Matt: Tales of the Were (Redstone Clan Book 5) (9 page)

Morgan was instantly alert. The woman didn’t sound crazy. In fact, she sounded all too sane. And gifted. Some humans were. There were magic users in many races of humans, but the Irish seemed to be particularly endowed. It was almost certain this Rosalie had some ability with magic.

Matt stepped closer. “Earthquakes?” he asked in a deep, concerned voice.

Rosalie nodded at him. “And worse.” She looked from Morgan to Matt and back again. “You’re one, too, aren’t you?” She didn’t wait for an answer before looking quickly at the small portion of the construction crew that had formed a rough, protective semi-circle around the trio. The wolves were always on guard, it seemed. “And so are your people.” Rosalie smiled gently. “Okay. I see this place is in good hands. I’ll talk to the rest of the group and get them to leave you guys alone. Believe it or not, they listen to me.” She chuckled a bit. “You won’t get any more trouble about the housing. I know your kind holds the earth and Her creatures sacred, like we do.”

“What will you tell them?” Morgan wanted to know.

“Oh, don’t worry. They don’t know about you, and they won’t hear it from me. There are many things the rest of humanity isn’t ready to know.”

“How do
you
know?” Matt asked, his eyes narrowed on the woman.

“My gram was from the old country, and I inherited a bit of her gift. She taught me. I know we’re special, and that you are, too, though I don’t know much more than that. My family isn’t as powerful as they once were, generations ago. Too much marrying for love.” A smile graced her lips. “But we wouldn’t have it any other way. Love is more important than bloodlines and power, right?”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Matt said, surprising Morgan. “Rosalie, if you don’t mind, I’d love to put you in touch with a woman I know named Hilda Birgo. She might be able to help you learn a bit more about the things you don’t yet know, if you want that.”

Rosalie seemed to consider, tilting her head in a quizzical fashion for a moment. Then, she smiled. “I think I’d like that.” She pulled out her mobile phone. “I’ll beam you my deets.”

Matt reached into his pocket, and they exchanged information quickly. Then, Rosalie sobered.

“You will take what I said to heart, won’t you?” She seemed truly worried. “I really believe there’s some weird stuff going down in the mine. I can’t do anything about it. I don’t have anything like your power. But somebody needs to do something—especially if you’re going to be building homes near here. If left unchecked, something bad is going to happen. I can feel it in my bones.”

“We’ll investigate,” Matt assured the woman. “I promise.”

Rosalie seemed relieved, but still worried. “Just be careful, okay?”

“Will do.” Matt gave her one of his patented smiles, and the human woman seemed to calm. She smiled again and left them, walking back to her group.

Morgan noticed one of the werewolf men following Rosalie at a discreet distance and looking for all the world as if he wasn’t deliberately tailing the woman. If Morgan hadn’t seen Matt exchange quick, almost imperceptible nods with the wolf in question, she probably wouldn’t have realized his casual walk took the wolf on a parallel course with Rosalie.

Morgan had no doubt the wolf would listen in on every word Rosalie spoke for the remainder of her visit. With his sharp shifter hearing, he wouldn’t even have to be all that close to her to spy on her. Morgan knew it was necessary to keep an eye on the human, but she couldn’t help feeling sympathetic to Rosalie, as well. In just the short time they’d spoken, Morgan had discovered she liked the red-headed human. She hoped Rosalie was on the level. Morgan thought she was, but the wolf following her around would make sure.

With a start, Morgan also realized that the wolf who was following Rosalie was the same mountain of a man who had blocked her path at the cornerstone laying ceremony. He was some sort of guard, Morgan thought. And perhaps an Alpha in his own right. He certainly was large enough. Morgan hoped the guy didn’t inadvertently scare the bejeezus out of the petite woman. If she caught on to the fact that she was being observed, that giant wolf just might freak her out.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Morgan asked, watching the two walk away, seemingly independent of each other.

“She has to be watched,” Matt said quietly. “You know that.”

“Yeah, I get that, but that big wolf is likely to scare the crap out of her if she realizes. And she’s pretty sharp for a human.” Morgan still kept her eye on the woman, who had just rejoined the tour group.

“Magic user,” Matt corrected her. “Even if she only has a bit of the gift, she’s still a mage. And don’t worry about Neil. He looks scary—and he is scary—but I’d trust him with my baby sister. He wouldn’t hurt a woman. Not by a long shot. He comes from a family dominated by females. You see…Philomena is his mom.”

Morgan blinked. “Are you kidding me?” She could hardly reconcile the sexy Alpha female who ran the crew as being the mountainous man’s mother.

“Come on.” He turned toward her, a teasing smile on his face. “You know we don’t age like humans. You’ve been living in their world too long if you can’t wrap your head around a sexy, century-old mom of six being Alpha of her little Pack and running a construction crew.”

“Six?” Morgan gulped. Maybe she had been hanging out with humans too long.

“Neil is the youngest. I think that’s why we became friends. I’ve got four older brothers. He’s got five older sisters. It’s not easy being the youngest in a crowd.” Matt looked to where the big werewolf was working on a piece of equipment well within shifter hearing range of the human group. “Four of his sisters are mated with cubs of their own. The fifth is Cindy. Have you met her, yet?” Matt didn’t wait for an answer. “She’s the Beta of this crew. She’s got every bit of the Alpha potential of her mother—as does Neil—but like me, they want to keep working with their family, so they play subordinate roles to their mom. In my case, I answer to Grif, as do the rest of my brothers. He’s the oldest, so he’s the Alpha in charge of it all, though he uses each of us to oversee different parts of the Clan and the business—which, sometimes, works out to be one and the same.”

“What about their father?” Morgan asked, curious about the family.

Matt sighed and the sound held real regret. “He’s gone. Killed in a freak accident about ten years ago. This whole crew was working for a different construction firm, back then. Safety wasn’t exactly a priority, and ol’ Ben got crushed by a piece of falling iron. There wasn’t much anyone could do. He died pretty much instantly, Goddess bless him.”

Morgan sent up the same blessing silently, feeling for the family.

“They were all working with the crew, then, including the four older sisters. They were gathered around him when he passed, which I think was a good thing, in a way, even if it was traumatic for them. He went out surrounded by those he loved most.” Matt went silent, for a moment, then continued, “Their whole crew is made up of extended family—cousins, in-laws and such. They’re very close knit, even for wolves, and Ben was their Alpha. Philomena was his second, and she stepped up to run the crew after he passed. She decided to break with the other company and seek out Redstone. Grif met with her, first, then we all got to meet the rest of the crew and realized they’d be a good fit for our company, and our Clan. They moved over to Redstone and have been with us ever since. Two of Philomena’s daughters and their families want to move into this housing development and seek work at the winery, so they all have a vested interest, beyond the usual, in making sure this development is top notch.”

The conversation lagged a bit as Morgan contemplated all she had learned. She might’ve been very wrong about how shifters really lived. These wolves certainly had no problem taking orders from a woman, and Philomena had really impressed Morgan with how capable and intelligent she was, and the way everyone looked up to her and followed her orders. Philomena was no
little woman
to be kept barefoot and pregnant—even if she’d had six children already.

No, Philomena seemed more the type to strap her baby in a papoose and bring them along to wherever she was working at the time. Philomena was an Alpha female truly worthy of the name, and Morgan had to admit she might even have a tiny case of hero worship for the woman. Morgan kinda wanted to be like that when she “grew up”. She had to chuckle at her own thoughts.

“So…” Matt turned back to her, his expression serious. Morgan stifled her amusement and got back to the business at hand. “What do we do about Rosalie’s warning?”

“Like you said—we investigate,” Morgan said without hesitation.

“Agreed. But when?” Matt looked around the active site. “And where?”

“There are other access points that aren’t quite so obvious,” Morgan offered.

“And tomorrow is Saturday. I’ve given the crews the weekend off since we’re not really in full swing, yet, and they’re all still settling in. The less people around, the easier it’ll be to spot strangers. And, if someone is covertly accessing the mine, they’re more likely to do so when the crews aren’t here.”

“Good point,” Morgan agreed. “So tomorrow then?”

* * *

Morgan thought again about how she’d come to be lurking near one of the side shafts that led down into the mine on Saturday morning. She had resolved less than twenty-four hours ago to steer clear of Matt Redstone, but yet, there they were, on an honest-to-Goddess stakeout. He’d even brought along a box of donuts. Because, he’d said, it couldn’t be a real stakeout without donuts.

After about five minutes of sitting, waiting for something to happen, she’d given in and opened the box. Of the dozen donuts that had been in the little pink and orange box, only about three were left. Thank goodness shifters had fast metabolisms.

The spot they’d chosen to watch from was a short distance up the side of the mountain, looking down on three sides of the property. There was enough vegetation to hide their presence, as long as they were stealthy. Morgan had worn a long-sleeved hunter green top and brown pants, but Matt had opted for camo.

“You look like a TV duck hunter,” she observed. “All you’re missing is the scraggily beard.”

Matt patted his pockets in a searching manner then stroked his smooth chin. “Sorry. I don’t need a fancy call or shotgun to bag a duck. My claws do just fine. As for the beard. I have quite enough fur when I shift. I don’t need even more when I’m on two legs. Besides…Mama taught us all to look after ourselves, which included living up to her idea of
clean cut
. You should’ve seen her when Grif and Steve came back from the desert with nomad beards. She made them go shave before she’d let them sit down at the dinner table.” He chuckled at the memory.

“She sounds like a formidable woman,” Morgan said softly.

“She was,” he agreed. After a moment, he turned to look at her. “You know, I don’t talk about her much. Her death was incredibly difficult for all of us in the family, but it feels good, now, to remember the good times we had with her. I wish you could’ve met her. She would’ve liked you a lot, Morgan.”

Morgan wasn’t sure what to say to that. He sounded so sincere, and the idea that he would’ve wanted her to meet his mother was kind of staggering. Could he possibly mean it that way? Like he
wanted her to meet his mother
? With all the connotations that carried in the human world?

She didn’t know if such a thing was equivalent among shifters. She hadn’t spent enough time among shifters to know all the little rules and etiquettes of their society. She decided to go for a polite, but noncommittal response.

“I think I would’ve liked her, too.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Morgan realized the truth of them.

Everything she’d heard about the last Redstone Clan Matriarch had impressed Morgan. Both the few things Matt had told her about his mother and the information she’d been able to glean from the Brotherhood. Both Marc and Sebastian had been truly saddened to hear of Mrs. Redstone’s death and had sent personal condolences to the family, as had the entire Brotherhood.

They had reminisced with Morgan about the woman, sharing memories of meeting with the Matriarch. She grilled them both about her son’s unlikely friendship with a powerful group of bloodletters. Marc had said the Matriarch hadn’t been the least bit afraid of him. She’d stood up to him, wanting to judge for herself what, and who, her son was getting mixed up with. Marc had said he wasn’t even sure if Matt knew about his mother’s meddling, but respected the Matriarch enough not to spill the beans.

Morgan privately thought maybe Marc was a little afraid of the woman, though he’d never admit such a thing out loud. He also seemed genuinely touched at the mother’s love for her son. Morgan had known the Master long enough to be able to read between the lines of his words.

“Look…” Matt’s soft voice drew her attention back to him. “I know there’s an eight-hundred-pound gorilla sitting between us, and I’d like the chance to clear the air, once and for all. If you’re still upset with me after that, then so be it, but I’d like to at least speak my piece.”

Dammit.
She really didn’t want to venture into these shark-infested waters, but she’d had time to cool down, and she realized she probably wasn’t being fair. She had to let him say what he wanted to say and just get it out of the way. She doubted anything he could tell her would change her mind about his character, but if hearing him out would get him to back off, then she could at least humor him.

“All right,” she said with a sigh. “Say what you want to say. I won’t stop you.”

Matt looked at her, unease clear in his eyes. “I don’t usually talk about this, either, but you need to know why I agreed to help Christy in that particular way. It wasn’t what you’re thinking.” She snorted, and he shook his head. “Okay, maybe it was a little, but mostly…” He trailed off and looked away, scanning the land below.

She waited for him to speak, hoping he would just spit out what he wanted to say and be done with it. She wanted to end this conversation, but she knew she couldn’t just walk away again. This had to come out before they could move on—she with her life and he with his.