Earp & Chandra

by C. P. Rider

  While the women talked, Earp tuned into the non-verbal conversation between Alpha Blacke and the wolf called Carter. Alpha was sending healing energy, more of that wonderful moon magic, toward the young wolf.

  The wolf whined and Alpha Blacke nodded. "Yes, you may shift. You're probably hungry. Neely will cook enough for an army, so you should stay too, Earp."

  "Oh, Earp's got a hot date later this morning." Neely winked at him over her shoulder as she stood at the expensive, fancy stove Earp had installed four years back when he retiled the kitchen floor.

  "Dottie told you about that?" He felt a little embarrassed.

  "Yep. We had drinks last night." Neely flipped the steak she was searing in butter. It smelled so good Earp started drooling. "She told me how excited she was about it."

  "Well, now…" Earp felt his cheeks flush.

  Neely plated the steaks and set them and a bowl of salad in front of Imogen and Carter; the latter had put on the clothes his wife handed him after he shifted from animal form. Earp had barely noticed him shifting. Either he was a helluva powerful alpha, or Neely was a helluva good cook. Probably some of both.

  "Thank you, ma'am," Carter said.

  "Just call me Neely."

  "Thank you, Neely," Imogen said.

  "You are both welcome. I've got one here for you too, Earp, if you want it—and you definitely look like you do. Don't worry. It won't spoil your breakfast. You've got a few hours yet. Have a seat." Neely set a plate on the counter in front of an empty barstool.

  Alpha Blacke circled around the kitchen island and wrapped an arm around Neely's waist. For the first time, Earp noticed the dullness of her normally vibrant brown skin, the charcoal rings around her lively brown eyes. She was exhausted, soul-tired, and it was apparent Alpha Blacke was worried about her. She'd had a hard time with alpha leaders over the last few months.

  "Eat and we'll get you set up in the room down the hall." Neely squeezed Lucas's arm and broke away to grab the whistling tea kettle on the stove.

  "Thank you, but we can't stay," Carter said, gripping Imogen's hand as her weary head dropped low over her plate.

  Alpha Blacke frowned. "Why not, wolf?"

  "Because, sir, wherever we go, death follows. You've been kind to us. We don't want to lead it here."

  "Death?" Neely asked.

  "Our old alpha is hunting me," Imogen whispered.

  "Us," Carter said. "There is no you or me anymore, my love. There is us, and I would not have it any other way."

  Neely gazed up at Alpha Blacke, silently pleading with him to help. The alpha let his eyes slide shut. He nodded.

  More than anything else, it was that nod that told Earp he'd better eat his steak. He wasn't going to make his breakfast date with Dottie this morning.

  Chapter Six

  "Another bastard alpha? Haven't we met our quota for the year?" Chandra asked as she paced the living room from one end to the other.

  Earp sat on the fireplace hearth, leaned back against the stone, and crossed his legs at the ankles. Neely paced in the opposite direction to Chandra.

  "Apparently not," Lucas replied. "Neely has decided that we're going to take on one more."

  Neely pointed at him. "Don't even put all this on me. Sending that poor couple out into the cold desert night goes against the grain for you, too—I can feel everything inside of you rebelling against the idea."

  "Stop reading me. Mind your business, chismosa." Lucas flipped his head to the side and rolled his eyes.

  Neely sighed. "Why did I teach you that word?"

  "What's it mean?" Earp asked.

  "Nosy, gossip, that sort of thing. And I'm neither, Lucas Blacke, and you know it. You can't have it both ways. Either I read everyone or no one."

  "Bullshit. You're a selective mind reader, sugar cookie. If you weren't, you would have done that thing I was thinking at you in bed last—"

  "—You shush your damn mouth. We have company."

  Lucas flung his head back and laughed, deep and loud. Neely stopped pacing and just watched him. Her entire countenance seemed to lighten. She crawled up on the sofa and snugged against his side, whacking him in the gut with the back of her hand.

  "You're gross," she said, hiding a grin.

  "Do we know who this alpha is?" Chandra hoped it wasn't someone like Xavier Malcolm or Saul Roso, two deadly alphas they'd recently taken down—at tremendous cost.

  Lucas sobered. "Bryce Jessup."

  No such luck. "Not that piece of shit." Chandra cringed. "You'll have to issue a death challenge. You can't reason with someone like that."

  "Bryce?" Earp cackled. "There's no way a guy named Bryce could be considered a threat. He sounds like a third-grade kid with a sinus condition."

  "She is a vicious bastard in her mid-fifties who shifts into an even more vicious grey wolf. Last I heard, there were fewer than forty in her pack. So the problem isn't numbers. It's that she's prideful and reckless, and has no trouble killing indiscriminately to get her way."

  "So, nothing we haven't already seen," Neely said.

  "Exactly." Lucas sat up on the sofa. "More of the same. Dangerous and driven."

  Chandra sank down on the fireplace beside Earp. "How long do you figure we have until she gets here?"

  "According to the Reids, they shook their last tail three days ago, in Tucson. Would Jessup head back to Salt Lake where she's from, or would she try to pick up the trail again?"

  "Carter wants to keep moving, but I pointed out that they're moving in a circle back toward Tucson. It would be smarter to head south, but they don't feel safe near the San Diego or Tijuana wolf packs. Apparently, there's some unrest, with Malcolm gone." Lucas gave Chandra a wicked grin. "As an alpha myself, I'm terribly saddened about his recent demise, of course."

  "Of course," Neely agreed.

  "If she wasn't pregnant, I'd recommend putting them in one of my southeast caves," Earp said, "but that's too far from medical help if the young lady should need it."

  "Plus, they'd have to scale the side of a slick, sheer rock face," Chandra said. "Even in hyena form, I can't do it without help."

  "I carved some handholds into the rock. You just got to know where to look." Earp shook his head. "But you're right, it's not a good place for a wolf with child to stay."

  "Let's keep her here," Alpha said. "In Malcolm's old room."

  Neely scowled at him. "Never refer to that guest room as 'Malcolm's old room' in my presence."

  "Bad joke. Sorry, sugar cookie." He addressed Earp and Chandra. "The Reids stay here—if they agree. I'll talk to Carter. Organize the security team, Second. I want Amir close and Dan patrolling. Earp, alert King to the possibility of trouble—if he's back in town. He was gone this morning."

  King Jones was the proprietor of Sundance Auto, the town's only gas station/mini mart/dry dock/helipad and hangar… He was also a lion shifter and as close to a lone alpha as one gets without actually being completely on his own.

  Lucas Blacke wasn't the sort of alpha leader to demand that every shifter in his group be at his beck and call, but if he needed help locking down the town, he expected every shifter to do their part, and King was no exception—nor would he ask to be.

  "King just drove into La Paloma to pick up some custom bike parts," Earp said. "He wasn't intending to stay long."

  Earp and King were friends in a loose sense. Earp didn't sleep much, and neither did King, so they sometimes played chess together at the mini mart when King worked the night shift. No one in town knew this, but Chandra did, because she made it her business to know everything that went on.

  "Is Jessup likely to be packing silver, Alpha?" Chandra asked.

  Although they were close friends, she rarely called him Lucas, and never in front of others. Not that he demanded the honorific. Far from it. It was a sign of respect, something Chandra had decided on her own. When she'd broached the subject with him, he had shrugged and said, "Whatever you think is best, Chandra."

  "Packing s
ilver?" Neely's eyes went wide. "That goes against the treaty."

  "Yes, it does. Plus, it's a lowdown, shitty thing to do unprovoked." Lucas narrowed his gaze at Chandra. "She'll definitely be packing silver. Be ready."

  Chapter Seven

  The Reids decided to stay. Well, not so much decided as Imogen started having contractions and Carter had no choice. If he’d had a choice, he’d have run. Far and fast.

  Earp understood. When his Melody had gone into labor, he'd felt wild with the need to guard her. Sleep, hunger, pain—none of that had stood in the face of that blind, irrational need.

  "That wolf must be half mad by now." King lugged an off-road truck tire across the cement floor of his auto shop and stacked it on top of three others. He then wrote a receipt and taped it to the middle tire, turned, and led Earp out of the shop and into the mini mart.

  "Oh, he's inside out and sideways. First-time fathers always are, and shifters are even worse." Earp surveyed the rows of chewing gum, searching for the brand he liked.

  "Here." King tossed him a pack of grape-flavored gum. "I keep a box back here for you. I don't know how you chew that stuff. Even kids think it's too sweet."

  Sometimes Earp liked to blow bubbles when in Gila monster form. He'd done it in front of a mirror once and thought it looked hilarious, though he'd never in a million years admit that to the stern-faced lion shifter in front of him.

  Earp pocketed the gum and dug out some coins, which King refused to accept, so he dumped them in a plexiglass animal rescue donation container by the register instead.

  "So, Alpha Blacke is going to make a stand, huh?"

  "Looks that way," Earp replied. "He's an alpha. They're a couple of young shifters in trouble. You do the math."

  King chuckled. "That blasted alpha protective streak. It's why I stayed, you know. I could see how Blacke struggled with it, how he didn't want the authority, but couldn't walk away from these picked-on people. Sit. Let's play." One dark brown hand swept under the counter for the game board, the other locked onto a mesh bag filled with chess pieces.

  "He still struggles with it. But that's as it should be. No one with that much power should get too comfortable. I won last time, so I go first."

  He snagged one of the metal stools King kept at the bar by the window for folks to sit on and eat their snacks. Earp plopped down and eyed his pawns. He was starting to feel a bit of kinship with the things.

  "Sounds like you're also talking about the spiker. And no, you didn't win last time. You won the time before. It's my turn to go first." King backed this up by moving one of his white pawns forward two spaces.

  "Oh, that's right." Earp moved the pawn to the far right. "You did win. I remember because it's such a rare occurrence."

  King's mouth crooked into an almost-smile. "You wish."

  "I'm not talking about Neely, you know. When I mentioned power, I mean. That one doesn't need more control. She needs to let loose."

  "Given her ability to spike power into a person's head and kill them in seconds, I'd say that might not be a great idea." King moved another pawn.

  "She'll always be afraid of herself if she doesn't learn how far she can go with it."

  "And once she knows herself better, she can protect the group better, right?" King tucked a sturdy stool he kept behind the register beneath him and lowered his bulky, muscular body onto it. "That is Blacke's end game, isn't it?"

  Earp scowled down at the chessboard. "I used to think that was true. Not so much anymore."

  "Why not?"

  "Because Alpha doesn't protect her like a weapon." Earp made a stupid move with his far-right pawn and King got it. "He protects her the way that young man was protecting the she-wolf tonight."

  "Like a mate?"

  Earp grunted his yes. It seemed to him that way, but what did he know about mates? He'd only had a wife and she was long gone.

  King's gaze left the chessboard and focused on the window behind Earp. "Company. Two trucks, one SUV, one rough idling '65 Mustang." His mouth did that almost-smile thing again. "Let's hope they start trouble. I could part out that Mustang for a lot of money."

  The four vehicles parked in the spaces in front of the mini mart. A tall female shifter climbed out from behind the driver's side of the Mustang, accompanied by three other shifters. The woman could have been anywhere from thirty to sixty. She was white-blonde, white-skinned, and dark-eyed. Power radiated from her.

  The other shifters barely registered. They were the light-jazz version of paranormals. Nice background noise, not real noticeable. Maybe the stronger ones had stayed inside the vehicles.

  The female wolf was more than enough for Earp, though. She was terrifying.

  "This one is going to be trouble." King put away the chessboard and the pieces. They had other games to play tonight. "Go warn the alpha. Tell him I'll be sending her his way soon. I'll give you the usual signal when they're gone and I'm on my way."

  Earp nodded, tucked his stool back under the bar, and walked out of the mini mart. He ditched his clothes, shifted to his Gila monster form with the help of King and the group bonds, and moved through the darkened auto garage—avoiding noisy obstacles and spilled oil—and scuttled out the back door.

  He was on the far edge of town when the lighted Sundance Auto sign, the sixty-foot tall one with the big neon cactus and the words Open 24 hours, 7 days a week went dark.

  Earp sent a message to Alpha through the group bonds that he'd used to draw strength from to change. It was a feeling, not words, since he couldn't send those. Still, he was pretty sure Alpha would get the message.

  She's here.

  Chapter Eight

  Chandra had roused Amir Gamal and Dan Winters, explained the situation, then set them in motion. She stopped by her place—a one-bedroom house she'd plunked on a barren stretch of desert scrub. It looked older than it was, and not as nice on the outside as on the inside. That was by design.

  Everything she did was by design. That had been one of Cynthia's reasons for leaving. Not that it mattered anymore. She was gone and it still stung like hell, but life went on.

  Chandra parked her Jeep beside the house and entered through the roof. There were three entrances/exits into the house, but only one was evident to outsiders. Even Lucas was only aware of two. The third one was Chandra's security blanket, her final escape if things went to shit in Sundance, the way things often did.

  After removing a precut section of roof, she lowered herself into the second entrance, which led into her tiny attic arsenal. It was easier to access from this entrance, than from the one in the main part of the house. This was where she kept some of her favorite weapons and a good portion of her ammo. Only some, though. Roughly thirty percent. The rest was … around.

  Maybe she was paranoid, as Cynthia had accused the night she walked out, but that didn't mean she was wrong.

  "Damn." It irked her that her ex could still get under her skin. Could make her doubt herself. Her own sanity.

  "Fuck that head noise," she whispered as she stuffed silver-laced ammo into a duffel. She slung the bag over one shoulder, grabbed a couple of shotguns and an assault weapon Alpha would probably forbid her to use, and crawled back up on the roof. She replaced the section of roofing, adjusting it until it was once again undetectable, jumped off the house, got into her Jeep, and tore off toward the Blacke Compound.

  On the way there, she picked up Earp's warning through the group bonds. She slammed her gas pedal to the floor and managed to beat Jessup and her wolves to the house by a scant few minutes—just enough time to unload her Jeep, lock down the gate, and head inside.

  Earp was on the porch in animal form, waiting for her. Or waiting to be let into the house, rather.

  Lucas opened the door before she could knock, and gave her bag a hostile look. "No assault weapons. I'm not looking to start a war."

  Fine. That was why she'd brought the shotguns.

  "Go on in, Earp. Neely's with the Reids. Maria Cortez is here, t
oo. You know where the closet is."

  Maria Cortez was a registered nurse and a wolf shifter. She and her two daughters had been very unhappy shifters with Xavier Malcolm's pack until Lucas and Neely took him out and gave her the opportunity to live in Sundance. Good to hear she was taking him up on it.

  "The pup is on its way then?" Chandra asked as she lent Earp a little alpha power so he could change into his hybrid form more easily.

  Earp nodded his thanks and disappeared down the hall.

  "Yes. Neely's beside herself with excitement. You know how she likes kids." He jerked his head to the side, stared straight at Chandra. "We will protect that child at all costs."

  "Yes, we will."

  "Because to hell with this alpha if she thinks she's going to separate a baby from its mother." Lucas's eyes glowed with the spirit of his true animal, the Smilodon, or saber-toothed tiger. "That's not happening in my town."

  "Is that what she wants? To claim the pup?"

  "That's what Neely said she saw in both Imogen and Carter Reid's heads. She's usually right."

  Yes, she was. "So, let me guess. Your plan is to declare them as refuge-seekers as per statute six of the treaty."

  It would be a smart move. The Shifter Treaty of 1970, statute six, stated: If a shifter seeks refuge with another group, they can be declared a refuge-seeker and are exempt from formal challenges for one year, unless there is no alternative, meaning they are the last alpha remaining in a group.

  "Dan? Is that you?" Lucas pretended to search around until Chandra sighed. Loudly. "How do you even know about that statute?"

  "I know a lot of things," she replied.

  Alpha scowled. "To answer your question, yes, that's exactly what we're going to do. It's legal and ethical and, bonus, it's really going to piss Jessup off. Don't shoot her right away, though."

  Chandra stared longingly at her weapons bag. "You never let me have any fun."

  "Don't give me that bullshit. I sat through three seasons of Little House on the Prairie for you after you broke up with 'she who will not be named.'"