Rebecca's Wolves (Wolf Masters Book 6) (26 page)

Rebecca nodded. Not difficult to know from the picture, and everyone in town knew those four men, apparently. Even though Rebecca hadn’t personally met them before last weekend, she’d heard of them. They all looked alike. Well, except for the fact that in her humble opinion, Griffen was the sexiest. But they all had wavy dark brown hair, deep chocolate eyes a woman could get lost in, and tan skin that made it look like they worked in construction in the sun year-round.

“And the other man? Is he from the reservation?”

“Yes.” Also not a tough deduction.

Marian set a hand on Rebecca’s thigh and squeezed. “I’ve got several things to take care of. Why don’t you stay here and pull yourself together? Take all the time you need.” She stood and moved her hand to Rebecca’s shoulder. “Don’t let this shit get to you. You know good and well you aren’t the woman described in the e-mail. Are you sure you don’t want me to take this to administration? File a complaint at least? This is harassment.”

Rebecca shook her head. “Not yet.” Turning the e-mails over to the hospital administration would be mortifying. She’d rather quit her job than face a panel of people with the news that she was sleeping with two men.

She was lucky Marian was so understanding. There were plenty of men on the board, and even women, who wouldn’t find anything about her extracurricular activities acceptable.

The second Marian left, the door shutting with a snick, Miles’ voice came into her head.
“Rebecca, I’m not shitting you. Your emotions are all over the place. You amaze me with your ability to keep your problems from us, but I know you’ve been crying for the last fifteen minutes. I’m coming back there now.”

“No.”
She sat up straight. She too was impressed with how well she’d managed to block her mates, but the last thing she needed was to face Miles. She had no explanations for him she was willing to share. And besides, she was kinda pissed with him for blowing her cover out front.
“Miles. I’m fine. Just been emotional lately. All this… It’s a lot to absorb. Give me some space. You’re crowding me. And not in a good way.”

Her words sounded harsh, even in her mind, but she had to say something to keep Miles from returning. If he marched his giant, overbearing self into her hospital with the frown on his face she knew he currently sported, he’d break the crowd like the Red Sea and embarrass the fuck out of her further.

And she didn’t want to fight with him in public.

“Love.”
His voice softened.
“I don’t like what I’m reading from you.”

“I’m fine,”
she repeated, smiling into the empty room as though the act alone would help change her mood and console him.
“I need to get to work. I’ll talk to you tonight.”

Miles waited a heartbeat and then responded,
“I’ll be there at eleven. And then we talk.”

“Got it.”

•●•

Somehow Rebecca managed to put everything to the back of her mind and throw herself into her work. There was an increase in patients that evening due to the earthquake. Not many, but enough.

One child fell down the stairs she’d been descending at the wrong moment. An elderly woman had a heart attack thinking the world was coming to an end. A man suffered a severe laceration to his left arm when the wrench he was using under his car slipped and cut him. He was lucky the entire car hadn’t collapsed, crushing him.

Throughout the evening, Rebecca moved from one patient to the next, seeing to everyone’s needs and ignoring the jumble of thoughts in her head.

What she knew for sure was she needed time to sort out everything that had happened for the last week. She needed space away from her mates to do so, and she needed someone to talk to.

Melinda.

She sent her new sister-in-law a text midway through the day, asking her if she could pick her up at ten. Melinda quickly responded with an excited
yes
that included several silly emojis.

Rebecca felt bad it would be so late, but she couldn’t think of anyone else to call, and she needed a girlfriend, especially one who would understand at least the majority of what Rebecca was going through.

A twinge of guilt ate at her as she left work an hour early and climbed into Melinda’s car. She knew Miles and Griffen would be hurt when they found she wasn’t there, but by then she would be forty-five minutes away, tucked in Melinda’s house on the reservation.

“Girl, you look like you lost your best friend,” Melinda said as Rebecca folded herself into Melinda’s silver sports car.

“I
feel
worse.” She leaned back and closed her eyes, blowing out a long breath. She hadn’t breathed easily for days. She turned to face Melinda. “Thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it.”

“Any time.” She gave a conspiratorial grin. “I mean it. Any time you want to send my brother on the wild goose chase he’s going to be fuming about in one hour, I’m up to the task. I love goading him. It’s fun.” Melinda giggled as she pulled away from the curb.

“He called you.”

“Yep. Said he was picking you up at eleven.”

“You didn’t say anything?”

“Hell, no, girl.” Melinda glanced at her quizzically. “For one thing, I know you wouldn’t have asked me to do this if it weren’t important. For another thing, I’m dying to get to know you better. And lastly, oh God how I love to mess with Miles.”

Rebecca laughed. Hard. For the first time in days. “They’re both going to kill me.”

“That’s the fun part.” Melinda hit the gas and picked up the pace. “Now, what do you want to drink? We’ll need to stop at a liquor store on the way. I can tell without asking that we need alcohol and lots of it.”

By midnight, Rebecca was half drunk, and it felt good—carefree and relaxed like she hadn’t been in days.

Melinda’s condo was connected to several others on the reservation, but she had an end unit with relative privacy. They could be as loud as necessary, and no one would be the wiser.

There had been three heated discussions with Miles and Griffen, one over the phone out loud and two through telepathy. The more she drank, the harder it was to block them. So she cut herself off after four glasses of wine, partway through the second bottle, and started eating corn chips to soak up the alcohol.

Neither of those items had been on her food list for months as she trained. Considering her race was now a week away, she’d lost her mind, but it felt good.

“So, let me get this straight.” Melinda giggled, her own glass of Merlot sloshing up the sides. “You gave them the slip because you couldn’t stand another night of lusty testosterone?”

“Yeah. It sounds far more ridiculous when you put it like that. But yes.”

“What did you tell them?”

“That I was with you and safe.”

“And they haven’t busted in here because…?”

“Because I told them I needed space and time.” She winced. “They might be a little frustrated. I can feel it. But they’re holding back to avoid pissing me off royally.”

There was a pause, and then Melinda got serious. “You okay, Rebecca? I mean all kidding aside, I know you’re under a lot of pressure. So much shit hit you all at once. I understand your hesitation. But you have to know that no matter what else happens, Miles and Griffen are a constant. They will be by your side for life—possibly to the point of annoying at times, but always with you even when you’re physically separated.”

Rebecca nodded, sobering enough to ask some hard questions. “I know you believe there’s a spirit trying to communicate with one or all of us.”

“I know it to be true.”

“Yeah. And I’m getting there. It’s hard to ignore. But weird things have happened that don’t seem related, and I’m…well, scared.”

Melinda set her glass down and turned from her end of the couch to face Rebecca, her legs crossed. “What things?”

“I’ve had a few threats tossed at me.”

“Threats?”

“Yeah. I don’t think spirits can move shit around and send e-mails.”

Melinda shook her head. “I don’t think so, either.”

“So you see my concern.”

“What do Griffen and Miles think about this?”

Rebecca cringed. “I haven’t told them.”

Melinda blew out a breath. “Lord, girl. Why the hell not?”

“Because every time something happens, they wig out on me and go all Rambo.”

Melinda forced a short giggle. “Rambo?”

“That’s what it feels like. They suffocate me. They don’t let me go anywhere alone, including work or for a run. They’re always by my side.”

“I see.” She hesitated and then continued, “What you have to understand is they’re worried too. You’re their life now. Your safety is their top priority. I don’t think under normal circumstances, when things calm down, they’ll smother you as much. For a while maybe, but not forever. This spirit situation is stressful, for all of us, because we’re helpless to know what it wants.

“We have no way of knowing if it means ill or good. Is it sending a warning or making a statement? Griffen is as new to the concept as you are. But Miles…that’s another story. He’s spent his life surrounded by discussions about spirits. My grandmother had shifters from the pack traipsing through our house with all manner of stories from the time we were very little.

“He takes this stuff seriously. And he isn’t going to risk one hair on your head, even if it means pissing you off to do so.”

“I kinda get that. I do. But who knows how long this will last? What if it’s indefinite?”

“It’s not.”

“How can you be sure?” Rebecca looked at Melinda and saw the woman’s face, knowing there were things Melinda hadn’t told her.

Melinda seemed to be hedging in an attempt to decide how much she should say. “I’m gonna be blunt with you on two things you’re not going to like.”

“Please.”

“First of all, you need to tell Miles and Griffen about the e-mails and stuff. If there’s human or shifter involvement, they need to know.”

“Yeah, figured you’d say that.”

“And second—” she paused, squeezing her eyes shut for a second before she met Rebecca’s gaze again and spit it out, “—you can’t go to that race next Saturday.”

“What?” Rebecca’s voice rose an octave.

“Listen. I know what I do is foreign to you. And I’ll admit there’s no exact science to anything in the world of a shaman. Almost everything we know is from intuition. More of a feeling. It’s not like I have a solid picture in my head of some specific future incident. It doesn’t work like that.

“And unfortunately, sometimes I never know why I gave the advice I have to give to someone. I just know.” She leaned forward and grabbed Rebecca’s arm. “I’m so sorry, but I’ve known from the moment I met you that you can’t be at that race. My grandmother knows it too.”

Rebecca’s heart sped. “I’ve worked so hard for this.”

“I know. And there’ll be other races. But this one is not for you.”

“Have you told Miles that?”

“No.” She shook her head. “And I won’t. But I need you to do it. Please. Don’t put me in a position that forces me to betray your trust. We just met. I want us to be close. We’re family now. I don’t want to start out our relationship with me going behind your back to thwart your plans.”

“If you tell Miles I can’t race, he’ll forbid it.”

“I know.” Melinda’s gaze was intent. “Don’t make me do that.”

“Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

“I had hoped it would be obvious on its own. And in a way it is. Every single effort you’ve made to prepare has been sabotaged. I’ve never seen so many signs that point to any one event like this.”

“Jesus. Maybe the other incidents that seem human-related are really spiritual.”

Melinda shrugged. “I can’t know for sure. I’ve honestly never heard of such a thing. Usually messages from spirits aren’t tangible. Tossing homes and sending e-mails is a very unlikely avenue for a spirit, but never say never.”

“Gah.” Rebecca scrunched up the empty bag of corn chips she’d been holding in suspended animation.

Melinda gave a wan smile. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know.” Rebecca leaned her head back on the couch and closed her eyes.
“You can come get me now,”
she told her mates.