How to Tame a Werewolf: Seven Brides for Seven Shifters, Book 3 (14 page)

Chapter Seventeen

“Why can’t I punch him in the head?”

Ian and Daz stopped walking. They’d both gotten used to Cash’s pathological need to punch people.

“We can’t take you anywhere,” Daz muttered.

Ian took a note from Rue’s book and blinked rapidly. “It’s not a part of my plan. I have to be clever to defeat Garrett. That’s the deal,” Ian said. “And also, because you’re an idiot, Cash.”

Daz tapped himself in the chest. “I’ve been telling him that since birth. If you look on his birth certificate, you’ll see the nurse stamped it on there.”

Dashiell Warren often said things in such a leisurely laid back way you couldn’t tell if he was serious or inwardly mocking you.

“No, seriously?” his younger brother, Cash asked.

The three of them finished walking around to the back of Sheriff Stan The Exterminator’s truck. Some people thought Stan AKA his mother’s boyfriend—Ian shook off the shivers—was called The Exterminator because he’d been a wrestler or mixed martial artist like Daz. The real reason didn’t have anything to do with the fight game but had come in handy when Ian finally figured out his plan. He’d needed a certain toxic gas and Stan had easily ordered it because he was a fourth generation exterminator (along with being the town sheriff).

Ian glanced up at the smiling, bobbing cockroach on the roof of Stan’s extermination truck. The damn thing made him want to crawl in bed with Rue and pull the covers over his head.

Once they’d reached the back of the truck, Daz rolled up the cargo door to expose several tall cylindrical tanks. Ian dipped his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “The things I do for the love of my pack and my friends,” he said.

Daz patted him on the back. “At least your plan ends in jail on purpose. The last time I enlisted Garrett and Cash to solve a problem, we ended up in jail by accident. And Jules left my ass there all night.”

Ian peered around Daz to glower at Cash. “What did you do?” Ian asked, using an exceedingly country accent.

Daz beat Cash to an answer. “He punched a pig.”

Cash pretended to silently roar at the heavens. “It was a wild boar. And I thought she was a shifter.”

“Mae Ella?” Ian asked. “Any idiot can tell that sow’s not a shifter.”

Cash sucked his teeth. He lumbered a few feet away and hooked one of the tanks up to the fumigator. Ian grimaced at the tanks a second time. The words “
Aconitum Lycoctonum Gas”
made him want to abandon his schemes. Rue had rubbed off on him. No one else would come up with a dual-purpose plan that was this wacky—a plot so ridiculously ill conceived that even if it went terribly wrong it might work out for the best at the end.

I miss my pretty kitty.
It had been five days since the bottle explosion incident and Rue had yet to wake up. Ian reminded himself Dillon said she was fine. She needed to rejuvenate after healing Cora, that’s all. But the only time he’d seen her open those pretty eyes was last night when she’d yawned, stretched and mumbled something about wanting “Cinna Mum’s and sweet red plums.” Then she’d curled up and gone back to sleep.

Ian hoped she didn’t wake up while he was off the vineyard grounds helping their friends—and, as fringe benefit, reclaiming his pack. He wanted to be there to feed Rue when she awoke. He also wanted to tell her he’d become the alpha again, depending on how the next hour or so went.

Daz handed Ian the bodysuit portion of the chemical suit Stan had let them borrow. He suited up while the Warren brothers took care of the other logistics.

“Thank Jules for the idea on how to reclaim my position as pack alpha for me,” Ian said to Daz. “She got my mind working when she made that comment about pregnancy nose being like tear gas. A wolf’s nose is pretty sensitive too.”

“I’ll tell her,” Daz said, while checking a nozzle. “Tell me again. What did the human EMT say when he got to The Grape Escape that day?” Daz asked.

Ian laughed. “He said, ‘But, but, why are they all naked? Is this a cult? Am I gonna die? But if I join, will I grow a giant dick too?’”

Daz chuckled.

“But why can’t I punch Garrett in the head so we can get him into the truck?” Cash asked, obviously dissatisfied with their earlier answer to his question. “Trust me, he’ll forgive me.”

Daz glanced at Ian, rolled his eyes, and mouthed, “It’s on his birth certificate.”

Ian felt his brows scrunch. Rue said he did that a lot. “First off, it has to be me. I’m supposed to be the clever one. Also, punching him in the head won’t knock him out.” Ian paused for emphasis. “And we need him knocked out before we can take him to jail.”

Cash blinked back at Ian. “You have no idea what I am, do you?”

“Nope,” Ian said. “And right now I don’t care.” He gestured for the helmet and hood portion of the suit. Daz helped him secure it. “Cash, all you have to do is go in and bring him out. I’ll do the rest,” Ian said.

The younger Warren brother shrugged. “If that’s the way you want it.”

Daz put his brother in a headlock. “You can’t use your true power. You know that.”

Cash pursed his lips, mockingly. “Garrett can take it.”

Punching in code on the keypad, Cash opened the front door and went inside. Ian snuck behind him and got into position. The suit was stuffy as hell. Good thing Daz and Cash didn’t have to worry about getting sick since they weren’t wolves, otherwise they’d be stuck in HAZMAT suits too. And since Nox was still away at school in London they didn’t have to worry about him either. But with Garrett…well, they had to hope the gas would do more than piss him off.

Minutes later, Garrett walked out of his front door and Ian fully fumigated him with a lavender gas. Garrett sneezed and went wolfen. He sneezed a second time and became a man. The big wolf’s vision clouded over. He lost his balance and grabbed hold of the doorjamb. After stumbling around a bit, with an accusatory finger pointed directly at Ian, Garrett said, “Wolfsbane. Payback is a…fu….” Then he dropped to the ground.

The three shifters left standing: the alpha wolf, the alpha wolverine and whatever the hell Cash was, all stood around with their mouths open. They couldn’t believe they’d pulled the first part of the plan off.

Then Daz confirmed it. He swiped his arms in a crisscross motion and declared a Wolfsbane TKO.

Chapter Eighteen

Garrett woke up in one of the special shifter holding cells down at the jail. The lights were low but he could smell Ian and another scent he didn’t want to deal with at the moment.

“You win, Ian,” Garrett called out. “You overtook me with something clever.”

Ian stepped into the light. He scrunched his brow in a smirk and pumped his fist like a bowler who’d just thrown three strikes in a row.

Garrett bit down on his lip. He wasn’t about to let Chuckles see his amusement, although Garrett hardly recognized his old rival. Something about Ian AKA Mr. Chuckles seemed lighter.

“You got a lot of help from your friends,” Garrett said.

Ian thought about that. “Yeah, a good leader always does.”

Ian stood and turned his back to Garrett, so he could lean on the bars from the outside. This time Garrett did smile. Ian knew he’d shown a weakness by turning his back. Garrett could reach through the bars and rip his spine out. Ian wanted Garrett to know he trusted him. Their relationship had shifted to a much better place. Perhaps Garrett could call Ian a friend soon. Not today, though, not while he had his ass locked up. But shifters lived long lives. The two of them had time.

The other alpha grinned. “
Thankew, thankew
, sir,” he said, pouring on a thick country accent. “But you’re the one who’s going to win, Wolfman.” Ian walked away but stopped mid-step. “And Dillon wants you to come see him in about ten months. He’ll be happy to erase all signs of that last problem between us once Lennox has the baby. She won’t even have a scar when my mark is removed.” When Garrett snorted, Ian said, “Didn’t you know Dillon used to be a plastic surgeon to the stars?”

Ian strolled out of the room, presumably to go celebrate having returned to pack alpha status. Garrett was left with the peaches and brown sugar scent he’d been doing his best to ignore.

“Come out of the shadows and say what you need to say, Lennox,” Garrett called out.

His soul mate stepped into the light on his side of the bars. No wonder they’d kept the lights low.
Soul mate.
Those two words burned because Garrett knew she’d never be his actual mate. She couldn’t accept his wolf and he didn’t want to live half a life.

“Wow. You’re actually going to let me speak this time, Garrett?” Her sass jumped right out, like it always did.

“You want to tell me which bastard got my wife pregnant?” Garrett snarled. “How about you tell me why you fucked another wolf when you claim to be so fucking afraid, Elle?”

Damn, he hadn’t meant to use his nickname for her. Garrett wanted no doubts about where he stood. They were done. He’d love her forever. Never love another. Looking back on it, his first wife had been his joy but Tina died in childbirth and left him and their son. Now his soul mate had abandoned him and he couldn’t deal.

Lennox grabbed a chair by the backrest and dragged it over to face him. His wife slayed him when she moved. Lennox had feminine seduction down. She wore gorgeous 1950s and 60s style dresses that showed off her killer legs. Yet she had such strength. She never let him or his son get away with any bullshit. Garrett didn’t know what he was going to tell Nox. The idea he’d lost his mother for a second time would break his overgrown kid down.

Lennox opened her mouth, closed it, took a deep breath, and started again. “You want to know how it happened?”

No, absolutely not. He didn’t want to know.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice husky inside his own ears.

“Okay,” she whispered so low he wouldn’t have heard it without his wolfen senses.

“It happened after you left me,” she said. “I didn’t handle it well, Garrett, and I didn’t know how to make it right. I was so freaked out.”

Garrett looked away. He shouldn’t have asked her to tell him this story. If she revealed the name of the shifter who’d…a rage built up inside him and Garrett abandoned the thought.

Lennox didn’t ask him to look at her. She kept going. “I wasn’t sleeping at night. I’d just sit at the window and watch the moon. Before Daz and Jules took the babies home it helped. But once they left I felt empty. Gran tried, but what could she do?”

Her face twisted up, but Lennox didn’t cry. She wouldn’t do that. She’d only cried once as far as Garrett knew. And that had been for his son, not for him.

“I don’t think you’ll ever understand how much I love you, Garrett. From day one, the minute you walked into that vestibule at college, I lost myself to you.”

“Don’t blame me for this,” he growled.

She raised her hands in denial. “I’m not. I’m just saying, when he showed up under my window I thought it was you. The two of you are so similar. Your eyes are a little different; he’s more animalistic than you, but I was so desperate to have you back I didn’t notice the little differences. I ran out to meet him and I threw my arms around his neck.”

“Stop,” Garrett said. Rising he walked over to the bars and jerked on them. The metal groaned under the pressure but held. “Let me out, Stan! Motherfuck it. Let. Me. Out.”

No one responded. Their side of the jail remained silent except for their breathing. Their backs were turned to each other now. Lennox remained in her chair, facing the empty space he’d left behind. He stood at the bars, gripping them so tightly they were bound to pop.

“He didn’t say anything,” Lennox said. She seemed stuck in the rhythm of the story now, as though she had to finish it before she could move on. “He only offered me his hand. I thought it was a symbol of forgiveness. So I took it willingly despite those claws. They gleamed in the light and I knew they could shred me. But I took his hand anyway.”

Garrett gave up. Maybe hearing the story would allow him to move on too. They could still raise Nox together. That didn’t have to change. He’d look out for that little girl too. The child would have everything she needed. He just wouldn’t be her daddy.

Lennox kept talking. “He lead me out to the clearing behind the Manor, the one where I battled Faye and the others to become the alpha female. In full moonlight, I began to suspect he wasn’t you.” A quiet sigh.

When he looked over his shoulder for an explanation of what the hell that nonsense meant, her head had dropped. Garrett wanted to go to her, pick her up in his arms, and forgive her until death did them part. He just couldn’t. How could she not tell the difference between him and this other werewolf? It didn’t make sense.

Garrett understood how Ian had confused Rue. She’d never met the guy and he’d somehow grown two inches and scarred himself while he’d been away. To the cat, Ian came off as two different men. But Lennox knew Garrett. She’d known him in his late teens and she knew him now. There was no confusing her. Unless…

“He rushed me in the clearing and I welcomed him into my arms,” she said. “The sex was ferocious, insatiable, but he didn’t hurt me. Not once. He claimed me, branded me as his.”

Garrett growled low in his throat but his wolf remained strangely quiet.

“Afterwards he held me and when I looked into his eyes, I saw only the wolf.
Your
wolf, Garrett.”

He turned away from the bars. Stalking over to her, he lifted her chin. There were tears on her cheeks. “My wolf?” Garrett asked. “But how?”

“I’m not sure. I hadn’t realized you didn’t remember until Rue’s outburst at the Sip and See,” Lennox said. “But yes, my love, your wolf. And once he knew I’d recognized him, he shifted completely to your wolfen form. I scooted back out of shock but then I realized I wasn’t afraid. He hadn’t hurt me, hadn’t even broken my skin with his claws. I wouldn’t have cared if he did. I wanted to love the wolf as much as I love the man. I wanted to love you both as one.”

Garrett rubbed his thumb over her furrowed brows. This was beyond crazy but it wasn’t unheard of. He’d known one other wolf who could override the man. “It’s possible my wolf went out while I slept. If he were desperate he’s powerful enough to pull that off.” Bending to her, he kissed the tears away. “Then what, Elle?”

“Your wolf lowered his head and re-approached me gingerly. Every step he paused and nodded and I nodded back, until he laid his huge monstrous head in my lap.” She smiled through her tears. “I’ve never seen a scarier beast, but I threw my arms around him again. Because he’s mine,” she snapped at him. “He’s my monster. And I love him. I love you. All of you, Garrett,” she said.

That’s all Garrett had wanted. To be seen. To be accepted by her for everything he was. He’d felt judged before, fractured and freakish. But now that his Elle had accepted his animal he couldn’t be happier.

“You shocked me at Jules’s Sip and See.” Her left eye twitched. “I thought you were rejecting me when you accused me of cheating.”

“I didn’t realize, Elle. Forgive me. My wolf must have known I’d fight him on it, so he waited for me to go to sleep and went to see you on his own. I repressed him for so long, caging him in my consciousness, it must have driven him wild. My grandfather’s wolf used to takeover too but I’ve never seen another shifter with the same ability since the hunter killed him.”

Garrett pulled his wife into his lap. “I don’t want to think about death. And I’m glad the animal is smarter than the man.” He kissed her, petal soft. “My wolf wants you to take his bite.” Garrett paused. “After Dillon removes Ian’s mark,” he added with a smile. His Elle giggled.

“I want your wolf’s bite,” Lennox said. “I want it now. I don’t want to wait to be completely yours anymore, Garrett.”

He nuzzled her neck, playfully biting her for the time being. His hand found her stomach and he cupped the soft swell there. “I’m going to be a daddy, again,” he said.

Lennox covered his hand with hers. “Yes, sooner than we’re ready for,” she whispered. “Now, bring me my monstrous wolf. Mate me, Garrett.”