Silence of the Wolf

Chapter 10

While Tom drove them to Darien’s home, Elizabeth pulled her phone out of her backpack to call North. She had to tell him she wouldn’t be at Bertha’s B and B tonight. She paused. What if somehow North’s knowing where she stayed was the reason the burglars had broken into her room? What if they had seen her leave the B and B with Tom and had followed her to the resort?

What if they were working for her uncle?

She chewed on her lip. She hated all this second-guessing.

She called North’s number, and he picked up.

“Call you back later,” North said abruptly, then hung up on her.

She stared at the phone. The break-in might not have anything to do with North, but she sure didn’t like him not taking her call. Was her Uncle Quinton visiting North? Questioning him about her?

“Anything wrong?” Tom asked.

“Um, no.” She had told the truth. There might be nothing wrong. She shoved her phone back into her pack. At least she hoped that was the truth. She didn’t want Tom and his pack involved in this business with her and the red pack.

When they arrived at Darien and Lelandi’s two-story log home, Elizabeth guessed it had to be about ten thousand square feet, large enough to accommodate pack gatherings. Smoke curled from two chimneys. Snow piled on the windowsills and icicles dripping off the roof made the house look like a warm place to spend the winter season.

An unwanted feeling of sadness slid through her as she thought about not having a pack to belong to or someone to watch her back as she watched his or hers. She quickly quashed that notion. She’d been perfectly happy and much safer since she’d hightailed it out of the southeastern part of Colorado and settled in Texas.

Tom escorted her into the house, stopping only to remove the parka draped over her shoulders, and then led her into the living room where he introduced Lelandi. All smiles, she greeted Elizabeth, her hand outstretched. She was gentle, as if she was afraid Elizabeth would break. Elizabeth smelled that Lelandi was a red wolf who didn’t seem to have any animosity for her, despite the fact that Elizabeth was part coyote. That open-mindedness was so foreign to Elizabeth that she couldn’t fathom it.

Her red hair secured in a bun, Lelandi had on the professional navy-blue business jacket and skirt she wore for seeing her psychology clients. Her eyes were clear green, unlike Elizabeth’s more blue-green, but the two women looked similar in terms of height and hair color. Elizabeth was finer boned, probably due to her coyote ancestry.

“You really didn’t have to go to all of this trouble for me,” Elizabeth said, feeling more like an intruder in the family business than anything.

“Nonsense. Usual fare. Think nothing of it. We’re delighted to have you stay with us.”

The welcome was in Lelandi’s voice, though Elizabeth also heard something else—a pack leader’s declaration: You will stay with us for your protection. Elizabeth was used to being independent and on her own, so she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

The whole home was warm and welcoming, with soft velour couches and chairs, pale yellow painted walls, and a massive stone fireplace where a fire crackled and red-orange flames spiraled upward. An extra cushiony beige carpet was underfoot, and dark, polished wood beams crisscrossed a high ceiling.

But something more than its physical appearance made the home inviting.

Elizabeth could sense the feel of family here, unlike in her own home. She felt safe there from her pack, but she realized there was something to be said for having a family. Her home was isolated, singular, and if she admitted it to herself, lonely.

A blue-eyed blonde came out of another room and greeted her, smiling broadly and with her hand extended. Another red wolf. Elizabeth was astounded to see two of them here. Maybe red she-wolves, in particular, appealed to this group of grays, she thought.

“I’m Carol McKinley, a nurse. I’ve been told you’ve had a rough time of it, so if you’re ready, I’ll take you up to your room. You can lie down for a bit until we eat dinner.”

Lelandi smiled. “We’ll see you a little later. Get some rest, Elizabeth.”

Again, the pack leader had decided. Not that Elizabeth didn’t appreciate the “offer.” She was all too glad to lie down for a while.

“Thanks.” Elizabeth glanced at Tom. He dipped his head, letting her know he approved of the idea.

She didn’t really need his approval, but she wanted him to know she cared about his feelings. When did that get to be an issue?

He ran his hand over her shoulder in a tender caress. “Feel better,” he said emphatically, his gaze on hers.

“I’ll be a hundred percent before you know it.”

He smiled a little at that, and she wasn’t sure if he thought she was joking. “I will,” she insisted, then headed for the stairs with Carol.

“You will,” Carol said, repeating Elizabeth’s words like a mantra. “Half the fight is taking a positive stance.”

“The other half is having genetics that help us to heal faster,” Elizabeth said.

Carol laughed as they climbed the stairs. “I have to admit that’s the thing I love best about being a wolf. I’m a red wolf, too. Newly turned.”

“Oh.” She wondered if Carol wasn’t used to everyone knowing what everyone was just by smell. She didn’t know what to say to Carol about having been turned, since Elizabeth herself had turned a human—and that had worked out very badly. Taking her mind off that scenario, she tried to look at the photographs of mountain wildflowers hanging on the walls.

She didn’t know all the flowers’ names, but some were lavender-colored, growing at the base of an alpine grove, and others were pink. She did recognize the purple thistle and golden dandelions. “Did Jake take these?” Elizabeth asked.

“He sure did. Beautiful, aren’t they?”

“They are.” Maybe Elizabeth could interview him for her newspaper, even if the story was really about a wolf. One hazard of working for the paper was always trying to come up with human-interest stories.

Carol led Elizabeth to a bedroom and motioned to it. “This is your guest room while you stay here. I used it until I mated with Ryan. His full name is Chester Ryan McKinley, and he’s the pack leader in Green Valley. I’m sure you’re probably sore from your fall. Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll apply some ice.”

“Okay,” Elizabeth said, sitting on the mattress.

Antique tables sat on either side of the queen-sized bed, the comforter satiny gold with embroidered designs of gold and moss green. An antique armoire stood in one corner and a small dresser against one wall, making the room appear rich, elegant, and out of the past. Elizabeth liked it. Nothing of hers was older than a couple of years, and the antique furniture appealed to her. She’d had to move so often that she hadn’t been able to keep any of her older treasured possessions.

Lelandi came into the room carrying a pair of jeans and white socks. “Thought you might like to get out of your ski pants for now.”

“Thank you,” Elizabeth said.

“I’ll leave you to nap,” Lelandi said and hurried out of the room.

Elizabeth did feel more comfy in the change of clothes. She tried to get comfortable on the bed, but she ached all over. She definitely needed a good night’s sleep.

After she rolled onto her stomach, Carol put a soothing ice pack on her back. Elizabeth fidgeted, unused to being treated so pleasantly, and by red wolves of all people!

“You know I’m part coyote, right? A lot of wolves—well, at least in my father’s wolf pack—don’t like that I am,” Elizabeth warned Carol.

She didn’t know why she had to blurt out to Carol that she wasn’t a full-blooded wolf. Maybe because she really liked Carol already, and she didn’t want her to think Elizabeth was something she wasn’t.

“Well, they have the nerve,” Carol said.

Obviously, Carol didn’t realize how much animosity there could be between coyotes and wolves. Elizabeth didn’t know why, but suddenly she really wanted to talk to someone about everything she had been keeping in. “They think they’re better than coyotes. My mother was a coyote and a lovely person before she was… murdered. The wolves of my father’s pack were no better than my mother just because they were wolves.”

Elizabeth never talked to anybody about her past. Better to bury it and move on. Until North called her and told her he had the proof she needed to show her uncle was responsible for her parents’ deaths. If Bruin had still been running things, it wouldn’t have mattered. He might have even ordered her parents’ deaths.

She felt freer to share with Carol. Maybe that was because she was a new wolf, not one who had a lot of preconceived notions about wolf packs and was intent on climbing to the top of the heap, while avoiding being the outcast of the pack like Elizabeth was.

“I’m sorry to hear that she’s dead.” Carol sounded like she truly meant it.

Elizabeth wondered about Carol’s own past, but she didn’t want to appear too nosy by bringing it up. Carol turned a little and applied light pressure to the ice pack on Elizabeth’s back.

Elizabeth shivered as the chill of the ice pack seeped into her muscles. “I know someone from my father’s pack did it. My father was murdered two days later, and well, let’s just say I managed to escape the same fate.”

“They killed your father? And then they tried to kill you?” Carol’s voice reflected her disbelief.

“Sefton, my half brother, felt my mother had taken the place of his own. My father was devoted to my mother. Even though my father was good to Sefton, he must have felt left out. Here comes a new baby girl—me. My father adored me. So Sefton felt even angrier. He resented me, but he couldn’t do anything about it until he was older. The stigma of the coyote mix was also an issue.”

Carol shook her head. “I’m sure that must have been horrible for you. I’m sorry. I don’t have anything quite like that to compare, but…” She took a deep breath. “I was turned against my will.”

Elizabeth was so surprised that it took her a minute to respond. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” She couldn’t say it was horrible, because being one of their kind wasn’t, in Elizabeth’s opinion, but being turned against one’s will… A sickening knot formed in the pit of her stomach. Had it been someone in Darien’s pack? Had Darien or another champion in the pack killed the one who did it? She was afraid to ask.

“I… foresaw it would happen. It still came as a great shock. I know you were born a shifter, but can you imagine being turned and not having a clue what you can and can’t do any longer?” Carol asked, sitting on the bed so she could speak to Elizabeth while the ice pack on Elizabeth’s back chilled her all over.

Elizabeth wanted to remove it, but she knew that it could help. She let out her breath, afraid to mention her own mistake but wanting to comfort Carol. “I turned a guy once.”

“By accident?” Carol asked, sounding surprised, maybe hopeful that Elizabeth couldn’t have done that to anyone on purpose.

“No. We were dating. I… couldn’t court wolves or coyotes. I wasn’t welcome. So I dated humans. Anyway, this guy and I really hit it off. He loved to camp and I loved the woods, so we sort of suited each other. I was his first girlfriend who didn’t mind the grunge of primitive camping. I was swimming in a lake when I heard him screaming. A mountain lion had attacked him. The only way for him to live…” Elizabeth took a deep breath.

“What happened to him?”

“He…” Elizabeth let her breath out in exasperation. “You know we mate for life, right?”

“Sure. It’s a genetic anomaly. That’s something I love about being a wolf. I don’t have to worry about Ryan straying.”

“Right. Well, even with that, I couldn’t keep him.”

Carol’s blue eyes were round. “You’re mated?”

Elizabeth heard the shock in Carol’s voice. If Elizabeth was mated, so what? Unless…

She discounted that notion. No way was anything more going to develop between her and Tom.

“We were mated. Not for long. He got himself killed over wanting someone else. Maybe changing him didn’t turn off the part of the human brain that wants someone new and different after a while. He made a deadly mistake. Once the she-wolf he became interested in realized that he was part coyote, newly turned, and mated to the wolf-coyote who had changed him, she told her brother. Her brother killed the two-timer.”

“Wow. He had no family to speak of?”

“None that was close to him. No great loss to anyone much.”

“You were upset about it, though.” Carol removed the ice pack.

“At first, sure. I saved his life, and I truly had cared for him. He loved being a wolf. He just didn’t realize he was part coyote. I thought it was the perfect scenario. He was happy with what he was because he didn’t know any differently. But then he caught sight of the red she-wolf and decided to dump me for her.

“When he learned I was part coyote and had made him that way—which is why the she-wolf shunned him, ignoring the fact she wouldn’t have wanted him because he also was mated—he wanted to kill me. Thankfully, her brother got to him first. I left the area after that.”

Carol was quiet for a long time. “You don’t think what has happened to you up here has anything to do with your family, do you? Or maybe this woman’s brother?”

“I… don’t believe so. The wolf who was interested in my former mate is probably mated by now,” Elizabeth said, hedging on the question about her family.

She thought back to when she’d run away from her pack and settled in Oklahoma near her mother’s family. That hadn’t been all that far from where the red pack was. Texas wasn’t, either. As much as she hated to admit it, she had never been able to move very far away from her family—even as cruelly as they’d treated her. They were still family, the only blood relatives she had.

But what if Carol’s suspicions were right and her family was causing her trouble again? What if North had betrayed her? And told her uncle she was here? Or he might have unwittingly revealed her whereabouts or been forced to give Uncle Quinton the information.

“Where was your pack from?” Carol asked.

Elizabeth hesitated to say.

Carol chewed on her lower lip. “Not from around here, are they?”

“Southeastern part of the state.”

“About seven hours from here?”

“Yeah… so not all that close.” Elizabeth had a bad feeling about this. How would Carol know how far the pack was from here?

Carol looked disconcerted, her forehead wrinkled, and she chewed on her lower lip again. “You’re part of Bruin’s old pack?”

Heart pounding, Elizabeth gaped at Carol for a second, and then she clamped her lips closed. Carol knew them. Elizabeth hadn’t thought anyone from the gray wolf pack would know them. Then again, both Lelandi and Carol were red wolves. Dr. Weber was, too, Elizabeth remembered.

As much as possible, Elizabeth had stayed clear of the red pack while living with her mother and father. Her uncle and half brother had visited her—and caused all the trouble for her. She hadn’t been able to get to know the other members of the pack, except North. He had come to see her a few times, the only red wolf she knew at the time who didn’t wish her any harm.

But she’d truly believed everyone would regard her the same way as her family, no matter where in the country she ended up. She hadn’t found many wolves who treated her like Tom’s pack had.

Carol paused, then said, “You and Lelandi don’t seem to know each other.”

“I didn’t live with the pack.”

“Okay. I understand. But the red wolves can’t think they’re any better than you. They’re just like you.”

“They’re red wolves. Not half coyote.” Elizabeth couldn’t see how Carol wouldn’t know that. “What happened to the red wolf who turned you?”

“He was killed after he bit me.”

“Good.”

Carol sighed. “As a nurse, I try to save people. I think that’s the hardest part of being a wolf for me. When wolves do really bad things, they can’t go to jail and live among humans. Not for extended periods of time. They’d have to shift at some time or another, and that could be a disaster. The concept of achieving justice by killing is hard for me to live with.”

Elizabeth moved to sit up and groaned, still sore.

“Just lie still. I’ll leave you in a second to sleep. I just wanted to share that I read an article you might find interesting. In some parts of Canada, the wolves and coyotes are mixed. Most of the wolves actually have coyote blood,” Carol said.

“Really.”

“Yeah. Not as much down here. The wolves and coyotes are often enemies, and the wolves will kill the coyotes that enter their territory. But up there, some red and gray wolves mix with coyotes when they have slim pickings.”

Elizabeth sighed. Of course wolves would only consider coyotes when they had no other option. “Why research it?” she asked, curious.

Carol laughed. “Some controversy exists between red and gray wolf shifters. The red wolves claim they were first and gray wolves came after them. Of course, the gray wolves assert that they came first.”

“The red wolves were first,” Elizabeth said. “At least that’s what my father and the rest of his red wolf pack said.”

“That was the thing. I was curious because one had to have come first, and I wanted to know the truth. So I did some research. According to some scientists, red wolves were not first.”

Elizabeth contemplated this, frustrated with arbitrary pack problems. What difference did it make in the scheme of things which wolf came first?

But then Carol said, “Gray wolves were first. Some mixed with coyotes and created the red wolf.”

Elizabeth rolled over on her back to look at Carol. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“Have you told Lelandi?”

“No. It’s our secret.”

Elizabeth felt a tremor of excitement at this new knowledge. As soon as she did more research, she would write about it in the Canyon Press. If any of her red wolf pack heard about it, well, it was a good one on them. “How come nobody knows about it?”

“Some still say the gray and red wolves are separate species, but with DNA evidence to the contrary, it’s kind of hard to refute. Apparently, those of us who are red wolves are not pure wolves at all, but a mix of coyote and gray wolf.”

Elizabeth smiled. “My wolf family would love to hear that.”

“I’m sure they’d want to keep the status quo. I’m so glad to meet you. I’ve been dying to tell another red wolf what I’d learned, but not Lelandi. I figure she wouldn’t be happy to hear the news and have to admit to the grays that she’s part coyote and that her kind didn’t come first. You, on the other hand, have every reason to want to know the truth.” Carol smiled.

If red wolves were coyote-gray wolf mixes, that had Elizabeth worried for Lelandi because of the way Elizabeth’s people had treated her. “What would Darien think if he learned that about his mate?”

“She could be a pink poodle for as much as he adores her.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “Pink poodle?”

Carol grinned.

Elizabeth loved Carol. As for Darien, if he truly felt that way about his mate, he had to be all right. “How did you come to be turned exactly?”

“I saw the future.” Carol smiled as if that’s all she cared to remember about it.

Was Carol bottling up feelings, just as Elizabeth had been, not wanting to share them with anyone?

For the first time ever, Elizabeth wanted a friend like Carol so they could talk about their pasts and maybe she could work through some of the hurt.

“What have we got, Tom?” Darien asked as he leaned down. They both were peering at pictures on Tom’s computer screen in the den, the room warmed by a cheery fire, the big windows looking out on the snow-covered woodland landscape.

“She takes lots of photos. These are the last few. The guy on the lift chair behind them was blurred, the camera’s focus on the trees. He wore a black balaclava, a matching ski hat, and reflective sunglasses. He has on a blue-gray ski jacket and a black ski bib. There’s no telling what his face looks like, just his approximate build. The guy waiting down the slope from her is wearing a brown jacket, black ski pants, and a blue knit hat. Can’t see if he’s wearing goggles or some face covering since his back is to us. We can call it in and be on the lookout if they are still on the slopes,” Tom said, sitting back against the leather chair.

“Yeah, but if they broke into her room at the B and B, I wouldn’t imagine they’re skiing right now,” Darien said, straightening.

“That could be. One other thing,” Tom said, glancing up at his brother.

“What’s that?”

“I checked her camera. It’s not working.”

“I’ll have Jake look at it. He’s a whiz at fixing minor problems with cameras,” Darien said.

“I hoped maybe he could. Her ID was stolen from the B and B, and she won’t be able to get her flight out without it.” Tom considered the picture of the man further, wishing he could decipher who he was.

“Peter can take care of that.”

That was another thing about running their town; they lived by their own set of rules. Since wolves had extended life spans, they needed to update their IDs periodically with no questions asked. That was easier in a town where no questions would even be raised.

“It could take a while, though,” Darien added.

Tom shifted his attention from the skier’s picture to Darien, not sure what he meant.

Darien smiled. “If you wanted it to take a while for her to get her ID replaced.”

“I might want her to stay longer, but the lady has a deadline on a story and a life back in Texas.” And some male friend living nearby who had planned to meet her. Tom had never heard anyone in the pack talking about a beautiful red wolf-coyote shifter, so the man couldn’t be with their pack.

“All right. Just saying.”

He appreciated Darien for mentioning it. With that one comment, he told Tom that he approved of the lady, and Tom thought the world of him for that.

“Thanks, Darien.” Then he frowned at him. “You… didn’t happen to see a certain video taken at the ski resort today, did you?”

He’d hoped Maggie, the receptionist at the hospital, had been pulling his leg that both Jake and Darien had bought the video from Cantrell. He couldn’t imagine his brothers wasting their money. Though he supposed they might have demanded a copy free of charge to ensure that the video wasn’t somehow damning.

Darien laughed and folded his arms across his chest. “Cantrell’s quite the entrepreneur. Others took pictures and passed them along in emails for those who didn’t want to pay for the video version. I told you to take care of the lady. Good job. Everyone knows to keep their paws off her now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything go viral that fast in the pack. Someone even sent the video to Carol.”

“Lelandi saw it,” Tom guessed. He didn’t think anyone else would have made Carol aware of it.

“Yeah, she did. She called me and told me to buy my own copy because it was well worth it. I figured she sent a copy to Carol. The ladies viewed it again right before you drove up.”

Tom shook his head and turned his attention back to the situation on the slope. “If these guys targeted her because she took pictures of them, why would that bother them?”

“Maybe because they are wanted men. Are they human?” Darien asked.

“The way the wind blew, she couldn’t tell. The guy who sat on her chair acted like an alpha.”

Darien squinted his eyes as he looked closer at the picture. “The way they’re bundled up, I can’t tell if they’re anybody I know. Half of our males could look like these men, as far as size and build go. What did you gather about the mess they made of her room at Hastings B and B?”

“The men who broke in left no scent there. That’s what made me think of the wolves in the vicinity of the livestock. They haven’t left a scent, either.”

“You think they’re wolves?”

“Possibly, but I can’t be sure they’re the same ones I’ve trailed,” Tom said. “With all the clothes the guy that ran into her wore, I couldn’t capture any scent on her, human or otherwise. But what if he masked his scent in the first place?”

“You think they could be using hunter’s spray?” Darien asked. His face brightened at the same time that Tom had a thought.

“The last person who pulled that trick with the pack was Uncle Sheridan,” Tom said.

Darien nodded. “Just what I was thinking. What if this has to do with our cousins, and they’re out for revenge because of the death of their father?”