by E A Price
“I ask her not to, but she keeps doing it,” he muttered.
Marion smiled, ignoring the snickers emanating from Branch and Harlan. She imagined a six-foot-ten reindeer shifter hunting for eggs was a sight to behold.
“If I told her you were leaving, she’d be pretty annoyed with me,” said Tank.
“Oh, well, I…”
Mira came running up, her eyes were wide, and her cheeks pink. “I can’t find Penny!”
Thirteen
Tank found Penny perched on an upturned bucket in the cleaning supplies closet. He had worried for a brief second, but on checking with his fellow enforcers, he realized neither she had gotten past them, nor anyone else had.
He knew she had to be in the building somewhere – he merely followed her fresh scent. He had all of their scents ingrained into his psyche. The twins smelled like blueberries – or perhaps more like sugary blueberry syrup. Penny smelled like strawberries, and Marion, oh, she smelled like a beautiful, ripe peach ready to be plucked…
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” muttered Penny, scowling at the floor. She was dressed in a pink bunny costume. Her cute appearance was completely at odds with the expression on her face.
He nudged into the small closet and squatted. He was being poked by several mops and brooms, but he ignored it.
“Okay?”
Penny nodded slowly. He knew she wasn’t; it was a stupid question. She was rehearsing the Easter play – she was the Easter bunny, a pivotal role, then in the middle of it, she apparently just took off running. According to Mira, she was faster than a cheetah on steroids.
“Sorry I didn’t tell you where I was going,” she said dully.
Tank shrugged and dislodged a mop. It fell on his head, briefly giving him the appearance of a slimy wig. He pushed it off his face.
“What happened?”
Penny shrugged. “I don’t want to do the play.”
Tank frowned. “So don’t do it.”
She sighed. “Mommy wants me to.”
He usually dealt with four females who if they didn’t want to do something, absolutely wouldn’t do it. Which was why Tamra had spent a year sleeping in a hammock when she was ten. He wasn’t really prepared for females who would do something to make someone else happy. Not that his mom and sisters were selfish, not at all – they always wanted to help people and be generous, they were just bloody-minded to the point of distraction.
He couldn’t imagine Marion being so pushy she would insist on Penny doing the play if she absolutely didn’t want to. “She’ll understand.”
“It makes her happy.”
“Hmm, so why don’t you want to do it?”
“Everyone will look at me.”
“And?” Given his sisters - who would generally do absolutely anything for attention up to and including performing a ventriloquist act at their high school talent show - this wasn’t a complaint he was used to.
“I don’t like it. It was like that in the pack. Mommy doesn’t think I remember, but I do. They all looked at me and made fun of me and wanted to hurt me because… because…”
Penny scrunched up her face in frustration as tears started to fall.
Tank took one of her tiny hands in his. “No one will make fun of you. No one will hurt you. I won’t let them.”
She looked up at him with the same huge brown eyes her mother had. The ones that could break a guy’s heart and get him to do anything she wanted. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
Penny rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her costume.
“Promise you won’t let Granddad take us away? He hurt Mommy.”
“Yesterday?”
“No, before, when we lived with him.”
Furiously, he realized she remembered Marcus too. His resolve to keep them away from that damn wolf hardened even more.
“Promise,” he nearly growled.
Penny nodded, her small face sobering.
“Good,” he said, “then let’s get out of here because Mommy is going crazy looking for you right now.”
He tried to stand, hit his head on a shelf, grunted in pain, stepped back, tripped over a sponge, and hurtled through the door knocking it clean off its hinges. Oh yeah. His favorite mop landed clean on his face too. Penny erupted into peals of laughter, and he wondered how many more doors he was going to have to replace that week.
Fourteen
Tank was driving her to her house. He hadn’t liked it, but Marion insisted on coming after the twins came up with a huge list of toys they absolutely ‘needed.’ She tried to remember where they all were – strewn all over the place most likely – but she just decided it would be quicker if she came. Marion could pack their stuff while he met up with the person who was going to fix the door.
The girls were surrounded by reindeer shifters - she was sure they would be safe. They were rehearsing and having their costumes adjusted – they wouldn’t even notice she was gone. Plus, Temp’s friend Heather was there and given all the stories Temp had told her, she wasn’t certain that Heather wasn’t part wolverine.
Marion watched in dismay as they drove past her house again. “Are we going to stop? We’ve driven past it four times.”
“Just making sure no one’s waiting for us,” said Tank, his eyes darting around in every direction.
She was amazed he didn’t have eye-whiplash.
Without stopping his headache-inducing eye roving, he picked up his phone and dialed.
“What are you doing?” He then grunted. “I’m parking on this time around, you park further up the street and keep a lookout.”
“Who was that?” asked Marion in bewilderment.
“Dozer.”
She frowned. “Dozer? As in the guy working on reception and scaring the living daylights out of anyone who comes into the center?”
“Yep. He’s also my cousin, and the pretty boy of the family.”
The idea of the reindeer shifter who was almost as large as Tank, and a whisper away from being just as rugged, as a ‘pretty boy’ was practically mind-boggling. She wisely decided not to touch that comment.
“Is he behind us or something?”
Tank grunted in agreement. She twisted in her seat to see that a large black vehicle was indeed following them.
“I hadn’t noticed,” she muttered.
Jeez, her sense of danger sucked. She had no clue someone was following them – even if they were friendly, she really should have been on the lookout for that.
Finally, after another once around the block, he pulled up in front of her house. Before she could get out of her seatbelt, he was already opening the passenger door to help her down. One large hand curled around her waist while the other clasped her hand. Oh, she had never been so pleased to be a short-ass.
Tank stilled and stared at the house. He pulled her a little closer and while she didn’t necessarily object, she felt she had to ask, “What’s wrong?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Not sure.”
Tank pulled out his phone and barked into it, “Get over here now!”
Moments later, Dozer, big and wearing black appeared at her side.
He was a lot like Tank, similar build – though not as large, similar hard expressions, though he wasn’t half as appealing as Tank.
“Stay here,” ordered Tank to Dozer.
Presumably, he meant her too, and she tried to object. “But…”
“Stay here,” he said a little more gently, his eyes even more difficult to say no to than Penny’s when she wanted to extend her bedtime by just five more minutes.
She flicked her head in an almost nod, though she wasn’t really acquiescing. With gnawing worry, she watched as he went into her house. He sensed danger - he sensed something was wrong, and she just let him go in there alone. She thought of the look Marcus had given him when he said the word ‘prey’ and her insides froze.
She looked up at Dozer, big and watchful, though not unduly worried.
&
nbsp; “What if someone’s in there?” she asked as mild panic started to rise.
“Feel sorry for them if Tank catches them,” he replied gruffly.
“What if there’s more than one of them?” Wolves were pack hunters, right? “What if they attack him? Shouldn’t we go in there?”
Dozer chuffed. “More than my life’s worth to put a human mate in potential danger.”
“What?”
Dozer’s pale cheeks immediately bloomed bright red. Actually, not just his cheeks. The redness spread all over his head. He looked like a flustered and less scary version of the Red Skull.
“Ah, nothing,” he mumbled, all but staring at his feet.
Marion huffed and puffed at him, but the huge male wasn’t budging. Marion sighed, giving in. Then her eyes widened.
“Oh my, what’s he doing here?”
She pointed behind him, and he spun around. “Who?”
Sucker. She took off toward the house. How did that always work? The kids loved it when she did it to them - they found it hilarious. Dozer probably wouldn’t see the funny side of it.
Marion ran into her house, ignoring the calls of ‘hey’ behind her. She didn’t get very far, halting at the carnage that met her eyes.
She gasped – the inside of her house was trashed, nothing was left untouched. Her furniture, the TV, the books – everything ruined, shredded.
Tank was there, standing in the middle of it like a huge, muscular beacon. He was rubbing his jaw thoughtfully, and when he spotted her he groaned and then let out a grunt at the male approaching behind her. She heard Dozer grunt in apology. She should probably feel guilty, but she had a few more important things on her mind.
On the floor at her feet was one of Sophie’s bears. His fur was matted, and one of his eyes had fallen off, and he’d never really recovered from when Marion had to sew one of his legs back on – but he had been well loved, and now, not even the Bear Hospital could bring him back to life.
Marion stepped through the detritus and straight into Tank’s arms. She wasn’t sure whether he was surprised by her sudden forwardness, but if he was, he didn’t show it. No, wordlessly he wrapped his wonderfully powerful and comforting arms around her, and she snuggled against him, immediately feeling that everything was a little less bleak than it was.
“The wolves?” she mumbled in a query, not that she really thought it could have been anyone else.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
She tried to shake her head, but she was plastered against him too tightly. “It’s just stuff; I can get over that. I just want them to go away.”
His strong hands were so gentle as they made soothing rubbing motions up and down her back.
“Should I call the cops?” asked Dozer. Marion had almost forgotten he was there.
Tank grunted that he should, and she heard him crunch away. Carefully, she pulled back from Tank.
“What about upstairs?”
“Trashed,” he admitted with a sigh.
“What about Fluffy?”
Tank winced.
“The monsters!” she exclaimed in a fury. Oh, if she didn’t already hate Marcus and his pack she really would now!
“You don’t need to be here,” said Tank.
“Shouldn’t I, though? Don’t I need to talk to the cops?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
She really didn’t take much convincing on that front. At that moment she just wanted to see her babies, hug them tight and kiss them until they squealed at her to stop.
Tank cocooned her small hand in his huge one.
She looked around at the house. It really was just stuff, and she had already taken the most important things to Tank’s last night. She supposed she could replace anything they really needed when she got her insurance check. Though it still hurt, it was still a violation and poor Fluffy!
Fifteen
Tank took Marion back to the center; he didn’t want her to get upset if he could avoid it. He left Dozer to deal with the cops. He had called and asked for a friend who was a detective and a shifter, so he would understand what was going on.
Thankfully, Marion wasn’t too shaken. No, she wasn’t the type to wail and cry. She just got on with things without arguing. She was very levelheaded and wasn’t likely to go running off half-cocked like most shifters would in her situation. Sadly, it seemed that her situation would get worse before it got any better.
Branch reached out to the wolf alpha, and he agreed to a meeting to discuss his claim on the girls – just as long as Tank was there. Yeah, apparently he wasn’t exactly pleasant about Tank – apparently, he was just a wee bit pissed about the reindeer quashing his attempt to kidnap his granddaughters. Wolves could be petty like that.
Branch was planning on taking him and Mal. Four other enforcers had arrived, and Harlan would remain at the center – he wasn’t keen to leave Temp with wolves on the scene.
Tank wasn’t keen to leave his fam… Marion and the girls. He stopped that thought in its tracks. They weren’t really his, were they?
He slowly walked through the center, taking in the scents and sounds, searching for anything unfamiliar. They had reindeer at every entrance, but he wouldn’t underestimate wolves. Damn predators.
The kids were still rehearsing. He stopped and watched as Penny danced about on the makeshift stage, placing Easter eggs behind unrealistic clumps of grass made out of pipe cleaners and egg cartons.
He caught Penny’s eye, and she smiled.
“Come on, Penny, can’t you be bouncier?” called a small Asian woman with a surprisingly loud voice.
“Heather, she’s already pretty bouncy,” said Mira, “and no, we are not putting springs on her feet so don’t bring it up again.”
Heather let out a suffering sigh. “Fine. Now, where are my chicks?”
At that, the twins burst into the room, each dressed in yellow chick costumes, each running around like crazy and each making quacking noises.
Heather tried to corral them, but no, they just ran around flapping their wings and quacking.
“Girls, you’re supposed to be stealing the eggs! Did you even read the script?!”
“Given that they’re still learning to read, probably not,” chuckled Temp.
“Well someone could read it to them,” suggested Heather, who didn’t seem like the kind of person who dealt with children on a regular basis.
“Giant!”
Izzy hurtled towards him and wrapped her wings around his calf. Seconds later, Sophie was attached to the other. They grinned up at him, equal parts cute and naughty.
“Having fun, girls?”
They nodded and started quacking.
“That’s not the sound that chickens make!” howled Heather.
The twins looked at one another, their expression turning even more mischievous and then they started mooing.
Temp, Mira, Martha, and Ariel were almost doubled over in laughter.
“Go on now,” said Tank, giving his legs a quick shake.
The two girls giggled and detached themselves, running off to cause more mayhem. Penny just watched them with a suffering elder sister expression on her small face.
Marion was sitting quietly at the back of the hall, watching their antics with a smile on her face. She was enjoying it. Perhaps enjoying watching them struggling to contain the twins with a little more evil glee than she should – he supposed this was where the twins got it from.
He joined her. Sitting next to her, he placed his hand, palm up on his leg and Marion smiled at him before daintily placing her much smaller hand over it.
Something warm, something wonderful zinged through him. He wanted to groan and hoot in time with his reindeer, but he managed to rein it in to just a small shudder.
“That’s Heather, she’s Temp’s friend,” murmured Marion. “She helped her set up the center. She also likes to write and direct all the plays and shows they do here. Course, this is her first time working with the
twins, so maybe this will be her last.”
Tank chuckled as the twins started throwing the eggs at one another.
She looked down at their entwined hands. “When I left the pack I was scared out of my mind. I was pregnant and had an infant and zero money or friends. My mom was gone, I haven’t a clue about my dad, but I did have a grandmother.”
Tank let out an encouraging grunt.
“I managed to scrape together enough money for a phone call, and she sent her neighbor to collect me. She didn’t have much, but she was kind and let me stay with her, and she absolutely adored the kids. While I went out to work, she would look after them, and the kids loved her. Money was tight, but we were happy.” Her expression dimmed. “She died a little over a year ago.”
He let out a sympathetic grunt.
“That’s when I came here, and I heard about this place. I approached Temp hoping she would provide a babysitting solution and came out of it with a job and a place to bring the kids outside of school. Not that the twins are in school yet.” The twins were making oinking noises. “I really pity their future teacher.”
She giggled and looked up at him. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re really easy to talk to?”
Tank grunted in affirmation. Yes, though it hadn’t meant as much to him before. He was probably good at listening because he got so much practice. Living with his mom and sisters had meant that he had infinite patience and since he had rarely been able to get a word into one of their conversations, he was also a great listener.
“I think that everything happens for a reason,” she said looking down at their hands. Her cheeks started turning dark brown.
Tank could feel his heart start beating a little harder.
“I think that maybe when you turned up at my house…”
His heart was damn near rattling his ribcage.
“I think…”
“Tank!”
The booming voice of his alpha shot across the hall. Tank looked up and growled. His alpha returned his growl and gave him an unimpressed look. The twins stilled for a moment before they started growling and running around even more energetically.
“What’s happening?” asked Marion, suddenly concerned and seemingly unlikely to finish her previous thought.