Chapter Twenty-three

Sam worked the perimeter, letting the rhythm of the job calm him down. He stayed out much longer than he had to, double and triple checking the boundaries. Making sure he was back in control.

Afterwards, he grabbed some coffee and took it out on the deck. He scanned the horizon in the direction of Windy Gap. There was a slight odor of smoke on the air, working its way across the mountains despite the more than one hundred and fifty miles between the two. He wanted to howl his misery to the sky—Windy Gap was on fire and he was held here, useless.

The door behind him creaked open. He smelled sex and citrus and knew who it was without even turning around. “Can’t sleep?”

“I got a few in while you were gone last night.” She took up a spot leaning on the rail next to him. “Besides, my sleep patterns are all off. I appear to be a cat-napper now.” She grinned at him, but he didn’t see much humor in her face.

“It’s the change. You’ll be back to normal once your body’s figured out what you’re doing.”

They stood and stared at the view. He wanted her to go away, leave him and his wolf in peace, but he couldn’t open his mouth to tell her.

She’d started the change. They’d know soon where she’d fit in the Packs. He knew it was stupid to wish she’d be a shifter and that she’d give him a chance. He didn’t have good luck with women. His luck sucked, period.

“I guess we’re in the same boat.” Glenna’s voice was low.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t go to my family either.” She stared out past the mountain view as if seeing something else. “They think I’m dead. I know I’m not.”

He looked at her face. She looked better today, stronger. Something had changed between last night and this morning. Maybe, she was accepting the truth—that she could never go home. That her life had changed forever. She even looked like she’d put on a few pounds, despite the fact that she continued to resist eating what he knew she needed. The bones in her face were still prominent, but today he could see the beauty that lay along them. A few weeks more of rest, completing the change, and he and Alastair wouldn’t be the only ones sniffing around.

“Did you get any food?” He knew his voice was rough, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“No. If you want, I’ll cook some breakfast. I think it’s my turn.” Her smile this time was legit, and it warmed him like the sun, breaking loose something inside of him.

He smiled back. “That sounds good.”

“Okay.” She nodded and went back inside.

He took a deep breath. He could do this. He’d keep his wolf exhausted with running and he’d be able to stay in control. He’d been lucky. If Lana knew how close he’d been to the edge earlier, she’d have them lock him away.

Glenna brought out a full tray of breakfast and pointed to the picnic table under the giant pine tree. “I thought we’d eat out there.” She cast a furtive look over her shoulder at the house and lowered her voice. “It’s a nice morning, and this way we can talk without waking up Ian and Lana.”

“Lana driving you crazy?” He took the tray from her and carried it down the steps and over to the table.

“She acts like I can’t do anything. I’m a little tired, a little weak, but I feel fine.”

“You’re her only patient right now.” He set the tray down. “Usually she has two or three to fuss over.”

He helped her empty the tray of plates of bacon and eggs and thick slices of sourdough toast lavished with fresh butter, and they sat down on opposite sides of the wide planked picnic table. She’d also brought out a carafe of fresh coffee, and the smell of breakfast had his stomach rumbling.

“Well, I’m not a patient any more. Or at least I shouldn’t be.” She poured herself a cup. “How long do I stay here? What comes next?”

“I don’t know. We’ve never had someone like you before.”

“Never? Isn’t the virus contagious? I mean, the government says it’s out there.”

“It’s not. The feds are incompetent.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but the CDC’s mission is to protect us.”

“From what? We control the virus. There hasn’t been a case like yours for hundreds of years, maybe longer.”

“Well, apparently you aren’t doing a good enough job.” She took a bite of bacon and chewed for a while before asking, “How the hell did I get infected anyway?”

“I don’t know.” He took a moment to think. “The virus is passed from the bite of someone who has the fever. Only mating males and adolescents have active fevers and we keep the adolescents tightly controlled.”

“So some rabid guy ready to mate is running around infecting people?”

“No.” He put his fork down. “Only shifters get the fever, and it’s focused on their potential mates.” But his wolf riled up under the idea that someone else had a prior claim. “Unless you were dating a shifter?”

She snorted, choking on her coffee. “Um, no. Roger is anything but a wolf.” She wiped her face with a napkin and got the coughing under control. “You insist that the kids in the school are under wraps, despite last night’s adventure. Now you say it isn’t the only other option—a randy man running around biting strange women.”

“You don’t understand. The mating fever is different than the one you get when you change. It has to be stimulated by lying with a breeding mate, someone pack, who the male can bond with. It takes time.” He looked her right in the eye. “It takes sex.”

“I didn’t have sex with anyone other than Roger.”

He didn’t know who Roger was, but his wolf was ready to take the man down. He focused on breathing in the smell of his coffee. “No,” he said, a little calmer. “I don’t think he’s one of us. I know every wolf within a thousand miles, and I would have remembered a Roger. We keep track of our own.”

“Well, someone infected me. Unless I’m not infected?” Sudden hope lifted her voice. “I don’t have any symptoms. Maybe I never had it.”

“You had it. You were very sick for two weeks when we first brought you here.”

“But I’m feeling much better.”

“You’re showing symptoms of the change. Your appetite is up, you’re moody. You aren’t sleeping, yet you’re tired. And most of all—I can smell you, sugar, every delicious sexy drop.” He grinned at her sudden expression of horror and leaned over the table. He shouldn’t do this, shouldn’t push her buttons, but he couldn’t resist the temptation. “I told you last night, you smell of sex to my wolf, and that means you are racing with the change. I have no idea how long it will take, but it’s happening. And it’s happening fast.” With any luck it would be over and done with and he’d be moved on to another assignment. He could leave Glenna and her temptation behind, and focus on his new role in his new pack.

“But I don’t feel any different.”

“You have it. Trust me.”

She stiffened. “You said not everyone changes.”

“No.” He didn’t want to tell her this. She’d hang on to it, throw it back in their faces and then when the change came, she’d be crushed. “Not everyone changes, but with the way you’re pushing out pheromones, you will.”

She kept accusing eyes on him. She wasn’t going to let him off.  “So what do the ones who don’t change do?”

“They’re our secret link to humanity,” he said. “They go out into society and blend in. They become doctors, lawyers, scientists. Like Lana.” He reached out across the table and stroked the bare skin of her arm. She flinched back. He resisted the urge to chase. “But, Glenna, they’re always denied the joy of running in the woods. And they don’t have the consolation prize of a dream wolf or special talents.”

“Maybe I won’t change. Maybe I can go home.” She began to eat again, hand moving faster to mouth. He stared at her cleaning her plate. For the first time since he’d met her she was gorging on her food, and she didn’t even seem to notice. “Maybe that’s why I don’t feel any different.”

“Don’t lie to yourself. You were just telling me last night how different you feel.”

“But I don’t feel like a wolf, or anything more magical than that tree.” She pointed at a sturdy pine reaching its fat branches to the sky. “Look, I can wait a few weeks and see if I change, then I can go back. Tell everyone it was a mistake. I’m not dead, not sick.” A huge wide smile stretched across her face. “You said the dormants fit into society.”

“Glenna, you’re changing. Accept it.”

“I’m not one of you.” Desperation edged her voice. “I’m different, you said yourself. There’s never been a case like mine.”

“Even if you don’t change, the government knows who you are. They’re looking for you right now.”

“So?”

“Glenna, they’ll take you into captivity, they’ll run experiments on you. If it weren’t us holding you here, it would be the CDC keeping you in a locked room. I’m sorry, you’ll never be allowed home.”

She stood up and started viciously stacking dishes back on the tray. “Once they see I’m not contagious, they’ll let me go home. You’ll see.”

She picked up the loaded tray and walked back up the hill.

“Glenna,” he called, but she didn’t turn around.

She wasn’t listening. She had her own idea of what was about to happen. Thing was, while he felt sorry for her disappointment, he’d be disappointed if she were right. He shouldn’t want her, knew it was going to end badly for him. But as he watched the sway of her hips heading back to the cabin he knew he and his wolf agreed on one thing—she was damned sexy.