The Alpha Won't Be Denied (10 page)

              The next morning, Darlie called Virginia on her cell and asked her to come to the clinic for a couple of hours, because there were five new cases of measles. Carver insisted on driving her into town. “I’m not trying to be all Alpha about it, but I don’t want anything to happen to you, and I would prefer it if you didn’t go anywhere without me as long as we’re here.”

              “Very diplomatically stated,” Virginia said. “I accept your terms.”

              “See what a reasonable creature I can be?” Carver flashed her a grin.

              “Ha. That’s once, so far.”

              “Excuse you, how many times do you want me to spank you tonight?” His grin grew wider.

              “I thought you were trying to pretend to be a nice guy,” she scoffed as he pulled up in front of the clinic. “Okay, I’ll call you when I need you to pick me up. No more solo runs for me. I believe that earns me a get-out-of-spanking-tonight card.”

              “I’ve got terrible news for you, princess, there is no such card.” He cupped her chin in his hand and kissed her gently before she got out of the car. The brush of his lips on hers made her tingle, and she fought the temptation to lean in and kiss him back.

              Darlie greeted her when she walked in. “Any news on those creatures?” she asked anxiously. “I heard they actually went inside your cabin.”             

              “Yes, they did,” Virginia said. “But they didn’t do that much, just knocked a few things over.”

              “Well, good news, these measles cases aren’t anywhere near as bad as the ones you saw yesterday. I think within a few days the measles outbreak should be contained, as long as we keep healing each new case quickly. There’s a couple of adult cases here I’d like you to look at too, and a teenaged boy.”

              Virginia was in an examining room and just about to start healing a measles-spattered two-year-old when she heard angry voices arguing in the hallway.

              “I’m here now, and I can take care of the rest of the cases. I told you I don’t want her here.” She could just make out Natasha’s low, angry voice.

              “If I hadn’t brought her in here yesterday, several children would have died. That is something I will not tolerate, no matter what. You can’t go on like this much longer, so that’s something you’ going to have to think about.” That was Darlie.

              “I’m perfectly fine, just needed a little rest. I’m back to normal now and I don’t want her in here again. It’s too risky.”

              What the hell was risky about her being here? Virginia wondered irritably.

              “I’ll be right back,” she said to the cub’s mother, and walked into the hallway. The healer glanced up at her and her expression turned icy. “You can leave now,” she said.

Natasha didn’t look rested at all. If anything, she looked paler than she had the last time Virginia had seen her and there were deeper lines in her forehead. Her hands were trembling and she swayed slightly where she stood.

              Virginia shook her head. “The last time I let you chase me out of here, you were unable to heal several very sick children, and you put their lives at risk. I am not leaving today until the children with measles are fully healed, and I will examine them myself to ensure that they are healthy before I go.”

Natasha’s eyes widened with anger at Virginia’s defiance, and she drew a deep breath.

Virginia spoke up again. “I’ve heard about how your arrogance and refusal to work with other healers has alienated you from the community all across the country. I’m not going to let your misplaced pride endanger any shifters.”

Natasha’s nostrils flared and gray fur shot through the skin of her face before it subsided.  Her voice came out in a growl. “No, what alienated the other healers was jealousy. My methods and discoveries were so far advanced that they all felt threatened.”

             
What a supremely arrogant bitch
, Virginia thought. She stood her ground. “Nonetheless, I am not leaving until I see that these children are healthy. You can barely stand up straight right now; you won’t have the strength to heal them properly.”

              “Then I will call my husband, who is also our Alpha, and have you removed from here. Permanently.”

              Virginia hadn’t known that Natasha’s husband was Sheriff Marsh, but she didn’t care.

              “In that case, I will call the Council of Elders to report the situation, and let them decide what action to take next. I expect I know what it will be.” There was no way they’d tolerate this kind of behavior.  A pack member who couldn’t fulfill her duties needed to step down; there was never any question about that. Except, apparently, with Natasha.

              Natasha’s face went even paler at that. “You’re threatening me?” she demanded angrily.

              “Take it any way you want.”

              “Fine. I will heal the children, and then you will leave.”

              Trembling like a leaf, she pushed past Virginia and made her way into the examination room, slamming the door behind her.

              “Why did she say that my being here is risky?” Virginia asked Darlie. Darlie avoided her gaze and shrugged.

              “Who knows what goes on in her mind?” 

              Virginia let out a growl of frustration. She liked Darlie, but she was getting sick of everyone keeping secrets here. Darlie obviously cared about her pack members and her community enough to stand up to Natasha, so why wouldn’t she just explain what was happening?

              Of course, going any further meant defying Natasha’s husband, the pack Alpha, and that was never a thing to be done lightly. Virginia understood that, but it was clear that matters were reaching crisis level here.

              A minute later they heard the thud of a body falling to the floor, and a shriek. They pulled the door open and the mother was standing there, clutching her cub, who was crying with fright.

              Natasha lay sprawled on the floor, eyes fluttering. She mumbled incoherently and made weak attempts to move.

              “She…she started to heal my daughter, and then she just fell over!” the cub’s mother wailed, wringing her hands.

              “It’s all right,” Virginia said soothingly. “Let me look at her, and we’ll fix your daughter in just a minute.”

              Virginia knelt down next to Natasha and put her hands on her. What she felt was puzzling. Natasha was weak, almost drained of her life force and the energy that gave her healing power, but there was no explanation for it. No cancer, no sickness, no reason for her to be in this state.

              Virginia suspected that Natasha knew why she was so weak, but would never tell, or ask for help. And she didn’t have the energy to bring Natasha back to health; she would have to flood all of her own energy into her, and even that might not be enough.  She felt like Natasha was a bottomless well, a black hole that would suck in all her strength, leaving Virginia unable to heal anybody.

She pulled back and shook her head. “She needs to go home. She can’t heal at all for at least the next few weeks. I’m serious. I can help you out as long as I’m staying here, but in a couple of weeks, when I leave, you’re going to need someone here to replace her. She should have retired already, but she’s obviously too stubborn and self-centered to do that.” She knew Natasha could hear her. She didn’t care.

              Natasha struggled into a sitting position, breathing hard.

              Darlie nodded, a troubled expression clouding her features. “Let’s get her into another examination room, and then I’ll call her husband to come get her.”

              “I can contact the Council of Elders so they can start searching for a new healer who could come out here,” Virginia said as, with Darlie’s assistance, she helped Natasha stagger to her feet and walked her out into the hallway.

              “No. Don’t do that,” Natasha moaned, her breathing labored.

              Darlie shook her head. “It’ll be best if we take care of it,” she said. “I’ll be in to help you in a minute,” she added.

              With a sigh, Virginia returned to the examination room. She turned to the worried wolf mother and gave her a big, reassuring smile. “All right, we’ll have your baby healed in no time.  Let’s get started, shall we?”             

* * *

              The sun shone down on sparkling snow, the air smelled crisp and new, and Carver had his target in his sights.

              Edward was in wolf form, strolling through the woods about a half-mile from the main lodge.  Carver had scented him from afar, with the wind in his face, so Edward hadn’t scented him yet.

              Carver put on a burst of speed and ran forward. Edward looked up, finally scented him, and started to run, but then he skidded to a stop and hung his head. As soon as Carver caught up to him, he flopped onto his back and waved his paws in the air, signaling submission.

              Carver shifted back into human form so he could speak. “Shift, you pathetic little weasel!” he barked.

              Edward shifted and scrambled to his feet. The two men stood there naked, ignoring the cold; Edward hung his head as Carver bunched his fists and struggled to cage the angry beast within him, the one that wanted to burst free and shred Edward’s flesh to ribbons.

              “Are you here to kill me?” Edward’s voice was shaking.

              “I should.”

              “But you won’t?” Edward asked hopefully, glancing up quickly before averting his eyes.

              “Virginia asked me not to.”

              “That was nice of her.” He stared at the ground.

              Carver lunged forward, grabbing Edward by the neck and lifting him into the air. He held him up high, fingers tightening as Edward’s legs kicked wildly and his eyes grew huge.

              “I’m going to tell you this one time,” Carver snapped. “Stay the hell away from my wife, or you’ll drown in your own blood.”

              He dropped Edward to the ground.

              Edward gargled frantically, struggling for air and clutching at his throat as the purple slowly faded from his face.

              “I won’t…come near her…again…”

              “Did you have anything to do with letting those monsters into our cabin?”

              “What monsters?” Edward looked genuinely bewildered. “I didn’t let anyone in. I went in, I walked around, I left.”

              “You went into the room of a married woman who has repeatedly said she has no interest in you, trashed the place, and then left. Do you have any idea how pathetic that is?”

              Edward nodded, his head hanging low and his shoulders hunched.

              “Yes. Sir. Sorry. Sir.” Then he glanced up. “But I didn’t trash the place – I would never do that to Virginia.”             

              Carver stared at him, narrow eyed. Edward had no reason to lie at this point – so that meant he wasn’t the one who’d tossed the cushions and night tables around.

              “Did you leave the door open when you left?”

              “No. I shut it behind me.”

              “They must have come in after you. That means they can open doors,” Carver said, scowling. “Believe me, if they had been there before you, you’d have smelled it.  They smell like…I can’t even explain it. They just smell wrong. Like toxic waste.”

              Edward nodded. “I’ve smelled something like that, faintly, when I’ve run through the woods over the past few days.”

              “You mean when you’ve run through the woods stalking my wife?” Carver’s voice was laced with menace.

              Edward hung his head again, shrinking into himself. “Uh. Yes. But I’ll leave her completely alone forever from now on, I swear.”

              “Do that. I’d threaten to issue a Death Challenge, but I couldn’t even call you a challenge. Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind.”

              Edward quickly shifted and ran, disappearing into the distance with his tail tucked between his legs.

              There was one burning, gnawing question on Carver’s mind, only one.
Who in the hell was she talking to?

Virginia was headed back to the clinic again, as she had the last few days.  She’d told Carver that she needed to make a phone call before she went, and had headed outside the lodge to make the call.

Carver knew Virginia didn’t want him interfering with her private life, but he couldn’t help himself. This was his wife, and she was keeping secrets from him. He knew just asking her wasn’t going to get him the answers he wanted. If she wanted him to know, she would have told him.

“Yes, definitely some kind of genetic anomaly,” Virginia said into the phone. “And I’ve found it in both children and adults.  No, it’s got nothing to do with those monster creature things.  Those monsters smell like poison; I’ve never smelled anything like it.  These people who’ve come in to the clinic are normal except for whatever odd mutation is in their blood. I’ve got the samples. When do you want to meet?”

              Who was Virginia talking to? Carver wondered as he lingered in the doorway.  She stood a few hundred feet away, with her back to him. He’d shifted, his head only, so he could eavesdrop with his enhanced hearing.

              He listened as she described a meeting place in town and agreed to meet the person on the other end of the line the day after  tomorrow at two p.m.

              When she came to get him, he’d shifted back into human form.

              “All right then, off to work. And by the way, I’m still limping from last night, you bastard.” She said that with a smile, which he didn’t return.

              “Well, you’re unusually crabby this morning. What’s up?” she asked, as she followed him to the pickup truck. He held the door open for her without answering, and she climbed in.

              “I’m going out with the sheriff and his men to search the woods again,” he said. “We probably won’t be back until lunchtime. Do you think you’ll need a ride before then?”

              “I doubt it, but if I did, Clifford and Delores would come get me, or send some of the male guests to pick me up. So…any particular reason you’re not your usual annoyingly cheerful self this morning?”

              Carver shrugged. “Not really. How are things at the clinic?”

              “Oh, the usual stuff. Townspeople are nice. Mostly wolves, coyotes and bobcats, I’m noticing. Not as much shifter species variety as there is in Timber Valley. People are starting to recognize me and leave little gift baskets for me.”

              “No problems at the clinic, then?”

              She shook her head.  “Natasha hasn’t been back in for the last couple of days. I mean, there would be no point – she passed out the last time she tried to heal someone. I’m sure when we get ready to leave and I notify the Council of Elders of the issue here, she won’t be happy, but tough titty.  A couple of weeks of rest are not going to cure whatever is wrong with her.” She paused. “Apparently she married the Alpha the year she moved to town, and they have a son.  She really should let someone try to help cure whatever ails her, for their son’s sake if nothing else.”

“Yep. She should.”

Virginia looked at him with exasperation. “All right, whenever you feel a little more talkative, you let me know.”

Whenever you feel like telling me what you’re hiding from me and why, you let me know,
Carver thought, but he only said, “I’ll do that.”

After he dropped her off, he headed back to the lodge.  Before he headed out to meet the sheriff, he picked up the phone and dialed Bert.

“Carver, old buddy! So you heard the news!” Bert crowed.

“News? What news?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? Guess whose little princess is going to be having a baby brother in about another seven months?”

“Bert, you’re an animal! Congratulations.”

“Of course, I’ll never sleep again, and my wife’s moaning about how she just got her figure back, and…don’t take this the wrong way, but I assume that you and your wife are moving into your own house? We’re going to need your bedroom to move our daughter into at some point.”

“By all means. I’m very happy for you.”

“So,” Bert said, “if you didn’t call because you heard about the new cub, why did you call?”

Carver hesitated. He was a very private person. He wasn’t one to share his troubles with anyone, but the fact that Virginia kept lying to him was an ache that wouldn’t go away.

“Does your wife tell you everything?” he blurted out.

Bert laughed. “I doubt it. I mean, the important stuff, sure. I think. Why?”

“Let’s say your wife was keeping work-related stuff secret from you. What would you do about it?”

“Work stuff? I would assume she had a good reason for not telling me. I mean, when you work as a deputy, do you tell anyone every detail of what you’re doing? If you were conducting an investigation and it was supposed to be confidential, would you go home and tell Virginia about it?”

“Probably not,” Carver conceded. “But she’s a healer, not an investigator.”

“Well, there’s patient privacy and all that.”

“I guess,” Carver said. “All right, I have to get going. Congratulations again, and as soon as the honeymoon is over, I’ll be back to get my stuff. Couple weeks, I’m thinking.”

“Carver, I’ve known Virginia Battle a long time. She’s not the sneaky type. If anything, she speaks her mind to a fault.” 

Carver let out a growl, then caught himself. He did not want to hear the words “fault” and “Virginia” in the same sentence. 

“You know what I mean,” Bert said quickly. “She’s very honest. She doesn’t hold back – she says what’s on her mind.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ll see you soon, Bert. Thanks.”

Carver hung up, only slightly mollified. Virginia was the honest type, he knew that – except now she was lying to him. Or at least hiding things from him.

Well, nothing to be done about it now.  He hung up the phone and headed out to meet the sheriff and his pack.

* * *

Darlie rushed into the break room where Virginia was snacking on a sweet roll.

“We’ve got incoming,” she called out. “A badly injured sheriff’s deputy, and the sheriff has some minor injuries.”

“What happened? Is Carver all right?” Virginia dropped the roll and hurried out to the reception area.

“As far as I know.  They only mentioned the sheriff and his deputy.” Darlie saw the look on Virginia’s face. “They would have told me,” she assured her.

The ambulance pulled in minutes later. The sheriff climbed out of the back, and two EMTs wheeled a stretcher into the clinic’s reception area.  The shifter was in wolf form now, curled up on his side. He had been savagely slashed and had lost a lot of blood. 

Virginia could smell it all over him – monster.

“He’s having a hard time healing,” one of the EMTs said.  Adult shifters had strong powers of self-healing, but if their injuries were too severe, they needed a healer’s assistance.

She stood next to the stretcher and put her hands on the deputy’s flank. She slid her hands into his fur and pressed down, closing her eyes and concentrating.  As she let her energy flow, she felt the taint of the monster, infecting him and fighting her.  She poured in all her strength and absorbed the poison. The deputy’s flesh knit back together and the blood flow slowed and then stopped.

Within minutes, he sat up and shifted into human form, breathing hard.  Virginia looked up and realized that Carver was there.

As the EMTs helped the deputy off the stretcher, she gave Carver a quick nod, then walked over to the sheriff, who had also shifted to accelerate his healing. He was sitting in a chair by the reception area.  Darlie knelt next to him, pressing gauze bandages against his leg.

Virginia sat down next to him and laid her hands on his shoulder.  She felt the same oddness when she healed him, the taint of the beast in his wounds.

When she’d finished, the sheriff shifted back into human form and stood. “Whew. That was a nasty feeling,” he said to her, shaking his head in dismay. “Never felt anything like it before. It was like being snake-bit but worse.” One of the other deputies handed him his clothing and he stepped into his pants.

“How many of those things are there?”

“There were two, but one’s probably dead, because we wounded it with a silver bullet,” he told her. “I’m surprised it didn’t die on the spot.”

“They overpowered all your men?”

“My men split up to cover more ground, so they got my man alone,” the sheriff said defensively.

“Peter?” Natasha stood in the doorway of the clinic. She finally looked better.  Her hands weren’t shaking, her color was starting to come back, and the lines in her face were less pronounced.  She had a young boy with her, who was clutching at her arm and looking at Sheriff Marsh anxiously.

They walked in, and she hurried over to the sheriff and stroked his arm. Then she glanced at Virginia resentfully. “She healed you? I could have healed you.”

“This isn’t a contest,” Virginia said between clenched teeth. Natasha ignored her, fussing with her husband’s hair and straightening his collar.

The little boy tapped the sheriff’s arm.

“Daddy, did the monster hurt you?” he asked his father.

“No, I’m just fine. Don’t you worry.” He gave the boy a quick hug.

The boy let out a growl. “It tried to hurt you. I want to help hunt for it,” he said.

Sheriff Marsh’s expression shifted. “Don’t even think about it,” he said to the boy. “We will handle it. We’re very close to catching these things. Now, promise me you won’t go out in those woods until I tell you.”

“But I could—”

“Kyle!”

The boy hung his head. “I promise.”

“All right, now let your mother take you back to school.” He glanced at Natasha, and patted her arm.  “I’m fine, honey,” he reassured her. “I’ll see you tonight. Have some pot roast on for me?”

“Of course, dear.” Then Natasha walked over to Virginia. “I’ll be back at the clinic in one week,” she said, her tone neutral.  Virginia could see the resentment in her expression, the furrowing of her brow.

Virginia shrugged and didn’t bother to reply. A week might be enough, it might not.

“Thank you for substituting for me while I recovered. See you in one week.” Natasha repeated loudly, and walked out with her son.

Carver gestured at Virginia to come talk to him. She walked over to where he stood; he still had the same guarded, unhappy expression he’d had that morning. “Virginia, I’m not sure when I’ll be available, but Clifford and Delores said they’ll pick you up,” Carver said. “We’re going after these things hardcore. The Sheriff’s bringing in reinforcements.”

Alarm rippled through her. “You’re going right back out? After what just happened?”

“The sheriff made a mistake in letting his men patrol alone. We’ll be dividing into groups of four from now on, and I’m organizing the search.”

Sheriff Marsh, overhearing that, looked startled and then angry.  Virginia waited for him to argue…but he didn’t. He just turned and walked out of the clinic. There was open contempt on the faces of his pack members as they watched him go.

Not my business, Virginia thought. But she did have a problem that needed to be addressed.

“Carver, what are you upset about?”

“Are you telling me everything?” His gaze bored into hers, and she flinched. Had he overheard her phone call? She should have walked farther away from the cabin.

Well, no point in lying.

“No,” she said.

He stared at her for a minute more, giving her time to answer, but she stayed silent. Then he nodded and turned and left without a word.