by Неизвестный
“Christ, she spooked me. Get a light on.”
“What the hell is the matter with you, Glenn? You’re gonna piss yourself.” Frank fumbled for the light switch. There were no windows back here to give them away. “Didn’t you ever see a wolf before?”
“She’s staring right at me.”
“And she’s locked up tight as Hannibal Lecter.”
“Yeah, and he ate his jailers.”
“Nobody’s eating you, Glenn. You don’t have enough meat on your bones.” Frank blinked in the light as he moved into the room and started looking in the cabinets “I got it.” He eyed the wolf. “Damn. She’s big.”
“Give it here. I’m a better shot.”
“You don’t need to be a good shot with a jab stick. You just poke it through the little opening where the food goes and jab her.” He tossed the stick to Glenn.
Glenn feinted to the right, then the left, taunting the wolf with the three-foot stick. Only her eyes followed his movements.
“You could be one of those dog whisperers, Glenn. The bitch is just sitting there waiting for you.”
“Just like a female, too stupid to react.”
“Just do it already. Let’s get this over with. It stinks of wolf in here.”
“Sleep tight, bitch.” Glenn poked her in the left flank and administered the drugs.
“Good job. In ten minutes, we’ll be able to drag her sorry ass into the Jeep.”
I’d love to see your girlfriend’s face when she opens up in the morning and her prize patient is gone.”
“You just let me worry about Karin.” She’d be upset, but he’d be there to offer support. Pretty soon she would realize how much she depended on him.
* * * *
Karin stepped out of the Mule gingerly and took small careful steps. The ankle hardly bothered her anymore, but she’d gotten into the habit of favoring it, and she put most of her weight on her right foot. She hobbled across the porch, crunching something under her feet. Confused, she looked down. Shards of glass twinkled in the morning sun. For a minute, she thought her eyes played tricks on her, but when she looked up, a big gaping hole stared back where there had once been a window.
A cold chill ran down her spine, and she peeked inside. The overturned boxes and supplies scattered all over the reception area made her suspect kids looking for drugs. What else would anyone be looking for?
Oh, shit! The wolf. She forced back her fear and grabbed a good-sized tree limb. For sure, any intruders would be long gone, but she felt better with a weapon in her hands. She unlocked the door and held the stick up for protection.
The empty cage shouldn’t have come as a surprise. On some level, she expected it. Her stomach churned with guilt and frustration. If she hadn’t been so wrapped up with Malcolm, she would have done a better job protecting the wolf. The sour feeling in her belly increased.
At least she didn’t find any blood. It had to be a good sign. She took out her cell phone to call Frank.
He showed up so fast he must have been on his way.
“Tell me again what happened when you got here?” Frank perched on the side of her desk and handed her a Styrofoam cup of coffee.
She shook her head. The thought of it made her stomach turn.
“I saw the broken window and came inside.” Replaying the scene in her head, she told the story once again. “As soon as I saw the open cage, I called you.” There wasn’t that much to tell. Grateful for his help, she tried to answer all his questions, but how many times would she have to repeat this?
“You should have called me before you went inside. There could have been someone hiding in here.”
“I had a club.”
He stared at her like she was a stupid kid and shook his head. “Anything else missing? Did you touch anything?”
“I didn’t look. I don’t think so. And I haven’t touched a thing. Do you think she’s all right?”
“I don’t know.” He wiped sweat off his brow with a forearm.
“We should be out there looking for her.”
“Let me do my job. You don’t look so good yourself. Go home and get some rest.”
“It’s just nerves and an upset stomach. We need to find her before anyone else does. They’ll shoot her for sure.”
“And it would probably be for the best.”
“Don’t!” God, she felt sick. “You think she’s already dead, don’t you?” Hot tears prickled behind her eyelids.
“I didn’t say that.” Frank slipped his arm around her, and she let him, too miserable to protest. “Look, let me handle this. I’ll go back to town and call the wildlife bureau and the park authorities. Then Glenn and I will organize our own search. See what we can dig up.”
“Thanks.” She should be out there looking for the wolf, but she really did feel lousy, and Frank could handle it better. He would get more information from the locals than she could. He had his faults but at least she could count on him when she needed help. “I appreciate your help.”
“Hey, you know I want this to be over just as much as you do, maybe more.”
She ignored his wink, in no mood to deal with his infatuation.
Chapter Thirteen
Malcolm looked at his ringing cell phone, but he didn’t pick it up. Karin had already left one voicemail. He didn’t plan on returning this call either. His mind was made up. He wouldn’t see her again.
For once, he was glad Ralf couldn’t talk back. Always the perfect confidant, the hybrid listened but didn’t deliver a lecture. He did, however, look at him with accusing eyes.
“Come on, don’t lay a guilt trip on me.” Pinocchio had Jiminy Cricket to keep him on the straight and narrow. He had Ralf, his own personal conscience.
He sat on the floor, and the dog laid his head in his lap and looked up at him.
“I’m doing what’s best for Karin.” When he told her they would talk he meant it, but after thinking it over, he decided a clean break would be the best way to end it. The more he saw her, the more he liked her, but they had no future together. Why keep leading her on? Better to hurt her once and let her get on with her life. He had no illusions that he would be irreplaceable. She’d hate him for a while and then turn to someone else, maybe the sheriff. “Grrr.”
“Arrroooo,” Ralf responded with sympathy.
“What can I do? I want to be a real boy,” he said half to himself. “The problem is I can’t tell her the truth.”
Ralf lifted his head and looked at him reproachfully.
He could deceive himself but not Ralf. He never wanted to be a real boy. In fact, there was a time when he didn’t want to be a boy at all. After his family died, he lost himself and lived as a wolf in the forest. He slept in a den, hunted for his food, and avoided human contact. He had no desire to walk on two feet like the men who destroyed his life.
Then his mother came to him in a dream. She reminded him he wasn’t an animal but a Lycan, a man meant to have the best of both worlds and duty bound not to waste his gift. He believed it then and he believed it now.
He loved the time he spent as a wolf. Everything was simpler on four feet. He saw life in black and white, perceived things in abstract ways. On two feet, his senses heightened even more than a human male. It made living among humans that much more complicated.
Sometimes he envied Ralf, whose biggest problem was whether to sleep in front of the fireplace or in bed with his alpha, but he would never retreat to the animal kingdom permanently because he also enjoyed his human life. He would miss his books, creating things with his hands, experiencing life with a full palette of colors. He kept two feet in each world.
If he still had his mate and family, his life would be perfect. No sense feeling sorry for himself after all these years. Family life was not for him. Mating with a human female was out of the question. How could he tell Karin why they couldn’t have children together?
As far back as he could remember, he’d been taught shifters couldn’t reproduce with humans.
He didn’t want to lie to Karin, but he could never tell her the truth. Experience had taught him humans couldn’t be trusted. The irony of his situation wasn’t lost on him. Karin had opened up and trusted him, and yet he refused do the same.
He had only to think about his sister to know it would be a mistake. She and her human husband knew they could never have children, and at first, it didn’t seem to matter. But, in the end, he held it against her, one more resentment he couldn’t live with, and because of it, they were all dead.
Karin might not care now, but one day she would change her mind and turn against him. Better she hate him now. If he took things further, he’d have to tell her the whole truth. Would she even believe him? Or would she call him a monster? It would kill him to see a look of fear or disgust on her face.
But he couldn’t stop his memories. He imagined her soft skin under his hands, her taste on his tongue, and the way she wrapped herself around him. The images tortured him, but he would learn to live with them, just as he had all his losses.
* * * *
Karin wanted to avoid gossip. Rather than be seen buying a home pregnancy test at the local drugstore, she drove two hours to the next town. Macon had two pharmacies. It was a metropolis compared to Black Wolf. Anonymity made the trip worthwhile.
Why give the locals a reason to gossip when it would all add up to nothing anyway? Her nerves had her imagining all kinds of things. She felt stupid even taking the test. Her cycle was a little off, and she had a stomach bug, hardly reasons to suspect a pregnancy, but why worry about it when she could put her fears to rest? She had enough on her plate.
She worried about the pack. No one had seen the missing wolf, but the hunters were out every day, armed and ready to take her down. One wolf was as good as another to these men, and her wolves were sitting ducks. If someone claimed a wolf escaped the enclosure, who would doubt them besides her?
If only she could talk to Malcolm, but he had written her off. She blamed herself for hurting his masculine pride, and she had made the first move. He never returned her calls. At first, she wasn’t upset. She fully expected him to show up in the enclosure. She’d chastise him, and he would flash his crooked grin, and they would have make-up sex. Two weeks went by. When it didn’t happen, she knew it was over.
He left her with an aching heart. Malcolm made her happy in a way she hadn’t been in a long time, and now, she had a void in her life she couldn’t fill with work. Her feelings hadn’t diminished one bit. Maybe they never would. At least she didn’t have the nightmare anymore. Now she lay awake reliving every minute they spent together, wondering what she could have said or done differently.
Then she got this crazy idea in her head that she might be pregnant, an impossibility of epic proportions. She’d only been with Malcolm, and he told her himself he couldn’t have children. The look on his face convinced her he told the truth, but he could be mistaken. Maybe he had a vasectomy and it didn’t take. It wouldn’t be the first time.
More likely she imagined her symptoms, hoping a baby would bring Malcolm back. It must have been a false pregnancy. She was a head case for sure, and the best way to cure herself of pseudocyesis would be a pregnancy test. With a negative result in front of her eyes, she could put this behind her.
She spent so much time in the drugstore, the pharmacist started to look at her funny. She had no idea there would be so many tests to choose from—evaporation lines, ghost lines, bold lines, faint lines. It took forever, but she finally found what she needed—a reliable, sensitive test guaranteed to give a result one day after a missed period.
“Good choice.” The very pregnant young cashier picked up the box and scanned the price. “It worked for me.” She looked down at her huge belly and laughed. “Obviously.”
Karin felt her face go hot. Try as she might, she could not imagine herself with such a big belly. Get a grip, girl. It’s a real possibility. The stork doesn’t bring them. She grabbed her bag and ran.
The test almost went in the trash, but she’d already gone to so much trouble to buy the damn thing. She removed the testing device from its foil wrapper and followed the directions.
Her heart pounded with each tick of the clock. The control line appeared, but the rest remained too wet to read. Holding her breath, she watched as a faint line came up, becoming more visible as it dried. No imagination could conjure up the solid line on the test strip.
For a minute, she heard nothing but the wild thumping of her heart. Disbelief turned to shock. Shock turned to panic.
Oh my god! I am so screwed.
The fatigue, nausea, swollen breasts, and darkening nipples were not products of an overactive imagination. While Malcolm was avoiding her, his sperm was racing through her reproductive system until a lucky winner hit the jackpot. Now the little ball of cells, a unique combination of both of them, was safely planted in her uterus and releasing the hormones that made her test positive.
Caught between terror and awe, she paced around the tiny cabin. No way could she raise a baby here. Who would watch it while she worked? Thoughts of work brought up other issues. She laid a protective hand on her stomach.
I promise to clean up my act, little one. No more late nights. No reckless driving. No skipping meals. No coffee.
No coffee? Now that one would be tough. Somehow she would make it all work. She would never give up her baby.
Her baby!
Her baby and Malcolm’s. She didn’t do this by herself. She clamped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears. How would he take the news?
* * * *
This was a bad idea—for so many reasons. First of all, she got lost. She had only a vague idea where Malcolm lived, and everything looked the same out here. If he answered her calls, she could have saved herself this trip. Not that she would tell him over the phone, but she would have asked him to come see her.
Good thing she didn’t run right over yesterday like she wanted to. She would have been driving around in the dark. She didn’t want to wait for fear she’d lose her courage, but then logic prevailed, and she decided one more day wouldn’t matter.
She drove so slowly. She realized at this rate it would take her all day to find his place. She could probably walk faster, but when her motherly instincts kicked in, they came with a vengeance. She swore she would take her time and not put her baby in danger with her crappy driving skills. Hopefully, she’d find the house before she lost her nerve.
Malcolm had a right to know about his impending fatherhood. Even more important, her baby had a right to know. If she didn’t tell them, her child would hate her one day.
She would never want to keep them apart. If things had worked out differently, they’d be a real family. She was spinning pipe dreams. But, even if Malcolm didn’t want her, wouldn’t he want to be part of his child’s life? When reality set in, she welcomed this chance to be a mother. Surely Malcolm would welcome fatherhood.
She didn’t want him to feel obligated to her because of the baby, so she decided to make one last attempt to convince him they belonged together. She would seduce him, and if all went well, she would tell him about the baby. They would live happily ever after, and she would know he really loved her and wasn’t just sticking around for the baby. If it didn’t work out? Well, she’d tell him anyway.
If he didn’t believe her or didn’t want any part of the baby’s life, then so be it. At least she tried. She would raise her baby on her own and do everything she could to make it feel loved. She just hoped she wouldn’t dissolve in a puddle of tears because her hormones wrecked havoc with her emotions.
Damn. The pines grew so close, and the brush was so dense it reminded her of King Minos’s labyrinth with Malcolm the Minotaur waiting at the end. She closed her mind to thoughts of mythical creatures—half-man, half-beast—and tried to concentrate on avoiding logs and rocks in her path.
She almost turned back when she spotted a badly overgrown trail and decided to take it. She tunneled through the growt
h and vegetation and came out in a clearing. Her first full look at his house left her in awe. The classic A-frame looked three times bigger than her place. It belonged in Architectural Digest with its side-gables and deep-set eaves over large expanses of glass. The views would be spectacular.
She stepped onto the wrap-around porch, complete with two Adirondack chairs, and rapped on the door before she could change her mind. It opened, and Ralf greeted her, sniffing her feet, and obviously glad to see her. She got to her knees and let him lick her face.
“Your mother’s been taking good care of you.” Her laugh died away when she spotted the scuffed boots behind him. By the time she stood to confront him, she burned as hot as if she’d been under a tropical sun all day.
Chapter Fourteen
She wanted him. He sucked in a harsh breath, and the scent of her arousal hit him with an overwhelming intensity, sending him into sudden heat. Her pungent aroma wafted over him stronger, heavier, and more potent than he remembered. He lingered in it too long and lost himself. His cock stiffened against the zipper of his jeans. He had to tamp down his own arousal before he could speak.
“What are you doing here?” he said roughly.
She flinched. “Well, at least someone is glad to see me.” She gave up a tiny smile and looked down at Ralf who rubbed up against her like a cat. “Can I come in?”
“Sorry.” He stepped aside to let her pass. He was handling this badly. “You surprised me. I don’t get many visitors.”
“I can see why.” She let out a nervous laugh. “And you’re not too easy to find.”
“I don’t clear the trails. Ralf likes to run, and it’s more private.”
“Right. Well, he’s the reason I’m here. To make sure my patient is up and running—or at least walking.”
“I should have called.” An awkward silence passed between them. He didn’t know what to say. She’d thrown him off course.
“Can I take a look at Ralf now?” she said abruptly. “I brought dressings and antibiotics in case he needs them.”