Baby, I'm Howling for You

by Christine Warren

  “Yes, about that.” She placed her palms flat against her knees and licked her lips as if she were nervous. “I realized while I was getting dressed that I probably haven’t made much sense to anyone since I woke up, so I figured that in addition to my thanks, I owe all of you an explanation. It’s a long and not very pretty story, but I’ll try to stick to the CliffsNotes version.”

  Molly returned with another glass of water and set it on the coffee table in front of the she-wolf. “Only if you want, Renny. I still think you need more rest.”

  “No, you guys have helped a stranger who showed up at your door with someone trying to kill her. You could have just let the coyotes have me. Like the deputy said, I could have deserved to have them hunting me. You had no way of knowing. But if I plan to stick around, you all need to know what’s going on. What kind of trouble I might be causing.”

  Her voice grew stronger as she spoke, as if she’d begun to calm and relax into more the kind of person she was when she wasn’t running for her life or waking up with serious injuries. After a sip of water, she continued.

  “So, here’s the gist of it. About two years ago, I took a job at a small public library in Northern California. I grew up farther south, but this was a chance to run a library all by myself. At my age, it seemed like such an amazing opportunity.”

  Jaeger looked bemused. “You mean, you’re a librarian?”

  She nodded. “I have my master’s degree in library and information sciences, but I’m young. I’m twenty-six, and I’ve only been out of school for a couple of years. I thought I’d be a junior reference librarian for at least another two or three years, and not running my own facility for at least a decade, so I jumped at this chance.”

  Mick tried to blame his wolf for the images that flashed in his head as he listened to her story. Unfortunately, he didn’t think he could pin the fantasies about horn-rimmed glasses and tight gray skirts solely on the animal. That came straight from the human side of his brain.

  “What I didn’t know was that the reason the town needed a librarian so desperately was because the last one had been killed during a coyote takeover of the town.” She grimaced. “Apparently, the wolf pack that had controlled the area for decades imploded a few years ago, leaving a shifter power vacuum in town. For a while, that made it appeal to a variety of Others who prefer not to have strong pack control. But eventually, the coyotes moved in and took over. That made some of the locals pretty unhappy, and a war broke out. The former librarian—an ocelot, I think—was one of the casualties. This all happened before I got there, though, and the coyotes were careful to keep all that buried until I had already settled into the job.”

  “Oh, shit,” Molly said. “Everything wasn’t quite as peaceful as it seemed, was it.”

  Renny snorted. “Not by a long shot. The coyotes kept everything looking pretty on the surface, but I found out fast that the alpha ruled through fear and violence. Anyone who stood against him mysteriously disappeared, and sometimes their families, as well. It was like he’d set up this weird little psycho kingdom where everything and everyone belonged to him, and no one was allowed to protest.” She rubbed her hands against the thighs of her borrowed sweatpants and chewed on her bottom lip. “I certainly wasn’t allowed to turn him down when he decided to ask me out.”

  Mick felt his lip curl in a snarl and tightened the muscles around his mouth. His wolf had to stop acting like White Fang every time anyone so much as hinted at Renny being with another male. It was getting ridiculous.

  “Anyway, I didn’t take it seriously at first, but the longer I was there, the more I learned about the town, the more nervous it made me that he wasn’t giving up on trying to make me date him. I had realized by then that telling him off might backfire, so I tried just brushing him off, pretending I didn’t know what he was getting at, but that just made him escalate. That’s when the stalking started. At that point, I knew I had to just get away, so I quit my job and left town. I didn’t even have anything else lined up. I just had to get out of there.”

  She paused again for more water. Molly, now seated beside her on the sofa, leaned closer to pat her shoulder. “Of course you did. You’d have been crazy to stay.”

  “Well, leaving made him crazy,” Renny said, her mouth turning down as she related the story. “He actually followed me to the next town I went to. Just showed up at my door, out of the blue, like I’d never left. Like I’d never said no. That just plain scared me, so I ran.”

  She plucked at the fabric of the shirt she wore, the hem pooling in her lap because it was so big on her.

  “That was two months ago. Every time I changed my location, either he found me or his buddies did. Once he sent them after me, I knew things had changed. He wasn’t acting like just a guy who was interested in me anymore; it was as if we had actually been in a relationship that he expected us to continue. Like I was his long-term partner, and we’d just had a fight, or something. It got really weird.”

  Molly shuddered. “Creepy.”

  “Very. A couple of times, his goons almost got me, and it became clear he had ordered them to bring me back to him, no matter what. I managed to escape and run again, but they found me about a week ago near Eugene, Oregon. I’ve been trying to stay ahead of them ever since.”

  The men had remained quiet while Renny told her story, just listening while she explained herself. Or at least, Mick assumed that’s what the other two had been doing. He had been trying to keep himself from interrupting to demand a name, location, and recent photo of this dead coyote walking, while his wolf had been trying to break free of his control and get started on the hunt already. Somehow he didn’t think she needed to witness any more physical violence tonight.

  Zeke remained standing, but Jaeger had taken a seat in Mick’s favorite armchair. He looked like a judge hearing arguments or a feudal lord hearing petitions, his expression focused and serious as he listened.

  “You mentioned earlier that you were headed to Alpha when your car ran out of gas,” the mayor said. “What made you decide to come here?”

  She sighed. “Their newest tactic. Lately, every place I stop in seems to suffer from an outbreak of antishifter sentiment as soon as I get there. The first couple of times, I figured it was just a symptom of the current climate.”

  “Sure.” Molly nodded. “We’ve all seen on the news how human-nationalists have been getting bolder over the past year or two.”

  “Yeah, but that’s mostly in big cities or superconservative areas of the country. Not in liberal areas like the Pacific Northwest. And not as soon as I settle into a place.”

  Jaeger steepled his fingers under his chin. “You think your stalker has been stirring up human radicals just to target you?”

  “I’d be skeptical, too, but he basically admitted it the last time I spoke to him.”

  “You talk to him?” Zeke sounded incredulous.

  “Not voluntarily, but he finds ways to find my phone number, or if he gets really frustrated, he’ll join the others in the hunt for a few days. And the last time, he said I should just realize that there’s no place I can hide from him, that I’ll never be safe among humans, and no lupine pack will ever accept me if I don’t put down roots with them. Which I can’t do with him always after me.”

  Mick knew she was right about the last part. Wolf shifter packs could be insular, suspicious little clans, loath to accept outsiders. Lone females usually fared better than males at gaining acceptance into unrelated packs, but most had to go through phases of testing before becoming members. If Renny had been on the run, never really able to settle in any one place, she wouldn’t have had a chance to earn the trust of a pack. That meant she’d be unwelcome in pack territory.

  Shunned by other wolf shifters and faced with a climate of hostility from humans, she must have felt like she literally had nowhere to go.

  “He had me backed into a corner,” Renny said. “And that’s when I thought of Alpha.” She looked straight at the mayor
. “Every shifter knows about this place. It’s like our version of a bedtime story—the place where different species of shifters live together in a single territory, without packs or prides, and look out for each other. We’re safe if the anti-Other sentiment continues to build, because shifters founded the town and still run it. And any shifter is welcome, as long as they obey the law. Alpha doesn’t turn shifters away, even the ones with issues.”

  She shifted her gaze in turn to each of the people in the room, her expression earnest. “I’m tired of running. I want to build a life, but I can’t do it around humans. Not only is it not safe for me, but it wouldn’t be safe for them. The coyotes could decide to hurt them, either to get to me or in an effort to turn them against me. And this is the only place where other shifters would welcome a stranger with my kind of baggage.”

  Mick’s wolf wanted to welcome her in a graphic way. Then as soon as it had that taken care of, he wanted to hunt down the bastard stalker who had been making her miserable and end him in as bloody and violent as way as he could think of.

  Neither Jaeger nor Zeke responded right away. They exchanged meaningful glances, seeming to communicate silently until Molly gave an exasperated huff.

  “Oh, give it a rest, you two,” she grumped. “You know she’s being perfectly honest with you. Nothing about her story smelled like a lie, and we all know that situations like hers might not be the reason Alpha was founded, but it’s still a damn compelling argument for coming here. We do take care of our own, and we are more capable than any other town out there of defending ourselves if any of the threats to Renny spill over. Give her a break already, and tell her how we’re going to deal with this.”

  “Now, hold on a minute,” Renny protested, her eyes widening. “I’m not asking anyone else to ‘deal with’ my problems for me. This is my mess and my responsibility. All I’m looking for is a place where he can’t drive me away and where there are authorities who can handle a shifter if I need to call for help. That’s it. Frankly, I’m hoping that once he realizes where I’ve gone, he’ll finally understand that I’m not worth the trouble he’d cause by continuing to harass me.”

  “I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Zeke grumbled. With his arms crossed over his chest and his cop face on, he looked like he could stop a whole pack of coyotes. He just didn’t look like he wanted to. “Stalkers who become this obsessive rarely just give up and go away. Either they get what they’re after, or they go to jail. End of story.”

  Molly’s foot darted out, landing a solid kick to her brother’s shin. “Shut up, you jerk. Way to go with being welcoming and reassuring.”

  “Hey, I’m just being honest.” The deputy held up his hands. “It won’t help anyone if we don’t look at the situation clearly. If Ms. Landry stays in town, her stalker will show up here eventually. We all need to be prepared for that.”

  “Renny,” the she-wolf insisted. “And I will be staying, unless you tell me I need to leave.”

  “No.” The growl escaped Mick’s throat before he could stop it. Jaeger’s knowing look made him want to unleash another one. He cleared his throat with a cough. “No one can run forever. No one should have to. If she’s decided to make a stand here, she’s got every right to do it.”

  Plus, his wolf whined, if she left, they’d just have to chase after her. They wouldn’t survive losing another mate.

  Not. Our. Mate.

  The wolf ignored him. Again.

  “She does,” Jaeger said, putting an end to the debate. He rose from his chair and offered Renny a smile. “Welcome to Alpha, Ms. Landry.”

  “Renny.”

  “Renny,” he conceded. “You’ll find out fast enough that we’re not some kind of fairy-tale paradise. Some of us can be real assholes, given the chance, but we do guard each other’s backs.” He rubbed his hands together in a brisk, businesslike gesture. “Now, let’s get practical for a second. It’s going to be dawn in another hour or so, but it seems like a cruel thing to wake up the owner of the B and B at this point to get you checked in. We don’t have a motel in town, but I assume you’ll need to rent a room until you find a place to stay?”

  Renny winced, then nodded. “I don’t have a lot of cash left, though, so I need to find a job fast. I’m willing to wait tables or babysit or anything in the short term, but eventually, I’ll need to find something more stable.”

  Jaeger grinned. “I have a feeling that won’t be a problem, but we can talk about that in the morning. In the meantime, I’m sure Mick won’t mind if you spend a few more hours on his sofa. Right, Mick?”

  “Oh, I couldn’t—”

  “Fine,” Mick grunted, even as his wolf gave a happy yodel. It loved the idea of keeping the female around as long as possible. In fact, it would be happiest if she moved off the sofa and spent the remainder of the night in their bed, where he could touch and smell her. “In the morning, I’ll take her out to get her car and lead her into town.”

  “Tomorrow’s one of my days off, so I can meet her at the gas station and show her around,” Molly volunteered, looking excited at the prospect. “I’ll take her by Mrs. Wilczek’s so she can check into a room, and then we’ll check around town to see if anyone’s hiring right now.”

  “Bring her by my office,” Jaeger suggested. “I might have a line on something more suitable than waiting tables or manning a cash register.”

  The look of hope that dawned over Renny’s face made Mick’s wolf both happy and angry—happy that the female appeared to be relaxing and starting to believe she had found a safe place to rest, and angry that she’d been through so much before she got here.

  “Wow. Thank you all,” she said, her eyes brightening with tears. She blinked to dispel them and offered the room an unsteady smile. “Really. There aren’t enough words to tell you how grateful I am, to all of you. This almost doesn’t seem real.”

  Jaeger covered his mouth and yawned hugely. “I find most things don’t at four thirty in the morning, so I suggest we break up this party and all get some sleep. Molly, I’ll see you and Renny in the morning. Late morning,” he said meaningfully. “Zeke, I know you said you didn’t find any sign that the coyotes had stuck around after Mick drove them off, but I’d feel better if you took one last look around before you went home.”

  Zeke nodded and headed for the door. His sister paused to give Renny a hug before she picked up her kit to follow. “I’ll meet you at the garage around ten? That should give you time for a couple hours’ sleep before Mick takes you back to your car with a can of gas.”

  The she-wolf returned the embrace with a kind of visible relief that made Mick wonder how long it had been since she’d experienced a gesture of real warmth. He’d bet it had been way too long.

  “Great. Meeting adjourned.” Jaeger clapped his hand on Mick’s shoulder, then turned to leave. “I’ll see you all tomorrow. Well, later today, anyway.”

  There was a brief whirlwind of noise and motion as Mick’s guests all made their way out of the house and into their cars. Then there was a heavy silence as he realized that he and the she-wolf were suddenly alone. Together.

  He watched as she shifted her weight and nervously clasped her hands in front of her. Her fingers twisted together as she offered him a tentative smile. “Um, thank you again. Really. I owe you my life. If you hadn’t—”

  Mick cut her off. He didn’t want more of her gratitude, and his wolf disliked hearing her sound so submissive. It didn’t suit her. He had the feeling that under normal circumstances, her wolf would give him a hell of a fight, if he managed to get her pissed at him.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said, glancing behind her at the blanket still draped over the arm of the sofa. He knew that after being wrapped around her naked body, it would carry her scent strongly. Maybe he should be a gentleman and offer her his bed so that he could spend the night stretched out under it on the sofa, wallowing in her unique, intoxicating fragrance.…

  His wolf panted at the thought, which meant it was a b
ad idea. He turned abruptly for the linen closet. “Let me get you a pillow and a couple more blankets. It still gets cold at night.”

  He felt her eyes on him all the way across the room. It did get cold at night, but the way he was feeling, that was a good thing. Blankets would keep his guest cozy, but he could do with a naked roll in a snowbank. Too bad it was already late in the season and the few raggedy puddles of snow were rapidly melting.

  Mick wondered if he’d last through a prolonged spring thaw without losing his damned mind. His wolf wondered why he cared. They’d claim the female before long, anyway, no cooldown necessary.

  Not.

  Our.

  Mate.

  He used the words like a bludgeon over his wolf’s head, but the beast didn’t even flinch. It just gave him the mental equivalent of a knowing look before settling down to wait him out. The wolf knew that even the human could fight his own instincts for only so long. It could afford to be patient.

  Especially considering the value of the prize.

  Chapter Three

  As exhausted as she was, Renny gave up on the idea of sleeping after an hour. Her body might be exhausted, but her mind wouldn’t rest. She lay in the darkened living room and stared up at the ceiling while her thoughts continued to race through her mind like fleeing prey. Ninety percent of them featured a tall, tattooed wolf with eyes like the midnight sky.

  Stupid hormones.

  They had gone into overdrive the moment she’d set eyes on Mick, the mysterious wolf man. When she’d gone into the bathroom and slipped into the clothes he had lent her, her idiot glands had struck up their own version of the “Hallelujah Chorus.” Her wolf took one whiff of his scent clinging to the garments and informed her they had found their mate.

  Her human side wanted to laugh. Oh, there was nothing funny about it. It just figured that with her luck, Renny would find herself destined to mate the man who saved her life, then seemed to instantly regret it.

  The whole time she had been explaining her story to the mayor and the deputy, Mick had stared at her as though she had a contagious disease. Normally, she might have taken his focused attention as a sign of his interest in her, but he paired it with such strong go-away vibes that she had quickly decided he was just trying to figure out the best way to get rid of her as fast as possible. He spoke to her only when he had no choice, he did everything he could to avoid getting close to her, and he’d beaten land speed records getting away from her as soon as they’d been left alone.