A Wolf in the Fold Read online

  Lina stood to refill her coffee. “You should know better than trying to keep stuff from us.”

  “It’s nothing, okay?”

  Lina turned and leaned against the counter, arms crossed in front of her.

  After a moment, Elain rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. I just have a weird…feeling. That’s all, nothing more.”

  “Then why aren’t you running?” Mai asked. “You love to run.”

  “I just…” She’d rather reach for the low-hanging fruit and hope they bought it. “Paul Abernathy. Okay?”

  The other three women visibly relaxed.

  Yay, they bought it.

  Leaving out the full truth didn’t feel good, but it was a lot easier to deal with when she didn’t even know what her earlier vision meant.

  No reason to freak anyone out when it might be nothing.

  Lina hugged Elain. “You won’t let that drop, will you? No matter how much the rest of us tell you it’s not a problem?”

  “I can’t let it drop,” Elain insisted, now firmly back in the realm of truth. “Until I’m sure I won’t lose control like that again, I’d rather not risk anyone’s safety.”

  “Fair enough.” Lina grabbed her coffee and returned to the table. “I spent my fair share of time trying not to accidentally blow shit up when I first discovered my powers. I get it.” She waggled a finger at Elain. “Just quit being so hard on yourself. None of us are feeling the least bit unsafe around you.”

  With that, the women let it drop.

  Maybe I need another trip to Baba Yaga’s to talk with her. Too bad I have no freaking clue how to go about it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  With breakfast consumed and the sun warming things up, everyone moved outside as the first of their guests arrived. The shifters gathered in the backyard, talking and catching up with each other.

  Elain did her best to play the friendly host without engaging in too much physical contact. She didn’t want to accidentally alienate anyone, but with her frazzled nerves she was finding it hard to build and hold a mental wall against the sheer volume of sensory input she encountered.

  As time for the run drew near, shifters began stripping. Elain felt heat flood her face as the yard rapidly filled with naked, hunky guys. There were a few women as well, but most of the people in attendance were men. All of them were adults. There’d be a shorter run for kids that afternoon during the barbecue.

  Elain knew she should be beyond embarrassment at the nudity, but she hadn’t been raised as a shifter in a shifter family. Yet another legitimate reason not to participate in the run as a shifter, that she didn’t want to go parading butt naked in front of strangers. Her attempt to go after Rodolfo Abernathy up in Maine notwithstanding.

  “You’re not going to run, babe?” Brodey asked. He leaned over and petted Juju and Bea, who pulled at the leashes to get to him.

  She shook her head. “I’m going to sit here and help babysit. Dragonsit?” She looked to Lina for a ruling.

  Her friend laughed and held up her hands. “Don’t ask me. I still swear they’re part baby piranha. The way they’re crawling now, believe me, I’ll take all the help corralling them I can get. I don’t care what you call it.”

  There weren’t just wolves in their backyard. There were several large cat shifters she didn’t know, and she wasn’t sure if they were panthers or cougars or what. And Wally the grizzly, and a fox shifter, among others. Kitty hadn’t come today. She was busy tracking down another lead she’d received the day before on a possible cockatrice nest.

  “That’s Mark’s cousin, Darryl,” Brodey explained as Elain stared at the fox shifter, a slim man with reddish auburn hair whom she’d never met before. “He lives over in Port Charlotte. He’s going to lay the trail.”

  “Isn’t that, I don’t know. Racist or something?”

  Brodey frowned. “What?”

  “Making a fox shifter be the one who lays the trail?”

  Brodey laughed. “No, babe. He volunteered. He does it every run. He loves it. He’s a tricky motherfucker, too. Makes it damn hard to follow him. He’s one of the best trail-layers there is.”

  “Really?”

  He snorted. “Yeah. It isn’t just a race today, it’s a tracking trail. That’s what makes it so much fun. What’s even better is he’s an experienced hare.”

  “Now you’ve lost me. I thought you said he was a fox.”

  He grinned. “Ever hear of ‘hashing’?”

  “Isn’t that a drug?”

  “No.” He quickly explained the sport of hashing to her, of one person playing the “hare,” laying a trail for the other runners to follow. Usually involving drinking beer and singing bawdy songs as well. “They’re a drinking club with a running problem is how they bill themselves. He said it always gives him a giggle when he volunteers to hare for a hash.”

  “Oh, come on. You’re just making all that up.”

  He drew a cross over his heart as he nodded at her phone. “I swear. Run a Google search for ‘hash house harriers.’ There’s groups all over the world. It’s like Gasparilla celebrations on a small scale, but without the floats. You’re a cross-country runner. I’m surprised you never heard of it before.”

  She opened the browser on her iPhone and typed in the phrase. After a few moments of reading, she said, “Huh. I’ll be damned.”

  He grinned. “See? Told you.”

  She scrolled through the pages. “There’s a group here in Arcadia.”

  “Yeah. He runs with them, too, sometimes.”

  “That looks like fun.”

  “It is, but you have to do it on two legs, not four.” He indicated all the shifters now gathered in their backyard, most of them now shifted into their animal form. “Today’s an unofficial hash without the drinking and lewd songs.”

  “I thought you’d be all for lewd singing.”

  He grinned. “I would, except we’ve got three little pitchers with sets of really sharp ears. I don’t want Lina blaming me for the Beasts’ first words being unmentionables.”

  Lina laughed. “Hell, they hear enough of that kind of talk from me already.”

  * * * *

  Mark, who still hadn’t shifted, was dressed only in shorts and stood in front of the assembly. He called for everyone’s attention. “Thank you to everyone for coming out today. I think most of you have been through one of these before, but if you haven’t, let me clarify the rules. Darryl, here, is our foxy hare for the day.”

  Everyone laughed, or chuffed or growled or barked if they were shifted, as the man raised his hand and waved to the gathered shifters.

  “Rules in a nutshell,” Mark said, “Darryl gets a thirty minute head start. Seems some of you wolves have been in training and stepped up your game.” He raised an eyebrow at a trio of black and brown wolves standing near the front. The three shifters made chuffing sounds Elain interpreted as laughter. They were from the Arcadia area, but she didn’t know them very well.

  “As usual,” Mark continued, “our gracious hosts have provided a generous incentive to come in first. This time, it’s twenty pounds of steaks to both the first shifted and first non-shifted runners.”

  He paused to let the pleased howls, cheers, and clapping die down. “To win that, you have to be first in in your division. No cheating, no shortcutting the trail. And because we have some shifter races not quite as fast as the wolves, we also have a slowest prize package for the last ones in, shifted and not, of ten pounds of steaks each.”

  Another round of cheers. “The rest of y’all try to have fun. As for the other rules, they still apply. Stay out of sight of humans. No shifting one way or another on the trail unless you’re injured. In other words, you start out on four feet, or whatever, you stay that way the entire way until you come in. You start out on two, no shifting just to catch up or to try to track to figure out trail clues. And yes, Darryl is likely to throw in a few red herrings to help clump the pack up again, so suck it up and deal with it.”


  Elain laughed, seeing how Mark’s smile belied his words and tone.

  “Once Darryl’s finished, he’s going to check in, and we’ll set up the official on-in area. Then he’s going to sweep the trail for anyone who got lost.”

  Mark turned his attention to another shifter, a handsome young man possibly in his early twenties, who hadn’t shifted yet. “Oh, and Al. Remember, you get lost, you find a fence and follow it back to the driveway and come in that way. No flagging down girls on the road and hitch-hiking back.”

  He shrugged, smiling. “Well, you’ve eliminated shifting back now, so I can’t.”

  “Okay, so are we all clear? Any questions?” He received none. “Great. Darryl, head on out.”

  Darryl yelled, “On-on!” before he shifted into his fox form, larger than she’d expect a normal fox to be, but still smaller than his wolf counterparts. He took off into the woods behind the house.

  “Elain, can you keep time for me?” Mark called out.

  She nodded and pulled up the timer on her phone. “Got it.” So far, so good. As she punched in thirty minutes and started the timer, she forced herself to relax. It was a beautiful day, she was surrounded by friends and family, and everyone, so far, was having fun.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  * * * *

  Elain kept a tight rein on Juju and Bea’s leashes while she talked with her mom and Lina. Their men were all socializing with some of the other shifters. With less than eight minutes until the run started, Mai finally emerged from the house with BettLynn. The baby girl blinked in the sunlight but smiled when she saw Elain.

  “We used to have runs like this when I was growing up,” Mai said, her tone sounding wistful as she surveyed the restless and waiting group of shifters.

  “If you want to run, I’ll watch her for you,” Elain offered.

  Her friend hesitated before finally shaking her head. “No, it’s okay. I’ll stay here. Jim and Micah are going to run.”

  Elain stared at her. “What’s wrong?” she softly asked. It bothered her because during breakfast she hadn’t sensed anything wrong with her friend.

  Maybe my Seer skills aren’t as good as I thought.

  Mai shrugged. “Nothing, I guess.”

  “Another dream last night?”

  “No, I actually slept pretty well last night.” She surveyed the crowd. “I guess it’s just that it’s been a while since I’ve been part of a large Clan group. I’m still trying to get it through my skull that there is no other shoe left to drop, that life has settled down. It just…I don’t know. It seems too easy.”

  “I know that feeling, believe me.”

  Brodey walked over, lifted BettLynn’s shirt, and blew a raspberry on the baby’s belly. The little girl squealed with laughter. Even Mai managed a smile.

  “I really feel blessed, guys,” she said, her voice full of emotion. “You have no idea. I never could have gotten through all of this alone.”

  Micah and Jim walked over to kiss her and the baby. “How’s our princess?” Micah asked.

  “She just had breakfast. I swear, I think she’s going to be ready for cereal even sooner than Dr. Alberto guessed. It looks like she’s got another tooth coming in this morning. That makes four this week.”

  Lina let out a snort. “The Beasts are working on solids already. Uncle Andel said his daughter and granddaughter both were eating solid adult food by the time they were five months old, so I guess it’s normal for dragons.”

  “Elain was eating cereal and already working on solids by the time she was five months,” Carla noted. “At the time, the pediatrician said she’d rarely seen anything like it. In retrospect, I guess it all makes sense. It must be a shifter thing.”

  The Beasts, who’d been dozing on a blanket in the grass, awoke and spotted BettLynn in Mai’s arms. As soon as they did, they both rolled over, fussing, and tried to crawl toward her.

  “Hey, hold on, guys,” Mai told them, a genuine smile finally reaching her eyes. “I’m coming.” She sat down on the blanket with BettLynn cradled in her lap. The two boys stared, rapt, Luka holding one of BettLynn’s hands, George holding a foot. Juju and Bea pulled on their leashes and nearly dragged Elain over to them, only happy once they got to sniff and lick all three babies, who giggled at the attention.

  The adults went silent as they watched. Finally, Brodey spoke. “You know,” he said, “that never fails to get me right here.” He tapped his chest with his fist. “The way the boys go for her. And the way the puppies adore her. There’s just something so…” He went silent.

  “It’s like they know she’s special,” Carla softly suggested. “Like they know they need to watch out for her.”

  “Goddess help anyone who tries to screw with her,” Micah said. “If Jim and I don’t kick their ass, they’ll have two dragons crawling all over them.”

  “She’s already got her own posse,” Elain said. “Oh, that reminds me.” She glanced at her phone and called out, “Three minutes!”

  Ain, Cail, and Liam had just returned from the barns and walked over to join them. “Guess we’re right on time, huh?” Ain asked after kissing Elain.

  “Yes. You’d better get ready.”

  Cail also offered her a kiss. After Liam kissed Carla, the men stripped, and Brodey and Micah joined them in shifting. Only two other shifters were running on two feet. Zack and Jim, however, were also taking part in the run.

  “Count us down from ten seconds,” Mark hollered over to Elain.

  She flashed him an okay sign and walked over to stand closer to the woods, in front of the pack but to the side and out of trampling range.

  As everyone prepared to take off, she studied the group. Some of the shifters were Lyall cousins, and nearly everyone there had been to the wedding.

  Elain understood Mai’s apprehension. She felt a little overwhelmed herself. Seven months into her relationship with the men, while she loved the fact that she now had a huge extended family, she still found it hard to believe.

  Yes, she wanted to run with them, the Alpha inside her eagerly watching, metaphorical tail twitching.

  She also knew that was exactly why she couldn’t.

  Not until I’m sure I can completely control myself.

  Run with her men? Sure. Absolutely. But she wouldn’t risk hurting someone else or starting a Clan squabble by unintentionally doing something wrong and breaking some sort of shifter etiquette.

  Ain, Brodey, and Cail took their places at the back of the pack. Since they weren’t eligible to win, they were treating it as a social event. Mai had left BettLynn on the blanket with the Beasts while she stood a few feet away and talked with Carla.

  “Thirty seconds,” Elain called out. The puppies tugged at their leashes, sniffing, tails eagerly wagging as they watched everyone get ready to start.

  The pack of shifters tensed. Even Wally, who’d opted to run it shifted, lumbered from sitting up on his furry butt into a four-footed running stance. Jan, Rick, and Kael had shifted into their smaller dragon forms and would likely give Wally a walk for his money.

  The seconds ticked down. “Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…” Elain was vaguely aware of the Beasts suddenly bursting into frustrated cries, but she didn’t look up from her phone or stop the count. “Four…three…two…one!”

  The pack let out an excited shout, as if now one melded beast. The puppies jerked at their leashes, nearly pulling Elain off her feet. The pack of runners headed into the woods, following the trail Darryl had set.

  Another, different cry hit Elain’s ears over the din of the shifters.

  Mai screaming.

  Elain turned to look and realized the Beasts were doing their best to crawl off the blanket toward the rapidly disappearing runners. BettLynn was missing.

  A small brown and black ball of fur went wobbling past Elain, the puppies eagerly trying to follow it.

  Elain ran across the yard toward Mai, dragging Juju and Bea with her. “What happened?”
/>   Lina, who’d gone inside to pee, came bolting through the doors to try to help Carla corral the Beasts, who had made their way completely off the blanket.

  “BettLynn!” Mai screamed, running toward Elain.

  Elain turned. Her men had just hit the woods, the little furball almost catching up and gaining speed as it got its wobbly legs under control. Then everything finally clicked in her brain as she remembered her vision from earlier that morning.

  “Brodey,” Elain screamed. “Stop! Grab her!”

  He wheeled around at the sound of Elain’s cry, coming nose-to-nose with the little ball of fur, which plowed right into one of his front legs and tumbled tail over head under him. Ain and Cail also stopped and turned.

  Brodey made the connection first and shifted back, scooping up the puppy in his arms. “What the hell?”

  Elain and Mai both ran over to join him.

  Mai sounded close to hysterics. “She just… I was talking to Mom. I turned my back for a second and the Beasts started crying…and I…”

  Ain and Cail both shifted back. “What’s wrong?” Ain asked. “What happened?”

  The female wolf-ote puppy with brilliant emerald-green eyes let out a playful yip and licked Brodey on the nose.

  Brodey stared at her in shock. “Um, I think we have a new problem on our hands.”

  BettLynn happily wagged her tail and let out another yip.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Elain opted to bundle everyone into the house and tucked the puppies into their pen in the dining room. Ain sent Cail back out to try to catch up with Jim and Micah. He turned Jim around and sent him back to the house after locating him first. The man burst into the living room a few minutes later, out of breath.

  “What’s wrong? Cail said something happened to the baby. What happened? Is she okay?”

  Mai tearfully pointed at BettLynn, who now happily romped on the floor with the Beasts. The Beasts had soon settled down after Lina let them pet their buddy and left them free to roam the floor with her.

  It seemed the boys had no problems recognizing BettLynn, even in her shifted form. They were now busy trying to crawl after her as she ran circles around them.