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  “Humans? There are humans in the pack?”

  “They’re mated to lower-ranking wolves.”

  “Oh.” Mated? Did that mean married? Living together? A friend-with-benefits type of arrangement? “Do they know their… mates… are wolves?”

  “Absolutely. They’ve known since before they married that their husbands were wolves.”

  The knowing gleam in his eyes as he shot another of those half-grins over his shoulder suggested he’d known what she was thinking. Werewolves weren’t telepathic, were they? Surely not. The very idea was ludicrous. Yeah, and you thought werewolves only existed in horror movies and nightmares. Look where that got you.

  At the other end of the hall, he turned left into the dining room instead of right into the kitchen. The dining table seated eight. Two more chairs sat in the corners against another wall of windows on the south side. Did all the rooms on that side of the house have floor-to-ceiling windows, or just the common ones? Nice view either way.

  Tanya paused to scan the brightening landscape beyond the panes of glass. If circumstances were different, she’d love that view and this place. If…. She sighed.

  “Have a seat wherever,” Ian called from the kitchen, his voice deep and gruff but not unfriendly. “How do you like your steak?”

  “Uh… medium well.”

  “That’ll change.” He half-grinned and turned back to a grill inset into one of the countertops.

  Tanya flashed Colin a questioning look.

  “He means you’ll get to where you prefer meat on the rare side.”

  “Ew.” She grimaced and dropped into a chair.

  He chuckled then went into the kitchen, returning shortly with a large plate that he set in front of her. “Start on that.”

  It was loaded with macaroni and cheese. Homemade, if she didn’t miss her guess. “Carbs? Seriously?”

  “Quick energy, and the pasta is so hyper-processed even a canine gut can handle it.”

  She picked up the fork then froze. “Canine gut?”

  “Yes. You’re digestive tract is no longer human, at least not in the way it functions. Neither are the digestive enzymes you produce. You need to avoid whole grains and high cellulose vegetables from now on. You won’t be able to digest them properly.” He grimaced. “Trust me. The pain isn’t worth it.”

  “Great.” Not. She eyed the plate. “I don’t think I can eat this much.”

  “Give it a shot anyway. You’ll be surprised how much you can eat now.”

  She frowned and shoved a forkful of mac and cheese into her mouth. “Really good,” she muttered around a bite.

  Colin half-grinned, his blue eyes sparkling with pleasure. “Dad loves to cook, and he’s not too shabby at it.”

  By the time another plate was set in front of her, the other one had been scraped clean. She stared at the slab of meat on what was more platter than plate then glanced at Colin, who’d returned to the seat catty-corner to her. “That’s not a steak! It’s a roast. I can’t eat all of that.”

  Soft, rumbling laughter came from the kitchen, and Colin grinned. Big. He had double canines like his father. Interesting. She’d never known anyone with those before. He chuckled. “Eat what you can. Your body needs the energy.”

  Tanya shook her head but picked up the steak knife anyway. Focus on food. Less embarrassing than staring dumbly at a guy whose crooked smile did weird, not entirely unpleasant things to her stomach. Easier than dwelling on far more important issues she wasn’t ready to face again. Not yet.

  As she ate, she took in her surroundings. Except for where the outer wall of the house jutted a few feet in from the outside deck, the dining room, living room, and kitchen were all open to each other. A breakfast bar separated the kitchen from the dining and living rooms. Otherwise anyone sitting in one room could see what was happening in the others.

  The cabinets in the kitchen were the same dark, red-stained hickory visible throughout the rest of the house she’d seen so far. The counters were white granite with flecks of various browns. The appliances were stainless steel. Rustic and modern all at once.

  The couch and two chairs in the living room, forming a half-circle in front of the fireplace, were upholstered in dark brown leather. The fireplace stood wide and tall, made of thick-slabbed stone in various colors of gray and light brown with a dark hickory mantle. Lights were recessed into a ceiling easily fifteen feet above the floor, with a floor lamp between each chair and the couch. There were no curtains on any of the massive banks of windows. Nothing to shield the occupants from prying eyes outside.

  She snorted. What prying eyes? There was nobody around for miles. Unless they had a peeping mountain lion within the walls of their self-imposed prison, they didn’t exactly have to worry about being watched.

  “Looks like you’re done there.” Colin’s voice pulled her gaze away from the forested landscape beyond the glass.

  Tanya glanced down at the plate, surprised to find the huge hunk of meat gone. “Did I really eat all that?”

  “You sure did.”

  Did he have to look so proud? If she kept eating like that, she’d weigh a ton in no time. She’d had trouble with her weight in her teens while in physical therapy after a bad car accident. More than enough to last a lifetime, in fact.

  “Your metabolism will be higher now than it was when you were human. You’ll need to eat more to maintain a healthy weight.”

  Finally, something good about being a monster. She sighed. “What now?”

  “How are your wounds?”

  She hiked up the hem of her shirt just enough to take a look then frowned and ran unsteady fingers over her almost flawless stomach. Only the faintest red marks remained where claws had dug into her flesh. “How’s that possible?”

  “Food. We wolves heal rapidly when we’re fed. If we stay fed and fit, we’re virtually impervious to disease and physical ailments.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. She’d never be sick again? She could live with that. So what did that sinking feeling in her stomach mean? Oh, yeah. Monster. Rampaging killer of innocents. Big drawback! “Are you trying to convince me being a werewolf is a good thing?”

  “It has benefits as well as disadvantages.” Colin shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

  “Like the fact I could kill someone without meaning to.” She swallowed, finding herself once again facing the reality of her life. It was over. So, what now? She couldn’t return to her family. No way she could finish her degree either. She might as well have died in that warehouse along with the others. It would’ve been kinder.

  Her family…. If she didn’t go back, they’d never know what had happened. They’d spend the rest of their lives wondering…. Had she run away for some reason they couldn’t figure out? Had someone taken her who would hold and torture her for years as discussed in some of the reports they’d seen on the news over the past few years? Was she dead? She’d rather they think she was dead than believe, even in some small amount, the other possibilities.

  But, to never see her family again….

  Her parents, who had loved and encouraged her through every trial and tribulation, including months of rehab after an accident when she was fifteen.

  Her older brother, Chris, and his annoying habit of knuckling the top of her head every time he saw her, despite the fact she’d reached the age of twenty-one and was no longer a child.

  Her older sisters, Alexis and Marcy, who dragged her out of the house to go shopping or catch a movie when they decided she’d spent too much time with her face in a book and needed to have some fun.

  Then there were Chris’ wife and kids. Pam with her sweet smiles and resigned tolerance for Chris’ off-beat sense of humor. Jacob was only four. Little Melody just seven. I’ll miss seeing them grow up.

  Tears clogged her throat.

  A warm hand closed around one of hers on the table top. “You can see your family again. I can take you home today, in fact. As long as you control your emotions, you
won’t Shift again until the next full moon, unless you choose to.”

  Control her emotions? Great. So if she got upset, she could snap and rip someone’s throat out? Wonderful. She stared at their joined hands and whispered, “Why did God do this to me? What did I do to deserve it?” She swiped tears from her cheeks with her free hand.

  * * *

  Colin glanced helplessly at his father, who had taken up residence on one of the tall stools at the breakfast bar.

  “What’s happened to you is not punishment from the Lord, Tanya.” Dad leaned back in the stool and crossed his arms over his chest, his feet propped up on the base of the stool. “This is no more a punishment than cancer, car accidents, drive-by shootings, or any of the other things that people are afflicted with every day. We live in a world that’s trapped in a cycle of sin-induced degradation. Period.” He snorted. “I’ve certainly lived long enough to watch the downward spiral.”

  She gave him a speculative look then frowned. “That’s not exactly reassuring. You don’t even look old enough to be Colin’s father, much less to have lived through much.”

  His father chuckled. “Never judge a wolf by his appearance. I’ve lived a lot longer than I look. Maybe one day I’ll tell you about my own Turning, but now’s not the time to get into it.”

  “Dad’s right.” Colin turned back to her. “About the degradation thing. Bad things happen to everybody, not only bad people. Even the Bible says so. What’s that one verse say about God sending rain on the just and the unjust? Or maybe it’s righteous and unrighteous?” He shook his head and waved a dismissive hand. “Either way, same principle. As bad as you think this is, what do you suppose your parents are going through right now? Do you think they’re wondering what they did wrong for God to let you be snatched away?”

  She considered his words then shook her head.

  “Well, if God only lets bad things happen to people who need to be punished, you aren’t the only one who obviously did something bad here. Your parents did, too.” He cocked his head and steadily met her blue gaze. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Tanya sucked her bottom lip into her mouth thoughtfully then slowly nodded. “I think so.” Her gaze bounced from him to his father and back again. “So, now what?”

  “Now, we help you figure out how to move forward in your life.” He briefly tightened his grip on her hand then relaxed it. “You can return home. There’s no reason to let your family think you’re dead or leave them wondering what horrible things someone could be doing if you’re alive.”

  “But—” Her frown deepened. “How do I explain any of this to them?”

  “That’s entirely up to you. Tell them as much as you think they can handle.” Dad’s brows dropped to the bridge of his nose. “I’d prefer you leave us out of it though, at least for the time being.”

  She nodded.

  “So?” Colin captured her gaze again. “What do you think?”

  A long pause was followed by a sigh. “If this isn’t a punishment, why did God let this happen to me?”

  “Could be your thorn in the flesh,” Dad said before Colin could respond.

  Colin frowned. He’d never seen being a wolf as such a burden, certainly nothing like a chronic illness. Why did his father and so many of the others seem to perceive it as such?

  A thoughtful expression crossed her face, then she nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”

  His father’s gray gaze intensified as he studied Tanya. “The real question is, do you think you can live with it?”

  “Do I have any other choice?”

  Dad’s gaze met Colin’s, and the right corner of his mouth canted slightly upwards.

  Now the real work began.

  Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. - Eph. 4:25

  Campbell Wildlife Preserve

  Somewhere outside Flagstaff, Arizona

  Thursday, June 4, 2015

  “HEATHER and Willa’s families deserve to know what happened to them.” Tanya’s chin jutted out, but she didn’t quite meet either of their gazes. “No matter how ugly it was. If they simply disappear, the people who care about them will be left wondering. That’s not fair or right.”

  Colin had no answer. It worried him that Tanya seemed determined to hold onto such a contentious point despite his father’s earlier anger as a result of her pushing the same issue. He shifted in the chair at the dining table and waited for the explosion, barely able to breathe. At least it was just the three of them in the room. No one else would add fuel to the fire. Dad could be more lenient without an audience around to witness a lapse in discipline, if he was so inclined.

  Dad got up from the stool at the breakfast bar and came toward the table, stopping behind a chair on the opposite side from Tanya to rest his hands on the upright back. “I spoke with O’Neil while you showered. He cleaned the warehouse of traces of our kind but left the bodies. They bear the wounds of their ordeal, but an autopsy won’t show any abnormalities since they didn’t survive their first full moon. We need to direct the police to that warehouse, and the bodies will be found.”

  Colin glanced up at his father, his brows rising. That’s not how such problems had been handled in the past. Had Tanya’s earlier comments changed Dad’s mind about how to handle the situation? It certainly seemed so. Maybe he wasn’t as immovable as Colin had always believed.

  “I can do it.” Tanya’s soft voice broke the long silence that had fallen.

  Colin frowned. “What?” She couldn’t possibly mean what it sounded like.

  “Take the police to the warehouse. Tell them what happened.”

  He shared a concerned look with his father. He didn’t miss the respect and approval that appeared in the older man’s gaze. Tanya had raised herself a notch or two in his father’s estimations, whether she realized it or not.

  Dad smiled faintly. “Are you sure?”

  “No, but what other choice do I have?”

  Why did that question, or some variation of it, keep coming out of her mouth? Colin couldn’t resist pointing that out. “You seem to think you don’t have options in all of this.”

  “I don’t.” She pinned him with an unwavering look. “Tell me another way those women’s families will have any sense of closure, or that you can reverse what was done to me, make me normal again.”

  He sent his father a helpless look. Dad looked no less resigned to her fate than she did. Lord, I hate feeling this way. I have no easy answers for her. Why do she and Dad insist on seeing this as a bad thing? The wolf is a gift, not a curse. “There’s no way to reverse it. As for the other, I’m sure we can come up with something if we put our heads together. You don’t have to deal with the cops if you don’t want to.”

  “Someone does, and as the only survivor, it looks like I’m elected by default.”

  * * *

  Tanya fought the urge to fidget as both men stared at her.

  Colin’s grip on her hand hadn’t lessened so much as a fraction, as though he was afraid to let go. Then again, maybe he’d forgotten he was holding it.

  Ian studied her with predatory intensity, as though trying to figure her out and attempting to see straight through to her soul. He sighed. “You’ll need to leave us out of it. No one can know we rescued you. That would raise questions we can’t afford.”

  She met his gaze and nodded. “I understand.” It made sense. If she said too much, the wrong eyes might fall on the pack and their sanctuary in the mountains. She didn’t want to be responsible for anyone being hurt or killed, even if they weren’t entirely human. The real question was, how did she balance the truth with keeping secrets that could endanger lives? Could she talk to the police without having to lie?

  “One thing though.” Colin’s hand tightened around hers, pulling her attention to him. “You must control your emotions while talking to the cops. If you don’t, the Shift could occur without you wanting it to. I don’
t think I have to tell you how disastrous that would be in the middle of a police station.”

  All sorts of ugly possibilities occurred to her, the worst being her in wolf form on the receiving end of a barrage of bullets.

  “I doubt you have the control necessary to stop it without help at this point, so you have to keep strong emotions in check, particularly fear and anger.”

  Anxiety rippled through her. “I don’t know if I can. I can’t even think about what happened without the fear trying to swallow me again. If I have to talk to the police and my family about it….” She shrank into her chair, lowered her head, and cupped her forehead in her free hand.

  “Dad? Could I go with her?”

  Tanya snapped upright in her chair and shot him a look. Wouldn’t that put him in the spotlight of law enforcement?

  “We can tell the police I’m a friend there to offer support and help her feel safe. It wouldn’t be a lie. At least, not really. She is a friend now. She’s one of us. That makes her family. Right?”

  “That’s true.” Ian’s gaze turned pensive. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Was she missing something? Would Colin have offered if he didn’t want to go?

  After a moment, Ian nodded firmly. “Alright.”

  “What about my family? Will I endanger them by going home?”

  “We’re back to that, are we?” Colin sighed. “You’re not going to eat them, you know. When we’re in wolf form, we usually have control of the animal.”

  She scowled at him. That remained to be seen, and only time would prove it to her. Usually wasn’t exactly a comfort either. “That’s not what I meant. What if the men who kidnapped me know where I live and are watching my family? I don’t want to draw a nasty pack of rogue werewolves to their doorstep.”

  Ian half-smiled. “I can have your neighborhood checked out; see if any wolves are hanging around. If all’s clear, I’ll have your family watched until you’re home. Then you need to stay out of sight as much as possible until we’re sure no one’s coming after you. She-wolves are rare and much-sought-after. They’ll want you back.”