Hot Springs Werewolf Complete Series (BBW Werewolf Erotic Romance) (21 page)

I put it down on the table and tried to control my breathing but all I could feel was raw anger. Someone had entered my space and taken my property. Entered my territory. I saw Red walking around, sniffing the air as he checked the rooms. I breathed in and caught a familiar scent. Who was it? I sniffed again, trying to place it but human Harper's nose wasn't good enough. I had my pants and top off before Red saw what I was doing.

"No, Harper, wait!"

I changed and the scent intensified and with it, my rage.

Edward Toulouse.

The cop.

I was going to tear his throat out.

I ran.

*

I
ran down the road, heading towards town when the scent trail turned and went back up the hill towards Red's house. I turned with it, doubling back and sprinting up the hill intent on killing Edward Toulouse the instant I saw him.

I heard Red shout out again and then felt him change behind me. It was a slight tug, like we were connected somehow. But I had the lead on him and as I bolted up the hill I sensed the Edward Toulouse was still here. He was inside Red's house. I could hear a faint heartbeat that grew louder as I approached. I reached the front door and was forced to skid to a stop. It was closed and I was a wolf with no hands. I felt my rage boiling inside me and all I wanted was to smash through it, run inside and kill Edward. I almost did too but then some small part of me said that I didn't want to damage Red's house. I changed back to human and felt the sick vertigo and wrongness of it again. Not as strong as before but still enough to leave me swaying and trying to catch my breath. I reached for the door and clasped the door handle but for a moment I couldn't work out how to open it. Wolves didn't use doors and so that bit of knowledge was missing temporarily. Finally enough of me came sliding back for me to realize I needed to twist the door handle. The door opened just in time for Red to catch up to me. He shifted and grabbed my arm.

"Wait, Harper, please."

Although I could feel my blood boiling, something in his voice made me stop. He then called out into the house.

"Edward, come out and bring the diary and papers with you."

There was a moment of silence in which I heard the now fading thuds of his heart and sound of his breath. I caught the scent of blood too, inside the house, and something else. Like burning wood. Charcoal maybe.

"Both of you lay face-down on the ground away from the house. I am armed and will use deadly force."

His voice came from somewhere near the bedroom. Perhaps in the corridor. Thinking about him in Red's house, breaking into Red's property made my anger stir again. I felt territorial and this interloper had come into-

"Harper, alphabet. I have this."

I was on the brink of changing again, my hands curled, ready to launch myself into the house. Reluctantly I uncurled my hands and started murmuring the alphabet to myself.

"You know that's not going to happen Edward. Come out, give us back the diary and papers and I'll let you go. Last chance."

Red spoke lightly, as though he didn't really care if Edward came out or not. There was no anger in him at the violation of his home. How did he manage that? I wanted blood.

"Move away from the door."

Edward yelled it from inside the house but I caught the panicky note in his voice. He was trying to be authoritarian and powerful but he was scared.

"We're moving back so you can come out. That diary and papers stay here Edward."

Red nodded to me and we retreated from the door, moving away from the house and towards the garage. We stopped and waited. About ten seconds later I heard footsteps in the house and then Edward Toulouse emerged, pointing his gun at us.

"Stay where you are," he said, his voice in a full on tremble. He kept moving until he was well away from the house. He must have felt safer in the open air away from us because he planted his stance and the tremble vanished from his voice.

"We're looking for a missing man. His name is Donald Crisp. Have you seen him?"

"Time for you to go, Edward. And I'll take that diary and papers you have stuffed down the back of your pants."

"It's Officer Toulouse, Red, and I advise you cooperate with my investigation."

He sniffed the air and then gave us a sly smile.

"Is that blood I smell? You've been slaughtering some livestock perhaps?"

"He better be alive Edward. In fact, I better see him alive by the end of today or you and I are going to have a serious problem."

He - Donald Crisp. I couldn't smell the blood now and I'd only met Donald twice. Edward was planting Donald's blood in Red's house?

"Routine investigation and then you attacked me. I defended myself and put you both down. Evidence is later found that you murdered Crisp right here on your farm."

"Maybe it goes that way. Or maybe you remember how you got that scar."

Red stared at Edward and the moment stretched out. He twitched his chin as though remembering some past injury and I saw the scar standing out against his skin. A line from the corner of his mouth down. He frowned and then gripped the gun, moving his stance.

"Think you're fast enough?" Red was so quiet it was almost a whisper.

"Fast enough to put your bitch down."

I didn't see Red move. One moment he was beside me and the next there was a crack, not of a gunshot but of a punch as he hit Edward in the face, lifting him off the ground. He landed like a bag of potatoes. Red quickly disarmed him and handcuffed him with his own cuffs before turning him over and pulling Millie's diary out of the back of his pants. The papers were folded in half and stuffed inside. He passed them to me. Now that Edward was unconscious and handcuffed I felt more human and less wolf - although that part of me still wanted his blood. Wanted to kill him. I resumed the alphabet before that idea grew out of control and started counting papers.

Red searched through Edward's pockets and found a plastic vial that still held a few droplets of blood. Even from a few feet away I could smell the strong iron scent.

"Let's have a look inside," Red said, picking up Edward's gun.

"We can leave him outside?"

Red looked at me and an odd look came across his face, like he was going to laugh but trying not to.

"He's completely unconscious and there's no way he could escape while we were inside and go running back to town," Red said, exaggerating his pronunciation.

He nodded to me and I followed him inside. The scent of blood was strong and only got stronger as we entered the lounge, although I couldn't see the blood immediately. I also smelt ashes coming from the sink. I'd been counting papers and there were only thirty-two in the back of the diary. I ran to the sink and saw a small pile of ash sitting in the bottom of it, still slightly smoldering. On the edge was an unburned fragment of paper that I knew was a bill of sale or note from the papers. Edward had been burning them. I turned the tap on, letting the water put it out and wash the ashes down the drain. As they went, I felt my hope going with it too.

I turned around to see Red standing in the middle of the room, holding Edward's gun.

"It'll be okay Harper," he said.

I looked down at the counter and saw a perfectly formed droplet of blood. Donald Crisp's blood. Planted by Edward Toulouse, a werewolf and cop.

I walked outside, Red close behind me and saw Edward was gone. He must have shifted, gotten out of the handcuffs and then shifted back so he could take his clothes with him. I expected to feel rage but all I felt was a cold deadness.

Red stepped up behind me and touched me on the shoulder. He was still holding Edward's gun in his other hand.

"We'll work out what to do. We'll find Donald. It will be okay."

I suddenly thought of the Watson's and the happy world they lived in. Eating biscuits, drinking tea, driving cross-country to visit their daughter and the biggest problem Isla had was trying to find their granddaughter a man. A world I'd never had even when I was just Human Harper because my dad had died when I was sixteen and his parents before I was born.

The cold deadness growing inside me deepened to a blistering chill and then a thought came looming out of the dark like an iceberg. Mass slaying at Finch Farm. The Toulouses had tried to wipe out my entire family decades ago and had almost succeeded. Now I was in town and they were clearly going to try again. They'd stolen my property and tried to destroy it. Edward Toulouse had wrecked my laptop.

I felt the anger inside me. The rage that had overcome me but it was no longer burning. It was cold and hard. I turned to face Red. We were both naked and I saw him as both man and wolf. The alpha. The boyfriend of human Harper. And if I said yes, the mate to werewolf me. I could trust him. I needed him.

"Red, we have to stop the Toulouse pack."

I didn't add the second sentence that was swirling in my mind:

We need to wipe them off the face of the Earth.

***

S
unny and charming Hot Springs! Welcome to our beautiful town, visitor. As you can see we have many fine dining establishments, shopping strips, historical sites and much more! Make sure you visit the springs that give the city its name!

In the gloom of the early morning I read the tourist brochure text even though it was across the other side of the room. My eyesight as a werewolf was much better than before. I turned over and mentally added a few more sentences.

Welcome! We have werewolves so be careful at night! Probably not a good idea to sleep with your werewolf neighbor! And if you're the descendent of a pack who were almost wiped out, it might be a good idea to just keep on driving!

I could feel a pain deep in my chest, like I'd swallowed a sandwich too quickly or something was down there, slowly expanding. I had Millie's diary back and some of the papers but Edward Toulouse had burned the rest. Who knows where Millie's letter to me was. Had the werewolf who'd stolen my mail destroyed it before Donald Crisp had taken it from him? Were the last words of my Great-aunt now just ashes that had been long ago washed down a drain?

My soul ached to think I might never get a chance to read Millie's letter to me. But what could it say anyway? Hey Harper, you're from a family of werewolves who were mostly all killed and I've sent you a bunch of papers proving land transfers from decades ago were all faked so you can... what? Get the land back? Somehow I doubted hiring a lawyer to dig up the deep and forgotten past was what Millie had in mind. Without her letter I'd never know what she'd been thinking to send me here.

Past, present and future - they were all messed up. Virtual genocide in the past. Kidnapping and threats in the present, along with a request to become Red's mate. A future of fighting and more attacks?

As I thought about Red I felt a new pain, worse than before. I wanted him and he wanted me but I couldn't stay in Hot Springs if things got worse. Though it was hard to see how they could. Donald Crisp had been kidnapped and the Toulouse pack apparently thought I was here to take back all the stolen land. There was no going back to simply working part-time at Greasy Manna and writing my novel in the cabin. The Toulouses weren't going to stop unless they were stopped and I couldn't do that alone. Maybe I couldn't do it at all and if I had to leave, I doubted Red would come with me and leave his pack behind. I felt the tug of territoriality and I'd only lived here a short time.

The night in his cabin when we'd said we'd be boyfriend and girlfriend seemed so far away. And ridiculous. Looking back I nearly cringed at how teenager and dumb it felt. He wants me to be his mate and I respond that I want him to be my boyfriend? Especially now that I had an idea of what it felt like to want the way he did. It was overwhelming, all-consuming. Boyfriend and girlfriend didn't even come close to it. As for my decision to become a werewolf... it seemed less a decision and more a stupid half-thought colossal mistake that had I put five more seconds into it, I wouldn't have chosen. Unlike a bad tattoo that a laser could erase, my decision was permanent.

I moved around in my bed but I could already feel that sleep was going to elude me. Half of me wished Red was here but I'd said no to him staying with me last night. After Edward Toulouse had escaped (and Red explained that it was so his pack could follow him to hopefully find Donald Crisp) I'd gone from high emotional turmoil to nearly dead asleep on my feet. I guess the running for three days as a werewolf may have had something to do with it. Red had asked me to stay with him and I'd refused. He'd asked me if I wanted him to stay with me in the cabin and I'd said no. He wanted to protect me but I just couldn't say yes.

Because you're leaving Hot Springs.

No, I'm not. I just...

Need to leave. It's the safest option for you and Red
.

But I...

Love him? Oh, honey, I don't think so.

The last time I'd heard so much from the voice of doubt had been in a lead-up to packing up my entire life and driving to Hot Springs in the first place. Now that it was all falling apart, the low murmur had become a track on infinite repeat.

Besides, what are you going to do? Become Red's mate and then have to fight on behalf of the pack?

One of the tidbits of information from Millie's diary. The alpha's mate was equal to him and could be challenged by wolves in and out of the pack. Werewolves would fight for status, for power, for control, for land... for anything practically. The alpha's mate had to be strong as he was.

Did that mean Red thought I was as strong as he was?

I rolled over to stare at the floor for a while and saw the edge of a cardboard box sticking out from under the bed. I'd flattened and carefully stored all my moving boxes so one-year-from-now Harper wasn't begging for boxes at supermarkets if she had decided to leave Hot Springs.

All it would take was the packing tape and maybe two hours and I could be gone...

Hot Springs behind me. The Toulouses forgotten. Quit my job at Greasy Manna. Leave Red. Try to write my book somewhere else.

The anger returned, quick and sharp. Edward Toulouse had invaded my house and smashed my laptop (along with scattering my food everywhere). If he was here now I'd bite him until he... something. Screamed maybe. Or more. Red had explained yesterday that his pack was tracking Edward and that was why he'd let him go. Now that I had a night's sleep behind me I was ready to go all Guantanamo Bay on him.