Furthermore, you will treat these people with respect. Do you understand? You are their guests. You will say please and thank you, yes ma’am and no ma’am, yes sir and no sir. You will not reach across the table, you will ask someone to please pass you the food. Am I clear? Because you really don’t want to get on my bad side.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Riley said sullenly.
The treeline fell away, and they drove into a cleared area. Vince Battle’s house was right up ahead, a massive sprawling complex built in the same rustic log cabin style as his pack’s office building, but a lot bigger.
“I sense both good and evil here,” Leah announced from the back seat.
Great, Karen thought. Leah would fit right in with her “I can see into your soul” vibe. The fact that she had ice blue eyes and an unnerving, unblinking stare also did not help much. Karen knew she was a good kid, but she looked like one of those mutants from “Village Of The Damned” and she tended to freak people out. Leah never got invited to her school-mates’ sleepovers.
“Uh, yeah. Maybe you should keep that to yourself,” Karen said, as she pulled up in front of Vince Battle’s house.
Vince was the Alpha of the whole pack, and he and his wife Jade basically ruled over Timber Valley. He was one of the city councilmen, he owned numerous businesses, and he presided over the pack and tens of thousands of acres of property. He and Jade, their sons Lance, Troy, and Pierce, and their daughter Virginia lived there.
Another son, Max, who was also an Alpha, had recently married and moved on to his own piece of property with his new wife. Alphas couldn’t live in close proximity to each other once they reached a certain age.
A group of wolf shifters stood out front, including, Karen was dismayed to see, Evangeline Rivers. She’d known Evangeline since high school; she was a snooty social climber whose driving ambition in life was to marry an Alpha. Today, she was dressed like the upscale version of what she thought a rancher’s wife should look like. She wore hand tooled cowboy boots, designer jeans, and a low-cut white blouse. Her big frosted blond hair was perfectly razored and styled. Karen found herself patting her own hair self-consciously; as usual, the heat was turning it into a frizz bomb.
How does she keep her hair like that? And why was she there? Karen wondered. She’d been there the night that Ty had humiliated her. Were the two of them in on something here?
The other wolf shifters waiting for her were Jade, Lance, Troy, Pierce, and Virginia.
There was also some big burly wolf shifter with them that Karen didn’t recognize. Handsome enough, probably a cop from the way he carried himself. All the Battles were good-looking. Karen scanned the group, but didn’t see any sign of Ty in the area.
Was he even coming? Maybe he’d just swing by when it was time for her to go to work tonight. She’d assumed that he wanted her to move on to the Battle compound because he’d be more easily able to try to seduce her, but maybe she was wrong. He could have been telling the truth when he said that he just needed to make a public demonstration of the Padfoot family’s submission to the Battle pack.
She shouldn’t feel strangely disappointed about that, should she? Of course she wasn’t disappointed. She was just nervous. She was done letting Ty Battle lead her on. Everything between them would be strictly business, and if he had other ideas, she had ten sharp claws which would quickly convince him otherwise.
Riley and Leah climbed out of the car, hauling their suitcases with them. Isadora walked up to them, hands shoved in her pockets. Today she wore black jeans, motorcycle boots, and a tank top.
“Where’s lover boy?” she whispered to Karen.
“Don’t you start, wench,” Karen whispered back. “I outweigh you by at least five pounds. I will cut you.”
Isadora answered with a very unladylike snort of derision. “With what, your razor wit?”
Leah was surveying the group of shifters who strolled towards them, sweeping them with her icy gaze. “That one hates us,” she said, staring at Evangeline.
“That brings me to my rules for your visit here,” Karen said quickly. “Leah, no reading people’s minds, that’s rude and it gives people headaches.”
She glanced at Riley. “Riley, no picking locks, and no setting things on fire.”
Riley liked to pick locks just for the fun of it, although as far as she knew he’d never stolen anything. Still, with a father like theirs, picking locks was just about the worst hobby he could have chosen. Also, things seemed to catch on fire when he was around. He didn’t have a lighter or matches. It just happened, when nobody was looking. Very often, it happened when someone was provoking or insulting him.
The wolves were upon them. Karen straightened up and flashed a nervous smile. With the exception of Evangeline, however, they all looked friendly enough.
“Greetings!” Jade Battle said. “Welcome to our pack.” She wore a button-front denim shirt and jeans which flattered her figure, still trim even though she was in her sixties and had four children. Her long black hair swept half way down her back. Her eyes were the color of purest jade.
The teenaged girl had one brown and one green eye, a genetic anomaly shared by all healers, who were also always female.
“Hello,” she said to them. “I’m Virginia. I’ll be taking you up to camp. Leah, you’ll be in my cabin, and Riley, you’ll be in the cabin next to mine.”
Riley stared at Virginia, then turned back to Karen and pulled her aside. “Did you pick her on purpose?” he demanded in a low, angry voice.
“What the heck are you talking about? I didn’t pick her at all.” Karen stared at him in confusion.
“Nothing,” he muttered, and stuck his hands in his pockets.
Did he have to start up already? “Kindly don’t be rude. Please don’t make our reputation any worse than it is,” she pleaded.
He glanced up at her, brushing his l
ong brown hair out of his eyes. He needed a haircut. Why hadn’t she noticed that before? He needed new shoes, too, she thought, wincing. She should have bought him a pair before they came out here, so they could make a better impression. She could have dipped into the electric bill money, maybe.
“You’re afraid that I’m going to turn out just like dad, aren’t you?” he asked.
This was one of those times when honesty probably wasn’t the best policy, she thought to herself.
“There’s no reason you’d turn out like him,” she said. “You’ve got me here riding your hide.”
He managed a grim smile, with no mirth in it whatsoever. “Trust me, I’m nothing like dad.”
Now what the heck did he mean by that? But before she could inquire any further, he’d walked up to Virginia.
“Hello, I’m Riley. Pleased to meet you. Thank you for having us here.” His voice was flat and his expression neutral, but at least he was saying the right things.
“I’m Virginia, this is my mother Jade, my brothers Lance and Pierce, my cousin Dash, and Evangeline Rivers, from the Whitetail pack. We’re very happy to have you here,” Virginia said. She glanced at Karen. “Your brother has lovely manners.”
Dash glanced at Isadora. “Well, well, if it isn’t the vandal.”
“Prove it, Sergeant!” Isadora said with an insolent grin. “You couldn’t last time.”
She shook her head at Karen’s startled glance. “Nothing,” she said. Karen didn’t want to know, mostly because she didn’t want to be called upon to testify. Why couldn’t Isadora have normal hobbies, like baking cupcakes or anything that didn’t require bail money?
Leah frowned in concentration, staring into space and talking to an invisible spot in the air. “Don’t worry about the algebra test, you’ll ace it,” she said. “You always do.”
“What?” Virginia asked, puzzled. “Are you talking to me?”
“Leah, stop it,” Karen said, smiling through clenched teeth. “Not here.”
“I have to go now, I’m meeting new people,” Leah said. “Yes, most of them are nice, but one of them hates us. Let me know how the test goes.”
Purr For The Alpha (A Paranormal Romance) (Timber Valley Pack) Page 3