Wolf-Bound: Unfamiliar Territory (7 page)

Her husbands shared the look.

“No.” They opened their mouths simultaneously to respond, but she placed both hands on the table and stood, body rigid. “No. There has to be some other way.”

Damien started shaking his head.

“Damien.” She stepped over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. She looked into his eyes. “Please. Promise me you won’t do anything until we’ve talked some more. Do you even know that he’s done anything wrong yet?”

He reluctantly shook his head. “No, but that’s why we’re going out today. We’ll know more by the time we get back.” There was regret in his gaze, but also grim determination.

“Please.” She placed a hand on her belly. “For our sons’ sakes. I don’t want something like this happening on our land. I don’t want them to inherit that tragedy. Let’s think about this, okay? At least try to come up with something better.”

She could see in his furrowed brow and worried glare that he didn’t believe there was a better solution, but as he searched her eyes, his gaze softened. He brushed a stray hair back from her forehead and sighed. Slowly, he nodded. “All right. For you, we’ll try to find a better way.”

Jenny enfolded him in a tight hug. “Thank you.”

He grasped her chin and tilted it up. “As long as you understand that this won’t wait indefinitely. We’ll go ahead with inspecting our holding, see what we can find out. But if we discover he’s attacked a human or gone on a livestock rampage, or see something that indicates he’s likely to shift in public, all bets are off. We’ll have to contain the threat.”

“I understand.” Though she really didn’t. She couldn’t imagine that in all their time on earth, the weyr hadn’t been able to find a better way of dealing with these instances. Of course, if such an occurrence was as rare as Damien had indicated, that didn’t offer much of

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an opportunity to study the problem. Still… “But if he’s not that far gone yet, maybe there’s a way we can help him through this.”

He and Devlin raised their eyebrows and shook their heads, clearly thinking she was nuts or, more probably, simply incredibly naïve when it came to weyr. Damien kissed her forehead. “We better go. As it is, we’re going to be pretty late getting in tonight.”

Dev nodded in agreement, standing up to peck her cheek. “You stay inside. Don’t go wandering the woods.” They waited for her grudging nod of assent before they strode purposefully together toward the front door.

She watched from the front bay window as they climbed into their old blue truck and revved up the engine. She could tell from their sour glances back at the house that they weren’t too happy with the deal they’d made with her. Still, she knew they wouldn’t break their promise. The man -- wolf -- was safe for at least another day.

She sighed. Now all she had to do was come up with a plan to save him, and convince her stubborn husbands that it would work.

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Unforeseen Request

After they’d left, she found herself full of nervous energy. She puttered around, trying to find things to keep herself busy, but Sally, their nearest neighbor’s daughter, came weekly to do the deep cleaning while she was pregnant. The guys were surprisingly good about keeping most everything else done, so by ten o’clock she was completely out of busy work.

She could bake something, but the heat from the oven really got to her at this stage in her pregnancy, even on cool days. She could read, but perusing the “to be read” file on her e-book reader yielded no particular title that reached out and grabbed her, which was highly unusual.

She thought about going into town to see Tara. Since their mutual obstetrician, Tom Byers, had given her friend the okay to go back to work given that the new job with Marshall would allow her to sit for most of the day, they hadn’t seen much of each other.

Tara spent her weekdays at the office and was often unavailable in the evenings as well.

Jenny didn’t know whether to worry that Marshall was working Tara too hard, or be happy that she had lots to keep her busy -- to keep her mind off the lost twin.

Actually, Jenny was beginning to suspect there was a little more to Tara’s relationship with her boss than she’d admitted so far. There was a certain look in her friend’s eyes, when Jenny had seen them together… She grabbed her keys from their hook by the door. Just thinking about Tara set her to missing her best friend like mad. She would go. Her husbands wouldn’t be in until late tonight; she’d just sleep over at Tara’s and drive back in the morning. She’d call Damien on the walkie-talkie and let him know. He’d be thrilled that she was taking herself out of harm’s way.

But then she sighed. Tom had emphasized during her appointment earlier in the week that with her being pregnant with twins and so close to full term, she could deliver at any time. Though she felt fine, she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t go into labor an hour from now and end up stuck in a car alone on the side of the mountain. As it was, Damien had tried to

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get her to agree to let Sally live in with them for the last two months of her pregnancy so that she’d never be alone, but Jenny had nixed the idea -- what if Sally saw something she shouldn’t? They’d be careful, of course, but if the girl stayed that long, there was too much of a chance that they’d get careless and give away their secret, and teens were nothing if not curious.

Besides, she wouldn’t have felt comfortable having sex with someone else’s sixteen-year-old daughter in the house, and she and her husbands really enjoyed sex. Desire became a physical ache for them when they hadn’t made love even for just one day. A powerful sex drive and an actual physical response to the lack of sex were other common weyr traits, Devlin had explained, and ones Jen had discovered she, as a half-weyr, shared.

She smiled, still amazed that they could want each other so much. Where practical points had failed to sway him, that argument had finally convinced Damien not to bring someone into their house to stay. But he went out the same day and purchased two things --

military grade walkie-talkies, one of which was clipped to her waistband even now, its mate either with him or Devlin; and cell phone relay equipment that she hadn’t even realized existed, which guaranteed that she’d always have a signal on the mountain. Whichever way she tried to reach them, they’d get the call.

Her mother had suggested that she could come and stay during Jenny’s ninth month and for a little while afterward to help with the babies, but Jenny had sensed that her mom’s heart wasn’t in the offer. Not that she didn’t love her daughter and wouldn’t adore the babies, but Jen’s father had suffered a heart attack in late July. It was mild, and he’d recovered very quickly, but Jen knew the episode had shaken her mom to the core, and she understood completely. She’d feel just the same if it were Damien or Devlin. And now that she knew about the length of weyr lifespans, she understood even better. Her father was human, without the advantages of weyr genes. Her mother couldn’t be sure how much longer they would have together, so of course she wouldn’t be anxious to go off and leave him behind. For that matter, Jen herself had wanted to go see him, but Tom had advised against flying or a long road trip, so she’d had to settle for frequent phone calls the last couple of months.

That line of thinking served only to renew her irritation over how very little real knowledge she had about weyr, and led to a bunch of questions there was no one around right then to answer. Making a mental promise to visit her parents as soon as the pediatrician felt it was safe for her babies to travel, she turned on the radio in an effort to distract herself.

However, instead of listening, she ended up pacing back and forth through the kitchen.

She faced the fact that what she really wanted to do was go outside. She had a feeling that if she could just sink her toes into the loam, she would be able to find the rogue. Not that she would go after him by herself, but she had a special bond with the Goddess. At least, it seemed that way to her, more and more, here lately. Something beyond the usual weyr connection to the land. Perhaps the Goddess would help her to find him, maybe even give

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her some insight as to how to help him. She had just decided to make her husbands very angry and leave the house when the gate phone rang.

They weren’t expecting anyone, so she considered not answering, but after the fifth ring, she went ahead and picked it up. “Yes?”

“Jenny?”

“Tara? What are you doing here? You didn’t drive yourself, did you?”

“Wow, what a greeting!” Laughter floated over the line, though to Jenny the voice sounded strained. “Let’s see, to answer your questions, in order: yes, it’s Tara. I really need to talk to you. And yes, I drove myself.”

“Shame on you. It’s a two-hour drive! You can’t be up to that.”

“I’m fine, Jen. Well, physically, at least. Emotionally…not so good. I really need you, and I wasn’t about to drag you out to my place. Besides, this isn’t something I wanted to discuss at home. I just…I really needed to see you out here.”

Jen frowned, worried about her friend. “Tara, you know you’re always welcome. Of course. Come on up.” She pressed a code into the keypad. “The gate should be opening now.”

“It is.”

“I’ll be waiting for you on the front porch.”

Jenny walked slowly to the front of the house. She stepped out onto the wooden decking and sat on the porch swing, wondering what the crisis could be. Had Tara’s loss finally caught up with her? After the one outburst in the hospital, she had seemed to accept her baby’s fate rather stoically, though her silent tears had flowed like a river at the funeral service a few days later.

Jen’s muscles tensed, and she leaned back, determined to relax. She wouldn’t be any help to Tara if she became agitated herself. Inhaling deeply, she let the restful scents of pine and juniper and the soft whisper of wind work their magic. That was a good explanation for Tara wanting to meet out here -- the land Jen and her husbands owned was blessed by the Goddess, their mountainside a welcoming sanctuary of rest and renewal for both beast and man. Tara had made remarks in the past, comments that led Jen to believe she knew more about the Blakes than she let on. Perhaps she knew about the Goddess, too. Maybe she just wanted to stay here a while, to rest and heal, both body and soul. Losing a baby…Jenny pressed her hands over her belly protectively, unable to imagine the grief.

She heard a motor and watched Tara’s car toil up the long, steeply sloped gravel-over-packed-earth drive. When she pulled up in front of the house, Jen saw that she was driving Marshall’s small Nissan, his around-town car. Hmm. Interesting.

Tara opened the car door and squeezed out from behind the wheel. She shut it and pressed a button on Marshall’s key to lock the doors, though it was hardly necessary up here.

Jen supposed it was force of habit.

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The woman shook her head, her auburn curls burnished by the sun as she climbed the porch steps. “I don’t understand how a woman almost ready to deliver can be smaller than someone only six months pregnant.”

“I’m not!” Jen insisted. “You’re seeing things, girl.” She patted the seat of the swing.

“Come on. Sit with me.”

Tara lowered herself onto the swing and sat back with a sigh, letting her gaze travel over the mountainside. Cheerful birdsong and the rustling of small animals in the leaves beneath shedding trees surrounded them. “God, this place is beautiful. I knew coming up here would make me feel better.”

Jen put an arm around her shoulders. “What is it, Tara?”

“I don’t even know where to start.” Her best friend stared at her hands, fingers twisting in her lap.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

Tara sighed. “Okay, then…New Orleans. I met these two men. Brothers.” She turned her head, smiled a rueful smile. “Twins.”

Jenny wasn’t surprised, though her heart did speed up a bit as her suspicions seemed about to be validated. “Let me guess.” She swallowed, nervous at taking the plunge, but also excited by the possibility of finally being able to share her own secret with her best friend. It was an awful risk, possibly putting Damien and Devlin and her own children in harm’s way, but… She took a deep breath, deciding to have faith in her instincts. She loved and trusted Tara and had always felt her friend knew more about Jenny’s husbands than she’d ever admitted. “They were weyrwolves.”

Tara nodded. “I had a feeling you’d understand what I was getting at.” She swallowed hard. “Wow, it’s a relief to feel like I can finally be completely honest with you. You have no idea how hard it was not to talk to you about what really went on in New Orleans.” She shot a curious, sidelong glance at her friend. “Are you…” She raised her eyebrows questioningly.

“I’m half-weyr.” Encouraged by Tara’s quiet acceptance, she continued. “I didn’t know it, though, until Damien and Devlin told me. My mom hid it from me, while I was growing up. My dad’s human, and she seemed to think I’d be happier living a more normal life.” She glanced around, grinning. “You see how that turned out.”

“Can you…you know, change?”

Jenny shook her head. “Half-weyr can’t do that. Mostly, we have heightened senses, more stamina, better reflexes, and a stronger resistance to disease than full humans, but I’m not all that different from you.”

Tara must have seen the concern in her eyes. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to become afraid of you.” She glanced away guiltily. “I used to follow them, when we were younger.

Damien and Devlin. I saw them shift a few times. They were so beautiful, in both forms.”

She stared down at her hands, clasped in her lap. “I kind of had a crush on them. It’s a

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wonder they never caught me spying, but my father was an outdoorsman, so I’d been taught how to walk silently in the woods, stay downwind, all that.”

“And they probably just weren’t expecting anything like that from a young girl.”

“Yeah.” Tara looked into Jenny’s eyes once more. “But anyway, I think that’s why I did what I did in New Orleans. The minute I saw Johnathan and Jacob, I knew what they were.”