CHAPTER SEVEN

 

 

A woman in a tie-dyed maxi dress, stepped onto the porch as Axel and I walked up the front walk. The house was a mirror image of Krista's place, except it was yellow instead of blue.

I stepped up onto the porch and held out my hand. “I'm Julie.”

I try not to stereotype or make assumptions, but the woman was dressed in tie-dye, with flowers in her hair and a tiny stud nose ring, she had delicate features, short dark hair, and enormous blue eyes, and I assumed she'd be the laid-back flower child type. She grasped my hand in her own, squeezing hard enough to hurt, and shook. “You're an idiot is what you are.”

I looked back over my shoulder at Axel, who smirked. Was that whole thing about setting me free to see if I'd come back a joke? Had he known Lucinda would be like this. “I'm sorry,” I said. “Have we met?”

“You want to live with me, rather than stay with Axel, right?”

“I've only known him a few days. It doesn't seem unreasonable to want a place of my own.”

She sniffed, her tiny nose wrinkling in an adorable way. “This is my place. You want your own place, you should talk to Herbert and have him build you one.”

“Luce,” Axel said. “Like I told you, I've already talked to Herbert and he's going to work on it.”

I glanced back at Axel again, more than a little annoyed. He chuckled. Damn him. “He's not going to build anything until he talks to you about what you want, Julie.” He stuck his hands in his pockets and turned to go, leaving my suitcase on the porch. “I'll see you at three. At the barn.”

I turned back to Lucinda. “Herbert's building me a place. Can I stay here for a bit?”

She sniffed again. “You can stay until Brooke gets back, but not a moment longer. I don't care if Herbert's done or not, you'll have to find somewhere else to stay.”

“That won't be a problem,” I said, even though I suspected it might be a huge problem.

Lucinda narrowed her eyes like she knew I was full of shit, but she opened the door and gestured me inside. “I like a clean house and I don't cook for anyone. You want to eat, buy your own food and cook it yourself. If you make a mess, steal my food, or make too much noise I will send you back to Axel.” She glared at me over her shoulder. “I don't care if he is the alpha, I'll send you back.” She couldn't be that much older than me, but she acted like she was my superior in every way.

The house was impeccably clean. So clean there were no pictures on the walls and no knick-knacks on the tables, not that there were a lot of tables or available spaces for knick-knacks.

“I understand,” I said. “I'm exhausted and I really just want a place to sleep.”

“This way.” She led me through the narrow house and pointed out a room with a twin bed and not much else. It suited me, I didn't need much else. “Don't let me know if you need anything.”

“Why are you letting me stay here?” I asked, too curious not to. “You clearly don't want me here and—”

“If I didn't want you here, you wouldn't be here. I don't know what things are like where you're from, but in Mule Creek we help each other out when necessary.”

Having fully insulted me, she spun and walked back to the front of the house. I rolled my suitcase into the bedroom, shut the door, and dropped onto the bed. I set the alarm on my phone to wake me up in three hours and was asleep before I'd taken my shoes off.

 

***

 

I was still exhausted when I woke up three hours later, and my mouth tasted like cotton, but I forced myself to sit up and get moving. My empty stomach, growling at me like a hungry lion, helped to motivate me to walk into town to the diner. It was only eleven in the morning, so I figured most people would still be sleeping, but the diner was packed. I was about to turn around and leave when Clarissa shouted my name and waved me over to her table, which was in the back corner.

I made my way over there and saw that she was with another woman, tall and thin with a face like a supermodel, but dressed like she'd just rolled out of bed, and two dirty men in shorts and t-shirts. I couldn't really make out their faces because there was so much dirt on them. And because they both sported bushy beards and long hair. They looked even more mountain man than Axel had looked when I met him.

“Hey everyone, this is Julie,” Clarissa said. “Julie this is Rowan, Herbert, and Doug. Do you want to join us for brunch?”

“Sure.” I pulled out a chair and sat, careful not to stare at Herbert and Doug. Was that dried mud in their hair or…?

“Don't mind them,” Rowan said, gesturing at the guys. “They started a mud wrestling tournament as the sun came up this morning.”

“No time for a shower?” I asked.

“This mud,” Doug said, “is a badge of honor. We beat every person who stepped into that mud pit with us.”

“Plus,” said Herbert, “mud is excellent for your pores.”

Doug slapped him on the back of his head. “Dude, spa mud is good for your pores, not the shit you dig out of the ground.”

Herbert seemed unbothered by the slap. “I don't have spa mud and my pores feel great.”

“You're supposed to rinse off the mud after the mud bath,” I said. “If you leave it on too long, it can clog your pores and cause breakouts.”

“Really?” Herbert asked, sitting up straighter. If he were in wolf form, I swear his ears would be standing at full attention.

“Sure. My best friend owns a spa in LA.” Her spa didn't have a mud bath, but dried mud was flaking off those guys and onto the table. It was just gross.

Doug and Herbert exchanged a look and stood in unison. “We'll see you later,” Herbert said. “Nice meeting you, Julie.”

“You, too,” I said to their retreating backs.

“You're my new hero,” Clarissa said, to the accompaniment of Rowan's laughter. “We've been trying to get those guys to leave for the past fifteen minutes.”

I shrugged. “No problem. What's good here?”

Clarissa and Rowan exchanged a look. “I wouldn't say good is exactly the right word for brunch,” Rowan said. “And there's no options. Pretty much the whole town shows up the day after a barn party and Morris just cooks a shit ton of the same stuff, scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said.

“Jelly said you moved in with Lucinda,” Clarissa said. “How's that going?”

“It's great. I'm grateful to her for taking me in.”

Clarissa smirked. “Really? You wouldn't be lying because you don't want to admit you'd rather be living with Axel, would you?”

“Can you smell a lie?” I'd read that in a book once and I didn't really believe it was possible. If she couldn't smell sex, how could she smell a lie? But it seemed like a safe way to change the subject.

Clarissa laughed.

“It's not such a crazy idea,” Rowan said. “People tend to sweat when they lie and we can smell that.”

“Sure,” Clarissa said. “But sometimes people sweat because it's an uncomfortable subject, or it's hot out, or they're under stress. It's not definitive.”

“But it's a clue,” Rowan said.

Clarissa sighed. “You are not going to convince me you can detect a lie well enough to infiltrate the Aspens Whiten pack and find out who stole the spirit stick.”

The waitress appeared by my elbow and set a glass of water in front of me. “The usual?” she asked. “Or extra?”

I looked at Clarissa for help. “How hungry are you?” she asked.

“Starving,” I said.

“Extra,” Clarissa said to the waitress.

The waitress scribbled something on her pad and hurried off.

“What's a spirit stick?” I asked. “Isn't that something you use at summer camp as a reward for team spirit?”

“No,” Rowan said. “It's a six-foot stick that's carved by the master craftsman, Herbert, and represents the virility of the pack. It contains the seeds of our future and the strength of our past.”

“The virility of the whole pack?” I asked. “Is it some sort of fertility thing?”

Rowan nodded, a grin splitting her face. “It's used to bless a new couple who's trying to have a child.”

Clarissa sighed. “That's one of its uses. It's also a record of a pack's history. The carvings represent past events of great importance. It's used in council meetings attended by multiple packs as a way to recognize each pack.”

“Okay,” I said. “Why would the Aspens Whiten pack want it?”

“Just to prove they could get it,” Clarissa said. “They're taunting us.”

“If they destroy it,” Rowan said, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear and leaning in. “It could mean the end of the pack.”

Clarissa patted Rowan's shoulder. “Sweetie, that's just a myth.”

Rowan frowned and shook off Clarissa's hand. “Shelby pops out babies like it's her job, but as soon as the spirit stick was stolen, she said she couldn't get pregnant.”

“Coincidence,” Clarissa said. “Maybe it's just an excuse to take a break from popping out babies.”

“And we've had more babies in the pack since the latest carvings were added.” She looked to me. “The carvings increase the potency of the spirit stick.”

I bit my lip not to laugh. I'd accepted werewolves, but this was incredibly hard to buy. Clarissa seemed to be having the same trouble. “It does seem to increase the confidence of the pack when new carvings are added and I think people feel safer having children. The problem isn't just that it's gone, but that the Aspens Whiten pack wants to claim our territory. Everyone is worried.”

Rowan smiled fondly at Clarissa and nodded. “You are the master of diplomacy, but you won't change my mind. The spirit stick is powerful.”

“So, what's the plan to get it back?” I asked.

Clarissa narrowed her eyes. “We'll get it back. It might take some time, but we've got the council on our side and—”

Rowan snorted. “The council doesn't give a shit about us, Lissa. We need to go in there and take it back.”

“We are not going in there,” Clarissa said. “You are not going in there.”

The waitress delivered plates of food to the three of us. Clarissa and Rowan had human-sized platters of eggs, bacon, and hash browns, but I had enough food on my plate for all of us. I dug in and considered their situation. I didn't want to step on any toes, but I agreed with Rowan that waiting on the council seemed foolish. I didn't know anything about the council, but Darius had definitely rubbed me the wrong way and I'd paid enough attention to politics among humans to know that politicians always acted in the best interest of themselves and their wallets.

“I know that Axel's a pacifist,” I said. “Does the rest of the pack share his beliefs?”

Both Rowan and Clarissa stopped eating and stared at me. Clarissa straightened her shoulders and her stare turned into a glare. “We stand by our alpha, no matter who turns on him.”

“I'm not trying to go against him,” I said. “I want to help him.”

“Help him by standing beside him, not going behind his back and questioning his policies.”

“Not everyone shares his views,” Rowan said. “But everyone sees the sense in not behaving like wild animals. We need to figure out a way to display strength without resorting to violence.”

“We need to stand by our alpha,” Clarissa said, her words ice cold and sharp.

Rowan grimaced. “Questioning his methods is not stabbing him in the back, Lissa. Someone needs to stand up to him. People in the pack are unhappy and scared. They're losing trust in him and someone needs to make him—”

“No,” Clarissa said. “He is our alpha. He needs our support now more than ever. If the pack doesn't like it, they can join the Aspens Whiten pack.”

Rowan shook her head, clearly frustrated, but she didn't continue the argument. It sounded like one they'd had before.

I ducked my head and went back to eating. There was no point in arguing with Clarissa, but something Rowan said had clicked. It wasn't a bad idea. I just had to figure out how to make it work.

 

***

 

“Oh my god, Julie, I am so sorry.” Krista flung open her front door as I stepped up onto her porch. She was four feet eleven inches tall and so petite she bought her clothes in the kids' department. She had blond hair to her waist and was wearing yoga pants and a tank top with no bra, which was a touch awkward since she had a huge rack for such a small person.

“No worries,” I said. “I kind of like being a werewolf.”

“Really? You aren't just saying that to be nice, are you? I feel so bad about what happened. Do you want to hit me? You can if it will make you feel better.”

I feinted like I was going to punch her, but pulled back and hugged her instead. “I don't want to hit you. I feel like I should be apologizing to you. If I'd seen your text, I never would have gone out and you wouldn't be under house arrest.”

She pulled me into her house and shut the door behind us. “Don't be stupid. I should have explained everything before you got here. If I'd shown up at your place and gotten a random text to stay inside, I probably wouldn't have even listened.” She sashayed toward the kitchen. “I've been baking all day because I am bored out of my fucking mind. Would you like anything? A brownie? Cookie? Banana bread?”

My eyes widened when I walked into her kitchen and saw every counter and available surface covered with irresistible sugary goodness. Just what I needed would be to show up to the pack meeting sugar drunk. “No thanks. Me and sugar don't get along so well anymore.”

Krista spun, her mouth turned down in a fierce frown, her eyes damp. She looked as sad as if I'd just told her I'd killed her dog. Could werewolves have dogs as pets? I hadn't seen any in town and…She threw her arms around me and squeezed so tight I thought I might upchuck all the breakfast in my belly. “You can't have sugar. Oh, my god. I've ruined your life.”

I disentangled myself from her arms. “Sweetie. I was a broken fighter desperate to find a way back into the game. Now, I'm part of a pack and I have this amazing ability to transform. I'm healed and stronger than I ever was. Not being able to have sugar is a small thing.” I may have played up my situation a bit to make her feel better, but there was no reason for her to feel bad.

Her expression lightened. “I'm so glad you love it.” She walked into the kitchen and stuffed a brownie in her mouth. I guess she didn't have to worry about getting sugar drunk when…

“Wait, a minute,” I said. “You can just eat all the sugar you want?”

She finished chewing and licked a crumb from the corner of her mouth. “I can. I've developed a tolerance for it, though I may genetically be more tolerant. It affects every wolf differently.”

I watched her smash two cookies together and eat them in three quick bites. She closed her eyes for a moment and savored them. “Honestly, right now, I've got more than a bit of a buzz going on, but my metabolism's so fast it won't last.”

“Genetically? You weren't turned?”

“Nope,” she said. “Born and bred.”

“But you were married to my cousin. Can wolves and humans marry?”

She dropped her eyes to her hands and stuffed in two more brownies.

“Krista.” I drew her name out to several syllables. “What's going on?”

She swallowed and grabbed my hand. She dragged me back to the living room and sat next to me on the couch. “Did you know that about eighty-five percent of people who are bitten don't survive their first shift?”

“No.”

“Well, it's true. People who have no wolf DNA in their make-up don't ever survive a wolf bite.”

I sat up straighter. “I'm part wolf? Was Stu a full wolf?”

She nodded. “Your family's pack wasn't tight and they interbred with a shit-ton of humans. Your father was a quarter wolf, so that'd make you…Damn, I always hated math.”

“An eighth wolf?”

She nodded.

“Could my father shift?”

“At a quarter it's a toss-up. Some can, some can't. Your dad could, but after he married your mother, he chose not to. He didn't want her to ask questions.”

“Makes sense,” I said, my whole worldview changing. “He was so angry and controlling and mean, do you think that had anything to do with his wolf?”

Krista frowned. “Stu said your dad was always a bully, but he never knew how badly he'd treated you and your mom.”

“I know.” Krista married Stu when I was ten, and she and I'd hit it off from day one. After I became famous, she'd gotten in touch with me. She'd been divorced from Stu for a while at that point, but we'd reconnected. My grandmother and great aunt and Stu had also gotten in touch with me. I'd seen them once or twice, but I'd never felt entirely comfortable with them. I just couldn't believe they didn't know what Dad was doing, what he was like.

“But yeah,” she said. “I think being a wolf made it worse for him. Not that wolves are naturally cruel, but that in caging his wolf, in never running as a wolf again, he became even worse than he naturally was.”

“How's house arrest?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

She shrugged. “It's okay. I'm lucky the council didn't decide to execute me.”

“That was because Axel lied for you.” Axel might get pissed at me for telling her, but I thought she should know. She needed to be more careful if she ever had another human staying with her in the future.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared. “Axel wouldn't spit on me if I was on fire. There's no way he did anything to help me.”

I'd thought everyone in the pack adored Axel. “But he did. He told Darius you'd asked him to look out for me and to make sure I knew the rules. Axel said it was his fault he didn't. Said he'd forgotten what time I was due to arrive.”

She could not have looked any more shocked if I'd suggested we invite all the eligible males over for an orgy. “He did that?”

“He did. Why are you so surprised?” From what I'd seen, Axel would do anything to protect his pack.

She stared out the window for a long moment, lost in thought. Finally, she looked at me. “I joined this pack shortly after Axel took over as the alpha. I'd left Stu's pack after the divorce and I was a bit lost, a lot broken-hearted. Axel didn't want me in the pack, argued for me to be excluded, but I had a few friends here, had babysat Clarissa when she was kid, and he was outvoted. At that time, I think everyone was desperate to build the pack so they could hold onto this territory.”

“Why didn't he want you in the pack?” There had to be something pretty damning for Axel to bar her, I was sure of it.

She folded her hands in her lap. “Like I said, Stu's family was a pack, but it was small and not very cohesive. Axel didn't think I'd be able to handle pack life. Sure you don't want a brownie?”

“Krista,” I said. “What else?”

She sighed and huffed. “After I divorced Stu, I was pretty angry. I did some stuff I'm not proud of and Axel thought I was a threat to the pack, a threat to the werewolf secret.”

Ah, now that made sense. “You never told me why you divorced Stu. What did he do anyway?”

“I've never wanted you to think badly of Stu, because he's your family, but you're pack now and…Well, you should know everything so he doesn't show up one day and talk you into joining his ragamuffin pack.”

I said nothing, giving her time to gather her thoughts.

“He'd always promised me that if we buckled down and worked, we could retire early and travel.” She sighed. “I've always wanted to travel and learn to sky dive…Anyway, he promised we'd do all those things after we'd worked our asses off and saved our money. It was why we never had kids. I'd had kind of a rough life before I met Stu and I wanted better things…I wanted to experience life. No matter how hard we worked, it seemed like our savings account, our investments, never grew. Stu told me the interest rate was down, the stock market was down, our broker had made some bad choices. He had an excuse for every day of the week, but the truth was he was gambling away all the money we'd earned.”

Honestly, I wasn't surprised. Stu adored Krista, anyone with eyes could have seen that, but he'd never been what anyone would call stable or reliable, I'd known that even as a kid. Probably because he'd made me promises he'd never kept and missed birthdays and forgotten holidays. A gambling addiction made sense. “I'm so sorry, Krista.”

“I think it would have been easier if he'd been in love with someone else, but he chose a game over me.”

“He's probably an addict,” I said. “He's sick.”

“Yeah, I know he is. I felt guilty about that for a really long time, like maybe I should have stayed and helped him quit.”

“If you leaving wasn't enough incentive for him to quit, nothing you ever did would be.”

Tears glistened in her eyes. “He used to call me once a week, telling me how much he missed me and begging me to come back. It broke my heart every time he called. I even took him back for a while, tried to make it work, but he hadn't stopped, he'd just gotten better about hiding it. I had to change my number and move. I just couldn't do it anymore.”

“It's not your fault,” I said. “He's got to figure it out for himself.”

“Logically, I know that. But I still feel like I let him down, and now I've let you down.”

“Don't feel guilty about me,” I said. “Help me out, tell me about these Aspens Whiten wolves.”

She scrunched her nose. “Why do you care about those losers?”

“Because they want this territory and they stole the spirit stick. We need to do something about it.”

Her eyes widened. “I heard it but I didn't believe it until this moment. You're in love with Axel.”

I was so shocked, I sucked in a sudden breath, but that breath came with saliva that went down the wrong tube and sent me into a coughing fit. Krista patted me on the back until I was breathing normally again.

“What makes you think I love Axel?”

“You want to save his pack, sweetie,” she said. “You want to help him.”

I rolled my eyes. Krista had always been a die-hard romantic. “I want to help the pack. I like it here and I like everyone, even Lucinda. I don't think it's right that the Aspens Whiten wolves run us out of here without a fight.”

Krista shrugged. “If you say so. I don't know much about the valley wolves, but I know someone who does.”

 

***

 

“No,” Lucinda said. “I'm busy.”

She was sitting on the couch, watching a soap opera that was so cheesy the couple on screen were actually cooing at each other over a pot of cheese fondue. “What if I wait until a commercial break?”

She grimaced as though she'd tasted the cheese fondue and it didn't agree with her. She picked up the remote, hit pause, and shifted to look at me. “I fast forward through commercials.”

“Look,” I said. “I get that your time with the Aspens Whiten pack might have been unhappy and you don't want to talk about it, but—”

“It wasn't unhappy. I just don't want to talk about it, because talking about it would require me to spend time with you.”

I had a pretty tough skin, but she was starting to get to me. “You don't even know me.”

“I know you've only been a wolf for a week, yet the alpha is parading you around and telling everyone you're some special starburst.” She shook her head. “Men can't see past their dicks.”

I sighed and sat next to her. “You think he's only calling me the starburst because we slept together?”

She just stared at me like the answer was obvious.

“I get it,” I said. “When I was a few years younger, I was at the top of my game in the UFC, I'd only lost one fight. And then this new girl appeared on the fight circuit, she's a couple years older than me, and it was clear she had something going on with her coach…At least I thought she did, based on the way they were so tight, but it turned out—”

“You got a point here?”

“The point is, I made assumptions about her and, when I finally did fight her, she kicked my ass.”

“You told me that whole story to make the point that I might be underestimating you?” She looked around. “Are we on camera? Is this one of those dumb reality shows and no one told me?”

At the word reality show, an announcer's voice started speaking in my ear, 'retired MMA fighter, Julie Jacobs, once popular pop star Marley Tucker, and child star Haley Bop have journeyed to a mountain-top village, been turned into werewolves and—'

Lucinda snapped her fingers in front of my face and I popped back into the present moment, but damn that'd be an amazing reality show. I'd watch it.

“No,” I said. “We aren't on a reality show. And Axel hasn't promoted me because he wants to get in my pants. I really am the starburst.” And I believed it. Not just because I was desperate to find some sort of occupation now that fighting was done, but because I really felt it. I felt protective of the pack. I wanted to help them, to make their lives better and safer.

“Prove it,” she said.

I stared at the ceiling for assistance, but none came. “I don't know how to prove it.”

“Fight me,” she said. “I'm almost as strong as Clarissa. If you can beat me, I'll believe you're the starburst.”

I looked at my watch. The meeting was in an hour. “That makes no sense. I'm a trained fighter. I'd beat you even if I was a beta.”

Lucinda straightened her shoulders and stared me down. “I command you to fight me,” she said in a damn good approximation of the alpha voice.

“No.”

She leaned toward me. “Fight me.” Her voice was even deeper, but I felt nothing.

“No thanks.”

She leaned back. “Holy shit, you really are the starburst.” Her entire demeanor changed just like that. “Can I fight you? I've always wanted to test my skills against a professional fighter.”

“Have you trained?”

“I've watched a shit-ton of UFC fights.”

“Good enough for me,” I said. “But only twenty minutes, and then you tell me everything you know about the valley pack.”

She leapt off the couch and ran for the back of the house, hollering about changing her clothes. She was back in less than two minutes in work-out shorts and a sports bra. The woman had been training, unless wolves were just naturally fit, because she had some serious guns and defined ab muscles. “Let's go out back,” she said.

I followed her to a small back yard, similar to the one behind Krista's house. The sun was high and warm, though a nice breeze would keep us from being too hot. “Aren't you going to change?” she asked.

I looked down at my jeans and t-shirt. I really didn't expect to have to work up a sweat. “Nah, I'm good.”

She grinned like she'd already won.

She got into a pretty decent fighting stance and I matched it. She feinted with a punch that she telegraphed and I easily dodged, but a surprise kick clipped my hip and knocked me off balance. As she leaped on top of me, it occurred to me I may have been a bit overconfident.

She got me face down and wrapped an arm around my neck, but her hold was all wrong and I easily slipped free and got her on the ground, her pretty workout shorts getting covered in mud. She struggled but couldn’t break free of my hold. “Match to me,” I said.

I let her go and we both stood. She bounced on her toes, only a little winded. “Why couldn't I hold you? I should have won when I got my arm around your neck.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You should have. Want me to teach you how to do it properly? Or do you want to fight for the next eighteen minutes?”

She opted for me to teach her and I spent the next half hour showing her how to do proper holds and how not to telegraph her punches. “Shit,” I said, when I stopped for a water break and saw the time. “You need to tell me what you know about the valley pack now or I'm going to be late.”

She shrugged. I doubted I could ever call her a pleasant person, she was all hard edges and blunt statements, but I'd had fun teaching her. She was a good student, and she didn't seem to hate my guts anymore.

She sank into a seat at the kitchen table. “I'm not sure how much I can help,” she said. “I lived with them for a couple years, but the pack members have changed since then.”

“How long ago were you with them?”

“More than four years ago,” she said.

“Do you think they'd invite you in and show you around if you showed up? Is there anyone there who might remember you?”

“Maybe,” she said. “But they'd also know I'm part of Axel's pack and they'd be suspicious.”

That would be a problem, but maybe…“I'll think about it,” I said. “Maybe we can talk some more tonight?”

“If we can practice fighting some more.”

I bit back a sigh. It looked like I was going to be busier than I'd anticipated.