Sharon's Wolves (Wolf Masters Book 10) (20 page)

“Always.” She smiled as she trailed a finger down his cheek, across his shoulder, and over the muscle in his bicep.

Melinda really felt like she was trespassing on secret lovers.

Cooper didn’t meet her gaze when he turned around, passed her, and led the way down the stairs.

“How far is it?” she asked gently as they stepped outside.

“About twenty minutes. By car. We’ll stop on a service road a few miles away and run the rest.”

“Okay.” She followed him toward his car and climbed in. As they pulled away, she studied his profile, this brother she hardly knew and had only met a handful of times.

He was so serious, and she wondered if he was always that way or if the stress of the earthquakes was creating the frown lines that etched his forehead.

“How are things going with Jackson and Sharon?”

“Good. A little crazy, but good.” He turned to smile. “A human male? What made Fate pick that combination?” he joked.

“That’s something we’ll probably never know.” Melinda turned toward the window and watched the tree line go by as they drove. She sat rigidly, her body growing more alert and her stress level increasing with each passing mile.

Cooper didn’t say much, and when he did, he spoke softly, imparting no more than necessary. She realized he was probably letting her get a sense of the land, not wanting to interrupt or influence her thoughts.

“You okay?” he asked as he pulled off the main road onto a service road. Seconds later he turned again and pulled between a row of trees to a spot he’d obviously already used before. The car was well hidden.

“I’m good. But the land is not.”

“Understatement.” Cooper reached behind the seats and grabbed something from the floor. He handed her a backpack.

“What’s this for?” she asked.

“Clothes. We need to shift back when we get there so I can take some pictures and get a closer look through my binoculars.”

“Ah. Good idea.” She swung out of her side of the car, stripped out of her clothes, and stuffed them in her pack. Before shifting, she secured the bag to her back so it would easily travel with them. After shifting, she rounded the hood and found Cooper ready to go.

He nodded and then tipped his head to the left, indicating which direction they would begin. He set a pretty rapid pace.

Far too quickly, she could hear the loud roar of the fracking drills. She’d been to several fracking sites in the past, so the noise level didn’t surprise her. When she came to a stop, however, she was immediately bombarded by several things that did surprise her.

Cooper gasped next to her and communicated into her head,
“Holy fuck.”

She didn’t respond. In fact, she couldn’t even blink.

Among the dozens of men working the site, and completely unbeknownst to them, were six spirits. Their black auras were dark and ominous. They were smaller than usual as if shrunk in on themselves, condensed. Three of them were a shade lighter than she’d ever seen. Weird. How long had they already been there?

“Do they usually gather in such numbers?”
Cooper asked into her mind.

She shook her head subtly.
“Never heard of there being more than one in a location. In fact, I couldn’t have even told you how many there were in existence.”

“Apparently at least six,”
Cooper muttered.
“What are they doing?”

“I don’t know, but the better question is why were they hanging around here before we even arrived?”
Spirits, in her experience, revealed themselves very specifically to certain shifters, or even humans, to bring attention to whatever had them riled up. Melinda had never heard of an instance where they hovered in an area where no one was available to detect them.

“They’re agitated,”
Cooper commented.

He wasn’t kidding. She would say they were almost always agitated. That was generally the reason they made themselves present. But this was different. They were truly out of sorts, shaking and floating around the equipment, paying particular attention to one of the enormous drills in the center of the site.

It seemed so obvious to Melinda. Like Sharon and Cooper had told her after visiting this spot on Saturday, it was hard to keep in mind that things couldn’t be as simple as they appeared.

After all, the fracking site rested on the epicenter of the series of tremors shaking the land. That, in and of itself, was blatant. They needed to get these people away from the site before the big one came and killed all of them.

But every member of Melinda’s family and the Masters knew there was more to it. There was always more to it.

She continued to watch, the fur on her back standing on end. The spirits were reminiscent of ghosts hovering around a location in order to annoy any unwanted human or protect their loved ones.

Seconds ticked by. She couldn’t move. As though rooted to her spot, she felt a heavy sense of dread. Her heart pounded, and she fought a growl that wanted to bubble up through her throat and escape.

Suddenly, the ground shook beneath her paws. She braced herself, expecting the worst. What if she and Cooper didn’t make it off this mountain and died with all these souls working in her line of sight?

But the shaking didn’t increase in intensity. It lasted several seconds, long enough to send men scrambling around the various drills in an attempt to grab loose items and hold on to anything they could reach. They would have been through this several times lately.

Before the tremor subsided, one of the drills near the center of the site broke free and teetered to one side with a loud metallic shriek. As if in slow motion, it wobbled back and forth several times while men ran from the base, and then it fell over.

An explosion ensued. Plumes of smoke or steam billowed out of the hole in the ground and rose into the air, followed by what looked like a geyser.

“What is that?”
she asked rhetorically.

Cooper answered her anyway.
“It’s the water from the well.”

“Did the earthquake cause that?”

“Indirectly. The dislodged drill did. It had probably grown weak from so many tremors.”

She stared in disbelief. The tremor subsided, leaving a water spout shooting into the air where the drill had once stood reaching deep into the earth’s surface.

“Maybe that was it,”
Cooper commented offhandedly.

“
No. That was definitely not it. That was just the beginning.”

He shrugged his pack off and quickly shifted into human form. It didn’t take him long to dress and reach for his camera inside the bag. He nodded and pointed at the binoculars also sitting just inside the bag. “You gonna help?” he teased out loud now, giving her half a grin.

Melinda followed his lead and returned to human form also. She slipped her clothes on just as quickly and grabbed the binoculars to get a closer look.

Cooper snapped pictures. “Do you suppose we’ll be able to see the spirits in the photos?”

“No idea. Never heard of anyone trying it or even having the wherewithal to think of such a thing while experiencing the shock of spying on one.” She glanced back and forth at the dozens of men scrambling to secure the area and the spirits hovering at the edge of the geyser.

“See if you can spot anything particular with the binoculars and direct me.”

She held the small black compact field glasses up to her face and scanned the area. Not for the first time in her life, the small hairs along her spine jumped to attention, and she froze.

Someone or something was behind her. It unnerved her to realize she couldn’t identify quite what. Slowly, she lowered the lenses and turned around.

Two men stepped out from deeper in the forest and sidled up next to her and Cooper. These had to be the two men Sharon described seeing around here on Saturday.

She swallowed. Lord, they were gigantic. And built. Sharon had not exaggerated. After all, she’d seen them from a few hundred yards. That could easily distort perspective.

Cooper spun around seconds later.

How had these two managed to creep up on them so silently and without her detecting their scent? Or Cooper for that matter?
Jesus
. It wasn’t like her. Had the earthquake consumed so much of her attention that she was losing her grip on the other details around her?

“Hey,” the shorter one said. And shorter was only by comparison. He was almost six and a half feet tall. He held out a hand, “Isaiah Arthur.” He nodded at the scene before them. “Ominous, isn’t it?”

Melinda tentatively reached toward Isaiah’s hand, although it was completely against her better judgment. She didn’t like to touch other beings, human or shifter, and avoided it as much as possible. If these men were evil, she would know it. If they were filled with good intentions, she would know that too. “Melinda Bartel.” She wondered for a second if she should have given them a fake name.

Lucky she got no malicious vibe from Isaiah. Unfortunately, however, she got very little from him. He didn’t seem to pose a threat, but she couldn’t read him well, either. As if he were blocking, which was ludicrous since he wasn’t a shifter.

The other man reached out toward Cooper. “Wyatt Arthur. We’re brothers.”

Cooper held his camera in one hand and lifted his other. “Cooper Hamilton.” He didn’t offer the fact that Melinda was his sister. His brow was furrowed as he glanced around, undoubtedly thinking the same things as Melinda. Where had these men come from, and how had they managed to approach so stealthily?

Wyatt glanced at the fracking disaster. “I assume you two are here for the same reason we are.”

Melinda was afraid to make any assumptions at all. These two men could easily be spies for the fracking company. Perhaps they posted people in the forest to make sure no one was paying any attention. It wouldn’t be hard to believe. After all, the fracking company would have their own seismologists on staff. They knew exactly what was happening under the Earth’s surface. They might lie about it and twist the truth to suit their needs, but they knew.

Cooper responded before Melinda could gather her thoughts. “Depends on what your reasons are for snooping around.”

Wyatt grinned. “This entire operation is doomed, of course. And these assholes are liable to take us all out when this damn thing blows up in their face, literally.”

Okay, so maybe these men were on Cooper’s side. Either that or they were excellent fakers.

Isaiah spoke next. “I hope you’re getting good footage. Do you have a plan?”

“We’re working on one,” Cooper said, noncommittally.

Isaiah nodded over his shoulder toward the north. “We live quite a ways north of here. We’ve been scoping out this situation for several days, but we don’t know the population this far south. Seemed like it would be difficult for us to rally the town of Cambridge as strangers.”

“We have it covered. Meeting is tomorrow night, Monday, in the high school auditorium. That’s as fast as we could reasonably gather the citizens. I have people calling every person they can reach today. If you want to attend, you’re welcome to join.” Cooper stood taller, looking far more confident than Melinda felt.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t believe these guys, she just couldn’t put her finger on it. Something made her uneasy.

Wyatt stepped closer to the tree line. “The spirits are pissed.”

This shocked her further. Could he see them? These two men were not wolf shifters. And she’d never heard of a human witness to the spirits—at least not one who wasn’t mated to a shifter. It wasn’t impossible, just unlikely.

Except these men seemed to be witnessing the same thing she was.

Or maybe not.

She shuddered, unnerved by the inability to fully read these guys.

Was it possible Wyatt was simply stating a blanket fact? The spirits are pissed? That didn’t necessarily indicate he could see the black auras. “It would appear that way.”

“Do you have any more information that might help our cause tomorrow night?” Cooper asked.

“I don’t think we can add anything to your findings right now. We’re looking at the same thing. If we find out something beneficial though, we’ll be sure to let you know.” Isaiah sighed.

Cooper nodded. “We appreciate it.”

Wyatt nodded behind him toward the tree line. “We’ll let you two get back to work. Sorry to bother you. We didn’t want to frighten you.”

“No worries,” Cooper added.

Melinda watched as the men hiked away from them until they were out of sight. “What the fuck just happened?”

“I was hoping you were going to tell me.”

“I’ve never been so confused in my life.” She shivered. “Where did they come from? How did they sneak up on us? Why didn’t we scent them?” She twisted around to face her brother. “Were those the same men you saw early Saturday morning?”

Cooper nodded. “Yep. The very same ones.”

“So two guys are wandering around in the woods day and night spying on the same fracking site as us with no particular agenda, no scent, and a stealth I’ve never known to exist.”

Cooper stuffed his camera back in his pack and took the binoculars from her to do the same. “What are you thinking?”

She stared at nothing, her gaze still nailed to the spot where the men had disappeared between the trees. “You think they were human?”

“Talk to me,” Sharon said as she set her chin on Cooper’s chest and flattened her palm on his firm pecs.

Jackson had left ten minutes ago to go for a run, grumbling about having to do so on human legs and far more frequently than his mates just to keep up half the stamina they seemed to have an unlimited supply of.

Cooper was distracted. The sun was peeking over the horizon. He’d only been home a few hours, and she knew he’d slept fitfully at best.

He tipped his face down to meet hers. “Sorry. My mind won’t stop running.” He tucked his arm around her waist and smoothed his palm down to her ass.

She lifted her top leg and wiggled it between his, forcing them open and nestling her thigh against his cock. “Perhaps I can distract you for a few minutes before you return to the real world.”