by B. L. Dawn
Luke waited behind the tree, staring at the house. He hoped that she didn’t come back out with one of those males to take a tour of the woods or something. If he saw it happening, he would have to put a stop to it.
Chapter 10
Why were there three unfamiliar males in Tatum’s house while she was standing naked in the middle of the living room?
One was sitting on the couch with Grandpa. He smiled at her, then introduced himself. “My name’s Jim. It’s nice to meet you.”
“The pleasure’s all mine,” she squeaked.
Jim had long brown hair and brown eyes. Were the two other males brothers? Both had broad shoulders, long wild blonde hair, and green eyes.
They walked over to her to introduce themselves. The taller of the two had sharp-angled features, while the shorter one had more of a round face.
The taller male grabbed Tatum’s hand, shaking it hard. “Nice to meet you. My name’s Dean.”
“I’m Tatum.”
“That’s my younger brother, Leo.”
“I can speak for myself.” Leo pushed his way in front of Dean and shook her hand. “I’m Leo.”
The males sat back down, restarting their conversation with her brothers.
Eyebrows raised, Tatum walked back to Grandpa’s room, realizing that the two males didn’t stare at her body. They may have seen it while she was at the door, but they weren’t staring. That made her more comfortable, she guessed, and a little disappointed for sure. What did a female have to do to get some attention around here?
She got dressed, grabbed her phone, and tapped on the screen. The screen was blank. Tatum did a quick sweep of the small room, and anxiety overtook her. There were no lights, no light switches, no outlets. Holy shit! This can’t be happening. No electricity. She should have seen this coming. Thank Destiny her car could charge phones.
A few minutes later, she plugged her phone in her car. She looked over the land behind Enoch’s house. There was a large field not even comparable to the garden image that she imagined it would be.
A deer came out of the tree line with big brown eyes that roamed around. The creature stopped to munch on some plants. So sweet. Tatum hadn’t seen wildlife up close in way too long.
Looking down, she grabbed her phone and hit the power button. The little light came on.
A loud growl rang through the air. Jumping up, Tatum hit her head on the roof of the car. Blood sprayed across the field. Red decked the weeds. Her hand flew over her mouth as a light-brown wolf with a dark-brown stripe down its back took the deer out with one clamp of its teeth.
She squeezed her eyes shut. She shouldn’t feel bad for the deer. After all, that shifter was hungry and needed to eat.
The thing that really bothered her was that sooner or later, this is the kind of thing that she was going to have to do—kill animals to eat. Shaking her head, she couldn’t believe what had just happened in front of her. I can’t do that. Oh, Destiny, I’m tame.
Needing to get ahold of herself, she tried to rationalize her emotions. This type of shifter was who she was deep, deep, deep inside. Wasn’t it? Wolves didn’t pussyfoot around the food issue when they were hungry.
“What are you doing?”
Tatum jumped up, once again hitting her head on the roof of the car. Enoch stared down at her.
“Oh, just contemplating being a vegetarian until someone can go to the market.” She chuckled as she looked around nervously, realizing her phone was in her hand. “I’m also about to call Natalie.”
She glanced over at Enoch, relieved that he had put some pants on. His muscular chest was still bare, but she didn’t mind that at all.
Enoch nodded. “Is Natalie the gardener?”
“Yes. She can help us.” Tatum found Natalie’s name and hit send, but there was no signal.
“Get in, and I’ll drive until my phone works.”
Fifteen minutes later, bars appeared on her screen. Tatum put the vehicle in park, and hit send again. She put the phone on speaker so that Enoch could listen to the conversation. Natalie answered the phone.
“Hey, this is Tatum. The female from the club the other night.”
“Yeah, I know. How are you feeling?”
“Good, thanks. I’m calling because I need your help with something. I have the alpha of the pack here with me, and you’re on speakerphone.”
Natalie cleared her throat a couple of times. “Um…hello, alpha.”
Enoch leaned in. “Hello.”
Tatum played with the power cord. “You grew up on a farm. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“We have a bit of a situation. The Green Lagoon Pack’s garden got destroyed, and we don’t know much about farming. We need farming lessons. Would you be willing to teach us how to grow food?”
Tatum twisted the cord around her finger. “Natalie, are you there?”
“Um, yeah. I can do that.”
“If you don’t feel up to it, it’s okay. I can find someone else to help.”
“Oh…no…I want to help. I do.” Another pause stretched over the line before Natalie spoke again. “Why don’t you guys come to the farm? I’ll show you a thing or two about growing food. There’s a lot to learn.”
Tatum observed Enoch for confirmation. He nodded.
“Where’s your farm?” Tatum typed the address into Google Maps. “You’re two hours away from us. When should we come?”
“How about tomorrow morning, around six?”
Tatum glanced over at Enoch, who was touching random buttons on the radio. Thank goodness the engine was off. Tatum shook her head and smiled. “We’ll be there.”
“Good. I’ll see you guys in the morning. Is James coming with you?”
Tatum shrugged. “Umm, sure. I don’t see why not. Bye, Natalie.”
Tatum hung up the phone and smiled at Enoch. The two made their way back to the village. Once there, Enoch got out of the car, walked around, and took her hand. He led her to his porch, looking serious. Was he interested in her? She had left the car keys in the SUV; they were still in the ignition. Trying not to worry about that because her phone needed to charge, she let him pull her toward his porch stairs. Holy shit! Where are we going? Her heart began to race.
Enoch sat on the porch stairs and pulled Tatum beside him. “Do you have questions about pack life?”
Tatum wasn’t expecting that question. Honestly, she had expected to walk into his house and tour his bedrooms. She tried to think of a question as fast as she could, but nothing was coming to her. “Where does everyone…go poop?”
Enoch erupted in laughter, head bent back, arms crossed over his stomach. He wiped tears from his eyes while Tatum’s face grew red from embarrassment.
“I’m sorry. We have an outhouse.” He chuckled. “You can poop in the woods as a wolf too. Just, don’t use poison ivy to wipe with.”
Tatum glared at him with narrowed eyes. “Sure.” She picked at the dirt caked between her nails.
Bumping her with his shoulder, Enoch grinned. “I apologize.”
Tatum ignored him and continued to pick at her nails.
“I can order you to speak.”
Tatum huffed out a loud breath. “Can you tell me about mating?”
“Mating?” Enoch ran his hand around the back of his head, eyes wide. “Um…okay…mating. Mating is sex. You know that. Um…you can mate with anyone if it’s consensual.”
Enoch looked around. “Unless they have an intended mate.”
“So an intended mate is like a wife or husband?”
“It’s more than that. It takes over every part of you—your wolf bonds with them. Your body yearns for them. They’re all you can think about.”
Tatum had a sneaking suspicion that James had bonded with Natalie, but that was none of her business. “So does everyone find a mate?”
“No. At least not lately. I suppose that’s my fault. We don’t get visitors, and w
e don’t go out.”
“Do shifters know who their mates are at first sight?” She remembered James and the way he had reacted to Natalie. The connection between the two was obvious.
“Sometimes. But other times, shifters aren’t sure. They need to be convinced. I don’t know why. But true mates always end up together in the end.”
“That’s crazy. It’s not like that for humans. They just decide to care for one another, and they can decide to stop caring for one another too.” Tatum paused and came up with another question. “So what’s up with mating maturity? In the human world, children go through puberty. Is it the same thing?”
“I’m not sure about humans. Most shifters go through it between the ages of sixteen and twenty. It’s different for everyone. Mating maturity is when we connect with our wolves. We can sense who our intended mate is supposed to be. Before mating maturity, we can’t. Did you know your younger brother hasn’t reached his full mating maturity? But it’s upon him. I can smell it.”
“Wow, that’s good information. I need to learn my smells. I don’t smell anything different about Eli.”
Enoch waved the conversation away. “We can practice different smells later.”
“What about STDs?”
Enoch shook his head. “That’s a human thing. They have diseases we can’t get. We have a different genetic makeup. However, you can smell it. It smells like mustard.”
“Mustard?”
Enoch nodded.
Tatum scrunched her nose in disgust. “Also good information. Okay. What about pregnancy? If you mate with whomever, whenever, and all that, why aren’t there more kids running around this place?”
Enoch looked at Tatum, grinning. “It’s the wolf that calls the shots. The wolf senses if a female is ovulating. Wolves impregnate their true mates and no one else. It also knows if the environment is stable. Ours is not. So no young.”
“That makes sense, I guess.”
The air cooled as the sky turned a steel blue. “Well, I guess I should get my keys and phone and go back home. We need to leave early in the morning.” Would Enoch ask her inside his house now? She paused for a moment. Nope, he wasn’t going to do that.
Enoch nodded. “Yes. We need our rest.”
Tatum retrieved her things. She watched with narrowed eyes as the sexy male shifter with brown hair and gray eyes walked out of the woods at the far side of the village. A little blood was on his hands. He stared at her as he crossed the street and headed down the road. It almost looked like a warning of some kind. What was he trying to warn her about? She looked back at Enoch. Maybe Mr. Gray Eyes didn’t like seeing her around Enoch. There was something about Mr. Gray Eyes that she found very interesting. He was handsome as sin, but she hadn’t been able to meet him yet.
She entered her house, feeling a tingling from her toes to her nipples. Damn, Gray Eyes was stimulating all of her nerve endings.
Tatum yawned. Looking over, she saw that her brothers had set out a blanket and pillow for her. She tried to get comfortable, but the orange, brown, and white plaid material was scratchy. Wrapping herself in the blanket like a burrito, Tatum relaxed and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 11
Tatum woke up to the soft beeping of her phone. Her eyes did their adjusting so she could see outlines in the dark. She got to her feet, wishing there was a coffee machine in the house. Shaking the thought from her head, she went to James’s room. He was sleeping, but Eli was nowhere in sight. Tatum shook James awake. “Hey, James, get up.”
“What are you doing? It’s still dark.”
“We’re going to visit with Natalie, so we can—” Tatum couldn’t even finish her sentence before her brother was up, pulling on his pants.
“That’s great. I mean, why?” James heaved on a shirt inside out.
“I’ll explain on the way. Where’s Eli?”
“He went off with a female yesterday. Our little brother is turning into a grown shifter.”
Tatum scrunched her nose at the disgusting thought. “I need to make more room in my SUV. Can you help me move everything to your car?”
“Sure.” James rushed out the door.
Tatum followed James outside. “Grandpa may not be able to hunt for his food, so we need to grab some canned foods and bring them back to the house.”
They unpacked all the items and shoved them into James’s SUV, except Grandpa’s food items. Tatum wrote a little note telling Eli where they were going. As James brought the food into the house, Tatum went to get Enoch. She knocked on his front door three times.
Enoch walked out, looking ready to go. “Cade will be in charge. We can leave.”
“Good. Let’s get this trip started, shall we?”
An hour later, Tatum was driving down the interstate, feeling a little bit more like herself. Her stomach growled, and her brain screamed for caffeine, so she pulled off on the closest exit ramp and headed for the nearest McDonalds. She ordered a large coffee, a steak bagel, and two hash browns. “What do you guys want?”
Enoch looked at the glowing screen. “I’ll have what you’re having.”
James sat forward. “I want a big breakfast with orange juice.”
Tatum put the order in, pulled around to the first window, and paid for their food. The bags of food and drinks got distributed around the car. She parked the car to eat and smiled at James in her rearview mirror. “James, your shirt is inside out.”
“What?” James looked down and let out a sigh before rearranging his shirt.
Enoch sniffed around the wrapper of his food. He opened the wrapper and took a big bite, then another.
Tatum watched him eat. “Is it good?”
Enoch nodded while taking another large bite of food. He sniffed the coffee. Steam rolled out of his cup. He sipped a little bit of it and nodded approvingly. “It’s been a long time.” Enoch rubbed his stomach.
Taking a sip of her coffee, Tatum replied, “I’m glad you liked it.”
James finished up his meal. “So why are we going to see Natalie? I’m not complaining.”
Tatum set down her coffee cup. “We need to learn how to grow food.”
James didn’t reply. His eyebrows pinched in the middle as he looked down at his phone. He typed something.
Tatum’s phone vibrated. She opened it and read the message.
Does he know she’s a half-breed?
Tatum looked in the rearview mirror and shook her head. Why would she tell Enoch something like that? He was probably already freaking out. He didn’t look like it, but if she were him, she would be freaking out. She pulled out onto the interstate and headed toward Foothill Farms.
Did it matter that Natalie was a half-breed? Were they not able to be truly mated with humans? Sure, shifter wolves connected with each other and became true mates, but it only made sense that one wolf could also connect to another living being without it being a wolf in return. Humans had souls after all.
She figured shifters could be truly mated to humans. It would be up to the shifter’s wolves to make the connection. If not, how did a human get pregnant with a pup? Horror struck her at the thought of a feral shifter violating a human female. Did that sort of thing happen? Surely not. The wolf inside the male wouldn’t want to get her pregnant. Right?
Maybe everything shifters knew about being true mates and pregnancies was just how they each understood it and not so much concrete facts.
Were there other half-breeds out there living among the humans? If there were, Tatum was sure Enoch didn’t know about it because he didn’t leave his territory enough to know. Maybe Enoch wouldn’t figure it out. Did half-breeds smell different than regular shifters? They had a wolf, right? So perhaps they would smell the same? All Tatum could do was hope for the best. After all, Enoch needed this farming information. If he didn’t like it, he would just have to suck it up.
Tatum typed back to her brother.
No Worries.
; Enoch took in all the sights and couldn’t believe how much the world had changed since the last time he had visited it. The buildings were higher in the cities and the sidewalks cleaner. The interstate was smooth, and the vehicle they were in moved so fast down the winding roads.
After a time, the SUV bounded down a gravel dirt road lined with white fencing on both sides. To the right, Enoch spotted cows, and to the left, a few horses at the far side of the field. There were two red barns on the property as well as horse stables and a few other silver buildings. He wasn’t sure what they were. His excitement was starting to build at the prospect of growing food for his pack again. The exhilaration was building up in his marrow. He’d made the right choice letting Tatum counsel him. Old Gareth had set in motion salvation for his pack so many years ago, and he was grateful. Destiny’s assured hands were leading them.
An expansive, two-story farmhouse appeared up ahead. A skinny female was standing in front of the house. With crossed arms, she leaned on her right hip. Her red hair was dangling in long waves around her shoulders, and she wore a green t-shirt, blue jeans, and gray leather boots. She looked like a beautiful lady. Hearing a low growling coming from James, Enoch grinned. He knew all too well what that sound meant.
They pulled in front of the large house and parked the SUV as James bolted out. He jogged over to Natalie. Enoch and Tatum followed close behind. Natalie bounced on her heels at the sight of James, a radiant smile on her face.
Enoch sidestepped in front of James, taking Natalie’s right hand. “Hello, Natalie. I’m Enoch. Thank you for helping us.” He placed a kiss on her knuckles, smelling something odd about her. Breathing her in once more, he tried to figure out what he was smelling.
A deep, threatening growl rose from James’s throat. Enoch grinned and withdrew his hand.
Natalie smiled. “Happy to help. Before we get started, my mother wants us to eat breakfast. She’s been cooking up a storm. We don’t get many guests.” Natalie shuffled her feet in the dirt.
“Great! We’re hungry. Right, guys?” James nodded and stared at them.
Tatum cocked her eyebrow. “Mm-hmm, we haven’t eaten yet.”