“And you think this Adam is this surviving wolf?” Linda asked.
“I hope he is. Cage says he shot the teacher that turned, but never found a body. Which doesn’t mean he really got away, of course. But I’m hoping.” If their Adam really was just a lone wolf, one who, for whatever reason, shirked the need for contact, companionship, and touch that most wolves craved, that was fine. But she needed to find her missing wolf, do whatever was possible to help him understand the world he’d been forced into, be as at peace as possible with the wolf within himself. Of course, there was always the chance that the teacher had died, but she would exhaust all possible efforts before giving up.
“That’s just awful,” Linda said. “To have lived all this time alone, no pack, no family, just…” She shook her head. Michael took her hand, his thumb gliding an absent pattern over her skin. For the first time in a long time, Myra felt a pang of longing for her mate. It had been more than fifteen years since Eric had been killed. Wolves touched a lot, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have physical contact on a regular basis, but it wasn’t the same.
She shook her head and returned her attention to the couple. Wolves were pack animals. They needed to touch, smell, be with each other. The fact that Adam wanted nothing to do with them wasn’t a good sign, but at least he’d come forward to help with the sick wolves. She focused on that.
“I know. I need to talk to him, find out if he’s the same wolf. If he’s not, I’ll still help with the current situation while I continue to search for the teacher. If he is, I’m hoping we can figure something out to help him integrate, or adjust, or…whatever we can do.” She paused, took a sip of her nearly forgotten tea. “He’s stronger than you? Even as a pair?”
Michael nodded his confirmation. “Definitely.”
“Then hopefully he really is the one I’m looking for. It would take a very strong wolf to survive what he did.” She was anxious to meet him, to know for sure. “How did you leave it with him?”
“He gave me a cell phone number, took mine. Said he’d call if he found anything out, asked me to do the same. He was polite, didn’t try and push any power or anything. I’m sure he knew we were irritated, but he stayed cool.”
“I have no reason to believe that you don’t have an excellent handle on this territory. If he’d been misbehaving in anyway, I’m sure it would have come to your attention before now.”
They nodded, looking relieved. Michael pulled out his phone. “Would you like me to call him?”
“Yes, please. Ask him to meet us tomorrow, somewhere he won’t feel threatened. I’ll trust you to pick a suitable location.”
CHAPTER TWO
Adam woke up when the early morning sunshine invaded his cabin. As a teacher, he’d been pretty much forced into being a morning person, and the habit had stuck. Fueling up on oatmeal, he poured a mug of coffee. His wolf didn’t like the caffeine, but he should have enough time for it to dissipate before the chore of meeting with the local werewolves. He’d been surprised to hear back from them so quickly, and was slightly concerned they might be trying to pull something on him. The alphas had clearly not been pleased to learn he was in their territory.
They could be setting a trap, but they’d made a point of choosing a location that was remote enough to get to by wolf, yet near enough to town that it was unlikely they’d be willing to make a commotion. Was he giving them too much credit for having thought of that?
He didn’t think so. Michael and Linda hadn’t been pleased to meet him, but they’d seemed reasonable and intelligent enough, and everything he’d seen of their pack indicated they were too sane to decide to attack him for no reason other than his very presence.
He finished off his coffee, cleaned the dishes and moved to his computer. His life had gradually improved once he’d been able to turn his cell phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot. Computers had once been his life, but years in the woods with limited access had dampened his obsession. He’d never given the online world up completely, taking advantage of libraries and internet cafés when needed, but now he could work from the comfort of his home, and he’d begun to take advantage more and more.
Navigating his way through a new world—that of trying to track down small airplanes in rural Montana—challenged him in a way he hadn’t been since he’d first discovered the online world of werewolves, spending hours gleaning all the info he could on them. The security he was running into now was of course much higher and he enjoyed the buzz of the challenge. One path led to another and another until he finally pulled back, rubbed at his neck with one hand while closing the laptop lid with another.
Interesting stuff. He needed to think about how he wanted to share what he’d discovered with the pack, see what they’d make of it. Of course, it was a little awkward since most of what he’d accessed, he’d done so illegally. Ah well, he’d give it some thought while on his way to meet them.
He stood, stretched, and shed his clothes, stepped out onto the front porch. It had taken him a few years to become comfortable with the change, the abandoning of his human skin into that of the wolf. He’d hated and feared the wolf, what he could do in that form, what he thought it might make him do in either form. Eventually he’d come to an uneasy acceptance that he seemed to be mostly himself no matter what form he was in, and while he was more aggressive and territorial than he’d been as a high school teacher, he’d never had the urge to attack someone for no reason, let alone rape and kill them.
His senses burst with new input, as they always did when he changed. Taking it all in, he found nothing out of the ordinary, no cause for concern. Picking up a tightly rolled pair of sweatpants in his mouth—he had no interest in chatting with them in the nude—he headed into the woods.
About twenty minutes later, he came across a smell that caught his attention. It was faint, but the hint of death drew him in. Approaching the area cautiously, he found no sign of humans, werewolves, or any creature that didn’t belong. What hedidfind was a dead wolf. Natural, not like him, and she’d been dead only a few minutes, as far as he could tell. Except, he couldn’t tell what had killed her. Did wolves have heart attacks? Just lay down and die? She hadn’t been old, but maybe she’d been sick. There was a hint of something…something off, sickly, but he had no idea what it was.
Making a slow circle around her, ever widening, he looked for some explanation. The forest felt wrong, but he wasn’t sure how much of that was his human nerves and how much was anything actually being different. He shook his furry head. Wrong, just wrong.
He sneezed, dropping his bundle. He rubbed his snout against his foreleg. It was hotter than he’d realized and he considered going toward the stream. But he’d been following the wolf’s trail to see if there were any clues as to why she’d died. He needed to get back to that. Putting his nose up, he scented the air and continued following her back trail.
Another sneeze and he shook his head in annoyance. A rabbit broke free of the brush to his right, racing right in front of his path, and he was off. He was almost on it when he remembered that he’d been doing something. And his pants. Where had he left them? He looked around his back trail. He didn’t feel well—hot.
That’s right, he’d been going to the stream.
He veered off, coming to a halt at the site of a snarling wolf. The small gray was leaping at him before he had a chance to scare it off. It only took a minute to have the natural wolf on its back, belly bared. But it didn’t stop. Didn’t stop trying to bite Adam, growling and snapping, foam flying free of his muzzle. Sick.
Hating it but having no choice, he bit deep into the throat between his jaws, jerking until the snap sounded and the body beneath him went still.
Backing away from the dead animal, he turned, looking for a new threat. Bad, something bad was in his forest. He heard a sound, far off, and paused. A slight scent on the breeze from the direction of the noise had him off and running. Werewolves. On his land.
Their fault?
Red-hot anger fueled his race toward the danger. These were his woods, his wolves, and he would protect them or die.
