In the Loup Boxed Set #4

  "Probably a mix of strong herbs and silver mixed together in a compound somehow safe to inject into a human body," he guessed. "Because our senses are so heightened, any strong-smelling plant or even one with a lot of active chemicals repels us. Of course, I can't be sure about any of this since the gang didn't use something like that when I was with them, and we don't exactly have the dart with us."

  "You mean this?" she wondered. The young woman dug into her jacket pocket and pulled something out. She held out her hand to reveal the dart which had pierced Chuck's back.

  "You sneaky she-devil," he complimented. He reached over and took it, then held it up to his face to examine it. "Where did you manage to get this?"

  "I picked it up before Gregory's thugs grabbed us. I thought I could use it on them later if things got worse and you didn't wake up."

  "I don't think there's enough left to knock out a kitten, but it' would be interesting to see what compounds they used in case we run into more trouble."

  "More trouble?" Stephanie repeated in thinly disguised horror. "I thought we didn't have to worry about that group anymore."

  "That group, no, but they're not the only ones out there," Chuck pointed out. He pocked the dart for future experimentation. "There's a lot of those groups all over the world, and they like to keep tabs on each other. If any of the others finds out about that fight I had with Gregory and sees I'm a free agent, they might want to persuade me to join them."

  Stephanie groaned and slid down a little in her seat. Just when she thought she could relax, he ruins it by telling her their trials may have just begun.

  "How about if they come calling, we just escape to the woods again?" she suggested, and he laughed.

  "I didn't know you were growing fond of that old, rickety cabin," he teased.

  "Well, in its defense that place does have a great view. Maybe next time we go up you won't be as horny as a teenager," she countered with a sly grin on her face.

  "I guarantee nothing."

  "Which means you're going to keep bothering me until I what? Get pregnant?" Stephanie asked him. He appeared to ponder that suggestion and she laughed at his expression. "I suppose I can imagine you as a hairy-"

  Chuck noticed the sudden stop in her sentence, and he glanced over to her in concern. Her hands tightly gripped the wheel and her face was pale.

  "What's wrong? Are you all right?" he asked his partner. He rose and flinched when his body protested. "What is it?"

  "I just...it's just that with both of us being werewolves, does that mean any kids we have will have the curse, too?" she softly wondered. He sighed. That was ever on the thought of prospective werewolf parents.

  "It's isn't one hundred percent likely, but there is a large chance," he regretfully informed her. "The child would exhibit the signs quite early on, about age one or two. There's no way they can avoid the curse if they're born with it."

  "Is that such a good life for us to bring a kid into?" she questioned, though more to herself than to her partner. Chuck sighed.

  "I know it hasn't been an easy life for you since I marked you, but I don't think they'd have the same troubles," he pointed out. "No one would be fighting over a pup."

  "Unless it was one of those other groups. The ones you mentioned to me that might come looking for us," Stephanie countered.

  "Well, there's always that cabin in the woods," he suggested with a smile. His happy expression withered and died beneath her frown.

  "You're right, they wouldn't lead normal lives. How could they when they'd turn into, literally, little monsters every full moon until they learned how to control it?" he wondered to himself. He glanced over to his partner and smiled at her. "But I still want them. I may be nuts in saying this, but I wouldn't want to have them with anyone else, even if it meant the kids were one hundred percent certain to be cursed." Stephanie blushed at the compliment.

  "Now you're just trying to distract me from pointing out how bad this would be for our kids," she scolded him. He laughed and shook his head.

  "I know all the problems, and so do you. You lived through them for the last month. What about the benefits, though, for us and them? They'd have super speed and strength. They'd win at every school sport imaginable." She snorted at his list of benefits.

  "And the benefits for us?" Stephanie asked him. He smirked and she didn't like that mischievous expression.

  "You get to be the youngest-looking mom in school. Everyone would compliment you on how you haven't aged a day since your kids got enrolled," he pointed out. She rolled her eyes.

  "Hardy-har-har. As if that's the only thing I'm going to have to worry about with having werewolf kids" she countered. "There's no doubt in my mind they will be little monsters only because they'll be yours."

  "You do have a point there, and I'll take full responsibility for them turning out as wild as me and as stubborn as you," he amicably agreed with a smile.

  "You know you're impossible for me to make mad, don't you?" Stephanie informed him, and he nodded.

  "You're too cute when you're making fun of me. I have a hard time not laughing," he teased.

  Stephanie leaned over the wheel and scowled. He was just so impossible not to love. Then she heard him sigh, and this was different than the times before. She turned to him and was surprised to find his expression was very contemplative.

  "What's wrong now?" she asked her partner.

  "Kids will have to be put on hold until the homicide investigation is over for Bob," Chuck pointed out.

  Stephanie's face dropped. She felt awful. She'd entirely forgotten the very reason they'd headed for the city to begin with. More than that, he'd been her husband for several years and she'd already flushed him out of her mind.

  "You know, I haven't even planned his funeral," she softly whispered to Chuck. He didn't fail to notice the quiet, somber tone in her voice. A sad, wry smile spread across her lips. "I don't even know where to start."

  "I can help with that," Chuck offered, his own voice taking on a more severe tone. "I've buried enough friends I could probably do it in my sleep." He was surprised when Stephanie let out a barking laugh.

  "Well, I don't think you'll have to worry about caring for this one. There wasn't any love lost between you two," she reminded him. He couldn't help but smile.

  "Yeah, I have to say that even in death he's being a pain in the ass, but I'll still help you. It's the least I can do for dragging him into this mess."

  "Oh no, don't you go blaming his death on yourself," Stephanie insisted. "Just because you made me into a werewolf didn't give Gregory or his goons any right to go into the house and kill him." She shuddered when she remembered the awful picture of Bob lying there on the bed.

  "No, in a way I am. There's no sense putting all the blame on this. I may have accidentally scratched you, but I wasn't the most forthcoming about what was happening," he pointed out to her. "Maybe if I'd been more open and plain about the whole thing-"

  "Then I would have thought you were crazy and had you committed," Stephanie interrupted him

  Chuck only looked away, unconvinced by her words, so she decided to suddenly swing the steering wheel a hard right. The car veered of toward the sidewalk and bumped over the curb for several yards before she yanked it over, and the car along with it. They narrowly avoided a fire hydrant and some oncoming parking meters.

  "What are you trying to do?" he yelled at her.

  "I'm trying to get your attention. Did it work?" she sweetly asked him.

  "You almost got my life," he quipped, but with his heart rate slowing there was a hint of a smile on his face.

  "Good, now I'm going to tell you this once, and only once. You are not to blame for Bob's death. Got it? It wasn't your fault. You accidentally marked me and couldn't have known, hell, didn't even know about Gregory's power in the pack." He seemed more convinced with all the evidence stacking up against his brooding thoughts. Chuck just needed one final shred of proof to make him understand. "Let me put it
this way, you're a werewolf, not a psychic. Don't go wandering around trying to predict peoples' futures and find out the only thing you can do is pick them up like they were a sack of potatoes."

  "Rice."

  "Beg your pardon?" Stephanie returned. She had no idea why he mentioned that.

  "People are more like a sack of rice. Their body fat and muscle don't quite roll like a potato. It's more like a wave of rice in a bag."

  "Well, I'll have to remember that next time I need to use that analogy," she agreed with a roll of her eyes. "But do you believe me now when I tell you it wasn't your fault, Mr. Smart-ass?"

  "I'll believe anything you say if you just let me drive," Chuck countered. Though most of his body appeared to be his usual calmness, his right hand firmly gripped the door handle.

  "Oh no. Just for not giving me a straight answer, I'm going to be driving all night long," she threatened him. There was a wicked smile on her face and she even went so far as to whistle a cute little haunting tune. He glared at her, but he couldn't exactly take over control of the vehicle. That would probably ensure they get into a ditch. Instead he frowned and slunk down in his seat.

  "Fine, you win," he told her in a tired, defeated voice. He crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out his bottom lip in a wonderfully cute pout. "I'll say I don't think I killed him, but don't expect me to believe you."

  "Well, if you repeat it enough maybe you'll start believing it," she mischievously pointed out. She was liking this change of positions where she was the rational mind and he was the moody, emotional person. "This is fun. I should be the adult in the conversation more often."

  "I don't think you could keep it up," Chuck countered, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips. "Besides, you wouldn't want to keep it up. It's not much fun being the adult. There's bills to worry about, werewolves to fend off, and a very sexy lady to propose to."

  "Propose to?" she repeated with a puzzled expression on her face. Then her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open and she turned to Chuck with the perfect look of shock. "You mean you and me?"

  "Who else would I be proposing to?" he asked her. Her face lit up in wonderment and glee, and she threw her arms around his neck.

  That meant no one was driving the car and they were suddenly back on the sidewalk. Chuck dove for the wheel and steadied them back onto the road. Then Stephanie pulled away from him and her eyes welled up with tears.

  "You really mean it?" she again asked. It was too good to be true, so she had to make doubly sure she'd heard him right.

  "Yes, but could you please take control of the car?" he pleaded with her. She winced and there was a sheepish smile on her face.

  "Oops." Stephanie regained her control of the vehicle and once more they smoothly drove down the road. They were both grateful there hadn't been any police on the road, though by this time they'd left all but the suburbs of the city. "I guess I thought my hearing was going bad."

  "No, just your driving," he countered. If she kept this up there wouldn't be a wedding for them, because he was going to have a fatal heart attack. She was too happy to even attempt a scowl toward his comment. "The wedding will have to take place after the trial for Bob, but I don't see how they're going to find either of us guilty of the crime." Now that got a frown out of Stephanie.

  "Especially after everyone learns he was cheating on me for God-knows-how-long," she pointed out. Her hands tightened on the wheel and her eyes narrowed. "I'd like to know myself."

  "Be careful what you wish for. You might learn far more than you want to know at the inquisition," Chuck scolded her.

  "You just had to ruin the happy high I was on, didn't you?" she grumbled. She slumped over the steering wheel and stared at the dark road ahead of them. They were out of the city now and heading toward home. At least, they were heading toward their hometown. "Where exactly are we going to go now? Did you want to drop me off at a hotel and you go back to your place?" She was glad when Chuck shook his head.

  "To be honest, I'd rather have you around just to make sure there aren't any side-effects to this dart," he told his partner. He sat up and winced. The pain in his chest was lessening, but not to a great degree. Then a mischievous grin appeared on his lips. "Perhaps I'll need a lot of intense comforting."

  "Perhaps you'll just need sleep," Stephanie countered with a roll of her eyes. She couldn't believe that after going through a life-threatening situation tonight, that he could still have a mind to make out with her. "Besides, don't you ever shut off your other brain?"

  "My other brain?" He blinked his eyes.

  "Yes, the other brain." Stephanie pointed down at the spot below his waist. "The one that seems to control your mouth and actions most of the time."

  "I'm afraid it reacts very heavily to sexy female werewolves, particularly one," he slyly commented.

  "Well, keep it in your pants until we at least get back to your house."

  "Our house," Chuck corrected her. "I don't plan on keeping it solely in my name. I have too much faith in you to do that."

  "I suppose that shows how little faith I had in Bob. I mean, I never did put him on the deed and he isn't on any of my bank accounts," she told Chuck.

  "That will at least make the probate easier," he mused. "But let's not talk about him until we need to. There's nothing we can do except bury him."

  "I suppose we could talk about the hugely expensive wedding we can have and invite all your friends from the city," Stephanie teased him. Chuck winced at both her comments.

  "Yeah, until we get us both cleared of possible murder charges and get the business back up, we might want to live on the cheap. As for those lovely people we met tonight, I'm sure none of them could make the trip. I'd make sure of that by intercepting all the invitations."

  The pair bantered with one another for the rest of the trip, and it served a dual purpose. One was to keep Stephanie awake for the long night drive back,, and another was to distract them from remembering Bob's murder. Their jabbering worked and a few long hours later they were bumping along the road to Chuck's home. They were both very glad to see the a-frame log house rise up out of the trees, and they tumbled out of the car.

  By this time Chuck's pain had lessened, but he still felt exhausted from the effects of the dart and from the battle with Gregory. Stephanie helped him upstairs and into his room. He got off most of his clothing by himself down to his boxers, and then sat down at the end of the bed. His eyes were turned toward the sky outside through the balcony door windows. The sun would be rising in an hour or two, but all he felt like doing was collapsing back onto his mattress. There was one thing, however, that he wouldn't let get away from him, not if he wanted something comfortable to lean on.

  Stephanie noticed his contemplative expression and sat down at his side.

  "You feeling okay?" she asked him. His smiled at her, but didn't say anything. She frowned, but then wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gave him a friendly shake. "Maybe you just need some sleep. That should help you feel better."

  "Yeah, but there's something I need to tell you about my sleeping," he admitted in a soft, low voice. Stephanie frowned. She'd never noticed anything wrong with his sleeping patterns before. "You see, there's something I can't sleep without."

  "And what's that?" she asked him. She was starting to get suspicious, but she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the twinkle in his eyes. He leaned in close and she titled her ear toward him. His voice was in such a whisper that she could hardly hear his next words.

  "It's you."

  Stephanie let out a yelp when he suddenly wrapped his arms around her. He fell back onto the bed and his grip forced her to follow. She tried to squirm from his arms but he had enough strength to drag her up to the pillows. Once there, Chuck pulled her against his chest and entwined his legs around her own to keep her from escaping. She was very effectively bound to him.

  "Couldn't you have just asked to snuggle me?" she growled, but he only laughed.

  "You might hav
e said no."

  "And I'm sure you would've done the exact same thing anyway," Stephanie pointed out.

  "Probably, but I didn't want to give you any prior warning. You might have gotten away." She rolled her eyes at his comment.

  "Maybe that would have been a good thing. You need rest, not sex," she argued with him.

  "I plan on getting a lot of sleep, but it didn't feel right not having you here by my side," Chuck insisted. He shifted a little to get more comfortable and closed his eyes. "Now I know I can get some sleep."

  "And what if I wasn't ready to go to bed? I'm still wearing my clothes," she reminded her short-sighted partner. His eyes shot open and a sly, devilish grin slid across his lips. She understood perfectly what that meant. "Oh no, I am so not stripping in front of you just so you can get a show." He huffed and closed his eyes again.

  "Then you're sleeping like you are. I'm not letting you go just so you can escape to that other room," he childishly informed her.

  "You mean my room? The one I'm supposed to be sleeping in until we decide how we're doing these living arrangements?" she countered.

  "I've decided you're sleeping in here, so no more arguments," Chuck informed her. To emphasize his point, he pulled her close enough that all she breathed in was his scent. Her nostrils flared and she scowled at his obvious attempt at seducing her. He knew perfectly well how strongly his scent would attract her. Stephanie tried to push away from him, but she stiffened when he nuzzled her hair.

  "Are we going to be at this all night or are you going to fall asleep some time soon?" she asked him.

  "Just give me a few minutes," he breathed into her neck. She shuddered at the feel, and she swore he was smirking against her skin. Fortunately his voice did sound drowsy, and she kept her mouth shut to ensure he had some peace and quiet.

  In a few minutes her plan had worked. His breathing had evened out and his grip around her waist had loosened. She carefully slid down the bed to escape his grasp. It wasn't easy inching along the covers, and twice she thought he was about to wake up and snatch her back, but after a few minutes she finally slunk off the foot of the bed.

  Stephanie stood up and looked over Chuck's still body. His mouth was slightly turned up in a smile and he still cradled the warm spot where her body had lain. He was so cute with his face relaxed and his hands grasping at the bedsheets. She hated to disappoint him when he woke up to find she wasn't there.