“You fuckers always look so good so easy,” Harriet said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” laughed Lucas.

  They got in the car to hunt down some coffee, and Harriet turned to Lucas.

  “What the hell was that, Lucas? You still think I’m going to run away? That this is all some grand trick I’m playing on you? You think I’m going to let your kids suffer because you kidnapped me instead of asking like a regular human being? Jesus, man. You have got to get over it. I’m not going anywhere, Lucas. Look at me. I’m sitting here, next to an unlocked door, begging you to get me some goddamned coffee. I could have run away 22 times once you got in the shower this morning. I didn’t. I am not going anywhere, Lucas.” Harriet stopped, put her hands in her lap and looked at him, waiting.

  Lucas gripped the steering wheel tighter, sighing. “Harriet, I’m−I don’t know what to say. It’s not so much that I don’t believe you, or think you’re lying… I think I can’t believe you, like, I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe you just want coffee, I can’t believe that you’re willing to help me and you’re kind to me after what I did. I don’t deserve any of it. I just don’t.” His voice was breaking up and he couldn’t stand it anymore. “Let’s just get the fucking coffee, all right?”

  They drove in silence for a few minutes. As they pulled into the small parking lot in front of a promising café, Harriet turned toward him again. “I don’t know how to convince you, Lucas. But all I can do is just keep staying here, staying by you. I want to get you your kids, and if I have some gift that will allow me to do that, I really want to use it. I never even knew I had the ability, and to find out, when it’s so desperately needed? Seems miraculous in some way. So, I’m staying. Okay?”

  Lucas nodded. “I’m going to keep freaking out, Harriet. I know it. I just can’t trust something this good happening to me. I don’t have this kind of luck.” He hung his head. “But I can definitely buy you a cup of coffee. It is literally the very least I can do for you.” He laughed ruefully. “Although, knowing how much you like coffee, it might be more than the very least.”

  “That’s the spirit, Lucas! Give in to my certainty, little by little. You deserve me, and I deserve coffee!” said Harriet, hopping out of the car.

  They stepped into the café and the hair on Lucas’ neck went rigid. He put his hand on Harriet’s back immediately and looked around. Harriet, too, had stilled upon walking in. There was just something wrong. He spotted a familiar shape at the back counter with his back to him.

  “Out, now,” he whispered to Harriet.

  She followed him out and to the car immediately.

  Lucas started the car and drove back quickly to the motel.

  “What’s going on, Lucas? Who was in there? I could feel it, whatever it was, it was crackling bad energy.” Harriet watched as he threw everything from the motel in the bag, her eyes wide.

  Lucas stopped what he was doing, turned and handed her the poppet. He sighed in a half growl. “I think we need to start figuring this part out, Harriet. We’re not far from my pack’s territory, but that shifter in there was one of the pack that I blame particularly for all the evil they’ve been doing. His name is Jock and he’s working with the new leader, Carissa, still. She’s a special case. She’s more of a werewolf than a shifter. She wasn’t born into it, she was turned. I’m not really sure which one of them is in charge, really, but there is something really, really wrong with both of them. Their energy is palpably wrong, and I don’t know why everyone can’t smell it out. I think we need to move faster before we have the pack on our trail as well, I really hadn’t counted on them. I just want the kids.”

  Harriet followed Lucas to the car, holding the poppet up to her nose. “Okay, I think we should start. Do you have anything to point me at the kids? Like old toys, clothes? I have to assume they smell like you, but some of those things might help me, like I’m a police dog or something.”

  Lucas thought. “I have the last letters I got from them in the driver’s compartment box. I think that’ll do, they’ve each held one of them, and written the letters and such. I think it’ll do.”

  Harriet rifled through the box, finding the childish handwriting quickly. She read through the first one and the second was just crayon drawings. “Tell me about them, Lucas. Their names, their ages, what they like, who you think they are at their centers.”

  Lucas began talking about his children. Riley and Meg; Riley, his boy, was ten, and Meg just four. Riley was a baseball fanatic, and Meg really wanted a pony. They were so typical in some ways, but so individual in others. They were both really gifted at untangling knots and puzzles of all sorts, even word puzzles, tricks of the intellect. They were really smart, that much he knew. They did fairly well in school; though Meg was just beginning, she was a really gabby little one.

  He and their mom had split when Meg was just a year old. It was sad but fairly peaceful. It hurt Lucas to have to explain how little he knew of them, the pieces he had were so small in comparison to how much life these kids had had. Their mother was a good one, and he wasn’t worried about their care, it just felt like he wasn’t needed, so he left. The more he talked about Riley and Meg, the more he began to fill in their pictures with what he did know.

  Harriet sat listening, with the poppet against her cheek, eyes closed. Her eyes fluttered open and she pointed. Lucas turned when he could and she nodded, closing her eyes again. Lucas kept talking−about the kids’ mom, her shifter life, his shifter life, the births of the kids. Harriet kept rousing to point and falling back to her eyes closed position once he followed her direction. He could feel his heart expanding as he allowed himself to hope this was working.

  They’d been driving for a couple of hours and Lucas had lapsed into a thoughtful silence. Harriet sat forward suddenly after their fourth or fifth turn. “Okay, Lucas. I don’t know what it is, but I want you to slow down so I don’t miss it, okay? It’s like a smell or something, I can’t make it out exactly.”

  Lucas pulled over and slowed to a crawl. Harriet had her window down so the air could sweep over her.

  “Turn here, now.” She pointed down what was barely a track by the side of the road.

  Lucas muttered, “This is pretty close to where one of their aunts was holed up at one time. I think she’s long gone, but maybe someone else has taken over her place. They could’ve stashed the kids there maybe.”

  The car rattled and jumped over the potholed road. Harriet still pointing straight ahead, Lucas commenting more on the kids and the last jokes he recalled them telling. Harriet sat up again and put her hand on his arm. “Stop, Lucas. Give me a minute.”

  Harriet got out of the car and went to stand by an old willow tree. The day was bright and the shade where she stood had her in a bright green light, dappled as it was. She looked at Lucas.

  “Your kids are shifters, right? I mean, their mom was a Wolf shifter and you’re Wolf plus magic, so they’re shifters, yes?”

  Lucas nodded, wondering where she was going. She looked so confused. She put the poppet in her pocket and bent down to the ground. Something in her face cleared.

  “Okay, Lucas. I know how weird this is about to be, but is there like a cave around here? Or something underground? A bunker? A barn with a basement? Anything like that? I keep getting this image of a storage unit or something but lots and lots of dirt.” She looked up at him quickly, “Not death, not a burial, just a place underground.”

  Lucas felt himself sigh in relief. It had been exactly where his mind had gone. He looked at Harriet. She really was amazing.

  “All right, I think I know a place, but it’s definitely not safe for us. I think it’s bound to be full of pack mates, and I can’t tell who is going to be with me and who has been spoiled by the evil that is up here. Let’s see if we can get any closer than here, if it is where I’m thinking of, I think we can.”

  Harriet climbed back in the car, looking wistfully back at the tree. “There’s something about that tree, Lucas. I feel like it’s important. If I had a shovel, I’d start digging there.”

  Lucas stopped the car and looked at her. He felt a crushing pressure to hurry, and he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Harriet got back out of the car and ran to the tree.

  “Do you feel that, Harriet? Like we have to hurry? I’m going to shift, Harriet, I feel something coming and I need to be able to protect you or fight, whatever it is.”

  Lucas shifted in a shimmer of light, his clothes in tatters on the ground around him as he turned into a tawny Wolf. It was the first time he’d ever shifted in front of a woman who wasn’t a shifter, and as Wolf, he turned and gazed at her. She was watching him with a smile on her face. She walked over and held his muzzle, looking into his eyes. “You are a beautiful Wolf, Lucas. Go find your kids.”

  Lucas put his nose to the ground, smelling and listening at once. Harriet began to walk down a small hill and Lucas quickly put himself in front of her, scouting the way for safety. By unspoken agreement, they were both moving silently, Harriet directly behind Lucas.

  Harriet made a strange noise, Lucas turned his muzzle toward her, sniffing. She pointed into what looked like a solid patch of bramble. The Wolf bared his teeth. Harriet sank to the ground, pointing. Lucas nosed his way in, pushing brambles to the side with his body, until he came to a door. He yipped, and Harriet followed behind. The door was not man-sized, and it was shifter-shaped, for an animal. Lucas looked for some kind of shifter-latch for the door, and Harriet began to look as well when she saw what he was doing. Eventually, the weight of Harriet and Lucas together sank a stone in front of the door, and it swung inward.

  In the back of a dimly lit room were two small figures huddled together against the wall. Harriet stepped in front of Lucas, who seemed frozen in the doorway.

  “Hello?” she called. “Are you all right? Do you want to come out here? You’re safe with us. This Wolf is safe.”

  The two figures moved toward Harriet and revealed themselves to be a small boy and a little girl. Harriet turned to Lucas and gestured, saying, “These yours, Lucas?” The two little ones ran to the Wolf, who was shifting as they grappled, all three falling to the ground, the two kids holding tight to the injured Lucas.

  Chapter 19

  Harriet led the relieved group out of the strange room, through the brambles and up the small hill to the tree she so loved. There was something just so peaceful about this spot, she couldn’t get past it. She asked the other three if they noticed anything about it.

  The kids were so relieved to get out of their bunker, they asked if they could climb it. Lucas nodded and up they went. Harriet and Lucas sat with their backs to the tree.

  “The kids seem all right, Lucas. They’ve been fed, I heard them tell you they’d been moving from place to place, so they hadn’t been there very long, which is good. They certainly weren’t coddled, but they don’t seem like they were hurt. You agree with that? Do they smell okay?”

  Lucas nodded. He was still naked, sitting by the tree. He looked up at the feet of his children every other second.

  Harriet looked him over. He looked absolutely wiped out. She couldn’t imagine the level of anxiety he’d been managing these last few hours. Thank God it had all resolved so fast. She was so thankful for this gift; she couldn’t believe she’d never recognized it in all the years she’d been chasing and finding Max. It wasn’t just connection or circumstance, it was Gift. Go figure.

  She continued looking at Lucas as he compulsively checked on the kids. She was totally in love with him. He’d kidnapped her the day before, and it didn’t matter in the least. I must be insane. I’m sitting under a tree, god knows where, with a naked man, and I know he’s the one for me. I just know. Harriet shook her head and ran her hands through her hair, throwing them into the air at the end.

  “What’s up with you?” Lucas asked.

  “Oh God, Lucas. It’s been a long couple of days. What isn’t up with me, really? And honestly, I was just looking at you and realizing how much I just adore you. I−it’s more than that even, Lucas. I’m just totally gonzo for you. I love you like crazy.” She looked down at the ground. It was too hard to make eye contact with him right then. All she heard was silence.

  In fact, all she heard was silence. The kids had gone absolutely still. So had Lucas. She kept her head down, frozen, and threw out her senses to see what she could see. There. She could sense two other shifters of some sort in their area. They hadn’t spotted the kids. She didn’t know how she knew, but she did. She was far past not trusting her instincts now. She saw Lucas’s finger twitch in front of her in the direction of the shifters and turned her head slowly, eyes still down, until she found the feet of two Wolves just mere feet away.

  She raised her head slowly, careful to keep her eyes down, never smart to make direct eye contact with a strange animal. There was something off about them. The one on the left was leaning in to the other, almost as if injured, or drugged.

  Harriet kept her eyes down and said, “Hello? Is it okay that we rest here? If this is your land, we can go. We meant no harm.” Lucas was utterly frozen. She couldn’t imagine that the new Wolves didn’t know he was a shifter. He was naked, for one, and most shifters could smell each other a mile away. And they must be the Wolves that had been keeping the kids. Why weren’t they responding? Or attacking? Or something?

  After what seemed like hours, the Wolf on the left settled down on its haunches. At that, Harriet looked up to see the other Wolf looking confused. She looked at Lucas questioningly. He began to come unfrozen, stretching his body and shifting in a shimmer into his tawny Wolf. He is so damn beautiful. She ran her hand along his side as he moved between her and the newcomer Wolves.

  The Wolves both moved into submissive poses as he approached them, and he smelled them over completely. The kids came down from the tree and huddled by Harriet, whispering that these were the ones who were holding them, but not the ones who’d been moving them. Harriet watched that information sink into Lucas’ Wolf brain.

  She stood up slowly. “We need to go, Lucas. Back to my pack, back to Max. We can bring the kids, and these two if you think they can ride peacefully. I’ve seen others like them. We need to get out of here, and now.”

  Lucas nosed the two sitting Wolves and they trotted after Harriet and the kids toward the car. When the seemingly drugged Wolf tried to step off the path, Lucas growled deeply. The Wolf almost hopped back in line.

  All four people sat in the front, the two kids sharing space on Harriet’s lap and one sprawled toward Lucas as he drove, the two Wrong Ones in the back, with their heads out the window like dogs. Lucas shook his head in dismay.

  They drove through the night, taking turns driving, until they reached Mossy Ridge.

  Chapter 20

  “Harriet, stop yelling at me,” Lucas said, teasingly. She’d been whispering over the sleeping kids the whole ride and her voice was getting hoarse from trying to make herself clear. “I’m a Wolf, I can hear your tiny whispers, cut it out. The kids can hear it too, remember?”

  Harriet’s shoulder slumped. She was doing so well, he thought. She looked like a natural, sitting there with a sleeping kid draped over her. She had made sure everyone was buckled, even though they were riding in the strangest car combination possible. Four people in the front, two crazy Wolves in the back, and Harriet made them all buckle up. It was possibly the most insane part of this whole deal, and that was saying an awful lot.

  Lucas was bursting with pride for Harriet. Not only had she been the one to find the kids, but she’d also have been the one who handled the appearance of two strange Wolves with the expertise of a, well, a shifter, he guessed. All her time around the Lawsons and Max had made her wary but not intimidated by the presence of the new Wolves. She was just absolutely incredible. And she loved him. After all he’d done, she loved him. What was he going to do about that? Now, she was arguing for going straight to the Alpha of the Lawson pack to figure out what to do.

  Lucas was undecided. He wasn’t a part of the Lawson pack. He had two children to watch out for now, and he wanted them safely ensconced at Harriet’s until he could find a safer spot, and before he exposed them to Bill. He knew Harriet’s was like a fortress, as he’d checked it out before ever stepping foot inside. He didn’t want any new pack to know about the children, and that was another thing he and Harriet were arguing about as they drove.

  Harriet swore up and down that the Lawsons would never expose children to danger, ever. Lucas didn’t know that, and couldn’t rely on them, as good as they seemed. He’d lost his children once already and that was enough.

  It was early morning now. He could see Harriet thinking hard as he pulled into her driveway, trying to convince him to bring the Wolves to Bill. He nodded at her as he began to get out of the car, pulling a sleeping ten-year-old along with him carefully. He stepped toward the house and found himself face to face with a gangly woman with a crossbow. He honestly felt a little befuddled−he was a naked man with a sleeping child over his shoulder, what threat could he possibly be?

  “Lila!” Harriet called, “I’m okay! It’s okay. Let him by. He’s good, it’s all good.”

  Lila snorted and stepped aside so Lucas could make his way up the steps. When she saw the two Wolves in the backseat, she raised the crossbow again.

  “Lila! I swear, it’s okay. They’re like the others we’ve been finding, they’re feeble. Come over here, help me get this kid off me so I can talk to you. Meg is fast asleep, but I swear, it’s like she’s three hundred pounds.”

  Lucas turned back to watch Lila lift a sleeping Meg onto her shoulder while managing to keep the crossbow trained on the backseat. How on Earth did she do that? he wondered.

  Harriet let them all into the house. Lila stood on the porch after passing Meg to Harriet. She was incredulous that they were going to leave the Wolves in the car unattended. “Harriet, this is asinine. If you don’t call Bill right now, I’m calling Kurt, and Bella. You were gone! I called yesterday, and last night, I came by, and blammo! Gone! Your new man got you a doll, that doll was a spell, and I’m just, I cannot understand what is going on right now.”