The Librarian from the Black Lagoon

by Heather Horrocks

  Larry positioned himself as she fell and caught her.

  Tightening his arms around her, he looked down into her face.

  He’d found women attractive before, but his inner wolf had never reacted to any of them. Until now.

  Mine.

  The sensation was so strong, and so unexpected, that he bobbled her in his arms for a second.

  “Is she okay?” Samuel asked as he strode over and peered down at her. “She’s a pretty little thing.”

  Larry practically snarled at him.

  Eyebrows and hands both raised, Samuel took a step back. “Stand down, Deputy Knight. The threat has been contained.”

  Elvis came to stand next to Samuel. He studied Larry and the woman for a few seconds, then grinned. “Interesting.”

  Samuel chuckled. “Very.”

  Stand down.

  The words brought Larry back to his senses. What on earth was he doing? His wolf was delusional; this woman couldn’t possibly be his lifemate. She was a tourist. A human.

  What was he thinking?

  But she was so beautiful that it took him a moment longer to pull his gaze from her face.

  The two men were staring at him. Samuel asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Samuel didn’t look convinced, but he said, “Do you want help carrying her?”

  Larry shook his head. “I’m good. I’ve got her.”

  “Okay.” Samuel said, still staring at him a little strangely.

  The three of them began jogging, more slowly this time since Larry was carrying the woman.

  It took fifteen minutes to get back to the truck and she was still out like a light. Larry climbed in, careful not to jostle her, and settled her on his lap.

  “We’ll have to wipe her memory,” Samuel said, as he started the truck. “She saw the creature, then she saw us shift.”

  Larry grunted his agreement.

  “This is going to change your confirmed bachelor status,” Elvis said, noting the way Larry was cradling her.

  Larry shook his head. “She’s a human.”

  He’d dated a lot, but had never gotten serious with any woman. But this girl was different.

  Still, his wolf had to be wrong. This woman could not possibly be his mate.

  That was a shame, too, because she was so very pretty.

  Crazy Cat-Lady Starter Kit

  JOAN GROANED AS SHE CAME TO. Her foggy confusion only increased when a man murmured, “You’re safe now.”

  Fingers lightly touched her arm and her eyes snapped open. It was the man from the woods. The one who’d saved her.

  The one who’d changed into a freaking wolf!

  She scrambled away from him. “You!”

  He sighed. “Me.”

  She glanced around the room. It was a small, sparse area that held only the cot she was lying on and a couple of chairs. “Where am I?”

  “The sheriff’s department in Moonchuckle Bay.”

  “I’m back in town?”

  He nodded.

  She forced herself to a sitting position. “You don’t look much like a deputy.”

  He was wearing jeans and a blue T-shirt that did nothing to hide his muscular frame. He looked strong and dangerous — yet somehow he made her feel safe at the same time. She didn’t know how that could be, but she couldn’t deny she felt it.

  He nodded. “We brought you back here an hour ago. You’ve been out for a long time. We had Dr. Johnson stop by to make sure you were all right. We were just preparing to transport you to the hospital in case you didn’t wake up. But here you are.”

  “What happened to me?”

  “You don’t remember?” He sounded hopeful.

  “Well, I remember that I was kidnapped by some horrible beast.”

  He sighed. “How did you get away?”

  “I picked the lock on his buffet cage.”

  “We found your ID and looked you up on the internet, trying to figure out who you are. Your Facebook page says you’re a librarian.”

  “Yeah. So what?” Her unease was translating to snark.

  “So you picked the lock.” He raised a brow. “You don’t sound much like a librarian.”

  “Librarians are amazing creatures.”

  “I’m sure you are. I have read a book or two. I pulled a couple of mine off my shelf in case you wanted to read while you waited.”

  He motioned to a small table beside her and she picked up the books.

  The Elephant Whisperer by Anthony Lawrence was on top. An excellent book made into an even better audiobook, with Simon Vance as the narrator.

  Next was The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Another great book.

  And, lastly, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. It was a good enough book, but she was a bit surprised that he had it in his collection.

  She looked up at him. “Really?”

  His mouth quirked at one corner. “That one belongs to a female deputy. She thought you might like — and I quote — a good book instead of the garbage that I usually read. She and I have vastly different reading preferences.”

  She set the vampire book back on the table. “I don’t read young adult romance, especially not paranormal.”

  “Oh.” He sounded disappointed.

  “But I loved The Elephant Whisperer.”

  He smiled. “Me, too.”

  She was a nerd. She knew it. She also acknowledged that she was a know-it-all, but she did know it all, or at least she’d read enough to feel like she did. Most men bored her, and she’d never found the right guy. She hadn’t ruled out romance, though. She’d love to fall in love.

  Interestingly enough, she felt safe with this guy.

  “We didn’t know how to get in contact with any family that you may have, so we haven’t contacted them.”

  “I don’t have family.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  Without meaning to, she blurted out, “My parents died when I was in college. Even my dog died a couple of months ago, and I haven’t had the heart to replace him.” Then she caught herself before she poured out the rest of her life story. Looking into his eyes, she saw caring and empathy.

  There was a knock on the door, and a woman who was actually wearing a deputy’s uniform stepped inside. She nodded at the guy. “Larry.”

  “Your name is Larry?” Joan asked. That was another innocuous name that she could have assigned to make the monster less scary.

  He looked defensive. “Yes.”

  “You haven’t even introduced yourself yet?” The deputy rolled her eyes, and then turned to Joan. “Ms. McCall, I’m Deputy Tabitha Jones. I’m here to relieve Deputy Larry Knight.”

  “As in knight in shining armor?” Now why’d she have to ask that?

  The man smiled, looking satisfied. “Exactly.”

  “Out,” Tabitha told him, pointing toward the door. “The sheriff wants to talk with you.”

  Reluctantly, he stood. “I’ll be back later to check on you, Ms. McCall.”

  “Thank you.”

  After he left, Tabitha shook her head. “He’s got it bad.”

  “Got what?”

  “He likes you.”

  Joan scoffed. “I don’t think so. He barely said three words to me.”

  “Usually, he’s teasing and joking with everyone. He’s been like the town playboy. He doesn’t have any trouble making small talk with anybody, even perfect strangers. But he brought you in — carried you in from the woods — and insisted on staying with you until you came out of it.”

  A playboy. Great. Joan’s least favorite type of guy.

  Tabitha took a sniff and then looked at her from head to toe. “Now that you’re awake, you probably want to shower.”

  “Yeah. That monster thing slimed me.”

  The pretty deputy wrinkled her nose. “Ugh.”

  “Yup.”

  She held out some purple scrubs. “These are mine, but you can have them. We may need to burn what you’re wearing.”
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  After showering and dressing in the clean, un-gross-monster-smelling scrubs, Joan toweled off her hair again. Looking in the mirror, she was surprised to see that she had no bruises or injuries. She pulled out the small brush she had in the fanny pack and ran it through her reddish-brown locks, darker now that they were damp.

  She didn’t have makeup with her and her hair had looked better, but the good news was that she no longer smelled like that disgusting creature. What was that thing, anyway?

  Whatever it was, she was immensely grateful to have escaped — and to have been rescued.

  And why had those wolves helped her? Everything was a bit hazy, but the vision of them morphing into decidedly handsome men seemed so real — and if Deputy Tabitha Jones was to be believed, one of them appeared to be interested in her.

  She shook her head. Surely she’d imagined it. She’d been in shock from dealing with the beast that had monsternapped her.

  She cleaned up the sink area, hung the towel over the shower stall, and hooked her fanny pack around her waist. She didn’t normally wear it around town, but she’d left her purse at home since she’d been planning on hiking all day. She’d emptied it and scrubbed it as clean as she could in the sink to get the swamp odor out of it, then dried it and put her possessions back in it.

  Her phone rang and she pulled it out. Oh, good. Her best friend, Natalie Coombs.

  “Hi, Natalie.”

  “Hey! How was the hike? Where are you right now?”

  She took a deep breath and released it. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  Natalie sounded worried. “I saw on the news that some hikers were attacked outside Moonchuckle Bay. I’ve been worried sick, especially when you didn’t answer your phone. Are you okay?”

  “Actually, I was in that group.” And she realized she didn’t want to worry Natalie more by telling her that she’d been abducted. Not over the phone. When she got back to St. George, she’d go over the whole story with her friend.

  “What happened? Was anyone hurt?”

  “Natalie, it’s okay. The group was attacked but, as far as I know, no one was harmed.”

  “Well, I feel bad because I wasn’t there with you. I’m going to drive out now.”

  Joan smiled. “You don’t have to do that, though I appreciate the offer. I’ll be leaving town soon.”

  “How soon?”

  “Soon,” she hedged.

  Natalie paused, then asked, “Why the indecision?”

  Joan wondered that herself.

  “It’s a guy, isn’t it?” Natalie’s tone was accusing and hopeful at the same time.

  Joan laughed. “There is a cute guy here, but that’s not the reason. I have to talk with the deputies again before I can come home.” She failed to mention that the cute guy just happened to be one of those deputies.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”

  Natalie had three cats, and she called them her crazy cat-lady starter kit. “I’m sure. You stay and take care of your kitties.”

  “Okay. Keep me posted, though, okay?”

  “I will,” Joan promised.

  Am I Dinner or a Mate?

  LARRY’S ATTENTION WAS TOTALLY FOCUSED on the woman taking a shower in the other end of the building, so he jumped when Samuel said, “We need to talk.” He hadn’t even heard his boss approach.

  Samuel chuckled. “Great werewolf instincts there.”

  Red-faced, Larry mumbled, “I’ve had weighty things on my mind.”

  “Like a hundred and twenty pounds of good-looking woman?”

  Larry shrugged. “She gets into a lot of trouble for someone her size.” Hoping to change the subject, he said, “What do you need to talk about?”

  With a motion of his head, the sheriff said, “Follow me.”

  They made their way to Samuel’s office and Larry sank into the visitor’s chair.

  Samuel closed the door before taking a seat behind his desk. Apparently, this was an official talk. “We have a problem.”

  “I don’t want to wipe her memories,” Larry blurted, surprising even himself. He shouldn’t have said that, but it was true.

  Samuel raised an eyebrow. “Really.” It was a statement, not a question. “Come on, man. Tell me what’s up. I know you’re totally focused on her, and you haven’t been yourself. You’re acting like she’s your mate or something.” Samuel’s eyes widened as the implication of Larry’s actions sank in. “Wait a minute — is she your mate?”

  Larry didn’t want to answer that question, so he went with a non-answer. “She can’t be. She’s a tourist.”

  “She sure is,” the sheriff agreed.

  “And she’s human.”

  Samuel chuckled, “So? Didn’t stop me.”

  Samuel’s wife Amber had been human when they’d married. She’d been turned now, by her own choice, but she was proof that it could happen.

  “You know I’ve played the field a lot.”

  Samuel laughed at that. “That’s an understatement. You’re a playboy.”

  “I’ve enjoyed being a carefree bachelor. The cuddling, the movies, the casseroles. But all the women are interchangeable, and I could just walk away when I wanted.”

  Samuel nodded knowingly. “But you can’t get this woman out of your mind?”

  Larry looked pained. “Is that how it was for you and Amber?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “I can’t believe how different this feels from my usual lukewarm reaction to women. Like, this is important.”

  “Does your wolf agree?”

  “My wolf was telling me she was mine as soon as she landed in my arms when she fell out of the tree.”

  “So you’re telling me you don’t want to wipe her memories? That’s risky.”

  He sighed. “I know. I realize we should do it for her own safety. But we’ve also got to catch the creature or she’ll never be safe. If he thinks she’s his mate, and I think he does, then he’ll use that extraordinary sense of smell of his to track her down, and he won’t stop until he has her again. I can’t let that happen.”

  Mine, his wolf growled again, and an insanely powerful urge to protect her washed over him. The men sat in silence for a few minutes before Larry made his decision. “We’d better put a forgetful spell on her. I’ll just have to win her over the old-fashioned way instead of by letting me be the Knight in shining armor who helped save her from a monster.”

  “That’s where our problem comes in.” Samuel grimaced. “When Tabitha checked, she found the spells we had in storage have expired, so we had to destroy them.”

  “So call Chicory and ask her coven prepare more.”

  “Do I look stupid to you, Larry?”

  Startled, Larry shook his head. “No, sir.”

  “I’m not, so you know what I did as soon as we got back here and cleaned up?”

  “What?”

  “I called Chicory. Do you know what I learned?”

  “No, sir.”

  “The witches are out of town this weekend. Some kind of a witch’s convention in Vegas at the Nightshade Hotel.”

  “All of them?”

  “All but one.”

  “And, since you’re not stupid, sir, I’m going to assume there’s a reason that lone witch can’t handle the job.”

  Samuel sighed and named the most inept witch in all of witchdom. “Triani Gryff.”

  “We’re in real trouble, aren’t we?”

  “I asked Chicory if they could create a few spells for us and I’ll have someone pick them up in Vegas. She said they can, but they won’t have them ready until tomorrow at the earliest, and it may possibly take longer. They’re all busy teaching workshops.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “You’ve got to talk her into staying in town for another day or two.”

  “I’ve got to keep her safe until the witches return. If she goes home, the creature will follow and could capture her again.”

  “Exactly.” Samuel f
rowned. “We can keep her here in the station or we can take her to one of our homes. You can’t take her to your house unless Tabitha goes with you both.”

  “I need a chaperone? I won’t touch her.” Larry seemed offended by the implication.

  Samuel looked like he wanted to whack him on the back of the head. “Of course you wouldn’t. Though if she’s your mate, you’ll want to. Actually, if she really is your mate, you’ll probably be the only one who can convince her to stay with you. I just think it would freak her out a lot less if she weren’t staying in a strange house alone with a strange man that she saw shift from a wolf.”

  Larry turned things over in his mind. It was his job to get her to stay, but Samuel had a point. “Since we can’t make her forget what she saw yet, what if I take her to Walter’s house to see if there’s a way to change her scent. That way, even if the creature is following her, he won’t find her.”

  “Good idea. And if you’re staying at Walter’s, you won’t need Tabitha there. It won’t be the first time Walter has sheltered someone at his place.”

  Jealousy flared within him. It must have shown in his eyes because Samuel chuckled. “You’d better stay there, too. Like I said, she’ll feel safer and you need to convince her. I’ll call Walter and make sure he’s okay with this plan.”

  “Maybe he can help me convince her that the paranormal world is a real, relatively normal place, and not the scary existence that she’s experienced so far. Then she won’t need a forgetfulness spell.”

  A knock on the door sounded, and Tabitha poked her head in. “Sorry to disturb you, sir, but the young lady decided to leave the station for some fresh air. Since we’re all staying late to keep her safe, I grabbed her and brought her back in.”

  A little annoyed that she would just take off like that without his protection, Larry said, “Am I excused?”

  “Sounds like you’d best go keep our young lady out of trouble.”

  “Good luck with that, sir,” Tabitha said with a smile.

  Impatient, Joan stared out the window onto the large, green square full of bustling tourists and food venders.

  She’d been here for a long time — at least an hour since she’d showered and dressed — and she was anxious to get on the road and return home to St. George. This had been a long, long twelve hours, and she was ready to fall into bed.