Austin just bet it did. He was smiling when he realized CJ was staring at him. He was about to share what was going on when Phil suddenly put his finger into his mouth. He looked over at them both him and CJ, and winked. Austin wasn't sure, but he'd bet his last dollar that not only could Phil track Gladys, but he was reasonably sure he could find her entire lineage.

When they disappeared down the hall Alexis cleared her throat. "He could have simply asked her, you know?"

Austin tried to keep his laughter to a low rumble, but when Gladys and Phil returned with a large patch of a band aid on her shoulder, her words confirmed that she had no idea what had just happened.

"I don't know how I could have cut myself. Why just this morning I was...you don't suppose one of those kids accidentally threw something at me, do you?" Phil shook his head, mirth all over his face. "That poor boy. We won't mention it. He'll feel bad for me."

Austin could only hope that at some point he could breathe again. He was laughing so hard when she finally left the room and trying not to show it he was sure he broke something. He was almost afraid to look at Phil again.

Alexis paced her room. She thought about leaving it several times, but every time she started for the door she would stop just short of opening it. She turned to look at Gordon when he laughed.

"I don't think you're going to solve much by wearing a hole in the carpet. Come here." She glared at him and continued pacing. "Alexis, come here and let's work this out."

"Why?" She had an idea what he wanted and how he wanted to "work things out," but she just wasn't in the mood. At least she didn't think she was. "s.e.x does not solve everything, contrary to popular belief."

"No," he said, smiling. "It won't solve anything, but it will certainly relax you enough to think things through afterwards."

She stood very still when he stood. She watched as he started to unb.u.t.ton his shirt and pull it from his pants. She licked her suddenly dry lips.

"You would have been safer if you had simply left when you could. Maybe there's a way to reverse this thing." She pulled at her blouse, the heat in the room suddenly a little too much. "I bet Phil's mom knows somebody."

"I don't want anyone to reverse this. I want you." The shirt landed on the floor next to her towel she'd discarded earlier. "Come here, Alexis. I want to make love to you."

He moved like the wolf he was. She could smell him too, earthy and warm. She knew that if he were to go into the woods right now no one would be able to find him by scent.

She looked out the window and watched his reflection as he came up behind her. When he cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and pulled her back against his chest, she moaned. His c.o.c.k nudged her a.s.s and she felt her p.u.s.s.y cream.

"Run with me. Let's go outside and run for a while. Then, if you're really good, I'll lay you on a carpet of spring flowers and take you to heights you've never been before." She turned her head to look at him as he spoke. "I can and you know it. Come on. Then we'll come back here and sleep the day away."

It was tempting. Very tempting, as a matter of fact. She felt something stir inside of her and startled when Gordon growled at her.

"Your wolf is stirring. She wants mine." Gordon lowered his hands to her hips and held her still while he rocked into her a.s.s again, his c.o.c.k hard as stone. "I want you as well. Come outside with me and play, Alexis. Shift into your wolf and let's run through the fields again."

The last time she'd been a wolf they'd had s.e.x several times in the open field. It had been fantastic. Then they'd made love as humans several more times until neither of them could move and took a nap out of doors to regain their strength to walk back to the house. She pulled from his arms and moved to the door to the pa.s.sage as his cell phone rang.

"It's Dallas. I have to take-"

"Don't," she begged him. "Please, not yet. Text him. Tell him...tell him whatever it is that...tell him that we need one hour. Just one hour."

Gordon looked undecided and she let her wolf stir again. Once she'd figured out what it felt like it was easy. His moan/growl had her wet and needy and he knew it.

"You're going to pay for this," Gordon told her as he started doing as she asked. "Once we get outside you're so going to pay for this."

She didn't wait for him, but ran laughing for the door. She was stripping off her clothes and shifting before he nearly caught up with her. By the time she was flying out of the waterfalls she could hear him cussing at her to wait. She was soaring to the sky again when she felt the danger. By then it was too late.

Chapter 19.

The pack of wolves were just below her. She could see that Gordon was just coming out of the lake when he saw them too. He looked up to where she had landed, but kept low too. She didn't know why they looked so different from Gordon until he spoke to her.

"They're wild. We're bigger and stronger and, because we can think like a human even as a wolf, we tend to fight better too." He moved as he spoke to her, but still remained hidden. "Stay where you are and I'll see if I can draw them away from you. Then I want you to-"

"No f.u.c.king way. I'm way up here and you're down there at their level. I'll be the one to draw them away from you. I can go into places that you-"

"Alexis," he growled at her. "If you so much as move from that branch I will beat your a.s.s for you. I'll not have you endangering your life for me. Now, I want you to stay up there. I've contacted Austin and Dallas and they are coming here now."

She growled back at him. It was either that or shift, beat the wolves, and then him. She was sure that she'd hurt herself badly if she tried shifting to a wolf from this height, but might have been willing to chance it except for the man who came into the clearing behind another dozen or so wolves.

Tom was walking along a seemingly narrow path. She couldn't really make out how wide it was as she'd never seen it from this vantage point before. She could see that it led to the lake and even down along it for a ways. She was just telling Gordon that when she saw Paddy going from tree to tree behind the pack and Tom.

It occurred to her that he was stalking Tom, not with him as she first thought. As she watched him move she also came to the conclusion that he was really terrible at sneaking. She wondered why he didn't simply shift into his wolf, who had to be much quieter than his human was.

"If he does, then he'll be naked when the time comes to fight." She startled at the voice that sounded right next to her. "You should know that taking your blood was sort of an open highway for us to speak."

She thought about Phil and then she cut off his d.i.c.k with a sharp rock. She knew he got the message because she could feel his pained thoughts. She was grinning to herself when she saw that Darcy was being dragged toward the group with the pack. That terrified her to the point she nearly shifted and attacked.

"Don't. If you go in now, all will be lost. Think, love. What is it you think you can do and not get anyone killed?" She wanted to snarl at Gordon, but before she could Phil started again.

"If you go in half-c.o.c.ked, then...well, my own will be much safer. However, if you get killed in the process, your mate will suffer as well."

"You do know that at this moment I hate you both very much." But she did stop to think.

Tom was below her now, but there were also several dozen wolves, all of which had very sharp teeth and could cut her to ribbons. Behind them was Paddy, but he seemed to be doing nothing to help. She didn't think he was with the vampire below her, but she just couldn't be sure about that. Then there was her niece. Darcy was as innocent as they all were evil. Suddenly the girl looked up at her and smiled.

"You can hear me?" It was really too much to hope that she could, but she'd never tried before to communicate with the child this way before. Darcy dropped her head and Alexis nearly cried out in frustration.

"Yes. You sound funny, but I can hear you. I can hear...it sounds like Mr. Gordon too, but I'm not sure." Alexis moved a branch lower as Darcy continued. "He wants to change me. He wants me to be his day walker. I don't want to do that, Aunt Alexis. Please help me."

"I am, baby." She looked over at Gordon who was crouched low behind a fallen log. She wondered why they hadn't seen him yet and remembered her vantage point. "Gordon is coming toward you from the tree just to your left. Can you see him at all?"

Darcy raised her head only to have her face slapped. Alexis let out a sharp cry and flew off so that she wouldn't be tempted to go down and rip Tom's eyes out. She wanted the man dead in the worst way.

"I can't see him. And don't worry about this man hitting me. When you save me, I'm going to kick his bottom." Alexis came back, landed just above the group in another tree, and sent her niece all the love she could.

"Darcy, love, can you pretend to faint? I can come a bit closer to you if you distract them for me."

Alexis wanted to tell Gordon no, but before she could Darcy did just as he'd asked her to. Gordon moved up another ten feet or so and was nearly to them when the group seemed to turn as one to the left.

Alexis could see the larger wolves coming at them at a full out run. She was both terrified and awed by the beauty at the same time. She knew that the larger wolf at the head of the pack was Austin and could see why he was alpha.

"I'm much prettier than him," Gordon told her. "You should know that. And when this nonsense is over, I'm going to show you just how much bigger I can get when you're naked beneath me."

Her entire body reacted to his words. And she nearly moaned before a movement caught her eye. Paddy was moving up behind Tom with a knife in his hands. She knew the exact moment when the vampire knew he was there. She watched in horror as Paddy put his knife down and spoke to Tom.

"I've come to make a bargain with you. I don't want you to kill me like you did Jessie. What will it take to keep myself alive?" Paddy nodded toward his daughter. "Her?"

Tom laughed. "I've already got her, you moron. What the h.e.l.l else could you possibly offer me? And as soon as that c.u.n.t of a shifter shows up I'll have her as well. You," Tom said as he pulled out a gun, "have outlived your usefulness to me and my cause."

The sharply barked "no" was all that Paddy was able to say before the gun went off. A second shot, this one not nearly as loud, sounded almost the same time. When Tom dropped to one knee Alexis thought he had fallen, but it seemed someone had shot the man. Paddy fell forward as a gun slipped from his fingers.

Alexis could only stare as Tom pulled his long sword free and took Paddy's head from his shoulders. A scream from Darcy brought Alexis from the nightmare.

The wolves coming to help were too far away when Tom suddenly turned toward Darcy. He had his hand raised with his sword coming toward her. Alexis knew that if Darcy was going to be saved it had to be now and it had to be her. Dropping to the ground, she shifted and landed at nearly the same time.

Gordon nearly shifted to go after her when he saw her dropping. He knew that for the rest of his days, whenever he thought of her falling to the ground, he'd still have shivers of terror run through him. But when she stood behind the vampire and swiped at him, Gordon knew that she would conquer.

"What have we here? Another wolf?" Gordon moved closer as Tom spoke. "You know that I have a fine collection of beautiful pelts at home and your silver one will fill it out nicely."

Alexis growled low and deep, masking any sound the pack made running faster now toward them. Gordon reached out to his brother and alpha.

"If you don't get here in the next several seconds I'm going to have to move in without you. He has my mate and I'm afraid he's going to kill her." Gordon moved closer still. He wasn't afraid of the pack, but he was afraid for the safety of his mate. If he made the wrong move they'd kill her because of their vast number.

"I'm coming. Did you have to do this all the way across our land and the other side of hers? Christ, we're moving as fast as we've ever moved." Gordon snarled at his brother's comment. "Calm down, Gordon. You'll do none of us any good if you get either of you killed. I'm coming. We're all coming."

The pack hit the wolves with the vampire as one. Nearly fifty fully grown and not so grown wolves had more than half of the wild wolves killed before they could get away. In a matter of seconds the ground was covered in blood.

Gordon leapt up and was after Tom when the man turned with Alexis as her wolf suddenly in front of him, his huge hands wrapped around her throat. Gordon stopped so suddenly that dirt flew up at Tom and sprinkled his face and hair.

Gordon couldn't shift fast enough. He was standing before the two of them. He looked at his mate then at the man who held her.

"You harm her and I will hunt you down, stake you to the ground, and roast marshmallows over your burning body when the sun comes up." He took a step forward when Alexis whimpered. "Let her go and let's take care of this man to man."

Tom laughed and spittle ran down his chin as he licked Alexis' furred cheek. "You think to threaten me then you want me to do something for you? You're very stupid if you think your puny little wolf is going to scare me. I know what a wolf of her caliber is worth. What do you think I wanted the brat for? I turned the father as a lark. Having his daughter to breed will make me rich."

The movement beside him didn't make him turn. He'd know his brother's scent anywhere. Smiling, he looked Tom up and down then to his face again. He was terrified if he let himself think about where Alexis was and how this man could hurt her, so he tried not to look directly at her.

"Turning a human without permission is a crime punishable by death. You don't really think that the alpha around here is going to let you do that, do you? I mean, first off, she's merely a child, secondly...well secondly, I'm going to kill you so all your plans are for naught."

At least he hoped so. Gordon took a step forward and Austin moved with him. His wolf was so large that he reached nearly to Gordon's hip at the back. Alexis whimpered again and he looked at her. When their eyes connected she looked to his left then back at him. She did this twice more before he felt the other vampire.

"h.e.l.lo, Tom. It's been a very long time." Gordon glanced at the newcomer and didn't have the slightest idea if the man was friend or foe. When he spoke again Gordon felt his world tilt. "I've come to claim my rights as your maker."

"Maker," Gordon said about the same time he saw Phil come into view. "I don't think you have any rights, maker or not. He has my mate and things are going to get nasty really fastlike if he doesn't let her go."

The man put his hand on Gordon's shoulder and he felt the immediate connection. There was something very...warm he supposed, about the man's touch, almost as if they'd known each other for a very long time.

"Gordon, please let my father have his say. This will go a good deal quicker if you do." Phil stood on his left as the stranger kept where he was on his right. "I called my father when I heard the name. It took him some time, but he remembered his child after some help from my mom."

"She most certainly did not help. If truth be told, she was more of a hindrance than help." Mr. Campbell paused a few seconds before he continued. "And if you tell her I said that, I will deny it with my last breath."

"It well may be your last breath, you old t.u.r.d. What is the meaning of this?" Mrs. Campbell, Gordon thought, looked over at the man who still held Alexis. "Tom, you'd best listen or Rod here will be forced to take serious action. And just so you know, the council is very interested in the murder of a local human."

"I did no such thing. And I think you are all missing the point here. I have this she-b.i.t.c.h and I'm not letting her go until I get what I need." Tom looked down at Alexis before he looked back at them. "You come any closer and my death will be nothing compared to this b.i.t.c.h."

It only took a second, a mere blink for things to go from bad to over. The silver wolf in Tom's hands was suddenly gone; fur tangled in his fingers, but the wolf herself was nowhere to be seen. The screech of the hawk high above them had each of them turning skyward.

Gordon had a second, no more, to realize that she was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen before she was soaring toward him, her wings wide. When she narrowly missed him as she landed on the ground just inches from him, he watched as she hopped from one foot to the other before settling. She didn't take her eyes from Tom.

"She's a shifter," Phil's father said softly, almost reverently. "Phil said that she was, but to see her...holy Christ, no wonder he wants her so badly."

Tom turned and, as he started forward again, the cane he always carried seemed to morph into a long sword. As it moved toward him, the air seemingly slicing open, he didn't have a second to ponder his own death and the loss of his life with Alexis. But the blade didn't touch him, nothing did. The sound around the forest stilled. And before him lay Tom Richards, his throat sliced from ear to ear.

Chapter 20.

Alexis poured the last of the soap into the forms. She watched the hot liquid fill each section of the metal and smiled when she thought of the people who would be using this very soap by end of the week. She glanced to her left when she heard Gordon cussing again.

"This is s.h.i.t. Every time I follow your directions all I get is s.h.i.t. What am I doing wrong?" He didn't look to her like he was helping so much as he was trying on what she sold. He was covered from head to toe in white powder and bits of herbs he'd tried to cut up for her earlier. Before she could set down her pot Darcy came to his rescue. Again.

"Look, Uncle Gordon, I showed you before. If you don't let it get to temperature then it won't get hard. And if it doesn't get hard, n.o.body will buy it from Aunt Alexis. Then where will we be but out on the streets selling this p.o.o.p to anybody who will give us a penny for it." Alexis thought she heard her say, "if somebody would give us a penny for it," but wasn't sure.

"You, young lady, have been hanging out with my sister-in-law too much. Just keep the snide comments to yourself and show me what I did wrong." He grinned at her before he kissed her forehead. "There's a good girl. And if you finish this batch for me I'll give you fifty bucks toward your car."

Alexis simply rolled her eyes. At the rate Darcy was going she'd have a better car than she did and for very little out of pocket cash on her end. Gordon agreed to help in the barn three times a week, but mostly he hired one of the kids to do his part while he watched. When Alexis was finished with her pouring she looked over at him and he winked.

"You do know you'll never get the hang of this if you keep paying someone else to do it for you, right?" She shook her head when he grinned bigger. "I see. So just how rich are you making my nieces and nephews with this 'help' you're giving me?"

"You'll never know. They've been sworn to secrecy." He moved toward her, slow and easy like the big wolf that he was. "Darcy, will you watch things in here for a few minutes? I want to talk to your aunt outside."

"I can't go outside with you until I get this batch finished. Then I have to go to the pack house and help with the decorations for CJ's baby shower. She said I had to be there on time or she was going to hunt me down." Alexis had discovered that she and CJ had a great deal in common, but CJ was much scarier about things when they didn't go as she'd planned. "Then there is your mom."

That stopped him in his tracks and had him frowning. "What about my mom? She's not coming over, is she? Please tell me that you didn't tell on me again."

Alexis started to laugh and tell him his mother knew everything, but she didn't. She thought she'd keep that to herself. She moved to get another batch off the stove when he rushed to take it from her. He poured while she tamped things down.

They worked side by side for several minutes without speaking. They quickly poured the liquid soap into the newly purchased molds and added the seal to the ones that had hardened enough that she could press it into. She had hoped that he didn't notice the ones in the basket near the door when he came in, but it was too much to hope that the ex cop wouldn't see them.

"The wolves, did you order those before or after the pack accepted you?" She looked at him and quickly away. "Alexis?"

"Before. But I'd met you already." She picked up the next mold and put it onto the cooling rack with the others. Darcy went out the door with a small wave. "I thought I could convince your mother and sisters to buy more if I had them in stock."