Between a Wolf and a Hard Place

  Considering how much she cared for Brett, she really wanted to deal with her current situation in the best way possible, not wanting to upset what she and he had for now.

  “Brett, do you believe in ghosts?”

  He didn’t say anything for a moment. She knew he wouldn’t pull what the other guy had. Not with his brother married to her sister and Brett too decent to do that anyway. But that didn’t mean he would accept what she could do.

  He was still studying her, like a wolf trying to anticipate how to handle this best, and she wondered what he was really thinking. “I think anything’s possible,” he said slowly, as if he didn’t want to say the wrong thing.

  Which she really, really appreciated.

  “I’ve never experienced any ghostly phenomena, so it’s hard for me to really believe in them. But anything is possible.”

  Well, that response was better than she had expected. “What about your brothers?” It really didn’t matter if they believed in ghosts or not, unless they’d put Brett down if he did. He was close to his brothers, like she was with her sisters, and she liked to think they would be receptive too.

  “Believe in ghosts? Eric and Sarandon? No. CJ, not sure. He says no, but I think he’s seen some stuff he can’t explain away. He and our cousin Tom both.”

  Good thing she and Meghan weren’t dating either of the brothers who didn’t believe in ghosts. Though she wasn’t sure about Peter Jorgenson, the sheriff.

  “What about the light going on and off in the attic at the inn?” She knew Brett had witnessed that when he was taking pictures of the inn to do a feature on it for Christmas.

  “Faulty electrical wiring, I’ve heard.”

  So he didn’t believe. “The electrician checked it out and said it’s fine.”

  Brett pondered that for a moment. “Okay, so you’re saying…?”

  “Nothing. I just wondered if you were totally against the idea that ghosts exist.”

  “Not totally against it. No.” He finished his wine and sat back in his chair again. “Do you believe in ghosts?”

  His dark-brown eyes mesmerized her. When she went to bed at night, that’s what she saw. Oh sure, the wolf’s hot body too, but his eyes were what drew her in—like now, concentrating on hers and showing his interest in what she had to say. He was a lot more attentive to her than she’d been with him while she was pondering the ghost scenario. Normally, she would have been all eyes and ears, soaking in every bit of him.

  “Yes,” she said. “I do believe in them.” She wanted to be clear on this point.

  “Have you had any experiences?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “So tell me about your experience. I’d love to do a feature on it for Halloween, if you don’t mind.” He leaned forward in interest, his arms resting on the table. Maybe as a reporter, he would be more open-minded. Maybe this was the opening she’d been waiting for.

  “As long as you don’t include my name.” Ellie didn’t want the whole pack knowing she saw ghosts.

  Brett smiled. He had the most beautiful smile, warm and inviting, and his lips were perfectly kissable. Or at least in her dreams when a ghost, or two, weren’t interrupting them.

  “So you would be an unnamed source. I can do that. No problem.”

  “Okay, here goes.” If he could believe her story, that would be a point in his favor.

  “The first time I saw a ghost, I was five.” Meghan had seen it too, but Ellie didn’t want to tell her sister’s secret. That was for her to share. “The little girl was about my age and playing near a creek. I thought she was real. I talked with her, and we skipped around the woods near the creek. But she kept wanting me to go into the water with her. I knew better. Mama had told us girls never to go into the creek unless she was with us. She told us how easy it was to drown. One of her cousins had drowned that way when she was seven, so Mama had really impressed upon us the danger of the water’s swiftly moving currents.

  “When I went home, I told Mama about the little girl near the water. Mama came with me the next afternoon to see if she could witness the phenomenon too. When she saw the ghost, Mama choked up and told me the girl was her cousin who had drowned. She hadn’t seen her for years. She supposed Sybil wanted to play with me, and that’s why she had shown herself to me.”

  “So your mother could also see the ghostly girl?” Brett acted interested, not like he didn’t believe her.

  Ellie felt a modicum of relief. “Yes. After that, I didn’t see her again, or any more spirits for years.”

  “But you have since then,” Brett said.

  She didn’t think he was ready to hear about all the encounters she’d had, or how she could actually communicate with the ghosts. “I’ve seen the woman in the inn. Chrissy. She was a maid working there and died of a fever. It was due to natural causes, but the inn had been her home since she was born.”

  “That’s the one you were asking me about earlier. Her mother had the little girl out of wedlock, and the owner of the inn made accommodations so she didn’t have to send her child away. She raised Chrissy there and then taught her how to clean the inn so she’d become a maid too. But you didn’t tell me she was a ghost now staying at the inn.”

  “Well, she is. She’s harmless, but we’ve all seen her. CJ denies he believes in ghosts, but we think he’s seen her too.”

  “Well, I haven’t seen her, but I did see the lights go on and off in the attic. So I guess that means I’ve had my first ghost experience.” He offered her another of his warm and sexy smiles.

  Was he teasing her? Her gaze locked onto his mouth, and his lips curved up even more. Ellie knew what she would be thinking about when she closed her eyes tonight after going to bed. Him. His darkly intriguing eyes, his warm and willing mouth, and his hot, naked body pressed against hers. Yet it wasn’t the real thing, and she wanted more. Wanted to feel him writhing against her, making her hot and bothered and…

  Grabbing her glass of ice water, she gulped down a quarter of it. She didn’t have to wait until tonight to feel the heat between them, even if it was just a fantasy. She mentally shook her head at herself.

  Sighing, she appreciated that Brett didn’t appear to think she was crazy. Though he didn’t act like he truly believed in the supernatural, he wasn’t making fun of her either.

  Brett’s dark brows pinched together in a frown. “Was she there when the piano was delivered?”

  “Yeah.” But not just Chrissy!

  He pondered that for a minute. “You looked kind of spooked.”

  “I was a little taken aback. No matter how many times I see a ghost, it’s always a little startling.” Especially when a new and totally unexpected ghost showed up, one that was most likely Brett’s relation.

  “I understand.” He fingered his napkin, his gaze steady on hers. “And when we were kissing?”

  “Yeah, sorry.” Her face felt flushed. Omigod, he was such a hot kisser. She remembered their breaths mingling, her skin tingling, her tongue longing to stroke his when ghost number two popped into the picture and completely ruined the moment.

  Brett let out his breath, then smiled. He had dimples when he smiled. Cute little dimples. And his dark, smiling eyes were framed by beautiful black lashes. “So it wasn’t me.”

  She couldn’t believe he’d thought he was the one who had turned her off. But what else would he think? He couldn’t see the ghosts. Poor wolf.

  Ellie smiled. “No, it definitely wasn’t you.”

  His smile broadened. She melted. She couldn’t help it. His smiles said he really, really liked her, and he hadn’t indicated once that he was ready to ditch her and leave her with the bill.

  She felt lighthearted and hopeful that when he learned what she could do, he would be able to accept her gift. She couldn’t tell him who was haunting the piano until she knew for sure who it was. She might not
need to tell him at all. She’d try to exorcise the ghost and never let on that it was his great-aunt. It was one thing to come to terms with knowing ghosts existed. Quite another to realize that the ghost was the spirit of a deceased loved one. What Brett didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Especially if he didn’t believe in it anyway.

  “So, next time, we’ll have to spend time together somewhere a little less crowded,” Brett said.

  Ellie smiled again. She really liked him.

  Then she wondered, did his great-aunt not like that Ellie had been kissing her grandnephew? Matilda probably believed in the old ways, that an unmarried maid should be chaperoned when visiting with a gentleman suitor, and all that business. Definitely no kissing allowed with or without a chaperone.

  “Do you or your brothers ever play the piano?” Ellie asked, trying to get off the subject of ghosts again.

  “I can play by ear like my uncle could.”

  “Oh, that’s cool.”

  “Yeah, it is. Matilda wanted to offer my uncle lessons, but my grandfather didn’t think his sons should play. Not manly enough. I was the one of us four brothers who had the talent, but we lost my mother when I was young and my father wasn’t the least bit interested in me learning to play. After that, I never really considered it.”

  “You can still play by ear?”

  “Yeah. It takes me a few minutes to figure out the keys, and I can play some songs. Not a whole lot. Certainly not like a trained pianist. It’s an inherited trait for some of us. First time we learned of it was in the days of bootlegging and Prohibition. One of my German great-uncles made bathtub beer. Folks didn’t have a lot of money during the Great Depression, but some were desperate for alcohol. One time, a man gave him a piano in payment. Johann would play songs by ear for the rest of the neighbors. Life was hard, but they made the most of it.”

  “Yeah, same with my family. We have some funny Prohibition stories too. My great-grandfather was a doctor who also owned a pharmacy. He sold bottles of extracts and other cooking items. During a celebration, some guys bought out his banana extract since it was one hundred and sixty proof, but after the celebration, they told him they would never eat another banana.”

  Brett laughed. “So the Wernicke ghost-buster cousins of yours… Can they help with the woman’s spirit?”

  Ellie snorted.

  Brett smiled. “Fakes, huh?”

  “I’m sure they put on a good show. I don’t know if they’re for real or not. I haven’t watched any of their shows yet, but no way do we want them using our inn to pump up their ratings. I can see it now: ‘See our cousins’ sensational haunted Silver Town Inn.’ Maybe my cousins can do something with spirits, but I’d rather not get them involved.”

  Since both she and Meghan had enhanced sensitivity to ghosts, it was possible her cousins did too. Maybe that’s why they had created the ghost-buster show. But she could take care of the ghost just as easily, and she didn’t want her cousins trying to make a profit off Chrissy.

  Only now she was faced with two ghosts.

  “Want to take a wolf run tonight?” Brett asked.

  “Yeah, I’d like that. Know anywhere that’s forbidden?”

  He laughed. “I would have taken you for a more law-abiding wolf.”

  Everyone always saw her that way. Sweet, innocent Ellie.

  “Most of the time.” Except when she was trying to make peace with a ghost. She’d broken a few laws at times to do that. She felt she owed it to them to give them some peace of mind, and as long as she didn’t hurt anyone in the process, everything was good.

  “A few silver mines in the area are off-limits, but no way am I taking you down into one of those. I would never put you at risk, and Darien would have my head if he learned about it. Not to mention your sisters and my brothers would too. Some trails are off-limits because of the threat of rockslides.”

  Ellie sighed dramatically, loving how he wasn’t about to put her in harm’s way, even if she said she wanted some adventure. “Okay, take me to the place you loved to go as a kid.”

  Brett laughed. “As kids, that was forbidden. As adults, no problem.”

  Before long, he drove her out to the woods and a river that ran through the pack’s territory. A waterfall cascaded from cliffs in the distance, the foamy blue-green water splashing into the river. From there, the river rushed downhill over boulders and well-worn stones. It was a beautiful place and would be a lot of fun to revisit in the summer.

  Right now, the temperature was just at freezing, the snowflakes fluttering about them as if practicing for an upcoming snowstorm later.

  Ellie ran with her sisters and a large group of pack members on a regular basis, but hadn’t done so with Brett alone on a wolf date. Wolf courtship was just as important for lupus garous as human dating activities. They had to learn how to play and protect and enjoy each other’s company as wolves too.

  “So what made this area off-limits? I guess your parents worried you’d drown.”

  “Eric. He was in charge of us, and he didn’t want to be responsible for us getting injured or drowning here.”

  “So your brother made it off-limits.”

  Brett smiled and pulled her into his arms, his warm body wrapping around hers as he looked down at her, the cool breeze tossing her hair to the side. This was heaven.

  “Only if Eric didn’t come with us. When he came, we were allowed to tackle the rapids. Mom probably would not have allowed it, had she been alive. After she died in the hunting accident, Dad didn’t care how we occupied ourselves as long as we got our chores and lessons done. Eric was only a few minutes older than us, so though he was alpha enough to take charge of us, he was still a kid at heart.”

  “I’m so sorry about your mom.” She’d heard that the boys and their mom were out hiking, planning to shift, but hadn’t yet when the hunter saw movement and thought their mother was a deer.

  Ellie soaked up Brett’s warmth, trying to concentrate on the conversation and not what his touch was doing to her, making her all hot and mushy. “Did any of you get hurt out here?”

  “Are you kidding? Four boys roughhousing out here over the years? Lots of scrapes and bruises, one broken arm, and one near-drowning. All in all, it wasn’t a really safe place to play.”

  She laughed.

  He smiled and leaned down to kiss her. No ghosts out here to interrupt them. Just a chilly fall day when green-needled pines rubbed elbows with quaking golden aspen, their leaves dancing gaily in the cool breeze.

  Brett’s gentle kiss turned hot and needy. No way was she pushing him away this time, ghost or no. This was what she’d needed. A kiss from a wolf who didn’t automatically dismiss her ghostly abilities. A man who was warm and gentle, but also passionate and oh so desirable.

  This time Ellie did what she’d wanted to before, slipping her tongue into his mouth and stroking his. He crushed her against his body, revealing how passionately needy he was. She’d never seen a male shift who was aroused like that, and she had every intention of adding the image to her bedroom fantasy tonight. His lips continued to brush against hers, slowing the pace as if he were trying to get his rampant urges under control.

  As hard as he was, he wasn’t succeeding.

  He finally brushed his mouth against her hair with a long, lingering kiss. “Ready to run?”

  His voice was heavy with lust, and she was having a difficult time backing off and letting the poor wolf get his erection under control. Instead, she wanted to rub against him, like wolves did, to show she was just as interested in him as he was in her.

  Their pheromones had already spiked, boosting the burning need to consume and claim each other as mated wolves. Consummating a relationship only ended one way for wolves: mated for life.

  Brett’s angular face softened as he pulled away, still holding her arms as if he wasn’t quite ready to let go.
r />   “One of the things I wanted to show you is my great-aunt’s home,” he said as Ellie rested her hands on his hips, barely hearing what he was saying as she remembered how his erection had felt against her abdomen.

  “It was my uncle’s after that, but it’s in ruins now. Lightning hit a pine tree, which caught fire. It started a fire in the woods, and my great-aunt’s home was consumed. The stone floor and the two chimneys are still standing. The forest has regrown up around it. It’s a lovely place to visit, near the river.”

  That got her attention. “Did anybody die there?” She really didn’t want to meet any ghosts on this wolf run.

  “No. My great-aunt had already died, and my uncle made it out just fine. Are you ready to run?”

  “I am.” Though she’d really enjoyed all the kissing that led up to the run. She was relieved she wouldn’t be plagued by ghosts. At least she hoped she wouldn’t be. That didn’t mean someone else might not be haunting the area.

  They finally released each other and began to yank off their clothes.

  Because of the cold, Ellie hurried to strip as fast as he did. She had fully intended to avert her eyes and not check out his arousal, but she couldn’t resist peeking. As soon as she did, she got an eyeful—the cold didn’t seem to affect him one bit. When she glanced up to see if he had seen her look, Brett pulled off his shirt and smiled at her.

  Her whole body warmed, and she swore waves of heat were radiating off her.

  Naked now, she quickly called on the warming quality of the shift, her body transforming in the blur of the change, the cold on her skin dissipating. She dropped to her four paws, her winter coat warming her as the snowflakes settled on the outer guard hairs and keeping the snow from melting against her skin. Brett had already shifted and was waiting for her. She nudged his face in greeting before he licked hers and raced off downstream away from the falls.

  She watched him loping through the woods, the strength of his muscles, his beautiful furry, black-tipped tail held stately behind him, and his head held high, smelling the air, watchful, alert. Even though no hunting was allowed on these lands, someone could be out poaching. No matter what, wolves like Brett and Ellie always had to be watchful while they were in wolf form.