Werewolves in Love 1.5: The Nanny Years (4 page)

“I swear! Wandered into my grandmother’s backyard in Sugarland. He--”

“Hi.”

Michael broke off. The three of them turned to look at two young women who’d appeared behind Kelly. One was a tall redhead with great tits, the other a shorter brunette with even better tits. Both were dressed completely inappropriately for a southern Colorado November night, but they didn’t appear to be uncomfortable.

“All right. I’ll check back with you all later.” Kelly hoisted the tray full of dishes onto her shoulders, stole a glance at the women, rolled her eyes and went back inside.

He and Michael stood to greet the newcomers.

“Hi,” said the redhead. “I’m Beverly, and this is Sasha.”

“Hi, Beverly, Sasha. I’m Michael, and this is Cade. Please, have a seat.”

They all sat.

“So, um, y’all are werewolves?” asked Sasha.

“Yes. Yes we are,” Michael replied with a small smile and a significant glance at Cade. “Who told you?”

“Oh, well--” Sasha looked embarrassed.

Beverly didn’t. “We were asking around. We’ve never met werewolves before – we’re from Iowa--”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Michael interrupted.

“--and we were down here on a ski vacation, and we knew there was a pack here in Fremont so we decided we wanted to meet some. A guy in there pointed you out.”

“So you’re both alphas?” asked Sasha.

Michael point at Cade. “As a matter of fact, he’s
the
alpha. Of the Rocky Mountain Pack.”

“And Michael’s my second. Can we buy you ladies a drink? Maybe you’d like to--”

“We have a suite at the Canyon Jewel.”

“--or we could do that. Michael?”

“Yep. Let’s go.”

****

They got an early start for home the next morning, pulling out of the Jewel’s parking lot before sunrise. Cade liked to be home when Becca woke up. He drove. Michael sprawled across the back of the Rover.

“That was weird,” his best friend yawned.

“Yep.”

“Beverly sure was noisy. My ears hurt.”

“For a while there I was thinking we’d get kicked out for sure.”

“Right. Like you could get kicked out of any place in Fremont.”

“Tourists don’t give a shit who I am. Hotel’s not gonna ignore a bunch of pissed off guests just so I can get laid.”

They both reeked of women, tequila and cigars.

“It’s been a long time since I shifted just because some female wanted to see me do it,” Michael reflected.

“Me too.”

“I feel kinda cheap.”

“Me too.”

They both said, simultaneously, “I like it.”

Cade was laughing, so he didn’t register the Nissan Pathfinder sitting on the side of Highway 50 till they’d passed it.

“Hey.” He watched the truck recede into the distance in the rearview mirror. “That’s Josh’s truck.”

“Huh?” Michael sat up and looked out the back window. “Oh. Yeah, it is.”

“What’s it doing on the side of the road?”

“I dunno. Maybe he had to take a leak.” Thick woods lined Highway 50 for miles in either direction.

“Maybe he broke down. We should turn around and see if he needs help.”

Michael yawned again. “Fuck no. He’s a grown wolf. He can walk his ass to town or back home for help. Do the lazy bastard some good. I need a shower and some breakfast.”

Cade laughed. “You’re right.”

Becca was still asleep when they got home. Cade took a long, hot shower. By the time he got upstairs to Becca’s room, she’d awakened and Ingrid was changing her. An unfamiliar and nearly overpowering scent clobbered him before he reached the room, and it took him a second to realize it was coming from Ingrid. She’d never worn the cloying, floral scent before, and he hoped she’d just gotten carried away when she put it on. If she continued to wear so much, he was going to have to talk to her about it. It made his eyes water and his head swim.

“Here, I’ll finish this,” he murmured, joining her at the changing table. “Why don’t you give me what you want her to wear. Morning, baby girl. How are you?”

Becca pointed. “Daddy!”

“Yep, that’s me. Did you have a good time last night?” he asked Ingrid as he dressed the baby.

“I did, yes,” she smiled.

“Do anything exciting?”

“No. We just drank some wine, watched TV, had some girl talk.”

“Still, it’s got to be a relief to get away from all this fur and testosterone, huh?”

“Oh, it’s not so bad around here. I could get used to fur and testosterone. Isn’t that right,
mi tornado?
Give your Ingrid a kiss.” She scooped the wriggling Becca up. “Let’s go see what Sindri cooked for us, hmm? Some eggs? Would you like some lovely eggs and biscuit?”

Josh stuck his head in the kitchen while they were eating breakfast.

“Hey, Cade? Oh, I-- I’m sorry. I didn’t know y’all were…” He blushed and stammered to a halt, turning to go.

“No, Josh, it’s okay. Come on in – what did you need?” Michael had issued such dire warnings about sniffing around Ingrid that the guys were terrified to so much as look at her. Ingrid, busy feeding Becca, didn’t even look up.

“Oh, well, um-- I just checked on Snorri, and his hoof’s looking good. I think I’ll walk him around a bit this afternoon.”

“Good. Oh, hey,” he added as Josh turned to go. “We saw your truck on 50 when we were driving home this morning.”

“Huh? You did?” Josh looked down, fiddling with the coffee cup in his hands. He sighed. “It’s stupid. I ran out of gas on the way home from Stacy’s.” He laughed halfheartedly. “I had to run back into town and get a can.”

Bullshit.
“That’s embarrassing.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Well, let me know how Snorri does on that hoof.”

“Will do, boss.”

****

After breakfast, Cade tracked Michael down in the woodshop.

“Josh lied to me this morning.”

“No shit? What about?”

“I asked him about his truck sitting on the side of the road. Gave me some bullshit about how he ran out of gas coming home from Stacy’s place. He was lying to me, Michael, I know he was.”

“Why would he make up a story like that? What the fuck would he be doing in the middle of the woods?”  There were no houses or shops anywhere along that stretch of highway.

“I have no idea.”

“Goddamn it.” Michael looked around to see if anyone was watching them. They were talking very quietly, and with the table saw and lathe going, the few guys in the shop right now would have trouble overhearing them. “Lying to his Alpha? The insolent little shit.”

“It’s probably something stupid. Remember, he’s only nineteen.”

“Yeah, he’s nineteen, and he thinks he’s one very special goddamned wolf.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why his daddy didn’t make him do his time.”

Most young alphas served a stint in the military. It broke them down and remolded them into people capable of living peacefully among others. Most alphas weren’t equipped, inclined or destined to be Pack Alphas. They had to learn to control their dominance. Until they did, they were like unexploded ordinance just lying around, waiting for the wrong person to kick it.

“Okay, I’ll get it out of him.”

“No. Leave him alone.”

“Cade! He
lied
to you! He--”

“I want to know why. I want to see if I can figure out what he’s up to, and I don’t want him on the defensive. We can’t beat the crap out of them--”

“--every time they deserve it. Yeah, I know. I know.”

“All right. So let’s just watch him.”

But though they both watched him for the next couple of months, Josh did nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary again.

Becca continued to thrive under Ingrid’s effortless care. Her grandmother – Cade’s baby mama-in-law, as Michael called her – invited herself to the ranch for a few days over Christmas, and Cade thanked God for his obviously competent and impressive nanny.

By February, of course, he vowed he’d learned his lesson – if you think everything’s finally going great, it just means it you haven’t been paying attention.

****

“Okay, so you’ll call me if you have any questions, need anything at all, right?”

“Of course! Cade, how long have I been here? You don’t trust me yet?” Ingrid, holding Becca on her hip, smiled as she said it.

“Of course I trust you. I just-- I haven’t been away from home much since she’s been around.”

“Well, you need to go. Even papas need to have some fun. So.” She gestured toward Michael, waiting by the Rover. “Go have fun. I’m going out myself tonight, but I’ll be home before morning.”

“Oh. You got a girls night out?”

She smiled again. “Something like that. Now. Kiss
mi tornado
and go.”

Michael slapped the roof of the Rover. “Listen to the nanny, Cade. Let’s hit the road.”

They were getting a late start – it was already close to eight o’clock. It was normally a two hour drive to Denver and the weather had been cold and rainy, making the roads treacherous. They needed to get to the hotel, freshen up, have a late night dinner, find some late night women…

“All right,” he sighed, not sure why he felt this odd reluctance to leave, like something bad was going to happen.

Ingrid and Becca waved from the porch as the Rover drove away.

“I love it when the new moon falls on a weekend,” Michael said.

It was actually Thursday, but they were making it a long weekend.

“Yeah. We need this.” They hadn’t left the ranch much in January. That month had seen eight foals birthed, a new record for
RMP Nordics.

“Wish the weather wasn’t so shitty, though.”

Cade laughed. “What d’you want? It’s February.”

“Yeah, and at this rate we’ll be midnight getting to Denver.”

They never made it. Halfway to Colorado Springs, Cade’s phone rang.

“Don’t answer it.”

Cade looked at the phone. “It’s Roman.” He hit talk. “Hey Roman. What’s up?”

“Sorry to bother you, Boss, but we’ve got a situation here, and—”

Of course he immediately thought of Becca. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Well, nothing’s wrong here. It’s just that Josh’s dad called, and his mom had a stroke.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. She’s in the hospital, and he needs to get to Chicago – but we don’t know where he is.”

“What does he mean they don’t know where he is?” Michael barked.

On the other end of the line, Roman said, “Tell Michael I mean, wherever Josh is,
we don’t know.
”

“All right, smartass,” the dour wolf muttered. Roman was the next oldest alpha after Michael and Cade, and he wasn’t terribly intimidated by Michael.

“And we can’t find Toby, either,” Roman added.

“That figures,” Michael grunted. “He’s Josh’s shadow.”

Cade and Michael exchanged a look. Michael let out a string of obscenities and pulled into a gas station to turn around.

****

It was pushing ten o’clock. With Fremont behind them and the ranch ahead, Michael said suddenly, “Remember a few months ago? Josh’s truck?”

Cade, who’d been dozing, shook himself awake and yawned. “Huh? Wha-- oh, yeah. On the way home from the Jewel. We saw his truck on the side of--”

“Right. Parked right there on the shoulder.”

“Yeah. So?”

“So he did it again, but this time he pulled it way over, almost under—there. See it? You think he managed to run out of gas again, in the very same place?”

Michael guided the Rover smoothly to the shoulder of the highway, coming to a stop a few feet away from the Pathfinder, which was parked almost inside the tree line. This late on a cloudy, moonless night, it was almost too dark to see, even with their wolf-keen vision.

Michael pulled off the highway and parked the Rover behind Josh’s Pathfinder.

They caught Toby and Josh’s scents as soon as they got out. A few seconds’ investigation revealed a break in the trees where two – or more – people had clearly passed through, making a path into the dense woods. Michael looked at Cade, Cade nodded, and they started to make their way through the mix of bare and evergreen trees.

They’d been friends for twenty years, including six in the Army, and they didn’t always need words to communicate. Neither of them spoke as they crept silently between the trees, and when Michael threw Cade a questioning look, Cade knew exactly what he meant.

They heard the normal sounds of the woods in winter – leaves crunching, branches cracking, a few small animals scurrying about – but of the two young wolves, they heard nothing at all. They could smell Toby and Josh, but not hear them. What were those idiots up to?

They walked on two or three hundred feet, and suddenly Cade froze. It took Michael a few more steps to notice Cade wasn’t behind him and then he, too, stopped, looking to his Alpha for guidance.

There was a third scent on the air, and it had been there since they’d exited the Rover. It had been tickling Cade at the back of his mind, trying to get his attention –
hey! Look at me, over here! –
but he’d resolutely, subconsciously, ignored it. As they drew nearer Josh’s Pathfinder, though, he couldn’t ignore it any longer.

It was a heavy scent.

Cloying.

Floral.

“Goddammit,” he murmured, staying right where he was. It wasn’t fear that held him rooted to the ground, it was…well, maybe it was a kind of fear. He just knew with a sickening certainty what was waiting for him a few hundred feet ahead.

Michael was still watching him, waiting for his instructions.

Cade shook his head. “Josh!” he called. He fancied he could hear Josh and Toby holding their breaths. “Whatever you’re doing, stop. Don’t move. Michael’s on his way. If you try to run, he’ll kill you.”

“
I will?
” Michael mouthed.

Cade nodded. If the two idiots had done what he thought they had, in direct defiance of his orders, then killing them was entirely at his discretion. And it would take him weeks to regret it.

He waved a weary hand forward, but waited where he was. Michael disappeared into the trees.

A few moments later Michael shouted, in a horrified voice: