Water Witch Page 19

  “That would be quite the trick.” I waited, and I did my best to ignore the pack’s terror.

  They knew who the devil was, and they feared him and everything he represented.

  To keep their fears from becoming reality, I said, “They need help with their puppies.”

  Confusion beat terror, and I relaxed as their emotions changed.

  “How many puppies?”

  Anticipating the question, I’d done an unborn puppy count, and I’d come to the conclusion I had inadvertently meddled. “Twenty-two.”

  The devil’s brows shot up. “And how many bitches are having these puppies?”

  “Twelve. Two are Fenerec, and the rest are Normal. The pack hasn’t had any pregnancies until now.”

  Throwing back his head, the devil laughed. “That’s punishment enough. Come on, then. We’ve a lot of work to do, Mr. Salin. As for you, Mr. Walker, do go home. I think you’ve caused enough trouble here.”

  “This is not my fault.”

  “Sure it’s not, because it’s utterly normal for twelve women to have twenty-two babies between them. Consider this a lesson, Mr. Salin. Watch what you wish for. You might get it.”

  Other Stories from the Witch & Wolf World

  This collection features stories from Richard, Frank, Pedro, Jake, and Karma from the Witch & Wolf world.

  Richard, Frank, and Pedro first appear in Winter Wolf and Tales of the Winter Wolf.

  Jake and Karma are the lead characters in Balancing the Scales, a duology of Witch & Wolf world novels.

  The second book of the Balancing the Scales duology will release on Christmas of 2020. Thank you so much for your patience.

  Meeting Karma, Partner in Crime, and Six Feet Under will be republished in the future in the Case Files of Karma Johnson, which will include more stories of this pair and their journey together as partners both before and after the events of Balancing the Scales.

  One

  Frank: A Christmas to Remember

  Someone had killed my Alpha, which didn’t surprise me in the slightest. The shivering, scrawny, blood-covered puppy curled around an equally disheveled toddler, however, stunned me into silence. The gray wolf, smaller than most of our wild, lesser cousins, watched us with frantic eyes, his fangs displayed in silent warning.

  How had such an unimposing Fenerec killed five of our kind?

  The stench of my Alpha’s blood hung in the air, so pervasive it masked most of the interloping wolf’s scent. The putrid odor of terror hung in the air, smothering in its intensity.

  Around me, the surviving members of the pack gathered, arriving in ones and twos until all thirty-seven of us and our few mates were crammed into our Alpha’s worn home. Along with our Alpha, our Second and Third were gone, as were two of the newest males, older men suckered into joining us with the promise of eternal youth.

  It should have bothered me more that I didn’t know their names, although I understood their circumstances. At forty, hitting more dead ends than opportunities, I’d been desperate too.

  Luckily, I hadn’t lived in Yellowknife long enough for many people to know me well; there was no way to explain how I’d gone from a forty-something single man to a twenty-something with a young wife.

  I forced my attention back to the shivering Fenerec in front of me. How could such a tiny wolf, one still in his puppy coat, kill five Fenerec, three of them old and cunning, all on his own?

  I suspected the answer sat before me, his chubby thumb stuck in his mouth, staring at me with wide brown eyes. The human puppy stirred my wolf’s desire for offspring, and I glanced at my mate out of the corner of my eye.

  As she had since the day she’d picked me over the other males, Vivian behaved as was expected of a Fenerec-born bitch, keeping within fifteen feet of me, as my Alpha had ordered whenever she visited his home or the pack’s lodge.

  I hated the rules almost as much as I hated the wolf responsible for my mate’s distrust of every male Fenerec in the pack. I had no delusions; Vivian had chosen me because I was the best of her bad choices. If she hadn’t selected someone, she would have faced an endless stream of amorous males determined to take her to their beds.

  Unlike the other Fenerec, I treated her like a person instead of a broodmare. My wolf adored her. When we were away from the pack, she snapped her teeth at me in a not-so-silent promise of retribution if I stepped out of line.

  There was no way I was going to let her know my wolf and I loved every bite she landed, every snarl, and her determination to stand on her own. I may have lost my humanity during the ritual, but I hadn’t lost my dignity or respect for women. Not even my Alpha could beat that out of me—and he had tried.

  He couldn’t beat Vivian’s stubborn pride and tendency to challenge authority out of her either. For his attempts alone, my Alpha had deserved his death. I could guess the circumstances; he had scented the stray Fenerec male, investigated, and decided to eliminate the unwanted competition, even if it meant killing a Normal child.

  The young wolf’s body language told me everything I needed to know. He feared for the puppy he protected and would kill again if necessary. It amazed me someone had managed to herd the wolf and toddler to my Alpha’s home in the first place. My three months in the pack had taught me only Tully, senior to me by more years than I cared to think about, could navigate the slippery slope of dealing with a Fenerec fresh from the kill.

  On a good day, he scared the piss out of me, and I had no doubt he was responsible for most of the puppy’s terror. I would’ve rather had a gun pointed at my head than face an angry Tully, and Tully had enough pent-up rage for everyone in the pack, with some to spare.

  “Frank?” my mate whispered, shuffling a few uncertain steps in my direction.

  “Vivian.” I held my arm out in an invitation I expected her to refuse and held my breath when she came closer, pressing against my side. The scent of her distress worried my wolf.

  I hadn’t known my Fenerec-born mate long, but I wanted to kill anyone who upset her, as did my wolf. I forced the impulse back. When it came to protecting someone we loved, my wolf and I were the same as the puppy at our feet.

  I understood his fear, for I had felt it too, each and every time my Alpha had gotten anywhere near my mate. When he wanted a woman, he took her, even if it meant killing a member of his pack to break the mating bond.

  Vivian had chosen me instead of him.

  Shivering, my mate leaned against me. “What do we do?”

  What would we do? By pack law, the puppy at our feet was now our Alpha, and I was aware of his presence in the pack’s bonds. My sensitivity to the pack bonds was unusual; many of the other Fenerec could barely feel each other, but I was aware of them all and had been the instant my wolf came at the ritual’s call.

  If the puppy’s fear grew any stronger, I was worried he’d have a heart attack before we learned his name, where he’d come from, and why he was in the middle of the bush on Christmas Eve, easily a hundred kilometers from civilization. How had the pair survived the frigid temperatures? The toddler’s snowsuit barely passed muster, and it looked far too worn to be warm.

  The human puppy made it easy to find somewhere to start.

  “Someone get the kettle on the stove so the kid can have something warm to drink. See if we can find something dry for him to wear. Check the fridge for fresh meat, and if there isn’t any in this dump, go hunt something.”

  Tully snorted, and I wasn’t the only one to flinch at the sound. “I’ll take care of the hunt. Good luck talking the puppy down so you can get the kid cleaned up, Frank. You’re going to need it.”

  Why me? I sighed. As the newest member of the pack, recruited without understanding what I’d become, I ranked as the absolute last. Few in the pack trusted me or my wolf’s control, and I didn’t blame them in the slightest.

  If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t trust me either. Another Fenerec had to help me to shift, and I had no hope of resisting the full moon’s call, whic
h made me a threat to the pack’s interests.

  As though sensing my unease, Vivian frowned at me. “He’s tiny. Young. Last month’s ritual, maybe?”

  Maybe I hadn’t been a Fenerec long, but I trusted my wolf when it came to his nose, and he’d never caught a hint of either boy or wolf before. I shook my head. “Never smelled either one of them before.”

  The toddler kept sucking on his thumb, and my new Alpha’s golden eyes locked on me, both of his ears twisting back.

  “So he’s not part of the pack?”

  “No, he’s not.”

  “Well, thank God for that. He’s the Alpha now, right?” The hope in Vivian’s tone hurt. I wished I hadn’t been foolish and trusted the man determined to ruin so many lives for the sake of power.

  Once I confirmed her words for others to hear, there’d be no turning back. Tully stared at me, his wolf brightening his eyes to a smoldering yellow. The rest of the pack watched too. “Yes, he’s our Alpha now.”

  No matter how I looked at it, we were screwed.

  Tully herded most of the pack out of our former Alpha’s battered home, leaving Vivian and me to deal with the newcomers while the pack’s lone Fenerec bitch, Hillary, took over the kitchen. The rest of the pack’s human and Fenerec-born bitches dressed for the cold and left for the lodge, which was safer neutral ground.

  I doubted any of them would ever be comfortable in the house deep in the bush, far from civilization. Too much had happened beneath its battered roof.

  The toddler kept sucking his thumb, so quiet and calm I feared something was wrong with him. Completely at a loss of what to do without stressing the Fenerec puppy further, I crouched just out of reach and cleared my throat.

  The kid kept sucking his thumb while the wolf growled, the first sound I’d heard him make.

  What the hell was I supposed to do with a toddler with a thumb obsession? “You hungry, kid?”

  The little boy shook his head, took his hand out of his mouth, and grabbed the wolf’s fur. “Brother’s scared.”

  I had guessed as much, and I nodded. Fear was a funny thing; if I ignored the puppy, maybe he’d relax and come to the conclusion I meant him—and his brother—no harm. “It’s bath time,” I improvised. Maybe if I could get the wolf and kid clean, I could coax my new Alpha into shifting. I couldn’t even manage it on my own yet, but I had no idea who to ask for help.

  How many resented our old Alpha’s death? I didn’t. All I felt was weary relief. My wolf didn’t care either way, although he took an unhealthy amount of interest in our new Alpha.

  The toddler tugged on his brother’s fur again. “Bath time, bath time. You’re dirty.”

  According to the child’s tone, there was no greater sin than dirt, and I fought my urge to grin. My new Alpha showed his teeth, and I tensed.

  Releasing his hold, the toddler made a fist and smacked his brother’s nose. “Bad. No teeth.”

  At my side, Vivian giggled. “What’s your name?”

  The toddler turned to Vivian, although he kept his death hold on his brother’s fur. “Alex! It’s spelled A-L-E-X. When brother’s mad, he uses more letters, but I don’t like more letters. I like Alex.” Alex paused, looked me in the eye, and as though conferring with me on a matter of absolute importance, he whispered, “A-L-E-X.”

  My mate pressed her lips together and made a soft noise, as though she held back a squeal by the barest of threads. “How old are you, Alex?”

  Losing interest in me and his brother’s bared fangs, Alex gave Vivian his undivided attention, lifted his hand, and showed her three fingers. “I’m tree. Tree.”

  Vivian leaned forward just a little, and I tensed, keeping a close eye on my new Alpha, who watched as warily as I did. “How old is your brother?”

  “Brother’s…” Alex stared at his little hand and frowned, released his brother altogether, and started the slow process of counting his fingers. “Not enough fingers for brother. They only go up to ten. T-E-N,” he spelled out, in case we weren’t certain of the number ten’s enormous importance.

  My wolf adored our new Alpha’s little brother, and his desire to have one—many—of our own heated my blood. “How many over ten is your brother?”

  With a wide grin, Alex resumed counting, and after several minutes, he showed me eight fingers. Then he stopped, frowned, and counted again, this time up to four. Lines furrowed his brow, and he counted his way to six. “This many?”

  “No older than eighteen, maybe as young as fourteen,” Vivian murmured.

  I didn’t know a lot about pack life, but our Alpha refused to take anyone any younger than eighteen, and he preferred older men, men who would appreciate a new lease on life. I’d been one of his odder recruits, approached because of my fledgling relationships with several members of the pack, who were eighteen or nineteen.

  I believed he’d hoped I would be a good influence on them, as I’d made efforts to earn their respect, something he had not done.

  I hated the sick bastard and wouldn’t miss him, not one bit.

  Shaking my head, I tried to make sense of what had happened and how Christmas Eve had gone wrong so quickly. What were two children doing alone in the wilds beyond Yellowknife? It made no sense to me. Until we—more accurately, I—could coax our new Alpha into shifting, I’d have to muddle my way through and hope for the best.

  “After bath time, it’ll be dinner time,” I promised, hoping the thought of food would entice either one of them into cooperating.

  Why didn’t children and puppies come with manuals? A manual would make my task a lot easier.

  My new Alpha lowered his head and watched me with wide eyes. Alex wobbled his way to his feet, stepped over his brother’s paws, and waddled to me, his snowsuit preventing him from lowering his arms. He waved his hands like a bird struggling to take flight and failing miserably at it. “Bath time, bath time!”

  If my wolf melted any more, I’d need a mop to clean him off the floor. “Like baths, do you?”

  “I don’t like dirty. Brother’s really dirty. Brother needs a bath first.”

  “Vivian can help you take a bath, okay, Alex? I’ll take care of your brother. You can both bathe at the same time.” I glanced at my mate, hoping my volunteering her help wouldn’t cause more problems between us. She completely ignored me, grinning at the child with a red flush on her cheeks.

  My wolf appreciated her interest in caring for a puppy. Her smile, as it had the first time I’d seen it, trapped me all over again.

  “Vivi!” Alex waddled to her and fluttered his hands. “Vivi, Vivi, Vivi. Bath time, Vivi.”

  Were all puppies, human or otherwise, always so adorable? How had I never noticed how precious they were?

  I wanted to hug him, hold him close, and never let him go.

  When my mate scooped Alex up and carried him out of the sitting room, my new Alpha whimpered, curled into a tighter ball and shivered so much I worried he’d break apart. “It’s okay. Vivi’s just going to get him out of that snowsuit and clean him up. No one’s going to hurt him, I promise.”

  If anyone tried, I’d fight them to the death. No one would lift a finger against a child, not on my watch.

  Either the little wolf was too weary to fight me or accepted my word as truth, because he fell quiet and watched me with dull, sullen eyes.

  If my new Alpha weighed more than thirty pounds, I’d be astonished. Within minutes of his brother heading off for a bath and some tender loving care from my mate, he’d passed out. Dried blood matted his fur, marking where my pack—our pack—had mauled him during the fight.

  I carried him into the laundry room, set him in the fiberglass sink, and warmed the water, cringing at the gurgling in the pipes. It amazed me the water still ran in the winter. The wood stoves heating the place could only do so much.

  My new Alpha slept through the process of ridding his fur of blood and dirt, and I winced at the excessive number of gouges, cuts, and gashes he’d somehow managed to survive.
<
br />   I ruined two towels drying him off, and I doubted the third would last long if he didn’t stop bleeding. In the end, I dug out the first aid kit and wrapped him up like a mummy, leaving only his nose, eyes, and ears uncovered.

  Vivian returned with Alex, who was wrapped in a blanket, took one look at our Alpha, and laughed. “Frank, what on Earth?”

  “He was bleeding.”

  “I can’t even see his paws. He’s not going to be able to walk like that.”

  “Why’s brother white?” Alex stared up at Vivian with his rich brown eyes and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

  “He’s white because he has a boo-boo, Alex.”

  Yep, my Alpha’s little brother had my mate wrapped around his tiny fingers, and both my wolf and I were envious. We wanted to be the one the puppy adored.

  We wanted Vivian to pay us even a fraction of the amount of attention she showered on Alex. If she consented, would our child be equally precious? I could only hope, but my wolf had no doubt.

  “Brother went to bed early. I’m supposed to go to bed before brother.”

  I bit my lip so I wouldn’t laugh at the disapproval in Alex’s voice. Unless I was off my mark, I bet my new Alpha’s reason for living was three years old and would have the whole pack charmed within ten minutes.

  We were so screwed.

  “Your brother’s really tired. He’s had a long day. Vivian, do you mind checking with Hillary?” With a little luck, the bitch had found something in the house suitable for a young boy.

  “Of course.” Vivian flashed me a smile and bounced into the other room, and I sniffed the air to catch her scent. For the first time since meeting her and falling for her smile, she smelled happy, with no evidence of the fear that had driven me to protect her from my old Alpha, who would have taken her and ruined her given a single opportunity.

  Miracles could happen, and the realization stunned me.