“Roxy…” Wade said softly, “we’re here.”
I blinked open my eyes and looked around me. Even in the middle of the night, Durango was a beautiful sight.
Home.
I sat up straight and scanned the deserted street. I glanced at the clock readout of the radio and saw it was just after two am.
Late. No wonder the street was abandoned.
“Right up there,” I said, pointing to Ironcloud’s. The building sat on the corner of Roseo Street and Euclid. I couldn’t repress the smile just seeing it brought me.
Wade parked in front and I jumped out and headed for the door.
They would’ve closed right at two, so they would still be cleaning up, restocking and bookkeeping.
But the windows showed no one there, the nighttime security lights were on, and… there was a note taped onto the closed sign hanging on the inside of the door. It was in Stormy’s looping cursive.
Roxy,
We’re home getting ready for company.
Wade stood beside me, reading over my shoulder. “I guess Nonna got here ahead of us.”
I smiled. Crafty old ghost. “I guess she did.”
Which was good. They would be getting ready for a fight, circling the wagons and all that.
Wade looked around, his eyes purely human and a bit wistful.
“What is it?” I asked.
He shook his head, closing his eyes for a beat. “Nothing… nothing that won’t keep until after.”
He turned and ran a hand casually through my hair. His eyes flashed golden again, making a shiver run through my body. “I guess we should head out then.”
He handed me the keys to his truck.
“You want me to drive…” I looked to his beat up old truck with the even more beat up camper hooked to its backside.
He turned and started walking toward the passenger side of the truck. “You know the way, I don’t.”
Well… that made sense.
“Just don’t scratch it,” he said straight-faced, “I just got it detailed.”
Asshole.
***
I’d never driven a truck with a trailer hitched to it… or a camper, but I took to it like a duck to water, flying out the back roads and switchbacks that led home.
I noticed that Wade had a big smile plastered across his face. And that he had a death grip on the old leather loop hanging from the top of the door jam. I knew the way home like the back of my hand, and though I’d ran from here months ago, my heart was thumping with happiness just thinking about being home again.
I’d missed the way the air tasted. I’d missed how the land looked, wild and green, not sealed off in cement, glass, and steel. My cat missed how this place felt, the way it fed and comforted her even when I wasn’t in my animal form.
And by god, I missed my family.
I could see the house from out on the road—which was strange. Every light in the house was on. And as I pulled into the bumpy gravel drive I counted no less than seven trucks parked along the side of the drive.
They were all from Bull’s crew, so Bly was here.
My heart zinged with happiness.
“Uh, you might want to slow down,” Wade said, his voice carefully neutral.
I gave him my craziest smile and skidded to a stop right before I rammed into a huge red beast of a truck: Maddox’s Silverado.
“Nervous?” I asked him.
His eyes were filled with heat, so my cocky smile melted as that gaze of his warmed me to near boiling in less than ten seconds.
Then Wade turned his attention to the big bad truck I’d almost rammed into.
“Is that monstrosity Maddox’s?” I could hear a thread of irritation in his voice.
I nodded. “Yep. He keeps it spotless at all times. But one of these days I’m going to take it mudding.”
Wade chuckled. “I can just see his head spinning around like that kid in The Exorcist.” He sighed and looked over at me. “Maybe we could dirty it up… together.”
Just then a rapping on the passenger side window drew both our attentions.
Maddox—huge, strong, glowering—peered into the cab of the truck. There might’ve been the hint of a grin on his face.
Wade rolled down the window, having to take the detached hand crank out of the glove box to do so.
“I can’t believe you’re still driving this piece of shit,” Maddox said, his voice amused.
Wade looked appalled. “She was Dad’s. I wouldn’t sell her for anything.”
Oh… now it all made sense. I felt the same way about a coat my gram had made. It was faded and frayed in spots, but I would never imagine throwing it away.
I’d left it here up in my bedroom closet for safe keeping.
Maddox harrumphed and looked in past his brother and nodded to me. “Good to have you back, Roxy. How did your finals go?”
I grinned. “Not sure yet, just took them… but I think I aced them.” Which was amazing since I had been being hunted by a werewolf just before.
Maddox had walked around the truck and pulled the driver’s side door open, making it creak and squeal.
“Easy, Hercules,” Wade muttered as he pushed open his door and headed around, a bit too fast to be mistaken as human, and playfully shoulder checked Maddox out of his way so he could help me out of the truck.
I couldn’t help the shit-eating grin that spread across my face.
“Love that color on you,” he said softly as he helped me out of the truck.
I put a hand to my face. It was burning and was probably as red as could be.
I heard someone jogging down the driveway, each step scattering gravel.
I looked up and saw Bly coming my way.
He scooped me up and hugged me, whirling me around.
I started giggling like a little kid. I couldn’t help it. I was so happy to see him.
When he set me down he said, “I’m so glad you didn’t get eaten up in Cortez.”
“She pretty much kicked their asses,” Wade said from behind me.
I turned and said, “Bly—”
“I go by Billy,” my brother interrupted.
I rolled my eyes and decided to go with it. “Okay, Billy the Werewolf, this is Wade, the were-bear.”
I noticed Bly flinch when I called him Billy the Werewolf. He hated it.
Wade’s eyes widened and the tense set to his jaw I hadn’t noticed there faded to a somewhat awkward puzzlement. And then he smiled at me, and then extended his hand to Bly.
“Good to meet you. I’m Wade Stone.”
Not to be outdone, Bly reached out, took Wade’s hand and then took in one slow, deep breath through the nose, scenting him.
“So you’re Maddox’s brother, and…” he looked to me and then back to Wade with an ornery gleam in his eyes. “And you’re the new boyfriend?”
Oh, I could’ve withered and melted into the ground… or strangled Bly with my bare hands.
But, to my pleasure, Wade looked utterly happy.
“We haven’t been on a date, or kissed for that matter,” Wade said, his voice deep and confident. “But once we get this whole thing taken care of, I’m going to make your sister my mate.”
Whoa!
Hold the phone… and the horses!
We’d only just met.
And I was… well…
I gave him what I was sure was my unhappy glare, but when I took a breath and opened my mouth to set him straight… nothing: no words or snarky comeback came to mind.
I managed a confused couple of blinks.
Wade reached up and touched my cheek, his warm, rough hand sliding oh so gently over my skin, making every molecule in my body stop for a beat, even my heart—all there was was me and Wade: no one else.
Like the eye of a storm.
My heart started again, thumping in my chest—
Is he going to kiss me?
He moved forward just a smidge, our eyes locked, the gold of his bear shimmering at the edges of his eyes.
He’s going to kiss me.
My next breath came ragged, and I almost coughed.
And then, as if nothing had even happened—which I guess nothing actually had happened—Wade let his hand fall from my cheek and he walked off toward the house, catching up with his brother, who gave him a none too gentle punch in the arm.
“Behave,” I heard Maddox say.
Wade looked back at me, opened his mouth mockingly and then pushed it shut again with his hand.
Oh, I had my mouth hanging open. I shut it with a click, shook off the sudden paralysis that almost getting kissed had caused, and gave Bly a look of death because he was just standing there, a condescending little smirk on his face.
Okay…fine.
I’d get even with Bly and Wade soon enough.
Mate indeed.
But my puma purred at the thought.
Mate.
“Where’s Stormy?” I growled at my brother.
He shrugged. “Somewhere, you know… giving orders.”
“What good are you?” I turned and started walking to the side of the house.
Stormy had her menagerie of indigenous spirits and creatures living in the backyard, like some nature preserve for Native American legends. So I knew she would be in the side yard, which was more like a few acres, the part of our land that stretched to where Gram was buried.
It had a good view of where the skinwalker’s lair had been. Well, since it wasn’t really dead, I guess it was where his lair still was.
In the darkness, I saw a group standing about thirty feet away from the house. Mostly they were Bull’s crew and some of the shifters that worked at Ironcloud’s. As I passed through them I said hi, and got pats on the back, some hands shakes, and a couple bear hugs (literally).
Then I saw Stormy. She was crouched, pushing something down into the dirt. When I came up to her she stood up again and turn toward me, dusting off her hands on her jeans.
Stormy stared at me, her green eyes luminous with her puma. “You done running?” she asked.
That’s Stormy for you, blunt and to the point.
But she hadn’t tried to stand in my way when I had run, had she. She’d just told me to call if I needed her, and she’d be there in a flash. And to come home whenever the hell I felt like it.
“I missed you too,” I said as I sidled up to her and threw my arms around her. Hugging Bly, and now hugging Stormy: it just made everything so much better. Like I’d had pieces of me missing, and now they were back in place, and I was whole again.
Stormy hugged me back and we stayed like that for a while. Finally, I let her go, and she held me out at arm’s length. The way she was staring at me was…
Well…
“Okay, okay… quit with the third degree!” I said and then stared her in the eyes. “I’m done running. Let’s put this bitch in the ground.”
And by bitch, I meant the skinwalker.
“That’s my girl,” Stormy said.
In the distance, standing with Bull and Bly was Benny.
I hadn’t seen him in months, and he’d gained some of his weight back.
And for the first time, seeing him didn’t automatically make me quake with terror, or my cat want to run.
I met his eyes and tried to smile as I nodded at him. It was too soon—still too soon—for words. But maybe we didn’t need words. He’d been as much of a victim of the skinwalker as I had been.
“Roxy,” came Wade’s deep voice from behind me.
I turned, jarred from one emotion to another, and then felt my face warm again just looking at him. My puma purred and rubbed her face against me from the inside out. She wanted closer to her bear.
Lord this night was getting complicated.
Wade reached out and took my hand in his, his left with my left.
“Someone wants to talk to you,” he said and turned his head toward…
Gram…
Tears flooded my eyes, making my vision blur.
I blinked and swiped them away with my free hand. I wanted to see her so badly.
Gram walked closer, not looking like what I had expected a ghost to look like. Not wispy, not transparent, not even a little glowy.
It was just her, just like I remembered her.
“Oh Gram…” my voice tore with the strain of my emotions.
Gram came closer, and I so wanted to fall to my knees and throw my arms around her.
But I instinctively knew I couldn’t. She was here, but not in that way.
“It’s alright, little girl. Cry all you want.”
I laughed through my tears. It was so like her to say that. Not to stop crying, but to just let it all out.
And then with a low rumble of thunder Nonna was suddenly there, running up to us, fear in her eyes.
“They’re here!”