“Someone planted them there. He hasn’t been near your family’s workshop. He’s been up here at camp the whole time.” Karen’s face was red with anger, and the fur on her face rippled and receded again and again. Low growls rumbled up from her throat.
“No, he hasn’t,” Warren said coldly. “He disappears into the woods every day, for long periods of time. Isn’t that true?” He raised an eyebrow at Virginia.
Virginia folded her arms across her chest and glared at him. “It’s only minutes at a time, and there’s a reason for it. I can’t say what the reason is, because I promised not to, but he’s never gone long enough to have made it all the way down to the workshop. That’s miles from here.”
Karen flashed Riley a startled look at that news. It was news to Ty as well. Why was Riley sneaking off into the woods?
“What were you doing in the woods?” Karen demanded of Riley.
He shrugged, and he and Leah looked at each other. He gave her the tiniest of headshakes.
“You always were a bleeding heart,” Warren sneered to Virginia. “Of course you’d lie and cover for him.”
“Smell those wallets,” he added to Ty. “You’ll find his scent is all over them.”
“Of course it’s all over them, genius.” Ty raked him with a furious glare. “They were in a bag with his clothing. What led you to search under his bed?”
“Anonymous tip.” A smug smile stretched across Warren’s face. Evangeline was watching from a distance, hands on her hips, with a smirk.
“You’re behind this, and I know it,” Virginia said angrily. “These are good kids, and Riley is not a thief.” She glanced at a patrol car pulling up. “That’s why I called in my cousin.”
Warren looked slightly rattled. “There was no need to call in the sheriff. The easiest thing to do is just have the entire Padfoot family leave these premises immediately and agree to stay out of Timber Valley. There’s no need for a criminal investigation. I’d hate to see him have a criminal record at this point.”
“Oh, you’re suddenly concerned about his welfare – because you don’t want Steele to investigate. Still trying to force your daughter on Ty, so you can get his land?” Virginia’s lip curled in contempt. “Dream on. She’ll never be a Battle.”
Warren let out a low snarl, but he was interrupted by Steele’s approach.
Everyone erupted when Sheriff Battle walked up, shouting and pushing forward to get his attention. “Enough!” he bellowed. “One at a time.”
He listened to Warren give his account, then he listened to Virginia and Karen’s furious protests.
Steele looked at Riley. “Did you take the wallets?” he asked.
Riley shrugged sullenly, glaring at the ground. “Everything thinks that I did, so sure, why not?” he snapped. “You know how we Padfoots are.”
“Riley! You do not talk to him like that,” Karen hissed, looking mortified. Riley chewed his lip and didn’t say a word. Warren smirked with satisfaction.
“It’s all right. I know he didn’t do it,” Ty said to her in a low voice. He put his arm around her shoulders. She was rigid with anger, but relaxed a little bit and let out a shaky breath.
Steele knelt down in front of the knapsack and his face rippled and went wolf. His snout extended, his nose quivering. He sniffed at the wallets. Then he stood up, shook his head, and his face turned human again. “There’s Noscentsium all over the wallets.”
“Obviously, he picked some of it and used it in an attempt to block his scent,” Warren growled.
“The thing is, while Noscentsium masks the smell of an individual wolf and makes it impossible to pick up that wolf’s scent, it does have a unique odor all its own,” Steele said. “I can even distinguish which individual plant was used. The scent is as unique as a fingerprint, or the rifling on a bullet. If someone used it, I can smell the plant on them.”
He sniffed at Riley. “He doesn’t smell of the plant, so he didn’t use it. It was used by someone who planted those wallets in the knapsack, and wanted to disguise their scent.”
Warren went pale. “He washed it off, then!”
“Nope. Wouldn’t help. I could still scent it, for days.” Steele sniffed at Warren.
“I don’t have any of it on me!”
“I didn’t think you would. You’re not quite that dumb. The problem with you, Warren, is you’re half smart.” Steele narrowed his eyes, fixing Warren with a look of contempt. “There’s a reason we turned you down when you applied to the sheriff’s office. You’re a schemer, and a bully, and now you’re running around in a security guard uniform throwing your weight around. Frankly, even if this boy had stolen the wallets, sending three big thugs to chase him down and beat him up speaks of cowardice.”
Steele’s face rippled, and the bones stretched, as he partially shifted again, tipping his head back in the air. Then he turned and began running – in the direction of Evangeline.
Her eyes went wide with fear, and she turned and ran. She didn’t get far before he caught her and grabbed her by the arm.
Steele came back, frog-marching a kicking, screaming Evangeline in front of him.
“Daddy! Make him let go of me! Do something!” Evangeline screamed at her father, her eyes bulging. Warren just stood there, like a deer caught in headlights. He didn’t move an inch. Neither did his two packmates, who hung their heads in submission and avoided meeting anyone’s eyes. They knew better than to challenge Steele.
“She reeks of noscentium, from the same bush that I smelled on the wallets,” Steele said. “She planted the wallets in that backpack.”
“He’s a liar! He’s a liar!” Evangaline wailed. She began sobbing hysterically.
“You bitch! I knew you were behind this!” Karen screamed. She went full on Lynx, and lunged through the air. Her silver and white fur flashed in the sunlight, and her claws were extended. She managed to get one good swipe in, slashing down Evangeline’s face, before Ty shifted into wolf form and knocked her off of Evangeline.
Evangeline shifted too, into a slim gray wolf, and tried to run away. Steele shifted and lunged at her, and she fell to the ground, rolling on her back and waving her paws in the air in submission.
Ty kept Karen away from Evangeline. After a minute of snarling and hissing, with Karen swiping at him with splayed claws and him blocking her with his paws, they both shifted back.
Karen climbed to her feet, shaking with rage.
“Karen, my uncle will end his pack alliance with them now, I assure you,” Ty said.
Evangeline turned human again, and so did Steele. Blood poured down Evangeline’s face, as she fixed Karen with a deadly stare.
“You’ll get yours,” she growled at her, and then she let Sheriff Battle lead her away.
Virginia trotted up with two oversized t-shirts, since Ty and Karen had split out of their clothing when they shifted. Ty made his t-shirt into a loin-cloth.
“I’m going to go talk to my uncle,” Ty said to Karen. “Wait here for me. I’ll be back within the hour. Warren’s pack will be off our land before the sun goes down.”
She nodded. “Thank you. You should have let me rip that bitch’s face off, though.” Her voice was shaky.
“Promise me you will be here when I get back.” Ty fixed her with a stern gaze.
“I will.” She met his gaze.
“When I come back, I want you to tell me what’s been bothering you. I’ve had it with this crap, Karen,” Ty said sternly. “We’re a couple. When we have problems, we face them together.”
She hesitated, then gave a slight nod. “All right.” He knew that she meant it, and he felt as if a ton of bricks had been lifted from his shoulders. Whatever the problem was, if he just knew what he was facing, he could fix it.
Warren’s face was flushed with fury, but he didn’t say a word. He just turned and stomped off to his car, with his two pack mates following him, and they drove away in a screech of tires. Ty followed behind him.
Chapter Sixteen<
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“Are we staying here at camp?” Leah asked Karen.
“I don’t know. Do you want to?” Karen looked at her searchingly. Leah had gone back to her usual calm, emotionless expression.
Leah appeared to consider the question. “Perhaps. Interacting with my peers in this environment is an interesting experience.”
“What about you?” Karen asked Riley.
He shrugged. “It’s fine either way,” he muttered.
He glanced at Kimberly, who was watching him out of the corner of her eye. Then he straightened up, took a deep breath, and squared his shoulders. “I’d like to stay,” he said.
“Well, now that Warren and his pack will be off the property, I guess it should be all right.” Karen plucked twigs out of Riley’s hair, and he pulled away. “I can do that,” he said.
Would it really be all right to leave them here? Karen wondered. It seemed as if Warren and his family were the main ones trying to get rid of them, but because of her father’s reputation, they would always be vulnerable to false accusations. Maybe they’d be safer back in Crystal Falls, with her watching over them all the time.
Virginia cleared her throat loudly. “All that shouting made me thirsty,” she said. “Karen, come with me to get a drink?” Karen thought she should stay with her brother and sister after that ordeal, but it seemed to her as if Virginia wanted to talk to her about something.
“I’ll be right back,” she said to them. She followed Virginia into the kitchen, where Virginia poured them both glasses of iced tea and dumped in ice cubes. Then Virginia leaned in and said to her in a low voice “Your brother’s a healer. That’s why he sneaks off in the woods.”
“He’s a what? He can’t be. I’d have known about it,” Karen protested.
“No, healers don’t start to come in to their powers until their adolescence, so this would have just stared within the last year or so. He really is a healer, I snuck in to the woods and saw him heal a bluebird with a broken wing. Leah can sense the wounded animals, and she brings him to them, and he heals them. I’m not supposed to tell you, though, so don’t say anything.”
“Why wouldn’t he want me to know?”
“He’s embarrassed, because healers are always women. He’s a teenage boy, you know how it is. They don’t want to be different.”
Karen was about to answer, but then she heard male voices outside the cabin, shouting orders. “Is Ty back already?”she wondered. “That was fast.”
The voices sounded angry, she realized, and she could hear yells of protests coming from the campers.
“It sounds like something’s wrong,” Virginia said. They set their iced tea on the sink countertop, and rushed outside.
Karen was stunned by the sight that greeted them when they ran out the door. Her father was there, standing with a dozen armed human men with machine guns. The humans looked military; they were big burly men with buzz cuts, and they were dressed in camo gear . The humans had trained their guns on the campers and counselors who were bunched together, clinging to each other.
“What the hell?” Karen hissed.
Virginia and Karen glanced at each other in shock and dismay. They could shift, sure, but they weren’t bulletproof. There were too many men to take on at once.
There were two vans parked in the parking lot that hadn’t been there before.
Her father pushed forward, waving at her. He looked even worse than the last time she’d seen him. His stubble was halfway to beard status, and his clothes were strained.
“That’s her,” her father said, waving at Karen. “She has special abilities. She can boil water just using her mind. She’s the one that you want.”
Riley and Leah cried out in protest.
“Dad, what the hell?” Karen’s claws shot out. She fought to keep her Lynx down. If she unleashed it, she’d attack these men, and they would undoubtedly kill her.
“Karen,” her father said. “You need to go with them. Don’t give them any trouble, and nobody gets hurt.”
“What have you done?” Karen hissed to her father.
“It’s not personal, Karen. Our family needs the money. I’m getting well paid for this.”
“How could you do this to me?” She couldn’t believe this was happening. Her father was dealing with humans? He’d brought them here onto pack property? A shifter who revealed their existence to humans faced the death penalty, and risked the safety of their entire species.
Her father’s face turned sullen. “You can’t support the kids. You’re a failure as a lawyer. I didn’t have any money before, but with the money they’re paying for you, I’ll be able to take real good care of Leah and Riley.” He staggered, then steadied himself. “Stop being such a selfish bitch and go with them. All they want is you.”
One of the men spoke up. “Actually, we’ll need all the kids. The kids, the counselors, everybody. Get in the van, now, or we start shooting.”
“Wait! You said you just wanted her!” her father protested.
The man who’d spoken, a dark haired man with a hawk nose, who appeared to be the leader, gave him an icy glare.
“We need everyone with special abilities. Our inside source says that most of these campers have some sort of mutation.” His face twisted in a sneer, and he surveyed the cowering children with a gloating, covetous look. “It’s a freakshow here in Timber Valley.”
“Not all of the campers have special powers,” Virginia protested. “Leave the rest behind.”
“So they can call for help? Do we look stupid?” the man sneered. He looked at her more closely. “Ah, the healer bitch. You got away from us before. Not this time.”
Karen felt ice-cold fear running through her veins. The campers were crying. The counselors looked furious and panicked, but they were teenagers. They were no match for a dozen armed men. This can’t be happening, Karen thought, panicked.
“I’ll go with you, but I will not let you take my family. I will fight until you kill me,” she snarled.
“Do you really want your brother and sister to see your dead body?” one of the men sneered at her. “Besides, if we take them alone, who’ll watch over them?”
Karen glared at him, blazing with fury, but said nothing. He smirked.
“Thought so.”
“If you’re taking all three of them, I should get triple pay!” Their father whined.
“Actually, I think we’ll just take you too.”
Ellwood went pale.
Riley turned to glare at him. “Dad. How could you?”
“I had to! They were only supposed to take Karen! They were paying me a fortune, and we’d have had all the money, and we could have split it!” their father whined.
“You can take your money and choke on it,” Riley snarled. Then he whirled around at one of the men, glowered, and the man spontaneously began to smoke, and quickly burst into flames, turning into a blazing torch. Riley closed his eyes. Half a dozen of them started smoking. They ran screaming into the grass and fell to the ground, where they writhed and shrieked as they caught on fire.
The leader let out a stream of curses and hit Riley in the temple with the butt of his gun. Riley crumpled and fell to the ground, unconscious.
“Riley!” Karen screamed, lunging towards him, but the two men restrained her. She glared at the hawk-nosed man. “I will rip your flesh from your bones for that,” she snarled.
Leah looked up at the leader, with her cold, pale blue eyes. “You’ll die screaming, before the sun sets tonight,” she said.
He looked rattled. “No, you will, you little bitch, and I’ll be there to watch it!”
Then he turned to shout at his men. “Counselors in one van, kids in the other van,” he bellowed, and they were rushed at gunpoint to the two separate vehicles. Smart. None of the adults would try to escape without the kids.
There was one driver for each van, and two men with guns leveled at them. In Karen’s van, the hawk-nosed leader was one of the men holding a gun on them. Th
ere was a metal partition between the front and back, but there was an opening in the partition. The men pointed their guns through the partition. There were no windows in the back.
“Try to shift, and we start shooting,” the leader snapped at Karen.
“Karen, listen, I didn’t know they’d take everybody,” her father whined as the van door slammed behind him. In answer, Karen turned and head butted him so hard his nose shattered, and blood exploded everywhere. Her father cursed and wailed as they drove away, clutching at his wounded face.
They pulled out of the Timber Valley property and headed for the interstate. Karen’s heart sank. By the time Ty got back to the camp, he’d find it empty. How would he know where to find them? What did these humans want with them?
“STAB one to headquarters,” She could hear the man up front speaking on his radio. “We’ve lost six of our men. We’ll be meeting you at the rendezvous point for extraction in fifteen. Please confirm. Over.”
“Rendezvous in fifteen. Over,” the man’s voice crackled over the radio. She and Virginia exchanged dismayed glances.
“STAB?” Virginia whispered. “Have you ever heard of them?”
“Shut up!” one of the men barked, jabbing his gun at them. “No talking. I’ve got no problem taking you out.”
Karen settled back in her seat. Once they got to the rendezvous point, she and the others would have to shift and take a stand. Wherever they were being taken, she was sure it would be a secure facility crawling with armed men, and she was also sure that they’d never leave there alive. She’d rather die fighting than die in a prison cell or on a laboratory table under a dissecting knife.
She blinked back tears. Her brother and sister…they’d die too. There was nothing that she could do to save them. So young, with so many years about to be stolen from them. All that she could do was ensure that they died in the open air, instead of locked away like zoo animals.
Purr For The Alpha (A Paranormal Romance) (Timber Valley Pack) Page 11