Wolver's Rescue (25 page)

“
So?”

A small smile played about Macey’s lips. Her
eyes hadn’t moved. She wasn’t ignoring Tommie. She was watching
someone.

Tommie followed the girl’s eyes to a dark car
partially hidden by the trees alongside the road exiting the park.
A man had emerged and was walking toward them.

“
Macey, get down from
there,” Tommie ordered. “We have to go.”

“
I don’t, but you’d
better.”

“
Macey, I’m not fooling
here. We need to go.”

The man was walking with purpose. Tommie
didn’t think he was looking for directions.

“
Get down,” she almost
shouted.

“
Make me.” Macey sneered the
dare.

The snarky little bitch chose the wrong day
to dare Tommie. What little patience she had disappeared.

“
Fine. Have it your
way.”

Tommie wrapped her hands around Macey’s ankle
and pulled. The book went flying as Macey tumbled to the ground
with a surprised screech. Ignoring the book, which was indeed a
racy romance, she grabbed a hank of Macey’s hair instead, and began
hauling the girl along with her.

“
You may be bald headed by
the time we get there, but you are coming with me,” Tommie snarled
to the kicking and screaming girl. She did, however, relent enough
to allow Macey to gain her footing, but she’d retained her grip on
the hair.

The man began to run. Tommie ran, too. Macey
had a choice; run or lose half a head of hair. They’d only run a
few yards when Stretch stepped from behind a tree with a shotgun in
his hands.

“
Keep moving,” he shouted as
he took aim at the man running behind them.

Tommie didn’t argue, but she did glanced back
to see their pursuer halt and retreat. She ran a few more yards,
hauling the crying girl behind her, before she stopped. She was
angry and trembling when she released Macey’s hair, grabbed her
shoulders, and shook her.

“
Your Alpha, he is not a
good wolver, Macey. You know that in your heart. I know that
because I know the wolvers up there.” She pointed with her chin in
the direction of the camp. “You’ve been surrounded by good people
all your life, so I know you know the difference. It’s time for you
to wake up and grow up.”

Macey pushed her away. “I hate you. I hate
all of you. You can all go to hell. I love him and he came for me,
just like he said he would. Everything would have been fine, but
you got in the way.”

“
I didn’t get in the way.
Ten thousand dollars did. He wants his money, Macey, and he wants
us dead. You heard what Bull said the same as the rest of us. Bull
doesn’t lie. Your Alpha does.”

“
No! He’s not lying. He
wants me and he’s coming to get me. No one needs to get hurt. He
promised. He’s coming to get me.” Macey was crying openly now,
sobbing, but Tommie was so angry, she didn’t care.

“
Then he’d better not come
tonight, because if he gets anywhere near you or those pups, I’ll
kill him.” Tommie leaned in until she was nose to nose with the
girl. “And don’t think I won’t, because I’m certifiably crazier
than he is. I’ve had a lifetime of practice.” Her skin was burning.
Her eyes were blazing. Her wolf was close to the surface. She could
see it in Macey’s face.

“
I didn’t go to the pack
with what you did. I wouldn’t let Bull come after you for it. I
came down here as a friend, because you need one and I need one,
too. I accept the attitude. I accept the smart mouth, but when you
answered, ‘So?’ to the possibility of people who love you being
hurt or killed, that’s where you crossed the line, because the
people you’re talking about are the people I’m growing to love and
nobody takes that attitude with people I love.” She gave Macey a
shove.

“
So? Get that shitty little
ass of yours back to camp and don’t give me any lip, because the
way I feel right now, I could snatch you bald headed just for the
hell of it.” She turned away and then back again. “And just so you
know, anytime you want to switch that word out for I’m so sorry, or
I didn’t mean it, I’ll be happy to be your friend and love you,
too.”

Macey was staring at her like she really was
crazy, but Tommie no longer cared.

“
Go!” she shouted when Macey
didn’t move fast enough for her liking.

With one last sob, Macey backed away and
went.

Stretch, who had watched quietly from a few
feet away, now walked beside Tommie. His elbow nudged her arm and
when she looked up, still fuming, he winked and rubbed his head and
its thinning hair.

“
Remind me never to get on
your bad side. I don’t have much to spare.”

“
I’ll keep that in mind,”
Tommie said with a breathless laugh. She felt as if she’d run a
race.

“
So, did you mean what you
said? Do you love us?”

Tommie laughed again. “I’m growing to love
you. Let’s not rush the relationship.” She stopped and looked down
at the shotgun he held. “Thank you, by the way. What were you doing
down here with that?”

“
Bodyguard,” he said
proudly. “Bull said he needed someone he could trust to keep an eye
on you.”

Tommie threw her hands up in the air. “Great.
The babysitter gets a babysitter.”

Bull watched Tommie give him a thumbs up and
a smile before quietly going to work with the others who were
packing everything that could be torn up or destroyed in the coming
battle. The confrontation had to happen here in the camp, but that
didn’t mean they had to sacrifice what little they had. Clothes
were packed away. Tents were replaced with old and worn out spares,
with torn nylon and canvas, and strategically broken poles

Her casual greeting of him was telling. She
wanted him to think everything was okay. Bull wasn’t so easily
deceived. If things had gone well, Tommie would have come to him
immediately to share her success. Besides, he’d already seen
Macey’s return and her tear stained face. He crossed the short
distance between them and as she was adding a load to the back of
his truck, he moved in behind her. With hands at her hips, he
whispered in her ear.

“
Beating up on little girls
now, spitfire? And after you told me no huffy-puffy. Shame on
you.”

He thought he sounded teasing. He thought
she’d hear the smile in his voice, but her reaction wasn’t one of
amusement. Her whole body stiffened and she let out a little gasp
of pain. She didn’t turn, but gripped the side of the bed of the
truck and rested her head against the edge.

“
I was awful, Bull,” she
whispered. Her voice was tight as if she was trying to stop herself
from crying. “I said terrible things.”

Bull leaned into her. “Maybe they were things
she needed to hear.”

“
I pulled her hair,” she
sniffed out her confession.

“
Oh. Well. I didn’t hear
about that,” he said seriously, but he couldn’t keep his body from
shaking with laughter. “Hair pulling is such a serious
offense.”

She turned in his arms and struck his chest
with her little fists. “It’s not funny.”

“
Yes it is,” he said, but
quickly corrected when he saw her jaw tighten. “Okay, maybe it
isn’t, but I bet it got her attention.”

Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes.
“The wrong kind of attention.”

He wasn’t laughing anymore. He ran his thumbs
over her cheeks, wiping away the tears. “Was it really that
bad?”

“
Worse.” She told him what
happened, including every little detail.

He wanted to laugh at her again when she
stated her preference for sexy romance books, but he couldn’t. She
looked so miserable.

“
I was already angry with
you and I took it out on her.” The tears came again. “Oh, Bull, how
could she not care for these people.” She fisted his shirt in her
hand. “Please. You have to let me fight. I might not know what I’m
doing, but my wolf will. She’s angry, too. I can feel her. I did
the hair pulling, but the rest was her. She sees these wolvers as
hers. She wants to protect them. She needs to protect them. She
knows, Bull,” she said as if he’d disagreed with her. “She knows
they deserve something better than what they’ve had, something
better than this. She wants to see them have it. I don’t know how
she knows, but she does, just like she knows...” Tommie closed her
mouth and eyes and shook her head.

Bull pushed away the hair that tears had
glued to her cheek. “I understand how you feel, Tommie,” he told
her because it was true. He felt it too, more than he cared to
admit. “But I have my reasons for putting you in charge of the cubs
and one of those reasons is that I trust you to do what’s best for
them if things don’t work out well.”

More tears followed. “Die. That’s what you
mean. They might die. You might die.” She sobbed as if the words
hurt. “If that happens, Bull, I won’t be able to be trusted. I
won’t be able to take it, not on top of everything else. To find
all this and have it taken away? No, I won’t be able to take it.
I’ll lose my mind or I’ll die, too. My wolf is strong enough to
fight, but I’m not. It took everything I had to fight that cage. I
don’t have anything left.”

She clung to him and he held her, and looking
up he saw that the others and stopped their work to watch. No, they
were waiting for his nod to call them forward. For all their
apparent weaknesses, these wolvers were a tough lot. They didn’t
cry easily, yet the women had tears in their eyes as if they shared
Tommie’s pain. The men looked awkward, their eyes shifting this way
and that like they wanted to do something, but didn’t know what.
Bull gave them the nod they were waiting for and then whispered
into Tommie’s hair.

“
No, Tommie, you won’t lose
your mind and you won’t die. You’ll keep fighting, because that’s
what you’ve always done. You have no choice. It’s how you’re built.
You’re stronger than you think. I know,” he told her, because that
too, was true.

One by one, the misfit band of wolvers came
to her. Some only touched her, a stroke to her arm, a pat to her
back. Others whispered words of encouragement along with their
touch.

When Molly touched her, Tommie pulled far
enough away from him to look the woman in the eye.

“
I’m sorry,” Tommie started
to say, but the woman stopped her with a finger to her
lips.

“
Shush now, you only did
what I should’ve done a long time ago. She needs to understand
others’ pain and not just her own. She came to me and hugged me and
cried. She’s been so angry. She hasn’t done that in a long, long
time. I shouldn’t say it, but I will. It felt good.”

Stretch was the last to come forward. He
didn’t touch her, but stood for a moment playing with his fingers
and looking at his feet. When he finally looked up, he grinned
sheepishly. “I think we’re growing to love you, too,” he said.

Finally, Tommie smiled. “Okay then. It’s time
the big baby stopped blubbering and got back to work.”

“
Use your own damn shirt,”
Bull complained, but he laughed and raised his arms when she tugged
his tee shirt from his jeans to wipe her eyes. “No nose blowing,
though.”

Cora saved his shirt by handing Tommie a
paper towel. “When you’re finished wiping up the blubber, I could
use some help in the bus.” She walked away muttering, “They think
that bus is some hotel with a front desk for dropping off their
luggage.” and then she turned and called to Boris. “If you’re
planning on making supper tonight, you’d best be quick about it.
You need to get your stuff packed up or we’ll have pots and pans
scattered hither and yon come morning.”

Tommie tucked his shirt back in. It formed an
uncomfortable knot, but he let it lay. Her head hung low and a
curtain of hair covered her face, so he used a finger to lift her
chin.

“
You okay now?”

She kept her eyes downcast, but tried to
smile. “As okay as I can be after throwing a public pity party. I
guess Macey and I have a lot more in common than I thought. I
should have apologized while they...”

“
Tommie.”

“
No, Bull, I had no right to
lay my troubles at their door. Their problems are a lot bigger than
mine. They’re looking at...”

“
Look at me,” he ordered,
not harshly but not gently either.

“
Are you going to do your
huffy-puffy thing? Because I don’t think I can...”

“
Damn it, spitfire, will you
just look at me.”

Her shoulders sagged and she gave a long
suffering sigh, but she did raise her eyes to his. “What?”

“
You and I, we’re
survivors.” He nodded over his shoulder. “They’re survivors,
too.”

He was going to say more. He was going to
tell her he’d been waiting for and wondering when this breakdown
would occur. After all she’d been through and was still going
through, it was bound to happen sooner or later in one way or
another. He was going to tell her he was glad it happened now. It
was out of her system. Whatever happened later, she’d handle it. He
was going to tell her she was one of the strongest wolvers he’d
ever met. He was going to tell her, but he didn’t. He kissed her
nose instead.

“
Are you sure you’re okay?”
he asked again just to be sure.

This time her smile was bold and genuine. “I
am, but you’re going to have to do better than a kiss on the nose
when you come home to me tonight.”