The Librarian and the Wolf: (11 page)

She looked at him
bitterly.  “Somebody did just walk into my house anyway.”

“Could someone have made a copy of
your house keys?”  Asked Adam.

“No
t my copy.”  Said Mal proudly, although he shrunk a little when he saw the irritated look on Terri’s face.

Terri chewed her lip thoughtfully. 
“I suppose there were times when I left my bag at the desk in the library while I went on errands, it would be a bit opportunistic though...”

Alec exhaled and looked at the newly mated couple with pity. 
“We think you have a stalker Terri, someone who thinks he’s in love with you.  It would explain the flowers and the book.  The dead birds, they were like a gift.  It’s what dogs and cats do for their owners.  We think this person purposefully hurt Darcy and then left you her purse as a kind of trophy...”

Mal interrupted. 
“And then when they found out she was having my pup they painted whore on her house... I knew I hated that guy.”

Terri looked around at the wolves. 
“You think this was Damian?”

Adam nodded and folded his arms over his massive chest. 
“He’s a cat, the dead birds are the kind of the thing males do when females are in heat.  He was there when Darcy attacked you...”

Mal shuffled in his seat
still smarting at his ex-girlfriend attacking his mate and not being able to do anything about it.

Alec
picked up where Adam left off.  “The moment he finds out about the pup suddenly someone calls you a whore...”

Carly
shook her head sadly.  “If Damian thinks he’s in love with you he might see bonding with Mal as you cheating on him.”

Terri gasped. 
“It’s just... he’s always been so nice, we’ve worked together for nearly a year and a half. He’s never made any kind of move on me.”

“Before Mal were you ever serious about anyone you dated
?”  Asked Carly carefully.

“Well... no actually.”
  She admitted slowly.  She’d never really been that into anyone before Mal. 
There was no one quite like Mal
.

Carly
rubbed Terri’s arm trying to reassure her.  “Then he was never worried before, he was probably just happy to watch you from afar, if you’d never gotten serious with anyone he might have just watched you forever.” 

Terri shivered and curled herself closer into
Mal’s warm body.  “This is all just supposition...”

Alec exhaled.  “Agreed,
we’ll go talk to Damian.  Hopefully we can get this sorted out by this afternoon.”

“I should come...” 
Started Mal.

“No,
let us talk to him.”

“What will you do
if it is him?”  Asked Terri tentatively.

Adam gave Terri the full force of his Alpha personality. 
“Persuade him to move on, get out of town.  Explain to him the ramifications of messing with a member of my pack.”

His voice was cold and full of authority, his eyes were golden amber. 
Terri felt herself tremor under the tone and strength of his words. 
She certainly didn’t envy Damian right now
.

*

After Terri got her washed clothes back Mal took her to collect some belongings from home.  She was pleased to see that her house looked normal again, although she doubted she would ever feel truly comfortable there again.

After some harsh negotiating it was agreed that she would pack enough clothes to last her a week.  Terri still felt uncomfortable at the idea of sharing a house with
Mal’s entire family but she really didn’t want to be in her own cottage anymore.

Mal cleared out some closet space and a few draws for her.  After unpacking
she felt a little tired and Mal suggested they have a lie down together, promising to be on his best behaviour.

After three minutes Terri realised she didn’
t promise to behave.  Her mouth soon found his and her hands started undressing him.  Mal pretended he was shocked and allowed his mate to have her wicked way with him.

They were dozing when
Mal’s phone rang.  He answered and sat on the edge of the bed.  She ran her hand up and down his taut strong back, which tensed as his phone call progressed.

After grunting goodbye he stared at his phone for a few minutes.  She waited patiently for him
to talk to her, she felt his frustration and didn’t want to add to it.

His voice was flat but his limbs shook slightly.
  “They went to Damian’s.  He wasn’t there. The door was open.  Inside they found pictures of you...”

Her stomach clenched and she sat up.  “
What kind of pictures?”

He showed her his phone.  She squinted at it closely and gasped when she realised.  It was a collage of pictures of her, taken when she was working, when she was out walking, at the Diner, at the bar.  There were dozens of photos taken without her knowledge
. 
It was a shrine to her.

“
Oh god...”

Chapter Eleven

Terri tried to settle into reading a book but her mind whirled with thoughts of Damian. They had found hundreds of pictures of her at Damian’s house, as well as mementos of her, things that she had lost over the last year and a half.  There was a pearl earring, a lipstick, a scarf, as well as things from her house such as one of her mugs and even a cushion. 
She thought she was going mad when that disappeared.

Mal had been wild with rage.  Terri had to practically sit on him to s
top him from punching the walls.

The Darlington Sheriff had been in contact to say they had a few eyewitnesses who could identify Damian as being at the scene of Darcy’s accident, someone even remembered seeing him pick up her purse, they just didn’t realise the significance at the time.

Since leaving the library yesterday Damian had not been seen.  Adam had immediately put together a search party to find him.

Mal’s
dad and all his brothers had insisted they be included in the search.  They had been gone for over four hours and so far she hadn't heard anything.

She'd never encouraged
Damian...
had she?
  He'd always been nice to her but he’d never showed any romantic inclination. What had started this obsession with her?

Her phone chirruped. 
Maybe it was Mal she thought hopefully
.  She was a little disappointed to find a text from Fran.  It read 'just received new shipment of books, not sure all is correct can you help?'

Terri sighed, part of her was keen to rush over and help,
she loved her job. But then she knew Mal wouldn't be happy, she was supposed to be taking it easy and staying indoors. Even though she still had a hard time believing Damian would hurt her Mal didn't. 
His protective wolf was in overdrive
.

She wouldn't mind g
etting out of the house though.  If she wasn't alone surely Mal couldn't object.

She found Ellie in the kitchen starting to prepare dinner. The amount of food she had laid out was staggering.

“Wow, you planning on feeding an army?”  Asked Terri trying to improve the tense mood that had fallen over the house since the morning.  She felt terrible for dragging his family into her problems.

Ellie gave her a forced smile. 
“Just preparing in case we need to feed everyone in the search party.”

“
Oh you need a hand?”  Terri felt fresh guilt at not having even considered the wolves who were out searching for Damian. 
On her behalf
.

“
No everything's ready for the oven, Hank will call when they're on their way back and we can pop it in.  Rosalee and Liv are preparing things too...  Although I'd advise giving Rosalee’s food a wide berth.”

“
That bad?”

Ellie stifled a laugh.  “
She's been taking cooking lessons from me, Ilse and Liv but so far nothing seems to have stuck. I doubt Adam minds, he'd eat anything she put in front of him.  What's up?”

“
I just got a text from Fran at work, she needs my help, I'd really like to go, it would really take my mind off worrying but Mal...”

“
Hmmm well I suppose if I came with you he couldn’t really complain, and the library’s a public place.”

“Thank you s
o much.” Terri hugged her tightly and felt herself welling up with tears again. 
Damn pregnancy hormones
.

Ellie clasped her tightly
. As if Ellie could deny her anything, Terri had turned her terror of a son into a mature and responsible man, not to mention Terri was pregnant with her first grandchild.

Terri dabbed at her eyes.  “
I'll text Mal and tell him where we're going.”

Ellie started pulling on her coat.  “
He probably won't get it if he's deep in the woods.”

Terri tapped out a message on her cracked phone screen.  “
Well in that case hopefully we'll be back before they even know we've been gone.”  She clicked send.

*

Frustrated, the wolves had abandoned the search and returned to the Sheriff’s station to regroup.  Damian was proving to be surprisingly elusive.  But then, if the pictures were anything to go by, he had managed to stalk Terri since he met her over a year ago, and hadn’t been noticed by Mal whilst he was dating Terri. 

Mal had been over to Damian’s house to see the full extent of his obsession.
  If anything the amount of photos Damian snapped had increased since she met Mal.  Damian had scratched out Mal’s face in any photos he featured in.

Mal’s
blood boiled to see the numerous photos of Terri sleeping in her bed.  He and his wolf wanted to roar and tear the photos apart.  He found one that was less than two days old.  He knew by the bite mark on her shoulder it was taken right after he and Terri had bonded.  In spite of their troubles surrounding the bonding it was still incredibly personal and private, he was enraged that Damian had crept into her house and violated that.

Mal couldn’t wait to get his hands on the damn cat!

The Enforcers were still patrolling pack land in force, hoping that the cat would be dumb enough to venture into their territory.  Every pack member was angry at the attacks on one of their own, and each was hoping to get hold of Damian.

Mal paced the Sherriff’s station crossly.
  His beast was almost unhinged at their lack of progress. 
Why the hell couldn’t they find him?  He was just one cat, how could he hide from an entire pack of wolves?

His dad and uncle
Greyson watched him closely.  Mal had been snapping and snarling at everyone since they started the search.  They were ready to intercede should Mal be pushed over the edge.

The rest of the searchers were coming round to thinking that Damian had just skipped town but given the depth of his obsession Mal doubted it was that easy.

His phone beeped with a message.  He was pleased to see it was from Terri.  His wolf whimpered.  Even something as impersonal as a text from his mate was soothing.

He flashed with fear and
fury on reading her message, but soon calmed.  The message was sent twenty minutes ago. 
Fucking phone reception
.  It told him that Fran had texted and needed help so she was dropping into the library with his mom.  He hated that she had left the house when Damian was on the loose but he knew his mom would keep her safe.  She should also be at the library by now, he could run over there and see her.  A kiss or a touch from her would calm him down.  If he could have her in his arms his wolf wouldn’t be baying so hard for blood.

Mal told his dad where he was going and virtually ran across the road ripping the door to the library open.
  He found Fran at the front desk. 

Looming over her he demanded “where’s Terri?”

Fran was startled by the brutish tone of the shifter in front of her.  “I’ve no idea, I thought she was with you.”

“She was coming here to help you sort out a work problem.”

Fran shook her head.  “What problem?  Apart from Mrs Martin’s incessant gossiping it’s been quiet all day.”

Mal almost felt his heart stop beating.  “Are you saying you didn’t text Terri and ask her to come in?”  He asked slowly.

Fran looked at him like he was an idiot.  “No, in fact I lost my phone yesterday.  Why what’s the...”  Fran stared after him as he almost flew out of the door.

Mal burst into the station silencing all chatter.

“Damian... he used Fran’s phone to get her out the house... we have to go...”

With that Mal ran out of the station with more than a dozen wolves scrambling after him
.  They piled into trucks and SUVs and raced towards Mal’s home, hoping to get to Terri before Damian.

*

“How you feeling now honey?”  Ellie flicked concerned glances in Terri’s direction as she drove steadily toward the library.

T
hey had been all set to leave twenty minutes ago but Terri had suddenly felt nauseous and had rushed to the bathroom to throw up.  After three minutes throwing up, ten minutes relaxing her stomach muscles, two minutes to brush her teeth and another minute to gargle they were on their way.
Terri had insisted
.

Terri rubbed her belly.  “Better thanks, it’s weird it came over so suddenly and went away just as quickly... it was pretty violent this time though.”

Ellie chewed her lip.  “I wish I could tell you it’ll definitely get better, but honestly I can’t say for sure.”

Terri shook her head. 
“Doesn’t matter.”  She said definitely.  “It’s going to be worth it.”

Ellie beamed at her.
  “I’m glad you...”

Ellie was cut off.  Out of the blue a car rammed into the side of their truck, pushing them off the road.  The thunderous crash of metal and glass breaking resounded through the cab.
  Terri screamed as Ellie struggled fruitlessly to maintain control of the wheel.

With a horrifying crunch the truck was pushed into the dirt and onto its side.
  Ellie was knocked unconscious.  Terri was suspended by her seat belt.  She wanted to scream.  She wanted to throw up.  Every inch of her was assaulted by pain.

Her vision was blurry.  Gingerly she touched her head.  It ached furiously.
 
Oh god Ellie
.  Was she breathing?  Terri couldn’t tell.  She couldn’t move. 
Oh god the baby!  Please no, not again!

She saw someone coming towards her through the cracked windscreen.
  With a crowbar he started pulling the glass away.

Mal, it had to be.  He was here to save her. 
Her hero.

When the glass was finally
pulled back he stuck his head through the hole.  “Thank god sweetheart, I thought I’d hurt you.”  He reached out to her.

Terri screamed in
terror before blackness took her. 
It was Damian
.