by Renee George
My brother Butch bounded down the steps with Thomas on his heels, both their hair freshly washed and wearing suspiciously clean clothes. Uh oh. I didn't like the way they were eyeballing my new friend.
"Etta, these are my brothers Butch and Thomas." Butch was sixteen and Thomas was a year younger, which meant they were both in full hormonal bloom. "Ignore them if they get creepy."
"Kota!" Thomas protested.
Etta giggled, and it sounded weirdly girly coming from the tall, warrior chick who'd I'd watched fight Chavvah three months earlier. I liked it.
"It'll be another fifteen minutes before dinners ready," Mom said, coming back into the foyer, bouquet-free. "Dakota, baby, why don't you show Etta around. Introduce her to your brothers and sisters."
"She's already met Thing One and Thing Two." I jerked my thumb at my teenager brothers.
Both boys groaned.
Mom laughed. "Thomas and Butch, go tell Dad it's time to clean up for dinner. He's in the shop." She winked at Etta and me as my brothers hastily escaped the awkwardness. "Give them a break, Dakota. You remember what it was like to be that age."
"I really don't." I nodded to Etta and gestured to the stairs. "We can start with my room."
"Sounds great," she said.
I heard Michele down the hall, and I thought she was talking to Linus, until I heard her say, "Don't cry, Ree-ree," the nickname she called Karina, "I'll come over tonight after dinner. We'll talk more, okay?"
Linus came out of his room and slid in socked feet along the hardwood floors in the hall right past us. He let out a triumphant, "Yeah!"
I pointed as he skipped down the stairs. "That's my youngest brother Linus." I knocked outside Michele's room, and Etta and I stopped outside the door. "Michele, this is Etta Smith."
Michele set her phone down, her smile widening even though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "It's so nice to meet you. I've heard so much."
Etta frowned. "From who?"
"I babysit for Sunny Trimmel and Willy Boden. Those ladies talk like I'm not around most the time." Michele smiled. "Don't worry. It was mostly good."
"Don't mind her," I told Etta. "She thrives on drama."
The next door was Emma Ray and Lisa Ann's room. Emma had been protesting a lot lately about having to share a room with Lisa. She was seventeen and Lisa was fourteen. In high school, those three years could make a big difference in maturity, and Emma complained she needed space. Michele and I had shared a room early on until Taylor and Tyler had moved out, and since we were both in our twenties now, Mom and Dad had pumped the brakes on Emma's dream of privacy. I felt for her though. I mean, Michele was only two years younger than me, and sharing a room had been a real pain.
I knocked outside Emma's door. She was at her desk studying some kind of math I'd never been smart enough to take in high school. "Hey, Emma. Mom says dinner in fifteen. This is Etta. She's eating with us tonight."
Emma waved but didn't look up as she quickly punched buttons on a calculator.
"She's really smart," I said to Etta.
Etta laughed. "I can see that."
We had one bathroom upstairs, and two downstairs, the master bath in my parent's bedroom and the guest bath. With eleven people in the house, three bathrooms had never been enough, but we always managed to get to school mostly clean by getting in the shower when we could. Lisa walked up the hall, her willowy body wrapped in a towel.
"Hi," she said. "Bathroom's open if you need it. But between Butch, Thomas, and me, there is no hot water left."
"Noted," I said. "How's your arm?"
She averted her eyes as her hand raised to the newly bandaged wound on her right bicep. "Fine."
"Bobby Davis, huh?"
Lisa shrugged. "He's just a friend."
"Uh huh."
My sister crossed her eyes at me and stuck out her tongue, reminding me just how young she really was.
"Just be careful," I told her. "Oh, and, Lisa, this is Etta Smith."
"Oh, the doc's kid," she blurted out. "You look like him."
"Tact, Lisa. Jeez."
"No, that's okay," Etta said. "We do have the same coloring, though I like to think I got my chest hair from my mother."
Lisa's eyes bugged. I choked back a laugh. I gave Etta an appraising look. "You'll do just fine," I told her.
We skipped the boys room, since they were all downstairs, and the locker room smell was encroaching into the hallway, I figured it was best. I led her to my room last. "This is mine."
Etta grinned. "You sure like pink."
"I used to." My phone beeped. I pulled it out of my back pocket.
Are we still on for tonight? the message read.
I tugged my lower lip between my teeth.
"Boyfriend?" Etta asked.
"No," I denied quickly.
Etta raised her hands, her slender fingers callus-free, and her nailbed well-manicured. "You don't have to tell me," she said. "But the look on your face."
"What look?" I shoved my phone, along with my hands, into my pockets.
"You like whoever sent you the text. You flushed, your pupils dilated, and you looked pleased."
"Who are you? Miss Marple?"
"I'm not nearly that old or British. Plus, no way I'm staying a spinster my whole life just so I can solve crimes." She laughed. "My father...uhm, I mean grandfather, well, William. He taught me how to read people from a young age. He was grooming me to take over as leader of our people."
I didn't really understand Lycanthropic dynamics. I'd heard my parents call Doc Smith a "lone wolf" before, but I hadn't understood what that had meant beyond what I could glean from context. "Therianthropes don't have a leader like that."
"Sure, you do. Isn't Babel Trimmel the mayor? That makes him in charge, right?"
"He's the mayor, but only because he was elected. He works for the town. We don't work for him."
"Huh." Etta grunted. "With lycans, we gain strength from a strong leader."
"Physically?"
"Physically, spiritually, and emotionally," she said. "There is something in our genetics that creates a bond between, and I use the words loosely, an alpha and his or her pack. Or in our case, a leader and his followers."
"Is that why your, uhm, William, had been so unhappy about the Doc and Chavvah?"
"Lycans are weakened by marrying outside our species. Or, at least, that's what I've always been told. It's just not done."
"But Doc married a therianthrope, and they even have a baby. From what I've heard, since he married Chav, there have been seven pregnancies in the lycanthropes. The first pregnancies since..."
"Since I was born." She smiled bitterly. "I know the stories." She paused for a moment, her face awash with melancholy before she pulled her shoulders back and made her expression neutral. "My step-mother is half lycanthrope, and she is a spirit talker. I think that makes the difference."
I couldn't help but think of Cal. "Can you all date someone other than a lycanthrope?"
"Sure. We could totally date outside our species. You know, as long as it's just for fun. Until our mates come along."
"Mates?"
"Yep. Therianthropes don't have mates?"
I shook my head. "We have partners and spouses, and sometimes they last, like my parents, and sometimes they don't." Like Luke and me. "But nothing so definitive as a fated mate."
"Lycans are different in that way. I've never felt the calling, but I've been told it's pretty intense when it happens." She blushed. "I'm sorry. I'm just blathering on and on about our differences. I'm sure we have a lot more similarities than differences. After all, we all put our pants on one leg at a time."
"I jump in with both feet."
She stared at me for second, then we both giggled.
"Time for dinner!" Mom yelled.
I had a million more questions to ask Etta about lycans, but I had a feeling I would hate most of the answers. And I was hyperaware of the unanswered text in my pocket as we headed downstairs
to the dining room. Why was Cal pursuing me? Flirting with me? Was it just for fun? Was I an amusement for him until he was struck by the mating lightning bolt? I stopped just short of the dining room and grabbed my phone.
No, I texted back, my heart diving so low in my chest I could feel my belly pulse.
Mom smiled at me as she beckoned. "Come on, baby. Food's getting cold."
Chapter Five
The clomp of footsteps out in the hall, the boys laughing, annoyed me as I stared at my phone. Cal hadn't texted me since I'd replied. Good. I was much better off staying away from him, especially now that I knew about the whole mating thing that happened in wolves. I wouldn't be anyone's Mrs. In-between. I was glad he hadn't texted me back.
Oh, who was I kidding? Certainly, not myself. It killed me that Cal just let me say no without some push back. I jumped up from my bed and grabbed my purse. I needed to be around someone who loved me but didn't need me. I needed my big brother.
"Mom!" I yelled as I bounded down the stairs. "I'm going over to Taylor's."
"Give him loves from me," she hollered back.
"Done!"
Taylor lived in a residential neighborhood with his boyfriend Eldin Farraday, a fox shifter who worked at the sheriff's department as a deputy with our brother Tyler. Lots of people knew about their relationship. Most of them didn't care, the majority of the ones that did, respected my parents enough to keep their opinions to themselves. Still, there were the few hardcore bigots who couldn't resist a jab at Taylor and Eldin when they were out together.
Music played softly in the house, and the lights were dim. Damn it. Was it Eldin's night off? Suddenly, the music stopped, and the lights went full bright. Cripes. I'd been really quiet.
I knocked, so they wouldn't think I was a burglar. Tayler, tall, buff-blond hair, and lanky like our father, answered the door. His eyes widened in surprise. "Dakota? What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to see my brother, is all. I hope I'm not interrupting," I craned my neck to look behind him, "anything important."
"Two minutes earlier, you would have been," he sighed. "Come in. Eldin got called into work. He's getting dressed now."
"Why in the world would the sheriff call him in on his night off? Have the rabbits stormed the streets?"
He laughed. "Just the Thompsons."
It was a joke between us, because rabbits stereotypically have a lot of children, but my mom and dad had them beat with us nine.
Eldin came out of the back bedroom. He was thin, shorter than Tyler, and he had a narrow, handsome face. Willy Boden once remarked that he reminded her of a young Tom Hiddleston, and I could definitely see it in his sharp features.
"Dakota." He buckled his utility belt before dipping down to kiss my cheek. "What a nice surprise." I walked into the living room as Eldin opened a safe and took out his weapon. He holstered it. "Too bad I got to run."
"Was there an accident? Please tell me no one died."
"Not yet," he said. "But maybe if I don't get my ass out to Jo Jo Cormans' place."
"Jo Jo?" Michele sometimes went out with Jo Jo, and she'd left the house before me tonight. "What happened at his house? Michele might be out there."
Taylor stopped Eldin before he reached the door. "Can you tell us anything? If Michele is involved, we'd like to know."
"I don't have all the details, but I will tell you, so you don't worry, this is more about the lycans than Jo Jo. Some of the young men from town decided it would be a good idea to go out to the Cormans and harass the lycanthropes they're hosting. A couple, Dale and Joanna Rivers."
"What about Cal?" I blurted.
My brother and Eldin both gave me a curious look.
"Never mind." I waved off the unasked question. "Did they say who the young men from town are?"
Eldin frowned. "Luke Dwyer and some of his buddies."
"Son-of-a-" If it were possible, I think steam would have poured from my ears. "I'm going with you."
"No, you're not," Eldin said.
"Fine. I'll see you at Jo Jo's then." I hugged my purse close to my body, rummaging for the keys to my truck.
"You can't go," Eldin protested. "This is a police matter, and you're going to get me in trouble with the sheriff if you show up because I talk too damned much."
"I'll just say I was invited."
"By who?" he asked.
I opened my phone and produced the text messages from Cal. "Luke is on the war path about the lycanthropes, and I'm pretty sure it's my fault."
Eldin made Taylor and I sit in the back of his SUV cruiser, and I closed my eyes as the rotating lights bathed the road in a myriad of reds and blues. Taylor stared at me like I'd grown three noses.
"Stop it," I told him. Not even deep breathing exercises could calm the off-the-chart-anxiety threatening to overwhelm me.
"I didn't think you had it in you," Taylor said.
"I don't have anything in me," I childishly replied.
"But you'd like to."
I narrowed my gaze on him. "You're not funny."
"I'm kind of funny."
"Nope," I disagreed.
"Eldin thinks I'm funny."
From the front seat, Eldin said, "It's true. I think Taylor is hilarious."
Taylor gave me a crooked smile. "See. Told you."
My annoyance overtook my anxiety. "You saw my last text. I told him, no. I told him I wouldn't meet him."
"You should have said, yes," Taylor said.
"So, I can get my heart broken. No, thank you. Do you know that lycanthropes have actual mates? They develop like a real bond with the person they are meant to be with."
"Okay," my brother said. "I still don't understand the problem?"
"It can't work between us! The bond only works with another lycanthrope."
Taylor chuckled. "Dakota, sometimes people are meant to be together, even if, on paper, they don't look like they should work."
Eldin reached his hand back and Taylor took it. Eldin drew Taylor's fingers to his lips and gave his knuckles a kiss before letting go and putting both hands back on the wheel.
Taylor's lopsided smile at his boyfriend made me happy and jealous.
"You guys are different."
"Are we?" Taylor asked. "For all intents and purposes, I should have said, no, when Eldin asked me out during Sunny's rehearsal dinner. I knew nothing could come of it, that there was no way to make it work between us. I was really scared how Tyler would react, but here we are four years later. Happy. Even if it all ended tomorrow, I regret not one minute of saying, yes."
"You make it sound so easy."
Eldin let out a barking laugh. "Then he isn't telling the story right."
"Don't be sharing our war stories, now," Taylor cautioned. He winked at me. "We'll save some of our more colorful memories for another time." He pointed toward the windshield. "Corman place just up ahead."
"There were two trucks and a car parked on the road outside Jo Jo's driveway. His dad had built a house for Willy as a wedding present and had given Jo Jo the three-bedroom house when he and Willy had moved out. The black truck at the front belonged to Luke.
"Shoot, shoot," I muttered. My anxiety ratcheting up into high gear. "What is he playing at."
"Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with you," Eldin said as he pulled in behind two other Sheriff's SUVs sitting in the driveway.
"If only that were true. I can't believe Luke is doing this." I peered out my window and watched our brother Tyler talking with Luke, while Willy Boden, another deputy and my mom's best friend, talked to Cal and Dale. The brothers towered over Willy. "He's determined to have the wolves removed from Peculiar."
"Luke?"
"Yes."
Luke's friends included Veronica "Ronnie" Talbert, Jackson Smart, Ludlow Davis, Madison West, Eric Johnson, Delbert Johnson's middle son, and a few others. He must have pulled people from Jackson's party to create this mob. Deputy John Connelly had corralled the group away from the others. The sheriff
was talking to Jo Jo, who looked fairly bewildered. Kyle Avery stood behind Jo Jo, and he glared in Luke's direction. When had Kyle become a friend to the wolves?
"This is so not good," I said.
"Stay in the vehicle," Eldin directed.
I reached for the door handle, but Taylor stopped me. "Don't get him in trouble," he told me. "The deputies seem like they got things in hand. I don't see Michele, and nobody looks bloody. We'll just be in the way, and you popping out to come to Cal's rescue might just make things worse for the wolves."
"What makes you think I would jump to Cal's rescue?"
Taylor thinned his lips and shook his head.
"Fine, I probably would," I told him, "but only because Cal has done nothing wrong." Except show up in the nonpredator area on a full moon. Oops. I'd forgotten to mention that to Taylor and Eldin.
"What is it?" Taylor asked.
"Cal ran in the Hackenstraw woods last night."
"How?"
"I don't know. He just showed up."
"You remember him being there? On a full moon?"
"No." But I'd carried the scent of him on me, fur and earthy musk. "But we woke up together in my spot."
"Wow." Taylor stared at me, again, as if my three noses had been joined by a second set of eyes. "Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?"
"Shut up." I wrung my hands as the deputies continued to interview the involved parties. "I can't take this." I needed to get out of the car. I needed to talk to Cal. This was all my fault. I'd drawn attention to him by flirting back, by breaking up with Luke, by trying to reach for something that was beyond me. Maybe if I assured Luke that I wasn't interested in Cal, then he would quit this moronic vendetta. "Maybe I can reason with Luke?"
At that moment, Luke shouted something. Cal surged toward him, and Eldin and Dale helped Willy hold him back. Unfortunately, Luke got away from Tyler, and with Cal's arms restrained, he couldn't defend the fist-blow that landed across his jaw. I cried out and grabbed the door handle before Taylor could stop me.
I raced to the fighting group as Connelly and Sheriff Taylor joined the foray of rushing men, fighting to keep the two men from tearing each other apart. But Cal had broken away from Eldin and Dale, and he'd blocked a second punch from Luke, then took him down in a quick, impressive demonstration of self-defense. Luke's embarrassment as Cal easily held him in place until Connelly and the sheriff could take over, told me that this fight between the two men was far from finished. When Luked tried to yank away, Sheriff Taylor bellowed, "Don't make me put you in handcuffs!" Then he gazed back and forth at Cal and Luke, both coiled for another match. "Walk away! Both of you!"