My Wolfy Wedding Read online

  I pursed my lips for a moment then said, “You good?”

  Mom nodded. “Yep. And wow, my soon to be son-in-law smells really nice.”

  I laughed. “He really does.” Billy Bob was back at my side now, his hand in mine once again. I gave his fingers a squeeze of thanks.

  “I’ll let you two have a minute or two alone. It’ll give me a chance to catch up on some work in the clinic.”

  Crap. I hadn’t told him about his dad showing up out of the blue. He needed to know, but it wasn’t the kind of bomb I wanted to drop in front of my mom. Especially, since his dad seemed exactly like the kind of wolf mom had warned us about.

  “Okay,” I said, instead of vomiting my news, “I’ll call you when it’s time for dinner.”

  “You staying for supper, Celia?” Billy Bob asked.

  “I appreciate the offer, but I told Babe I’d eat with him and Sunny tonight.”

  Is it bad that I wiped the metaphorical sweat from my brow? I mean, I was happy to mend fences with my mom, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the whole evening with her. The woman could be difficult even under the best the conditions. She would find a way to criticize my food, my hair, my skin, my clothes, the decor in the house, and whatever else popped into her head. There was a reason I moved to California as soon as I was old enough to go. It was far, far away from Kansas City and Celia Trimmel.

  “That’s too bad, but if you’ve made other plans, I totally understand.”

  Mom rifled through her purse and pulled out her phone. “You know what, I’m just going to call your brother and tell him that my plans have change. I’d love to stay for dinner.”

  I gave Billy Bob a quick look that I hoped conveyed just how unlucky he was going to get tonight then smiled at Mom. “Great. The more the merrier.”

  I’d planned fried pork chops for dinner, but since I wasn’t about to do dinner with mom without a buffer, I changed it to eggplant parmesan to accommodate Sunny’s psychic aversion to meat. Nothing ruined a dinner party like a seizure inducing vision of animal slaughter. I set the table for five in the rarely-used formal dining room. I preferred eating dinner on the couch snuggled up next to the doc but desperate times and all that.

  “Coming!” I shouted when the doorbell rang. When I flung the door back, it wasn’t Sunny and Babe on the other side, it was, once again, William Smith, Sr.

  With a groan, I slammed the door shut between us. “Oh, shit.” I took a deep breath, debating whether or not to open the door again or treat him like I would a vacuum salesman, and turn off all the lights and pretend I wasn’t home.

  “Where’s your brother?” Mom asked. She looked around the living room. “Wasn’t that him and Sunny at the door?”

  “Uhm...”

  Knock. Knock. Knock.

  “Chav?” Mom made a shooing motion with her hands. “Answer the door.”

  “No.” I slapped my hand over my mouth.

  Mom strolled past me. “What in the world has gotten into you, girl?” She flung the door open before I could stop her.

  William Smith narrowed his gray gaze on my mother. “Who are you?”

  My mom’s back stiffened. “Who are you?”

  He leaned in toward Mom and took a deep inhalation. “I don’t have to answer to a coyote.” He spat out the last word as if it were a bad taste in his mouth.

  Jesus, this dude’s sense of smell was like a blood hound, and frankly, I took exception to his disdain. A growl rumbled in my chest.

  William’s gray eyes, stormy with anger, shifted in my direction. “That’s the second time you shut the door in my face. Are you sure you want to challenge me?”

  “When you invited us for dinner, I had no idea asshole was on the menu,” Sunny said as she strolled in the front door behind William.

  Babe, crating my adorable nephew and niece in his arms, followed her past the fuming werewolf. “What is going on now?” he said resignedly. “And am I going to have to write a report for the Tri-State Council?”

  Sunny put her industrial sized diaper bag down and stood next to me to face William, her arms crossed over her chest in an act of defiance. “I'd say Billy Bob’s daddy has pissed off a wolf spirit.” She shrugged. “If I had to guess.”

  William glared at my BFF, a snarl of contempt on his lips. “Shut up, human.”

  Both Babe and Billy Bob growled.

  “What do you want, Father?” Billy Bob asked. “Why are you here?” That question was getting asked a lot today.

  “I’m here because you didn’t call me.”

  “When was I supposed to call you?”

  “I told your coyote-bitch this afternoon—”

  I looked guiltily at Billy Bob, since I hadn't told him about the earlier visit, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off his dad to look my way.

  “Chavvah is no one’s bitch,” Sunny said.

  Actually, since a female coyote-wolf is technically a bitch, I was less offended than my enraged friend. “It’s better than being a piece of dog shit,” I said.

  Sunny linked her arm in mine in a show of solidarity.

  “This is the last time I’ll ask you,” Billy Bob said to his dad. “What do you want?”

  “I want to know why you are suddenly interested in taking my position in our tribe? Why after all these years?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, old man. I never wanted your position. Why do you think I left—”

  “Ran away,” his father sniped.

  “Whatever you want to believe,” Billy Bob said, his voice growing eerily quiet with anger. “Believe this. I am not interested in pack politics. Never have been.”

  “Wait a minute,” Sunny said. “Lycanthropes live in packs? How did I not know this?”

  The way Billy Bob had explained it, lycanthropes didn't really live in packs. They considered themselves more like a community, a tribe, held together by ancestral blood. His grandfather had been the shaman of their tribe, and he'd been grooming the doc to take over as spiritual leader. I knew his grandfather had passed away but he'd never explained why he hadn't stayed with his people. Since it seemed like a painful subject for my guy, I'd let it go. Now, I wished I would have pressed a little because I was completely lost in this conversation.

  I pinched Sunny's arm. “Not now.”

  “All right,” she said, tugging her arm away. "Ix-nay on the ack-pay." She rubbed where I’d pinched. “And ow.”

  “Sorry.”

  She gave me a sympathetic nod. “I’ll forgive you because I know what it’s like to have a lunatic for an in-law.”

  “Hey!” Mom snapped.

  Sunny gave me a sly smile then nodded toward Billy Bob and his dad, who both looked like they were about to go twelve rounds without gloves.

  A loud beep, beep, beep! Startled everyone in the room.

  “What in the hell is that?” Sunny asked as the beeping continued in a loud, grating high pitched tone.

  The scent of burnt eggplant wafted into the living room. “Damn it! It’s the smoke detectors!”

  “Sunny and I will handle it,” my mom said. The beeping continued. “You stay and referee the dominant wolf pissing contest.”

  Before I could respond to her uncharacteristic language, she’d grabbed Sunny by the hand and the two of them headed toward the kitchen. Even over the alarm, I could hear Sunny cussing, my mom fussing, the sound of what I suspected was my broom whacking plastic before the smoke detector was silenced.

  “Got it!” Sunny yelled from the other room. “Man, it’s smoky as hell in here.”

  With one crisis averted, I turned my attention back to my honey and his papa wolf. “William, I think it’s time for you to leave our home.” When he gave me another challenging stare, Brother Wolf decided to intervene. “You will leave, servus,” he commanded with my voice.

  “I am not your servant,” William said, but he averted his gaze.

  I felt satisfaction from Brother Wolf.

  Aren’t you being a little petty? I asked the spirit.

  I almost expected him to declare that William had started it first, but Brother Wolf was disappointingly quiet.

  “What makes you think that Billy Bob,” William winced when I used the nickname, “wants to suddenly take your pack from you?”

  The older wolf shifter growled. “Because he does.”

  “Based on what evidence?”

  “Based on the fact that half my town is camped on the outskirts of Peculiar, waiting to be invited in.”

  “That’s impossible,” I said.

  “We didn’t invite any wolves here,” Billy Bob added.

  About that... Brother Wolf muttered.

  “Oh boy.”

  “What?” Billy Bob asked.

  "Brother Wolf," I said.

  "Hokum," William muttered.

  Sunny staggered into the living room, her nose bleeding, while Mom propped her up, and did a semi-decent imitation of Ricky Ricardo when she said, “Oh, Brother Wo-olf. You have some splainin’ to do.”

  Chapter Three

  Blood dripped down Sunny's lip, her skin pale as her hands trembled. Babe had his arm around her, propping her up. Billy Bob, who was the kind of guy who kept a handkerchief on him at all times, gave his to Sunny, and she dabbed at her nose.

  "Are you all right?" I cast an accusing look at my mother. "Did mom punch you in the nose?"

  "Don't be ridiculous, Chavvah," Mom said. "One minute she was pulling the casserole out of the oven, and the next, she was flopping on the floor. I'm assuming she had one of her vision-thingies." Mom said vision the same way some people say cancer, in a hushed tone while wincing at the prospect. She wagged her finger at Sunny. "Pinch the nose, dear, don't dab."

  "And tilt your head forward a little," said Billy Bob. "That way you know when the bleeding stops, and it's not just running down the back of your throat instead of out your nose."

  Mom nodded, and it was weird seeing her and Doc agree on something.

  "What did you see?" I asked Sunny. She'd had visions about Brother Wolf before, but only when she'd been focused on me, not burnt dinner.

  "Visions?" William scoffed. "More hokum! It figures you'd be mixed up in this kind of nonsense," he said to Billy Bob. "The worst thing I ever did was let you go live with your grandfather."

  "It's not hokum, Father. Just because you never had the gift for spirit talking doesn't mean it isn't real," Doc growled. "And as I recall, you didn't let me go. I chose to apprentice with him."

  His dad's face reddened, but before William could respond, Sunny chimed in, "I saw a shadow man with dark swirly, sparkly eyes," she glanced toward me first then Billy Bob. "And it looked like he was scrolling through images like Jo Jo does with social media on his phone. He didn't look happy. I think it was Brother Wolf, or one of his kind. The field he was in reminded me of the time I hitched a ride with Chav to the aether.

  "Brother Wolf doesn't exist. He's a fairytale." William balled his fingers into fists. "This is the kind of spiritual hoodoo that keep lycanthropes from moving forward. When are you going to learn that Brother Wolf only exists in your head?"

  "Tell dat to him when he turns Chavvah into a monster wolf, large enough to bite your head off." Sunny stuck her tongue out at the crotchety alpha wolf and blood dripped down from under the hanky. "Oops." She pinched her nostrils harder. "Well, dis sucks," she said.

  "This is nonsense," William said. "And I don't have time for it."

  "Then go home, Father," Billy Bob said.

  "Not without my wolves."

  "They are where they are meant to be," Sunny said ominously. "That was in the vision. Though it was more an idea than a visual."

  Mom shook her head. "Land sakes, your visions are as clear as mud."

  Before I could intercede on Sunny's behalf, Babe said, "Leave her alone, Mom." He put his arm around Sunny.

  I'd known my bestie long enough to take her psychic abilities seriously, even if they weren't always transparent in meaning. "It's important, whatever it means."

  "Are you all right, darling?" Babe's frown and furrowed brow reflected his worry for his fragile and all too human wife--which made me worry. Sunny was older than Babe and aging more rapidly. She was also susceptible to a lot more illnesses than therianthropes. She'd confided to me several months back that she'd rather have something like a heart attack take her out before putting Babe through the agony of watching her die of old age. I'd smacked her shoulder, hard, and told her to stop being stupid. But I understood her concern. We'd both loved Highlander, the original movie, not the television series, but seeing Connor MacLeod watch his wife Heather wither with age and die in his arms was the ultimate heartbreak.

  Sunny looked at me then glanced away. "That one was a doozy. That's the third time in three days that I've had a vision knock me for a loop. They feel like they're getting stronger."

  "What happened in the first two?" When she didn't answer right away, I asked. "Was it about me?"

  She shook her head then nodded once. "I don't know. I thought the first one was a dream, though I've never had a dream drive me to my knees before."

  Babel narrowed his gaze on her. "You didn't tell me about that."

  She gave me a sidelong look. "I saw seven couples, each with a baby."

  My heart skipped a beat.

  Sunny met my gaze then looked down and shook her head. "Each child and parent turned into a wolves and cubs respectively."

  The same night she'd confessed her age-worry, I'd confessed my baby-woes. Billy Bob had told me my uterus had been too damaged during my kidnapping to ever conceive, and I'd gone to see an ob/gyn in St. Louis, who had confirmed his diagnosis. I'd wanted more than anything to have his child, and that would never happen.

  William Smith scoffed, snapping me out of my self-pitying moment. "That's impossible."

  Sunny shrugged, then shook the bloody handkerchief at the crotchety werewolf. "I see what I see. It could have been the past. I have a tendency toward really unhelpful visions of the past, present, and future. I didn't see anything to indicate time or place. Technology is a good indication sometimes, like smart phones are the present, flip phones the past, touch tone the way past, rotary the way, way past."

  Babel took her hand and pressed it back to her nose.

  "I remember rotary phones," Billy Bob said.

  "Old man," Sunny joked, but I didn't laugh. My best friend was having visions that involved werewolves, and she was getting the metaphysical shit beaten out of her in the process. I was too worried to laugh.

  Brother Wolf, I summoned. I wanted more explanation, but the spirit guardian had gone radio silent on me. Come out, come out where ever you are. I swear, if you're sending these visions to Sunny and she gets hurt in the receiving I will make you pay. It was mostly an empty threat. There wasn't much I could do to a god-like entity that didn't recognize the flow of time and borrowed my body like a cheap suit every time he wanted to make an appearance. I shook my head at Billy Bob when he raised a brow at me. “Brother Wolf might know what’s going on, but he isn't talking.”

  My soon to be father-in-law paced the room full of what can only be described as anxious rage. "It has to be the past."

  “Why don’t you just order your people to go home?” Billy Bob asked his dad. “You are their leader the last time I checked.” He gave me a side glance then shifted his gaze back to William. “You are still the leader, right?”

  The older lycanthrope shifted uncomfortably. “It’s been a hard couple of years.”

  Billy Bob crossed his arms. “And that means?”

  “There hasn’t been a new lycanthrope born in twenty-one years.”

  “In the entire town?”

  “Yes.” William nodded. “I don’t know if it's happening in other places, but there hasn't been any new births in over two decades in White Rock.” He rubbed his callused hand over his face. “It’s hard to keep a community together when old members die off and there are no young to replace them.”

  Billy Bob’s naturally tan skin paled. “I don’t believe you.”

  "I told you he wouldn't be any help," a soft, feminine voice said from the open doorway. A tall woman with silvery-white hair and silver eyes stood with her arms crossed, staring hard at Doc. "He's a traitor to our kind."

  "Who are you?" I asked.

  Billy Bob face had hardened at the sight of her.

  I looked at him. "Do you know who she is?" She looked young, too young for her to have been someone he grew up with, but an overwhelming sense of foreboding threatened to swallow me up from the inside out.

  "I do not," Billy Bob ground out through clenched teeth.

  I felt Sunny's hand on my shoulder. I turned to find my friend giving me a consolatory look. "Would someone tell me what the hell is going on, and who this girl is?"

  "She's the last born in our tribe," William said. "Her mother was Roberta Windsong."

  Billy Bob's voice grew low and dangerous. "You said Robbie was dead."

  "She is dead," the woman said. "She died giving birth." She put her hands on her hips. "To me."

  "No," Billy Bob said.

  "You'd run off to start your medical internship in another state, son," his dad said. "Robbie didn't want you to come back to her because she was pregnant. She wanted you to come back for her because you wanted her, so she made me promise not to tell you."

  Lightning fast, Billy Bob had his father shoved up against the far wall. "You're lying. She would have told me."

  “You can tell if I’m lying, boy.” His dad looked at him with a stare that almost made my own wolf want to bow, but Billy Bob didn’t even blink. After a few seconds, his Dad was the one to first avert his gaze.

  The girl seemed surprised at William's submissive gesture, so much so, she rushed to him, trying to push Billy Bob away from the older wolf. "Get off of him!"

  The doc remained unmovable for a few more seconds, before he gave his father a final shove then walked to the couch and sat down on the arm rest.

  I felt my world spinning around me. Was this really happening? Billy Bob had a child--with another woman. Babe came around the other side of me, as he and Sunny huddled to me for comfort. How was I supposed to react to this? Billy Bob was in his fifties. Of course, he'd had a life before me, but I'd never imagined...