Silver Moon (A Women of Wolf's Point Novel)

by Catherine Lundoff

  “Thanks for coming down to meet me, Becca. I know this isn’t easy for either of us.” Ed straightened, looking more formal as he pulled a folder from his bag.

  Becca raised an eyebrow and she’d tried to look cool and collected. “What, no lawyer? Last time I saw you with paperwork, you were hiding behind your cousin Pamela and her briefcase.” She bit back a snarl at the memory.

  “I’m hoping that won’t be necessary. I think we should probably wait until lunch gets here to talk about it though. Things always go down better on a full stomach.”

  “Do they? Sometimes it’s better to just rip the band-aid off and get it over with.” She reached out and yanked the folder out from under Ed’s elbow before he could react. Then she flipped it open and frowned for a minute as she tried to comprehend what she was reading. The shock froze her in place, unable to speak or even breath for a minute. Why hadn’t she seen this coming? “Oh, shit. You want the house too. Destroying my life wasn’t enough for you, was it?”

  Ed made an unhappy noise. “It’s not like that, Becca. Give me a chance to explain. Christy’s pregnant and—” He saw the look on her face and stopped mid-sentence. “This is not how I planned on doing this.” He rubbed his hands on his forehead and covered his eyes with them for a moment.

  “Pregnant? For fifteen years you told me that you didn’t want kids and I let it lie, thinking it might be for the best. Not even two years with Christy and she’s already knocked up. Well, that’s just great, Ed. Thanks.” Becca could feel her hands trembling now, and tears of white-hot rage gathering behind her lids. How dare he do this to her now?

  With a huge effort, she pushed the hurt down deep and something else welled up in its place. She remembered that she wasn’t just Ed’s ex-wife anymore. No, she was a powerful creature of moonlight and magic now and she would not cry in front of her louse of an ex. But she couldn’t bite his face off either, unfortunately, not here in the diner anyway. No matter how much he deserved it. She felt the shadow of the wolf retreat a bit.

  Even so, when she opened her eyes again, Ed gasped and turned very, very pale. Becca smiled at him and for a moment, she could feel the monster race just below her surface. It made her feel powerful, invincible even.

  “Okay, Ed. Let’s talk about the house. You do remember that you never paid me support, right? Not even after I put you through school? That was your little gift from the judge, seeing as we didn’t have children.” She snarled the last word then took a deep breath. Losing herself completely would be a bad idea right now. Though there was something seriously compelling in the notion of seeing Ed’s guts up close and personal.

  Ed’s hand on the table trembled a little and he looked away from her, but he didn’t bolt for the door. She had to give him credit for that. “I don’t make that much money, Becca. Not enough to provide for all of us and I have assets tied up in the house. I don’t suppose you can afford to buy me out?” He glanced at her sidelong as if she might lunge across the table at any provocation.

  “I work in a hardware store. What kind of money do you think I make? My savings won’t cover it.” Her heart twisted inside her when she realized she was telling the truth. But she loved her little house, had put her heart and soul into making it a home. Right now, it felt like was all she had left in the world and the thought of losing that last bit of her old life opened a pit inside her, one that felt like it went on forever.

  “So we sell it and split the money. There’d be enough left over for you to get a retirement condo or something like that.” Ed’s voice trailed off again and she wondered what was looking out of her eyes now. “I’m sorry, Becca. I can’t see any other way and things are different now. I have to do something. You know this was never meant to be permanent, just until you got on your feet and the market got better.”

  The realization that he was serious and that as co-owner, he could force her into selling sank in rapidly. All Becca’s anger faded as she stared down at the documents in the folder, shuffling through them without seeing them. What was she going to do? The waitress set their food down and she stared at it blankly before looking up. “I’m sorry, I’ve changed my mind. Can I get these to go?” She stood up, closing Ed’s folder with a snap and tucking it under her arm.

  “Wait, Becca. Can’t we talk about this, get it resolved?” Ed’s voice was pleading now.

  She remembered how he sounded when he finally confessed to her about Christy and the familiarity of his tone made her flinch. “I’ll need to think about it.” She grabbed her bag and went to meet the waitress at the register.

  Ed followed her. “So you’ll call me next week and let me know what you want to do? Just remember what the market’s like right now. If we’re going to sell, we’ve got to put it up for sale soon. You can keep the papers; I’ve got other copies.”

  Of course he did. His lawyer would have seen to that. Becca looked away and felt her head nod like it was on strings. Now all she had to do was to figure out what to do next. And how she was going to keep her home with no money to pay for it. Suddenly turning into a wolf on the full moon seemed like child’s play.

  Chapter 10

  ~

  As luck would have it, Erin was at the store when Becca got back. Becca nearly turned around and bolted back out the door before she had time to think about how stupid that would look. “What’s the matter?” Erin stepped up close, into not quite touching range.

  The breath caught in Becca’s throat and she looked up into her neighbor’s eyes, losing herself there for a moment. Then dragged herself back out, stomach still fluttering. “I…I just can’t talk about it. Not here, not now. I’ve got to finish my shift.” She brushed past Erin and headed to the paint section, her back prickling. If she kept this up, Erin might never talk to her again. And that, come to think of it, might make her life simpler.

  Shelly appeared in front of her, cutting her off before she could get up the aisle to comparative safety. Becca flinched away, startled, before she remembered her manners. “Shelly, you’re back! How’s your mom?”

  “She’s hanging in there; we can talk about that later. In the meantime, Pete told me about Ed. Why don’t you come back to the office and sit for a minute? I’m guessing that you’re not ready for the general public just yet. Pete’ll watch the counter.” She nodded to Erin over Becca’s head.

  Next thing Becca knew she was in the back office with the two of them. Shelly handed her a box of tissues. “Let it out. I can tell you’re holding back.”

  Becca knew she must look pretty bad, but it wasn’t like she was ready to burst into tears. Not right now. Not in front of them. It was way too humiliating. She started to muster an indignant denial, stringing together the words that would make it clear that she could take care of herself, most of the time anyway.

  Then she thought about the house and broke down sobbing despite herself. “Damn it! I didn’t want to do it this way,” she choked out. She took a deep, tremulous breath. Then instead of pulling herself together, she buried her face in a tissue and gave a few more deep, hiccupy sobs.

  She managed to stop long enough to say, “It’s Ed. He wants to sell the house, my little house, because he’s having babies with his damn midlife-crisis wife!” She collapsed into one of the chairs and bawled into a fistful of tissues.

  Erin took Ed’s folder from her lap, while Shelly rubbed her shoulders. Becca let out deep shuddering sobs, hating her loss of control almost as much as the situation. She wasn’t emotional like this normally and she didn’t want to start now. Stupid changes in her body, all of them.

  At least she ran out of tears pretty quickly, much to her relief. Erin cleared her throat when it was obvious that Becca was paying attention to her. “We might be able to help you with this, you know. Let me look into it and stop worrying about it while we look for a way to take care of the problem.”

  Time stopped for an instant as Becca considered what Erin’s tone of voice might mean. It seemed significant, somehow. Then she sta
red up at Erin in horror, Oya’s story flashing through her brain. Did she really hate Ed enough to want him dead? Especially since, if the wolves of Wolf’s Point went after him, she’d most likely be right there with them. Sure she was pissed off, but not really what you’d call rip-the-man’s-throat-out mad.

  Erin gave her a puzzled frown but it was Shelly who figured it out an instant before she did. “We’re not going to eat him, you know. What do you take us for? The Pack has an emergency fund and Erin handles our books. We should be able to get you a good deal on a loan and maybe some cash down.”

  Becca drew a long shuddery breath. These were her friends and neighbors. Of course they weren’t going to eat her ex-husband. What crazy ideas she was getting ever since she, well, started turning into a wolf. She pressed her face into her hands; maybe the Pack could recommend a good shrink too, one that specialized in dealing with this kind of thing. She found herself groaning out loud, then decided she was being silly and looked back up.

  “So who’s been putting these ideas into your head? I know we haven’t had any time to talk about what went down when you left for Mountainview, but I think we can read between the lines.” Shelly was frowning now and there was a newspaper in her hand. “What happened out there?”

  Becca flinched when she saw the headline, “Suspect in boy’s kidnapping attacked, killed by wild animals.” For an instant, she was back on the mountain, covered with blood that glowed in the moonlight. A voice that didn’t sound like hers forced the words out. “I’m sorry. But I had to. He had the little boy. And a knife. He kept stabbing me and I just wanted to stop him and save the kid.”

  “Do you understand why wolves usually travel in packs?” Shelly’s tone had a weight to it that made it sound like the fate of the world hung on Becca’s answer.

  “Well, they’re like dogs. They like the company, I guess, and someone to have their backs. And you’re saying that I shouldn’t have gone off alone.” Becca scowled. “It’s not like I knew this was going to happen, you know. Come to think of it, when Lizzie took me up to see those cave paintings, none of those paintings showed women-wolves in packs. They were all by themselves. You’d think they would have painted them with a pack if it was that important.”

  “Let’s stick with the idea of what a pack does for the moment,” Shelly said firmly. “You’re right, you shouldn’t have gone off like that. The Pack is there to help you manage changing, as much as to watch your back the rest of the time. You know you could have just as easily endangered an innocent bystander, don’t you?”

  “No!” Becca started, hands braced against the arms of the chair. She could feel her face flush, feel the blood thrum under her skin. She could smell the other women in the room and almost, but not quite, feel the changes start in her body. “I knew not to hurt the boy. Even as a wolf, I knew! I did what you did with Erin, Shelly. I changed partway and carried him down the mountain.”

  There was dead silence in the room as both Shelly and Erin stared back at her. Now that she’d stopped crying, she could see how tired Shelly looked, how uncomfortable Erin’s cast appeared to be, hanging like a weight off her shoulder. Yet here she was whining about her own troubles.

  Of course, they weren’t looking at her like her complaining was the biggest problem. No, this was the kind of astonishment that would have greeted the announcement that she was able to turn into a wolf during the full moon, if she’d said it outside this room. She wondered what she’d done that was so weird.

  Erin glanced from Shelly back to Becca. Her tone was very careful as she asked, “You were able to control your change when you were in Mountainview, Becca. Are you sure?”

  “I think I’d remember something like that, don’t you? I got out into the woods and I could feel myself start to change, just like at the Club. I fought it as hard as I could. I barely managed to get my clothes off and hidden before it happened.” Becca shook her head as if to clear her memories.

  “It’s pretty unusual to change more than once in a month, but it happens sometimes. It’s generally a new wolf thing: you’re more sensitive to the magic when it first starts happening.” Shelly sounded like a schoolteacher, her voice soothing, calling Becca back to the present. “What happened when you found them?”

  “Well, like I said, he went for me. He stabbed me a couple of times and it hurt like hell. We fought and I won. Then I made myself change partway so I could pick up the kid. I lost a lot of blood during the fight. But at least the whole Change thing seems to speed up healing. That’s something at least. Think we could use it to fix the hot flashes too?” Becca was pretty pleased with herself for thinking that one up. Maybe the trip to the cave had been useful after all, if it inspired this kind of thinking.

  Shelly was still frowning at her. Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea after all. “But how’d you do it? What were you thinking about beforehand?”

  “Well, I could smell how scared the boy was and I was covered with blood and everything hurt. But I knew I couldn’t carry him down the mountain in my jaws, not without hurting him. So I guess I was just thinking about what needed to be done and how I could make that happen.” Becca shrugged. “Did I do something special?”

  Erin laughed but seemed to sober up quickly when Shelly caught her eye. “Yes,” Shelly said finally. “You did something special. New wolves can’t make that kind of partial change, or at least I’ve never heard of it happening. Not enough control. Even wolves who’ve been changing for a while have a hard time with it and most can’t do it.”

  Becca tried to figure out if this was a good thing or not. Shelly didn’t look mad, just surprised, so that was something. Erin, on the other hand, looked fit to burst. Her eyes were sparkling and she winked at Becca. And Becca, for a wonderment, didn’t find herself blushing and avoiding eye contact. Nope, this time around, she just smiled back and wondered why this made her neighbor so happy.

  “All right, Becca. I think it worked out reasonably well this time, all things considered. But I also think you got lucky. That you left to begin with is partially my fault: I haven’t been able to pay the kind of attention to you that I should have because of my mom. We’ve talked about it and Erin’s going to train you instead.” Shelly stood up a little straighter and her voice left no room for argument.

  Which didn’t stop Becca from trying. She wasn’t sure she should spend that much time around Erin. It would get weird fast. “Training? But what about her arm?”

  “We’ll manage,” Erin said, her tone quiet and amused. “And half-controlled changes or not, there’s a lot you don’t know about being one of us.”

  There wasn’t much point arguing with that. Becca reached for Ed’s folder and Erin handed it back. “Stop worrying about the house. We’ll make something work out.”

  That was enough to make Becca feel slightly more optimistic. Maybe everything would be all right. Somehow.

  Erin sat down in the chair opposite while Shelly settled in on the edge of the desk. “Next topic. Lizzie said that she took you up to see the cave,” Erin remarked as if she were talking about the weather.

  “Yep. What does that have to do with any of this?”

  “How did the cave make you feel?”

  “I dunno. Kind of crackly around the edges like it was electric or something. And it was creepy, all those women changing into wolves. How come this doesn’t happen to men?”

  Shelly blew her breath out in a sigh, almost like she was expecting to hear something else. “It does happen to men. Just not here and not the same way it happens to us. There are two different kinds of wolves, Becca, and they change for different reasons. Erin, you’ll need to cover that in your training. Do you think we’re creepy too?”

  Now there was a question. Becca looked from one to the other of her friends, seeing them change in her mind’s eye. Shelly’s eyes flickered gold for an instant and Becca decided to go with honesty. “Sometimes. I’m just not used to the idea yet. And I don’t know that I ever will be. Does Pete know?
And the kids, other than Kira?”

  Shelly tilted her head to one side. “I don’t keep secrets from Pete if I can help it. Pack business, yes, but not something like this. I was afraid I might hurt him or the kids when it first happened. Kira found out by accident. She says the other kids don’t know and I’m not ready to tell them yet.”

  “How long have you been changing?”

  “Six years.” Shelly glanced at the clock and Becca followed her look. If it was a hint, it was a pretty successful one. She’d be making up a couple of hours for this paycheck at this rate.

  “I should get back. Pete’ll be wondering what happened to me.”

  Becca blew her nose and stood up, feeling better than she had since before lunch. “We can talk more about this later?”

  Shelly nodded, a tired smile curling her lips. “We’ll talk more very soon. I promise.”

  Erin cleared her throat. “Stop by after work tonight? We can get started then.”

  Becca nodded her response and paused for the others to get up. They went on sitting there, though, like there were things they were going to talk about once she left the room. Evidently there were still some secrets she wasn’t ready for. And who knew, maybe she wasn’t. It already felt like a long day. So she nodded again and went out and relieved Pete at the counter, exerting all her newly discovered self-control to lose herself in paint and plumbing sales for the rest of the day.

  Chapter 11

  ~

  Becca tried as hard as she could to ignore all of her weirder feelings for the rest of the afternoon. She didn’t think about anything that made her blush, for one thing. Well, not much, anyway. She did remember to pick up some take-out for their dinner, speaking politely and formally to Mrs. Hui, more or less as she always did. Just like they hadn’t woken up together naked in the woods.