Howl at the Moon (12 page)

“But Clyde is—” she started.

“Someone you love. That is all you need to remember,” Lea said then. “Now go to sleep and have good dreams.”

Tatiana went under so quickly that she didn’t even have a chance to say that she wasn’t tired. This time when she woke up, she knew that she must have been dreaming. A woman just didn’t go off into the forest in the middle of the night in a soft white gown just to have fun. Plus, she would have remembered coming out here.

The night was cool but she was relaxed sitting in the middle of the glen on a soft bed of grass leaves. She lay back, soothed in a way she hadn’t been in the last few hours, but then she couldn’t remember why she was so uncomfortable. Every time she tried to remember what was wrong all she felt was desire. No fear. No complications. Just desire for something that she had no idea existed. Try as she might though she just couldn’t remember what that something was. She shrugged off the thought, not wanting to mar her relaxation thinking of something she couldn’t change. The moon seemed much more inspiring.

It was heavy in the heavens. Almost buttery as it loomed in the velvet sky. She could see it completely through an opening in the canopy of the trees. She almost felt as if she could just reach out and touch it if she were so inclined. She watched dark, swirling clouds pass by it lazily as the sounds of the night lulled her to complete calm. Cicadas, owls, and the wind sang her a lullaby. She had never seen the night in this way in her life. It was as if she were in another world. She smiled, her eyes sliding close, when the howl of a wolf sang its song to the moon.

“Perfect,” she whispered. The plaintive wail of the wolf came again and it sounded closer to her. It slid off into a sad whimper and Tatiana felt it to her heart. It was so very sad. Once more, she heard it fill the air again, as if it were not even twelve feet from her and she looked to her left. The largest, most majestic white timber wolf she had ever seen stood there at the edge of the trees. He watched her for a moment, ice-blue eyes taking in the scene before him. His ears perked forward and he sat, as if waiting for something.

After a moment he lifted his head to the moon again, ears flattened on his scalp, and his mouth moved, making a perfect circle as he howled. She nearly wanted to cry. There was such ache there. Such sadness and loneliness. It sounded like he was alone in the world and knew it. Tatiana knew what that felt like. She knew what it felt like to be in love and not have the one thing that she was so crazy about. She knew what it meant to have the one you love turn into something you didn’t know if you could even deal with. Tatiana knew all of this. She turned her face to the moon, mimicking her wolf friend, and sent a cry to the moon. Their voices mixed and serenaded in the night as they howled until Tatiana could barely breathe. Somehow, the tears that came then were cleansing and she didn’t feel so lost and alone. She had the wolf.

She looked over at him and reached out with her hand. He stood, shaking his ruff. She had expected that he would hesitate to come close to a human but he walked straight to her hand, licking it and then rubbing his face against her hand. She laughed. Just like a beloved family pet, he moved until both of her hands sank into his soft fur and scratched behind his ears. He panted and leaned harder into her.

Looking at the wolf, she felt something trigger. There was something about the wolf that reminded her of something. It was right there on the edge of her brain if she just think a little harder. She held on to the thought, rubbing over the wolf as she thought. The wolf. Clyde. At once, the memories of the night washed over her and she felt the fear and wonder wash over her.

The wolf trembled and whimpered as she pulled her hands away. She couldn’t abide his pain, and she recognized the whimper for the sound it was. The same sound that Clyde had made when she’d run from him. Pain. She knew what that was. Pain she could understand. She didn’t understand everything else that was going on but she knew that. She sank her hands back into the wolf’s fur. He lifted into her touch, and she buried her face in his neck.

“This can’t be real,” she whispered into his neck. “How can a man be so much like the wolf? It’s impossible. I mean, I was all for Team Jacob, trust me, but to see it for real? I must have been just imagining thing. I had to be.”

The whimper answered her and she bit her lip. “You won’t even let me lie in a dream will you? Come on, give me a break. I’m holding on by the skin of my teeth here.”

The wolf stood up and pushed into her until she lay back on the ground. He then curled up next to her, his head resting on her chest. He licked over the edge of her neck, where Clyde had bitten her. She felt her body instantly burn up. Fear, worry, pain, uncertainty, and thoughts disappeared under the onslaught. It was as if she was thrust back into the moment when Clyde had bitten into her neck, his knot locking them together, and the pleasure ripped through her. When she felt like this it didn’t matter what he was, what he could do. The pain hadn’t been there when he touched her. It had only turned to pain when fear had overtaken her.

She could admit that at least to herself here, in the darkness.

“So are you trying to tell me, in a really elaborate way that I’m going to have to accept whatever this is inside of Clyde if I want to have him?” The wolf licked the wound on her neck again and, as she fell under the pleasure, she figured that was as good as answer as any.

Chapter Fourteen

“Okay, Lea, she may be all okay with this dream world Clyde you made but I am personally tripping out. This makes the game something else. I didn’t sign up for werewolves and God knows what else.”

“Aaron, God didn’t just make humans to roam the earth. We angels guard the humans and fight demons. Humans were to be caretakers of the land and animals. He thought that would be enough. Eventually, though, humans turned from the animals they were supposed to take such good care of. They hunted some into extinction. Others, they hoarded for sport and money. God chose someone else to take care of those that humans had forgotten. He gave them the shifters. These were humans who could also walk with the animal that was inside of them. They are the caretakers of the animals they inhabit. They were created by God just as you were. Do no fear them.”

“I hear you. I do. I just don’t know how to deal with a shifter. You wanted me to put Clyde and Tatiana together but how the heck am I supposed to do that when one isn’t human?” Aaron knew he was screaming but he couldn’t seem to help himself. He hadn’t broken down in front of Tatiana. She needed him. But he didn’t know how to deal with this.

“I’m going to give you some help. I’ll have to bend the rules a little but I know the Big Guy will understand, considering.”

“I’ll take what I can get.”

“Call your house mother, Fonda.”

“Excuse me.”

Lea sighed, and Aaron watched her lean back in the armchair she had occupied while Tatiana was asleep in her room.

They’d watched the dream she had and then allowed her to drift off to sleep curled with her wolf. Now he thought that Lea had lost her damn mind. Fonda Cox was an amazing man, and woman. He’d taken in Aaron when he was barely sixteen years old and taught him drag. He’d grown into someone much more sure of himself in that time. He’d appreciated and loved Fonda more than anyone in the world. With all of that, however, he didn’t exactly understand how she could help him.

“Trust me, Aaron. Stop asking questions and call.” Lea poofed out before he could say anything else. He groaned. At least he could be happy that he would be able to speak to someone from his real life. He picked up his phone and dialed Fonda’s number. The signature “Single Ladies” played as he listened. He hoped he wouldn’t be interrupted anything between Fonda and Collin. The two had been together for nearly a year and Fonda had been out of town on an island ever since.

“This better be good. I was getting ready to enjoy a very good after dinner meal.”

“Hello, mama.”

“Aaron? What’s going on, chickapea?” Aaron could always rely on his house mother to come around.

“I got a bit of a situation that I am not really sure how to start, but I need your help.”

“Try me.” she laughed and Aaron wondered if that was how other people felt when he did it to them.

“Well, to take out some unnecessary parts of the story, I have a friend that has some man trouble.”

“You know well enough how to handle a man.” Aaron took a deep breath and threw in the towel.

“This man has a little extra to him, the furry kind.” He waited while Fonda was quiet for a moment.

“Collin, baby, you have to hear this,” she said then.

“I’d rather hear you,” a deep voice growled over the phone.

“Seriously, love, you’ll get that soon enough but this is important. Aaron, I’m going to put you on speaker.”

“Fine. The man my friend is absolutely in love with went a little odd tonight. From what I could get from her, he dug claws into her waist as he bit her neck while they were having sex.”

“Start from the beginning. Who is this woman?” Collin asked. Aaron went through the story of meeting Tatiana in his store and what happened from there. He didn’t tell them about Lea or what had happened. He just told them enough to get their help.

“When did he do this?” Collin asked again.

“Tonight. He left after Tatiana went Linda Blair on him and I finally got her soothed and sleep but I really don’t know what to do. They are drawn to each other but he’s as hardheaded as a bull and she’s scared now.”

“Aaron there is so much I have got to tell you. Do you remember my friend, Ayana?”

“Yes. The fashion designer. She’s been hitting it big, even in hiatus. She married that reclusive millionaire, Ethane, right? Ya’ll are still on Isla Boca together.”

“You got it. Except there is some extra part of the stories that we left out.”

“Give me the phone,” Collin said then and his voice rang loud and clear over the speaker. “What Fonda is trying to tell you is that Ethane, the Alpha of my pack, and I, his Beta, are shifters. We run with the wolf as much as we do in the human world. When I met Fonda, I mated her and my Alpha mated her best friend, Ayana. That is a whole other story I don’t think we have the time to get into. Just know that we believe Clyde is one of our kind. He’s begun the mating process with your friend with his bite. If he is a stubborn as you say, then he hasn’t said the necessary words to complete the ritual. They will both be in a limbo until he does.”

“I heard you talking but it all sounded crazy to me.”

“Aaron, listen. We’re on our way. As soon as I know that Ayana, Ethane, and the twins can travel, I’ll be there. Keep Tatiana at home until we can get there and talk to her. Can you do that for me?”

“What else can I do?”

“Okay, chickapea, we’ll be there soon.”

Fonda hung up and Aaron stared at the phone incredulously. The whole damn world had gone crazy. Fonda wanted him to believe, like Lea, that shifters were real. That his charge was in the process of mating with one. What the heck was going on? Was anyone else realizing how crazy all of this shit sounded? He was going to be dealing wolves for damn sake.

“Lea!” he roared, not caring if he woke up the dead.

“You hollered?”

“You knew. You knew what was going on around me. You manipulated this whole situation.”

“God makes no mistakes. He is the Alpha and the omega. Of course, He would know that the man that Tatiana is in love with would be a shifter. Your connection with Fonda and Ayana made your connection to this client perfect. I saw what you could be and you were chosen. It is as simple as that. You know what the result of not doing what you are supposed to would do,” Lea finished.

“I know but shifters? Really? You have completely turned my life upside down.”

“Maybe it needed to be. You have lived your entire adult life shocking, ruining, destroying, and shattering other people’s dreams when you weren’t halfway trying to build their fantasies through your store. You went through so much in your youth. You should have been something so much more. But you changed. Somewhere along the line, you lost yourself and warped into someone that should be in Hell. That is what you are trying to get away from. That is why I chose you. Stop with this woe-is-me outlook on life. The woman in there needs the Aaron before he warped into a coldhearted shadow of who he once was.”

“I thought angels were supposed to be all smiles and giggles.”

“We can be,” Lea thundered, “whatever we need to be.” Her voice shattered his silence as she lifted from the ground. She had never let him see her wings but saw them now. They flared around her, the tips looking as if they were dripping blood as feathers fell around him. The edges of her wings were silver as if made of steel. Her armor was blinding. Platinum could never hope to be that beautiful. In her hands were dual swords, their hilts golden. Gone was the peaceful expression on her face. Now she had a mask of cold retribution. This was a warrior angel who battled demons for God and punished those humans who were turned from the pearly gates. Aaron, for the first time in his life, was speechless. All he could do was sit back in wonder.

“Now,” Lea said, lowering back to the ground as her armor melted back to a royal-blue corset top and a short black mini skirt. Her voice had returned to her normal dulcet tones. This, he could handle.

“I will never piss you off,” he muttered.

“You didn’t anger me then. I told you, we appear as we need to at the time. You were in panic mode and you needed me to slap you out of it, figuratively of course. Now, can we get back to business?”

“By all means.”

“Fonda, Collin, Ethane, Ayana, and her twins Ezekiel and Jade will be here soon. When they get here the men will help Clyde, while the ladies will help Tatiana. You will need to ease her into this. She needs you to be by her side. She can’t do that if you are going crazy on her.”

“I’ll be with her, Lea. I promise.”

“Don’t be afraid, Aaron. I am with you and I am someone you want behind you.”

“If I didn’t believe you before, I believe you now.”