Coyote Moon
It's that time of the month, the full moon, when Willy Alvarez's moods go wonky and her dreams fill up with wolves. A time for hungers she doesn't dare fulfill because they lead to violence. She's resigned herself to a manless life, then Cody Gray arrives.
Cody is cute, funny, charming, and a werecoyote. His nose knows what Willy doesn't: she's half werewolf. He's convinced this repressed half-human she-wolf is his perfect mate. Now he just has to convince her. And quick, because her long-lost pack has learned about her existence, and they've come to town to claim her...
Genre: Paranormal/Romantic Comedy
Length: 28,708 words
COYOTE MOON
Pat Cunningham
ROMANCE
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A SIREN-BOOKSTRAND TITLE
IMPRINT: Romance
COYOTE MOON
Copyright © 2009 by Pat Cunningham
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-533-8
First E-book Publication: July 2009
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
www.BookStrand.com
DEDICATION
To Laura, Becky, and Pat B.
Pizza’s on me.
COYOTE MOON
PAT CUNNINGHAM
Copyright © 2009
Cody Gray hiked into Coopersburg just shy of sunset, and right off the bat he smelled she-wolf.
Cody’s mouth stretched in a great big fox-in-the-henhouse grin. If he’d had his tail right then, he’d’ve wagged it. All the way up from Texas he’d been on the lookout for some nice wild country to set up a pack in, and a mate to help him get started. Just when he figured northern California might fill the bill for one, Fate dropped the other in his lap. Chaos, patron of the coyote-folk, must be smiling on him.
He set his nose to the wind. He’d already spotted a bar up ahead, and a couple of houses and a gas station, before the two-laner he’d hitchhiked in on widened out and entered Coopersburg proper. The she-wolf was at the gas station, and plenty riled by the scent of her. He drank in a noseful of her and sighed. Nice and pungent. Alpha, maybe? He liked his girls feisty. Cody quickened his pace.
Closer to the gas station, he spotted a nasty tableau: three big apes closing in on a pair of ladies. The lady in back, getting herded into the dubious safety of the garage bay, was slender, blonde and cursing like a dock hand. The herder had auburn hair and three-four inches on the blonde. She looked fit to chew brass and spit tacks. Cody’s pulse ramped up to a gallop. There was his wolf, and she was about to get herself trounced. Her bared teeth kept the apes at bay, but they wouldn’t hold much longer.
He slowed and came up on them careful and unnoticed, close enough to smell the alcohol on the apes and hear the menace coloring their taunts. The wolf-gal said something. The snarl in her tone announced the apes were in for a whuppin’, but she made no move to attack. Cody crouched behind a parked car. Chaos, only three of them. Why didn’t she just shift and end it?
Then, in a heartbeat, the situation changed. The blonde screamed. Cody’s hackles lifted. The apes had a buddy, and he’d snuck in through the office into the bay and caught the blonde gal from behind. She writhed in his grip while the other apes hooted. The wolf-gal darted in to help the blonde, but the ape in the lead grabbed her arm. Cody didn’t catch his words, but the leer on his face said it all.
So she let him have it. No girly slaps for this she-wolf. She socked him a solid one, right in the nose. The smell of blood joined the odors of liquor and adrenaline that already charged the air. The words she barked at the lead ape weren’t the kind ladies should know, much less repeat in public, but given the situation Cody allowed she was entitled.
The big ape’s face got uglier, no mean feat. If the wolf-gal hadn’t switched by now, Cody realized, she either wasn’t going to, or couldn’t.
That clinched it. This was his future mate getting threatened by those drunk knuckle-draggers. He bared his teeth, revealing canines just a tad longer and heavier than a human’s. Time to get involved. In true coyote fashion, of course.
This being a garage, naturally it had a peck of cars sitting around, and naturally some trusting soul had left their keys in the ignition. Cody slid in behind the wheel of a sporty little Mustang that started up real nice. He took aim and floored it.
The rev of the Mustang’s engine must’ve cut through the boozy haze on their brains because they looked around and finally noticed the car rocketing right at them. They abandoned the wolf-gal and scattered. Cody plowed through the midst of them, then swung a tight U-ey and shot after their leader, the biggest, ugliest ape in this bunch of bananas. The man scrabbled desperately over the tarmac. Cody brought the Mustang right up on his heels before he slewed it aside. He reached out and slapped the ape’s John Deere cap clean off his head. The ape stumbled away, and the car shot on by.
Cody let loose a Texas howl and wheeled around for another go. Chaos, this car handled sweet. “Gotta get me one of these,” he murmured.
And one of those, he added mentally, as his squealing turn faced him toward the garage again. The goon in the bay had let go of the blonde, and now the wolf-gal was all over him like, well, like ugly on an ape. Poor guy couldn’t even land a slap. Too quick and strong for him. Cody’s butt hitched on the seat, wagging a phantom tail.
Since the wolf-gal didn’t need his help, he went back after the apes. They’d made fast tracks across the street and piled into a pickup parked by the bar. They took off down the road without so much as a cussword flung at him. Cody offered up a mental shrug. Didn’t want to dent their truck, most like. Apes had oddball priorities.
He trundled the Mustang up to the garage. The wolf-gal had the fourth ape flat on the greasy floor. The ape contracted into a ball. “C’mon, Willy. I said I was sorry.”
“You’re sorry, all right,” she growled down at him. “I expect cheap thuggery from Les, but you—”
She cut herself off and sniffed the air. She turned just as Cody hopped out of the Mustang. He watched her eyes get big and her body tighten up to full attention.
She knew what he was, all right, but only on some basic, primitive level, not in her hea
d or her nose. She didn’t recognize him. Any she-wolf worth her pack standing would be showing her fangs by now, with a growl at him to git, rescue or no rescue. That’s how your average wolf saw coyotes, pests to be run off. Because your average wolf had no sense of humor.
He stared hard into her eyes. A fine honey-brown shade. Wolf eyes ran to yellow, like his own. This one had a whiff of ape on her. Half-breed? That might explain why she hadn’t switched.
Her stance had shifted into a pose of wary friendliness. She let him get pretty close up before she stopped him with a little twitch of her mouth, not quite the flash of a fang. “Thanks,” she said.
“My pleasure, ma’am.”
“I could have handled it. Those jerks are losers even when they’re sober. But I do appreciate the help.” She smiled just enough to get Cody’s invisible tail wagging again. “Nice moves with my car, by the way.”
Her car? Chaos love it, this just got better and better. Cody flashed a smile wide enough to eat the moon. She didn’t even have her hand halfway out before he seized it. “Glad I could help. I’m Cody Gray, up from Texas. You’re going to marry me.”
* * * *
Not much could strike Willy Alvarez speechless. This brash young man with the piercing eyes, lazy drawl and blunt pronouncement drove all the words out of her head. For a count of five. She lifted a brow. “Excuse me?”
“Excuse me, ma’am.” Slow down, he warned himself. This wasn’t some coyote gal, ready to romp at the lift of a tail. Wolves, especially alpha she-wolves, took more delicate handling. He made himself let go of her hand. “I say that to every pretty girl I meet. Someday one’ll take me up on it.” He winked. “Maybe it’ll be you.”
Willy smiled coolly. “And maybe not.” Something about this not-so-stranger did funny things to the hairs on the back of her neck. She had to get her eyes away from his eyes. The man on the floor moaned and saved her. She wrenched her stare away from the Texan and glared at him instead. “Why are you still here?”
The man moaned again and rolled over onto his back. He had a bruise forming on the side of his jaw, and the start of one beauty of a shiner. “Jesus, Willy. Help me up. I’m hurt here.”
“You’re not hurt. You’re drunk. I didn’t even knock you down. You slipped. Now get up, go home and sleep it off. And stay away from Beth.”
He pointed a grungy finger at the blonde. “She started it.”
The blonde gasped, indignant. “Did not.”
“I’ll get to you in a minute,” Willy promised the blonde. She caught the man by the arm and hauled him up one-handed. He stank of beer and transmission fluid and darker, half-formed threats. She bared her teeth, an act so instinctive she was barely aware of it. “Get out of here, Andy, before I tell Susan you’ve been cheating on her.”
Andy’s good eye narrowed. His look got nasty. The blonde edged away. “Stinking bitch. Somebody should—”
The stranger shoved between them before Willy could react. His teeth showed, and the easygoing cheer had left his voice entirely. “Listen to the lady, son. Make tracks.”
Whatever Andy saw in the stranger’s face, it backed him down in a hurry. “How’m I supposed to get home?” he whined.
“You got two feet,” Cody said. “Use ‘em.” He shoved Andy at the street. The ape reeled a couple of yards before he stopped and swayed and yelled back at them. “Beth? I’ll call you, ‘kay?”
“Good night, Andy,” Willy said. He lurched off into the twilight. Willy shook her head.
“Disgusting,” Cody said. “Sorry you ladies had to deal with that.” He cocked his head at her. “So, you’re Willy?”
“Wilhelmina,” Beth chirped. “Don’t ever call her that, though. She’ll rip your head off.”
“Willy,” Willy confirmed tersely. “The brat about to get a spanking is my sister, Beth.”
“Me? What did I do?”
“Hung out in that bar like I told you not to, and got all those jerks going, like I told you not to. And then you led them over here. If it hadn’t been for Mr., uh…”
“Gray, ma’am.”
“Mr. Gray. And if you want to stay on my good side, don’t call me ‘ma’am’ any more.”
The blonde had gone sullen. “I didn’t do anything.”
“The hell you didn’t. You wave your ass at a roomful of drunken men, what do you think’s going to happen?”
“Like you’re the big man expert all of a sudden. You haven’t been out with a guy since God was a kid.”
This time her teeth flashed full and strong. The blonde flinched and quickly looked away, in the process exposing her neck. Willy eased off, mollified.
Cody stood off to the side and said nothing. A coyote’s nose is a miracle of engineering when it comes to picking up on the subtleties. He’d already sniffed out the sister-bond before Willy mentioned it. Better make that half-sisters. Only one wolf here. Beth was human, through and through. And the little ape didn’t cotton to playing beta to her alpha sister at all.
Still mentally muttering over Beth, Willy turned and found Cody practically at her back. “Oh. You’re still here.”
He grinned. “’Fraid so, darlin’.”
“Uh…” Dammit, what was wrong with her? First she went all hyperbitch on poor Andy and Beth. Now here stood the man who’d saved her, or likely Les, from serious physical injury, and she brushed the poor guy off like a piece of lint. “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out at all right. Let me make it up to you. Do you need a lift somewhere?”
“Thanks, ma’am, I mean Willy. But no. It’s a beautiful night, and I’ve walked this far. I figure I can make it into town. How about yourself? Those primates might come back. You going to be all right?”
Willy snorted. “By now they’ve found another bar to brood in. Two drinks and they’ll have forgotten this happened. Anyway, we’re going straight home as soon as we lock up here. Right, Beth?”
But Beth had turned her back and gone marching off toward the Mustang. Willy squelched a growl. Beth wasn’t a kid anymore; she’d be turning twenty-two in September. But honestly, sometimes she acted half that age. Like tonight. Times like those, Willy just wanted to take her sister in her teeth and shake her.
Hand. Hands and shake her. No teeth. Teeth didn’t enter into it. The back of her skull started pounding.
She got like this every full moon. Weird thoughts, funny cravings, bizarre dreams, a hair-trigger temper. Like the cramps weren’t bad enough. She hoped she still had Pamprin in her purse.
The stranger stood by, patiently. His nearness wasn’t helping matters any. She’d always been drawn to men by scent before anything else. Cody Gray filled up her nose like the odor of prairie grass under a Texas sun. His scent, his grin, those odd yellow eyes, made her want to get down on all fours and howl at the moon. New, exotic, different, yet disturbingly familiar. Right.
Wrong. She didn’t need a man in her life right now. Maybe never. Things happened to her in men’s company, and they tended to end in violence. Better for both of them that he’d declined her offer. “If you’re sure. That’s Coopersburg down there. Just follow the road. There’s a motel about a mile from here, with a diner across the street. Are you looking for a job?”
“Maybe in a bit. We’ll see how it goes first. You work here?”
“Coopersburg’s premier mechanic. I restored that car you were playing Dukes of Hazzard with. Given the circumstances, I’ll gladly forgive you, but don’t let it happen again.”
Those topaz eyes bored into hers, full of laughter and cockiness. “Maybe not on a first date. But we’ll be seeing each other again. Any time you want a ride, you just let me know.” He winked and ambled off.
The sheer, straight-up gall of him! She wanted to rip out his throat. But he’d saved her and Beth from who knew what. Like it or not, she owed him. So she fisted her hands and stood still as a rock and watched him saunter away, instead of leaping at him and giving him the trouncing he deserved. His scent’s departure left an empty spot in
the air, and made the night just a little blander.
Oh, who was she kidding? He was a jerk. A chivalrous jerk, but a jerk nonetheless. If the universe held any justice, he’d find a barstool and some other girl, and their paths would never cross again.
She missed his scent already.
A growl boiled low down in her throat, aimed at nothing, and possibly no one, in particular. “Screw it,” she muttered, and went to fetch the building keys.
Once Willy had satisfied herself the garage was locked up tight, and Beth stopped leaning on the Mustang’s horn, they headed home. Willy kept a wary eye out along the road for Mr. Cody Gray, but saw no sign of him. Must have found himself another ride. She shrugged and, with only a little difficulty, put him out of her thoughts.
* * * *
As soon as he was sure the ladies weren’t watching, Cody ducked off the road and into the trees. He found a nice, secluded hideout under the drooping boughs of a monster spruce. In short order he shed his duffel, his clothes, and his human form. Ten hours on the move in dusty denim was way too long to go two-legged. A good run in his new territory to get the lay of the land and stretch the kinks out, that would surely fill the bill.
But first, a check-in on his future mate. He spied from the shadows of the evergreens while Willy poked around every square inch of that garage before she let it be. Territorial to a fault. Wasn’t that just like a wolf? He kept watch on her until the Mustang’s taillights receded to specks, then loped into the woods.
Coopersburg was ringed by a ridge of round hills, and the conifers had had themselves a field day. The earth was cool and damp against his paws, and carpeted with springy needles. Winters would be long and cold out here, summers brief and soggy. Probably why these hills had missed out on the development craze that had swept the rest of the state. Huge swaths of acreage still ran to wilderness. There might be spots out here where you could go for days without running into an ape. Not the Texas Panhandle, but it’d do just fine.
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