Untamed Wolf

by Wade, Cara

  “He’s a shapeshifter. And had his share of trouble with that once he used his skills to save me. I helped make sure that wouldn’t be a problem for him in the future, but I owe him, Sam. I knew then like I know now that you two belong together. He’ll be good for you. I gave him my word.”

  “A what?”

  “I can’t get into all of it. But, dammit...” He looked away as if frustrated with his inability to communicate with her. When he looked back again, he looked tired. “Just trust me, Sam.”

  This was the side of her father she remembered all too well. Overbearing, self-assured and unwilling to hear her side of the argument. Old feelings of resentment rushed to consume her but she tramped them down. “Papa,” she said with an even tone. “I can’t marry someone just because you told him I would. That’s ridiculous. You know that.” He must be more medicated than she thought, given his talk about shapeshifters.

  “Sam, I know you don’t want to hear it. But have I ever done anything that’s not in your best interest? Forget that I gave him my word, look at your debt because of my condition. And anyway, I wasn’t there for anything important in your life. I’d like to be present for the wedding.”

  That was it, Samantha had to call the nurse. He was lucid dreaming at best. She reached for the bedside remote but he stopped her, “Sam, I’m not going to force you to do anything, but you know I don’t have long. I want you to give it some serious consideration.”

  She didn’t say anything for a moment. Pushing aside the part of her mind that screamed at the prospect of a suddenly arranged marriage, she tried to fulfill his request to consider it. She felt obligated to agree to it simply because Papa clearly didn’t have much time left. She did have debt. A lot of it. She made enough money to keep them afloat but she wondered how long that would last. Papa getting sick was a blow after having had to support her mother with her medical expenses just two years earlier, along with her own debt from law school.

  “Sam,” Papa rasped, reaching for her hand. “I need to know you won’t be alone. He’ll take care of you, I promise.”

  “I don’t need anyone to take care of me,” she said stiffly.

  “You need someone, Sam. I couldn’t be there for you before, but please let me leave you with someone for after I’m gone. Say you’ll consider it.”

  Sam looked into his eyes as he pleaded with her. They were shiny, and his brow creased in pain or concern above them. She felt herself sway at his vulnerable state. “How are we even supposed to do this?” she asked helplessly.

  Papa squeezed her hand with the little strength he had. “Send him in.”

  Rising, Sam poked her head out of the room and saw Jack lounging in the waiting room across from Papa’s room. His head was thrown back and he appeared to be sleeping. “Jack?” she called to him.

  His head shot up and he blinked at her. “Is he…?”

  “He wants to talk to you,” she said quietly. She avoided his direct gaze and instead murmured an excuse about needing to use the facilities and made her exit.

  She didn’t want to hear that conversation go down. Samantha had mixed feelings about the whole thing and she was having difficulty processing them. Logically, she felt adamant that everything her father was proposing was ludicrous. But her emotions were running high right now. Her father had appealed to both her logical and emotional sides. What was more, she trusted his judgement and assessment of people. Everything her father said made sense, except for that talk about shapeshifting. She’d have to clarify that with Jack.

  Squaring her shoulders, Sam gave herself a once-over in the mirror and decided to head back to Papa’s room. She had to talk to the nurses about his medication and to Jack about whatever happened when they had served together.

  Sam had no sooner rapped on the door to see if they were done talking when Jack emerged. They stood chest to chest and she couldn’t breathe for a moment. He stared her down and she realized his eyes were the deepest light brown she’d ever seen.

  “What did he say?” she asked. Maybe her father was too far gone to make any sense to Jack. “Well?” she prodded him when he didn’t answer her right away.

  “He thinks we should get married.” Jack replied evenly.

  Sam didn’t say anything, but felt a twinge of disappointment at his tone. He didn’t sound excited at the prospect. And why should he? He didn’t need to be saddled with someone just because an old officer of his asked him to marry her.

  “I know,” she said, keeping her voice as steady as she could.

  “So, does tomorrow work for you?”

  ***

  Jack swallowed his coffee in quick gulps as he tugged on his shoes. He had one suit that he used for special occasions and he shrugged it on, knotting the bow tie quickly. He hadn’t planned on agreeing to marry Samantha. He’d intended to go in, tell Walter that while he appreciated the gesture, he was a big boy now, and he could take care of himself.

  But one look at Samantha had him on the losing end of the old man’s pleas. He felt a blow to his gut when he saw her soft, vulnerable green eyes looking at him. He needed no introduction to her, not because she was next to Walter’s bed. No, it was because he felt like he was already connected to her. Being a shapeshifter provided him with senses that he couldn’t explain. He knew when something or someone was dangerous and likewise, he knew when he could trust someone. Sam fell in the latter category, he knew that much.

  He failed to see Walter’s logic of him doing him a favor by marrying Samantha. The woman hardly needed anyone to find her a mate. She was intelligent, beautiful, and likely had her pick of men to date. He found the jealousy that piqued with that last thought difficult to ignore. It was silly, really. He barely knew her, but here he was, getting married to her.

  He assessed himself in the mirror hanging in the foyer and wondered what the hell he was doing. Less than forty-eight hours ago, he was on a mission, not worried about anything beyond his next meal. And here he was, getting married at the request of an old man on his deathbed.

  Releasing a puff of air, he left to go back to the hospital. Walter said he’d told the nurse to call some of his old contacts and arrange for a clergyman to come in and do a small ceremony at his bedside. They’d expedited the paperwork required to file for a marriage license too. If there was one thing Walter had, it was connections. There was no one he didn’t know that didn’t owe him a favor. That’s why Jack felt humbled at Walter’s words to him yesterday.

  “You’re the only one I owe a favor to,” he’d chuckled. “And here you are, doing me another favor, I guess there’s no way I can ever repay you. But I can tell you one thing for certain. This marriage will begin as a favor to me, but soon you’ll see that she is a favor to you. She’s my most precious treasure.”

  Jack nodded at the old man’s sudden gush of love for his daughter. He didn’t know anything about her beyond what Walter had told him years ago. Jack recalled him telling him how he sent her away to boarding school to provide her with stability when he could only offer her a change of schools every couple of years. Her mother had been absent from her life at that time as well, and Jack wasn’t clear on those details. But it sounded as if she had her own demons that she had to deal with.

  Samantha, for her part, sounded like she didn’t appreciate her father’s efforts to give her a sound education and somewhat normal life. He recalled the hurt one Christmas when the plane tickets Walter had sent her were returned unopened. Jack had seen the hurt on Walter’s face, and it was one of the only times he’d seen him show any emotion. He was a stern man, but he’d seen his eyes well with tears when one of the men on their team had died during a mission. Then, when the tickets were returned, Walter had no reaction initially. But Jack knew when he spent all of Christmas alone, despite the many invitations extended to him, that he was hurting.

  Jack was glad to see the two of them seemed to have mended their relationship. He could see that each held each other in high regard, so that had to count for s
omething. Jack parked his car and boarded the elevator in the parking garage, ignoring the stares of onlookers at him in his tuxedo.

  When he got to the floor where Walter was, he stopped in his tracks. There was Samantha seated in the waiting room. She wore a simple white sheath dress. Her hair was styled up with a few soft tendrils coming down the back of her neck. She was digging in her purse for something when she noticed him standing there. They both stared, unsure of what to say. He was marrying her, and yet he was tongue-tied around her.

  He cleared his throat. “You look stunning.” He didn’t know what else to say except the truth. Given the circumstances, she should look frazzled and out of sorts. But she looked calm, beautiful, and her face was flushed, giving her a healthy glow that he could tell came from within because her makeup was minimal.

  She blushed more, and Jack offered her his hand. “May I?”

  She took his hand without a word, and allowed him to lead her back to Walter’s room.

  “Papa?” she said into the quiet room.

  “He’s here,” a clergyman rose to receive them. “He asked me to read a few verses to him, and he just dozed off not five minutes earlier. We can get situated and begin whenever you’re both ready.”

  Jack dropped her hand and instead placed his on the small of her back. He felt the heat from her body and a similar surge of heat rose within him. He felt the urge to shift forms since yesterday but he’d ignored it. He could feel the need growing, but he knew he had to deny it at least for some time. He didn’t know what Walter had even told Sam about him being a werebear, if anything. He had to assume she knew nothing since she hadn’t had any questions for him. But he also knew Walter wouldn’t let her walk into any situation blindly. So, either she knew and didn’t mind, or Walter had hidden the whole thing from her.

  Walter stirred and woke up on his own as they arranged for a couple of the nurses on duty to serve as their witnesses. The whole ceremony was surprisingly quick and unemotional. He had parroted what the clergyman had said, as had Sam. She’d opted to receive a kiss on her cheek, which Jack understood, although he was disappointed by it.

  Walter, for his part, was the only one that seemed overwhelmed with emotion. He and Sam took turns hugging him after it was over and the clergyman excused himself. “You don’t know what this means to me,” he said as a grin spread across his face. “I’ve been waiting to see this for a long time.”

  Sam didn’t say anything, and Jack felt like she was avoiding his gaze. He gave Walter a smile in return and sank down in the chair next to him.

  “No, no,” Walter said when he saw Jack settling in. “You two go. Have dinner.” He coughed and stopped talking for a minute. “I need to rest. That was enough excitement for me today.”

  “It’s still breakfast time,” Sam argued. “Why don’t we just order up a tray for you to eat an early lunch with us?”

  “He couldn’t have more than liquids earlier,” a nurse said breezing in. “I say you two lovebirds should take off early and come back when he’s rested. No sense in lingering around here, you’ll only stress him out. Isn’t that right, Mr. Meyers?” She gave him a wink.

  Jack saw a look of relief pass over Walter’s face. The old man still had a way of getting people to follow his orders, no matter what his situation was. He was amused at his mentor’s cleverness.

  Jack looked at Sam and was relieved when she finally looked back at him. He shrugged, as if to say they had no choice in the matter. The corners of her mouth tilted up in a small smile. She kissed Walter on his forehead and drew the covers up to his chin and touched his hand. “We’re coming back, Papa.”

  Walter nodded and looked past her at Jack. “I’ll be here,” he said simply.

  Jack waited for Sam to gather her purse and offered her his hand again if only for Walter to see. He wanted him to know that they both entered into the marriage of their own accord, despite their reservations. It was the least he could do to provide comfort to him.

  ***

  Hours later, when they were nearing the hospital, Jack noticed Sam’s fists were clenched in her lap. “What’s wrong?” he asked. He already knew as they neared the hospital that something was wrong. But he hoped he could hide it from her for just a little while longer. She seemed to have a strong connection with her father, though. So she knew something wasn’t right.

  “Nothing. I don’t know.” She twisted the strap of her purse and looked at him. “I think we should have stayed,” she said, her voice wavering. Her phone rang and she slipped it out to look at the caller I.D. It was the hospital. She pushed it back into the pocket of her purse, her face white.

  Jack pulled into a spot and turned to face her. “We did what he wanted. He was happy, you saw him.”

  Tears spilled from her eyes. “I don’t want to go up there,” she whispered. “I can’t do it.”

  Jack didn’t say anything, but pulled her into his arms. She dropped her head on his shoulder and soon sobs wracked her body. He might have felt alarm had anyone depended on him to provide this kind of comfort even last week. But it felt natural. This was his wife. His wife. He held her tighter before he felt her pull back to search for tissues in her purse.

  “You don’t have to go up if you don’t want to,” he said calmly. “I’ll go.” He was upset too, but he knew when a man’s time was up, it was up. It was something he’d learned to surrender to long ago and he was satisfied that Walter had his final wish fulfilled and he went with dignity. It happened, he could tell. A feeling of sorrow washed over him and inside he felt a desperate need to shift grip him.

  Sam dabbed at her eyes and gave him a grateful look. “I’ll make it,” she said finally. She sounded surer of herself but her eyes told another story. He understood her fear and gave her hand a squeeze.

  He led her up to Walter’s floor and noticed all the looks the staff gave them as they approached the nurse's station. Sam opened her mouth to speak but the words didn’t come out. Jack wrapped an arm around her as her tears began to flow anew.

  “We’re so sorry,” one of the nurses said sympathetically.

  “He was our favorite,” another one said coming to rub Sam’s back. She looked at Jack and back at Sam. “He was really happy about you two. He went to sleep after you left and he just never woke up. He was at peace.”

  Sam wept harder and Jack pulled her into his arms again. He gave the staff a nod of thanks and pulled Sam into the waiting room. She spent the next hour between bouts of crying and moments of utter silence. He used the quiet moments to look over the paperwork that the hospital required them to fill out before Walter’s body was to be picked up.

  When Sam had fallen asleep, he covered her with his jacket and slipped into Walter’s room before his body was wheeled away. He paid his respects and vowed to keep his promise to take care of Sam. He went back to the waiting room to do just that, scooping her up to take her home.

  ***

  Samantha gave the armchair a shove into position next to the side table and stood back to admire the new arrangement. A little over a month had passed by since Papa passed away. In that time, Jack had arranged everything for his funeral, had Sam move into his house, and took over the debt that was largely due to Walter’s medical expenses. It gave Sam some much needed relief from the pressure of having to take on more than she could handle at a time when she could only grieve.

  She came home for lunch, something she hadn’t been able to do before because she’d had to make a forty-five minute commute into work. Now that she’d moved in with Jack it allowed her to come and relax before going back to work since his house was mere blocks away from her office.

  Humming to herself, Sam made a plate for Jack and covered it. A few times they’d made it back to the house at the same time and she enjoyed their meals together. But occasionally they missed each other and she liked to leave something for him to eat when he came home.

  They’d fallen into an easy routine, which helped cushion the blow of losing Papa.
Although she’d seen his health declining for months, she’d been in denial that the strong man could succumb to any illness. She’d wanted to believe that he was more powerful than that. She was just glad he’d died happy.

  A few times after the funeral, Jack took the time to tell her stories about how Papa was instrumental in helping him grow into the man he was today. She teared at the thought. Most of her childhood she could say she was ungrateful towards her father. He had his flaws, he was distant both physically and emotionally. But even when she knew he was reaching out to have her come spend quality time with him, she rejected those moments out of spite. Looking back now, she knew why her father behaved the way he did. He wanted her to be stronger, and he tried to toughen her up the only way he knew how. He wanted to provide her with stability when she would have only had chaos if she were with him. He gave her anonymity because he knew that if she were with him, she could become a target.

  Hearing Jack talk about how Papa had coached him didn’t make her feel envious, oddly enough. It was almost as if Papa had known that he was preparing Jack to be with Sam since the beginning. So even when they were at odds with one another in her teenage years, he was busy preparing for her future.

  She gave a small smile at the thought as she set out to walk back to the office. Although she and Jack didn’t have much time to get to know each other intimately, she felt an attraction towards him and knew he felt the same about her.

  Once she got inside, Jonathan jogged up to her. “We’ve got a little bit of a problem.”

  “Oh no, what happened? Is this about the Murphy file?” Samantha’s mind was already racing with the possibilities.

  “No, actually. I’ve heard from one of my contacts in the military. Since your dad died, there’s been a change in the officers and long story short, the files he’d had permanently sealed are now under threat. So the new guy wants to throw his weight around and unseal these documents which, I suspect, were sealed for good reason.”