Isabel and the Wolf: (Part 4) (5 page)

Twenty minutes later, she pulled into a side street. She walked around the corner and stood to the side of the house, trying to peer through the windows. She couldn’t see anything. Unwilling to wait any longer, she strode up the driveway and rang the bell.

After a wait of a minute or so, Josie opened the door. Her hair was tousled, as if she’d had a rough night too.

“Is Rob here?” Isabel hissed. Josie raised her arms and shrugged.

“Nope. He’s left for work already. Do you want to come in?” Isabel was already walking through the door, and Josie stood back to let her pass, scratching her head.

Isabel stopped when she reached the kitchen. She pulled a chair out from the kitchen table and sat down.

“Do you want a coffee, or something?” Josie asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

“Yes. Please,” Isabel said. She was silent while Josie made the coffee, and Josie seemed too dazed to try to say anything.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Josie said, putting two coffees on the table and taking a seat opposite Isabel.

“Do you know Jed, the sheriff?” Isabel demanded.

“Yeah. We’ve got acquainted – ”

“And what do Peter and Jed have in common?”

“What?” Josie frowned and passed her hand over her eyes.

“Don’t bullshit me, Josie!” Isabel yelled. “I’m sure you’ve heard about the fight they had at the hoedown. I bet you even know that they’ve both been trying to date me?” Josie’s eyes were wide open, affecting innocence. “I know that there’s something weird about them.” She paused, unable to say the words out loud. “I know they’re not fully human,” she choked out at last. Josie’s eyes became very intense, so bright and glowing that Isabel had to look away. Josie stood up, seeming to increase in stature, and her voice was full of steel.

“If you’re asking if they’re werewolves, the answer’s yes. In fact they’re not the only ones. I’m a werewolf too!” Isabel stared at her, at first uncomprehending, and then in horror. The world fell away from her, and everything went black.

*

Isabel woke up on a sofa. She tried to pull herself up, but her body was weak, and the effort made her perspire. Josie came into the room with a glass of orange juice.

“Hey, relax. You just fainted.” Josie pushed her back against the cushions and gave her the juice. “Drink this. It’ll help your body recover from the shock.” Isabel sipped it, then downed the whole glass.

“Josie, what were you just telling me?” she said. Josie looked at her uncertainly, as if judging whether she was capable of hearing what she had to say.

“It’s true,” she said at last. “I know it sounds incredible, but it is the truth. Petre and I come from a family of werewolves. We’re part of a line that goes way back. In my branch of the family, the traditions and blood have been diluted. In fact, my generation can’t even shift.”

“Shift?”

“Take on our wolf forms. But Petre is a different matter. His family lives in a noble pack in the Romanian mountains, far away from humans. Sometimes he has a hard time staying in his human form.” Isabel screwed her face up in utter confusion.

“And Jed?”

“He’s not related to our family, of course. He’s a Gila werewolf, from a pack based in Arizona.”

“So what are you and
Petre
doing in Silver City?”

“I came here to be with my own kind.”

“So, it’s not just the three of you?”

“Oh, no.” Josie gave a small laugh. “This is a place – in fact, the only place in the southern states – where werewolves live. We mingle with the wolves to avoid detection.”

“So there are lots of werewolves here?”

“Quite a few,” Josie said flippantly. She was enjoying this, Isabel thought, with anger.

“Like, how many? Are you saying that the people I know are all werewolves? Is Bill? Marianna?”

“No.” Josie allowed herself a small smile. “They’re just really sweet people. I’m pretty confident that Petre, Jed and I are the only ones you know. Unless you’ve been hooking up with some random characters? Werewolves tend to stay with their own.”

“So Rob isn’t a werewolf?”

“No, he isn’t. And he has no idea that I am. All he knows is that I’m infertile, and he doesn’t care about that. He’s more interested in wolves than kids. Which is a little ironic,” she finished, with a dry laugh.

“But – ” Isabel stammered, a hundred questions clamoring to be asked. “But why are you with a human instead of another werewolf?”

“Because male weres don’t want to be with infertile females. Every werewolf wants a mate.” Her voice was full of bitterness and hostility, and Isabel realized that the hostility was directed towards her.
Jed and Peter want me to be their mate? But that doesn’t make any sense.

“So what are Jed and Peter doing with me?”

“Oh, they just have the hots for you,” Josie drawled. Isabel’s cheeks burned. She was a distraction to them while they were looking for a mate? She shook her head.
Why the hell do I care about what two men who aren’t even human want from me anyway?
She stared at Josie in silence. She’d run from Peter and Jed after discovering their true natures, but here was Josie, standing right in f
ront of her – half-woman, half-wolf, or so she claimed.

“You’re wondering if it’s true? Trying to see if there’s something unusual about me, right?”

“You do look a little like Peter, but you don’t have that look that I’ve seen in Peter and Jed’s faces. You don’t have that amber in your eyes.”

“It’s because my family line is diluted. I don’t have the ability to shift, but I’ve got the unusual strength and enhanced senses common to weres.”

“You carried me here, didn’t you?” Isabel said weakly. Josie nodded. “And when we were in the woods, you just knew the way back to the truck. You could tell by the scent of the vehicle or something?”

“Yes, I could smell the gas,” Josie said. She smiled, with a hint of viciousness. “And I know you had sex with Jed last night.”

“Oh!” Isabel reddened again. She pulled herself up from the sofa, clamping her knees together. “And how do you keep all of this from Rob?”

“I’ve had a lot of practice hiding my true self from humans. So, by the time I met Rob, it was second nature. He says I’m a bit much sometimes, but that’s all he knows.” Isabel thought back to how Josie had been acting when they’d come over to her place for dinner. It was true; Rob had no idea. And she’d had just about enough of Josie having the upper hand, taunting her with her secret.

“All this time, Rob thinks you’re all loved up with him, and has no idea you’re actually obsessed with Peter?” she said. Josie’s face twisted, her pretty features becoming ugly.

“I do love Rob,” she spat. “It’s just not in the nature of werewolves to be monogamous. Unless they’re an alpha pair. And yes; I do have an attraction for Peter that drives me crazy sometimes. But he doesn’t want me. He’s made that perfectly clear. Because I’m infertile, I’m defective to him!” With that, her face changed. The sweet apples of her cheeks became long and gaunt, her eyes narrowed and tilted upwards at the outer corners, and Isabel distinctly saw a flash of amber bursting from the black irises. She was poised in front of Isabel, her fists clenched, a low growl coming from her throat. In terror, Isabel picked up a cushion and clung to it, as a barrier between herself and Josie. This broke the spell. Josie tossed her head and laughed harshly.

“Relax, Isabel, I’ve got nothing but goodwill towards you.”

“Then why do I feel like you want to kill me?”

“Don’t worry about it. We Romanians are passionate wolves, yelling one minute and laughing the next. Really. You’ve got nothing to be afraid of. Neither Petre nor Jed will do you any harm. That they ultimately want you to be their mate, I have no doubt. But that decision is up to you.”

“But I’m human. How could that be possible?”

“I have one thing to say to you. And it’s an ancient Romanian proverb:
Dac
ă
te bagi între lupi, url
ă
ca lupul
.” Isabel stared at her, fascinated by the sound of the language, and temporarily forgetting about her distress.

“And what does it mean?” she breathed.

“It means, if you’re going to join the wolves, then howl like a wolf.”

“But what does that mean?”

“You’ll find out in time,” she said, her voice full of satisfaction. Isabel scowled at Josie. She evidently wasn’t going to get any more out of her.

“I should go,” she said, standing up cautiously and heading towards an open door. Her head hurt, but the dizziness had passed. “I’ll see myself out,” she called, speeding up as she located the route to the front door. “Thanks for the juice.” She slammed the door and walked quickly over to her car. She drove for five minutes, until she found somewhere to pull over. She leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes, trying to find some clarity.

The car was baking hot, and her hair was sticking to her forehead. She must have fallen asleep. And now someone was banging on the window. She saw a sheriff’s uniform. Jed! She jerked away from the window in horror. She refocused her eyes. It wasn’t Jed. It was a guy with dark hair and a thin face. He was indicating to her to open her window.

“You ok, miss?” he asked, in a twangy accent.

“Yeah, I’m fine thanks,” she said, trying not to sound groggy. Maybe she was still over the limit from the previous night. What if he breathalyzed her? She woke up fast.

“I had some bad news about a family member, so I didn’t sleep all night,” she invented wildly. “I was beginning to feel drowsy, so I thought it wise to take a nap.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. He was still frowning though. She didn’t want to say it, but it was a last resort.

“Do you work with Jed?” she asked. The cop’s eyes lit up.

“Sure do,” he said, and he tipped his hat to her. “You have a nice day, ma’am.”

“You too,” she said absently. He straightened up and walked back to his cruiser. She started up her car and moved off, before he had a chance to change his mind.

How could she have fallen asleep? She’d never passed out in her car like that before. It was her mind freaking out, she decided. Overloaded with all the crazy things it had been hearing. Crazy things that had more than a grain of truth in them. She’d seen with her own eyes Peter transforming into something that wasn’t human; Jed sharing some of his characteristics; Josie’s face shifting far more dramatically than could be accounted for by a human range of expressions.
There are so many things in this world we don’t understand, that can’t be explained in terms of the experiences we’ve already had
. Bill sure wasn’t exaggerating when he said that. Josie said that he and Marianna weren’t werewolves, but she’d bet her bottom dollar that they knew all about them. She stopped her car, did a u-turn, and drove on a loop to Bill and Marianna’s house.

As Isabel pulled into their driveway, she could see Marianna by the window, doing something at the sink. She ran up the garden path and knocked on the door.

“What’s the matter, child? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Marianna said, as she opened the door.

“I think maybe I have,” Isabel said.

“Come in and sit down.” Isabel relaxed a little at the softness in Marianna’s tone. She collapsed into a long-loved corduroy sofa, and a steaming drink was thrust into her hands.

“What’s the matter, Bella? Has somebody hurt you?” Marianna said, her features tight with worry.

“I have to ask you something. And if the answer is no, you’re going to think I’m crazy. But I’m going to take that risk.”

“Tell me. I’m sure I won’t.” Bella took a deep breath.

“Is Josie a werewolf?” she asked, forcing her words out at high speed. Marianna’s face crumpled, revealing relief, disappointment and sympathy, all at the same time.

“Yes, she is,” she said sadly. “She told you that?”

“I forced it out of her. I had to know.”

“But whatever led you to the conclusion that she might be?”

“I met a guy, who turned out to be a relative of hers, and, over time, I noticed that there was something unusual about him. I kept trying to ignore it. But there was this one time, when we were – you know – making love, and he transformed. For a moment, I saw him. As a wolf.” With that, she burst into tears, and wept bitterly.

“I’m so sorry, Bella,” Marianna said. “I can see how much pain this has caused you.” She passed her a tissue, and Bella wiped her eyes, then took a big slurp of her tea.

“I found out by chance that he was a cousin of Josie, and I just went to see her and demanded to know what his story was, and she admitted to me that he, she, and this other guy were all werewolves.” Isabel broke into sobbing again. Marianna waited until it’d eased off.

“This other guy – is that Jed, who you were with at the dance?” she ventured.

“Yes. I’ve been dating him and Josie’s cousin, Peter. Peter was exciting, but always pretty unconventional, while I thought Jed was this really normal, down-to-earth guy. Now I find out that they’re both far from normal!” She had another thought. “But how do you know about Josie if her husband doesn’t?”

“I had my suspicions. I’ve seen how she gets sometimes, all antsy and hungry, like a caged animal. Then one time, she was in my car, when someone ran into the back of me. I was pretty upset, because it was a new car, and I’d been saving for it, like, forever. Anyway, Josie jumped out of the car and argued with the guy. He made some misogynistic comment about women drivers. Well, she went around the front of his car, lifted it up about three feet, and slammed it back down again.” She chuckled. “It was quite something. And then, of course, I knew.”

“You make it sound like you’ve had a lot of experience of werewolves?” Marianna nodded.

“Silver City, Black Peak City, all around Gila, and all the way to east Arizona is were-territory. There have always been werewolves here, as long as anyone can remember.”

“But why here? And why doesn’t anyone know about them?”

“Here, because this is sacred Native American territory, and they’ve always feared and respected shapeshifters. Wolves are also sacred to them, and they wouldn’t harm them. As I’m sure Rob’s told you, this is the only place in the south where wolves are found nowadays. Us invaders have been wiping them out for the past nearly 400 years. Werewolves hide in plain sight among the wolves here, and, for the most part, they co-exist happily. The reason why people haven’t heard about werewolves is that it’s a closely guarded secret. It’s human nature to destroy anything we don’t understand, so it’s been a mission for werewolves, and the few humans who know about them to ensure that no-one from the outside world finds out. I know about them because I’m a local. Most of the people who were born in Silver do. They were our classmates, so we were around when they shifted for the first time; when they went through growing pains that we could only imagine; when they had periods of crazy aggression, and our parents had to warn us not to take it seriously.”