Wolver's Gold (The Wolvers)

by Rhoades, Jacqueline

  “Failure is not an option,” McCall returned with a quote of his own, though Rachel had no knowledge of its origin. He kissed her forehead. “Besides, I never fail.”

  Rachel opened her eyes. “Not even with the Alpha’s daughter?” she asked with a little mischief in her tone, payback for all his teasing.

  “How did you…? Never mind.” He answered his own question. “Eustace. That was not a failure. The lady in question is now happily mated to the Alpha of some tiny pack in the Ozarks. We never even met.”

  “Then how…?”

  “Enough,” he said, looking very serious, “I have more important things to discuss.” His hand slid down her back to her buttocks where he found the open center seam of her drawers. “Holy hell! You sly little minx, you.”

  Rachel gave his chest a playful punch. “I am not a minx and there’s nothing sly about it. They’re made that way for convenience sake.” Shifting yards of skirt and petticoats to use the ladies’ facilities was no easy matter.

  “I’ll say it’s convenient. Split crotch panties, Victorian style. Damn!”

  She was suddenly on her back again and McCall was working his way down her body to the little pink bow.

  “There’s this question to which I need an answer,” he grinned as he reached the open seam. “Are you red all over?”

  “Mr. McCall!”

  Chapter 22

  Bertie took her apron from the peg and tied it about her waist to the foot-tapping tune her boss was humming in the kitchen.

  “Steak and eggs for breakfast! I reckon you must have had a real good time last night.” She sniffed loudly. “Doused yourself in that fancy vanilla lotion, too. Something you trying to hide?”

  “I had a wonderful run and I decided to celebrate with steak and eggs. I thought I’d be exhausted, but I’m full of energy.”

  “You’re full of something else, too, but you’ll get your apron in a twist if I say it outright. That silly grin and tryin’ to cover up his smell is a dead giveaway, so I’d be careful when I went in to breakfast, if I was you.”

  “You can still smell him?” Rachel asked, suddenly alarmed.

  “No,” Bertie cackled, “but I got my answer didn’t I?”

  “Oh, Bertie, please don’t tell Victor or Eustace. I couldn’t show my face if anyone else knew.”

  “This is women’s business and none of theirs. Which one was it?” Bertie asked as she set the sugar, cream and butter on her tray. “You got biscuits and potatoes to stretch that steak?”

  “In the oven. Which one?” Rachel sighed. “For me, there is only one. Mr. McCall.”

  “Hmph. I was thinking it might be the other, the schoolmaster.”

  “You don’t like the Sheriff?”

  “I like him well enough and Eustace thinks the sun sets on him. Victor likes him, too, but he strikes me as being a bit wild. The schoolmaster seems more suited to you, more proper-like. And he’s been sniffing around, too.”

  “Mr. Washington is very nice, but he just doesn’t…” Rachel shrugged her shoulders.

  “Just doesn’t light a fire in your belly,” the older woman laughed. “I still remember how Victor made me feel. I think my wolf would have gnawed my insides out if I’d mated another.”

  Rachel knew exactly what her old friend meant. She’d come to the same conclusion in the wee hours of the morning while staring at the water stained ceiling of the sheriff’s room.

  “I won’t ever mate,” she’d whispered as a kind of pledge. She thought McCall was sleeping, but he heard.

  “I don’t want to hear you say that. Unless you’re talking about Coogan or Holt, then you can not only say it, but you’d better stick to it. Why are they sniffing around, anyway?” He was staring up at the ceiling, too.

  “You mean because I’m old and ugly? Why, thank you, Mr. McCall. I’m overwhelmed by your compliment.”

  “Don’t go fishing,” he said and smiled. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. Why now? Why after all these years, when you’ve been right under their noses all along?”

  “They think I have money, at least Mr. Coogan does.”

  His eyes slid to her. “And do you?”

  She laughed. “This is Gold Gulch, remember? It wouldn’t be allowed. My father doesn’t have any, either. The hotel is drowning in debt thanks to his drinking and gambling.” She turned her head to look at him. “After the new year, I was going mate Jack Coogan. Daisy says he can be, um, managed. But I think he probably changed his mind after I bit him last night.”

  McCall sat up. “You what?”

  She told him what happened and thought he’d laugh, but he didn’t.

  “Is that what you did to piss Holt off?”

  “No,” she protested, “I’m not stupid. He tried to… tried to intimidate me.”

  She’d decided that was his motive. He would use it as blackmail and having nowhere to turn, she’d give into him. McCall’s arrival had saved her from that, too.

  She felt McCall stiffen beside her. “Leave it alone, Mr. McCall. I won’t ever run alone again and he won’t do anything in town where there might be witnesses. You have enough to worry about. Don’t lose your cool.”

  McCall looked at her with raised eyebrows. “Don’t lose my cool?”

  “Didn’t I say it right? Isn’t that what they say in your world? I’ll have to get a copybook of my own.”

  “You are full of surprises, Miss Kincaid.”

  Rachel laughed and pointed to her drawers, now draped over the lamp like an indecent shade. “So are you, Mr. McCall.”

  It was a lovely day and Rachel had promised Bertie and Liddy that she’d be right back, but the sun was shining and the air was crisp and cool and the happy wolf inside her begged her to take a walk up Main Street. The plea was hard to resist. So, after placing her order for extra chicken, eggs, sugar, and fruit for the boxed lunches the hotel would offer for Hanging Day, she strolled along with her basket on her arm, smiling and nodding to the tourists.

  She wasn’t the only woman of Gold Gulch who felt the need for air and pleasantries. Others stood in shop doorways, keeping one eye on the customers and another on the street. They smiled and nodded and chatted with each other and passersby, offering kind words to small children and sympathetic glances for the men slogging along behind their wives.

  The women weren’t the only ones smiling. Many of the men she passed looked different, too. Their heads were up and looking ahead instead of at the ground and Rachel wondered if it was the run or who they ran with, or maybe, it was a little of both.

  She felt her cheeks burn with the remembrance of her night with Challenger. It was wonderful, almost too wonderful, but thinking about it now, she realized it was more than the act itself. It was sharing the freedom that came from going over the moon. If her wolf had not been so close to the surface, she would never have had the nerve to do what she’d done or the complete abandon with which she did it. If she felt it, had others felt it, too?

  Cassie Nesbit was the only woman she met who’d gone over the moon and wasn’t smiling. Rachel barely said hello before the young woman grabbed her elbow and pulled her aside.

  “He’s being punished,” she began in an agitated whisper. “That’s what it was all about last night and that’s what it was about today. Orly Peters has never so much as nodded to me in the street and yet today, it’s being put about that last night’s fight was over me. It isn’t fair. It’s not right!”

  “Wait! What happened last night?”

  Rachel put her basket down and placed her hand on Cassie’s arm. By the looks of Cassie’s and Achilles’ coats, she knew something had happened during the run, but Cassie had refused to speak of it last night, and frankly, Rachel had suspected it might have something to do with two males vying for her attention. Apparently, she’d been wrong.

  Cassie’s dark skin flushed a shade deeper. “I know I said I was going to be like you,” she confessed, “But Achilles Marbank has been watching and smiling at
me for a long while and I’ve been smiling back. I never meant it to go anywhere. We were friends. We talk. That’s all, and that’s the way I meant to keep it, but last night… my wolf… I couldn’t help … his wolf looked so strong and handsome and…”

  “Plans change,” Rachel finished, trying not to laugh. She was well aware of the problems one’s wolf could instigate. She wished she could tell her friend that her own plans had changed, too, but her circumstances were far different from Cassie’s. “There’s nothing wrong with that. Change happens all the time.”

  “Not in Gold Gulch,” Cassie cried a little too loudly. Startled by her own vehemence, the young woman glanced around, wide eyed, and lowered her voice to a whisper. “It wasn’t about me or us. They don’t care about that. It was about Achilles. They let him think Eustace had done something terrible. They let him believe Eustace had betrayed him, too. They let him think he was offered the stable and forge as a reward for his hard work and loyalty to the pack, but their idea of loyalty meant not asking questions. That’s what happened to Eustace, isn’t it? He asked questions. Now Achilles has questions and he’s afraid the same will happen to him, or worse.”

  “Questions about what?” Rachel asked cautiously. She looked around to make sure no one was within earshot.

  “About money, about taxes and fees going up but no one seeing a difference in Gold Gulch. He feels like he’s paying for a business that isn’t his! They decide how much he makes. They decide how many people he can employ and how much he pays them. He asked for an audience with the Mayor, but the Second said no and hinted at what happens to anyone who questions the Alpha’s authority.”

  “You two were attacked as a warning.”

  “No, Orly and two of his friends attacked Achilles.” Cassie finally smiled. “They ignored me. They didn’t think I would fight and they were right. I didn’t know what to do. But my wolf did. She was beautiful, Rachel,” Cassie finished with shining eyes.

  “You were beautiful,” Rachel corrected, “Your wolf and you together. Remember, we’re not one or the other. We’re both.” Beautiful. Strong. Wolver.

  “I never knew I had it in me. Still, I’m glad Mr. Washington showed up.” She leaned in and whispered, “He was incredibly fierce! So different from what he seems. Achilles is quite taken with him.”

  “Achilles isn’t alone. I’m glad he was there to help you teach those ruffians a lesson.”

  “But they didn’t learn, Rachel, they only changed their tactics.” Cassie went back to looking worried and angry. “After the run, someone lit a fire in the stable. They scattered a few coals from the forge. It wasn’t Achilles!” she defended as if Rachel had argued the point. “He checked to make sure it was properly banked. I watched him do it. Achilles smelled the smoke while we were…” The young woman’s eyes widened as her mouth clamped shut upon what she’d been about to confess.

  “Talking,” Rachel finished for her. “If you two hadn’t been talking, Achilles would have been asleep. I gather there was no damage.”

  “None to speak of, but what if they come back?”

  “I think they made their point. Has Achilles reported it to the sheriff?”

  Cassie suddenly became shy. She looked down at her feet and not at Rachel. “I saw how you looked at him. Achilles likes him, too, but Rachel, I’m worried. They hired him. He’s one of them! He’s citing more violations every day to collect more in fines. Mr. Washington says he has no choice, but...”

  Rachel grabbed Cassie’s hand and squeezed, harder than she should have, and only eased her grip when Cassie winced. “If I looked at Sheriff McCall, it was with admiration. You saw how he stood against the Second. Would he do that if he were one of them? Mr. Washington admires him, too, and that should be enough.”

  Cassie looked a little frightened and Rachel realized she was baring her teeth. Bad wolf! She took a deep breath before she continued in a more moderate tone.

  “The sheriff is a good man. He, like the rest of us, does what he must to survive. I swear to you, Cassie, Challenger McCall is a friend.”

  “I’d better get back to work,” Cassie said hastily. “My sister is running late this morning and while Mr. Grumpypuss is smiling now, that could change at any moment.”

  Rachel hung on for a second longer. “Cassie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

  “Yes, you did, but I understand,” Cassie told her and then she laughed. “And that wasn’t admiration I saw in your eyes, Rachel Kincaid, but don’t worry about that either. Your secret is as safe with me, just as my ‘talking’ with Achilles is safe with you.”

  The news Liddy brought from her son was both good and bad. She and her son were reunited after coming to the conclusion they’d both been lied to. While they had no proof, they were unified in their belief that the banker, Arnold Slocum, had deceived them and stolen their family’s money.

  “Divide and conquer,” Eustace muttered angrily, “They did to you what they did to me and Achilles Marbank. I cared for that cub. I never needed more than a fire and anvil to shoe a horse, but I bought his father’s equipment when the poor fella died before his time, just so Achilles could practice his trade. I wanted the cub as a partner and as soon as he was old enough, I started making it known. Slocum kept putting me off and the next thing I know, they’re taking it away and telling Achilles I had something to do with his father losing money, sayin’ I was using him to get rich and who knows what all.

  “His pa was my friend and a good man, but I always thought he was a might tightfisted with a dollar. I was surprised when he left his family with nothing. Now I’m wondering if Slocum didn’t do to them what he done to Mrs. Hornmeyer and her son. Weasely, lily-livered bastard.” He lifted his chin defiantly to Rachel. “And no, don’t care a continental what you think of it, I ain’t apologizing for the word.”

  Rachel wasn’t going to ask him to. She thought Eustace’s words fit Arnold Slocum to a tee.

  Chapter 23

  It was the second night of the Hunter’s Moon, but no one was running. By mid-afternoon, the blue sky turned a dull and dreary gray and the wind began to blow. Storms were moving in fast and no one wanted to be caught in the coming downpour.

  The tourists packed up and went home early. Rachel was grateful there were only two cancellations for Tea and, when it was over, no one stayed to ask questions or chat. Fat drops of rain were beginning to fall by the time the last guest left and the wind seemed to come from every direction, swirling around the buildings, kicking up little tornadoes of dust that danced along Main Street.

  “Go home, Bertie.” Rachel piled the last of the dishes by the sink.

  “Bah! It’s a little rain. There’s dishes to finish and potatoes to peel for tomorrow, and you still got supper to fix,” she protested, but her eyes went nervously to the window as something picked up by the wind smacked against it.

  Both women jumped when the outer door crashed open. Rachel rushed to close it.

  “Sorry about that,” Challenger McCall said, shaking his head, “The door got away from me in the wind.” He grinned as Dog skittered past him and hid behind Rachel. “The tough guy is afraid of storms,” he explained, “Can he stay here while I escort Mrs. Mullins home?”

  “I don’t need no escort to walk a half mile.” Her little house was at the other end of town.

  “A little bitty thing like you would blow away in this wind and Victor says with your reputation, that might start rumors, particularly if you’re carrying a broom.”

  “Mr. McCall! What a thing to repeat!” Rachel scolded, though with her black dress and wrinkled face, the little cook did resemble a storybook witch.

  Bertie scowled at the reference, reinforcing the image, and then she laughed. “You tell Victor he better be careful or come Hanging Day, it might turn out to be real.”

  Victor was to play the outlaw, Jake Brannigan, at the trial and hanging. and Bertie was proud of his earning the role and mentioned it as often as she could.

  McCal
l laughed. “I will, but let’s get you home first. He sent over his Fish for you to wear.” He unrolled a yellow pommel slicker, a match for the green one he wore.

  “What’s he wearing then?” Bertie asked, anger forgotten. “He needs to stay dry more’n me. All that gettin’ shot and falling off his horse makes his bones ache something terrible and this rain won’t help.”

  “He’s closing the storm shutters over at the bank and land office. He’s wearing his jacket, so if we hurry, I can get this back to him before he’s soaked through.”

  “Go, Bertie. I can handle what’s left and don’t worry about Arthur. He’ll be fine,” she told McCall and nodded to the old blanket in the corner. “His bed is ready and waiting, if he’d care to spend the night.” She then looked McCall in the eye and hoped he understood the message.

  He did. He raised his eyebrows and asked innocently enough, “Are you sure?”

  “I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t.”

  “Land sakes! Victor could be drowning out there and you two are worried about the dog?” Bertie interrupted impatiently, “Get your engine stoked, Sheriff, this train is pulling out.”

  Bertie was already swimming in the much too large raincoat that dragged on the ground, and when McCall settled his hat on her head and spun her toward the door, Rachel laughed. With Bertie turned and temporarily blinded, McCall leaned over and gave Rachel a quick kiss.

  “All fired up and ready to go, Bertie.” He held the door for her to pass through, but as soon as they were clear of it, he scooped her up into his arms. “All aboard,” he called in a conductor’s voice as Bertie squealed.

  The cook was still protesting as they went through the gate, but she had one hand on the hat to keep it from blowing away and she didn’t struggle at all.

  Yes, it was the second night of the Hunter’s Moon and no one was running, but Rachel felt its call as she’d never felt it before and couldn’t wait for Challenger’s return. Yet there was a bittersweetness to her anticipation, because she now foresaw the pain her future held and it would be much worse than she originally thought.