Omega Moon Rising (Toke Lobo & The Pack) (26 page)

“Rosie Dawn? You know it’s a girl child?”

Luke bared his teeth and growled. Tokarz cuffed the side of his head before gathering the remnants of his clothes and sauntering toward home. Toward his mate and child.

Chapter 22

“Abby, Luke and Toke Lobo just turned into wolves. Real, honest to goodness wolves.”

Abby rushed to the sitting room window, where Libby perched with a book. Outside, two wolves snarled and fought. She thought she saw blood. Was Luke so jealous of her song-writing money that he would attack Tokarz, who was the leader of Loup Garou?

“Granny?” Abby’s voice quivered.

Granny scurried in from the kitchen and joined Abby and Libby at the sitting room window. “Oh, dear. Luke must have challenged Tokarz. This isn’t good. And it’s not something you girls should be watching. Come on. Come away from here.”

Abby couldn’t tear her gaze from the sight. The wolves were magnificent animals. She hadn’t really noticed anything about Luke the other times she’d seen him change, but now she could admire to her heart’s content.

He was sleek. Light-colored, like his blond curls. Even though the other wolf easily outweighed him, Luke had a litheness that was powerful in a different way. She would never be able to explain it, but he was even more beautiful in his animal form than he was in his human form, and he was a damn fine man.

“Why are they wolves now?” Libby asked.

Abby had not wanted to have this conversation with Libby, but since she’d seen the change, Abby had no choice.

“Luke wasn’t joking when he said Loup Garou is a town of werewolves. It even means werewolf in French.”

Libby stared at her. “There’s no such thing as werewolves. No such thing as ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies. That’s what Mama told me.”

“Mama was mistaken.” Abby was as gentle as she could be. “I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.” She would never forget the blast of heat, the shifting air pressure in her sinuses and the painful popping of her ears as Luke morphed into something that had terrified her.

“I saw it,” Libby said. “Their clothes ripped and went flying and then there were two wolves where Luke and Toke Lobo were standing.”

“It’s like magic,” Abby said.

“They look mean. Evil.”

“No.” Abby shook her head. “They want to protect us from whoever killed Gary.”

“Will your baby be a wolf, too?”

“I don’t know,” Abby confessed. “Granny, what do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Granny admitted. “No one knows. Marcus and Macy are the most water-downed lycans anyone has known. Your baby—less than half. But you’re bigger than a human baby would make you at this point in your pregnancy, and that’s a werewolf thing. No one knows.”

“Luke isn’t a werewolf?” Libby asked. “He looks like a werewolf. Oh, wait. Oh. They don’t have on any clothes.”

Abby dragged Libby away from the window. She didn’t need to see naked Toke Lobo or naked Luke. Abby could have watched naked Luke all night, but this wasn’t about her.

“You’ve never been safer in your life,” Granny told Libby. “Werewolves are very protective of their own, and Luke has claimed you both.”

Abby wished that were true. But she wasn’t going to mope, and she wasn’t going to stay where she wasn’t wanted. Tokarz’s generous offer was more than she’d ever allowed herself to dream she could make from her poems. She and Libby didn’t need to wait until Gary’s murderer was caught. As soon as Tokarz paid her, she could afford to vanish. Start her life over again. She could sell the house in Oak Moon. After being there that afternoon and smelling how Gary’s death permeated the rooms, she didn’t know if she could live there again. But selling the property—she could do that. She should have thought of that solution sooner.

Maybe it was time to ask for Tokarz’s help with all the paperwork Mama had entrusted to her.

“I want to watch TV, not go to bed,” Libby said, as Abby walked her to what had been Macy’s childhood bedroom. “My favorite movie is on.
Miss Congeniality.
Where the girl FBI agent goes undercover at the beauty pageant and beats up her boyfriend by singing. Gramps said I could watch it with him.”

”You can’t beat someone up by singing.” Abby placed Libby’s nightgown on the bed.

“Sing, instep, nose, groin. Sing.” Libby danced, thrusting her elbow behind her, stomping her foot. “What’s a groin?”

A question Abby wasn’t prepared to answer. “Settle down. Gramps likes his shows in peace and quiet. You need to be a good guest.”

Sometimes watching the way Libby bounced around was exhausting. Thank goodness they had an appointment with the specialist next week.

“I am a good guest. Marcus and Colette like me. They want me. They let me stay up and watch television. They aren’t trying to get rid of me.”

“Marcus and Colette don’t have satellite television, and I’m not trying to get rid of you.”

“Right. You need a babysitter for your stupid baby.” Libby pulled her sweater over her head. Static electricity danced in her hair.

Abby prayed for patience. “I don’t know where you get some of your ideas, but you’re wrong. Everything I’ve done for years has been for you.”

If only Libby knew exactly what Abby had done to keep her safe. That was one secret she hoped would go no further.

“Why are you being so difficult all of a sudden?” Abby asked. “You never used to be so belligerent.”

Libby yanked down her nightgown. “I don’t like it here. I want to go back to Oak Moon. I want to be with my own things again.”

“We’ll get the rest of your things when we figure out what we’re doing.”

“But you said we could go back to Oak Moon.” Jeans flew across the room.

Abby sat on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know, Libby. After being there today, it didn’t feel like home to me anymore. Since Mama’s gone, it’s not home. She’s what made it our home.”

Libby sniffled. “I miss my friends.”

“You can still see them every day at school.”

“It won’t be the same thing,” Libby protested. “I won’t be able to do any of the after school clubs or sports or anything.”

“You never did,” Abby reminded her.

“But I had the choice.” Libby slipped under the covers. “Now I’m stuck here. Everybody my age is a werewolf. They scare me.”

Not quite true. At least, not how Abby understood things happened. Lycans didn’t start coming into their heritage until they were around thirteen. Up till then, they were like every other adolescent with rampaging hormones. And Libby hadn’t met any Loup Garou natives her own age.

“It’s Luke who is making us stay here.” Libby hugged her Santa Claus pillow. “I don’t like Luke, Abby. Can’t you find someone else to marry and be the father of your baby?”

“That’s not the way it works.” Abby liked Luke. Maybe too much. But most of the time she wished someone else was her baby’s father. Someone who wanted her as a person, not just a warm body in which to slake lust.

“Everyone here lives backward, too,” Libby continued, her voice a grating whine. “Sleep all day, up all night. And they’re always spying. Always watching everything I do.”

A minute ago, Libby had liked Loup Garou for its nocturnal habits.

“Because they’re trying to protect you, Libby.”

“I don’t need protecting. I know how to defend myself. Sing. Solar plexus, instep, nose, groin.”

“If your Uncle Dougie person killed Gary, he knows you can identify him. Maybe he’s scared you’ll tell someone,” Abby explained. Again. She knew this would be a conversation she’d have with Libby until Uncle Dougie was caught.

“Well, if he did kill Gary, then Gary deserved it. Gary was not a nice person. He cheated and he never paid what he owed.”

“Cheated?”

“That’s what Uncle Dougie said. Gary was a cheater and never paid what he owed.”

A memory washed over Abby. Gary and Mama. Arguing. Loud. Nasty. Abby had taken Libby and run to the school playground. Something Luke and the FBI needed to know. But first, she needed to secure . . .

“What did he owe? Who did he owe?” Abby hoped Libby had answers.

Libby shrugged. “We had other things to talk about besides stupid old Gary.”

“Did you tell Tokarz about this the other night?”

Libby shook her head. “I don’t want Uncle Dougie to get into trouble. He’s nice to me. He loves me.”

Luke slipped away from the door. Okay, maybe eavesdropping on Abby and her sister wasn’t a great thing, but ever since talking to Libby with Tokarz the other night, he’d had a bad feeling. A real bad feeling. He’d been sidetracked by her bratty behavior on the trip to Fort Collins, but now the feeling, like an itch between his shoulders, was back.

Maybe it was time to research Mrs. MacDougal on his own. He hadn’t heard a word back from Jasper or the FBI. Maybe he was being appeased instead of truly being on the task force.

He went to the room he still technically shared with Abby and sat at his computer. Aunt Macy had done a credible job tapping into Gramps’ satellite.

Macy was waiting for him.

“Did you send that email I asked you to send?” he asked.

“Yeah. No response yet. Maybe your Mitchell Jasper doesn’t trust me.”

After Luke himself, Aunt Macy was the most computer savvy person he knew. Even his cousin Drioni, who ran the Toke Lobo and the Pack website, wasn’t as good as Macy.

“Have you found out anything about Mrs. MacDougal on your own?”

Macy made a face. “She’s a paragon of human virtue. Taught Sunday School for half a century. Has a son who works for the brewery in IT.”

“Where Gary worked.”

“I know,” Macy said. “It’s a little too neat.”

“Never would have picked up on it if she hadn’t made off with Libby at the mall. Are you sure she’s not a cross-dressing he?”

Macy laughed, then tweaked Luke’s nose, as if he were five again. “Your sense of smell isn’t your strong suit, nephew dear.”

“The only time I’d willingly stand in the same room with her was if I had to fart. No one would notice, not even the famous Stoker Smith.”

Macy laughed again. “And lots of human women of a certain age have chin hair issues, including Granny.”

“Bad enough to trowel on makeup?”

“Yep.” Macy perched on the corner of the desk while Luke booted up the computer.

“So what about her son?” Luke wasn’t giving up. “The one who works at the brewery. In IT. He was one of Gary’s poker-playing friends.”

That fit in with what he’d heard Libby tell Abby.

“Not every person in IT is into Internet porn, Luke.”

“MacDougal. Dougie. It fits.”

“Give the FBI time. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.”

Macy was right. Time had mired itself in too much emotion.

“There you are.” Abby stepped into the room. Stopped short when she saw Macy. Or maybe it was the sight of him sitting at his computer that made her pause. She sounded as if she’d been looking for him, which warmed him. He hated being apart from her.

“Oh. Hello, Macy.”

Macy stood. “I was just leaving. Have a nice night.”

Abby waited until Macy was gone, then turned to Luke. “I need to go to your house, then to see Tokarz. Will you drive me?”

Luke shut off the tower before it finished cycling on. “Of course.” Her timing was great. He had a few things he wanted to say to Tokarz, too. 

***

“I need my guitar case,” Abby said as Luke unlocked the door to his cabin. “My father’s guitar case. What did you do with it?”

“It’s around here somewhere.”

Maybe she needed a pick or a capo. He should have thought to buy those when he’d bought her new guitar. But he’d had other things on his mind that day. But why would she want a pick this moment? She’d left the new instrument at Granny’s house.

Luke finally found the battered case in a closet.

Abby hefted it in her hand. “Let’s go.”

“Um, Abs, I don’t think Tokarz wants to hear more of your songs right now,” Luke said. He was trying to be kind. Besides, he didn’t want Tokarz promising her any more money. Money meant escape, and Luke wasn’t ready to let her go. And the guitar inside the case was in pieces.

The look Abby bestowed on him might have daunted a more human male.

Tokarz was on the floor, playing with his son, when Luke and Abby arrived.

Abby apologized for intruding on his family time.

Tokarz brushed off her concern. “It’s an honor to serve my pack.” He climbed to his feet, leaving the baby on the carpet. “What can I do for you?”

Abby placed her guitar case on the floor, then knelt next to the case, almost as in prayer. She carefully undid each of the hasps, then lifted the lid. The shattered instrument lay on a bed of
faux
brown fur.

Baby Daniel scooted over to check it out. Abby smiled. One of her family’s pet cats had loved to sleep in the case. When her family had pets. Before Gary.

But Abby didn’t lift the ruined guitar from its fuzzy bed. Instead, she plucked at the lining on the lid. The material sagged way from the case. Abby slid her hand into the gap and withdrew a sheaf of papers.

“Luke says you’re like the king of werewolves.”

Tokarz smiled. “I’m the pack alpha, which means I’m the leader. Are these more of your songs?”

Abby shook her head. She’d made up her mind to trust Tokarz after listening to Libby babble about Gary being a cheater. But now that she was actually in his home, all her doubts came rushing back. She stood and squared her shoulders.

There was no turning back. “This is my mother’s will. The deed to the house. Libby’s and my birth certificates and Social Security cards. Some other papers Mama asked me to keep safe.”

Tokarz took the proffered papers. Baby Daniel slapped his hand on the mangled guitar and chortled.

“Oh, no,” Abby said as she nudged the case away from the child with her toe. She dropped to the floor again and closed the lid. “He might get a splinter.”

Tokarz swooped down and scooped Daniel into his arms. He placed Abby’s documents on the sofa table. “He likes guitars. He’s always after mine.”

Abby glanced at Luke, who was watching Tokarz and his son with an expression she could only interpret as hungry. Wistful.

He was going to break her heart.

“Libby told me something tonight that this Uncle Dougie creep supposedly said to her, and it triggered a memory. Last year, Gary wanted Mama to mortgage the house. Things got real ugly when she refused.”

She had both Luke and Tokarz’s attention. She had to trust them because she couldn’t keep Libby safe on her own. She knew that now. “Tonight, Libby said something about Gary not paying what he owed, so I got to thinking maybe that’s why he wanted Mama to take out a loan. He had a good job at the brewery. He always had the latest in computer hardware. So why would he need Mama to mortgage the house?”