by J. J. Massa
Through the car window, Philly could see tiny Ashley standing with her hands on her hips, tapping a foot. As she watched, Myles moved up to her and put his arms around her once again, this time taking the initiative. He took her hands and placed them at his waist.
“P’raps I did leap to a conclusion or two there, Princess. I’m sorry,” he grinned sheepishly.
“You should be. Don’t you believe that I love you, Myles?” she asked him.
“I believe you think you do,” he countered. Oh Myles, that was a mistake.
“If you ever say something like that to me again, I’m going to knee you in the groin,” Ashley growled.
Philly peeked out and saw him kissing her. Not a deep tongue-kiss, but still, he was kissing her.
“You can’t reach my groin, Princess,” Philly heard his rich chuckle.
“Maybe not with my knee,” Ashley said, still very angry.
Philly then heard a strangled yelp and Ashley landed in the driver’s seat with a thud and hit the gas. Horns honked as they shot into traffic. She waited quietly for Ashley to talk to her. It wasn’t long before she spotted Myles’ sports car behind them.
“You heard what he said, right?” Ashley finally asked through clenched teeth.
“Men are so stupid,” Philly commiserated, reaching out to pat her leg. “Ashley, maybe you shouldn’t be in love with Myles,” she said after a minute.
“Philly, Yancey might be different to you if you give him another chance. I always heard that it hurts the first time.” Ashley was trying to make her feel better and managed to change the subject at the same time. Philly knew Ashley didn’t like talking about her relationship, or lack thereof, with Myles.
When they pulled into Ashley’s driveway, Philly waited until the car stopped, immediately hurrying from the car and headed straight for Ashley’s bathroom.
Tav had built Ashley her own bathroom a few years ago when she’d reached puberty and began spending more time in there. Philly, who had been living with the Darke family and sharing a room with Ashley at the time, had chipped in by fashioning the shower doors.
Philly had come to live with Ashley’s family during her last three years of high school. Her own mother had died and the foster family she’d lived with had grown old. Mik Montgomery had encouraged Ashley and Philly’s friendship.
Upon reflection, sending her to live with the West-Darke family had been the most generous thing anyone had ever done for her. Tracey had mothered her as if Philly were her own pup. Living here had given her the only family she’d ever really known.
She’d only been making stained glass panels for a year at that time and was very nervous that they’d come out wrong, fall apart, or leak. She’d worked for months on those doors, and by the time she’d finished, Ashley had been angry and hurt with her for spending so much time away from her.
She smiled to herself now, remembering. Looking back on it was soothing, in direct contrast to the events of the night before. Maybe in a few years she could look back on all this and smile. She didn’t think so, but she had hope.
While Philly showered quickly, she knew that Ashley would search out her mother, Tracey. She knew Ashley would give her mother an abbreviated version of events, leaving Yancey’s name out of the story, of course.
Philly trusted Tracey to keep her confidence. Both girls were close to her.
Once finished in the shower, Philly dressed quickly. The two girls headed outside to talk while Tracey promised to keep everyone inside for a time.
Chapter 3
“Let’s go this way, Philly,” Myles heard Ashley say. “That way is Tav’s old house where Myles will be. Hopefully, he and Tav will talk to each other and keep one another occupied.”
Myles needed to have words with his mean little mate that was for sure. He had been right, her knee wouldn’t meet his groin, but she’d proven that her grip was good and strong. Now, the two girls intrigued him as they chatted.
“What am I going to do, Ashley? The next series starts in a few months. We have to be in the studio in three weeks,” That was the little Were he’d met earlier, Philly.
“Were you in heat, Philly? Could he have gotten you pregnant?” Thank God Ashley was asking Philly that question and not the other way around.
The dark-haired, blue-eyed little Were released a tear choked sigh. “No, I wasn’t in heat.”
“Oh Philly, I’m so sorry this happened.” Ashley was so softhearted. Myles could hear her sadness for her friend in every word.
“It’s so wrong, Ashley. I’m still in love with him,” Philly whispered huskily.
“Of course you are, hon. Love doesn’t just go away like a rash.” Myles wondered vaguely whom they were talking about. For the most part, he was just relieved that it wasn’t Ashley.
“I’ve loved him my whole life, since I was a pup,” Philly was sobbing now, Ashley’s arms around her. Myles was a little uncomfortable. “Now he’s mated with me and he doesn’t even know my name. Look, he’s marked me.”
Myles could hear the fabric being stretched. He could hear fabric rustling as Ashley hugged her friend.
“Ashley,” Philly whispered, “I don’t want him to ever know that it was me.”
“Oh Philly, what if…you don’t know--it could be different the next time. Maybe he’ll realize…” Ashley stammered to a stop, apparently at a loss for the right words to comfort.
“No, promise me! You won’t tell, promise?” Myles could hear the hysteria climbing in the other girl’s voice.
“If you’re not pregnant then I won’t tell. But what if he’s looking for you? What if…” Ashley didn’t get to finish her statement before Philly cut her off.
“No! You promised! But I need something more, Ashley. I need you to come with me when work starts again.” Myles was startled now. Philly had reminded him that she sang with Lakon and Mya. Was she asking Ashley to go on the road with them?
“Philly, I’m in college. I can’t just…”
Philly cut her off again. “Ashley, you know you’ve got every one of those professors eating out of your hands--even the women. Bring back some autographs from the Montgomerys and nobody will say a thing.”
“Philly…” Ashley clearly didn’t want to honor her friend’s request.
“Please, Ashley--I helped you with the Timmons brothers.” That got Myles’s attention.
“I know you did. I know I owe you for that. I’ll try to come anyway, but please, Philly, don’t bring that up again. I do not need anyone’s death on my hands. Especially not the Sheriff’s sons.”
Myles would be looking into that before too long. He’d think it over later. Tav hated the Timmons family as much as he did. He might want to come play.
“You don’t even have to ask anyone. You can just tag along with me,” Philly said hopefully. “We’re going to be recording in a studio for a while. It’s in Pinnacle, North Carolina.”
“Philly, I’m afraid my being there will just draw more attention to you,” Ashley sighed.
“We’ll lay low and just get a house somewhere nearby. Maybe if you asked Myles…” Myles listened closely.
“I didn’t tell you what I did to Myles earlier, Philly.” Ashley sounded a little embarrassed. Good!
“I heard what he said. Men are so stupid!” Hey! “Still, you can make it up to him. I know you can. Please?”
“Oh Philly,” Ashley sighed again. “Yeah, I can make it up with Myles. I was going to anyway. You knew that.” She was? “Still, Philly, they know each other pretty well. I can’t ask him to keep something like this from him…”
Like what? From whom?
“Ashley, he’s known me my whole life. He had sex with me and he didn’t even know who I was. I bet he got up today and didn’t realize he’d even had sex,” she spat the words out, still very angry and hurt. “Myles isn’t keeping anything from anyone.”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. Let’s get you some sleep. I’ll talk to Mom, Tav and maybe Myles about this--n
o names, I promise,” she bargained. Maybe Myles?
Myles followed the two girls from a distance, keeping himself hidden. Finally, he saw them go inside the house. He couldn’t hear what Ashley was saying to her mother because they were in the kitchen with running water.
He suspected they knew that it was hard even for werewolves to hear over the sounds of the water, and especially with the kitchen noises. He waited to see what would happen next.
Myles was still standing in the same spot a short time later when Ashley stepped outside with her brother. Tav quietly joined him right before Jacob and Ashley began to talk. Neither werewolf spoke as they watched Jacob sit on the old wooden swing while Ashley pulled him backward and let him go, swinging him as if he were a small child.
Tav, Jacob, and Christopher, the youngest of the West children, had built that swing together over ten years prior. It had been an important part of Tav’s bonding with Tracey and her children and it still meant a lot to the family.
Jacob snatched Ashley and pulled her to his lap in mid-swing. Brother and sister laughed uproariously as they arced up and swung back down in a gentle curve.
Calming, Ashley asked him, “Where’d Tav go?”
“I guess he went to find Myles. Maybe we can have a private conversation now.” They had their share of fights over the years, sure, but they were close--Jacob didn’t hide much from Ashley.
“What’s up with you telling Myles that “Phil” called me and all?” They were twirling in the swing now, lazy circles swirling as the ropes crossed each other and then uncrossed.
“I guess I just figured Myles needed a boost. Guys are always after you, Ash,” he squeezed her and planted a kiss on her cheek. “He’s going to mess around and hurt you. Hell, he does every day.”
“Jacob, it doesn’t matter how many guys are after me if I don’t go out with ‘em. Making Myles jealous or mad isn’t going to change who asks me out or whether I go. You know that.” Jacob hid his face. “So why, Bud? Why?”
“I want you to have some fun, Ashley. You’ve been studying and everything for years. You don’t go out at all. And…” Ashley raised a brow at her brother. The two werewolves watched in silences from the shelter of the trees. “I know what happened with the Timmons brothers.” Jacob confessed in a low voice.
Tav and Myles looked at each other, brows furrowed. Myles could tell the other man was as much in the dark as he was. Tav seemed as unhappy about it as he was, too.
“Jacob,” Ashley said sternly, sounding a little put out now. “I handled it. Philly and I handled it. They haven’t bothered me in months.”
“If you had a real boyfriend, you wouldn’t have to deal with idiots like that. If you and Myles were for real…” Jacob started hotly.
Myles objected to the suggestion that he and Ashley weren’t “for real”. Besides, he acted more like a boyfriend to her than anyone else did. Nobody else had better behave like a boyfriend to her, damn it!
“Jacob, stop right now!” Ashley cut him off, pulling him bodily to the ground and landing astraddle him. It was obvious he was a willing victim in the attack. He was easily twice as big as she was, and more than twice as muscular.
Laughing up at her, Jacob teased, “You are so tiny, Ash. I could put you in my pocket and you’re almost three years older than me.” He stopped laughing. “Do you think for one second that I’d let my girlfriend put up with the crap you do?”
“What do you mean, Jacob?” Ashley spoke in a quiet, shaking voice.
“Let’s start with the rag reviews of Myles and his latest starlet--the section of newspapers you refuse to read--the times you leave the room when that crap comes on TV. Ash, he’s out hound-dogging it with everything with a split tail and you’re in your third year of college at seventeen,” Jacob said relentlessly. From his sheltered spot next to Tav, Myles cringed, fighting the urge to hang his head.
Ashley shot to her feet and began striding away. Jacob tackled her. “You can’t leave before we talk about the Sheriff’s sons. Or any other guy over the age of sixteen around here.”
Myles noticed that Ashley didn’t struggle. She just lay there under her brother listening--she was angry, he could smell it, but she was listening.
“I heard them talking about how close they came to having you, Ash. If Philly hadn’t shown up when she did…I can’t even think about it. We can’t tell Tav because Mom’ll get all upset for both of you. Myles is off screwing somebody else, hell, everybody else, and I can’t get my hands on a gun,” Jacob sounded almost tearful and Myles was reminded that Jacob was still a very young man.
Jacob stood up and Ashley rolled to her side and stood, refusing her brother’s outstretched hand. “I’m not sure if I wouldn’t just shoot him,” Jacob gritted angrily. “You’d think he’d at least be discreet, the asshole!”
Ashley glared at her brother and turned. He grabbed her firmly by the arm, holding his free hand out, palm up.
“Don’t drive angry,” he said quietly.
She jerked her car keys out of her pocket, slapping them into his hand. Jacob stood in the yard, watching as his sister marched away. She was ten feet away when she stopped, standing still for long seconds.
Myles and Tav stood frozen, watching riveted as she turned, tears streaming down her face, and ran back to her brother. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair. At sixteen, he towered over his diminutive older sister.
They stood like that for a few minutes and then Jacob pulled the tail of his shirt to his sister’s face. “Come on,” he said, wiping her eyes. “Let’s get Christopher and the twins and go out.”
She offered him a wobbly smile and they went inside. A minute later, the five of them piled into Ashley’s Honda Civic and drove away.
* * * * *
Stewie Timmons slowly and carefully made his way back up the hill toward his brother. There wasn’t any serious purpose behind his surveillance of the West-Darke home. It had become habit now.
“Two Weres were there, Stan,” he gasped, breathing heavy. “That mixed blood and Darke.”
Stan jerked his head to the right, away from Tavist Darke’s property and back toward their father’s land. The two werewolves traveled silently for a time, each entertaining private thoughts.
“Did you hear anything useful?” Stan Timmons asked after a time.
“Yeah, I kinda think I did,” Stewie plopped down on his haunches, lifting a paw to pull a sharp nettle out of it.
After a second, Stan snarled, “Well?”
“Oh! Well,” Stewie had gotten distracted, those burrs hurt when they got caught between your toes. “Um, seems like we might be able to get both those girls. Even that half-dog Were.”
“Stewie,” Stan growled a warning.
“Um, oh!” Stewie shook his head. He knew what Stan meant. Sometimes he forgot that his brother didn’t know automatically. “They’re gonna be living away from all the Montgomerys and Darke and all of ‘em. They’re gonna be around Pinnacle somewhere, off by themselves. We’ll just follow ‘em. Right?”
Stan leaned forward and rubbed his brother’s snout with his own. “Just when I think you’re a stone idiot, little brother, you get smart. Yes you do. Come on.”
Grinning, Stewie turned and followed his brother, neither one noticing the older man who stood watching them from the rise of an upwind hill.
Chapter 4
It was dark out when Philly crawled out of the bed. It seemed as if the place was deserted, and so it was, except for Ashley’s mother, Tracey. Philly could smell the older woman’s familiar, warming scent as she pulled on a loose pair of sweats and a light top and wandered into the kitchen.
“Hi, honey,” Tracey smiled at her. She was always so welcoming. Philly loved, well had loved, her own mother very much, but Tracey was exactly how she thought a mother should be. “Come have a snack. You’ve got to be hungry,” she invited Philly now.
“I am,” Philly smiled shyly. “Thank you, Aunt Tracey.”
; “Anything for one of my girls, sweetie, you know that.” Tracey slid a warm plate of turkey and potatoes in front of her along with a large glass of milk. “Now, you don’t have to tell me what’s going on, hon, but I do know that something is. I’m here for you, okay?”
Philly thought she’d burst into tears. She gulped them back, scooting around to put her arms around Tracey. The older woman wasn’t any taller than she was, just more womanly, in Philly’s opinion. When those loving arms wrapped around her, she did lose control.
She fought valiantly, but finally gave into the unconditional love of the only real mother she’d ever had, burying her face in Tracey’s neck and sobbing as if her heart would break. When she felt Tracey’s body shake in answering sobs, she wasn’t surprised.
Tracey always felt everything that happened to her children just as deeply as if it was actually happening to her. Philly had always been one of Tracey’s pups, from the first moment she’d come through the door. This wasn’t the first time they’d every cried together.
After a while, Philly’s sobs ebbed and eased. She sniffled a few times, only to hear Tracey echoing her. Gently, Tracey eased her away and back into her own chair. She turned and plucked a soft towel from a drawer and handed it to Philly.
“Okay now?” she asked.
With a long sniff and a heavy sigh, Philly nodded and wiped her face.
“Thanks,” she forced out. “I needed that.”
Tracey aimed a blue-eyed and watery grin at her, “I’m not so sure I did,” she laughed. “You girls are gonna be the death of me. Look, I bet my nose is all red now.”
“As red as your hair,” Philly giggled. She reached out and squeezed her surrogate mother’s hand. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You always make it better, no matter what.”
“I love you, sweetheart. You know that.” Tracey planted a loud kiss on Philly’s forehead and then ordered, “Now EAT!”
“Yeah,” Philly agreed, her own blue eyes watery. “I know that.” She picked up her fork and began to eat.