Our arrangement was made and I crashed on my bed while he guarded the house from the couch. I was so tired from hobbling through the party that I wouldn't have known if an elephant crashed through the front wall and made itself a cup of tea after letting the kettle scream for ten minutes. What did wake me up the next morning was the smell of coffee and breakfast. I arose like a daylight zombie and shuffled into the kitchen where Adam stood at the stove bringing forth delicious smells.
"Good morning," he greeted me without turning around.
"Ugh," I replied as I seated myself at the small kitchen table.
Adam spun around with a plate in one hand and a mug of steaming brew juice in the other. "I thought you might say that so I made the coffee extra strong."
"Ugh," was my thank-you as he set the meal in front of me. I raised the coffee to my lips and over the rim of the cup I noticed he didn't partake of any of the food. I lowered the mug and my eyes narrowed. "You're making me nervous," I told him.
"Just wanting to see how you like my brew," he replied. I took a reluctant sip and choked as the overpowering deliciousness of twice-too-much-coffee-grounds slid down my throat. Adam laughed over my misery as I swallowed and coughed. "I'm glad you like it."
"Are you-cough-trying to kill-cough-me?" I gasped.
"No, just trying to put a little hair on your chest the traditional way," he replied.
I glared at him. "I can't get it off as easily as you can. Besides, I'm the one who's supposed to be doing the poisoning and body-altering cooking here, remember? Or do I have to learn to sew to pay for the repairs?"
"Well, I do have a few socks that-"
"No."
"Just a few tiny holes in-"
"No. And I don't pull weeds, either," I warned him.
He shrugged. "Can't blame a guy for wanting a girl to sew his socks."
I snorted and grasped the coffee mug between my hands. "Uh-huh, I know how you guys work. First the sewing of the socks and then the throwing off of the clothes."
Adam leaned over the table and his eyes caught mine in their dazzling gaze. I felt more than my cheeks heat up as his sultry voice whispered to me. "I'm not seeing a problem with this."
I shook myself and leaned away from him. "We just met a few days ago," I reminded him.
He leaned closer. "Love can be at first sight."
I leaned farther away. "What if I told you I was blind?"
He scooted closer. "I can make you see the light."
I tilted my chair back further to avoid his beautiful eyes and the two legs that remained on the floor slipped. My chair fell back and me with it. I braced for a hard fall, but in a flash Adam brushed aside the table and caught me. The chair was a casualty of my clumsiness as it clattered lifelessly to the floor. I instinctively clutched onto Adam's shirt and only realized it was open when my cheek pressed against his smooth, warm skin.
His chuckle pleasantly vibrated through my body. "Are you seducing me?" he teased.
I yanked my face away, but was still trapped in his arms. "No, now let go!" I squirmed, but froze when he buried his face in my neck. Sensual feelings and lustful thoughts filled my mind as he planted kisses along my neck.
"You know, you're quite beautiful when you're trying to be dominant," he whispered.
"I'm not trying to be any such thing!" I argued.
His hot lips blazed a trail down the flesh of my throat. "Are you sure?"
I gasped and ground my teeth together. "N-no," I stuttered.
That's when he propped me on my wobbly legs and let me go. I trembled like a leaf and caught the edge of the table to keep from falling. He stood beside me and smiled at me. "I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do," he told me.
I whipped my eyes to him and glared. "You're really good at being persuasive."
"I've had a lot of practice," he reminded me.
I nodded at the floor with its pool of coffee. "Uh-huh. How about you persuade the mop to come over here and wipe up the mess." In his eagerness to save me the coffee mug was another victim of my fall. It lay beside the table smashed to bits with dark liquid floating among its debris.
"I'll see what I can do," Adam promised. In a few minutes he had the room as it was before my clumsy fiasco, and even had a new cup of weaker coffee with my plate of eggs. I ate my food and Adam seated himself opposite me. "We'll have to go to town today. You're nearly out of eggs, and we owe Doc a bag of squirrel food. Your supplies might be in at the store, too," he reminded me.
I wolfed down the eggs, pushed the plate away and sighed. Full, and yet all those chores tired me out. "All right, just let me get some clothes on and we can go to town."
Adam grinned. "Must you?"
I glared at him and stood. "Yes, I must. You're not the only one who's going to be seeing me."
I slipped into some clothing and limped out of the bedroom. Adam stood by my door with the staff in hand. He offered me the pretty stick. "I thought you might need this," he told me.
I took the staff and leaned on it. "Yeah, the old leg's still bothering me. If I get anything out of this it might be a weather predictor in my leg."
"And usurp me of my position?" he teased.
I rolled my eyes and they stopped on him. "You're not going to be around for my entire life."
He wagged his eyebrows at me. "Perhaps I may."
"You never give up, do you?"
"I've had a lot of time to learn to be stubborn."
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "I'll let you win this conversation, but the war isn't over yet."
"I would say this is love, but if this is war does that mean all is fair?" he mused.
"It means don't press your luck and drive me to town," I growled.
He held up his hands and laughed. "Fair enough. Your steed and rider await your commands."
Chapter 8
We headed down the road to the foot of the mountain, but at Doc's driveway we met the station wagon pulling onto the dirt road. Doc pulled onto the side of the road beside us and we stopped. Adam rolled down his window while Doc did the same, and they leaned out. "Someone's pet sick, Doc?" Adam wondered.
Doc's lips were pursed and he shook his head. "No, I'm afraid this is something worse. Mrs. Vandersnoot called and told me they have a dead deer they want me to look at. I guess the body's in pretty bad shape, and they want me to tell them what got it."
Adam frowned. "Will you need some help?"
"Identifying what got it, probably not. Helping me bury the thing, definitely. I'm sure that woman's going to make me do the dirty work," Doc told us.
"Then we'll come," Adam accepted.
Doc pulled forward and let us turn around using his driveway. In a few minutes we were back up the hill and pulling into the Vandersnoot driveway. Mrs. Vandersnoot met us at house with a handkerchief in her hand. She sniffled and dabbed her dry eyes. "It's terrible! Awful!" she moaned.
"Where is it?" Doc asked her.
She pointed around the far corner of the house where Adam and I had had our talk the night before. "Around there and near the trees. The poor thing must have come in for some salt and-and something got it. Now all my other babies have run away and I don't know how I'll get them back." She blew her even drier nose into the handkerchief.
"We'll take a look at it," Doc told her.
Doc led our group of four around the corner. It didn't take long to catch a glimpse of the dead deer. The carnage lay twenty yards away beneath the outstretched limbs of the trees. Thick, dried red blood discolored the green grass, and there was hair and flesh around a five-foot diameter of the main carcass. I covered my mouth and turned my eyes away.
Adam gently clasped my shoulders and leaned down to whisper to me. "Stay here. You don't need to come." I nodded my head and he let me go to follow Doc over to the poor creature.
Mrs. Vandersnoot came up to stand by my side. "I can't blame you for staying here. Seeing that thing even from here is just awful," she commented.
I ch
anced a look and saw Doc and Adam kneel beside the carcass. Doc's hands brushed over the bloody meat and Adam pointed to some particular spots. The perusal took only a few minutes, and they both stood. Doc's eyes flitted over the mess and he paused at a particular point where sat a hoof. He bent down and plucked something from the pointed toes. Both men inspected the discovery, and Doc pocketed it.
They returned to us and Clara gripped her handkerchief. "Well? What was it?"
Doc pulled out their discovery. It looked like a tuft of blond fur. "Whatever got your deer was a large predator. I'd say it's a wolf, but I can't be sure until I take a better look at this piece of fur."
Clara gasped. "A wolf? I thought there were only bears here!"
"You and the rest of the county, but I can't be sure of anything until I get a look at the fur under a microscope and take a look at some books," Doc insisted.
Vandersnoot leaned to one side and glanced past the men at the deer. "Oh, I wish Mark was here to bury the poor thing, but he's gone off to warn the neighbors. You know how terrible cellphone reception is up here."
"We'll be glad to bury it for you," Adam spoke up.
Vandersnoot smiled. "That would be wonderful! Here, let me show you where the shovels are."
Adam turned to Doc. "Could you get the shovels? I just need to talk to Chris for a moment."
Doc snorted and shrugged. "Why not? I'm just an old man bordering on the edge of infirmity."
Adam chuckled. "Not quite yet, old man."
Vandersnoot led Doc away and Adam turned to me with his lips pursed and his eyes hardened. "You don't really think it's the bear, , do you?" I asked him.
He grimly shook his head. "No. I've torn apart enough creatures to recognize the work of a werewolf, and this is an example of that work."
"So what do we do?" I wondered.
Adam sighed and ran his hand down his face. "Nothing. He hasn't done anything illegal, but this is dangerous for both of us. The fur Doc found is definitely from a wolf, and I smelled the scent all over the deer."
My eyes flickered over to the body, but I quickly averted them to the much more pleasing sight of Adam. "So should we worry about Doc telling everybody to get their wolf traps and guns ready?"
"Doc isn't that hasty, but-" He glanced over my shoulder and pressed his lips together.
I turned around and saw Doc headed back to us with two shovels in his hand and Vandersnoot beside him with her unused handkerchief. Doc tossed his spare shovel to Adam. "That's all we have for tools unless Chris wants to dig with a spade."
I looked at the deer and the color drained from my face. "Um, I don't really know much about digging, so I'll have to plead ignorance and stomach."
Doc laughed and patted me on the shoulder. "That's fine. Some people can't stand the sight of blood. Adam and I can get this poor creature buried, so why don't you head inside? It's not very warm out here." A cold breeze emphasized his point. Fall threatened to change into winter in the coming weeks.
"Yes, let's get away from this dreadful sight," Mrs. Vandersnoot agreed.
She led me inside and I was glad to get off my feet. The staff worked miracles on taking the weight off my leg, but miracles were meant to last for only so long. I plopped down on the couch and Vandersnoot took a cushion beside me. She frowned and tapped the handkerchief into the palm of her free hand. "A wolf! Here! Well, the realtor who sold us this place is going to hear about this! He didn't tell us anything about there being wolves here!"
"Maybe it was a bear like the one that attacked me," I suggested.
She snorted. "I very much doubt that. The doctor is much more knowledgeable than any of us, and I'm sure he's right when he says there's a wolf." I hung my head and sighed. It was worth a try. At that moment a phone rang and Vandersnoot pulled out the device. "Oh, Luella! Has Mark been there? Then you won't believe what's happened! It's just awful! Something attacked one of my precious deer and killed it!"
Vandersnoot's phone was on speaker phone so I was able to hear Luella's end of the conversation. "That's terrible! Do you know what could have killed it? Was it a bear?"
"That doctor fellow, the one who lives below your house, thinks it might be a wolf!" Vandersnoot exclaimed.
"A wolf!" Luella
"I know. Isn't it so unbelievable?" Clara returned.
"Oh no! I've been telling Dan for a month that there's something wrong, and I swore it was a wolf!"
Clara and I blinked at the phone. "Really?" Clara asked her.
"Oh yes." I could just imagine Luella waving her hand at Clara's disbelief. "Our dogs have been acting very strange for the last month, and I swore I've heard howls coming from the woods. Dan and Scott wouldn't believe me, but I guess they'll believe me now."
"You're so lucky to have two men to protect you with that wolf prowling around," Clara commented.
"She wouldn't be if she knew the truth," I muttered.
"What was that, darling?" Clara asked me.
"Oh, um, who wouldn't be if they knew the men?" I squeaked.
"If it is a wolf I'm sure Scott can tell us how to get rid of it. He knows so much about wolves," Luella commented.
"It takes one to know one," I whispered low enough so Clara wouldn't overhear me.
The front door opened, and Adam and Doc walked in. "I'll have to call you back, Luella. The doctor and-well, and someone else just came in." She shut her phone and tucked it away to replace the machine with the handkerchief. Clara smiled at the men, but only until she noticed their hands and clothes. Doc and Adam were stained by the red blood, and their hands had little bits of deer hair stuck to the life liquid. Clara wrinkled her nose and her smile grew strained. "Did it go well?" she asked them as she put the handkerchief over her mouth.
"Yep, it's all done. I'll send you the bill later after I look at the fur I found," Doc told her.
"I'm sure you won't charge too much." She lifted the dry handkerchief to her dry eyes. Her eyes were ever on their hands and where their fingers were in relationship to her furniture. "Not when I'm suffering from seeing that poor creature."
Doc's eyes almost rolled and he sighed. "We'll see. I'll come up later after I have a look at the fur." He turned away, and Adam and I were only too glad to follow. We walked to his station wagon and he turned to us. His hands were held stiffly at his sides. "I hope the next time we meet I'll come out cleaner."
Adam chuckled. "You and me both. Mind telling us the results when you look at the fur?"
"I guess, but it's pretty assured it's going to be a wolf. What we're going to do about it, I don't know. I guess we'll try to trap it and relocate it before it eats someone's prized shih tzu," he mused.
"If you need any help we would be glad to give you a hand," Adam offered.
Doc rubbed his chin and furrowed his brow. "You've got the brawn, but I might be asking that other fellow, Ashton, for his help in trying to catch it. He seemed to know a lot about wolves."
I glanced to Adam and noticed his lips were pursed tight. His fangs peeked under his upper lip, and his eyes had a slight touch of madness to them as they stared at our friend. I smiled and pushed Adam toward our car. "You just get a hold of us first and we'll go from there," I suggested.
"All right, but you two be careful. No telling where it is," Doc warned us.
"We will!" I called back. I shoved Adam to our car and stopped him in front of the driver's door. He breathed fast and his hands were clenched at his side. I glanced at Doc. He slid into his car and drove off. I turned my full attention to Adam. "What's wrong with you? You look like somebody just stole your favorite toy and you're out for blood."
His words came out in a halting fashion as though he strained to form his sentences. "That. . .is exactly. . .what is wrong," he growled. He held up his hands, the ones covered in dry blood. "I hoped the age of the kill. . .would not affect me. I was. . .mistaken."
My face fell and my eyes widened. "You're not going to go all wolfy on me, are you?"
He closed his
eyes and ground his teeth together, but shook his head. "No, but you must drive. . .me to your home." He reached into his pocket and passed the car keys to me.
I glanced down at my bad leg. "Um, I'll try."
Chapter 9
The car drive up the mountain was short distance-wise, but long on time. My leg reflexes were slow from the pain and the bandage, so we crept along at the speedy of Granny. Beside me Adam sat very still with his eyes closed and his breathing deep and sporadic. He growled underneath his breath and his hands lay clenched in his lap.
"Have you ever thought about wearing a nose-guard?" I suggested.
He snorted. "Someone once suggested a muzzle for me."
"What did you say to that?" I wondered.
"I bit his head off."
"You'd better be joking."
"Only mildly. I was in wolf form and did attack him."
I cringed. "Did he end up as dog food?"
Adam managed a smile and that seemed to calm his hairier side. "No. He gave a high-pitched scream that hurt my ears and ran off while I tried to stop the ringing in my ears."
I nodded down at the dried blood. Even I could smell the hint of guts and damp fur on him. "So you werewolves are kind of weak to that stuff, huh? Loud noises and strong smells?"
His words started to stutter again. "Very. It's a. . .weakness that humans take advantage of. . .when they wish to destroy my kind," he admitted.
"Don't you dare go all furry on me. There's not enough room in this car for a psycho werewolf," I ordered him.
"I am trying. . .to avoid just that," he swore.
I was relieved when we came within sight of my home, but not pleased when my eyes fell on a large red pickup truck parked out front. Daniel Rodney stood on the porch and he waved when we drove up. We got out and he came up to us with a bright smile. "Good morning. You must be Adam. I'm Daniel Rodney." He held out his hand for a shake, but Adam kept his own hands clenched against his side. Daniel's eyes wandered down to Adam's hands and he cringed. "I'm sorry, I forgot about your helping the doctor. Luella told me before I came up here."
I stepped in and shook his hand. "Great to see you again, Mr. Rodney. What can we do for you?" I asked him.
"Well, I hate to bother you, but Luella insisted on getting a hold of you." He turned to Adam. "She heard you were a jack-of-all-trades, and she was wondering if you could build us a fence to keep that wolf out."