“So, tell me how you came to be on the road like that,” Aspen asked as he drove Moose and Ali back to the clubhouse.
“Bad luck, I guess. I don’t know what happened. One minute, I was walking down the road with my thumb out, hoping for a ride. Next thing I knew, some guys pulled over on bikes and then, well things got a little strange after that.”
“Strange how?” Aspen said, glancing at Moose in the rearview mirror.
“I don’t know. It was just weird. I don’t even know that I’m remembering things right now,” she replied, looking out the window.
“He turned into a wolf,” Moose said.
Her head turned slowly back toward him as he looked over the backseat at her. Her eyes were wide with disbelief.
“You have seen one too?”
“Yes,” he said. “They are a motorcycle club called the Dire Wolves.”
“It doesn’t make sense. How did they do that? Why did they do it to me?”
“How they do it is a long story. Why they did it was just your bad luck. They needed a diversion and you were in the wrong place at what was the right time for them.”
“They hurt me and then just left me there. Everything is fuzzy after I hit my head on the pavement. I remember people showing up and talking all around me and then more wolves. There was a fight and one of them grabbed me again. Then it all went black for a while. I woke up listening to Moose snore in the chair by my bed.”
“Yeah, he could wake the dead with that,” Aspen laughed.
“Sorry,” Moose replied.
“It’s okay. I’m glad you were there,” she replied softly.
“We’ll get you settled into the clubhouse and some of us will go down to where we found you, see if we see any signs of your bag. Backpack, I assume.”
“Yes, but you don’t have to do that. I’ll look around when I’m able.”
“If it’s not already gone, it will be before you are well enough to go combing the sides of the road. Trust me, we can sniff it out quicker.”
“You mean as dogs,” she said.
“Wolves. We are not dogs,” Aspen corrected her.
“Of course. I didn’t mean to be offensive.”
There was silence for a moment. She continued to look out the window, lost in her own thoughts. Finally, she turned back toward them.
“Can I see you turn into wolves?”
“Not while I’m driving a car,” Aspen quipped.
“Why do you want to see us change?” Moose asked.
“I guess I need to know it is real. Everything was so fuzzy when it happened before and I’m not sure if it was just my imagination. I might just be remembering something I made up.”
“Yet, we knew your attacker turned into a wolf before you told us,” Moose observed.
“Yes. Yes, you did.”
She looked down at her hands. It was obvious she knew what she saw, but just was having trouble believing it. Moose could certainly understand that. It couldn’t be simple for a human to suddenly realize there were shifters in the world around them. Especially when one of those shifters had done harm to her and now she was in the hands of two more.
“We will make sure they don’t come near you again. Hell, there may not be any left to come after you. I think we took out all the adults that would have still been hellbent on getting even with us. The women and children left will be content to just try to exist peacefully,” Moose said.
“Are you sure about that?” Ali asked.
“She’s right, you know,” Aspen added. “I would have thought they would stay clear after most of their pack was wiped out in that . . . accident.”
“Even if they did want to keep coming at us for revenge, there just aren’t enough strong ones to do any real damage,” Moose replied.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Ali said, turning to look out the window again.
“Why do you say that?” Moose asked, curious.
“I don’t know. It’s just my experience that people that want to hurt you will find a way.”
“We’re here,” Aspen said, pulling up in front of the clubhouse and parking alongside it. “Let’s get you in and find you a free room to hole up in for a while.”
“Thank you again. I appreciate what you’ve done for me so much; all of it.”
“It’s not a problem. You’re safe with us here,” Aspen said. “Moose, find your girl a room. I’m going to go see my babies.”
“Babies?” Ali repeated, but Aspen had already disappeared into the clubhouse.
“Aspen and his wife had a baby recently and his daughter had one last night. That’s where we were headed when we found you on the road.”
“Wow. Quite a difference in age between his kids then, huh?” Ali replied, as they headed inside.
“Yes. Elizabeth, his daughter, is adopted, so there isn’t really that big a difference in her and her father’s age.”
“Ah, I see. A modern family.”
“Yes. Well, even more than that. We’re all a family here.”
“A pack, you mean.”
“Somewhat, but not all of us are wolves. Most of the women here are human, so we are a pack, in one sense, but we are also a family.”
“Then your wife is human?”
“Wife? No, not me. I’m not married. Anyway, come on and let’s get you settled somewhere.”
Moose knew he was changing the subject and he wasn’t sure why. She was attractive and the fact that she even brought up whether he was attached could be a sign of interest. He hadn’t been with anyone since his wife, Victoria, had died. One of the earliest casualties of the ongoing clashes with the Dire Wolves. As much as he had found himself admiring her in the hospital, he found the prospect of anything beyond that a bit overwhelming to even consider. Some big bad biker wolf he was.
He made his way down the hall ahead of her and found an open room. It was the one that had been left vacant by one of the guards killed in the Dire Wolf attack on their clubhouse. No one in the pack wanted to take it, but it would be perfect for someone without memories of the person who had lived there before them.
“Here you go. This one is empty, and it has been completely refurbished recently. I painted it myself.”
“Even the mural?” she said, looking up at the large sea scape on one end of the room.
“Oh, no. Sorry. I should have said I painted all the walls. You know, a fresh coat. The mural was done by Elizabeth, Aspen’s daughter.”
“The one that just had the baby,” she filled in.
“That would be her.”
“She’s very talented.”
“Yes. Alright, if you want to settle in and rest for a while, I will leave you to it. I’ll stop by and see if you feel up to eating lunch with everyone or want me to bring you something instead. That’ll not be for a couple of hours still. In the meantime, I’ll get some of the guys and we’ll go see if we can find any sign or your things. I assumed, if you were hitching, that it was a backpack?”
“Yes. I appreciate you doing that. Do you need me to describe it?”
“No. I wouldn’t think there are too many abandoned backpacks hanging about near the road or woods, and I’ve got your scent. Oh, do you have anything small that smells like you I can give to the others?”
She looked at him awkwardly for a moment and then tore a strip of material from the bottom of her shirt. It had a bit of blood splattered on it from the wound on her side.
“It’s ruined anyway. Hopefully, you will find my bag. There are some spare clothes in there.”
“We’ll do what we can. I will send one of the women your size down with some things for you to wear for now. The bathroom to your right has a small, stand in shower. There is another bigger bath with a tub and a cabinet for anything you might need just down the hall to the right. I’ll get her to take you down there and show you around.”
“I think I will pass on taking a bath in a group tub shared with hairy bikers,” she laughed.
“Well, that one is dedicated to just the women, but still a group facility and so, I get your point. There is a schedule for it, if you change your mind. She can still show you where to get what you need for your personal bath. I don’t think it has been stocked yet. No soap, shampoo . . . towels.”
“Ah, yes. I think I’ll need those, but I think I will just lay down for a while. I feel a bit woozy still from the pain meds.”
“Okay. We’ll leave it until later. Keys to the door are on the dresser if you decide to step out and want to lock up.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
Moose nodded and closed her door. He could tell there was more to it than just being tired. She was injured, in a strange place full of shifters, and there was something else, but he wasn’t sure what it was. She was hiding something, was in way over her head, somehow. He didn’t know the details, but didn’t need to know them, really. Whatever it was had her on the run and scared, so scared that she was willing to trust her personal safety to a bunch of wolf shifters in a motorcycle club.
“Hey, Aiden. Get Fry and Carter and meet me out front. I want to go back up to where we were attacked and look around for our guest’s things,” he called out to a few of the pack members.
“You really think we’ll find them?” Aiden scoffed.
“I don’t know. The Dire Wolves wouldn’t have had a use for them, as far as I know. I don’t think who she was would be of any consequence to them. They just needed a wounded woman that no one would recognize and she was unlucky enough to be where they needed her. So, unless someone happened along after the fact, there is a chance. Worth a shot anyway.”
“Alright. Let me get my keys,” Aiden said.
“Even better,” Moose replied.
The three of them followed him outside and stripped down, each taking a good sniff of the ripped cloth in his hand before shifting and heading through the woods, taking a short cut down to the highway with Moose in the lead. They split up and scoured the woods, not finding anything, at first. Then he caught the faintest scent of her coming from the edge of the trees that edged one side of the forest alongside the road.
Moose pushed his nose around through the underbrush there, turning up a pile of leaves resting beneath some broken branches. The strap of the backpack slipped out from beneath them. It was an old one, an army surplus relic. He pulled it free with his teeth and looked down at it, sniffing it again. It was hers. He howled to alert the others and gathered it up in his teeth before joining them on the highway. They crossed back over to the other side and made their way back through the trees toward the clubhouse.
Shifting back into human form, they dressed again and went back into the clubhouse. Moose began carrying the pack down to her, but stopped at his own room. Sitting the pack on his bed, he contemplated it for a moment. He didn’t want to nose through her things, but she was a stranger, and even though he didn’t believe she had anything to do with the ambush, he needed to be sure. The fact that her backpack had been hidden was telling in some way that he couldn’t be certain about. Had they hidden it for some unknown reason or had she perhaps done so herself to hide who she was?
He rummaged around a bit, careful not to disturb too much. Finally, he pulled free a wallet and opened up. Alison Bachman, her wallet showed. So, she had lied about her name, at least part of it. So, the question was why? Did it have anything to do with the club or was it a matter of personal preservation? Had she seen the wolves coming while she was on the road and hidden it? Maybe she had hidden it, intending to rest nearby and that was why she had felt it might still be there.
He tucked the wallet back into her bag, perplexed. There was no way of knowing if she was any sort of threat to them. He would have to keep a close eye on her. He had brought her here and she would be his responsibility. Aspen would have his hide if he had brought an enemy to their table. The thought sparked a different contemplation. How had the Dire Wolves known they were on their way to the hospital? How had they known when and where to attack?
Glancing at his watch, he pulled her bag back together and went to her room, knocking quietly on the door. There was a creak from the bed springs and then footsteps across the floor toward him. The lock clicked and then it opened. She stood there, looking more weary than she had when she had arrived. It was obvious she hadn’t rested any at all.
“Are you okay, Ali?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Just too tender to rest,” she replied. “You found my bag?”
“We did. It was hidden down in the edge of the trees.”
He noted that she didn’t seem surprised by this, which was telling. It didn’t explain why she had hidden the bag or when she had done so, but it was at least a little more information to tuck into his hat. He would figure it out. It’s what he did. Aspen depended on him to know things.
“How about I get you what you need to take a hot shower? It might help you relax a bit.”
“I hope so. I didn’t want to take the pain pills. I’ve never really cared for that sort of thing.”
“The gash on your side is that painful?”
“It aches a bit, but mostly I’m just sore all over. I’ve a lot of bruises hidden beneath my clothes.”
“Ah, okay. How about a drink then? You don’t care for the pain pills, but perhaps a bit of booze might help you a bit?”
“Now you’re talking!”
“Come on. We’ll get you sorted out.”
“Sounds good. Let me at least change shirts first.”
Moose was surprised when she didn’t slip off to the bathroom. Instead, she pulled a rolled up t-shirt from her bag and gently shook it out. Laying it on the bed, she struggled to pull the torn one over her head, groaning as she pulled her arms upward. Moose looked awkwardly away, trying to focus anywhere but on her perfect breasts barely hidden from sight by a thin layer of lace.
“I could stand some help,” he heard her say, but it sounded garbled.
He turned to see her standing there with her arms over her head, her head and face enveloped in the material of her shirt. It was a bit comical, but probably not for her. He resisted the urge to laugh as he watched her struggle. Walking over, he did his best not to touch her inappropriately. He grabbed the material of the shirt and pulled at it gently, inching it over her head until it was removed. She was so tiny compared to him.
“Thanks,” she said, reaching for the shirt beside her and handing it to him. “I’m sorry to be like a kid that needs to be dressed, but my arms are really sore, and I can barely lift them over my head.”
“I’m just trying to be a gentleman.”
She smiled at him and extended her arms back over her head very gingerly. He tried to avert his eyes from her chest as he pulled the shirt down, the back of his hand brushing lightly down the side of one despite his attempt not to touch them. It was like a jolt through his system. There was something about her that seemed dangerous, but also, incredibly exciting.
“Thank you! Let’s go get that drink!”
Moose nodded and walked toward the door, opening it and waving her outside. She grabbed her key from the bedside table and shoved it into her pocket, flipping the lock before she walked out. Trust issues, he was surmising. Of course, she was in an unfamiliar place. He couldn’t really blame her for that. She seemed to trust him or at least was trying to do so.
“Moose, I need you,” Aspen said as they made their way into the front lobby.
“Be right there. Let me get Ali settled in with a drink,” he replied.
“I can do that,” Amanda chimed in, walking toward them. “All this babying has me needing one myself.”
Moose looked at Ali as if to ask if she was okay with that. She nodded and smiled, walking toward Amanda as he made his way toward the back office to join Aspen and whoever else was invited. He walked in to find it was only the two of them.
“What’s going on, Aspen?”
“We need to find out who gave up our location on that highway. Having a rat in our midst puts us all in jeopardy, especially with two babies in the house now. Someone told the Dire Wolves we were head out. They had time to put that girl on the road to stop us. What have you learned from her? Do you think she is in on it?”
“I can’t be sure just yet, but I don’t think she is. I think she is on the run from something, but I don’t think that has anything to do with her getting used as bait.”
“I hope not. Just keep an eye on her until you are sure she is no threat and limit how much she knows about what goes on around here.”
“I will. Any ideas as to where our leak might be?”
“Our numbers are pretty small and the only outsider to the group is Grant.”
“You don’t think he . . .”
“No. I don’t. He has done too much to protect this pack to be a part of tearing it down, especially now, with a new baby. So, one of our own has turned on us, or one of the humans. I think it is more likely to be one of the women. Start with the ones that aren’t attached to anyone in particular. I think we’ll find that one of them is sneaking off to meet a Dire Wolf or was sneaking off. They might well be done now if it was one of those we killed.”
“Are there even any adults left over there, other than the women? I think they are down to kids now other than that.”
“What’s to say that it’s not a woman they are tangling toes with?” Grant replied.
“Of course. I guess I didn’t consider that.”
“Well, do consider it. It could just as easily be one of the shifter women.”
“Noted.”
“Alright. Get out of here. I’ve got to get back to the baby. Amanda has put me on daddy duty tonight.”
“You breast feeding now?”
“Something like that. Backup stock from the fridge,” he replied.
Moose laughed as he shrugged his shoulders. “Some big biker dude I am, sitting in my room, bottle feeding a baby so my wife can go have a few drinks.”
“Right, but ain’t it a beautiful shame?”
“Yeah. It kinda is, man. Alright. Get outta here and keep your eyes open. We need to sort this out quickly. Every day that we have a rat on this ship, she gets closer to going down in the black waters.”
“On it.”
Moose walked back out to the front and looked around. There was no sign of Amanda or Ali anywhere. He made his way toward the pantry inside the kitchen and found them sitting inside, propped up at the large kitchen island there, knocking back shots and laughing hysterically.
“Has this turned into a woman only party?” he asked them.
“Not a chance. Come on in here, Moose,” Amanda replied, pushing out one of the large padded bar stools for him to sit down. “Ali was just telling me a story about how she managed to catch her hair on fire with a flaming baton.”
“Jesus,” Moose said, looking at her hair for any signs of the damage.
“Oh, it’s been grown out for years now,” she said. “That was almost ten years ago at a stupid beauty pageant my mother put me in. She had been a majorette in high school and decided I should learn to twirl as my talent portion. A few pageants later, she decided we needed to kick it up a notch and add some fire.”
“How bad was it?”
“It was crazy. I had a ton of hairspray on my hair and it went up like a propane tank someone dropped a match into. Luckily, my hair was teased into this big curly bun thing and one of the judges managed to yank off the cloak another girl was wearing to put me out before it got any worse.”
“Oh, God! That must have been something to witness,” Amanda gasped, trying to contain her laughter. “I know I shouldn’t find it funny.”
“It wasn’t funny at the time, but now . . . damn. I must have looked like a teenage beauty queen version of the ghost rider.”
All of them laughed even harder at the idea of that, finally settling down enough to have another drink as she finished her story.
“I had to have every bit of my hair cut off. It was all singed and broken almost to the scalp. I did have a few burns there, but they weren’t too bad. I got lucky with the judge being so quick on his feet, but I looked like Sinead O’Connor when it was all done.”
“Did you still go to pageants?”
“Are you kidding me? Hell no. Not that Mom didn’t try. It was less than a month later when she tried to stick a wig on me and enter me into the “Little Miss Dairy” contest at our county fair. I refused and she had a fit until Dad shut her down. He wasn’t home much, but happened to be there at the time.”
“You’ll fit right in around here. Most of the women in his place came from some sort of dysfunctional family. Sounds like your mom was a bit overbearing,” Amanda told her.
“That’s putting it mildly!” Ali added.
“Well, let’s have a toast!” Moose said, pouring them each a shot. “Here is to all the Mommy Dearests out there in the world. Cheers to surviving them.”
“Here. Here,” Ali laughed, clinking her shot glass to theirs.
Moose was glad to see that she seemed to be feeling better. No doubt the tequila didn’t hurt. After a while, Amanda excused herself to go check on Aspen and the baby, leaving them there to finish the bottle alone.
“I think I’ve had enough, Moose,” she told him after one last shot. “Maybe I best figure out how to get a shower now.”
“Figure it out? You’ve forgotten how?” he teased.
“I have to keep the stitches dry,” she replied.
Moose furrowed his brown, glancing down at her side. They were in an awkward place, but he’d seen plenty of injuries in this place. One advantage of being a shifter was that they healed really fast, but there had been wounds that were substantial and had taken more time to heal. They’d had to tend to them internally or end up as science experiments for doctors fascinated by the accelerated healing.
“I’ve got an idea. Stand up,” he told her.
He noted how gingerly she got up, even with the alcohol easing her pain. They must have really roughed her up in the process of wounding her enough to use as bait. Walking over to the cupboard, he fished around for a moment and then went to a nearby drawer where they kept a few tools and such.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“We’re going to seal up your wound with some plastic wrap and electrical tape.”
“Will that hold?”
“Not forever, but it should hold well enough to get you through a shower. I’m going to pull up your shirt. Okay?”
“Okay. It’s not like you haven’t already seen most of what’s underneath,” she replied.
Moose couldn’t help but notice she blushed a little when she said it. She hadn’t seemed at all demure earlier, but now she wasn’t as focused on her pain he guessed, so it was more noticeable that she was exposed to him, perhaps. He very carefully spread the plastic wrap up her side and began taping it on all sides.
“Do I even want to know what is happening in here?” Grant said.
Both Moose’s and Ali’s heads jerked up in his direction. He was always like that. So quiet and catching you by surprise. They must both look guilty of something incredibly weird at the moment.
“Sealing her scratch so she can get a shower,” Moose told him.
“Ah, of course. Those Dire Wolf scratches can get infected pretty easily. Be careful and keep it clean. I remember when Elizabeth had one. Nasty business.”
“Will do,” Moose replied, finishing up his tape job.
Grant retrieved some snacks, most likely for Elizabeth, and disappeared as quietly as he had arrived. With the wound closed up, he pulled down Ali’s shirt and stepped around in front of her.
“Okay. That should do you. Let’s get you what you need to get a shower and when you are done, I can help you clean the wound separately and put some gauze on it so it stays a bit cleaner. Grant is right about Dire Wolves. They are nasty bastards. I’m not surprised that a scratch from one of them might risk infection.”
“Thanks, Moose. You have really been great,” she replied.
She stretched up toward him on her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek, grimacing as she moved away. He smiled at her and nodded, offering her his arm to walk her back out and down the hallway. Luckily, the main bath was empty and they were able to get right in to collect what she needed. They returned to her room with his arms loaded down with supplies. She unlocked the door and he stepped inside to place the stuff on the counter in her bathroom.
“Alright. I’ll let you get to it then. I’m just down the hall. Room 3. Just knock when you are ready.”
“Thanks, Moose. Hey, you think you can do me a favor? Can you just wait out here until I’m done? I have some hang-ups about showering alone in strange places.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude.”
“You are not an intruder. Please stay?”
“Okay, I will.”
Moose sat on the bed and waited. He could hear the shower kick on and her sliding the glass doors closed. He tried not to imagine her gorgeous body beneath the steamy water, getting soaped up - her long hair sticking to her shoulders and back as she washed her hair. He tried to focus on something else, giving some thought instead to who might be giving information to the Dire Wolves. Right now, he had no clue, but he would figure it out. He had to.
The water shut off and his thoughts returned to Ali, imagining her drying off with one of the bath towels he had brought in for her. He thought about her walking out to him, dropping the towel and offering herself to him. He thought about what it might feel like to be inside her. He could feel himself getting hard and let the thought go. All he needed was to have a raging hard on when she walked back out. That would certainly instill trust.
Instead, she walked out, dressed in a pair of sweat pants and a tank top. She was still devastatingly beautiful, but at least he could resist his urges a bit more with her looking like that than if she had been still wrapped in a towel, her skin gleaming seductively.
“Ready to get this done so we can get to bed?” she asked.
Moose had a hard time keeping his thoughts clean at that statement, but he resisted. He focused on cleaning around the stitches and then put some clean gauze on to cover it, taping it up with the small roll of medical tape he had gotten from the main bath cabinet.
“Okay. That should do you,” he said.
“Thank you, Moose . . . for everything. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“I have a feeling you would have figured something out. You strike me as a resourceful girl.”
“I am, but it’s nice to have someone take off a bit of the burden sometimes.”
“Well, I am glad to have helped. I’ll let you get some rest, and see you in the morning. Breakfast is at seven. Do you want me to wake you for it?”
“No. Let’s see how it goes. I’d like to sleep in if I can.”
“Sounds good. Just find me when you feel like getting up. If I’m not in my room or the front lobby, just ask someone where I am. I don’t think I have to go anywhere tomorrow, but if I do, there are plenty of people here that will be happy enough to get you whatever you need.”
She nodded. Moose stood awkwardly for a moment and then turned to leave, pausing at the door to say a final goodnight.
“Goodnight, Moose,” she replied.
All he could think about on his way down the hall to his room was how wonderful it sounded to hear her say his name.