Chapter Eighteen
Cheryl
She wheeled on him the second the door clicked shut.
“What the fuck just happened?”
His nudity didn’t bother her. She’d seen it all earlier while he was with her. It had looked much more glorious then. Now…well, now she understood what guys meant by shrinkage.
Tearing her eyes away from his junk, which still managed to be distracting, she stared him right in the face. “Why are you not freaking out like I am?” she asked quietly.
Rowe stood his ground. “You seem to be taking it remarkably well, actually.”
“I’m not.” Her voice was small, on the edge of sanity. “I just saw a man shift from a wolf, to a human, and then back again. I saw you take him down and wrestle him to the ground like it was nothing. That was a big wolf. I know you’re strong, but there’s a lot you’re not telling me, Rowe. Including why this isn’t a big deal for you.”
“You did see that,” he confirmed.
“What else haven’t you told me? What else have you lied about?”
Now Rowe reacted, his anger visible in the tightening of his body from head to toe. Without clothes on she could read him like a book.
“I haven’t lied to you,” he said, voice like hard gravel. Commanding. Powerful. Honest. “I didn’t tell you. That is not the same as lying, because the subject never came up, or even close.”
“You know what they are, and why they’re here,” she snapped.
“Yes to the first, no to the second. My guess is just that, a guess, and it’s exactly what yours is.”
“Right. Well, how the hell would I ever be ready for something like that? Shapeshifters. That wasn’t a hallucination. That man is a werewolf.”
Rowe shrugged. “A wolf shifter. Werewolf has so many negative implications. They can change at will, and they’re born into it, not bitten by one. Plus not all of them are assholes like the ones we’re dealing with.” He paused. “Though wolf shifters have a tendency to lean evil. So maybe there is some accuracy in the werewolf title. I don’t know.”
“Right.” She tapped her chin. “Are you a wolf?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Why were you chasing it then?”
“To get it to leave. To get answers.” He shrugged, as if that explained everything. It did, in a way, and in others it didn’t explain a damn thing.
“Why this farm?” She bit her lip, worrying at the skin there. “Why me?”
Rowe laughed. “Nothing at all to do with you. That’s just an unfortunate coincidence.”
“Explain.”
“Can we sit down?”
“Not with your legs covered in mud like that,” she said absently, unwilling to let him make a mess of the place.
“Fine.” He was getting irritated, but she didn’t particularly care. It was his own damn fault anyway. She was just glad there were no other women on the farm to see him like that.
“So you have no idea why they’re here?”
“I have a guess, but it’s the same as yours.”
She frowned, thinking back to what he meant by that. What had she said about… “Wait, these are the same people that graffitied the place?”
“Yeah. And cut the rope in the barn, if I had to hazard a guess, and definitely the ones who kidnapped your worker.”
“There’s more of them?”
Rowe just nodded.
“What do they want with us?”
“I think they knew the previous owner.”
Cheryl connected the dots. “The previous owner was a shifter. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. A particularly nasty one. He had all this land so he and his pack could live here, hold parties, that sort of thing, without being seen. Did the bare minimum of farming to keep up appearances.”
That made a lot of sense, if any of this was to be believed. “That’s why all the farming stuff is in such shit shape, and the house isn’t.”
“Exactly,” Rowe said. “I don’t know why it took so long for them to show up, but that’s my guess.”
“Either way, they aren’t going away, are they?”
“Not anytime soon,” he confirmed unhappily.
“Translation, things are only going to get worse.” She ran her fingers through her hair, feeling the knots. It was not looking good for her future job prospects if a pack of werewolves overran the farm and killed everyone on it. “Great. I suppose I should start looking for work. Back to office administration for me. I don’t see the werewolves coming to harass a bunch of secretaries.”
“Cheryl.”
“They can stick to the farms. I’ll stay in the city. Concrete, metal, and glass. They don’t like that, they’ll stay away. It’ll be nice. My parents will be happy. Maybe I’ll meet a nice manager who I can settle down with and have two kids with and then get divorced when he gets fat and lazy, expecting me to do everything.
“Cheryl.”
“The werewolves won’t be an issue then and I—”
“CHERYL!” he thundered.
She stumbled backward, the sheer force of his voice hitting her like a physical impact.
“Listen to me,” he said, stepping forward, putting his hands on her shoulders. “It’s not over yet.”
She laughed, noting the strained hysterics barely contained within.
“I need you to trust me.”
“What? Trust you how?”
Rowe calmed, but he kept his hands on her shoulders. Maintaining contact with her. Right at the point of contact heat bloomed, slowly working its way through her skin. With it came a feeling of calm. Of peace. Her heart slowed and she began to breathe more regularly. When had she started to gasp for air? What was going on?
Cheryl blinked, feeling like she’d just woken up from a really bad dream.
“What are you doing to me?” she asked cautiously.
“You were going in to shock. Your mind was shutting down, too overwhelmed with everything that’s going on. I used our connection to help you relax, to not panic.”
She stared, uncomprehending. “You can do that? How?”
“I told you once. We’re connected, you and me. I meant that.”
“I don’t understand.”
Rowe came closer and pulled her into a hug. “I know. I’ll explain it soon. Once you’ve relaxed a bit, come to accept the whole wolf shifter thing. I just need you to keep trusting me. I haven’t led you astray yet, and I don’t plan on it.”
“It’s—”
“This is not all your fault, Cheryl. It’s not my fault either. Neither of us are to blame for this, okay? That’s what you should be focusing on. Accept that truth. You didn’t do a thing to provoke them, and there was nothing you could do to stop them, unfortunately.”
She shuddered, and he held her tighter. Despite his nudity and having been outside in the freezing cold, his body was still incredibly warm. Pressed against him like this brought back memories of earlier in the night. Pleasant memories.
“What do we do now?” she asked, basking in the warming sensation.
“Right now? I make a phone call.” Rowe’s voice was firm, but anger lurked just below the surface.
“And then?”
“Then we put everything on hold on the farm.”
Cheryl buried her face in his chest at that. She could just see the disaster about to unfold in front of them, no matter what Rowe told her.
This was the end of her career as she knew it, that much was for certain.