The McBroom brothers had butchered and processed a couple of hogs the day before, so there was plenty of pork. A lively discussion over recipes had Ellie volunteering some of Hank’s secrets, and before she knew it, she was in the middle of a friendly contest between opposing camps as to who could make the best Carolina-style barbeque. The compound seemed divided between a sweet red sauce and a standard brown sauce. It had been Ellie’s suggestion to make it a cook-off. The idea caught like wildfire, with teams forming around the two competing camps, and soon the entire compound was chipping in with fixings to make it a real party. While Ellie herself preferred a red BBQ sauce, she wound up in the opposite camp when she revealed Henry’s secret to an awesome brown sauce: root beer. To her delight, members of the compound made their own root beer out of sassafras roots, and there was plenty for the BBQ.
There were fresh tomatoes and homegrown ears of corn. Someone started a big pot of baked beans alongside the warming pans of shredded pork, and soon the smell of cooking food filled the air. It was shaping up to be the perfect late summer afternoon. Some of the men dragged several picnic tables into a long row. Belinda Shumaker, one of the weavers, produced some colorful sheets to use as table cloths, while her sister, June, set out large jars of water and tea bags to steep in the sunlight. Watermelons sat cooling in a big wooden tub as barefoot children ran back and forth with buckets of ice from the only refrigerator in the compound that could make it.
Jack had the look of a man whose life had somehow spiraled out of his control. “What are you doing?” he asked, as Ellie stepped out of the McBroom cabin with a giant platter of pulled pork.
“What does it look like?” Ellie was fast running out of patience with him. “I’m taking my team some of the meat they’ll need for the barbeque later.”
“Your team?” Jack slid a hand under one edge of the platter for support as they walked. “Ellie, I wouldn’t get too attached to this place. Neither one of us is going to be here that long.”
She bit her tongue as they crossed to where a makeshift tent was set up over one of John’s fire pits. June had a pot of sauce simmering, and the scent was enough to make Ellie’s mouth water. She left the tray of meat with Billy Bob and the others, smiling as she drew Jack away.
Through the course of the day, popping in and out of everyone’s homes to help with one thing or another, Ellie had become well-acquainted with the level of poverty within the compound, which hadn’t been readily apparent at first glance. Some of the older cabins didn’t have indoor plumbing, and while most had running water, they relied on a community pump house installed when Jack’s father had been clan leader. There was a shared garden that produced the corn, and most people grew vegetables in small plots by their homes, but the barter system was in strong use. The only reason most of the clan made ends meet was because, as shifters, foraging for food came naturally to them. Not all of the cabins were mended and tidy, however. A couple were in marked disrepair, with sagging porches and roofs that probably leaked. The biggest of these had empty beer bottles stacked along the porch railing, and cigarette butts littering the bare patch of dirt leading up to it.
Standing now in the shade of some large pine trees, Ellie could see both the beauty and the ugliness of the compound. As well as the potential. When she was certain she’d taken Jack far enough so no one could overhear, she spoke. “These people need help, Jack. It would be so easy to get them the traffic they need to really make a living selling their wares.” She pointed over to John’s mud house, where he was carefully removing beautifully glazed vases from his kiln. “His pots are lovely, but his survivalist stuff? How to build your own home using only handmade tools? Viewers would eat it up with a spoon if he had a video channel.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not likely to happen.” Jack furrowed his brow, obviously unhappy with her observations.
“Well, whose fault is that?” Ellie put her fists on her hips and sighed. “Do you know that few of the children I’ve met here know how to read? No one has health insurance, either.”
“There used to be an in-community school when I was growing up here. I’m guessing Uncle Seth put an end to it after I left.” Jack looked uncomfortable and changed topics. “Anyway, shifters tend to heal pretty well on their own.”
“What about dental work? Eyeglasses? I’ve been paying attention and it certainly looks like you can’t heal everything by shifting.” Ellie’s raised eyebrow was definitely accusing. “The worst thing is that no one cares the kids can’t read.”
“Look, there’s a reason I left all those years ago, remember? I don’t have anything to do with this anymore.”
She fixed him with a hard stare. “No, but you felt like you could bring me here to hide out.”
“Because it was the last place on earth anyone would look for you!”
Heads turned at Jack’s raised voice, and he took her by the arm and walked her further away from the activity surrounding the cookout. “A clan can only do as good as its leader, okay?” He glared at her as he spoke. “My uncle is a beer-drinking, belly-scratching lout who believes that women should be barefoot and pregnant, and he doesn’t want anything—any fresh ideas, anyone making plans or educating themselves—to change his powerbase. Got it?”
Ellie frowned. The community was trapped in poverty. That much was obvious. But somehow the clan members had risen above the sort of apathetic inactivity Jack described. “These people want to be better than that. They are better than that. Your uncle couldn’t possibly be against more money for the community, could he? After all, that’s why he clear-cut the land that was supposed to support everyone, right? Because he wanted easy money now instead of managing the forest the way you’re supposed to when logging it.”
“Yeah.” Jack ran a hand through his hair in a clearly frustrated gesture. “But I’m betting he didn’t share that money with the clan. And I’m guessing what you’re talking about here is too much work as far as he’s concerned—just like managing the logging rights properly.”
“Why won’t the clan members stand up to your uncle? There’s only one of him, right? Why not just go ahead with plans to make things better for everyone without him?”
“Because he’s taken the worst of his cronies hunting with him. The people that are here now? They’re the beaver, squirrel, and bird shifters. They make things. They build things. They can’t help it. The guys with my uncle are the predators. Dirk Hanson is an alligator shifter, and the Braxton boys are coyote shifters. They’ll stay out with my uncle, drinking and hunting, until they’ve had their fill and they come home. Maybe they’ll bring home enough venison to fill the freezers for a few months. Maybe not. Half the time they waste their kills. Too damn lazy to process the meat and carry it back.”
“Are you saying all predators are bad?” His words felt like a cold weight in Ellie’s heart. She knew it. She knew it. She was a monster after all. Jack too. They were all monsters. “That we’re victims of our shifter heritage?”
“What?” Jack shook his head. “No! I didn’t mean—look, there were other predators in the clan at one time. I told you already my dad was a bear shifter. My best friend growing up was a bobcat shifter. But there weren’t many people willing or able to take Seth on, particularly after he ran off anyone who didn’t support him. Before we knew it, the only predators in the pack were on his side. People were getting hurt. Those that couldn’t hack it left, including me.” He hesitated, then continued. “The more time you spend in your shifter state, the closer you are to your shifter behavior. But your shifter only mirrors what’s inside you. It’s not so much predator versus prey as it is cruel versus kind.”
“Where does that leave me?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer. Stomping around crushing villages in my wake?
To her surprise, he smiled and rubbed the tip of his nose. “From what I see so far, running things. You were born to rule, my lady.” He gave her a mocking little half bow.
She punched him in the shoulder and then clapped a hand over her mouth, aghast, when he winced and put a hand up to his arm. “I’m so sorry!”
“It’s all right. I don’t think you got it bleeding again.” He pulled the collar of his sweatshirt out to peer down inside. He glanced up with a smile that faded at her expression. “Hey, I was just teasing. It’s really not that bad. Seriously. If I could spend a little time in leopard form, it would heal right up.”
She took a really good look at him for the first time all day, and realized how exhausted he was. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his day-old beard—sexy as it was—reminded her he’d been up for most of the night. The memory of how he’d spent at least part of that night made her blush suddenly. “Why don’t you go take a nap? In shifter form, I mean. Crash on your mother’s couch for a few hours. It’ll be at least that long before the barbeque is ready.”
“Tempting as that is, I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Jack stifled a yawn and then grinned a little sheepishly at her. “I’m still responsible for your safety for a while longer.”
She felt as though he’d thrown a bucket of cold water on her. Of course he couldn’t wait until her grandfather arrived. He probably wanted to be rid of her.
Even as she thought it, something inside snorted in disbelief. She wasn’t used to feeling confident about anything other than her singing, but that inner something—she refused to call it dragon—was both amused and annoyed with Jack just now. Restlessly, she shoved her hands in her pockets. When her fingers brushed up against the pendant, the metal almost burned. She jerked her hand away from it abruptly, and ended up folding her arms across her chest. “What can happen? I’m in a mysterious backwoods compound and no one knows I’m here.”
Jack’s eyes widened, and he let out his breath in a low whistle. “No one but your grandfather, that is.”
Ellie gaped as she considered what he was implying. “You don’t think my grandfather is behind these attacks? That he’ll send men after us again, now that he knows where we are?”
Jack narrowed his eyes briefly and then wiped his face with one hand. “God, I must be too tired to think straight. No, he probably isn’t. I’m not saying he might not have an agenda for your return I don’t know about—he’s pretty adamant about getting you back in time for a combination birthday and coronation celebration—but he didn’t know you were at a safe house with me.”
“Not unless whoever you talked to on the phone told him,” Ellie pointed out. “Whoever it was didn’t necessarily have to call the attackers directly—they could have simply relayed information to my grandfather—especially since he’s the client. If he’d called for an update, wouldn’t one of your team members have informed him I’d been attacked and was at a safe house?”
Jack shook his head more firmly this time. “They wouldn’t have told him where the safe house was. Not under normal circumstances. If they did, then they were in league with the attackers.” He frowned as he spoke, however, and Ellie wondered if he was trying to convince himself.
“We keep saying ‘they’. I thought you spoke to a woman when you called Redclaw.” Ellie remembered because she’d been surprised at the sharp stab of jealousy she’d felt on hearing him say the woman’s name. “You called her Lyssa.”
“Updating the rest of the team as to our whereabouts would have been normal. The only unusual part was she didn’t volunteer to send us backup, but she probably figured I had it under control. That was my fault. I should have asked for it.” He sent Ellie an intent look, and for the first time, she could truly sense the leopard within him. Green eyes fixed her with a mesmerizing stare. “I’m sorry. I wanted to be alone with you. I should’ve been thinking more about your safety.”
“Did you hear me say I had any regrets?” Ellie’s face flamed, but she retained control over her voice. She was pleased at how calm she sounded.
The smile he gave her was straight out of the Bad Boy Handbook. It was similar to the one he’d given her back at the restaurant when he’d been teasing her about pie. It practically curled her toes on the spot, and she was more than half tempted to suggest they both retire to Helena’s place for a ‘nap’ when suddenly the door to the large cabin opened, and one of the most stunning women Ellie had ever seen walked out onto the ramshackle porch.
She was the epitome of the perfect woman. Her long legs were accentuated by the short cut-offs she wore, along with the cowboy boots. Her blue shirt was tied in a knot at the waist, exposing the creamy skin of her abdomen. Her hair was a vibrant shade of red never seen outside of a bottle, and as she came to a halt at the railing, she arched back with a stretch that showed off her perfect, supermodel form.
At the screech of the opening door, Jack turned to look at the woman who’d come outside. The fact that he didn’t immediately take his eyes off her sent a sharp spike of annoyance through Ellie’s heart, but when he took Ellie by the arm, he looked as though he’d smelled something bad. Ellie felt as though she might burst into song.
“Yoo-hoo! Jack!”
He stopped, his back still turned to the woman hailing him. Ellie felt him sigh, and glanced up in time to see him roll his eyes. She couldn’t help it. She snickered. The look he shot her suggested she’d pay for that later but instead, he faced the woman, who was coming toward them.
“As I live and breathe, Jack Ferris.” The woman approached them with a feline confidence Ellie had always envied women who knew they were beautiful. The red-head continued archly as she joined them, “My, haven’t you grown up?”
“Ellie,” Jack said with a fake smile, “meet my aunt, Jolene.”
“Your aunt?” Ellie burst out.
Jolene flashed her a look of utter disdain, complete with a little lift of her upper lip, much like a dog threatening to bite. Smiling suddenly at Jack, she cozied up to him, placing a hand on his free arm. “Only by marriage, sweetie. I’m a lot younger than Jack’s Uncle Seth.”
Close up, Ellie wasn’t too sure about that. She might be younger than her husband, but she had to be at least ten years older than Jack. Possibly more. The sunlight revealed tiny crow’s feet around her eyes as she held up a hand to shade them. Though she’d obviously taken the time to do her hair and apply makeup before appearing on the porch—that artfully tousled look didn’t come naturally—the heavy foundation only accentuated the aging she’d tried to hide. She would have done better to skip the makeup altogether. She was still a gorgeous woman. The memory of her past triumphs obviously carried through in her confidence now.
“I heard you were back, Jack, but no one mentioned how good-looking you’d become.” Jolene practically purred.
“Are you a shifter too?” Ellie asked politely.
Jolene sniffed, as though Ellie had behaved with the height of impropriety by asking. Perhaps she had. She didn’t know enough shifters to judge. Everyone else she’d met so far at the compound had been pleased to share their shifter identity with her, but maybe it was considered crass to ask. “Yes,” Jolene said at last. “I’m a cougar.”
A loud guffaw burst forth from Ellie. She clapped her mouth in embarrassed horror, cutting her eyes sideways at Jack to see if he understood what she found so funny. Jack raised his eyebrows in return and began to chuckle as well.
“I don’t get the joke.” Jolene curled red-lacquered nails into a fist and placed it on one hip.
Ellie flapped a hand in front of her flaming face, trying hard to control her amusement. “Nothing, nothing,” she said rapidly. “I just thought of something from earlier today. Sorry.”
She might have regained her composure, only Jack started laughing in earnest. Jolene flashed a glare back and forth between them. Ellie could tell the moment Jolene decided it wasn’t worth getting upset over something she didn’t understand. The look of offense melted from her features, and she gave Jack a pouty little smile instead.
“Jack, darling. It’s been a long time. Come inside and catch up with me.” Jolene cocked her weight to one side, a pose that showed off her long legs to their best advantage, and thrust her chest forward.
Her words wiped all the amusement from Jack’s face. “Sorry, Jolene. I’m helping out with the barbecue right now.”
Jack’s response was scrupulously polite. Better yet, he didn’t offer to join Jolene later, and that little fact alone made Ellie’s heart sing.
“About that. Seth’s not going to like it when he finds out everyone held a party to welcome you back.” The simper disappeared from Jolene’s voice, and what was left was hard and cold as a stone.
Jack sighed. “This isn’t a party in my honor, Jolene, and you know it. It’s just an excuse to have a little fun. Eat some food. Play some music.”
“I know it, and you know it. But you also know that’s not how Seth will see it.” There was a little hint of victory in her tone now, and something deep inside Ellie bristled.
“We’ll just have to make sure we’re gone before he gets back then.” Jack took Ellie by the arm and started to steer her toward the cooking preparations, but Jolene’s voice lashed out like a whip.
“If he gets home before you leave, you’ll need friends in your corner. Are you prepared to turn your back on me? I can help you, Jack.”
Jack froze in his tracks. His spine went rigid with tension and the hand on Ellie’s arm tightened. He took a deep breath, and with a glance that seemed full of apology, released Ellie. When he faced Jolene again, his words were coolly polite. “What exactly are you proposing, Jolene?”
She laughed, tossing her flame-red hair back over her shoulder, her eyes alight with satisfaction. “Come inside. I’d prefer to discuss that in private.”
“Jack.” Ellie wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to say. Stop. Don’t go with her. We don’t need her help. But she knew the words would fail.
It was written on his face: his job was to protect her at all costs.
Maybe he wanted to go with her. Maybe his disgust is all an act. She’s a beautiful woman after all. How long have I known him anyway? What could he possibly see in me?
She didn’t quite hear her dragon speak to her, but she sensed a seething disgruntlement in the background just the same. Only she couldn’t tell if it was with her—or Jack.
“I won’t be gone long. Why don’t you join the others?” Jack’s face was a mask when he spoke to Ellie. Only his eyes were alive, and they seemed to begging her not to make this any worse than it already was.
“Right, then.” Ellie had spent a lifetime hiding her feelings and putting on a good show. She geared herself up to do more of the same, only an impish impulse grabbed her. She tugged Jack down for a kiss, planting her lips on his in an unquestionable demonstration of possession. The smoldering look in Jack’s eye when he lifted his head was worth it. As was the sneer on Jolene’s face.
I will not stomp away in anger. I won’t give her the satisfaction.
Instead, she let her hand trail promisingly down Jack’s chest as she moved off, and slowed her walk to a sultry sway as she left the two of them alone. She knew both of them were watching her.
The act lasted only until she reached Billy Bob’s cabin. Using opening the door as an excuse to look back, she saw that Jack and Jolene were nowhere in sight.