The Pretend Marriage: A Werewolf Romance (11 page)

15

EARLIER:

Terry
steps into the chamber of horrors and shrieks as a ghoul jumps out in front of her. The ghoul lets out a piercing howl. The cackle of demonic laughter surrounds them. Other ghouls – volunteers in pasty white makeup and tattered clothes – detach themselves from the walls and come closer.

Terry shrieks again as one of them touches her arm. She is spooked despite telling herself
that this is all make-believe.

“Get a grip, will you?”
Jeff says, even though he is clearly rankled as well.

She finds him quite a
ggravating, actually, but she already knew that. Jeff has the patience of a starving lion, and she wonders how Cassie puts up with him. He is easily annoyed, and he just as easily lets her know about it. It would be too difficult to live with a man like this – she feels as if she’s literally stepping on eggshells.

She knows they have left Jake and Cassie far behind.
The Camaro is speedy, and Jeff seems intent to break all speed limits anyway. Along the way, he tried to pump her for information. Maybe he was hoping she would spill something on Jake and their ‘arrangement’.

“
So how long have you known each other before you married?” he says sarcastically.

This is the last time I’ll be hopefully seeing this man, she tells herself, so I don’t have to cross-check my answers with Jake.

“Two months,” she says truthfully.

“An
d you married the guy within two months?” Jeff chortles. “Whirlwind courtship, huh?”

He is listening to every word she says, looking out for slips and irregularities and nuances. She has never been more tense in her entire life.

“You could say that,” she replies coolly.

He darts a glance at her.
“Just what do you see in him anyway?”

Terry is extremely annoyed by this.

She retorts, “Well, for starters, he is ambitious and smart and kind, and he treats people well.”
Which is more than I can say about you
. “He’s also creative and hardworking and caring.”

As she says all these things, she realizes they are true.
Jake is all those things, as she has come to discover over the course of a weekend. Not forgetting to mention incredibly handsome and
sexy
.

But Jeff is all aggression, with no softness whatsoever to temper his rough edges. From the Camaro, he breaks out
into a run to Terminal Point, which he obviously has been to before, and she is left trailing, trying to keep up. Shifting is not permitted in public places because of the crowds, but she wishes she can just slide into her wolf form and outpace him now.

But now they are in the Haunted House, looking for the gruesomely named Hanged Maiden.
The attraction is scarier than she would have thought possible, she is ashamed to admit. But then, she has always subconsciously avoided horror movies and dark alleys.

“Come on,” Jeff says impatiently as she cringes from the affections of another ghoul.

They dart through another doorway and enter what appears to be a medieval torture chamber. Ugh, she thinks. Here, mannequins are in various positions of torture – the rack, the pinwheel, the pillory. The Hanged Maiden (at last!) is hung with a noose from a scaffold. She wears a gunny sack, cinched at the waist with a belt. Two envelopes are tucked into that belt.

Jeff eagerly snatches one. He tears
it open without waiting for Terry. She decides that she absolutely would
not
ever stay with a man like that.

He reads out loud
, even though she is sure he wrote the clue himself: “In either human or wolf form, go to the Two Towers in Myrtle Beach for the finish line.” He looks up at her. “Come on, what are you waiting for?”

He wants us to shift, Terry knows.

“Where’s Myrtle Beach?” she demands.

It would not be far from here, if she reads the way he thinks.

“Not too far from here. There’s a passage to it through the woods. It’s an isolated stretch of beach. Shifter friendly.”

Of course. He knows Cassie is not advised to shift in her pregnant state, and Jake wouldn’t let her anyway. So the contest is as good as won. There is something supremely unfair about this.

You did lie. You and Jake.

I know! But this guy is an ace prick! He doesn’t deserve to win!             

Jeff has already dashed out and she determinedly follows him. They exit the Haunted House. Outsid
e, it is rapidly coming to noon and the fun fair is more crowded than ever. No way they will be allowed to shift in the midst of so many humans here.

Jeff races towards the
parking lot.
But we are not supposed to use cars, are we?
she thinks. He avoids the Camaro and runs for the broad entryway instead, heading for the road. Outside, more cars are piling in. Whoever thought that a fun fair outing would prove to be such a draw in this rich cluster of communities?

The road is fringed by
woods. Jeff disappears into them.

She is irritated.
Can’t he even wait for her to catch up?

She supposes this is the moment
they shift, and so she swiftly drops her clothes and changes into her wolf form. She hasn’t done this for a while, and so the vigor and power running through her limbs and lungs is exhilarating. Her five senses become magnified a hundred times away. She immediately scents Jeff to the east, just as he knew she would.

Yeah, go as fast as you can,
she throws at him.
You’ll still have to wait for me to catch up.
The rules of this contest are clear. No one in the team can willfully throw the other member off by trickery or purposeful malingering.

But she remembers what Jake said:
You are there to be a pain in his side without appearing obvious
.

Yes, I am, she thinks triumphantly.

Her feet bound through the undergrowth. The scents of the forest are on full assault. Jeff is in his wolf form now, bounding towards Myrtle Beach, wherever it is. She can smell the ocean to their west, so wherever he is going, he will be heading into that direction.

Then she sees a
shallow depression to the side, running along the lay of the land. Tree roots are embedded in here. A fleeting (but crafty) thought comes into her mind.

Jake, I’m going to
be someone I’m not. Just for today. I’ll be doing it for you because I think I’m falling in love with you.

There
! She admitted it to herself. She is in love with Jake. Only thing is . . . what does he feel for her? Would he reciprocate?

Her scarred psyche would not allow her to ever make the first move with him.

She purposefully and willfully leaps into the depression. She knew she would land wrongly, and she does.

Her right foreleg
strikes the ground at a funny angle. She can feel the twist in her extended ankle. She whimpers as her wolf body crashes onto the ground.

Ow!

No way is she going to finish that race now unless Jeff comes back and carries her.

Never has pain been so welcome!

16

Jake pushes the wheelchair as far as he can get it to go without jolting Cassie through the dark, demonically lit passageways of the Haunted House. The Haunted House is scarier than he would have thought possible. He wonders if this is Jeff’s way of attempting to slow him down.

Well, I’m not scared of a little ghostie.

“You OK?” he asks Cassie.

She gives him the thumbs up sign.
She’s a great person, he decides.

He rounds a c
orner, and a ghoul springs out, giving him a jolt. Cassie screams.

The ghoul cackles maniacally as he
waggles his fingers in the semblance of scratching. Jake’s heart is thundering. Shit! He will admit to being mighty scared himself although he knows the ghoul is just a man in garish makeup.

Cassie is still whimpering.

“You OK?” Jake says.

She clutches at her rounded abdomen.

“Jake?” Her voice is frightened. “I just got a violent contraction.”

Oh no.

“Back off!” he tells the ghoul fiercely, and the creature scampers away. He kneels by Cassie and puts his hand on her tummy.

“Owwww!” Tears spring to Cassie’s eyes. “I just got another contraction! I think the baby’s coming!”

At eight months? Jake doesn’t know much about babies, but he reckons they need nine months at least to gestate. Eight months would be premature.

“You need a hospital,” he says urgently.

How do they get out of here?

“Help!” he yells.
“I need help! This woman has gone into labor!”

The ghoul he had scared off peers behind a corner.

“You!” Jake calls. “I need to get out of here! This woman needs to go to a hospital right away!”

The ghoul comes up, concerned.

“There’s a short cut this way,” he says. “Follow me.”

“Cassie, you’re gonna be OK,” Jake assures her, patting her tummy in a reassuring way, even though he knows that isn’t going to stop the contractions. Gawd! He feels so flustered and panicked.
He doesn’t know the first thing about what to do in situations like these except to get Cassie to a hospital as quickly as possible.

Yes, that’s a plan.

At the same time, he must appear calm and confident and in charge, or Cassie would be even more frightened. Which might possibly lead to even more violent contractions and result in the baby born before they reach capable hands.

The ghoul leads them down a service entryway – one which isn’t decorated like the others. He opens a door in the passage. Bright sunlight
streams through. Jake blinks.

“Here, this way. Go to the info desk to call for an ambulance. Do you know where it is?”

Jake remembers seeing the info booth somewhere near the entrance, where they would have to be anyway.

“I think I’ll drive her myself. It’ll be faster.”

“Good idea. If you need any help, the people at the info desk will help you.”

“Thanks, buddy.” Jake shakes hands with the ghoul.

The ghoul looks guilty. “Hey, I’m sorry for causing this. I didn’t mean to scare you that badly.”

“You were just doing your job.”

“Let me know if she’s OK.”

“Sure thing.”

“Jake?” Cassie says. “The contractions are coming along pretty fast!”

“We’ll get you there,” Jake says confidently.

He wheels Cassie as fast as he can towards the entrance, deftly avoiding the people milling everywhere. The sun is very hot on the top of their heads. He reaches the Ford in one piece. He can see that the Camaro is still parked there. Either Terry and Jeff hadn’t gotten out yet or the third leg of the contest involves more ‘on foot’ activities.

“My water just broke,” Cassie warns.

Indeed, the front and back of her maternity dress is wet.

He opens the back door.

“Hold on to me,” he says to Cassie as he gently eases her out of the wheelchair. “We’re almost there.”

“Thank you,”
she says gratefully, wrapping her arms around his strong shoulders. “If you weren’t already married, I’d fall in love with you myself.”

He flashes her a quizzical look, and she grins. She adds, “Terry is a lucky woman.”

“Try telling her that sometime. You OK?” He straps her in with one of the rear seatbelts. Then he lets himself into the driver’s seat. How rapidly can he drive this filly? If a cop stops them, at least he has a legitimate reason.

He starts the engine and backs out of the parking space. Tires screeching, he
steps on the gas pedal and heads out into the road.

“I don’t know the way to the hospital,” he confesses.

She gasps. “The contractions are really coming hard now. I don’t know if I can hold it much longer.”

She is a shifter, of course. Shifter babies tend to
come out quickly, as if they have an urgent need to claw out into the world. He knows he can’t ask her to hold it in. As if there is such a thing!

“Hang on.” It’s the only thing he can say.

The hospital has got to be in the town center of Finnegan’s Bay, and so he heads towards that direction. He prays she will be able to hold on until they get there. He briefly thinks of calling Peter, but decides he has to fully concentrate on his driving.

17

Terry
wriggles inside the depression. She wonders if Jeff heard her yell. In his wolf form, he would be able to hear anything within a wide radius. Whether he cares is another matter.

He has to care! We both have to be at the finish line, even if he has to carry me!

“Jeff!” she calls out in her wolf voice. She is keeping her wolf form at the moment because her shifter’s pain fibers are less sensitive to pain than her human ones.

She hears a rustling through the undergrowth.
Jeff’s black wolf appears.

“What the hell are you doing?” he snarls.

“I fell! What did you think it was?” she snaps back.

She tries to move her leg, but a sharp pain lances up to her hip. She wonders if she has broken it. Great. In her quest to help Jake, now
she has to be laid off for a month!
How will I pay the damned rent?

“You did it on purpose,” he accuses.

“You think I’d break my leg on purpose? How dare you say something like that to me? Are you going to help me or what?”

“I guess I have to.”
He jumps grudgingly into the depression and sniffs her out. “I don’t think it’s broken.”

“Well, I still can’t walk.”

Jeff shifts back to his human form. Naked, he is a muscular beast. Terry has never been too comfortable being around naked men, or being naked among men – especially one she detests. She doesn’t want to shift back. For him to carry her in her naked human form would be too disturbing.

“Damn. Now we’ll be delayed,” he hisses.

He scoops her up in his arms. She goes limp, not wanting him to drop her. Her wolf heart is beating very fast, and she hopes he will not sense her ruse. He climbs out of the ditch with her in tow, cursing and muttering.

She cringes from him.
She supposes, in her wolf form, she must weigh less than she does in her human form.

Come on, Jake! Where are you?