Anchor

by Jorrie Spencer

  “Will you wait here?” Angus asked.

  His sincerity, his concern for her, for everyone, undid her, and she could only say, “Yes.”

  “Please don’t leave. We might need your help.” He searched her face. “Can you stay longer?”

  “Okay. I will.” She put strength she didn’t feel into the words, as a part of her yearned to go home after a nightmare and lick her wounds in private.

  “Thank you, Mala.” Then he did something lovely. He turned her palm upwards and kissed its center before he released her.

  He stood and grabbed his phone. “Eden,” he demanded. “Make sure Mala is comfortable and has whatever she needs. Charge everything to me.”

  Mala didn’t have time to protest before Angus was out the door, talking once again on the phone, and she was left in her room to stare at Eden.

  While Trey activated a handful of wolves who lived in southern Ontario, Angus enlisted nineteen from town. Together they would work a dragnet over the Niagara Peninsula. If they moved fast, they should be able to cover it effectively. For Angus, the most difficult thing about it was pulling Caleb out of school, both to talk about his father and to say he was going away for a few days.

  Caleb’s eyes had grown shiny with fear and his voice had shrunk to a whisper as he described where he’d been living when he was found by John Davies, but it confirmed the location Angus needed.

  Not that there was any guarantee they’d find either Davies or the woman he was terrorizing. But they had to try.

  Angus almost chose not to go himself. The situation was a little fragile, with Mala and her powers recently discovered and Caleb adjusting to his new life. Yet Angus had the best sense of smell of all in Wolf Town. It might make a difference in the search, make a difference to this unknown woman’s life.

  He handed over Caleb to Jancis’s and Rory’s care. Mala’s situation was the more tricky one. She’d said she would stay, and had meant it, but he hadn’t been forthcoming about the number of days he’d be away. He knew Eden would do her best to make her comfortable, but Jancis and Mala hadn’t clicked.

  Mala was the key to something big, and Angus feared that if this got out—the reason for their search, the source of their information—she might be endangered. He didn’t want Mala going anywhere until the dust settled and he had a firmer grip on the consequences of someone having her abilities. However, in the meantime, he didn’t want her kept under lock and key either. A lot of werewolves weren’t as capable of diplomacy as he was. There was a reason he was in charge of Wolf Town.

  He called over to Aileen’s apartment, not surprised when she didn’t answer. Even as human, she didn’t pay much attention to the phone, and let’s face it, Aileen would be in her wolf form. So Angus, all the while phoning up different wolves who were going to accompany him, stalked over to her apartment building and up the stairs to rap on her unlocked door three times before opening it himself.

  To find Aileen rousing from her sleep, all dark fur and golden eyes.

  “I need you to shift.” He’d never known someone so at ease with just staying wolf who wasn’t feral. And Aileen, despite her discomfort with her human, was in no way feral. “Then I need you to remain human and keep Mala, the woman you were watching last night, company until I return.”

  Aileen eyed him, a slight question on her wolf’s face. It could have meant, Why me? Or, How long? Or, Is this a trick to keep me out of my wolf body?

  She might have also wondered where he was going, but he didn’t know what she was thinking because she couldn’t speak as wolf. He explained further. One advantage of being the only one in the room capable of speech was that Aileen couldn’t argue with him.

  “I think Mala will be more comfortable in another woman’s company. Yours, to be specific.”

  Aileen didn’t get that, he knew, since she was strong and clever, and the male wolves around were very protective of her. But she’d accepted female fear of strange males as common wisdom when it had come up in previous situations or conversations.

  “I hope to be back in a matter of days,” he continued. “And, this is important, really important. We need to convince Mala to stay with us in Wolf Town. We need to better understand what she’s doing, because she is connected to us in some way that no one understands. I also want her kept safe. That’s important to me, personally.”

  Of course the other problem with being the only one capable of speech was that the words kept going to fill the silence, and sometimes you said more than you planned.

  But Aileen acquiesced. She trotted over to butt her head against his hand, her way of telling him, Okay.

  “Thanks, kiddo.” He left then, that taken care of. Trey was already mobilizing his wolves, and Angus needed his group to get on the road.

  At some point he or Trey would be obligated to contact their government liaison, but that would have to wait until the outcome of this search was known. Yes, they tried to be truthful with the official who was responsible for making the world’s transition from mythical werewolves to real werewolves smooth and easy. But if Davies got ripped apart during this hunt, when he was already persona non grata in Canada, no wolf was going to give over information about the man’s death. The cost was too high, and the specter of vicious, murderous werewolves wasn’t going to help anyone, including humans.

  Angus rubbed his forehead. Though neither he nor Trey had hesitated in forming this search party, there was a risk going all-out on this effort based solely on Mala’s dream. Two questions kept coming round and round to him.

  One, Was it actually real? Because, as Trey pointed out, this could be all for naught and have nothing whatever to do with reality. Mala’s dreams could be just that, despite Caleb’s unusual reaction to her. But in case a life was now hanging in the balance, a life that could be saved, he and Trey had agreed to believe, for the interim, that what Mala had witnessed was real.

  And two, if it was real, had the female werewolf survived? Mala was unclear on this point, and Angus had the awful feeling that he’d interrupted her trying to save the woman. Mala had been keening, rigid in body, terrorized, and he’d wanted to wake her from that horror.

  But it appeared that he might have woken her from much more than a dream.

  Mala had made a huge mistake. As she paced the small room, exhausted, overwrought and unable to sleep, she considered going back on her word. It had only been a few hours since Angus had asked if she would stay. But when she’d told him yes, she’d thought he meant another day or so.

  Now Eden was talking as if Angus might be gone for an entire week, and he expected Mala to sit tight during that time. Meanwhile Eden assumed that Mala would do what Angus wanted, that everyone would do as Angus wanted.

  Well, maybe in Wolf Town people did his bidding—he was alpha, whatever that really meant—but she didn’t live in Wolf Town. She was her own person.

  And she longed to sleep in her own bed. Not that she could even face sleep.

  She sank onto the B and B’s bed with something like despair. Her logic was going out the window. She was no longer sure what she wanted, because while she longed for home, the idea of not seeing Angus again, or Caleb, was disturbing.

  When she seriously considered packing up her small bag and walking out of here, two pictures came to mind. One of Angus kissing her palm—she couldn’t get that gesture out of her head and was giving it way too much significance. But more, she thought of young Caleb. There was a shared experience between them and she wanted to see him again.

  And to be honest with herself, she wanted to know the outcome of Angus’s search for the woman in her dreams. Mala wouldn’t be leaving and she knew it, even while she chafed at being stuck in a small town in northern Ontario.

  Maybe she needed to go for a walk to get rid of this claustrophobic feeling. Problem was she liked to hide away after a bad dream, not venture out into the open where she felt more vulnerable.

  A knock came at the door and Mala sighed inwardly. That
would be Eden who, despite her abrupt ways, had checked in on Mala about once an hour since Angus had left. Though sorely tempted, Mala didn’t think she could yell through the door, Don’t worry! I haven’t collapsed yet.

  Instead she said, “Come in.”

  The door edged open, more slowly than Eden who tended to sail in as though she belonged in her own B and B. Once the door was fully open, Mala stared at a young woman, somewhat taller than her, with short dark hair and the most amazing golden eyes.

  Eerily similar to John Davies’s eyes, Mala realized with some shock, and she pushed to standing.

  But this was no attacking wolf. The girl looked uncertain, given Mala’s jumpy reaction, and at that, Caleb’s father was no longer anywhere in the girl’s face, which was open and kind. So unlike his cruelty.

  Her clothes were loose, and despite her age she didn’t look like a teenager. She seemed young but…untethered. If that made any sense whatsoever.

  She shifted her weight, not quite hopping from foot to foot, and her expression turned almost bashful. “I’m Aileen.”

  “Hello,” said Mala, for wont of anything else to say. She shook her head, trying for the proper response. “I’m Mala.”

  “Angus asked me to say hello.”

  “Oh.” Why would he do that? But Mala bit her tongue. It might sound rude and she found she didn’t want to be rude to this girl.

  “Can I come in? Or would you rather come downstairs and eat something? Lunch is being served.”

  “Uh…” Mala didn’t want to make conversation, but Aileen bit her lip as if she was about to be rejected, so Mala smiled and said, “I’ll come downstairs.”

  The girl smiled back brilliantly. “Thanks.”

  Thanks? Mala mentally shrugged and grabbed her purse. It wouldn’t do her any harm to eat—or push food around her plate if she couldn’t find her appetite. After all, Angus was paying for everything. Eden had reassured Mala on this point more than once, though Mala had grasped the concept the first time. In fact, her initial reaction had been to argue, but that would be a futile, empty gesture and nothing more, given she couldn’t afford to stay here for a week.

  When they entered the restaurant, Eden hustled over, pleased to see them both, completely different from when Mala had first arrived in Wolf Town. Had that only been yesterday morning?

  “Aileen!” Eden enveloped her in a big hug, then stepped back, as if they hadn’t seen each other for ages. She had the type of expression worn by older women who declared to a gangly teenager that they’d grown. Not that Eden said those words.

  “I’m here,” exclaimed Aileen happily, lifting her arms out from her body before letting them fall back to her sides.

  “Sit down, sit down.” Eden led the way to an empty table. “Figure out what you want. I know you must be hungry.”

  As they seated themselves, Mala looked at Aileen in question. “Have you been away?”

  “Oh no.” Her tone suggested that idea was ridiculous. “I hardly ever leave Wolf Town. It’s my home. I love it here.” At Mala’s frown, she asked, “Why?”

  “It seemed like Eden hasn’t seen you for a while.”

  “She hasn’t.” Aileen picked up the menu to hide behind, before putting it down to blurt out her explanation. “I stay wolf too much. I haven’t been human for a while. That’s why Eden’s glad to see me.”

  “Oh.” Mala was fascinated despite herself. “How long has it been since Eden saw you…” she rolled her hand in her search for the right words, “…like this?”

  Aileen looked around for guidance of some sort. “What’s the date?”

  “March thirteenth.”

  Aileen pulled a face. “More than a month. Oops.” At first she seemed amused by this realization but then she glanced at Mala, expecting censure, perhaps. “I’m a bit of a freak, I’m afraid.”

  Mala burst out laughing before covering her mouth with her fist. She hadn’t meant to make that noise and feared she’d offended Aileen. “I am the freak.”

  “Oh yeah?” Aileen went back to the menu, before glancing up again. “Then you should stay in Wolf Town with me.”

  Her smile was adorable. This lunch reminded Mala of when she was young, and she and her cousins used to hang out like sisters.

  Whoa. Don’t be ridiculous. You just met this girl.

  Aileen slapped the plastic menu down on the table. “Ready to eat? I’m starving.”

  Mala nodded, having picked out a sandwich.

  Eden came over right away, turning to Mala first, who gave her order. Next Aileen asked for a hamburger, a pizza and some pasta. Mala blinked, and Aileen grinned again. “Really starving.”

  Chapter Nine

  In four vehicles, they drove for ten hours, mostly due south, with a slight curve around Lake Ontario to reach the Niagara Peninsula. They traveled through the afternoon and into the night, arriving near midnight to rendezvous with Trey and his people.

  The address was a house belonging to a she-wolf and her human husband. Veronica was about the tenth female werewolf Angus had met, which went to show how rare they could be. He made a mental note to get Aileen to meet Veronica in person. He sometimes thought the reason Aileen remained uncomfortable in her human skin was because of a lack of female mentors.

  But now was not the time. They were on a search for, he hoped, the eleventh she-wolf he would come to know. Trey had done some homework, had established six areas that would be swept. They would divide into groups of five or six wolves then separate, planning to regroup forty-eight hours later.

  “I’m taking…” Angus stabbed his finger at one-sixth of the area they would cover, the one that included Welland, Caleb’s former place of residence before his father had flushed him out.

  Trey glanced at him. “You think you can find her there?”

  While Angus believed in the power of aiming high, he had his reservations. He shrugged. “I may have the best chance.”

  “All right, I want Veronica to go with you.” Trey beckoned his niece over, and Angus observed that her husband bristled. Trey shot him a look. “This isn’t dangerous, David.”

  “Yeah,” the blond man drawled. “Just a psycho wolf out there terrorizing women and children.”

  “We’re going in pairs,” Trey pointed out calmly, “and John Davies seems to work solo.”

  “Seems,” her husband repeated.

  “David,” Veronica protested, and their eyes locked.

  Some kind of silent communication went on between the married couple, and David’s face softened into a grudging smile. “You kick his ass, honey.”

  “Exactly,” she said.

  After that, logistics were gone through, where each group would fan out from and where they’d meet up to assess their progress. Contact numbers were exchanged. Then they broke up into their respective groups and piled into their vehicles.

  They had another hour and a half drive through the middle of the night, and Angus barely spoke further. Veronica wanted to sleep to keep up her energy, and the four other men were either doing the same or weren’t much for talking. At three in the morning, the six of them climbed out of the van, stripped off their clothing and shifted.

  It was a forced shift, not like under the full moon when they were ready to run, but it still felt right, being called by the need to track down an unknown endangered female wolf and her assailant. Because female wolves were so rare, there was a real drive within himself and others to keep them safe.

  Angus came back to awareness first. His bones ached, his muscles had tensed up, but he was standing and shaking himself out, trying to get comfortable in his wolf skin when the moon shone at a quarter of its size.

  He stood watch as the others regained consciousness in their wolf forms. Veronica was the third to rise on all fours, and he scented sharp fear, normal for a female among strange males. He rumbled reassurance and their gazes met, hers golden under the thin moonlight.

  She gave back a muted whine then trotted off a small distanc
e. Once they were all on their feet, the two other pairs headed off and Angus paced over to Veronica. Together, they began to lope, a steady gait that they could keep up for some distance. It was odd for Angus to run with this she-wolf who was around his age, and a strange ache lodged itself in his chest.

  Though he’d had different lovers over the years, he’d always longed for a female companion. He’d carried this idea he needed a wolf to be his, but they were rare, and even then, rarely available. The chance of hitting it off was remote, were he to meet one who was single, he understood that. And he entertained no hopes of such a connection with the she-wolf they searched for. She’d be traumatized.

  Also, and it was strange to admit, tonight his thoughts kept circling back to Mala.

  He’d always been too wolf-focused. When his son had taken up with a non-wolf this past year, Angus had assumed it wouldn’t be serious, that it would be short-lived—for many reasons, but partly, yes, because Scott was not a shifter. Angus had been wrong. It had been, in the end, quite wonderful to watch Rory grow as he settled into a relationship with someone who wasn’t trying to court the alpha’s son, curry favor with the ruling family as it were. Someone who didn’t really comprehend the concept of the alpha’s son and who simply wanted Rory for himself.

  But Angus, well, he found it hard to put his guard down among non-wolves. The cloak of secrecy he’d grown up with was difficult to relinquish. Yet Veronica had done so with her husband.

  She barked, and he pulled his head out of his ass and concentrated on the hunt. The first scent they followed was that of a coyote—their population was rising in southern Ontario. Next they discovered human teens out late at night near a small suburb, some falling-down drunk, which made Angus sigh, even as he acknowledged that it wasn’t only werewolf teens who acted out.

  The dawn came and went, and Veronica’s pace didn’t flag. Angus could tell she was invested in this hunt, worried about the woman, even if they couldn’t truly know the she-wolf existed. Their work was trickier during the day, given they had to keep out of sight of humans, but they continued their sweep of the area, occasionally investigating odd scents and smells, even if they didn’t indicate a werewolf had been in the area.