Wild Wolf Page 9

  I scratched my head. “Is that why I can go years without shifting?”

  Amber blinked. “Did you just say you can go years without shifting?”

  “Yes. My record is probably fifteen years? Maybe longer? I can’t remember. I couldn’t shift while working with the military. I would have been caught.”

  “You did your service without shifting even once? For over fifteen years?”

  “Yes.”

  “You have to be an Omega. There is no way an Alpha, dominant, or submissive could do that. The wolf would go insane. Only an Omega can do that, because they have no control problems with their wolf and run zero risk of going wild. I thought you’d been resisting the full moon long enough to sneak off somewhere to shift without being caught. That’s what most rogues do.” Amber sighed. “We had been convinced you were an Alpha, but an unusually stable Alpha. Being able to resist transformations for a long period of time without running wild is an Omega trait.”

  Great. The more I learned, the less sense everything made. “I’m confused. I was told I create problems rather than solve them, and solving them is an Omega trait.”

  Amber offered me a smile. “You’re special, and we’ll leave it at that for now. I’ll recommend we classify you as an Alpha, but we’ll try to figure out why you only have some Omega traits. That’s important, because you need to be in a good environment for you. Your mental and emotional health matter.”

  I sighed and wondered if Petra would let me up so I could pace around. I opted against antagonizing the wolf, who’d handled the interruption to her schedule fairly well. It amazed me so many in her space hadn’t resulted in her melting down.

  Then again, maybe she viewed my guests as a pack for herself and enjoyed the safety numbers provided.

  “You look unhappy,” Amber observed.

  “I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy, but I’m concerned, especially seeing how Julie behaved.”

  “Yeah. Desmond is going to have his hands full making sure the single women don’t overwhelm you. Most are more restrained than Julie, except they’re not shy about expressing interest. They just won’t act like they’re entitled to taking you on a date. Of course, Fenerec generally conclude date nights in bed, which may not be up your alley. You seem more conservative.”

  “Seem? I’ve never been on a date, and you’re telling me that the women want to end dates with sex?” I sighed. “And I thought the military talk was bad.”

  “I’ll admit, most military types are not shy about the sex talk, so I’m curious how you handled that.”

  “I grunted and didn’t look interested.” I gave her a demonstration of my ‘don’t bother me’ grunt. “Like that, and more forceful if they didn’t get the hint the first time. And if they ignored it the second time, I’d tell them they wouldn’t have to worry about it if they kept bothering me.”

  “Ah. And you have a reputation for mauling rather than killing.”

  “I never actually had to get violent with anybody. The grunts were effective enough to stop problems before they started. A few times, I got to the second grunt, and that was generally enough to convince them it wasn’t a good idea to test me.”

  “Humans don’t have many intact instincts left, but I bet that second grunt was enough to make them realize they might want to back off if they wanted to avoid a beating they wouldn’t forget.” Amber relaxed in my rocking chair. “I love a lot about my life. Nicolina can be a pain in the ass, but she’s a great pain in the ass. Richard’s the same. I sometimes don’t like the dirty work the Inquisition has me do, but some of it is really important. Would I want to spend the next ten years in a slow decline, though? No. Or even months. What I have now is bad enough.”

  “Then I perform the ritual on you, and that’s that. It seems like a simple enough solution to me.”

  “Not quite. Rituals can end in permanent pairings. The wolves tend to take over for a while during and after it. Richard told me about his life before Nicolina, and he got run through a wringer because all of the pack bitches would have a turn with him because he was the pack Alpha. Inevitably, because you’re performing the ritual, should I bond with a wolf, I might end up running you through the wringer.”

  “Surprisingly, I have been told about that part. Well, mostly. I was told it was a possibility.” I considered my conversation with Dante. “Mostly, he was trying to play matchmaker, but I received the message that was the result they wanted, as that is the foundation of the loophole.”

  “I hope your mother didn’t teach you being a virgin was some magical, important thing, because that’s inaccurate and stupid. It’s a societal construct, and we’ve found it’s a pretty harmful one.”

  How had my life become so twisted, confusing, and disconcerting? “No, she didn’t. She just taught me that if I engaged with a woman, that it was probable it would become permanent. I don’t care who is a virgin or isn’t. I have been given the talk enough times to understand I should take care with a virgin woman. And to take care with any woman, really.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Declan. It just means I won’t have any bad habits to unteach. That’s the fun with virgins. I haven’t trained a virgin in a while, but I won’t have to deal with bad habits. I enjoy working with virgins. It makes being a gold medal cougar all the more enjoyable. Of course, there’s something to be said for experience, but I’ve found a lot of the experienced men are more aggressive than I like. I prefer my men capable of being aggressive while also being considerate. I’ll probably have to teach you to be aggressive to tone down your consideration. That isn’t a problem, in my opinion. In even better news, even if you were to perform the ritual right now, it’ll be months before there’d be any worry about children.”

  The mention of children captured my wolf’s attention. “Becoming a Fenerec really turns back time that much?”

  “It does. It reverses just about every health problem. The Inquisition has a complete ban on anyone other than heterosexuals undergoing the ritual without significant psychological evaluations. There is no such thing as a gay or bisexual Fenerec. There was one experiment done on someone who was a hermaphrodite. After the ritual, she became a female. She did okay, but it was a shock to her, because before the ritual, she’d considered herself to be asexual. She needed a lot of therapy to get used to being a woman with a strong sexual drive. She’s since been mated and has several puppies, but the start of her time as a Fenerec was pretty rough. There was one transgendered individual interested in the ritual, but after what happened to the hermaphrodite, the Inquisition pulled the plug on it. There was no way to guarantee which gender he’d become, and they felt the psychological damage would have been severe if he had become a she.”

  I raised a brow. “The Inquisition has put a lot of thought into this.”

  “They have rules for a reason.”

  “Well, I need to at least start Nicolina’s rabbit, so she doesn’t try to end the world or kill her father, but if the ritual is what you want, the ritual is what you’ll get. But I think you deserve to be properly dated.”

  She laughed. “More like you deserve to be properly dated.”

  “Is it so bad I want to do the wine, the roses, and the fine dining?”

  “You’re an amazing chef. It’d be weirder if you didn’t.”

  As I could have a sense of humor when the situation demanded, I grinned at her and said, “You just want me for my cooking, don’t you?”

  “Was it that obvious?”

  “Well, you said no to my shooting, but can you say no to my brownies?” I eased Petra’s head off my leg, and the wolf snorted before resuming her sleep. I took out another corner brownie, set it on a plate, and challenged the witch with my stare.

  “I could, but I won’t.”

  I brought her the brownie. “At the risk of getting my ass kicked later, don’t do anything that might make that ticking time bomb in your head go off early. While Desmond did teach my wolf the ritual, I’d rather not have to try to figure
it out during an emergency.”

  “You got it. And anyway, if you make the request, any one of those louts can perform it, especially if you start panicking because you’re inexperienced. Just ask Richard to back you. He knows what he’s doing, and he’s done them in emergencies in the past. But honestly? If it’s a matter of life and death, your wolf will figure it out.”

  “For some reason, I don’t find that to be comforting.”

  “Good, it wasn’t supposed to be.”

  Chapter Seven

  Three wolves and a fox romped around my front yard, and Desmond supervised as a human while making neat piles of wooden crates beside my truck. He chuckled and shook his head at the canines and their rambunctious antics. “How did it go?”

  “I told her she wasn’t allowed to do anything that might result in any emergencies, and I wanted to make sure Nicolina was fed her rabbit first. Amber is having more brownies right now, and I’ve fed her stew, but I doubt that’ll be enough.”

  “I thought she might be losing weight,” Desmond grumbled. “She’s disgustingly clever at hiding it, and she uses her witchcraft ruthlessly to trick us. She doesn’t like when we worry about her.”

  “The timeframe I was told is slightly off, and she recommended Richard oversee things, since he’s the most experienced?” I watched the older werewolf with interest.

  “He’s yanked a mother and daughter from the brink of death at the same time before. He’s got a knack for it during emergencies, yes.”

  To my amusement, none of the canines seemed to pay us any attention. “Who are those wolves? I know the fox is Dante.”

  “Sanders, Richard, and Nicolina are the wolves. Sanders is the one with the stripe, Nicolina is the white arctic, and Richard is the gray one. He’s tarnishing right now. In the fall, he’ll be black, and then he’ll shed out to a metallic silver in the winter, and his coat starts tarnishing again in the spring. If he needs to fight in his prime, you’ll see him with his silver coat. Elliot’s catching a nap in one of the rentals, and your programmer and SEAL are on the other side of the truck pretending they aren’t napping.”

  I went around the truck and peeked around it to discover the pair leaning against my vehicle passed out so hard I doubted a bomb would wake them. “And the translator?”

  “With Elliot, although he’s not passed out. He’s debating what Russian name he wants to give himself. Greig is a pretty solid operative, and he views it as his sacred duty to try to keep the Anderson twins out of trouble. He’s been under foot for about a year now, and he does a good job. He speaks six different languages fluently, so he’s quite the asset.”

  “And your thoughts on the Russians?”

  “They’re keeping an eye on us. There’s a pack of them in the woods, and they’re keeping a watch in all directions, which leaves me to believe they’re spies as much as they are protection. That’s not unusual for when packs share space. With our affiliations with Moscow, they probably don’t want to invite even more trouble. I’m concerned with their general interest in you.”

  I sighed at the thought of stumbling into even more trouble. “It’s probably because of their culture. They rank their wolves in a different way than you do, and my ability to keep from shifting for a long period of time seems to be more of a sacred thing for them.” I told him what I remembered of the folklore I’d read in the library. “I could have translated it wrong, though. I would go to the library after work as part of my cover, and since I needed to learn Russian anyway, I killed two birds with one stone. My verbal Russian needs work, but I was starting to get the hang of Cyrillic.”

  “Has anyone told you that you’re ridiculously talented?”

  “Not particularly.”

  “You are. I think my first duty as your Alpha is to convert part of my empty basement into an art studio for you, and there will be an attached library. That should keep you visiting often. While you were off on your own, Anthony and I researched some of your restoration projects. You could easily make a career of it if you wanted. Or you can paint your own pieces if that’s what you’re interested in. Do you still have that cuff of yours?”

  I held up my arm and pushed back my sleeve so he could see it. “I’ve gotten used to it.”

  “Still stuck?”

  “It’s still stuck.”

  “And what are your thoughts on Amber?”

  “I think I need to make a rabbit or three for Nicolina so that the ticking bomb in Amber’s head doesn’t go off before we do something about it.” I shrugged. “I asked what she wanted, and that was that. She doesn’t want to drag out a battle with cancer, so she wins either way. I don’t understand the problems or why normal channels won’t work for this, but I’ll do what’s necessary. Wouldn’t it be better if Richard handles the actual work, though?”

  “You need to learn the ropes. Richard can back you if you and your wolf can’t figure it out or if you need help. With the wolves in the woods, we’ll do the work in the cabin. She’ll need time to heal, which we don’t have, so outside of a few minutes for her to recover, she’ll need to be human for this. They’ll catch on quickly about what we’re doing, because she’ll have a fairly strong scent, but there’s no avoiding that.” Desmond grabbed one of the boxes and lifted it with a grunt. “This is one of four crates filled with rabbit. I’ll help you set up the grills in the back, and we’ll also use whatever you have available. Most of this is from China, although we did get some here, too. Nothing smelled amiss, but the Russian crates are marked.”

  “You really don’t trust them, do you?”

  “Not in the slightest. Fortunately, the common drugs that work on us have a strong scent, and there’s no easy way for them to hide wolfsbane in fresh meat. Our noses are too good. Considering we went to places they didn’t anticipate, I don’t expect trouble unless they’re doctoring everything. That is not an impossibility.” Desmond nodded at one of the other crates. “That one has vegetables. According to my daughter, we don’t eat enough vegetables. She started threatening to involve her mother if I didn’t get vegetables.”

  I grinned at the thought of Nicolina picking a fight with her father and winning, and I grabbed the crate and carried it towards my cabin. Inside, I discovered the entire pan of brownies had vanished. The culprit napped, and Petra had decided to warm Amber’s feet. “Do you think she stopped to chew?”

  “It doesn’t look like it. I can’t say I blame her. Eat or lose out tends to be the general rule around hungry Fenerec and baked goods. She won that round. I’m sure my daughter will survive not getting one of the brownies.”

  “I can make more.” I set the box of vegetables on my counter and began the tedious process of sorting through the acquisitions, pleased with the variety. It would take some creativity, but the crate would provide enough sides for everybody. Best of all, I’d be able to make some of my favorite Chinese foods without even thinking about it.

  While not vegetables, the collection of sauces and spices I found in the crate would allow me to create masterpieces given enough time.

  I needed a bigger kitchen, but I hadn’t built the cabin expecting to feed an entire pack of people.

  Desmond ferried crates inside while I went to work. The rabbits came skinned and cleaned, allowing me to go straight to work marinading and spicing them. Adhering to Nicolina’s demand we eat more than meat, a fifty pound bag of rice joined the fray.

  “How much of that will I need to make?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the sack.

  “Richard is hungry, so you could cook everything we brought and it might not feed that bottomless pit. Flying took a lot out of him, and he’s ready to forage. If you make half of it, he’ll get enough.”

  “Richard can eat twenty-five pounds of rice? In a single sitting?”

  “Don’t challenge Richard to an eating competition. He will win.”

  “But how? Where does he put the food? He’s not exactly a large man.”

  “Not exactly large is a very kind way of say
ing he’s the runt of the litter.” Desmond grinned, glancing over his shoulder in the direction of the front yard. “He’s one of the biggest Fenerec I know when he’s a wolf, but he is vertically challenged as a human. It does make moving him around easier once he drops, although he knows how to pack on the muscle.”

  “Will there be a problem with Amber becoming a Fenerec?”

  “I have no idea. I can tell you this much, though. They won’t be touching either one of you if they know what’s good for them.”

  “Except that wild wolf is still on the loose.”

  “I have questions about that wild wolf. Ideally, we’ll capture him alive. If he’s truly wild, we’ll handle the problem. If he’s more of a vigilante, we’ll find out.”