Things were getting worse and Ethan was out there somewhere. If he was still alive. Was he scared, hungry, suffering? Of course he’d be scared, he’d been kept from his father and his pride.
Frustration chewed at Krista. She hated feeling like this. Stick her in a clinic full of desperately ill patients and she was perfectly in her element. She could help, she could make a difference. Here? She was like a third thumb. Useless.
There was a frosty silence in the SUV as the two of them drove into town.
They pulled up to a parking spot on Main Street and climbed out. There was a grocery store here, a gas station, and a General Mercantile where people bought everything from chicken feed to shampoo to sneakers. Downtown was looking worn and tired, weeds poking through the sidewalk, streetlamps with cracked globes. Krista felt a twinge of pain in her heart at the sight.
Turning away from the sad, faded downtown, she dug her phone out of her purse and called Hattie again.
Hattie answered right away. “Krista! You change your mind?”
“Yes, didn’t you get my message?”
“No, but I think my phone’s broken. There’s a red light keeps blinking on it.”
“That’s from the message I left!” she said with exasperation. “I swear, you’re hopeless when it comes to technology.”
“What has technology ever done for me?”
“Cars? Cars are technology. Cars are good. You have a car.” And heaven help everyone on the road when Hattie drove it.
“Where’s everyone gotta go in such a hurry? I’d just as soon have the horse and buggy back. And cars are always bumping into things.”Only when you drive them,Krista thought. “But where are you? You coming by tonight?”
“I might not be able to see you til the shindig. I’m staying at Dawnie’s summer cabin, and I’m with Blake,” she said. “That shifter who was sort of following me? He’s my fated mate.” She shot Blake a dirty look.
“I knew it!” Hattie yelled. “Fated mate! Grandcubs, I’m gonna have grandcubs! I knew he was the one for you, I liked him the first minute I saw him!”
That wasn’t how Krista remembered it… but okay. “You two just go mate now, honey,” Hattie continued.“You get that bond set up good and strong.” Ewwww, was her million-year old aunt talking to her about sex?
“Love you, Aunt Hattie! I’ll see you at the fairgrounds!” That was where they held the shindig every year. She hung up quickly.
Then she looked back at Blake, who was standing a few feet away, frowning.
“You should probably at least pretend you can stand the sight of me,” she said to Blake icily.
His forehead creased in frustration.“Damn it, Krista, you know I— ” But their attention was distracted by a wolf shifter stumbling down the street.
“Houston?” she called. She hurried over to him with Blake right by her side. She winced when she reached the addled shifter. Houston had not aged well. In his forties now, too stooped over for a man that age, clothing stained and smelling bad, graying hair greasy and plastered to his scalp.
He stopped and studied her, turned back to Blake intent on pounding his face, then stopped to assess Krista again. Finally, recognition bloomed on his face, showing he was missing one of his canines. “No, it ain’t.”
Krista chuckled and went in for a hug. Houston was actually one of the few people she’d missed. “It really is, House. What you been up to?” Her voice slipped back into the cadence of the holler.
“Nothin’ much. Who’s that there?” Houston asked, pulling back. He looked at Blake with bleary suspicion. “You bring po-leese to the holler?”
Krista felt a little thrum of alarm. Was Houston putting on an act, and fishing for information? He’d always been one of Dawnie’s biggest customers when it came to her moonshine. She’d thought of him as too simple to be a spy, though.
“He’s not police, he’s ex-military. He’s my fated mate. I’m bringing him to the family gathering.”
“Fated mate! Woo-hoo!” His blood-shot eyes lit up. “Well, ain’t that a fine how-de-do!” He bowed to them, almost falling over on his face. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you, Houston. So, what’s the scuttlebutt around town?”
He shrugged. “The usual. Things goin’ downhill since the mines closed.” Then a fearful look crossed his face. “Don’t tell Dawnie I said that.”
“I won’t,” she promised. “Anything else happening? Come on, you must have some good gossip for me. I haven’t been here in ages.”
“Well, some cub went missing, and a buncha lions tearin’ up the town looking for him. That’s about all I know.” He ran his fingers through his hair. Then he glanced at Blake and squinted, trying to bring him into focus. “Who’s that? You bring a cop to town?”
