41 – Fierce

“The next thing I remember is being back with my mother, and then we moved.” Reed said, shrugging. “The nightmares didn’t start right away, but there were a few years when I was going to a counselor once a week, they messed with me that badly.” She’d explained it all to Ella, Heather, Harlan and Eventine, the nightmares, the dream when she’d first slept in Troy’s arms that had made the nightmare clear for the first time, and all the things her mother had said since then. “My mom won’t talk about it.” Leilani and Jaggar played with Treena and Track on the floor, Jaggar with an ear cocked their way, Leilani seeming to not listen at all.

Ella nodded. “I don’t think my mom did well with it, either, and she never breathed a word to me. I found my pendant in the attic after she died.”

Heather grimaced. “My mother definitely had a hard time with it, and she still won’t talk about it.”

Harlan shook his head, a bit of old-world cynicism showing on his face. “An angel comes to earth and impregnates human women for his own gain, and it messes them up psychologically. Who could have seen that coming?”

He cocked his head, then nodded at Ella. “Boss man is here,” but Ella already knew. She grabbed Reed’s elbow. “Come on, I’ll take you up.”

When they reached the door, Track shifted into a wolf puppy and ran for his mother. Ella caught him in mid-air, then checked on Treena. Treena didn’t care she was leaving. “I’ll be right back,” Ella called to Leilani, then she ducked out the door, Track in her arms. Reed followed.

Ella was fast, already halfway down the tunnel. Reed slowed, falling behind. Reed wanted some time to think but knew she wouldn’t get any, Ella was practically running to get her up to Trevor. Trevor had said he needed her in the forest behind her house, because Troy was trapped in some trees, and thought that Reed could get him out.

Reed hoped she could. When that news had come, she’d made Ella confirm three times, that Troy was ok and talking. She wished she could hear that telepathic stuff, it would come in handy.

Ella’s hair shifted off her neck as she leaned forward, trying to keep ahold of Track, who was wriggling fiercely. Reed saw a… a mark on the back of her left shoulder, similar to the one Reed now had. She ran forward and touched Ella on the elbow.

“You have one, too. On your shoulder. Do they always bite?” She still didn’t know how she felt about that damn bite. Couldn’t he have told her before he did it?

Ella gave her a slow smile, her hand wrapped around Track’s muzzle to keep him from biting her fingers. “It’s a wolf’s nature to bite.”

“To bite women?”

“Only his mate. There is not one other woman on the planet he would have bitten.”

That stopped Reed in her tracks. She wasn’t one in a million or one in a billion. To Troy, she was one in all of humanity. Which explained a few things.

She noticed Ella’s simple wedding band. “They give rings?”

Ella nodded. “They get married, too, just like humans.”

“Really?” Reed let herself imagine it. Married and mated to Troy. Forever. It would be an adventure, she knew that much. Would she need a job? The remembered loss of her jobs made her sad for a moment, before the craziness of reality dislodged the feeling. The logistics of what would happen to her in the future were too much to think about. For now, she had to be content with just getting Troy out of the trees.

Ella reached a door at the very end of the tunnel and it opened for them, dumping them in a sterile police department hallway, that took them to a large open room that held dozens of desks. An ancient-looking police radio sat in the back, a steady drone of officer/dispatcher discussions streaming out of it. Most of the desks were empty, only a six men in uniforms typing on computers or bent over paperwork. One at a time, each of them looked up at, then stared at the two females heading through the big room at a fast pace.

Reed leaned into Ella. “Are they staring at you, or at me?”

“Both,” Ella said, to her quietly, pulling her to the edge of the room and stopping, then waving. “Hi everyone.”

A few of the males called a greeting. The rest raised their hand or nodded to her.

“This is Reed,” Ella said. “Troy’s mate. She’s new.”

Almost all of the men smiled. A few called out to her. “All right,” one said. “Troy got a mate, good for him. I’m happy for him.” He high-fived the officer next to him. Reed didn’t know how to feel about it. On the one hand, these men seemed to genuinely like and respect Troy, which made Reed like them, but on the other hand, they were talking about her like she wasn’t even there, and like she had no choice in the matter. She’d never even considered the matter of choice in this mess before, but she’d only heard the word mate for the first time the night before.

“Nice to meet you, Reed,” one of them said. Another came up and shook her hand, giving her a genuine smile. All of them acknowledged her directly. They were a polite bunch, she would give them that.

“She’s heading out to the scene with Trevor,” Ella said, waving. “Later.”

The males responded with a chorus of ‘be safe,’ ‘watch your back,’ and the like.

Reed waved to them, again touched at the sentiments, then followed Ella out the door into the parking lot. A large police truck was running at the curb, a muscular man with a rigid expression behind the wheel. As soon as he saw Ella and Track, his face softened, telling Reed this was Trevor, Ella’s mate and husband, and Troy’s big brother.

Trevor hugged and kissed Ella, then took Track from her. Track, still a little black puppy wearing a diaper and a onesie, started gnawing on Trevor’s hand right away. Trevor let him chew it up.

Reed met Trevor’s eyes and tried to smile, nerves hitting her and she wasn’t sure why. He faced her and smiled warmly at her. “Reed, it’s so good to meet you.”

Reed didn’t know whether to hug him or shake his hand, but he curved an arm around her quickly, putting an end to her internal debate, Track squeezed between them. “Get in,” he said, letting go of her and opening the passenger door. “We need you out there asap.”

Reed climbed in the big truck, and so did Trevor, still holding Track. Track tried to escape from his dad, tried to dive into the back seat, but Trevor grabbed him by the scruff and dangled him out the window to Ella.

“Trevor,” Ella scolded.

“Sorry, hon, it’s just easier sometimes.”

“It’s undignified.”

“So is wearing a diaper.”

Ella laughed and climbed up on the running board for a kiss. She caught Reed’s eye. “Bring Troy home safe.”

“I’ll try.” Reed hoped desperately that she was ready, while knowing she was not.

Ella climbed down and went to stand by the door to the station, waving Track’s paw at them, while Trevor got them turned around and pointed out of the parking lot. He turned right and got them on their way, not speaking, but glancing at Reed a few times.

“How are you holding up?” he finally asked. “It can’t be easy being mated to my brother.”

Reed snorted. Out of anything he could have said, that was the one thing that made them instant friends. They exchanged a look.

“It’ll be worth it though,” Trevor said. “There isn’t anybody in the world quite like Troy. He’s always been loyal, fierce, funny, and special, and it had nothing to do with him being stuck as a wolf for so long. It’s just who he is.”

Hot understanding, plus a thick emotional pain settled in on Reed’s chest. “He’s still ok, right?” she asked.

“Lemme check,” Trevor said. He cocked his head slightly to the left and was silent for a few moments, then he turned to her, his face set. “Yeah, he seems fine. A bit cramped, was all he said. He says to tell you he can’t wait to see you.”

“Ok,” Reed said, smiling a little at that, staring straight ahead. But in a moment, she realized something was wrong with Trevor. He’d gone rigid and seemed to be having more conversations in his head.

She turned to him again, worry spreading through her midsection. “Are you sure he’s fine?” she asked.

Trevor nodded once. “He is, but one of our officers is unaccounted for, and they found blood on the trail.”

“Oh no,” Reed whispered, not wanting to interrupt Trevor from his internal conversations anymore. She kept quiet and let him do his thing.

Trevor flipped a switch and his lights and siren came on. They sped down the road, passing everyone. Reed held on tight to the door handle, thinking she didn’t know enough about what she was walking into, but at least she knew why Troy had only been talking for a month.

He must have been a wolf his entire life.

That explained a lot.

***

Reed thought Trevor would drive her to her place, and they would enter the woods there, but he didn’t. He went one road past her place. She peered down the road as he turned, surprised to see all the SWAT vehicles parked in the driveway of the veterinarian clinic where she thought Wiz lived.

She counted six men in the yard dressed in full SWAT gear, helmets and big guns and everything. They were in a tight circle, a map spread out between them, one of the men speaking and gesturing to it.

“This is Remington’s clinic,” Trevor explained, pulling in between two obviously bulletproof vehicles. “He’s a cat.”

He’s a cat. Reed didn’t know what to do with those words, and the way Trevor said them, like he liked Remington, but didn’t understand why, because, he’s a cat. So what did that mean, anyway? Was Remington an actual cat? Like a housecat? Or was he a man that turned into a cat like Trevor was a man who turned into a … a … Reed forced herself to say the word inside her head. Trevor turned into a wolf. Reed tried to imagine how she would act when she first saw someone turn into a wolf that wasn’t a cute little puppy. Whatever she did, she would not scream, and she would not run away, she promised herself that.

Trevor threw the truck into park and hurried out of the vehicle into the house. “Let’s get you suited up. The faster we can get Troy out of those trees, the faster we can launch an all-out manhunt for Grey, Rex, and Soren.”

Reed hurried out of the truck and ran to catch up with him. “Do they… turn into animals?” she called after him. She knew Grey did. He was the wolf from her dream, and if she really saw him, she would probably pee her pants. Unless Troy was there. Troy would never let him get to her. Troy would kill him first.

“Grey is a wolf,” Trevor said, in a voice that was tight and laced with hatred. “Rex and Soren are fox, but they’re marked, so they are foxes the size of bears.”

“Marked. Fox. Bears. Got it.” What she really needed was a cheat sheet, and two Tylenol.

Trevor pounded up the porch steps. Cats flooded out from under them to surround him. Reed searched the cats for Wiz’s two-tone face, but didn’t see him.

“I don’t actually know who Rex and Soren are,” she told Trevor.

He pushed in the house and she followed. Some of the cats came in, most stayed out. “Troy will fill you in on all of that as soon as possible. You’re sticking with me for now.” He went straight through the room to a long table along the back wall, selected a few items from it and began putting them on, explaining them to her. “This is a flak jacket. The medium will fit you. The helmets, you’ll need to try on.”

Reed tried on a helmet. “This is so surreal,” she said. By that time, the only parts of her left uncovered were her face, her arms and legs. She could hear people talking in other parts of the house. A woman laughed from somewhere upstairs.

“Follow me,” Trevor said, when she was suited up to his satisfaction. He took off through a door, heading through an ordinary-looking kitchen. Trevor didn’t slow, pointing out the kitchen window as he passed it. “That’s where we’re going.”

Reed saw only the very top of a bluff, with forest on both sides, and a landslide of stilled rocks piled on top of each other that looked to have revealed an ugly gash in the bluff face.

“Surreal,” she whispered again.

Out the back door they went, through a back porch and down some steps, through a makeshift tunnel of what looked like armored ATVS, leading them right to the forest.

When they stepped inside the cover of the trees, Trevor stopped her. He looked into her eyes and said, “You know that Troy won’t shift, right?”

She shook her head back and forth, slowly. She hadn’t known that.

Trevor’s face was set, telling her this was a very big deal. “He can, we are almost certain he can, because sometimes he shifts in his sleep, so we think he’s scared that if he does, he won’t be able to get back to a man again.” He shrugged, his love for his brother shining clearly in his expression. “He won’t talk about it, and I haven’t pushed him.”

“Will he be able to change back to a man if he… you know… shifts?” Reed asked, her voice small and still in the darkened forest.

Trevor’s expression didn’t change. “We don’t know.”

Reed struggled with that for a moment, then let it drop. She had no time for worry, she had a job to do, and it was one that only she could. “Hang on a second,” Reed told Trevor. She left the path, feeling the eyes of more than just Trevor on her. There were wolves in the forest, but good wolves who were protecting her. She reached out a hand, and laid it on the trunk of a large tree.

She didn’t know what to say or do, so she whispered… “Hi.”

She didn’t get words back… just a… a feeling.

She whirled around to face Trevor. “It’s a trap,” she said.

“What kind of a trap?” Trevor asked, his voice hard.

“I─I can’t tell. Just that there’s…” Reed put her hand back on the tree trunk, not feeling stupid anymore, not feeling afraid anymore, only feeling certain of what she knew. “There’s nine men in the forest, they are divided into three teams and their plans are to lead you all to the…” She shook her head, not able to translate what had flashed through her mind. “A spider? A crack? I─I can’t make sense of it,” she finally said, sounding like she was asking. “They’ve got your missing officer.”

“Alive?” The word was more of a bark than anything.

“Yes,” Reed whispered, seeing that very clearly. “Alive, but tied and ready to be thrown into… into …” She shook her head. “I can’t tell.”

Trevor’s face showed controlled relief. He nodded his head at her a few times. “Do you know where the teams are?”

She touched the tree again. “All I get is holes in the ground. And spiders. I might know if I get close to them.”

“Fair enough,” Trevor said, heading up the path. “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” Reed called after him. “We’re still walking up there?”

Trevor motioned at the trail. “These woods are too thick for the ATVs, and the trail is not wide enough. We’ve got dirt bikes on their way in, but they haven’t arrived yet.”

“No,” Reed whispered. “I mean, because it’s a trap. Aren’t we heading right into it?”

Trevor nodded his head, then pointed out their armed guards, moving with them in the trees. “We’re the cops. Who else is going to do it?”