“Fine,” she said from behind him, “but I call the bed.”
“We’ll see about that.”
He reached into the bag and sank his fingers into the flour. He grabbed a handful and spun around. “Surrender the bed and I won’t give you a flour shower.”
“If you think I’m afraid, you’re sorely mistaken. I bet you throw like a girl.” Digging her hand into the sugar bag, Faith pulled out a handful of her own grainy ammo. She faced him, holding the sugar behind her back. “I’m not giving you the bed. You can have the couch or the floor. Or sleep in the bathtub for all I care.”
“The bathtub?” Carter chuckled low and deep. “The porcelain would be fucking cold! The bed is mine.”
“Fine.” She cocked back. “But you’re going to have to fight me for it.”
Faith flinched. Carter didn’t bite. She cocked back farther. Humperdinck skidded around the corner and slid over the kitchen tile. He hopped between them excitedly, his sickeningly cute gaze bouncing back and forth between them. Using the pup as a distraction, Faith let the sugar fly.
Carter ducked below the sugar cloud and ran at her, tangling her arms behind her back. He pinned her against the oven, using his body for pressure. Laughing hysterically, Faith squirmed, elbowing him in the gut.
“Let go,” she said, the laughter lingering in her voice.
“Surrender the bed.” He held her hands in front of her, shackled by one of his own. With his free hand, he dusted her cheek with flour, covering it with a shadow of white. “It’s easy to say: Carter, the bed is yours. Try it.”
She nudged her chin at him, smiling. “You think a little flour on my cheek is going to make me buckle? You should’ve stuck with the flour shower. It even rhymes.”
“All right, you asked for it, you stubborn woman.” He held his hand over her and sprinkled flour over her head. “All you’ve got to do is say the words. Just give me the bed and this will all be over.”
“Never surrender!” As she shook her head, giggling into a fit, a clump of flour fell from her hair onto her eyelashes.
“Wait, close your eyes,” he said, and reached up to brush off the flour. She hesitated, her now-white eyelashes resting feather-softly on her cheek. “Almost done.” He gently swiped away the last of it, and then paused, his gaze trailing to her smiling lips. “You almost got a ton of it in your eyes.”
Her smile fell as her eyes fluttered open and she caught his gaze on her lips.
“That would’ve stung,” he said.
He was still holding on to her wrist. Why couldn’t he let go?
Why didn’t he want to?
“The bed is yours,” she said, and twisted out of his hold.
Chapter Ten
Just before four o’clock, when the mist rolled in to take over the city, Carter exited Starbucks, a steaming cup of house blend in hand. He slid into his Tahoe, then double-checked his cell before starting up the engine.
Still no calls from Faith.
He hadn’t talked to her in days. It seemed strange, even though they’d gone through the week without talking before.
He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Why couldn’t he stop thinking about her?
She consumed his thoughts. The way she’d looked in that green dress on Sunday night, the way it accented a figure he didn’t realize she had, the way she’d looked in wolf form—lethal yet graceful. The sound of her laughter, light and bubbly, still filled his ears.
The radio on his dash chirped, reminding him that he was on duty tonight.
“Suspicious subject harassing citizens in Seward Park. Caller reports seeing a wolf-man,” dispatch for the wolf pack rattled. “Enforcer Griffin and Enforcer Ramsey on call. Reroute to that location and capture subject before Seattle PD arrives.”
Shit. There was a werewolf loose in the park. Carter had to find him and bring him in before any other non-shifters spotted him. And then he had to convince the witness that what he or she saw was a giant dog.
“10-4.” Carter floored his Tahoe as he merged onto I-5 toward Bailey Peninsula. “En route.”
Seward Park was a three-hundred-acre forest in the center of Seattle. Hiking trails, fish hatcheries, and lakefront beach access attracted loads of visitors each year. It wasn’t uncommon after the full moon for a werewolf to go berserk and try to find solace in the forest.
Carter turned off the freeway and entered the park just before nightfall. There were a few cars in the first parking lot, but no one walking around. Rolling down his windows and turning off the radio, Carter patrolled around the park slowly, picking up all kinds of scents.
None of them sent off the red flag of a werewolf.
He passed a few non-shifters in hiking gear who nodded and continued walking by. If they’d seen a werewolf, they would’ve been running out of the park, not taking a leisurely sunset stroll.
As he reached the end of the peninsula, a howl split the night.
Swerving off the road, Carter put the Tahoe in park and hopped out. Softwoods and Douglas firs towered over him, creating hundreds of hiding spots for a werewolf lunatic to hide. He charged through the brush, but there was nothing to follow. No other sounds, no smells out of the ordinary for a forest filled with woodland creatures.
“Come on, howl again,” he breathed, checking the Taser on his waistband. He was armed, but if he couldn’t find the wolf, he wouldn’t get the chance to use the weapon.
A black Tahoe matching his own pulled behind him. Nate hopped out.
“Seattle PD will be here in ten,” he spat, charging around the hood. “We’ve got no time.”
“One option,” Carter said, scanning through the trees. “I’m shifting.”
“Don’t.” Nate stormed through the brush, searching the canopies above their heads. “If someone sees you or Seattle PD arrives, they’ll think you’re the threat and I’ll have to ditch out. Not to mention the captain will have your ass in a sling.”
“I know, but if this guy’s crazy, we can’t exactly leave him in the hands of the police.”
“Our hands are tied.”
“Yours might be, but mine aren’t,” Carter said, feeling tendrils of white-hot energy pulsing through his veins. “Shifting is the fastest way to search him out. If he’s a member of our pack, I’ll be able to hear his thoughts. I’ll find him that way.”
Nate grumbled something about being a loose cannon, but didn’t continue arguing. Carter high-stepped over a log as the urge to shift sparked through him. He let the energy swirling inside him ball into a pit in his stomach. He closed his eyes, muscles hardening into anticipatory knots, and let the sensations surge freely through him.
He shifted. Fell to his hands and knees. As his entire body shuddered, coarse fur covered his skin in a blanket of black. His muscles bulked up, stretched to fill his massive wolf form. Tendons pulled and snapped into shape. As a wolf, he was robust and muscular, the top of his back nearly reaching Nate’s shoulders.
“Go get ’em,” Nate said, smacking Carter in the backside. “I’ll keep lookout.”
Carter snapped at Nate’s hand and Nate snatched it back. Carter took off into the forest, his strides eating up the ground. He could sense things easier in this form. Every color was more vibrant, every sound more crisp. The energy of the moon flowed through him, empowering his every stride.
He hadn’t run more than a few minutes before he sensed another wolf in the vicinity.
Leave me alone, Enforcer, a scratchy voice said through the pack’s process of mind-speak. I mean you no harm.
Carter spun around a fir and headed west, toward the main road. Branches brushed his side and threatened to tangle in his fur. With a single row of trees separating him from the road, Carter stopped.
He was close.
You may not intend to harm anyone, Carter projected to the wolf, but you’ve made yourself known to a non-shifter, breaking one of our cardinal laws. Why don’t you come back to the office with me before you get yourself in
more trouble?
Seattle PD’s sirens blared in the distance.
And make it quick, he added.
The wolf emerged from behind a tree. Scruffy brown fur covered a wolf that was no larger than a bullmastiff. Carter could easily talk to the witness and convince him or her that the creature in the park was a dog.
They might make it out of this cleaner than he’d originally thought possible.
A car passed behind the wolf, drawing his attention around. Carter stole the opportunity, leaping into the air, smacking into the wolf full-force. Growling from deep within his belly, Carter pinned the wolf to the ground. But the wolf was squirrely, slipping one of his legs free. Carter ground his back legs into the wolf’s belly, but it didn’t seem to faze him. He slunk forward, upward, slowly releasing himself from Carter’s hold.
No way you’re getting away from me, Carter forced out.
A pair of park visitors strode across the street, headed right for them.
Sirens blared, closing in.
In the distance, tires peeled against asphalt.
Carter adjusted his grip on the wolf, but the split-second shift in position gave the wolf what he needed to scramble free. He bolted toward the street, his paws striking hard and fast, and headed for the road.
No! Carter hollered through his mind. Stop!
The wolf charged forward. A few more steps and he’d out himself to a couple of unsuspecting humans.
Carter did the only thing he could. He dived, stretched out like he was laying out for a pop fly, and clawed at the wolf’s tail. He caught fur and dug in deep. With a strangled cry, the wolf pounced through the last line of trees and ripped his tail free. Carter landed behind him with a heavy thump, his momentum slinging him in plain sight.
The couple shrieked, cowering.
Glancing back to check if Carter had followed him, the wolf didn’t see as Nate’s Tahoe pulled up to the curb. The wolf ran squarely into the side of the SUV, then dropped to the ground like a stone. Nate hauled ass out of the driver’s side door and tased the twitching mountain of fur.
Time stood still.
Staring openmouthed, the couple sized Carter up, from his furry muzzle to his larger-than-life back haunches. They were committing the sight to memory, no doubt. Nate stood, his shocked gaze flipping between Carter and the couple.
“Get in the back,” Nate mumbled, dragging the tased wolf toward the back of the SUV. As he popped the rear hatch, Carter hopped in, and then watched Nate heave the wolf in after him.
After rolling into the backseat, Carter shifted back to human form, and then dressed in an extra pair of clothes Nate had stashed into a gym bag in back. Nate handled the couple in the way the bureau had taught them. He smiled and talked with his hands. They nodded. Stared. Nodded some more, looking thoroughly confused. At least the SUV’s windows were completely tinted. Nate took a notepad out of his back pocket and jotted down things as they spoke. He handed them his business card and turned back to the Tahoe, looking like one hell of a pissed-off enforcer.
Seattle PD’s lights could barely be seen blinking through the forest across the way. They’d arrived on the wrong side of the park. Hopefully, everyone would be long gone by the time they made it around.
The lunatic, still in wolf form, twitched on the floorboard, the volts from the Taser still singing through him. Realizing the wolf was in the backseat uncuffed, Carter popped open Nate’s arresting kit that lay beside him and snapped the cuffs on him.
A few seconds later, Nate slid into the Tahoe and glanced back. “You’ve lost it. You’ve seriously lost it. Do you know what the captain’s going to say when he hears that you outed yourself to some hikers in the park?”
They took off onto the freeway and didn’t look back.
“We got him, didn’t we?” Carter said. “What’d you tell the couple back there? Protocol bullshit?”
“No, I told them you two escaped from the Woodland Park Zoo. I’m taking you back to your cage as we speak.” He laughed. “I don’t think they bought it at first, but I’m one hell of an actor.”
He’d have to remember that.
“Does that zoo even have wolves?” Carter asked.
“Hell if I know!”
Thirty minutes later, Nate took the exit for Carter’s home, gunning the Tahoe around a sharp turn. Thankfully, the nutty werewolf had remained zonked out after being tased. Specialized Tasers built for the wolf pack to take out rogue wolves meant the extreme volts were enough to bring down a wolf and keep him knocked out for hours.
“I’m going to call them up later tonight and do damage control,” Nate said. “Get some information on the zoo. I’ll also look up the first witness and tell them the same story so it matches up.”
There had to be something more to do. “It’d probably be a good idea to arrange a wolf transfer to the zoo this year. Just to cover our tracks.”
Nate craned his neck around. “You are good.”
“Call City Tow for my Tahoe, would you?” Carter said, as they pulled in front of his cabin. “PD will probably have towed it by now. I need it back by tomorrow morning .”
Nate nodded. “I’ll put someone at the office on it.”
“ Thanks for having my back, Ramsey.”
“No problem.” Something flickered across Nate’s expression before he smiled. “What was I suppose to do? Leave you hanging?”
Without giving Carter a chance to respond, he peeled out of the driveway, kicking up gravel as he went.
…
Faith curled into the corner of her couch and started up her computer. She’d just gotten off the phone with Carter, and he said he wanted to come by to grab a beer. Neighbors were supposed to borrow a cup of milk, or sugar, but she really wanted to see him, so she didn’t mind. She would’ve driven to the store to buy every beer in stock if it meant Carter would stop by. He said he’d had a bad day at work—the worst, he’d said—but wouldn’t go into detail over the phone.
She couldn’t help but feel like his stopping by was a sign that their relationship was moving in the right direction. He’d stopped by unannounced before, and they’d even talked over beers on the front porch a few times.
But never, not once, had he wanted to come by because he’d had a bad day. Because he wanted to talk it over with her.
She wanted to be the person he came to when things got rough, when he needed to confide in someone or open up about his past. She wanted to be that woman for him so badly it hurt.
Maybe today would be the start.
As her dog blog cued up, she searched through the traffic stats.
“Fifty comments?” She scanned over a few questions from her last post. “Wow. More than yesterday.”
She read:
I have a Chihuahua with “little dog” syndrome. He won’t quit picking on our dalmatian. I can’t keep them apart all the time. What should I do?
Have a Little Faith’s answer: Watch the behavior carefully. What we might be quick to consider “bullying” behavior might simply be two dogs playing with each other. What is the dalmatian’s response to the little guy? Do they nip and growl or are they attacking each other and biting with force? Those answers will go a long way in determining if your dog’s behavior is something that needs to be addressed or looked over.
How do you get your dog to stop chewing dryer sheets?
Have a Little Faith’s answer: Keep the dryer sheets off the floor, get a trash can with a lid, and buy your dog some fresh-smelling chew toys.
Faith kicked her feet up on the couch and checked her email. She’d just heard back from her website designer. The layout he’d made featuring dogs and footprints, with easy access to all of her posts and tags, was beautiful. Better than she’d anticipated.
Traffic on the blog had escalated in the last few months, but this new look was going to catapult it out of the doggie blog-o-sphere. At this point, she was making about thirty dollars a month off the widgets on the sidebar where she featured top-selling dog
toys and treats. She bought her favorite items in bulk off eBay, repacked them, and sold them via Amazon. All of the items were “Have a Little Faith endorsed.”
Pretty brilliant, if she did say so herself.
The front door swung open and Carter walked inside, making a beeline for the refrigerator. Even as a blur of movement, he was assertive, his strides sure and even.
“Honey, I’m home,” he joked, popping the top on a beer. “What’s cooking?”
Her heart fluttered, although she knew he was joking. How different would her life be with Carter in it? She could try to have a hot meal for him when he walked in the door from work. He could talk to her about his bad day…and then they’d make love in front of the woodstove and all would be right in the world.
“Did you not see the dead cake pan on the front porch?” she said, jarring back to reality. They weren’t a real couple, and they weren’t any closer to making love than she was to being a gourmet chef. “It’s still there for other cooking pots and pans to witness. Wouldn’t want them getting any crazy ideas. I had Chinese. There are leftovers on the top shelf in back.”
“Swell.” He came out of the kitchen with a beer and white to-go box with the top peeled back, chopsticks sticking out. His dark-washed jeans were slung low on his waist, and his black T-shirt bunched over his shoulders, hanging loosely at his sides. “What’re you doing?”
Fighting the to urge to check him out for the hundredth time, Faith scrolled to the top of her new site. Her cheeks flushed hot as she remembered how he’d almost kissed her during their food fight. But she’d panicked, as she always did. Besides, she could have read something into that interaction that hadn’t actually been there. What if that hadn’t been an almost-kiss?
“Have a Little Faith just got a remodel.” She spun the computer around to show him. “What do you think?”
Gawking, Carter sank into the couch cushions beside her. “That’s your blog? I mean, that’s you?”
“Pretty sweet, right? I’ve been working really hard on it.”
“Looks like it.” He stared at the site as he chomped down lo mein, then cast his gaze at her, his eyes a mesmerizing shade of sky blue. “What kind of stuff do you talk about?”
So I Married a Werewolf (Entangled Covet) Page 7