He nodded but blushed as deep a crimson as Maggie was certain she wore. “My sister was about twelve years older than me. I called her from a payphone a few times.” He glanced at Gavin and gave him a sheepish sort of smile. “I…um…told her I’d joined the Navy, so she would have a reason for me not visiting.” Gavin just grinned at their lover’s admission, apparently not upset that Kade had lied for his sister’s benefit. “She died from heart disease in her fifties, but as far as I know, she had a happy life.”
“I suppose I’m lucky in that way. At least I know what happened to Suzanne. With a bit more luck I might even get to see her again.” Gavin looked down at his hands that still didn’t show the purple hue. “Did Suzanne develop the purple hue everyone else got?”
“She sure did,” Kade said, getting more comfortable as he pulled Maggie closer. Hell, maybe she wasn’t as wired as she’d first thought. She was definitely getting sleepy. But it somehow seemed wrong to fall asleep. These men were willing to give their lives to protect her. The least she could do would be to not snore through it.
“Go to sleep, Maggie,” Gavin said, apparently reading her emotions correctly. “You’re still recovering from blood loss. If you don’t rest while you have the chance, you’ll slow us down when we need you to be wide awake.”
She nodded, settled against Kade, and closed her eyes. It was about the only reason that would make her change her mind, and she got the distinct impression that her mates knew it, too.
* * * *
Hensen made certain to come into Shy River pack lands as close to the back of Gideon’s home as possible. If the pack was watching for Maggie, the last thing Hensen wanted to do was telegraph his arrival. He moved back and forth several times, checking for scents that didn’t belong to the occupants of the house.
He grinned a wolfy version of a smile when he realized Gideon was sitting on his back porch very much aware of his presence. Thankfully he seemed to be alone.
“About time you got here,” Gideon said as Hensen climbed onto the veranda in human form.
“I guess that means you know what’s going on.”
“We do,” Gideon said with a nod at his mates who stood just inside the doorway of the house. “So does the alpha, but for the moment that’s as far as we’ve let the information spread.” He grimaced and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s only a matter of time though.”
“We figured as much. Is there anything we can do? Some tests we can run? Maggie isn’t showing any unusual symptoms or behavior. She seems to be just like every other newly made werewolf.”
“Brigden has called in a few favors, but we’re not so certain it’s a good idea for the four of you to come here.”
Hensen’s hopes fell at his friend’s quiet words. He knew as beta of the pack, Gideon had to put the welfare of the pack first.
“That’s why we’re coming with you,” Suzanne said as she stepped onto the porch and offered Hensen a tall glass of water. He downed the contents gratefully, a little surprised that he’d let himself dehydrate so badly without noticing. “Is Gavin okay?”
Hensen winced as he realized there were a few details Gideon and his mates didn’t know. “Gavin is fine, but something unusual happened when I changed him.”
“Gavin let you make him a werewolf?” Suzanne asked sounding shocked. She laughed softly. “I guess Maggie really is the ‘one.’ But Gavin always was the stubborn type. Will you two be okay with sharing?”
Hensen glanced at his best friend, the understanding in his eyes giving him a measure of peace. If anyone could fathom the complicated nature of the true-mates link it would be Gideon. “Gavin is my mate as well.”
Suzanne seemed lost for words—a first since Hensen had met her. Fortunately, Gideon steered the conversation back to the matter at hand. “What was unusual with his change?”
“He doesn’t have the purple hue.” Gideon looked as surprised as Hensen had been. “It might just be some sort of delayed reaction, but he still looked human when I left him a little over three hours ago.”
Brigden nodded and stepped back into the house. He returned a few moments later with what seemed to be an old fashioned medical bag.
“Blood, hair, skin, and urine samples should be enough for Maggie,” he said as he handed the leather bag to Suzanne. “I’ll call Ryan before you’re out of range and see if he needs”—he glanced at the purple hue of his own skin—“anything else.”
“Who’s Ryan?” Hensen asked, unwilling to leave the safety of his family to someone he didn’t know.
“He’s a bighorn sheep-shifter who went into medical research rather than join the family business.”
Hensen tried not to shudder. Just the idea of a shifter that could turn into a massive, hard-headed sheep with huge horns was a little unsettling. “Can we trust him?”
“He’s a good friend of mine,” Brigden said with a nod. “And he understands genetics. If anyone can tell us the effect of the wolf that bit Maggie, it’ll be him.” He turned to Gideon and handed him a small electronic gadget. “I put the coordinates Jay gave me into the GPS. Hurry home.”
“Thanks, baby,” Gideon said as he reached for his mate and held him close. “We’ll be back as quick as we can. Stay safe.”
Brigden rolled his eyes, but smiled at his mate’s obvious concern for his welfare. It was great to see them enjoying the type of relationship they should have been able to share thirty years ago. If Gideon and Brigden hadn’t been so brave, and if Donovan and Sogarn hadn’t helped pave the way to acceptance by the pack, Hensen could have found himself trying to make the same difficult choices. He couldn’t imagine trying to pretend indifference to Gavin and Kade. Just the memory of avoiding Kade for seven months filled him with a huge sense of loss now. He couldn’t imagine being forced to do it for three decades.
Suzanne smiled indulgently and threw a handful of clothes at Hensen while she waited for her turn to embrace Brigden. Hensen glanced down at the jeans and T-shirt a little surprised to realize they were out of his own wardrobe. Suzanne shrugged. “The rest is already in the car.”
“You broke into my house?” he asked with a half smile.
“The door wasn’t locked,” she said, defending herself with a smart-ass smile and an exaggerated shrug.
He laughed softly. There were no locks on pack housing in Shy River. There had never been a need. “Suzanne,” he said as emotion tightened his throat, “I really appreciate everyone’s help.”
She nodded, gave him an understanding smile, and then turned to her mates. “Come on,” she said pushing Gideon aside so that she could hug Brigden good-bye. “Let’s get moving.”
* * * *
“They’re coming back in Gideon’s four-wheel-drive,” Kade said as soon as he felt his lover touch his mind.
“Who are ‘they?’” Gavin asked. Outwardly he seemed calm, but his emotions were very specifically focused on protecting his mates. Kade loved him all the more for it.
“Hensen, Gideon, and Suzanne.” They were still too far away for him to sense Hensen’s emotions, but the very fact that he had the beta of the Shy River pack with him had to be a good sign. Ironically, Kade was also looking forward to seeing Suzanne. They’d been fairly close friends in the months it had taken Brigden and Gideon to rush through the install of security equipment at Dry Creek. Hensen had stayed several more months to iron out any problems in the computer system, which was when Kade had struggled to stay away from the man. Without Suzanne’s friendship to fill the empty days he’d wondered more and more what his mate was like.
Kade smiled at the woman fast asleep in his embrace. Thankfully he hadn’t needed to wonder about his mate for too long. Reality had surpassed his wildest dreams.
“Do they want us to meet them somewhere?”
“I think so,” Kade said as he tried to concentrate on their traveling mate. “But we’re going to have to wait for details until they get a little closer. My connection to Hensen keeps fading in and out so they’re probably driving along some of the winding roads on this mountain. It’ll probably be a couple more hours yet.”
Gavin nodded, but it was clear that most of his attention was on their surroundings. They couldn’t smell worth a damn past the horrific smell of human urine, but they still had werewolf hearing. They knew their “neighbors” had returned from wherever they’d gone and had come home to party. The first gunshot had made them both jump in reaction, but it had become clear over the past couple hours that they were just young men shooting cans—or whatever else they could find—for target practice. As unnerving as it was to hear the wild partying with alcohol and guns, it was yet another reason for shifters to avoid the area. That could only be a good thing for them at the moment.
Ironically Maggie seemed able to sleep through it all.
“Do you think she’s all right?” Kade asked worriedly.
“I hope so,” Gavin said, obviously not trying to sugarcoat the situation. “Traumatic blood loss can take a long time to recover from without a transfusion. If she were still human I’d say several weeks or more, but I don’t know how that translates in werewolf terms.”
“Faster, I think. Suzanne insisted that Brigden and Gideon stayed in bed for a week after they both suffered attacks resulting in heavy blood loss.” He remembered his relief that Brigden had survived. He hadn’t even known at the time that Gideon was recovering from being attacked by Shaw only minutes earlier. Kade grinned at the memory of some of the sounds he’d overheard a time or two. “But I don’t think they did a lot of sleeping.”
Lisbeth’s attack on Brigden had been swift, vicious, and with the very clear intention to kill. Kade still had no understanding of why she turned him into a werewolf so long ago. Her hatred for humans had only grown since then, but her unexplained hatred for Gideon and his mates had completely destroyed her. Kade hadn’t even been able to muster sympathy for her or her mate when they were banished from the pack.
Usually banishment meant a very difficult life, if not an early death, but he suspected that Lisbeth and Shaw would not only find a way to survive, but perhaps even make the Dry Creek alpha pay for his leniency.
“Revenge?”
Hensen asked into his mind when he apparently picked up that last thought.
“Would they really put the whole shifter world in danger?”
Kade asked, trying to deny the scenario that was building in his mind.
“They were misguided, but their intention had been to protect the pack, not destroy it.”
“True,”
Hensen said,
“but history is full of examples of men and werewolves destroying the thing they loved the most.”
“And the unusually well-appointed den we used is on Dry Creek pack lands. It’s possible that Shaw considered this his plan B.”
Kade shivered all over.
“Oh, hell, what if we’re right?”
“It’s okay, baby. We knew someone had to be behind this,”
Hensen said, sounding just a little bit freaked out.
“I’m going to discuss this with Gideon. We’ve still got a couple more hours on the road, so try and get some rest.”
“Okay,”
he said, turning to look at Gavin. It was obvious that he realized Kade was talking to Hensen via their link. He’d explain what was going on, and then he’d take his mate’s advice and try and get some sleep. He had a feeling he was going to need it.
* * * *
“Hey, sis,” Gavin said as he climbed into the backseat of her mate’s four-wheel-drive, “you’re purple.”
She laughed. “Thanks for noticing. Any explanation for why you’re not?”
He shook his head. With everything that was happening with Maggie, his own unusual reaction to being made a werewolf had seemed unimportant.
“It’s good to see you,” he said sincerely. “It’s been too long.”
“Way too long,” she said with a soft laugh. “It’s kind of ironic that we should both end up mated to werewolves who are also best friends.”
He blushed slightly. He hadn’t been certain if Hensen had explained their connection or not. Suzanne gave him a soft smile. “As long as you’re happy, I’m happy for you.”
“Ditto,” he said, glancing at the man beside her. “Hopefully when all of this blows over, I’ll get to meet Brigden as well. Kade thinks very highly of him.”
“So do we,” Gideon said with a wide smile.
Gavin reached over to shake hands with his sister’s mate. “I guess this makes us brothers-in-law?”
Gideon nodded. “I guess it does. Welcome to the pack.”
“So now what?” Gavin asked. He already knew that Hensen and Gideon had a plan, but he was a little short on details. His mate seemed willing to trust Gideon, and Gavin was willing to follow Hensen’s lead on that, but he’d always preferred to have some idea of what problems may lay ahead.
“Now you and your mates get to go on a nice little vacation while we sort a few things out.” Suzanne had reached for a bag that looked to contain medical items and was already explaining to Maggie the types of samples she was going to need. “Brigden has a friend ready to investigate the genetic modifications. We plan to drop by Dry Creek pack to collect samples from the wolf-creature after getting you and your mates to safety.” He glanced at Hensen and Kade as they climbed into the front seat beside him. “Thanks to Kade, we have a few solid theories on who is behind it all, so hopefully it won’t take very long to find a solution. But, who knows, the place we have in mind for your vacation might even be a great honeymoon destination. You’ll probably never want to come home.”