Rutledge Werewolves 1: Scent of Passion (19 page)

As he and Dominic helped Mona set up the kettle and tea, cups, and saucers, everyone was quiet. Roland and Samuel sat precariously perched on thin wooden chairs. Roland wasn’t sure how Samuel felt, but he worried one wrong move or strong gust of wind would splinter the tiny chair. So he simply looked around, feeling perfectly happy to stay a while and see what would happen.

When all five of them sat comfortably around the small fire, tea and cookies in hand, Mona surprisingly came directly to the point.

“It’s good to see you back, young man. I was worried after your ma died and your idiotic father took you away so we’d never see you again.”

Roland choked on his tea. “Excuse me, ma’am?”

Mona looked at him, a tiny glint of laughter in her eyes.

“Don’t you speak plain English? Which part didn’t you understand? The part where I called your father an idiot, or the fact I called you a young man. Every man a day under seventy is young to me.”

Roland blinked and set his teacup down on the small table nearby.

“My mother isn’t dead, ma’am. She simply ran away from my father.”

Mona shot a scornful look at him, then resumed eating her cookie.

“Don’t be daft, boy. Your mother told you she’d come back for you, right?” Mona glared at him until he nodded. “Then what else could have kept her from coming back for you? She loved you dearly, she merely needed to warn the Pack of your father’s evil intentions.”

Artemais noticed that Roland went a few shades paler at Mona’s words. He swallowed, but didn’t contradict her words.

“So his mother had been one of the Pack,” Artemais confirmed, leaning forwards.

“Oh yes,” Mona smiled, taking another sip of tea. “She had her own problems, but she was dealing with them admirably once she married that man and young Roland here came along. Your daddy was sick, mentally sick. I couldn’t tell exactly what illness it was, but it ate away at his mind—physically and emotionally. He had a lot of issues, that man, and when Janine finally got fed up with him and tried to help him deal with his hatred of himself, well, it became a bit messy, let’s just say.” She paused for just a moment.

“He swore he’d cleanse himself by ridding the world of the rest of the Pack. Janine tried to warn us. Young Roland here was barely three, so she thought he’d be safer at their home than with her in the park. Plus, she couldn’t really take care of him while she changed, could she? So she came to warn us. We all started our moon time, but Jeffrey came and killed many of the Pack while we ran. By the time we realized the next day that Janine had left young Roland with his father and not someone in the village, Jeffrey had taken the boy away. I always thought he did it to avoid the sheriff’s questions. Me and Sally—that was my sister—looked, but couldn’t find them. We were too busy helping you and your brothers adjust to the great loss and taking care of your Grandfather. Another cookie?”

Artemais took the offered plate, nabbed a cookie and passed it on to Dominic, then to Samuel.

“What happened to your father, Roland?”

“He died of syphilis when I was thirteen.”

Artemais looked like he wanted to make a comment, but Mona was nodding, almost to herself and ignoring him.

“Ah yes. Syphilis. New name, old complaint. Well now, young Artemais, have I answered your questions?”

He smiled down at the elderly woman.

“Almost, Mona. Why didn’t you mention to me years ago that there might have been another werewolf running around? I could have tracked him down and helped him.”

“He had to come on his own. He hasn’t known what he is—what his mother had been—and he has had his own private demons to fight. Right, young man?”

“Very true, ma’am.”

Artemais would later swear that Mona blushed.

“Enough of the ma’am business. You can call me Mona, love. Your mother was like a daughter to me, and I watched over you enough when you were a baby. You’ll be sticking around, won’t you?”

Artemais watched as the young man and old woman forged a bond, and knew that everything would be fine. He and Dominic cooked up some of the steak and potatoes for Mona, while she reminisced about Roland’s mother. When they were finished, Mona thanked them and walked them to her door.

“You stay with these nice young men until after the full moon, then you come back here when you’re ready and we can talk some more. Right?”

“Yes, Mona. I won’t be going off anywhere.”

“Thank you for cooking my dinner, it’s nice to see some men these days knowing how to use a kitchen for its proper purposes.” This said with a glare and shake of the head to Dominic. Artemais briefly wondered if the old lady knew what Dominic’s favorite purpose for a kitchen was. Seeing the glint in Mona’s eye, he figured she did.

“I’ll see you boys later. Stay safe.”

With that she shut the door and they headed back to the Jeep. Artemais felt keen to get back home, back to Sophie, and see what her big plans for tonight were.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Are you sure you’re all right, Soph?” William asked again, concern furrowing his brow. Sophie sighed. She wished like hell William wasn’t here, seeing her like this.

“I’m perfectly fine,” she lied. She choked on the last syllable and leaned back over the toilet, dry retching. She hadn’t anything left in her stomach for over five minutes now, but tell that to her nausea.

When it finally passed for another moment, she sat back down on the cool tiles and accepted the fresh washcloth William handed to her.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again. Sophie gave up.

“William, my stomach is trying to kill me, or maybe simply turn itself inside out. I feel like I’m dying and will be fine in about half an hour. Most women get morning sickness, I seem to be cursed with afternoon sickness. So stop asking. Talk to me about something else.”

William took a step back from the vehemence in her words. She felt a moment of guilt, which passed as soon as she saw her meaning had reached William.

“What do you want me to talk about?” he asked gently.

“Anything,” she moaned, leaning back over the toilet, “Just don’t make me think of how much I hate being pregnant at this point in time.”

“Well, I don’t really have anything much to say that doesn’t revolve around ‘Are you all right?’ and we’ve already covered that ground.”

“Fine,” Sophie snapped, “Why the hell are you so depressed half the time?”

The silence lengthened as Sophie’s stomach tried vainly to wring out some more of whatever so mortally offended it. When the nausea finally passed again, she sat back down and took a few deep breaths. Looking back up to William, she stared at him.

“Well?”

William sighed in capitulation. He needed to talk to someone, and it looked like Sophie had designated herself as his confessor.

“I met this woman…” he trailed off. Sophie realized then and there this something lay heavily on his heart and getting the story out would be like pulling teeth. Thankfully, William continued.

“We dated for a while.”
One month, two weeks and four days
, his brain injected, “and then she just upped and left with no warning and without saying goodbye last week.”

Last Friday, sometime just after dawn while I lay sleeping after bringing her to orgasm five or six times
, his brain chimed in, as it always did when he thought of Josephine. He squelched the familiar melancholy, preferring to be nonjudgmental so Sophie could give him her honest opinion on what he should do.

His pride and his heart had been tearing his brain to pieces over this problem since the second he had realized she had left him. He kept fluctuating between being angry over his pride being hurt at her casual leaving, and being worried sick that something might have happened to her.

He must have packed to follow her a million times in the last week. He had finally simply kept a small suitcase packed under his bed. But every time he reached for it, determined to track his woman down, his wounded pride reared up, insisting he couldn’t run after a woman like a lost little boy. The conflicting emotions were tearing him up. Maybe a woman’s perspective would help here.

“I have no idea why she left or where she’s gone. All I know is she was obviously more important to me than I was to her—otherwise she would never have left without a word. That really hurts and gets me a bit down.”

Sophie crossed her legs under her, obviously thinking very deeply about his situation. He felt his load lighten as he shared it. Sophie was a great girl; smart and funny and Art really deserved her. He knew their bachelor lives would be different now, and a whole lot more interesting with Sophie around for the ride.

“I presume you were sleeping together?” Sophie managed to keep a straight face while she asked this. The thought of
any
of the Rutledge brothers having a platonic relationship made her want to have a fit of giggles. The women in the surrounding towns and villages probably knew all these guys intimately. While the thought of Artemais being intimate with any woman stung a little, the teasing potential for the other brothers was simply too good to pass up on.

“Well?” Sophie pressed, a huge grin on her face. William merely cleared his throat and blushed a little.

“I really don’t want to comment on that Soph, you understand.”

Sophie rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Fine! Well, I presume this girl—what’s her name by the way?—wasn’t simply moving houses, or changing jobs or something?”

William shook his head.

“Her name is Josephine, and I don’t think she planned it at all. That’s why my pride took such a beating Soph—I can’t understand why she ran from me. She left her apartment with no notice, and broke her lease. She left her job with no notice. She was only waitressing, but she didn’t even stop to collect her pay. I know I’m not an ogre, but surely she could have at least said goodbye before she left? Or explained what it was I did wrong?”

Sophie blinked, wondering why the hell William hadn’t mentioned this before.

“William, I can only think of a few reasons why a woman would run like that. I am assuming here that she wasn’t in an abusive relationship with you? You hadn’t had some major argument about politics or religion or something, had you?”

“Of course not! Sophie! How could you possibly—”

“Yeah, yeah, just checking. Well, I don’t know about you, but I can only think of two reasons a woman would leave everything behind, including her paycheck. Either someone is chasing her and she got scared, or she’s pregnant. I can’t see any woman running away from what pretty much consists of her life, simply to get away from you.”

Sophie glared meaningfully at William. Letting her words sink in. He started to shake his head, then paused. Opened his mouth, and when no sound came out snapped it shut again.

Sophie looked carefully at him, wondering if he might have paled a few shades from his normal tanned complexion. When he started fiddling nervously with his long ponytail, she knew her words had started to take root.

“So. Was she running or hiding, or have you knocked her up and not followed through?”

William paused for another moment, obviously thinking furiously.

“I don’t think she’s pregnant. But I couldn’t really say. Art has told us that only a true mate can be fertile to an Alpha. I’m second-in-charge, if—Heaven forbid—anything ever happened to Art, I’d take over until your child comes of age. So no, I don’t think she is pregnant.”

Sophie looked intently at William, waiting for him to continue.

“But…I am wondering…she was always so reticent about her past. Neither of us shared volumes of information and we’d only been dating about two months. But she always ducked the mandatory questions, and…sidetracked me. I just don’t know…”

Sophie, feeling much better now, shuffled over and sat next to William, throwing an arm around his shoulders.

“Buck up, boyo. You can track her down, check that she’s okay, and still be back in time for the birth of baby here. You
are
planning on tracking her down, aren’t you?”

William nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it since the day she left. It just never seemed to be the right time. But now that you’re here, and baby is on his way, Art’s line is secure and I’ll have a bit more freedom. As long as I don’t move out too far, I can call in the Deputies to cover for me and take some vacation time.”

“I think that’s a great idea, William. Now, what say we practice a little poker to spiff you up for tomorrow night’s rematch?”

Grinning impishly as William groaned, Sophie took his arm and led him out of the huge bathroom and down into the kitchen.

“As long as we play for matchsticks,” William bargained.

“How about for peanut butter and banana sandwiches? I’m
starving
. If I win, you make them, and if you win, I make them.”

The look of disgusted horror on William’s face had Sophie clutching her stomach with laughter.

Chapter Twenty-Six

It was nearly dark by the time Artemais, Samuel, and Dominic returned home. William stood in the kitchen, a steak and some vegetables sitting untouched in his spot on the table. When he saw Artemais come in he grimaced.