CHAPTER NINE
When Thea entered the roadhouse out by the highway, she scented right away that the whole place was full of shifters. Wolves. Glassy-eyed wolves. Damn.
Nevertheless, she allowed Ezra to escort her to a table, where they were waited on by a shifter waitress. She was some kind of bird, if Thea’s nose was accurate. The woman took their orders then casually added that everyone present was a shifter, so they could talk freely unless some humans showed up for lunch.
“Interesting,” was Ezra’s only comment. He took a rather obvious look around for himself and seemed to evaluate what he saw. “Mostly wolves,” he stated to Thea
They both knew that the others could hear every word, if they wished to eavesdrop. Judging by the low conversations and lack of smiles on anyone’s faces, Thea figured most of them were listening. This was not a happy crowd. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Ezra kept talk general, mentioning the concert they’d seen the night before and then the modifications he was supposedly going to have made to his bike. Thea knew the phantom modifications were just a ruse they were using for him to keep returning to the bike shop to talk with the bear brothers. She told him a few harmless anecdotes about her family’s reaction to her buying her bike, and the lunch passed in a pleasant enough way, even if they were being watched by almost every set of eyes in the place.
Eventually, when they were enjoying coffee after their meal, the waitress returned to their table with the check and a message. “The White Oaks Alpha would like to talk to you before you go. He’s over there in the corner booth.”
Ezra thanked the woman and gave her a wad of cash to cover both the meal and a generous tip. He then stood and politely assisted Thea before speaking.
“Do you want to go pay our respects?” he asked. She knew he was setting a scene, appearing reluctant when talking to the visiting Alpha was exactly why they had come here. This couldn’t have worked out better had they planned it.
“Sure. I like wolves,” she told him with a gamine grin.
They both knew she liked one wolf in particular—the woman who had helped save Thea and those other women from Bolivar, Margo Mahigan of the Stony Ridge Pack out of Canada. She’d made a real impression on Thea, and she admired the woman greatly.
They walked together over to the corner booth where the wolf Alpha sat with two others who looked like high-ranking Pack members. They were arranged one on either side of the Alpha, like some sort of honor guard.
Ezra walked right up to the table and said hello. The wolves saw him coming and stopped their own conversation to look him over. The two subordinates remained quiet while the Alpha wolf took a good long look at the bears in front of him.
“Forgive me for not standing, but I’m sort of stuck in the booth,” the man said, with a friendly grin. “Pull up a chair and sit a spell. I don’t often cross paths with bears, and I’d be interested in your take on the town and this strange situation we find ourselves in.”
That little speech piqued Thea’s interest, and she turned to Ezra and shrugged. He stole two chairs from a nearby empty table and put them on the open side of the booth. He waited for Thea to sit in a show of gentlemanly concern, then he sat beside her, leaning back casually.
“I’m Ezra Tate, and this is Thea, my mate,” Ezra introduced them.
Thea felt a little thrill every time he said that. It was still so new and so…freaking perfect. She wondered if she’d ever get to the point where she took this amazing relationship for granted.
Nah. Not in this lifetime.
“Brock Hanson,” the wolf Alpha replied. “My brother, Jim, and our Uncle Arch.” Brock gestured to his left and his right.
The brother was obviously younger, but the uncle was still a wolf in his prime. He had a tough glint in his eye as he looked Ezra over, and she felt a little shiver. That uncle wasn’t anyone to mess around with.
“So, what’s this situation you were talking about?” Ezra asked casually.
If Thea hadn’t known they’d come here specifically for a chance at this conversation, she wouldn’t have realized it was anything special from Ezra’s cool reaction. She was impressed with his composure.
“I noticed you and your posse watching the crowd at the concert last night. You saw what happened with the local wolf Alpha,” Brock said plainly, calling Ezra’s bluff.
“We saw something,” Ezra agreed quietly when Brock paused for reaction. “Looked like a whole mess of trouble brewing between two wolf Packs.”
“That it is,” Brock confirmed. Thea noticed that his eyes weren’t quite as glassy as some of the others. Certainly not as bad as the local Alpha’s had been. “We come here every year for the party. Usually, we have a cordial relationship with the local Pack and any other visitors that might show up. We all have this agreement that rally week is a time of truce. We don’t want to cause trouble with so many humans around. It would be too easy to make a mistake we could never reverse, if you know what I mean.”
Thea knew exactly what he was getting at. Every shifter lived in fear these days of being caught on some human’s camera phone doing something that would out the existence of shifters. It had been easier to avoid being seen in the old days, but in recent years, every phone had a hi-res camera in it that took digital images that could be sent around the world with the flick of a finger. There was no film to be confiscated and destroyed if someone really messed up and was seen.
All shifters lived in fear that someone was going to royally screw up and get the humans on the hunt for anyone that might be a little different. It was well within the realm of possibility. Humans were easily spooked, and there were a lot of them. A lot more of them than there were shifters. If the humans went on the warpath, shifters wouldn’t really stand a chance.
“This year, we came into town, as usual, and immediately, some kind of shitstorm started blowing from the local Pack. Their Alpha started ranting about something we’re supposed to have done wrong, making weird allegations against some of our younger members. Pups, really. Youngsters that are under my protection.” The Alpha looked around the room at those of his Pack that were in the building, and Thea could see there were quite a few younger members who were probably just teenagers on their first away-from-home trip. “I can’t let them go after my Pack. Especially not the pups. That’s just bullshit.”
Brock’s eyes took on a dazed look, and anger started to boil within. Thea was shocked by the way the magic sort of took over the formerly somewhat cool-headed man. Was the spell triggered by anger? Or did it cause it?
Thea tried to step in and diffuse some of the anger. Maybe a feminine voice would help?
“We heard something about a fight planned for tonight,” she said quietly. “Is there anything we can do to help prevent it?”
All three wolves looked at her sharply. The Alpha and his little brother’s eyes were glazed over with that glassy sheen she was becoming familiar with all over again. The uncle, though… He seemed a little less affected than the others.
“I don’t see how anything can prevent the confrontation now,” Arch said quietly, letting his relatives seethe quietly. Neither looked able to speak at the moment as their anger spiked higher than the conversation would normally have called for.
“Have you given any thought to the idea that this conflict might have been caused or influenced by outside forces?” she asked as gently as she could. Now, the Alpha and his brother were growling a bit under their breath.
Thea wasn’t worried. She could handle a wolf or two—even an Alpha. Especially with Ezra at her side. But their show of anger was very concerning. These wolves weren’t rational. Except maybe for the uncle…a little bit.
“What kind of outside forces?” Uncle Arch asked quietly, still the only one of the three who remained at all able to converse somewhat normally, though his eyes weren’t free from the glassy taint.
“A blood path mage,” Ezra said, his words filled with authority.
Everyone in the room stilled. It got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Arch spoke for his nephew, the Alpha, once more.
“Where did you get this intel?” He spoke directly to Ezra, soldier to soldier, it seemed.
“Take a look around you, man. Does any of this seem normal to you?” Ezra asked in return.
Arch shook his head, like a dog trying to shake off the damp. He seemed to be fighting the compulsion, or whatever it was, that had been set upon him. Good. Maybe he could overcome the spell.
“It’s not enough,” Arch ground out between tightly clenched teeth. “I feel something…strange…happening, but we need more proof,” he said.
“More proof?” Thea couldn’t keep silent any longer. “I’ve been where you are now. Trapped under the weight of a spell you don’t understand, but that makes you act out of character. It makes you do whatever the mage wants you to. Like puppets on his string.” Thea hated remembering what had happened in Bolivar’s basement, but these wolves needed to realize they weren’t alone. “I’ve been there, Arch. I know how difficult it is to fight it off, but if you don’t, you could lose a lot of your Pack. A lot of your family.” She looked deliberately at the youngest wolf at the table, Jim, and then back. “Admit it. You know something’s really wrong here. You’re being manipulated into a fight where many of you will bleed for someone else’s pleasure. You have to feel that, don’t you?” She paused to take a breath, hoping against hope that she was getting through to him. “You already have your proof.”
The rest of the wolf Pack remained silent and still, as if in a trance. It was creepy. The bird-shifter waitress and the rest of the staff of the road house just looked really, really nervous. They weren’t as affected by the spell, but they also weren’t in a position to do anything about it. Thea took a good look at them and noted the similarities. They were all some kind of bird shifter. Probably all of one family.
“I can just…” Arch seemed to be fighting for every word, the only one of the Pack not completely under the spell, though the Alpha’s eyes were not quite as glassy, and he watched in silence, at least part of his focus on the conversation at the table. “I hear what you’re saying,” Arch finally said. “It makes sense, but I can’t see how to stop this snowball of shit heading straight for us.”
“Maybe we can help,” Ezra offered. “I’ve faced this kind of thing before.”
“Are you part of the group from Grizzly Cove?” Arch asked, his gaze narrowing on Ezra.
“Affiliated with, not part of. Not yet, at least, though we may consider that when it comes time for us to settle down.” Ezra glanced at Thea. This was the first she’d heard of that plan, but it appealed to her.
She was willing to at least go take a look at the town she’d heard so much about. She’d wanted to see it, anyway. Whether or not she would want to live there remained to be seen.
“But you served.” It was a statement that held a bit of a question, as well.
Ezra nodded. “Green Beret. You?”
“SEAL,” Arch said quietly.
“Wait a minute. You’re Archibald Hanson? No fucking way.” Ezra’s voice was filled with recognition and a hint of friendly awe.
“Guilty as charged.” Arch bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement.
“Thea, this guy wrote the book on guerilla actions. He’s a legend in the Spec Ops community.”
Thea thought she understood what Ezra was saying, but it was clear Ezra was far more impressed by the uncle than the purported Alpha of the wolf Pack.
And now, she knew Ezra had been a Green Beret. A lot of things started to make sense, given that little tidbit of information. She suspected there would be a learning curve as she really got to know her new mate. She hoped she had a bit of mystery left to reveal to him, as well, though she didn’t have some secret Special Forces background to reveal. Still, there was her doll collection. She’d bet he wouldn’t be prepared for that when they moved in together.
Thea stifled the smile that wanted to come out at that thought. This was a serious situation. She couldn’t help it that, every time she thought about her future with Ezra in her life, she wanted to grin like a fool.
“I’ll admit, I don’t know exactly what that means, but if you’re as tough as Ezra made that sound, then you need to help your nephew and your Pack,” Thea told the older man respectfully. “You’re all being messed with on a magical level. Look at the eyes of the werewolves in this town, and you might notice a glassy stare.” Thea shivered as she glanced at the people wolves in the room around them. They were all staring into space, their eyes not right. Not right at all. “You’re stronger than the spell, Arch,” she encouraged the man.
“Why isn’t it…affecting you?” It seemed to be more difficult for Arch to speak, and Thea worried that, somehow, the spell was getting stronger. All the wolves were spaced out. Was the mage doing something to them right now?
“We’re bears,” Thea shrugged. “The bird shifters who run this place don’t seem to be affected that much either. Could be this mage is just targeting your two wolf Packs.” That had to be it.
“Will you help us? I don’t know…if I can hold out against this,” Arch said, each word seeming to be harder for him to say.
Ezra sat up straight and looked at the other man with concern. “We’ll do everything in our power to stop this before it starts, but if it comes down to a fight, try not to bleed the other wolves. If you remember anything, remember to help us stop the mage.”
Arch nodded once and then seemed to give in and let the glassiness take his eyes. He, like the rest of the wolves in the road house, were sitting there like zombies. Waiting.
For what? Thea could only guess that there was some kind of signal that would come later that day to set them all off. Like a ticking time bomb. The calm before the storm.
“He’s gone,” Ezra said, standing. His face showed both concern and disgust. “Come on. We’d better see how the others are coping. It wouldn’t be good for humans to see this.” Ezra paused by the bar and the little cluster of bird shifters standing behind it, looking really agitated. “I’d close the place for the rest of the day. Or, at least until these wolves come out from under whatever has got them in its grip. Keep your kin inside if you can. There’s evil afoot in this town, and it’s coming for the wolves.”
The eldest male of the bird shifters nodded and followed Ezra and Thea to the door. He and Ezra exchanged a few low words while Thea tried to hide her shock at the state the wolves were in. This was really terrible. It was just like what had happened to the women she’d been held prisoner with in Lake Tahoe. This was bad. Bad, bad, bad.
The bird shifter elder locked the door behind Ezra and Thea, and they headed for their bikes. She knew they had been planning to go to the garage next, and that the local werewolves were probably split between their pool hall and the garage at this time of day. Hopefully, they were all contained and could be hidden from human sight until they were released from the spell, compulsion, or whatever it was.
Ezra was on the phone, and she heard him talking to Ace as they settled on their bikes. She could hear that Ace had sent Jack over to the pool hall as soon as the wolves they worked with had succumbed to the zombie-like state. Jack had secured the pool hall, locking the place up with the wolves inside and putting signs out saying the place would be closed for the rest of the day. King was doing the same for the garage, which was a little trickier, since there were humans coming in for scheduled appointments.
Ace and his brothers would try to handle the humans and pack them off as quickly as possible, but She heard Ezra volunteer them to help. A moment later, the phone call was over, and she and Ezra were heading for the garage as quickly as possible.
They spent the rest of the afternoon running interference. Thea kept the wolves in the back room, coaxing them into seated positions and watching over them as they completely zoned out. Ezra and the other bears did what they could to fill in the gaps and handle as many of the human customers as possible.
Thea also made calls, using the appointment book and doing what she could to lighten the load by rescheduling folks to tomorrow or the next day wherever possible. They weren’t happy about it, but they complied with her requests to change dates and times for the most part. She figured this would all be over by tomorrow, and they’d deal with the fallout, then. For now, the fewer humans coming to the repair shop, the better.
Around closing time, the wolves started to wake up. It was a slow process, and none of them seemed to realize they’d been the next best thing to comatose for the past several hours. They got up, one by one, and headed out of the garage, calling vague goodbyes to their coworkers as if it were a regular day.
The only thing different, as far as Thea could tell, was the glassy look in their eyes and the way they didn’t seem to realize anything was amiss. They were clearly still all under some sort of spell. Thea stood next to Ezra, watching them.
“Shouldn’t we try to stop them?” she asked softly as the first of the wolves got on their bikes and headed down the street at a sensible pace.
“I don’t see how,” Ezra said on a gusty sigh. “But I do think we need to follow where they lead. The moon rises early tonight. We’ll want to be wherever these guys end up in time to try to identify and stop the mage. He’ll have to be nearby, right? In order to benefit the most from the bloodshed?”
“Yeah, he’ll want to be right up close and personal,” Thea confirmed. “Making others suffer is the kind of thing evil folks really get off on.”
“Then, that’s where we need to be.” He didn’t look too happy about it, but she was glad he was including her in his plans. She would’ve been very upset if her new mate didn’t understand that seeing this through was something she had to do for herself, for her mate, for the wolves, and ultimately, for a full recovery from the ordeal she’d been through.
Thea realized the three bear brothers had come up to stand next to them as they spoke. All were watching the departing wolves. By ones and twos, the wolves were heading out.
“We’ll lock up here, and then, we should probably follow before the last one leaves,” King said.
“Definitely,” Ezra replied.
“Any news on the cavalry?” Ace asked quietly.
Ezra frowned. “We can’t count on any backup.”
“Looks like we’ll have to do this the hard way, then,” King said, summing up all their thoughts.
They left soon after, Ezra and Ace coordinating their approach and positioning. Ezra and Thea rode side by side, following the highest-ranking wolf of those who’d been in the garage. The brothers spread out, following other clusters of wolves who all seemed to be heading in the same direction, though they took various routes through town.
When they reached the open road, it was clear they were all going the same way. Thea, Ezra, and the other bears followed along like they were part of the Pack, and nobody even seemed to notice them. When they turned off onto a dirt road, the bears held back a bit, wanting to be among the last to arrive, so they could hide their presence as long as possible since it was likely the mage who was causing all of this was watching every arrival at their chosen killing field.
“If we go in too early,” Ezra had reasoned when they’d been planning this, “the mage could just scatter them all and try again later. We’ll only have one shot at taking the bastard by surprise.”
Thea had agreed, and so had the other bears, even though it was a little riskier this way for the wolves. They might start right in on the battle, and then, it would be harder to stop, but there was no elegant way to do this. Someone was going to get hurt no matter what. Thea just hoped it was the mage and not the shifters.