The Accidental Werewolf 2: Something About Harry (Accidentally Paranormal Novel) (5 page)

Mara nodded, holding up a hand. “I know that, too. But who really knows how well the sperm donor is screened, Wanda? Did anyone know Charlie Manson was Charlie Manson until he was Charlie Manson? Also, how do we know a human’s sperm and my eggs would gel? I know we have Marty as an example, but she was already turned when she and Keegan conceived. Plus, you hear all sorts of stories about men looking for their babies because they regretted donating sperm and want to see their creation. How would that work if the guy showed up at my door? Do I just say, ‘Surprise! The sperm you donated made a nice little bundle of werewolf joy. Thanks for the swimmers, dude!’”

Silence. Lots of disapproving silence.

There was nothing left to do but plow ahead. Mara twisted her hands together, her chest tight. “So I decided I’d make the baby daddy myself. All I did was concoct a potion that would get me pregnant. That’s it. Swear.”

“Of course. You made baby juice. That’s it. Swear,” Wanda mimicked Mara’s minimalistic take on her baby-making. “Argh, Mara! Do you have any idea how serious this is?”

Nina shook her head, her usually full lips thinned. She held up her hand to thwart Wanda’s oncoming tirade. “So Harry drank your sperm smoothie?”

Mara blanched. “Yes. I’d put it in a vitaminwater bottle, fully intending to take it home and you know—”

“Break out Helga’s turkey baster?” Marty asked sweetly, finally speaking.

Mara grew defensive. “I would have bought her a new one.”

“Comforting, I’m sure,” Marty groused. “Do you have any idea, aside from Harry, the million things that could have gone wrong with this plan? How many screws are loose up in that genius brain of yours? And before you say it, I totally get your desire to have babies. I don’t know what I did before Hollis and Nina’s Charlie. But if you’d come to me, it would have saved an innocent man’s life, Mara!”

Wanda straightened and buttoned Mara’s lab coat with motherly hands, smoothing it over her shoulders. “It’s bad enough to hurt yourself, but an innocent? I think the pack’s going to be far more inclined to punish you for that. You know what happens when we turn without provocation.”

Remorse streaked her eyes, fear steeped her belly. “I do. There’s fire and a ritual and sometimes a full moon trial. So here.” She held out her hands. “Put the cuffs on me and take me to the council.”

Nina slapped at her hands. “We’re not gonna rat you out. We ain’t no snitches. But we gotta figure out a way to help Harry adjust so he keeps right on working here like nothing happened, if we hope to keep this fuck-uppery out of the council’s hands.”

Wanda shook her head in an absolute fashion. “How are we going to do that? He’ll smell like a werewolf. The others will know instantly!”

Right. Good noses. The lot of ’em. She was sunk now.

“Forget that right now,” Marty added. “First and foremost, we need Harry’s cooperation.”

Nina’s finger flew up in the air. “Exactly! It’s also contingent upon Harry. Maybe he’s a snitch, ’cus Christ knows he uses a lot of big words and comes across as a real rule follower. What if he wants to see the council and rat on you? The bits I got from reading him over the phone was this dude likes control and order.”

“And you just brought chaos and disorder,” Wanda moaned.

Mara blew out a breath of pent up air. “Then I’ll just go to werewolf jail.” She could do jail. As long as they let her have some chemistry books and some toilet paper, she’d survive. It wasn’t like she had a social life she’d miss, other than lunch with her likeminded friends during work hours, and the occasional girls’ night out at Subway where they brainstormed, of all things, ways to infuse antioxidants with moisturizer.

Nina rolled her eyes, thumping her on the shoulder with the heel of her hand. “We’re not going to let your brainy ass go to werewolf jail. We’ll convince him—or he dies. He has choices. They’re just limited.”

“I can’t die. I have children to care for.”

Four heads turned Harry’s way. He’d managed to inch his way up the wall, using the lab coat Wanda had placed over his naked length to keep himself covered.

Mara’s first thought was, how much had he heard? Her second? Wow. He looked rough and pale and, damn it all, still adorable. No one should be this adorable when they’d just had their body turned inside out. His dark eyes, dreamy and fringed heavily with thick lashes, scanned the four women. She couldn’t place what that assessment meant, but his wheels were turning.

Then Mara cocked her head after processing his words. “Children?” As far as she knew, he was single, although that could explain why he’d rebuffed her lame advances. If he had a significant other, that would almost make her feel better.

“My sister’s children. She . . . died,” he murmured the words from lips that were bloodied from slamming into the wall. He used a thumb to swipe at the corner of his mouth. “About a year ago. They have no one else. So if you’re the Nina I was on the phone with, while I was ultra respectful of your feministic overreactions and threats of brutality, when it comes to my niece and nephew, I’m just warning you, I’ll fight back—because they need me right now. So
back off
.”

Mara’s heart melted. Right there in her chest, but she couldn’t speak. Couldn’t apologize for what he’d go through. Couldn’t apologize for her part in this. Couldn’t anything. Period.

Nina held a hand out to him. Mara had to give him credit. Harry didn’t balk. He didn’t turn his nose up at it. He didn’t cringe. Harry considered. She watched him weigh his options in his mind by applying logistics and common sense to the overall situation. Just like she would have if the tables were turned.

“I’m the feminist overreactor aka Nina. Nobody’s gonna hurt you, Mr. IQ. We’re here to help.”

Clearly, Harry decided Nina wouldn’t pass off the plague to him. He put his large hand in her smaller one and let her yank him up. The raw, open wounds on his arms and shoulder from the thrashing he’d been subjected to with his first shift made her wince. Thankfully, he’d heal quickly.

As he swung upward, the sheet parted behind him, showcasing his ass. Damn. She’d known his ass would be one of the best parts about him for all those lunges he did. Mara closed her eyes and swallowed. Not the time to be thinking about Harry’s body parts.

“So, Harry,” Nina said, giving his hand a hearty shake before dropping it and crossing her arms over her chest. “Guess you weren’t lyin’. You really are a werewolf.”

Harry’s broad chest rose and fell before he replied, “So, Nina, ya think?”

“Was that more cocky I heard in your tone, pal?”

Harry shook his head, dark with thick hair, and covered in drywall. “This time, I’m afraid so.”

Nina slapped him on the back. “I’ll let you have it for now because, dude, your life’s gonna suck for a little while, but don’t get comfortable, amigo. Got that shit?”

Harry nodded, assessing, calculating, thinking. “Shit got.”

“Good,” Nina responded. “So now we get into the crazy of what just happened. Hold on.” She paused, rooting around in her hoodie’s front pocket, and pulling out an OOPS pamphlet. “Read this. We’ll wait while you do.” She shoved the rectangle under his nose.

“Nina!” Wanda chastised, snatching the pamphlet midair before Harry was able to grasp it. “This is not how we do things at OOPS. Go. Sit in your corner and shut it. Please.” Wanda shot a finger in the direction of what was left of the other portion of the room.

“I’m streamlining, for Christ’s sake, Wanda. Jesus. We spend too much damn time explaining what happened to the client. That pamphlet does it for us. Less talk, less balk,” she shot back, but wandered off to the other section of the room anyway, leaning against an annihilated countertop.

Brushing at her jacket, Wanda put on her you’ve-got-big-trouble-but-we’re-here-to-help face and smiled at Harry. She stuck out her hand, her simple wedding band gleaming under the fluorescent lights. “I’m Wanda Schwartz-Jefferson—”

Harry’s hand shot up, stopping Wanda mid-introduction. His jaw, usually on the hard side, now like granite. He hiked the sheet tighter around his chest, his fist clenched, knuckles white.

When he spoke, it was as though he had to push the words from his lips. “I heard all about your vampires and genies and werewolves and whatever you did to me while I played unconscious. Or rather, what she claims
she
did to me.” He hitched his jaw at Mara.

Mara opened her mouth to protest, but slammed it shut when she saw the disdain on his face. Oh, Harry was angry. She was fascinated and appalled. She’d never seen him anything other than affable and pleasant.

Harry, delicious and just a sheet away from naked, held up another finger to ensure no one would interrupt. “Scratch that. I know what was done to me. I
felt
it. Fought it like I was fighting the idea that some don’t believe man evolved from apes, but the truth is the truth. I know what I just experienced. I don’t necessarily understand it, but I just lived through it. You don’t have to convince me of what’s happened to me. I heard it all. I even saw some of it. I saw things I can’t unsee—if that’s even a word.”

Mara shook her head. “Not a word.”

Harry glared at her, leaving her feeling exposed and above all, stupid. “Unhelpful. That
is
a word.”

“Sorry,” she muttered, looking down at her feet. “I’m so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I was just—”

“Baby-making,” he all but accused in Mara’s direction, the veins in his neck popping out with the strain of what she expected was the enormous effort to keep his composure. “I heard that, too. I’m done hearing.”

“Hey!” Nina yelped at him, stomping over the pile of debris, leaving clouds of drywall dust in her wake. She jammed her face in Harry’s. “Don’t be an asshole to her. Aside from what she did—which, if you ask me is totally your fault, you oughta keep better track of your vitaminwater, smart-man. This is a lab. You know, where shit gets tested? For all you know, you coulda been drinking Bigfoot’s piss. So you shoulda looked before you drank.”

Harry’s eyebrow rose. “Sound advice. I’ll take that into consideration and be grateful it wasn’t Chupacabra sperm. Imagine how that would have turned out.”

Nina made a face, cocking her head with that “no you didn’t” tilt to it. “Is that you being cocky with me again, bro? I’ll eat your cocky for lunch.”

“I hope it goes down easier than vitaminwater.”

Nina made that rutting noise she made when she was readying for the kill. “You’re gonna need us whether you like that shit or not. But if you’re a jackass, I’ll dust this place up with you. Turn the volume down on the asshat, genius. That ain’t what’s gonna help you get through this. The world’s a magical, mystical place and all sorts of shit happens that no one can explain and you can’t fix.”

Harry’s eyes gleamed with suspicion, brilliant and shiny-sharp. “How do you know I want to fix anything?”

Nina poked a finger into his thick head of hair. “’Cus I can read your mind.” Then she took those fingers and placed them on either side of her temple like she was part of some act in a circus sideshow. “What I’m hearing right now is: ‘Holy shit, the chick who made a pass at me at the Christmas party, a pass I totally missed, turned me into a werewolf with some kind of baby-making formula, but if you just
think
, Harry, do your research, you’ll figure out how to reverse this and everything’ll be fine.’ That about right? Like logic and calculus will solve this little problem you have growin’ out of your ass?”

Mara made a whimpering, wheezy noise that whistled from her throat. He remembered. Of all the things to worry about right now, she was worried about how truly slutty she must have looked that night. He remembered the night of the Christmas party. Oh. God.

Harry’s deep, heaving breath was of agitation. It was also divine to watch his bronzed skin ripple with all that muscle beneath it, even as she watched him fight to keep his impatience in check. “I’ve heard every word you said, Nina, but none of it is up for discussion. Now, forgive me, but I need to get home to my niece and nephew and relieve the babysitter. I get the feeling they won’t understand why Uncle Harry’s so late. Due to my new lycanthropic status, that is.”

“The children,” Mara whispered more as a reminder to herself. God. What had she done? There were babies involved.

“Yes. The children. Eight and five. Lost their mother and father a year ago—I’m their guardian, for all the good I do them at this point. They’re lost and out of control, and no matter how much I try to regain control, they run roughshod over me. This,” he ran his hand over his jaw, still quite scruffy, “is only going to add to the kind of trouble we’re already having trying to bond as a unit.”

Mara’s heart clenched for those poor children. She knew what it was like to lose her parents at an early age. But she’d always had Keegan and Sloan. “I’ll help you Harry,” she offered, kicking herself for sounding so pathetically eager-beaver. “With the kids, I mean. Your lycanthropy means you’re now a part of the pack. By extension, so are the children.”
Because that doesn’t sound crazy at all, Mara.

Harry’s head shot upward, his gorgeous eyes sharp with sudden clarity. “
Pack
 . . . So that’s why the company’s called Pack? You’re
all
werewolves here? Jesus Christ,” he muttered, backing away from them as though he’d just seen a ghost. Thankfully, the one ghost they’d had at Pack had decided to make a choice and take door number two into the afterlife.

Marty was the first to step up to the plate when she saw Mara swallowing hard, her lips unable to move. “Not everyone at Pack is a werewolf. We hire humans, too. Like you, for instance. We’re an equal opportunity employer. We’re careful equal opportunists, but we do have to protect ourselves from harm. Either way, we try to give everyone a fair shot. End of.”

Mara’s pride silently cheered Marty. Pack had insisted humans were allowed to work side-by-side with them, even if they didn’t know they worked with the paranormal. It wasn’t always an easy secret to keep, and there weren’t a lot of humans due to precaution, but they’d pulled it off so far.

However, none of their human employees had unwillingly been turned into werewolves. Harry might openly take exception, and that could mean big trouble for Pack.