Chapter Eight
Kate couldn’t believe how well the distillery blended with the surrounding scenery. Part of the building disappeared into the rock of the mountain itself. And the rest of it used the trees surrounding it as camouflage.
“Wow.” She made the word into three syllables.
“Yeah?”
“One would almost think y’all were trying to hide from the law up here with this setup.”
“Keep in mind, we once were. When my dad decided to stop hiding and go legit, we were able to expand and ended up selling more than we ever imagined we could.”
“Aren’t you worried about the trees coming down on the roof and damaging everything?”
“The mountain protects us from the west, which is the direction most storm systems come at us from. We also have some protection from the south in case we get storms that way as well. Other than that, we have some roof re-enforcements that we can deploy during major storms, including ice and snow storms, so we won’t have trouble. We’ve tried to think of everything. Kevin went to NCSU for his engineering degree and I trust him to keep our livelihood protected with his innovations.”
“Wow.”
“You said that once already.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” The pride Callan felt for one of his extended family members was impressive. The complete trust and delegation of responsibility for this particular area was remarkable.
Callan swung his arm out to encompass the whole plant. “We’re hoping to incorporate the distillery as part of both the backpacking tour as well as the scenic tour. We know the golf carts can make it along the road. We’ve already tested that out, and we’re hoping if all goes well, we can add a few more carts to our fleet before too long.”
“Your fleet, eh.” She elbowed him in the ribs. “Sounds all fancy and junk.”
He scoffed. “Well, it’s not the Biltmore House and their winery, but we’re hoping to do okay. In fact, from the very beginning when their winery opened up, they’ve had a tasting room at the end of the tour. You can sample different Biltmore wines and pick the ones you want to purchase to take home with you. We want to add something small like that to our tour of the distillery.”
“All you’ll be doing is getting the tour members drunk on whiskey moonshine so they’ll fork out money for more.”
“Why, Katie Ballard. That sounds like a very deceivious business plan. Also a good one.”
She grabbed his hand. “Mmm-hmm. That’s what I thought.”
The front of the building could’ve been the frontage to almost any kind of small business, certainly not a distillery that was supporting a pack family of a couple hundred. And not just supporting but allowing them to thrive.
“On top of the drawings you’re doing and have done for the lodges, I’d love for you to check out the tasting area and see if you can class up the space with some of your artwork.”
“You know I’d love to.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” He squeezed her hand and the electricity that always surrounded them bounced around in the area of her heart a few times.
“Come on. I’ll take you in through the warehouse first. I want you to see where we package up the Whiskey Shine bottles.”
“I’ve been wondering about that anyway. I was wondering how you get big trucks all the way up this mountain.”
“We don’t. I’ll show you how we’ve figured out transportation.”
Callan put his hand low on Kate’s back and the thrill of possession zinged through her. Not that he owned her. No. It was more just the feeling of someone saying, “She’s mine, guys. Back off.” Or, “I want to show the world that I claim her for myself.” She wanted to say the same things about him, but something was holding her back and she wasn’t sure what it was.
It certainly wasn’t their chemistry. He lit up her lady parts like no one ever had. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him. Everything about him screamed responsible adult. He was a caring leader who took care of the people he was responsible for. She’d listened in while he weighed the different options brought to him before he made a decision everyone followed without argument.
Kate didn’t have time to try to figure out the mystery any longer. Callan was introducing her to the woman behind the front desk.
“Katie, love. This is Cassie. She runs this place with an iron fist. Cassie, this is my Kate.”
Cassie stood and offered her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Kate. I’ve heard a lot about you already.” Her grip was firm, but not overly so.
“I just bet you have. I can only imagine what all you’ve heard.”
“All of it good. I promise. We just hope you won’t let this rapscallion corrupt you too badly.”
“Ignore everything Cassie says.”
“I thought you said she runs this place with an iron fist. And if I’m going to be doing some artwork for the—”
“Ignore her anyway.”
Cassie let out a hearty laugh indicating the two shared a great relationship. Cassie winked at her. “Let me know whatever you need when the time comes and I’ll make sure everything is set up for you.”
“Thanks. It was great meeting you.”
Callan laid his hand low on Kate’s back again and led her down a hallway to the left. “Stay away from her. I’m sure I can find someone else for you to work with,” he said loudly.
Cassie’s laughter followed them down the corridor.
Along the way to the warehouse, Callan pointed out different areas of the distillery that he found interesting. He pointed out rooms and viewing locations that were on the tour and private spots that they’d installed extra security for.
When they finally reached the entrance to the warehouse, Kate was already amazed by all she’d seen. “I want to say ‘wow’ again.”
“Not original enough. You need to come up with a new word.”
“Whoa?”
“Doesn’t convey the same sense of positive wonderment.”
“Golly.”
“Really?”
“Whoopee!”
“Never mind. You can repeat ‘wow’ as many times as you like.”
“Wow. Thank you!” She leaned up and gave him a smacking kiss on the lips. “Now please continue the tour, kind sir.”
“We’re coming from the offices side, whereas the door to and from the break room is the usual interior entrance. So this door here doesn’t get used much at all. All of the walls and doors between the warehouse and offices are soundproofed so the office areas can remain as quiet as possible. I tend to not use that break room entrance and have found this door blocked with boxes before. That was interesting. I scared the crap out of one poor guy that day. He was beginning to believe in ghosts. Heh.”
Kate snort-laughed.
Callan opened the heavy door, and just as he’d predicted, pallets of boxes mostly blocked the entrance. And those boxes were moving.
* * *
Callan seethed. Bobby and Billy, his and JT’s cousins many times removed, were opening boxes like there was no tomorrow. They wore the black pants, shirt and hat uniform of the warehouse workers, but their faces were turned toward the wall. In fact, that looked like the only thing they were hiding—their faces. Certainly not their actions. But why in the hell had no one stopped them from opening all those boxes?
Squeezing her hand, Callan sent as much love and warmth as he could to Kate through their bond while sounding a mental alarm to Grayson and Chris. He trusted them to alert warehouse security and staff.
Bobby’s and Billy’s complete focus on the task at hand, along with the warehouse noise, made Callan’s appearance a surprise. And not a nice one for them.
Callan’s chest grumbled as he growled, “What the fuck are you two doing?”
Not only did Bobby and Billy freeze, but activity across the warehouse stopped, too. Except for Kelli, the warehouse manager, and security, who were all heading straight toward them.
Bobby and Billy tossed open boxes into the middle of the space around them. Bottles slid out, breaking glass and spilling whiskey everywhere.
The fire hazard didn’t escape Callan’s notice. Because he was looking for it, he was already mid-leap by the time Billy pulled his lighter from his pocket. Without regret, Callan broke Billy’s fingers while removing the lighter. Billy was a wolf. He’d heal. And Callan wasn’t going to let his entire pack’s livelihood burn up because of this asshole.
Billy’s howl of pain preceded him shifting, and his brother Bobby followed suit. With Callan between them, the brothers bared their teeth and growled at a steady hum.
That was fine by Callan since they wouldn’t be able to flick a lighter with their paws. He couldn’t afford to take his attention away from them, so he closed himself off from the rest of his pack except for emergency messages. The only bond he kept fully open was the one to Kate. Knowing her status at all times was like breathing for him.
A couple security guards remained in human form while another shifted. Grayson and Chris showed up, both in wolf form, as Callan figured they would be.
He had four people in human form, five counting Kate, plus three wolves surrounding the troublemakers. It should’ve been enough, but these two could be desperate enough to try something else.
Finding out what they were up to was a priority, because the two of them weren’t in his warehouse just to open boxes and dump the contents. Set the warehouse on fire? Maybe. But the idiots would’ve been caught in that blaze, too. And beyond that, they never went anywhere without JT, so where was he? “You know, I bet we could get some of those crates that humans buy for training their pet dogs, and we could put y’all in there until you decide you want to tell us what you were up to.”
They shot away, on opposite sides, but both headed toward the exit bay door. Gray and Chris gave chase, but with security coming from the opposite direction, the brothers were going to escape. Callan shut down all pack pathways, even the one with Kate, to concentrate on bringing the intruders down. The mental energy required for controlling a non-pack member was immense, but he slowed them enough that Grayson and Chris had subdued them.
Unease prickled Callan through the mate bond, followed by a fear that he hoped he’d never experience again. Because if he was experiencing it, that meant Kate was experiencing it. And if Kate was experiencing it, something was going wrong that he couldn’t see.
Maintaining his mental hold on the intruders, he glanced at her, but hadn’t expected to see her staring away from him, down an aisle between a whole bunch of pallets.
“Now, now, boys.” JT’s voice preceded him as he exited the boxes, passing directly in front of Kate and throwing a smirk at her, then Callan.
JT swaggered over to the action. “I don’t think we need to be quite so dramatic and extreme in our threats here.”
“What are you and your pets doing here, JT?” It gave him chills to think how close JT had been allowed to get to Kate again.
“I’m here because these two wandered off from our stroll. They obviously decided to cause a bit of mischief. Sorry about that. I can’t help that they find your product so much more inferior than ours and decided it needed to be destroyed. Too bad they couldn’t get rid of more and save your customers from paying so much money for government swill.”
Callan took a calming breath. “You know how you’ve told me on numerous occasions that your policy is to act now and think later?”
“Sort of, though that’s not my creed. It’s shoot first and ask questions later.”
Callan nodded. “Exactly. Neither you, nor Billy, nor Bobby had better show up on any of our property ever again. Because if any of you step foot near this warehouse again, you’ll run smack dab into your own policy.”
JT walked over to Bobby and Billy. “You can release your hold on them and we’ll leave peaceably. Come on, boys. Let’s go.”
Callan released the brothers. His shoulders dropped as the mental tension eased.
Despite being escorted out by two wolves and a guard in human form, the brother wolves still managed to jump up and knock over a pallet of boxes. Growling wolves chased them the rest of the way out.
Kelli gave orders to clean up the mess.
Callan reestablished pack communication and turned to Kate, except she was gone. The link with Kate popped back into place, and he could tell that she was still close, but not as close as she had been. Her fear still came through their bond, but it was controlled now. Maybe because of the shielding lessons he’d given her. Maybe she was subconsciously protecting him from the full weight of it.
Which kinda pissed him off, because he didn’t want her protecting him. He should’ve been protecting her. And he’d done such a bang-up job of that. Which also pissed him off.
Crap. He felt something else from her too. Determination, maybe?
Callan needed to ensure the safety of his pack, because no matter what else happened, he had to take care of them. They were his responsibility. After he did that, he’d take off in search of his heart.
He contacted Grayson and Chris.
I want you two to be sure those three make it off our land without any detours or little side trips. I also want this warehouse searched. I don’t trust JT. Absolutely none of what just happened makes any sense to me. Maybe those two idiots were just a distraction. I want security to search everything to find out where JT was, and I mean everything. Both security tapes and every inch of the entire warehouse. Not just in the area we saw him appear from. My guess is he probably did something elsewhere. I also want to know how they got in, so get security—
Gray interrupted, They’re already on it. Looks like a newer employee made the mistake of letting the two brothers pass through. JT wasn’t seen, at least not by the employee. Security is already reviewing footage and we’ll be looking for blind spots. We hadn’t needed to in the past. We do now.
Everyone was entitled to a mistake here and there. This was a biggie, but not enough for a new employee to lose their job over. Or maybe it was. Kelli, make sure the employee understands all the policies. Also, let’s keep a watch for a little while, just to make sure we’re not dealing with an inside job here. I want it reiterated to all employees that this is exactly why we require that all visitors go through the front desk. Cassie can keep out the majority of the riff-raff.
Chris said, Paranoid much?
You didn’t feel Kate’s fear when she had to face JT again, Chris. It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
Gray said, We’ll take care of this. You take care of Kate.
Callan was already on his way to do that. He just hoped he wasn’t too late.
I plan on meeting you both back at the house for supper. We can talk more then and you can catch me up. I’m going to go spend some time with my mate.
* * *
It’d been weird, after all these weeks, having that constant stream of emotions, thoughts, information and conversations just shut down with no warning. Weird, and a little scary. Something had still been there between her and Callan, probably the mate bond, which seemed to exist outside of everything else, but all of their back-and-forth had been slammed shut.
If Kate had more experience in this world, more knowledge of what the hell she was doing, she might’ve been able to breech the silence via the mate bond. She might’ve been there for Callan, still.
But she didn’t know what she was doing.
Not in this world where people became monsters and monsters lived and breathed as if they could roam the earth freely.
She watched them go from human beings—the one she recognized as Bobby, the unkempt guy from the river—to monsters with fangs and teeth and saliva and fur. So there were monsters in human skin and there were monsters in wolf fur. And sometimes there were monsters who could be in both human skin and wolf fur.
Those were the scariest.
No. Wait.
The scariest was the one who could shut down psychic pathways she’d always thought were a myth anyway. The one who could control other monsters with his mind. Just his mind.
The scariest one was the one who could know what someone else was thinking and already disarm the perp of his lighter. Had he been able to read her mind, beyond what she’d allowed him to know?
Allow. Such a funny word now.
Those wolves hadn’t allowed Callan to take control of them, yet he’d done it anyway.
The scariest one was the one she loved. Yep, she loved him. And loving someone meant giving them her trust.
So what did that mean for her? Would he try to control her? Of course not. At least that’s how he’d answer, because only an insane person would try answering any other way.
But could Kate trust him enough to believe that answer?
Or maybe he’d believe that answer, but wouldn’t have a choice but to control her at some point.
That was the one thing she’d fought against for so long—helplessness. Or at least that feeling. She hated feeling helpless. She hated being helpless. But in this world, she very much felt helpless. She couldn’t turn into a monster to fight other monsters. She couldn’t control someone else with her mind. She couldn’t even bare her teeth and growl in a way that would scare someone off.
She could feel Callan coming. That’s how close they’d become. Everything in her was tuned into him now. Now that he’d brought everything back online.
Kate shook. She’d been strong because she’d had to be. Again. But that didn’t mean she wanted to be.
Despair washed over her at what she knew she had to do. She pulled her bags from the closet and plopped them on the bed.
The bedroom door opened. “Katie, love.”
She loved this monster. Which couldn’t possibly be right, because monsters were frightening and horrible creatures who injured her friends and made Kate afraid for life.
Callan came to her and pulled her into his arms, squeezing her tight to him. His heart beat beneath her cheek, a bit faster than usual.
This monster loved her. She knew that deep down. But she couldn’t live with a monster. She couldn’t be where people could be human one second and a monster the next.
It just wasn’t possible. It wasn’t possible for her brain to wrap around that possibility, so that meant it couldn’t happen.
“Say something, love. Anything. Let me know you’re here with me.” His white-blond hair, usually combed out of his face, fell over his forehead and into his eyes. The brown, a surprise so unique to him.
“I’m here.” She wouldn’t lie to him and tell him she was with him.
He jerked back just enough to look at her face. He took in her eyes and her mouth, over and over. His pale hazel brown eyes much more like the gold of his wolf now. His mouth, showing signs of strain at the edges of his tender lips.
Kate was going to break his heart. Her own heart wanted to break, was already breaking, but there was no way she would allow those emotions to show in front of him or anywhere near his pack.
Oh, God, the pack.
Grayson and Chris. She’d miss them. Chris, the prankster. He always had a goofy smile for her. Even the previous time she’d seen him in his monstrous wolf form, he’d hung his tongue out on the side of his mouth before loping away. But he’d been a monster today and far too close.
Yet not close enough to protect her from the waves of malevolence that had poured off JT like light rays.
“I can’t stay here. I can’t live in an area overrun with monsters. I just can’t. It’s not healthy for me and I’m not going to do it.”
Callan staggered back as if she’d slapped him. “Monsters.”