Chapter Two
Anxiety hit Callan Mohan out of nowhere, and yet was subtle, as if the pathway wasn’t familiar or was unsure of itself. He reached out, tried to find the source, but the path wasn’t established and therefore he was blocked from being able to follow it. He kept the channel fully open on his end, hoping whoever it was attempted to reach out again, and next time he’d be able to grab the thread.
He focused on his sister and her portion of the update meeting for how far along they were in being ready to open their lodges as a vacation destination. She’d been working on putting in place an advertising campaign and had been adamant about calling them all together today.
“The cabins themselves are ready to go. We have staff lined up and some of the younger wolves will be helping out until we’re booked enough that we can afford to hire full-time human staff and not have to worry about letting them go due to low revenue coming in. However, when I was putting together the pictures for the pamphlet layouts, it hit me that there’s something missing that we’ve overlooked. Something huge.”
Carleigh displayed an oversize collage of several pictures she’d obviously taken in one or two lodges, then looked around the room at each of them as if waiting for someone to venture a guess. Nothing but silence greeted her from each person gathered at the table.
Callan sighed. “Just tell us, Car. We’ve obviously missed it, so we’re not even going to bother trying to guess.”
She stuck her bottom lip out slightly, as if thinking about pouting, but pulled it back in and shook her head instead. She sucked in a huge breath before launching into her revelation at the assembled group. “Pictures! Decorations on the walls! We have nothing in the lodges except bare wood everywhere.” She looked exasperated with the whole lot of them.
“Yep, you’re right,” Connor, their brother, answered her, all calm and smooth, not giving in to her need to stir everyone to action.
“But we need to do something about this. The walls look incomplete. They’re bare. Ugly. Hideous—”
“Now, Car—” Callan said.
“Fine. Not hideous.”
“Nor ugly,” Connor said.
“Nor ugly. But they’re bare, which is almost as bad as ugly, so we’ve got to get on this right away.” Carleigh put her hands on her hips.
Another wave of anxiety hit, this one stronger. The feeling came and went quickly, and Callan was so busy blocking the signals from going out to his pack, that he didn’t get the chance to grab hold of the thread to follow it. He also hadn’t covered up his reaction in time to hide it from his second in command.
Everything okay? Grayson asked.
A concerning mystery. Callan refocused on what his sister was saying.
Nice try, Gray said. What’s going on? What do I need to know?
That’s just it. I don’t know what’s going on yet. It feels like someone is in trouble, but I don’t know who.
I’m going to do a few check-ins.
Fine.
Carleigh held up the mock-ups. “At the very least, we need artwork, pictures on the walls. I don’t care what we put up there. I don’t care if we frame cheap posters from Walmart. We need at least one large picture in the main room of each cabin, and we need at least one smaller picture in the bedroom of each cabin. I don’t care if every single one of them is the same right now. I just need something done so I can retake these pictures before I put out brochures and flesh out the website.”
Callan would’ve usually thought the anxiety was coming from his sister, but he was used to her code-red dramas and they never hit him like this. He was one hundred percent certain of that when the anxiety switched to fear and hit him hard. Hard enough for him to suck in a breath. Hard enough that he could feel the tension ratcheting up in the room because they could feel the fear coming from him.
And it wasn’t just the fear coming through to him. No. It was his own fear for her. Because he now had hold of the thread. The thread that was now cemented into a bond, the strongest type of pathway possible.
Callan needed to do things orderly first, because he had no idea who she was nor where she was except that she was close. So he’d have to start from the top.
“We need to shift this meeting from artwork on walls to locations of people. Someone’s in trouble nearby and I need to find her.”
“Her?” The question echoed around the room, both out loud as well as in his mind, but Carleigh was the loudest. “How do you know it’s a her?”
“I just do. Gray. What’s going on at the plant? Any trouble reported in any parts of the distillery or the warehouse?”
Grayson looked up from his phone. “None. At least nothing that Kelli is reporting. What are you feeling?”
Callan had already done a quick mental check-in with several pack members working at their whiskey and moonshine plant to see if anyone knew of any problems or trouble that might be happening, but the responses had all been negative. Everything was fine from that direction. “Fear coming from someone.” And as long as there was no trouble at the plant, he could rule out his idiot cousin. Probably.
Gray had his phone out, typing out orders left and right, Callan was sure. “What do you need us to do?”
The fear he’d been feeling turned to terror. A silent, wordless scream forced Callan to one knee and he choked off the pack bond completely. He hadn’t been fast enough for the people trapped in the meeting space with him, and when he looked up, he faced a room full of wolves who hadn’t been able to control their shift. They smelled the terror emanating from their alpha and they’d shifted to protect him.
Now he needed to find his mate to protect her before it was too late.
He rose to his feet and leaned on the table with his knuckles. The wolves in front of him were pack. Family. And they were barely managing to stay in one place waiting for him to speak. The instincts triggering the shift resulted in an excess of restless energy and an abundance of tension, causing them to quiver. They were willing to take on the world to protect their alpha from whatever had caused him to reek of fear.
Grayson tilted his head and gave Callan a don’t-b.s.-me look.
“I have—”
The conference room phone rang and they all jumped. It never rang. The only person who had the number was Callan’s assistant and she never interrupted him.
“Yes, Ginger?”
“Mrs. Brighton is on the phone. She has a guest who went for a walk in the forested area behind the hotel.”
Callan wanted to interrupt and ask what this had to do with him, but something inside him clicked into place and he remained silent. Grayson let out a low whine, but cut it off quickly when Callan gave him the stink eye. “Put her on.”
The call switched through. “Mrs. B?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but last night’s storms must’ve knocked down the trail signs as well as the No Trespassing signs for your cousin’s property.”
Callan got a sick feeling in his stomach. Maybe his idiot cousin was responsible for the trouble today. “Go on.”
“Mr. Brighton was out working in the garden and then decided to clean up some of the trail debris when he saw the girl take off running. She of course outran him, but when he got to where he knows your cousin’s land begins, he stopped. He’s certain she kept on going, but we know we can’t step foot on there, not even to help out one of our customers. Mr. Brighton thought he heard another sound and he hurried back here as fast as he could to have me call you.”
“What’s her name?” Callan barely kept his cool.
“Kate Ballard.”
Kate.
“We’ll be right there.” Callan hung up and looked at his wolves. “Gray, I need you to pull yourself together enough to change back once we’ve left. Then I need you to take my truck down to the Brighton Hotel.”
Grayson whined. Callan would get an earful later about his own safety as well as his decision to leave his number two behind. But this was important and Gray would understand everything soon enough.
“Once you get there, meet the rest of them—” Callan glanced around the room “—behind the hotel. I want you to stay in human form as long as possible. Carleigh, I want you to wait for Grayson at the tree line behind the hotel. Everyone else can spread out along the property line. I’m not quite sure what I’m walking into, but I know Kate Ballard is important. Got it? Let’s go.”
Callan knew his family would be right behind him as he ran for the front of their house. The house had been their family home and they’d turned it into the pack house when their parents had given up alpha status to allow their mom to recuperate from a serious illness in private.
He shifted with a swiftness that gave lie to the calmness he was trying to project in what for him was the greatest emergency of his life. His mate was frightened and on his cousin’s property. Property that no one was allowed on, and if they did wander onto it, his cousin was more apt to shoot first than to ask questions at all.
The terror she’d been sending through their bond was now at a controlled level. Back down to fear rather than mind-numbing, vomit-worthy terror. Why? Was she fading? It took every bit of his strength just to keep his footing as he tried to puzzle it out and run full-out down the mountain toward the small town at the base. Luckily, he’d been running these same paths ever since he was a child, both as a pup and as a boy. He knew where the rocks to avoid were, and he knew where the footholds that would give him the most traction were laid out.
As long as she continued sending some amount of fear along their mental pathway, she was alive, and Callan would have to hold on to that.
I need you to hang on for me. Do whatever it takes.
He was going to have to kill his cousin.
And it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that a pack war began over a situation with a mate.
* * *
The man let the rifle droop slightly, which caused his flannel shirt to catch on one wolf’s fur. The movement revealed a huge rip in his jeans where the end of the pocket poked straight through, matching the rips at both the knees. “Now, now, fellas. The lady says she’s a little lost out here in our woods.” He sneered at Kate. He even sneered at her in the emotions she picked up from him.
Of greater concern to her was the fact that no one else was out here with them except for the wolves, and he was talking to them like they were pets. Like most people spoke to their cats and dogs.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, Billy. She’s a might pretty thing. You think we can keep her? You think she’d even stay with us? She seems a little dumb, not speaking to us much. But she’s not tried running from y’all yet. I wonder if that means she knows anything or not. She’s definitely not from around here.”
Okaaay. Who the hell was Billy? Was this guy talking to himself? Some invisible person? He still looked straight at her. None of this made sense. And he wanted to keep her? What kind of talk was that?
“Who are you talking to?” She hadn’t meant to say anything. She hadn’t meant to engage the crazy, but sometimes her mouth did things before her brain gave it permission.
He re-aimed the rifle, this time directly at her. “Don’t you never mind. You’re the one in the wrong and you need to hush.”
“Hushing.”
His face reddened. “You’re just like every other female. Gotta get the last word—”
“Bobby, I think that’s enough.” From upriver, another man approached along the river bank, on the same side as rifle guy. Human and wolves, all, turned toward him at his words.
The sound of his voice held a note of authority, but the note was off-pitch just enough that Kate barely held her flinch in. It was like listening to a familiar tune played on the bells, but one of the bells had a dent or ding in it, causing it to no longer ring true to the pitch it was meant to be.
That was how this man’s voice hit her—as if he were almost complete, almost who he was supposed to be, except there was something wrong with him. Something wrong with his authority.
“But, JT. She’s on our land. Running around like she owns it.” Rifle dude—Bobby—was looking at the newcomer but hadn’t dropped his rifle.
Also, the wolf closest to her was back to staring at her instead of the new guy—JT.
Never in Kate’s life had she thought there’d ever be a threat to her worse than a pack of wolves, but she tore her gaze from the two monsters and their master across the river, and turned her eyes just enough so that she could focus on this new possible threat.
JT took measured steps, coming ever closer. “And what did she have to say for herself?”
“I said I was lost.” She shouldn’t be in trouble just for getting carried away trying to chase an eagle. Said every victim in a horror or slasher movie ever.
The wolves growled at her again and Bobby refocused on her. “I told you to shut your mouth. She can’t do that, JT, can she? She can’t go running around in our woods. You’ve said so.”
JT, in his dark blue, almost black, denim jeans and tucked-in flannel shirt, hadn’t looked away from her since he’d first arrived that she could tell. He, too, didn’t seem fazed by the man-size wolves.
His deep black hair shone in the late afternoon sun as he shook his head. “Nope. You’re right. She can’t.”
“Well, so me and the boys was patrolling and were just now trying to figure out what we was going to do with her.”
Kate tried to keep up. She still had no clue who Billy was. God. Could she really have landed in backwoods Appalachia? This kind of stuff didn’t really exist, did it?
JT still didn’t take his eyes off her. “Let’s clarify one point, Bobby. It’s my land. My property. You’re supposed to patrol it. You’ve done your job and caught a trespasser. Let me do my job and find out why she’s here.” Every word was spoken calmly and with control. And yet, that dissonance in his voice continued to clash against her senses.
In the movies, it was always the one who spoke softly and carefully who was the most dangerous. She believed that about JT. Not only did he own all this land that she was on without permission, but he easily spoke to—and rebuked—a crazy man flanked by two huge wolves.
JT walked a few steps closer to her. He was still farther away from her than Bobby and the wolves, but JT was on her level at the river bank, not up on the hill looking down at her. “Tell me. You got lost. What were you doing that got you lost and had you missing all of the many No Trespassing signs we have posted.”
Kate tried to get a read on him, but all she got back was cold. Everything coming off of him was just...cold. It wasn’t that there was nothing. It was like he was ice. “I was chasing an eagle.”
He gave the slightest nod, except...it was diagonal. Not a yes, not a no.
A noise to Kate’s left grabbed her attention.
The wolves were on the move, making their way down the steep incline.
“An eagle,” JT said.
Kate whipped her eyes right in time to see JT traveling down river again, closing the gap between them while advancing toward the approaching wolves. He casually waved his hand at the wolves, pointing toward them and then behind him, and they altered their path, ending up directly behind JT.
Oh, God. She was going to be sick.
JT was definitely the most dangerous of all the creatures, especially if he could command those monsters to do whatever he wanted them to do.
Those weren’t normal wolves, and this wasn’t a normal situation. She was even more concerned that there was no way she could get out of this alive, or at the very least, unharmed.
JT and his wolves stopped their journey directly across the river from Kate. His appearance was average enough, what with his red, black and white plaid flannel shirt, but even that conflicted with the spring growth on the trees and the pollen in the air. It reminded her of winter. Once again...cold.
Going by looks alone, though, was always a dangerous thing. Didn’t “they” always say most serial killers looked “normal”?
Besides, she was in the backwoods, alone, with no cell service. The only thing keeping her from completely collapsing was the expanse of water between her and the wolves, though were wolves water-averse?
All she needed now was the negligee and high heels and she’d be ready for her audition in any teen horror flick.
And gee, for some reason, that line of thinking didn’t ease her mind at all. No, all it did was increase her anxiety to stomach-churning levels.
JT stepped closer to the river’s edge. “What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours? Because you’re awfully quiet over there.”
Kate wanted to back away, but glanced up to see the rifle still pointed directly at her. Instead, she righted her art bag as surreptitiously as she could to her side and not in the way of her arms or legs needing to move.
White-hot rage replaced the cold she’d been picking up from JT. Growls made up the accompanying soundtrack. And Bobby’s steady stream of annoyance changed to anger with an undercurrent of fear. “What the hell is Atlanta PD doing up here so far north? You don’t belong here,” JT said.
Her damn T-shirt.
“No. I’m not—you don’t understand.”
“I understand you’re wearing something that marks you as being an Atlanta Police Officer and I want to know what you’re doing here and what’s in that bag of yours.”
Shit.
She’d never given a single thought to how her life might be in danger because the only workout clothes she now owned happened to all have Atlanta PD on them.
It was then she realized that the only things moving on her were her brain and her heart. Oh, and maybe her lungs, but she couldn’t guarantee that. Those puppies kept freezing on her like she didn’t need to bother with breathing all that often.
JT ran two steps and leaped onto a rock on his side of the river. The rock was jagged on top and yet he easily kept his balance.
She was helpless, couldn’t even run away, and her brain was screaming in terror when she wished it was her voice. The experience brought to mind The Scream by Edvard Munch, and she projected that helplessness the only way she knew how, she screamed for help mentally.
It wouldn’t do her any good, but there’d been this voice in her dreams that would comfort her on nights she’d been anxious or scared or had a harrying experience at work. And more than anything, she wanted the comfort and strength that voice always brought to her through her subconscious. For almost twenty years, she’d accepted that voice as a secret companion, and if she were going to die here and now, then she wanted to hear that soothing voice inside her head one more time.
“That’s a neat little trick you’ve got there. Who’re you trying to communicate with?” JT tilted his head and the wolves lowered their heads and whined.
Huh? “What do you mean?” Kate wished she knew how to mentally send the sound of a dog whistle to the canines just to take them out of the picture.
JT narrowed his eyes. “You’re communicating with someone. Or trying to. Something’s happening.”
Hoping and wishing she could certainly wouldn’t make it so. But how could he know...? “I truly have no idea what you’re talking about.” Everything inside her was starting to fall apart, and she was beginning to lose the strength to stand much longer.
“I don’t believe you.”
Kate.
That voice.
Her protector’s voice.
The one that cradled her like a full-body down pillow and wrapped around her senses like a silk sheet.
JT jumped to another rock, on her side of the river. One Kate could barely make out because the top skimmed the surface of the water.
She’d never heard that voice during her waking hours. It had only ever come to her in dreams. But dammit, that voice? That voice was worth living for and finding. There was no fucking way she was going to let herself die on the side of a mountain.
“I’m getting tired of asking these same questions over and over and getting non-answers from you.”
Now that he was closer, Kate could see the knife handle sticking up out of JT’s boot. “I’m sorry you don’t like my answers, but they’re all I’ve got.”
JT jumped to her side of the river then, once again defying what should’ve been natural laws of physics and motion and what the average person could do.
Kate forced herself not to flinch. To stay as still as possible.
“Thing is, I’m looking at you from the Atlanta PD, wanting to know why it is that a cop from down there would be up here on my land.”
“I’m not a cop,” Kate said.
JT ignored her response. “And we ask you how you come to ignore all of my No Trespassing signs, and you tell us you were chasing an eagle and got lost.”
“I was. I wanted to sketch it.” She wasn’t helpless. Not completely. Terrified beyond anything, yes. But she wasn’t a ten-year-old girl facing down animals. Kate was in her thirties and she’d been trained in self-defense as a requirement for her job.
Now she just had to convince her body to act on what her mind wanted it to do.
Yeah. That.
I need you to hang on for me. Do whatever it takes.
“Then I asked you who you’re trying to communicate with and you pretend like you’re stupid. That pisses me off the most, see, because I can feel the energy, so I know something’s happening.”
Kate called on one of her skills from her time in high school marching band—use of peripheral vision without moving the eyeballs—and took in her immediate surroundings to try to determine what she might use to defend herself. To use as a weapon.
She opened her hands out in front of her to show she wasn’t a threat. “I went for a walk. I work out in Atlanta PD T-shirts. I saw an eagle. I wanted to sketch it. I hoped it would land so I could see that. I didn’t see any No Trespassing signs. I’m sorry.”
A huge stick lay to her left, almost like a small log, but she couldn’t tell from her position if it was stuck in the mud and river silt. A stick to her right lay on top of a pile of leaves. It was longer, but much thinner and wouldn’t help her out. Of course, if she couldn’t dislodge the larger one, it wouldn’t do her any good either.
“I don’t like it when people lie to me. We’ve got signs posted everywhere. You would’ve had to trip over one in the direction you came from.” JT stalked closer to her. “And I noticed you didn’t deny the communication this time.”
I’m almost there.
Here here? At this river, here? How?
Kate needed to keep him speaking instead of acting. “I don’t know what to say or how to react to someone accusing me of talking to people with my mind. I’m sorry, but it just sounds really bizarre.”
She wanted a simple existence.
She’d thought she’d deserved that at this point.
“Don’t patronize me, little girl. I’m the last person you want to cross right now,” JT said.
Kate once again evaluated her options, quickly discarding the idea that she might be able to get to any kind of weapon and use it in time.
Plan B it was then. One of her self-defense instructors liked to explain that a knee was only supposed to bend in one direction. If it was forced to bend in any other direction, it would only fold that way once, leaving your attacker whimpering on the ground. Kate wasn’t going to assume that JT’s knee was normal since nothing else about the situation or any of his physical feats had been normal so far, but knees still had to be weak on everyone. Right?
“I get that. I do. And I’m not trying—”
JT took two steps back, peering over his left shoulder into the trees that dotted the riverbank.
Kate spared a glance to her left, and the wolves, too, were focused on the trees on her side of the river. Bobby swung his rifle and had it aimed that same direction instead of at her.
Several seconds later, Kate finally heard footsteps approaching at a fast clip, although she couldn’t see who it was.
“What are you doing here?” JT asked, crossing his arms at the chest. The white-hot rage he’d been steadily streaming at her now turned into hatred.
“JT.” The man sounded like the voice in her head, but the trees and hill muffled him.
Maybe she was just projecting hope onto some poor, unsuspecting sap.
“Cousin,” JT spat with disgust.
Sooo, the newcomer was a good thing. The enemy of her enemy was her friend, and all that.
Leaves rustled above and to her right, and even though to this point she hadn’t taken her eyes off JT, everything in her, every instinct, every curiosity, compelled her to turn her head.
He wore medium blue jeans and a light green Henley T-shirt that hugged his muscular chest. The sleeves of his T-shirt were pushed up to reveal muscular forearms while his arms dangled casually at his sides.
His strong, defined jaw squared off before reaching the white-blond hair covering his head. A couple shocks of dark brown hair sat high on his head, as if they were reverse gray patches.
Despite the animosity directed at him from JT, this man’s face and emotions radiated warmth, even happiness. Comfort began to drown out the negative emotions that had bombarded her since this whole ordeal began.
And, oh, his eyes. His eyes bore into her, creating a connection that spanned not just the small distance between them, but the energy fields that surrounded them.
Gravity tilted. Vertigo threatened. And then everything in Kate’s world righted itself.
“Kate. Mrs. Brighton said you got lost. She sent me out to come find you.” I need you to nod yes, even if you’re not. “Are you okay?”
She jerked her head once in some semblance of a yes.
JT widened his stance and kept his arms crossed. “What do you think you’re doing? You know this woman? How?” He narrowed his eyes into a glare. “And what are you doing with a cop?”
“Yeah, what’re you doing with a cop?” Bobby asked.
Great. He’d made his way down to the river bank and stood directly across from her on the other side of the river. Much, much closer than he had been.
The new guy made his way down the hill, easily navigating tree roots and the like, all while focusing on JT with a few glances at Kate mixed in.
“I’m helping Katie back up the hill and escorting her back to the Brighton Hotel, where she’s staying as a guest. On vacation. What does it look like I’m doing?” I’m assuming you’re here on vacation.
Katie? Really? That had been way easier than it should’ve been, the whole talking to someone else in her head.
He smiled at her. Seems right.
I don’t think so. By the way, what’s your name?
Callan.
Thanks for the rescue, Callan.
Looked like you were doing fine all on your own.
JT bent and pulled the knife from his boot but held it at his side, then got in Callan’s face just as he was passing. “I don’t know what kind of bullshit you’re trying to pull by bringing the law around here, but I don’t like it, and I will make you pay.”
Callan remained calm.
Kate waited for fear to leak through his emotions to her, but all she got was Zen-like peace.
I’m a sketch artist. Or used to be. That’s it.
“Sometimes, my dear cousin, people happen to get lost in the woods. And sometimes those people happen to have worked in the law enforcement field at one point. That doesn’t mean that they currently do. Nor does it mean that they’re out to get you.” Callan turned his back on JT and walked straight to her. The moment he touched her arm, his energy nearly knocked her over as electric tingles flowed from the point of contact throughout her body.
He turned back to his cousin. “Sometimes, JT, your paranoia is just paranoia.” His voice was just as soothing out loud as it was in her head.
Kate tried lifting her foot, but her shoe was stuck in the river mud as if it were concrete holding her in place.
Callan wrapped his arm around her waist and gently lifted her straight out of the sludge.
Her brain barely worked enough to scrunch up her toes so she could hold on to her shoes. The second, possibly even more important thought was, Oh God, his arm is around my waist. Although she wasn’t sure it was quite so coherent as it went on track repeat the entire time Callan dragged her up the river bank.
“Hey,” JT called out behind them. “You and your pack and your family and your friends and everyone else you know need to stay off my land.”
Callan looked over his shoulder. “And you need to make sure that your signs are well maintained, especially after we’ve had storms in the area.”
JT’s warning tickled the edges of Kate’s mind. It wasn’t quite right. But she’d been through too much, and she was at the end of being able to process anything other than Callan’s touch. Her adrenaline crashed and there was nothing she could do about it. She was just so freaking sleepy. Her feet were too heavy and she stubbed her toe against a tree root. She tripped.
Callan caught her, his one arm staying at her back and the other swooping under her legs. “I’ve got you.”
Kate breathed in his clean, woodsy scent. It, combined with his protective hold, embodied feelings of home.
He put his lips close to her ear. “You look like you need some rest.”
She laid her head on his shoulder and gave herself over to some welcome sleep.