The Wolf's Mate

by Emilia Hartley

  It took a few minutes, the familiar face glancing up at her and away a dozen times. Finally, a man with his back turned to her looked over his shoulder. Casper Marino. She smiled and stood up.

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  Chapter Six

  “Ah, shit, that’s her,” Sheridan said, ducking low. “Talk about not catching a clue.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Sheridan eyed Laramie, who looked down at the table.

  “I lifted her purse, slashed her tires while Lar and Chy distracted her,” Sheridan admitted. “What else does she need to know that she ain’t wanted around here?”

  “How about a purse and a working vehicle?” Cheyenne said.

  Casper showed his teeth. “For fuck’s sake, Sheridan, you marooned her here.”

  “I was just trying to send a message.”

  “One flat tire is a message. Three flat tires is spending the night in town,” Cheyenne said. “What else did she have in the car?”

  Sheridan shrugged. “I didn’t look. It was broad daylight. Snatch and grab, you know? There were bags in the back, but I didn’t have time to grab them.”

  “You moron! That was probably camera gear! That was the one thing you should’ve taken,” Cheyenne said.

  Laramie held up his hands. “Hey, hey, we were just trying to get rid of her. Maybe Sheridan got a little carried away. We figured she’d call Triple A or whatever and get outta Ripple.”

  “Where’s her purse now?” Casper asked.

  Sheridan took a long drink. “In the garbage can outside the general store. Fuggedaboutit, I can go fish it out.”

  “Did you happen to notice if her phone was in her purse?” Casper urged.

  With hiked shoulders and raised hands, Sheridan protested. “I wasn’t out to steal her purse, just send a message, like I said.”

  “Maybe you should go get it,” Casper said. “So she can call someone for a fucking ride.”

  Sheridan’s shoulders fell. “Fine. I’ll go—holy shit, she’s coming over here!”

  “Calm down,” Casper ordered. “How suspicious do you wanna look, Sher?”

  Casper turned in his seat, half-hypnotized by her easy walk. She smiled at him. You could measure that smile in megawatts. He tried to keep cool. “Hi, Casper. Hope I’m not interrupting your meeting.”

  So much for staying cool. Cheyenne gave him a hard squint. “Hey, Trina.”

  “You must be the Marino brothers,” she said. “Hello again.”

  The three of them squirmed in their chairs as Casper made the introductions. When Trina borrowed a chair from a neighboring table, he thought his brothers might faint. Laramie downed his beer and waved at the server.

  “I know I talked to you guys earlier, but I’m hoping you’ll reconsider doing an interview on camera if you’ve experienced any paranormal activity.”

  Sheridan looked trapped, his mouth hanging open as he shook his head. Laramie gave Casper big eyes. Cheyenne frowned at them.

  “I don’t think we’ve experienced anything paranormal, like I told you. But what the hell is a paranormal experience, anyway?”

  “Oh,” she smiled at each of them. “I’m mostly interested in haunted houses, you know, ghosts, like I said. But also cryptids and unidentified flying objects. I’m working on a new show, so I don’t want to limit my scope. At least, not for now.”

  “What’s a cryptid?” Laramie managed.

  “An animal thus far undiscovered by science.”

  Casper side-eyed Sheridan, who looked ready to shit his pants.

  “This is Oregon,” Trina went on, “so we’re talking Bigfoot in this part of the country.”

  “Bigfoot?” Sheridan visibly relaxed. “There ain’t no such thing as Bigfoot.”

  Trina tapped her full lips with a forefinger. “Maybe, maybe not. But I’m curious to find out if it exists. Aren’t you?”

  “Nope,” Sheridan said.

  Casper felt a little bad for her. Very few people in Ripple would be comfortable with someone so interested in secrets. Cheyenne sat back in his chair, features thoughtful. Casper could tell he was wondering if Trina Adams was a danger to them or just a nut.

  “So, you’re looking for haunted houses, Bigfoot and UFOs,” Cheyenne mused. “I’m not real interested in that kind of stuff. I don’t think there’s anything like that around here.”

  “Oh, but there is.” Trina pulled a folded sheet of newsprint from the back pocket of her jeans. She spread it on the table. “Not too long ago, there was a UFO sighted over a place not far from here: Little Crater Lake. Campers reported the object came from the direction of Ripple.”

  Casper saw his brothers read over the story. He’d seen it himself, but as far as he was concerned, the object wasn’t unidentified. His brothers knew what it was as well. Not an alien space ship, but a dragon with arsonist tendencies.

  Cheyenne pooched out his lower lip. “You know, people tend to drink a lot when they’re camping and fishing.”

  “Sure, I know that not every witness is reliable. But someone caught it with their cell phone camera. It’s on the internet.” Trina finished her beer. “None of you saw it, huh?”

  “Sorry. We work pretty early,” Cheyenne said.

  Trina’s brows knitted. She focused on Cheyenne. “This was just after sunset.”

  When his brother looked a little tongue-tied, Casper jumped in. “Kids in school, dinner, homework, family life keeps you busy.”

  Trina seemed to accept that. But damn, the woman was quick.

  “Well, that’s disappointing.” She stared into her empty glass. “Nobody here will talk to me. It’s like I’m a leper.”

  “You’re a leopard?” Sheridan’s brows lifted.

  “A leper,” Casper said, “Someone with leprosy—it’s a disease that makes your face fall off.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  Casper took a breath. “Look, Trina. People don’t move out to the middle of nowhere because they’re social. In Ripple, people mostly keep to themselves. Strangers stick out. That’s all it is.”

  She considered him, blue eyes filled with thought. “You’re not like that.”

  “We’re more social animals,” Laramie said.

  Casper heard the thud when Sheridan kicked Laramie under the table.

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  Chapter Seven

  Trina was used to people getting nervous around her. It was something celebrities had to deal with. But the Marino brothers didn’t seem to know who she was. So what was their deal? She decided to lay it out.

  “I didn’t just come here out of the blue. There was a lot of research involved. A lot of strange activity has been reported in and around Ripple.”

  The Marinos exchanged glances.

  “What kind of strange activity?” Cheyenne asked.

  “Damn it. I had most of my notes on my phone.”

  When she said it, the little one, Sheridan, made a close study of his empty glass. Or was she still in the throes of paranoia? Cheyenne met her gaze steadily.

  “Six months ago or so, a creature raged through this town. It tossed everyone’s garbage cans and littered the whole area. It even turned a car upside down. I’ve also heard rumors that a lot of animals were killed.”

  “That was a bear,” Casper said. Trina thought she saw something in the man’s eyes, but he went on. “The sheriff found bear prints, bear shit. It was a bear. A big one, yeah, but still a bear.”

  She smirked. “A bear turned a car over?”

  Casper angled his head. “That might not have been related. You’ll have to ask the sheriff.”

  Trina pressed her lips together. “Okay, this wasn’t paranormal, but there were two fugitives from justice, both wanted for attempted murder. Kinda strange for such a little town.”

  “Sally was one of the fugitives.” Cheyenne nodded at the bartender. “A case of mistaken identity. The other one was brought
to trial and found innocent. Stuff like that never happens around here. It was a one-time deal.”

  “Followed by a dozen arsons? Come on, guys, something weird is going on here.”

  Laramie spoke up. “The cops have a suspect for that. A crazy hermit woman who ran a wildlife emergency hospital. Fish and Game said they never heard of her. She’s gone missing.”

  Still, the bizarre incidents, even if they were unrelated, added up to something. “What about the TB sanatorium? That couldn’t just fall down on its own. It was there for more than a century. There weren’t any earthquakes reported.”

  “You think it was Bigfoot?” Sheridan said.

  The others laughed.

  Trina had to roll her eyes. “No, I just think it’s one more odd thing happening in Ripple. Think about it—not even Portland has that much going on, and it’s the biggest city in the state.”

  “Well, okay, but that old hospital was way outside of town. Where did they see the UFO?” Cheyenne said.

  “A campground, Little Crater Lake.”

  “That’s not very close by either. I mean, it’s closer than Portland, but it’s still a drive.” Cheyenne put his elbows on the table. “Ripple is out in the middle of nowhere. That’s why it seems like all this weird stuff happens around here. But if these things happened thirty miles west or so, these things would show up in different cities. It’s a kinda, whatayacall it?”

  “Statistical anomaly?” Casper asked.

  Cheyenne lifted his chin at Casper. “Yeah, like that.”

  Trina felt there was a conspiracy of silence going on. It just made her all the more suspicious. Before she could interrogate the brothers further, the server showed up with a new pitcher. She had a sweep of green hair and a crooked smile. Her name tag read Ava.

  “Just for the sake of conversation,” Trina asked Ava, “Did you see that UFO fly over Ripple?”

  “I did!” Ava set the pitcher down. “It was right before work. It made a big circle in the sky Then something caught on fire, so I kinda got distracted.”

  Trina hadn’t heard about the fire occurring at the same time. “Do you think the UFO set something on fire?”

  Ava blew a raspberry. “No clue. Like I said, it was right before work.”

  “Would you do an interview on camera about what you saw?” A glimmer of hope rose in Trina.

  “On camera? For what?”

  “A new TV show.”

  “Awesome! Let me touch up my makeup.”

  “Oh, I don’t have a camera with me. We’ll set something up, okay?”

  “Hey, now I recognize you,” Ava said.

  Trina smiled. “You’ve seen Eerie County?”

  “Eerie County, what’s that? No, I know you. You’re the Donut Girl from YouTube!”

  Heat flared in Trina’s face.

  “That’s the funniest thing ever!” Ava held the tray to her chest. “‘I’m stuck! I’m stuck! I want my mom! I want a donut!’”

  Casper and Cheyenne looked confused. Sheridan’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, yeah! The Donut Girl! I saw that on Facebook. It’s freakin’ hysterical. Yeah, I know you.”

  “Oh, speaking of UFOs, we had a group in here earlier. They said they were on their way to Little Crater Lake to watch for flying saucers. Maybe you could talk to them,” Ava said.

  “Where’s my beer?” a voice thundered from the corner.

  Ava looked over her shoulder. “Oh, shit, that’s Thorn. I’ll be right back. Omigod, I have to tell Sally!”

  As the server hurried away, Trina poured herself a glass and took a long drink. Donut Girl. Would she ever escape that embarrassment?

  “What the hell is Donut Girl?” Casper asked.

  Trina sighed. “It was an outtake from Eerie County. People weren’t supposed to see it.”

  The table nearest them angled their necks for a look at her. From their cell phones, she heard her own voice. Ava had done a pretty good impression. “I’m stuck! Get me out, I’m stuck! I want my mom! Somebody get me a beep donut!”

  And then she heard it from cell phones all over the bar, in a momentary pause from the jukebox. People were laughing and cheering. Trina poured herself another beer. “Oh, my Lord.”

  Cheyenne gazed around the room, bemused. “Well, since there are people looking for this UFO, maybe Casper can drive you up there.”

  Trina tried hard not to meet anyone’s eyes. “Yeah, it might be time to get out of here.”

  “Yeah, what the hell. I’ll drive you up there.”

  Casper put his hand over hers on the table. He gave her a little squeeze. Trina looked up at him. He wasn’t laughing at her. But then, he hadn’t seen the video yet.

  “Let me powder my nose,” she said. “Is it okay if we stop by the house to grab a camera?”

  Casper’s three brothers gave him a quick look she couldn’t read.

  “That would be okay,” Casper said. “No problem.”

  “Thanks.” Trina wished she hadn’t drunk all that beer. Now she had to pee. In order to pee, she had to walk across the entire bar to the ladies’ room. She knew every eye would be on her. She tried to put a happy face on it. At least she would soon be on her way to an investigation. She had Ava agreeing to be on camera. Things were taking an upturn. Weren’t they?

  Squaring her shoulders, she smiled as brightly as she could and walked to the bathroom. Some asshole took up the chant. “Do-Nut-Girl. Do-Nut-Girl!” And pretty soon, nearly everyone in the bar joined in. Trina kept the smile on her face and kept walking.

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  Chapter Eight

  “‘Stop by the house?’” Cheyenne nearly shouted.

  “Holy fuck, Cass, is she staying with you?” Laramie blurted.

  “We need to get her out of here, not offer her a place to live.” Cheyenne went on. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Casper?”

  “He’s into her.” Sheridan smirked and lifted his glass. “He wants to get into her panties.”

  Cheyenne closed his eyes. “Ah, shit.”

  “Well, maybe this can work out to our advantage. Maybe Casper’s finally found a mate. He can act as a mature alpha male. Right?” Laramie said.

  “No way,” Sheridan said. “Some shifters hide it better than others, but that chubby girl is a hundred percent human. I guarantee it.”

  “Says the guy who asked her if she was a leopard,” Cheyenne drank his beer.

  Casper figured he’d better fess up. “Yeah, I like her, okay? I mean, who wouldn’t? Just look at her.”

  “If you’re into chubby girls, I guess,” Sheridan said.

  Casper frowned. “Just out of curiosity, do you think Sofía Vergara is a little chubby?”

  “A little chunky, yeah. Why?”

  “Just asking.”

  Laramie held out his hands. “How can you let her stay at your place, Casper?”

  He stared back. “I didn’t know what she was doing here. And I’m certainly not the testa di cazzo who stranded her here!”

  “Watch the language, Casper,” Sheridan pouted.

  Cheyenne put his head in his hands. “At least she’ll be out of town for tonight.”

  Casper was secretly happy that Cheyenne suggested he take her to the campgrounds. He was going to suggest it himself, but this was better. “If she’s close to me, I can keep an eye on her. Keep her out of trouble. Right?”

  Cheyenne lifted his head. “I don’t know, Casper. Depends on how smitten with her you are.”

  “Smitten? Who says I’m smitten? She’s a good looking woman. She’s friendly, interesting—”

  “And va-va-voom!” Laramie made an hourglass shape with his hands.

  “Chubby,” Sheridan muttered.

  “Just because you married a stick figure—” Laramie started.

  Sheridan growled. “Stick figure? Marsha looks like a runway model.”

  “Yeah, a stick figure.”

  “She’s just not fat like Wendy.”

&
nbsp; “Fat? Wendy’s built like freakin’ Kate Upton.”

  “Yeah. She’s fat!”

  “Porco miseria, shut up youse two!” Cheyenne slapped the table. “Remember The Incident? You were there, when the investigators came, the reporters, the government men. They forced us outta town. Do you really want to start again someplace else? This is serious.”

  Casper sighed. “He’s right. Trina is smart. She’s picking up on stuff, even if she doesn’t know what it means.”

  Cheyenne nodded. “All the stuff she mentioned was caused by shifters. So, on some level, I guess you could call it paranormal. Even if it isn’t Bigfoot.”

  “Are we cryptids?” Sheridan asked.

  “Werewolves ain’t cryptids. Humans have known about us for millennia. They just don’t think we’re real,” Cheyenne said.

  Sheridan raised his shoulders high. “Like Bigfoot, right?”

  Laramie craned his neck and stared at the ceiling.

  “At least we have some kinda plan here. Casper, you’ll keep your eye on her. We can do the apartment finishes without you. Just make sure she doesn’t ask the wrong questions to the wrong people. And remember what Casper said—no shifting. That especially means you, Sheridan. You live right next door to Casper.”

  “What am I supposed to do? I got two toddlers, and the moon’s nearly full.”

  Pups didn’t have a lot of control of their shifting. The full moon would turn Sheridan’s kids into wolves. Casper raised a palm. “Have indoor recess, or put a leash on the twins.”

  “It ain’t healthy for two growing pups not to shift with the moon.”

  “It ain’t healthy for anybody if they get seen,” Cheyenne said.

  “Whatever,” Sheridan said. “But we ain’t addressing the real issue here. We don’t need to keep watch on Trina. We need to send her outta town on a freakin’ rail.”