chapter Three
“I’m just saying, I wouldn’t have paid for it myself.” Louis Stevens leaned back in his chair.
Jay spared his deputy a glance as he searched through a stack of files on his desk. “It was my fault. Why shouldn’t I pay for it?”
“It’s a service vehicle, that’s why.”
“We’re underfunded, Lou.” And the detached door, deep scratches and bullet holes were better dealt with by another werewolf. “Besides, my guy down in Dyersburg knows his shit. He’s kept my old truck running this many years.”
“That is impressive.” Lou snorted and swiveled his chair from side to side. “At least the deer got a happy ending.”
“She’ll live to graze another day.” Jay straightened and stretched his back. “Are you sure you and Baker’ll be able to handle it for a week without me?”
“Heck, yeah.” Lou reached for his coffee. “You going to actually do something exciting with your time off? Baker thinks you spend your vacations studying how to be a better cop.”
“I’m helping a friend move.” It was as close to the truth as his coworkers would get. “I’ve got a few projects to work on around the house too.”
“That’s grim, man. No wild parties? No exotic vacations?” Lou grinned over the rim of his mug. “No sexy librarians?”
Obviously, Jay hadn’t hidden his interest in Eden as well as he’d thought. But he was bound to be spending time with her around town, so better to get it out of the way now. “I’m thinking of asking her out, so keep your eyeballs to yourself.”
“You got it, Chief.” Though he tried, the deputy couldn’t hide his smirk. “So if you two hook up, can you get her to forget my late fees?”
“Return the movies on time. Problem solved.” Jay found the file he wanted and snatched it up.
Lou eyed the folder. “You’re not taking work home, are you? Sort of defeats the purpose of a vacation.”
“Nah, it’s something personal.”
“If you say so.” He rose and held up his cup. “I’m getting more coffee. You want some?”
“No, I’ve got to run. Thanks, though.” The bell above the door jingled as Jay pushed through it. The morning sun stung his eyes, and he dropped his sunglasses from the top of his head down onto the bridge of his nose as he made his way to his truck.
He slid behind the wheel and took a bracing breath before flipping open the manila folder. Inside lay a patchwork picture of anger, violence and resentment.
The first reports were spotty, neighbors phoning in disturbance calls when Albus and Kathy Green’s arguments devolved into screaming matches. Eventually, the complaints coalesced into a steady stream of reports—most made by Eden’s mother against her brother-in-law.
The file also told Jay when Kathy Green had left her family. Her departure marked the beginning of a clear pattern of neglect for Zack. Fights at school, a shoplifting complaint from the local grocer where the boy had been stealing food. Notes regarding an investigation by Child Protective Services.
What could they have found? Even a viciously beaten young werewolf would heal in less than eight hours. No bruises, no marks, nothing to hint at the pain.
Jay had seen a different sort of pain in Eden’s eyes—the helpless kind that came from knowing.
His cell phone rang. He answered it absently, his eyes still fixed on a transcript from a 911 call. “Ancheta.”
Eden’s voice spilled out in a terrified whisper. “Jay? I need help.”
He straightened and tossed the file aside. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t breathe. I can’t—” A raspy noise followed by a groan. “I was in a budget meeting and I lost my temper. Just lost it, and I feel like I’m being torn up from the inside.”
His hand trembled, and it took him two tries to shove the key into the ignition. “You’re at the library?”
“Yes. In my office. I had to use my cell phone and earpiece to call you. I broke my office phone when I picked it up.”
“Don’t move, and don’t open your door. I’ll come up the back exit and get you, okay?”
“Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Jay.”
He pulled out onto the street. “Don’t thank me. Just breathe, and I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
She let out a choked little laugh. “My coworkers have to think I was drinking at lunch. I acted crazy.”
“Stress.” Jay slowed at a red light, and was just about to roll through it when it turned green again. “They’ll chalk it up to you working too hard.”
“Maybe.” Eden’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Or they’ll find out Zack’s back in town and blame it on him.”
“I won’t let them do that. Anyone who has a problem with your family can come to me.”
He had to listen to a few of her short, pained breaths before she spoke again. “Is there something wrong with me? Should I be able to handle this?”
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” But she would need to hear more. “Some people handle the transformation like it’s nothing, and other folks never get a handle on it. You’re doing good, Eden.”
“I’m not doing enough. Lorelei… She hurts, Jay. She hurts so much, and I’m not helping. I think that’s why I can’t breathe. I’m so angry.”
Jay cursed silently. There was precious little he could do for Eden from behind the wheel of his speeding truck. “It’ll be better once the full moon is past.”
“Okay. Okay, I can make it that long.” Something clattered in the background. “I can even—”
“Eden?” His phone beeped as it dropped the call, and he threw it on the seat with a vicious curse. “F*ck.”
He should have kept her with him. He should have warned her that maybe she should stay out at the farm, take some time off. Anything to keep her from hiding in her office, cowering like a hurt animal.
He’d f*cked up, and now he could only hope Eden didn’t suffer for it.
He pulled onto the narrow street behind the library and braked hard, his truck coming to a halt with a shuddering screech. He couldn’t go up the side stairs without someone seeing, so he jumped up, grabbed hold of the ladder to the fire escape and pulled it down.
The noise must have roused Eden. By the time he reached her window, she was struggling to open it, her teeth cutting into her lower lip as she concentrated on turning the locks like it was the hardest task she’d ever set for herself. “I broke the phone,” she said as she eased the sash up with shaking hands. “I’m afraid to touch anything.”
No time to climb inside, not with her eyes so wild and her skin burning. Jay grasped her hands to his chest. “Look at me, Eden Green. Now.”
The command stirred her wolf. Power gathered beneath her skin, all that wildness finding a focus in challenging him. Eden’s gaze snapped to his, her blue eyes already melting to glowing gold.
He cupped the back of her head and dragged her mouth to his.
A growl worked up her throat, low and warning, but in the next second her mouth opened under his. She slapped both hands to his shoulders, dragging him closer.
Arousal, intense and instantaneous. Jay took the invitation of her open mouth, sliding his tongue over hers before nipping at her lower lip. She whimpered and tilted her head, chasing his tongue with hers. Her fingernails dug into his back as she pressed against his chest.
Her nipples were hard. Without thinking, he cupped her breast through her shirt and rubbed his thumb over the taut peak.
She moaned and arched her back, pushing her breast closer to his hand. Her mouth tore free of his, and she dropped her head back, offering her throat in a moment of unrestrained hunger.
Jay leaned in and shuddered to a stop a heartbeat before closing his teeth on her skin. “Eden.”
Her breath whistled out through her teeth. “Oh my God.”
Too far. Too much. Belatedly, he snatched his hand away. “Sorry.”
“I should be.” Shivering, Eden dropped her forehead to his shoulder. “But that was a very efficient distraction.”
He’d meant it to be, before the taste of her had overwhelmed his better sense. “Good,” he muttered. “That’s good.”
Her shoulders shook with her restrained laugh. “Do you, uh, want to come in? This is a little Romeo and Juliet right now, and that doesn’t tend to end well.”
“Got it.” Her hair was soft, and he couldn’t resist stroking his fingers through it. “Want to get out of here?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “God, yes. I can’t concentrate, I’m exhausted…”
“If I’d explained all this better, you might have called in sick.”
Eden eased back and gave him an amused look. “How long have you known me?”
Long enough to know she took about as many days off work as he did. “Fair enough.”
“I’m stubborn to a fault, I know that.” She turned, slipped on her jacket and dumped her cracked cell phone into her purse. “But I try to learn from my mistakes.”
“Still, maybe you and Zack should talk to your father tomorrow instead of this afternoon.”
“Maybe.” She eyed the office door, then him. “Are you spiriting me out the window?”
Her barely concealed glee drew his first real smile since finding out what had happened in Memphis. “What, you want to sneak down the fire escape like a teenager?”
She actually blushed as she swung her purse over her shoulder. “It would be the most impulsive thing I’ve ever done in my life. And probably the most romantic too.”
“Then come on.” He grasped her hand. “We can head to the farm, or even go hide somewhere. Lady’s choice.”
The sparkle in her eyes faded a little. “Going to the farm would be the right thing. They need help more than I do.”
That dimming light made his chest ache. “That’s crap, Eden. What do you need?”
“I need to help them.” She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed one hand against her chest. “Yesterday, when I was in the attic with Lorelei… God, the shit that’s happened to them. I could feel her pain like it was my own—worse, even. I don’t want to feel it again, but…” She opened her eyes and gave him a helpless look. “I need to fix it for her.”
“It’s what being alpha is about,” he whispered. “But you can’t fix things for her any more than I can. Any more than we can fix Zack.”
“Alpha?” She rubbed at her breastbone with her fingertips, as if the ache lingered. “Is that what I am? Like you and Zack and Kaley?”
There were a hundred shades of it, a thousand ways to feel the power and responsibility of the relative position. “You need to take care of your pack.”
“I do.” She took his hand again and rested her knee on the windowsill. “I can’t hide. I have to meet Zack and my dad. Zack needs it.”
And the longer they waited to tell Austin the news, the worse he was bound to take it. “Your dad does too.”
“Yeah.” She slipped out the window to stand next to him on the narrow fire escape, so close she only had to sway forward to lean against his chest. “Will you stay close by, in case this happens again?”
It felt selfish, even if it was practical. “We should plan on staying together for the next few weeks—if you’re okay with that.”
Her fingers tightened in his shirt. “I should have gone home with you last night when you asked me. I don’t think I slept at all.”
“So now we know. Your place or mine? Or the farm?”
“Not the farm,” she said quickly. “I don’t know if I’d sleep much better out there, even with you around.”
“My house?”
“Sure.” She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder once and sighed as she pulled away. “Want to go over to the diner now? It’s a little early, but I’m hungry.” She made a face. “Again.”
Jay swung down onto the ladder. “May as well eat before Austin hands the grill over to Gary for the afternoon. Damn kid can’t cook.”
“He’s getting better,” Eden chided. “Papaw always said Dad was a disaster in the kitchen when he started out too. Gary will learn.”
“Uh-huh.” Jay covered the last bit of distance with a jump and reached up to steady Eden. “All the same, an early lunch sounds good to me. Then I can make myself scarce while you take care of business.”
When she had both feet on the ground, she stared back up at her window, her expression caught between amusement and awe. “Does being a werewolf make you less clumsy? I think I would have broken a leg trying to climb down that thing in my heeled boots last week.”
“It’s not all bad, especially once you get used to it.” He looped an arm around her shoulders and felt a little of his own stress melt away at her proximity. “Come on, let’s go eat.”
The diner had mostly cleared out by one-thirty. At a quarter to two, Eden slipped into the kitchen and smiled at her father. “Can Gary spare you for an hour so we can go upstairs and talk?”
Austin Green wrapped his gnarled fingers around his favorite coffee mug and leveled a stare at her. “Probably. What’s all this about?”
Gary was pretending not to listen as he scraped a spatula over the griddle, so Eden tilted her head toward the back stairs. “Family stuff.”
“You gonna tell me you and the chief are courting? Because I have eyes.”
Her cheeks flamed. Gary smirked, but wiped the expression off his face when he glanced up and caught her furious glare.
Her dad stood there watching her over his coffee mug like she was still fifteen and owed him an answer. “It’s not about that,” she ground out. “It’s about Zack.”
Austin straightened and nodded toward the back staircase. “Have you heard from him?”
“Yes. But it’s complicated.” She climbed the narrow stairs behind him, skipping the creaky fifth step out of habit. Everything was familiar and new at the same time, the memories of her childhood a ghostly echo under the sharply focused version provided by her newly honed senses.
She’d already learned that the quickest way to go crazy was by concentrating on the details, so she fought to block them out as she followed her father into the apartment over the diner. “Zack’s at the farm.”
“Since when?” he asked sharply. “And why am I hearing about it like this?”
Fast was the only way to do it. Fast and brutal, and Eden allowed herself only one terrified moment to wonder if she’d still have a father before blurting out the truth. “Because I was attacked by a wolf at the farm two nights ago. A werewolf from Memphis who was there to hurt Zack. And I—I changed. Like Zack does.”
The mug slipped from his fingers and shattered on the floor. “You what?”
Eden flinched. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know how else to say it.”
He waved away the words and stepped over the broken mug to grasp her shoulders. “Are you all right?”
The painful knot beneath her heart loosened for the first time in two days. Her father wasn’t Zack’s father. He would never hate her for a twist of fate beyond her control. “I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay, because Jay—Chief Ancheta—he’s like Zack too. That’s why he’s here. He helped me.”
Her father stared at her, an expression of helpless confusion twisting his features. “You’re a wolf now. And so is the chief.”
The urge to soothe him pulsed with every beat of her heart. Not as strong as with Lorelei, but undeniable. “I’m okay,” she said again, putting force into her voice. She caught his hands and pulled him toward the dining room table. “Jay’s not going to let anything happen to me. He likes your cooking too much.”
Her father took a deep, shuddering breath. “Where is Zack? I want to see him.”
“He’s on his way over.” Eden caught his hands. “Dad, he’s hurt bad. Whatever happened in Memphis, it broke him.”
“Worse than living with Albus?”
Eden swallowed hard and closed her eyes. “I’m pretty sure they tortured him.”
Austin sighed, heavy and tired. “The last time I heard from him, he said things were okay. That he was doing fine.”
The wolves who had fled Memphis with Zack seemed to care about him. Maybe he had been okay, before it all went to hell. “It was a werewolf thing. Almost like a war. Zack and his”—she had to stop stumbling over the word—“pack. Everyone who survived came here. Jay thinks he can take care of them, but I don’t know if anyone can take care of Zack. I don’t know if he’ll let them.”
He shook his head. “Zack’s alive. I don’t care what’s been done to you, how you’ve been hurt, as long as you’re living, you can heal.”
“He’s family, right?” Eden concentrated as she clutched her father’s hands, too aware of the broken phone in her purse. A moment of temper, a spike of panic, and she could crush his fingers. “We can help him.”
“Well, of course.” His brow furrowed. “You said he brought others with him. Do they need anything?”
A tiny part of her wanted to throw the whole mess in his lap. Pretend she believed her father could fix anything, maybe pretend she’d ever believed it. God knew he’d always tried.
He’d never stop trying. That was what mattered. “Yeah, they need a lot. Food, furniture and supplies. I thought we could open up our old house. Some of Jay’s friends are coming in from out of town to help.”
“It might need some work—cosmetic things, mostly—but I don’t see why not.”
She heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and leaned in to hug her father. “Thank you, Dad. For not freaking out.”
A shadow of pain sparked in his eyes. “I wouldn’t, Edie. You’re my child. That could never change.”
“I know,” she lied, glad he couldn’t hear the tremor under the words. “Zack’s coming up the stairs. Are you ready to see him?”
He rose and slid his shaking hands into his pockets. “You bet.”
Zack’s knock was almost tentative. When her father didn’t move, Eden rose and pulled open the door with a wide smile. “Come on in. I was just about to ask Dad to make coffee.”
Zack took one look at her father and frowned. “You already told him.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.” He looked past her to Austin. “I never wanted her to get hurt. If I’d known, I would have taken them somewhere else.”
If the words registered, her father showed no sign. Instead, he walked up to Zack, his faded blue gaze taking stock of every scar, every line on his nephew’s face. Then he lifted a hand, patted Zack’s cheek and pulled him down into a hug.
Eden held her breath as Zack stood there, stiff and awkward in the embrace of a man who had never really been related to him—not by blood, anyway, even if Zack looked more like Austin than Eden ever had. But the bonds of their sad, broken little family had never rested on blood.
Austin clutched Zack to his chest like a long-lost son, and Zack’s reserve melted under it. After an eternity, he lifted his arms and hugged the older man back, that tired, tentative gesture alone enough to make Eden’s eyes burn. She turned away and hurried into the kitchen, covering her tears under the mundane task of making coffee.
Zack was alive. His so-called father was dead. The ghosts of Green Pines couldn’t hurt him anymore, and Jay and his friends would make sure the same was true of whatever ghosts had followed from Memphis.
After so many years of secrets and suffering, maybe the Green family could finally start to heal.