by Leela Ash
Therese had told her, in very clear terms, that she was “dick-whipped” and ordered her to “snap out of it.”
“I’d have to take that advise for my own sanity,” Kelly grumbled under her breath as she loaded some of her flowers onto the truck bed. She needed to deliver the flowers to the Mason’s for their first daughter’s wedding, which was later today, and she needed to get going before the sun appeared.
She dusted off her hands and removed the straw hat she had jammed onto her head, flinging it onto the passenger seat. She drove fast, eager to offload the flowers and return home.
She didn’t have much of a social life in The Angle and frankly, she liked it that way. Better to lay low and stay off Jason’s radar. He wasn’t dangerous or something like that; at least, she didn’t think he was. But he liked to make a nuisance of himself. He’d show up drunk to her house whenever he liked, in New York; he openly harassed her; he kept threatening to take Tom away.
Then, he had started creeping around her home and sending spies crawling everywhere. She wasn’t sure what he wanted but she knew she wanted nothing from him. At this point, he was merely annoying; what if he became dangerous tomorrow and Tom got in the way?
No! Kelly thought as she drove up to the Mason’s. She could lose anything else but not Tom!
“Oh, the flower girl is here,” Anita Mason chortled, her huge frame bustling with excitement as she raced to the truck.
Kelly hid a grin. Anita Mason was one of her very first customers. The very first day she had moved into town, she had had to go to the local hardware store to pick up a few bolts. Anita had nosily demanded to know where she had come from and what she did.
She’d dutifully told the other woman that she was a florist and had just moved to the old house over by the lake. That very day, she had gotten no less than three different calls from ‘customers’ wanting to place orders. Since they had all been women Anita’s age, and hadn’t placed any order in the end, she more suspected they were the woman’s cronies and had all called to check out the new arrival.
Kelly hadn’t minded. She knew how small towns ran, having grown up in one herself before marrying Jason and moving to New York.
“Hello, Mrs. Mason,” she called.
“Oh, hello, my dear. You’re just in time. Betsy has been getting anxious as anything. Did you get everything we wanted? Betsy wants her wedding to be perfect!”
“You and Betsy have nothing to worry about. White orchids all the way; just like she requested. I picked up some hydrangeas too, though; you know, just in case Betsy decided she wanted some splash of color.”
“Aren’t you a doll?” Mrs. Mason cooed. “That was thoughtful. I’ll get the boys to help you unload them.”
Her sons, Arch and Dan, were already heading toward the truck to help with unloading the flowers, and Kelly smiled her thanks at them. She couldn’t help noticing that Arch held her gaze for a little longer than necessary.
Kelly’s eyes slid away and she focused on Mrs. Mason, with a laugh, ignoring the unwanted spark of interest she had seen in Arch Mason’s eyes. She was still recovering from Hurricane Derek, the last thing she needed was another shattering disappointment. Besides, Arch did nothing for her. He was tall and handsome enough, but he left her cold and unaffected.
Once she had been paid, Kelly clambered into the truck and headed back home. She needed a good long drive, she decided, navigating her car toward the longer road into town along the old metal factory.
The Angle had rows and rows of forest and undeveloped landscape, she noted as she drove along the express. The town was small but not too small, she thought, noting that she had not seen a single car in over thirty minutes of driving.
She passed a broken-down rental car and a few yards from it, she saw its driver trekking to The Angle. He was a very tall man, with a knapsack strapped to his back. At the sound of her vehicle, he turned slightly and put out a hand in the universal gesture for a lift. She instinctively stepped on her accelerator to speed past when her gaze caught his face.
Derek?
She screeched to a halt, shock slaking through her veins. That was Derek Cavanaugh! What was he doing here, in The Angle, of all places on earth?
12.
Kelly’s eyes narrowed. Was Derek following her? After the way he had walked off and refused to tell her the truth about himself, he totally deserved to be left to hike all the way into town!
But why was he here? Had he come to see her?
She wouldn’t admit it to herself, but a tiny thread of hope unfurled in her chest at the thought as she slowly shifted into Park.
As she waited for him to walk up to the truck, it was like being flung about on a rollercoaster of emotions. She almost forgot to breathe as her eyes hungrily ate up the familiar lines of his handsome face.
Derek reached for the door handle and slowly opened the door. He stood there, his own eyes roving and caressing her face as though he were committing it to memory.
“Derek,” she breathed, her voice a bit hoarse.
“Kelly,” he answered.
His gaze flicked over her wispy, short, red hair, past her high cheekbones and down the front of her shirt where her nipples were already peaking into tight buds beneath her lacy bra.
A knowing look entered his eyes and her back stiffened with anger.
“Now that we’ve sorted out our identities, I take it you need a ride? Get in!” she snapped with a little more violence in her tone than she had intended.
He got in without another word, slammed the door closed and leaned over the back to place his duffel bag in the back seat of the truck.
The motion invariably drew him nearer, and before she could stop herself, Kelly took a huge gulp of air and inhaled a lungful of his masculine scent.
In desperation, she turned her head to look out the window on her side, willing her brain and senses to cooperate in shutting him out as much as he had shut her out. She had been nothing to him; he had seen her as a mere receptacle for his lust in between his banquet of local beauties. That’s why he had been able to walk away without a backward glance.
“You’re looking good,” he observed.
Kelly frowned at the empty road. She would not permit her traitorous heart to do handstands at the meaningless compliment. She was still waiting to hear what he wanted from her. Why he was here. Perhaps he wanted more sex… Wanted to see if he could change from wolf into human any time he liked, without an explanation, and still make her spread her legs for him…
She was working herself into a fine head of steam, she thought, and took a calming breath. Damn her red hair! She would be calm and cool as a cucumber. She’d die before she’d let him see how affected she had been by him.
She shook her head partly in a daze. God, she didn’t believe this was now her life. She used to have so much sanity and order, and now, here she was, in the town Starbucks forgot, thinking about men who may not be men after all but animals. She needed a psych evaluation!
“You’re angry,” he observed.
The comment, made so matter-of-factly, made her hands clench around the steering wheel.
“The last time we saw each other, you asked me a question, Kelly. I would like to answer it now.”
Well, bully for him! She didn’t feel like talking!
She didn’t realize she had spoken aloud until he chuckled; the sound warm and rich and intoxicating. She wished he would stop!
“I should have just told you what you wanted to know, Kelly. I did come back the next day, but you were gone.”
She let her silence speak for her.
She could feel him studying her profile, gauging her mood. Then, with great reluctance, “I turned into a wolf that day in the woods, okay? I’m a shifter,” he said, as though it were the most normal thing in the world.
Thinking it and hearing it were two completely different things.
Kelly threw him a hesitant glance. “A shifter, huh? This isn’t the movies, Derek! Shifters
don’t exist!”
His hard stare was her response. They did!
“Are you some genetically mutated creature or just any old alien?” she demanded, deliberately coarse.
She saw the muscle working in his jaw and knew she had struck a nerve. She didn’t take much delight in the bitter victory.
“If you’re going to be nasty, I would rather walk,” he stated with calm dignity.
Kelly sighed. She did have to coral her anger. “I’m sorry.”
Silence, then, “I was eleven when I first realized I was different. I had always had ordinary brown eyes, but after that fateful day, they became silver. My friends and I had gone on an adventure to steal mangoes from old Mrs. Hankhurt’s house. Some had said she was a witch. We didn’t really believe it until we landed in her compound. Something was off. I sensed it the moment we smelled the burning flesh; she was torturing her poor husband with a hot iron skillet on his back.”
Kelly looked at him in dismay. She was going to be sick.
He must have read her thoughts because he deftly changed tack. “Long story short, we couldn’t save her husband. We screamed and beat at the door to get to the poor old man before he died. Our desperation to get to Mr. Hankhurt was so great that, in the same instant the noonday sun passed through a hex-bag hanging over the door, we were all touching the door. All five of us were instantly transformed; Drake shifted into his dragon form too, but that was nothing new.”
“Into wolves?” she breathed. It sounded like a fairy tale.
“I became a wolf, Bo a bear, Jack became a lion, Luke was also a wolf, Joseph became a bear, and Drake turned into a dragon. Actually, he had been born a shifter. Joshua has a theory that the reason we all turned was because Drake was in our midst and the combination of the hex-bag and sun did the rest.”
“So, there are six of you that can… turn?”
“We call it shifting. We’re shape-shifters. And now, we’re actually five because Joe died.”
Something in the bleak way he said Joe died made her feel suffocated with compassion. How could she reach him? He seemed so distant and far away, and yet so close. She could tell this Joe had meant a lot to him and he had been carrying that death around for a while.
In a bid to distract him, Kelly pinned an over-bright smile onto her face as she asked, “So, how did you know I was in The Angle?”
He frowned at her, his gaze still far away as though he were still lost in thought. “I didn’t.”
Kelly absorbed that bit of information as she turned into town. Tiny rows of shops that marked the heart of the town greeted her.
“Then, why are you here?”
His gaze cut to hers, “The Angle is my home, Kelly. It has been for years. Why are you here?”
Kelly licked her lips nervously, as a vision of Jason filled her brain. She didn’t realize her expressive eyes revealed her fear until Derek clutched her elbow, forcing her to look at him.
“What’s wrong? Are you in some kind of trouble?” he asked, his protective instincts on full alert.
“I’m fine,” she lied, looking away.
He stared at her profile until she was afraid it would go up in flames.
“Kelly, where’s Tom?”
She swallowed. “He’s with Therese. Listen, this is where I turn off to head home. I’m certain you can find your way from here, huh?” she asked as she carefully navigated onto a narrow dirt road. Her hands were shaking, she noted, and she didn’t need to wonder why. Being close to Derek was affecting her more than anything had ever affected her.
Distracted with her thoughts, she put the truck gear in Reverse rather than Park.
“You look hot!” Derek observed without warning, voicing the thought uppermost in his mind.
She gave a shocked gasp, stepped on her accelerator, hit something behind her and with another gasp stepped on the brakes. She was trembling now from head to foot. She’d hit someone!
Derek was out of the truck in a flash; Kelly also leapt from the driver’s side, her eyes twin pools of terror as she ran to the back of the car.
A huge bear of a man was picking himself off the ground. He was easily six-two with black hair, black eyes, a handsome clean-shaven face and an aggressive virile quality that shimmered all over him like fine silk. Uncompromising authority and arrogance were stamped into his chiseled features, but his eyes were cold as ice as he gave her a once-over before turning to Derek.
To her shock, Derek was standing perfectly still, watching the other man, with tears standing in his eyes.
Kelly goggled at him.
The other man boomed, “Derek!”
The two men came together in a bear hug so fierce she winced. Kelly was positive the earth reverberated with the force of their hug.
When they separated, the man she had knocked down looked Derek over from head to toe like a long-lost friend and exclaimed, “You certainly got prettier.”
“Silly boy,” Derek countered, giving him a playful punch in the stomach.
They both laughed and tussled, pretending to fight. Their fooling around made her smile; she’d never seen Derek so playful.
Just then, they ceased their teasing and turned to her.
“I— I’m sorry I ran you over,” she said the moment the other man looked at her. His eyes chilled over as though she’d reminded him of it. Then she added, “Are you all right?”
He gave her a tight nod, his laughter gone as though it had never been.
“I’m terribly sorry,” she persisted.
“Bo’s perfectly all right,” Derek assured her, speaking into the breach. “He’s strong as an ox.”
Her ears perked up. Bo? He was one of Derek’s childhood friends and one of the shifters. She peered up at the tall man; he was the bear.
She threw a questioning glance at Derek as she held out her hand.
He read her look and grinned, “Bo is short for Beufort.”
She smiled her understanding as Bo took her hand in a limp handshake. For such a large man, and given the exuberance he had displayed when he hugged Derek, his handshake was surprisingly limp and uninspiring.
“I’m so sorry we met the way we did, Bo. I didn’t see you there.”
Bo was watching her carefully, a very cold, intense and measuring look, she didn’t like, in his eyes. It almost felt as though… well, as though he was sifting through her mind.
“She knows,” he said to Derek. He didn’t sound like he was guessing, he sounded as sure as it was possible to be. His eyes shone with anger as he said the words.
Understanding slammed into Kelly; Bo meant their secret.
“She’s different. It’s okay,” Derek laughed, throwing an arm around Kelly’s shoulder.
“Joshua won’t like it,” Bo predicted, his gaze sweeping Kelly from head to toe in a manner that left her unsure whether ‘it’ meant her knowing their secret or her as a person.
“Tough. I trust her,” Derek chanted.
Kelly felt her heart melt.
“She’s human,” Bo continued.
“So?”
“Marjorie was hu—”
“Shut the fuck up, Bo,” Derek interrupted, his jaw clenched so tight she was afraid it would break.
The violence of his reaction unfurled a thread of jealousy and suspicion in her heart. Who was Marjorie and why did she affect Derek so much?
13.
“Joshua will be so proud when he sees how huge you’ve grown,” Bo predicted with a low chuckle as he and Derek vaulted out of his low-slung sports car. “He tells everyone who’d listen that I’m the shortest of his ‘boys’”
Derek considered, for a minute, that the sports car didn’t suit Bo; he seemed too squeezed and choked up in the car.
“It’s not mine. It’s the housekeeper’s,” Bo said.
Derek rolled his eyes. Bo always could hear one’s thoughts as though the person had spoken aloud; it was one infuriating part of Bo’s gifts.
Derek’s own gifts allowed him to see
for miles around at a time, and he could sniff out a particular scent miles away, but he had terrific night vision.
“Sometimes, one gets tempted to keep quiet and let you carry on the entire conversation, since you can read minds anyway.”
“One would be more boring than usual if one did that,” Bo responded with droll humor.
“Are the others here?” Derek asked.
The door opened just then and he instantly recognized Jack, Drake and Luke. They were all laughing as they back slapped each other. It had been fifteen whole years and yet, as they hugged, the years seemed to fall away and the bond that had always held them closer than most brothers remained. Every one of them had been all over the world in different places; only Bo had returned a mere year after they left and remained in town.
They looked nothing like the gangly teenage boys they had been fifteen years ago; they had all grown into strapping, handsome, young men. And Bo was absolutely right: it was unbelievable, but at six-two, he was the shortest of the lot. They had all grown into veritable giants!
“Where’s the old man?” he demanded of Bo.
“I’m right here!” Joshua Cox announced from his place by the fireplace.
Derek spun on his heel to face the shriveled old man, feeling the years fall away as he looked at his mentor, the one man he had come to love like a father. The one man who never made him feel like a freak of nature.
He didn’t know when he rushed over to where Joshua was sitting and knelt beside the man. Joshua raised tired eyes to Derek’s face, careful to keep his hands in his lap.
“My boy. You’re home.” Joshua’s voice sounded wheezier than normal and his hands were shaky; plus, he seemed to have shrunk in on himself. No one could age that fast in fifteen years! Why, the man was just sixty-five, which meant there was only one explanation.
“You’re ill,” Derek whispered as realization hit him.
“Not for long,” Drake answered, coming to stand behind Joshua. “I’m home now.”
Drake had the ability to absorb any illness or injury into his own body, and because he had dragon blood, the ailment died the instant it entered him.