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

by Catherine Lundoff

  When they went a little further up, she caught a tree branch in her hand like she was pushing it out of the way. With any luck, she was leaving enough of her scent behind that she could find the trail again once she got away. Or the Pack could find her in case something went wrong.

  They came around a curve into a clearing occupied by a big white trailer. There was a sudden sharp noise as a man in camouflage rose from behind some bushes and pointed a rifle at them. Becca flinched and growled, part of her wondering if she could move fast enough to take him out before he shot her.

  Oya held up her hand. “She’s with me, García. Stand down.”

  He lowered the rifle but kept watching Becca, suspicion clearly written on his features. “What’s she doing here?” His voice had a growl buried deep inside it and Becca sniffed the air around him, carefully rubbing her nose to hide it. He smelled like Scott and looked like him too, when she met his eyes. There was something lurking there, a wolf in hiding. She could feel her lip curl over one incisor.

  Oya stepped between them. “Stop it. She’s come for our help, Bob. I brought her up to show her what we’re doing, how we can make them all normal again. Come on, Becca.”

  Becca glanced at García again. He’d been in the van with Scott, she realized now. He’d been the one who’d shot at them. She wondered if Oya knew about that, wondered how much control Oya really had over these guys. García bared his teeth at her in something approaching a wolf’s snarl on a human face. It was all she could do to walk past him without lunging for his throat.

  But she thought about Shelly and forced herself to follow Oya up to the trailer, which sat on a ridge in the middle of the clearing. Oya rapped on the door, the three knocks clearly a signal to someone inside. After a moment, the door swung open. A burly looking man in a doctor’s coat stared down at her like he was trying to decide whether or not to let them in.

  He must have decided to go for it, since he stepped back as Oya moved forward. She climbed the rusting steps and Becca followed, the hairs on the back of her neck tingling. Once inside, it was clear that the Nesters had knocked out the walls to make more room; she could see the rusting bolts and stains where they used to be. The kitchen was still in place but now there was a kind of makeshift lab set up in it, with glass jars and a microscope and some kind of heating device on the countertop. Becca wished she’d paid more attention back in high school chemistry so she’d know what some of it was.

  Then a movement caught her eye and she turned to see Scott strapped down on a table in one corner of the room. He stared at her and growled softly. It didn’t sound like a greeting but it did help to distract her from the fact that he was naked. Becca looked over at Oya only to find the Nester watching her for her reaction. “He getting a little out of control or something?”

  This time Scott snarled but went silent as Oya turned and frowned at him. “Some of us require more frequent doses of the drug than others. I only need it every six months now—” Oya smiled triumphantly—“but Scott still needs weekly doses. Eventually, that will go to a monthly dose. It depends on how long you’ve been changing and how much control you have.”

  Scott convulsed, his back bowing against the straps that held him on the table until Becca could hear them creak. His widow’s peak was more pronounced now and when he looked at her, she could see the wolf in his eyes. She couldn’t stop herself from glancing outside. It wasn’t dark yet, let alone moonrise, so why was he starting to change? His hands were scrabbling on the table fabric, their nails growing into claws when Becca looked down.

  She grabbed a flimsy metal frame chair and held in front of her as a shield. Oya laughed. “That won’t stop him if he breaks free.”

  Becca gave her a quick cold glance. “I just aim to slow him down long enough to even the odds. If he breaks free. Why is he changing now anyway? That a side effect of the cure?” Oya and the Nester doctor or whatever he was ignored her and she didn’t ask again. She’d just have to learn what she could by watching them.

  The man in the lab coat finished filling up a syringe at the counter and walked over to the table. Becca couldn’t help but notice that he moved cautiously as he approached the table, turning himself sideways to make a smaller target.

  They’d done this before, obviously, but then she knew that. But it didn’t always work the way they planned and that was very good to know. The Nester doctor reached out to hold Scott’s shoulder and she could see white scars on his arm. A few looked pretty recent. So much for the cure’s being permanent.

  The needle sank into Scott’s neck and he screamed. He shook so hard it looked like he was having a seizure. The blood drained from his face, making him even paler and his eyes rolled back in his head. Becca thought he was going to pass out.

  But after a moment, his hands began to look like hands again. He sagged back against the table, the fight draining out of him. His eyes opened and she saw the scared boy he’d been, probably back before he got bitten, staring out of them. It was almost enough to make her pity him.

  Then his eyes closed and he went limp. In more ways than one, Becca thought as she realized that he’d had en erection when he started to change. Clearly it had been a while if she’d been able to ignore that until it went away. She shoved the thought into the back of her mind to take out and examine later.

  Oya and the medic exchanged comments, their voices too low for Becca’s human hearing. She took a moment to look around the trailer while she strained to listen. It didn’t look like there was anything more to the place than what she could see: one room with a kitchen. Even the bathroom was open, shielded from the rest of the room by a curtain. This couldn’t be where they were holding Shelly. A wave of disappointment hit her hard. But then, she’d suspected it wouldn’t be that easy.

  She started to walk over to the counter only to find Oya blocking her way. The Nester leader looked smug. “There. That’s how the cure works. What more proof do you need?”

  Am I going to make it back to town if I turn her down? Becca glanced over at Scott as if she was thinking about it. And if she wanted to be truthful with herself, she was. What would be the harm in taking one dose before the moon this month? Then she could see if it worked and if it was what she wanted. Since it had to be renewed, she could go back to changing again after that, if she didn’t like it.

  Scott twitched like he was dreaming and uttered a low moan. It was a creepy, mournful noise that sent chills up Becca’s spine. Then again, maybe she shouldn’t rush into anything. “He doesn’t seem all that happy about it. I’m thinking I need to sleep on this some before I make my decision.” She paused between her words, tried to make it sound like this was all freaking her out. It wasn’t too far from the truth, really.

  She couldn’t help but notice that the doctor had positioned his massive frame between her and the door. He folded his scarred arms across his chest and looked down at her, his face expressionless. The message was clear. She glanced from him to Oya. “So I gather I’m supposed to make up my mind to take this stuff right now?”

  “You’ve seen one of our bases and you’ve seen how the cure works. What more do you need, Becca? You know that you want this to end. You want to have control over your life back. Let us help you.” Oya was practically purring. She reached over and rested one hand lightly on Becca’s arm.

  “How often would I need the shots? Weekly?” She tried to make the question sound casual but her mind was whirling. Would they make her a prisoner too, just to make sure she got regular doses?

  “Weekly for the first three months, then maybe once a month for a while after that. Maybe less,” Lab coat guy grumbled the first words she’d heard out of him. She noticed he was wearing camouflage under the white coat. There was some kind of patch on the front of his shirt. He didn’t smell like Scott though, or even like Oya. Becca wondered how he’d fallen in with the Nesters and if it could be useful somehow.

  “I have to keep working. I can’t just leave everything and go all comma
ndo like you guys.” She couldn’t say where that phrase had come from when it popped out of her mouth but she decided to follow the trail where it led. “I wouldn’t want to be a burden on your group either. Maybe I can just come back here once a week or you could find me in town or…” She found her voice trailing off.

  “We’ll make sure you have everything you need.” Oya stepped a bit too close for Becca’s comfort level. “Don’t worry about that.”

  “As long as I’m asking questions that you’ll answer, why are you the only female Nester? Are there others?” Becca stepped back again. She didn’t care all that much about the response but it might buy her some time to figure a way out of this.

  “You haven’t met all of us, you know. There are many more Nesters than Pack members. We just haven’t come here in force yet.” Oya’s eyes were half-closed and she had clearly gone somewhere else for a moment. Wherever it was, it gave her a glow that she hadn’t had before.

  She was also lying about something; Becca could feel the big guy shift uneasily, like he wanted to contradict her. Oya might believe what she was saying, but he didn’t. “That’s reassuring. But I thought you were going to persuade us, not make us to take your cure.” Becca’s voice shook and she shuddered a little.

  “If persuasion won’t work, we’re open to using all the other methods at our disposal.” Oya frowned. “Don’t do this, Becca. I know you want this. Let Leroy give you the shot and we’ll deal with the subsequent doses after we see how the first one goes.”

  “What about side effects?” Becca looked at Scott.

  As if on cue, he twisted on the table, gagging as he spat something onto the floor. A moment later, a racking cough shook his body. Becca moved further out of arm’s range from Oya and Leroy and backed up to the chair she’d held earlier. At least she could go out fighting.

  There was a yell from outside the trailer. It was followed by a chorus of voices and a gunshot. “What the hell?” Oya dashed for one of the trailer windows while Leroy yanked off his coat. There was a good-sized pistol at his belt and he had it out of the holster faster than Becca could blink.

  She had to make herself not run to the window. If the Pack had come to rescue her, she might never be able to get this close to the Nesters again. Then how were they going to get Shelly back? All the same though, a rescue would come in pretty handy right about now.

  Her heart was thudding its way up her throat as Leroy freed Scott. The ex-wolf grabbed his pants and shirt and yanked them on, then he pulled his own gun out of its holster. There was another yell from outside, then two or three men’s voices yelling drunkenly outside. Becca almost groaned; not a rescue after all. Probably just some lost hunters or more Nesters or something.

  There was a loud bang on the side of the trailer and a cheerful whoop from outside. Oya cursed softly and walked to the door, gesturing to Leroy to follow her. The moment she opened the door, someone fell inside. “Oops, sorry about that! Wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing.” The dark-haired man gave them all a drunken, blissful smile.

  He looked familiar. Becca squinted at him then stepped closer. He’d been with Molly at Shelly’s house, she realized. There were a couple of other guys outside, all swaying a bit and wearing blaze orange. Somehow, she suspected they weren’t quite as inebriated as they appeared to be. Relief washed over her. “You know what, I’m going to take the option to sleep on it after all. You gentlemen headed back to Wolf’s Point, by any chance?”

  The hunter gave her a wildly swinging bow, complete with flailing arms and Oya and Leroy were forced to step back. “It would be an honor to escort you, ma’am.”

  Becca blew out a quiet sigh of relief and nearly sprinted for the door. Oya grabbed her arms and Leroy stepped between them and the hunter. The medic kicked the door closed, knocking Molly’s friend off his perch. Becca felt a sharp prick at her neck and she dropped to her knees with a groan. The trailer started to spin and go black as more yelling started up outside.

  Chapter 22

  ~

  When she woke up, Becca was on the table where Scott had been lying. She tried flexing her arms only to find that she was now strapped in. There was a noise from the other side of the trailer, and she tried to go limp. Maybe they’d think she was still unconscious.

  “She’s awake,” Oya’s voice echoed strangely around in her head, like it was hollow. She couldn’t quite remember what had happened once she had started for the door, but apparently the Nesters weren’t going to let her lie around quietly while she figured it out. She opened one eye, then the other. The light was dim so it must be getting dark outside.

  Oya was hanging over her. “Good. You’re back with us. No one ever passed out like that after one of the shots before.”

  Now she remembered feeling the needle. Becca tried to summon the energy to spit at Oya. Sure, it was childish, but it might be the best opportunity she had. But her body felt like it didn’t belong to her: all boneless limbs and labored breathing. And very, very dry mouth. “Some cure,” she managed finally through lips gone desert-parched.

  “Here.” Leroy opened a water bottle and trickled some of its contents down toward her mouth. Most of it landed inside, which was good. The rest ran in rivulets down her jaw and into her collar. She shook her head in disgust and the room revolved slowly. She stopped moving.

  “What are we going to do with her?” Leroy’s voice was soft, as he stepped away from the table.

  “She’s one of us now. We’ll train her up and use her against the wolves. This just shows that we’re winning the war.” Oya’s voice echoed with anger and triumph, as if all of this should be perfectly obvious to one of her followers.

  “Are we? What happens if those hunters come back with more of their buddies and better guns? They were pretty pissed when they left and I don’t think they bought your story about her being sick and contagious. Pete and Al went out on patrol last week and didn’t come back. Stuart’s arm is still messed up and most of us think he’s not going to come back. And as for Scott and García, well, don’t kid yourself too much about how cured they are. It’s not a holy war for everyone, you know.” Leroy sounded anxious and scared. It was enough to make Becca smile inside.

  “Coward!” Oya hissed the word. “Do you think we’ve come this far to fail now? They’ll stop changing, just like Scott and García did. We’ll beat these bitches at their own game, then we’ll stop all the others. No more monsters, remember, Leroy? That’s our goal. And if you can’t handle that, the door’s over there.”

  “Yeah. Well, sometimes the monsters win.” Leroy mumbled his comment, but Becca still picked it up. Did that mean that whatever they’d given her didn’t mess with her wolf-augmented hearing? She sniffed the air experimentally. It didn’t tell her much, just the not unexpected scents of unwashed room, sweaty restraints, some gun oil. But underneath all that, she thought she caught a whiff of wolf.

  The realization thudded through her even as the scent disappeared. She tried to imagine changing, to remember running through the woods at night with the rest of the Pack, but while her brain remembered, her body did not. Instead, there was just an empty pit inside her. It felt like all wildness had gone into hibernation.

  The worst of it was how alone she felt.

  She could feel the tears start and she forced herself to swallow them. Oya was not going to see her cry and that was that.

  It was clear that they kept arguing while she was lying there, awash in her own troubles until their raised voices finally broke into her thoughts. Then Leroy swore at Oya and there were heavy footsteps, followed by a slam as the trailer door closed behind him.

  Oya’s breath hissed out of her, but she seemed to remember that she wasn’t alone. She appeared next to the table, her expression compassionate. “How are you feeling?” She rested one hand lightly on Becca’s hair. Becca longed to bite it off.

  Later. The thought popped up out of nowhere. She filed it away until she needed it and tried to focus on tellin
g Oya what she wanted to hear. “I don’t feel normal,” was what she came up with. Her voice trembled with confusion as Oya’s fingers began to stroke her hair.

  The other woman’s touch managed to be both soothing and unbearable, all at once. Becca took a deep breath and let it out in hopes that it would help her stay in control. “Why did you give me the cure, even when I said I wanted to think about it?” The whine in her voice sounded about right.

  Oya smiled. “I could see that you were wavering, but I knew we could save you. And we did. We will. You’ll see: it’ll be better now. We’ll keep helping you.”

  Lucky me. “When can I go home?”

  Oya kept smiling. “Don’t worry about a thing. Give me a minute and I’ll send someone on a dinner run. You must be getting hungry by now.” A final pat, and she disappeared out the door.

  Becca summoned all her strength to try and break the restraints. They held. Then she tried twisting a bit on the table so she could see what was holding them closed. There was a buckle like something from a seatbelt, and another buckle on the other side. She was a lot smaller than Scott and whoever else they’d been tying down here so there was some slack in the belts. Some cautious wiggling finally let her pull a hand free.

  She started to try to wriggle all the way out, then thought the better of it. Instead, she concentrated on lifting her head up and off the headrest. Everything swam around for a few seconds until she lowered it again. Didn’t look like she was quite ready for an escape attempt. That reminded her of the hunters who’d been there when Oya stuck the needle into her. What had happened to them? Leroy suggested they left but if they had come here looking for her once, they’d be back.

  The door banged open again and Oya came back in, with Scott trailing at her heels. He was carrying something in a bowl in one hand and a water bottle in the other. “Here’s dinner,” Oya announced, as if that wasn’t obvious. Becca saw Scott twitch, just a little. He set the bowl down on the countertop.