Page 30 of Wolf's Midlife Baby

A new sensation echoed deep inside her belly, a knowledge that she wasn’t alone in this body. It was the confirmation she’d been seeking, and it filled her with a pleasant warmth. She was pregnant.

But Kyle was too busy shrieking for her to enjoy the moment.

With every ounce of exasperation she’d felt for Kyle, Holly pulled in a deep breath and let it out as a roar, screaming out her anger.

He fell backward over the coffee table and landed on his shoulder near the hearth, still bellowing. Kyle regained his footing, but there was no place to go unless he went past Holly. He threw his arms in the air, flailing about as he tried to figure out what to do about this black bear standing in his way.

Holly blinked. Her sight had always been good, and it was even sharper when she was in her animal form, but something didn’t look right. The roots of his dark hair lightened as he gibbered before her, the effect moving out to the ends. His hair had turned a shocking shade of white.

Tired of all his bullshit and screaming, Holly raised her paw and sent it across his face with a smack. Kyle’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he crumpled to the floor just as the front door flew open.

Holly backed away quickly. Instinctively, she wondered what sort of trap Kyle had set for her. But when she turned to the door to face the new danger, she saw it was only Pierce.

14

“She must’ve really knocked him good,” Dawn said as she opened Kyle’s eyes and checked them with a penlight as he lay on a couch in the Glenwood packhouse. “He’s out, but there’s no actual trauma to his head, no bruising. I think the only danger he’s in right now is whatever danger he’s brought upon himself.” She turned off the light and straightened up.

Kyle wouldn’t harm anyone in his current condition, but Pierce’s wolf had yet to calm down since finding him at Holly’s place. He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “What do we do with him?”

Rex came around to stand at his sister’s side. “I can’t help but think of the night I met Lori.”

It seemed like an odd time to reminisce about such a thing, but Dawn nodded. “I was just thinking that, myself. It’s not really all that different of a situation, is it?”

“Aunt Dawn? Can I do it?” Ava, Max’s teen daughter, stepped hesitantly forward.

Dawn lifted an eyebrow. “You know how important this is, right? I’m not saying that to intimidate you, just to remind you of the stakes.”

“I know, but I really think I can do it,” Ava said, swallowing a little. Since discovering the abilities she’d inherited from the wolf-witch bloodline of the Glenwood females, she’d been eager to practice and develop her newfound skills whenever she could.

“Yeah, so do I, kiddo. Come on over here, and we’ll mix the tincture.” She brought Ava over to a table at the side of the room, where they began working with tiny glass vials of various liquids.

“I can’t say I understand how it all works,” Rex admitted to Pierce, “but we won’t have anything to worry about from this guy once we’re done with him. They’ll wipe his memory of the whole thing, and he won’t have any idea that he’s ever seen a shifter.”

“Good.” Pierce looked down at Kyle, his jaw slack and his eyelids still. His chest rose and fell regularly, and he looked like he’d merely fallen into a deep sleep on the couch. His bright white hair made him look much older than he had earlier that night. “Will it wake him up?”

“No,” Dawn said, returning with Ava at her side. “When we did this with Lori, it was a very short and recent memory we were working with. We have to go further back with Kyle to make sure he’s forgotten everything about us. I added a little something extra to make sure he gets a thorough nap. He’ll need it anyway, and it’ll give us some time to get him the hell out of the packhouse. Come on, Ava. Let’s do it.”

The two of them arranged themselves near Kyle’s head. Ava dabbed a bit of oily liquid from the little vial onto her finger. She slowly rubbed it back and forth across Kyle’s forehead, her lips moving as she recited words that Pierce couldn’t hear. Her finger made a grid pattern across his skin, slowly gliding back and forth, up and down, until she’d covered his entire forehead.

Dawn sat attentively next to her, listening to Ava and watching the patient. When her niece was done, Dawn pressed her hands on either side of Kyle’s head. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, and a pulsing green light illuminated her palms. It swelled out to her fingertips and radiated over Kyle’s skull. The light disappeared when she took her hands away and opened her eyes. She smiled at Ava. “You did it. Great job.”

“Thanks,” Ava beamed. “I never thought I’d get a chance to actually try it.”

“You’re talented, sweetheart.” Rex held up his palm to give her a high five but spotted the oily residue still on Ava’s fingers. “I’ll owe you one.”

Ava waggled her fingers at him and stuck out her tongue before she headed to the bathroom to wash up.

Pierce turned to Rex. “I’ll ask Holly where he was staying, and then we can take him back there.”

“Good start, but we’ll probably need more than that,” Rex suggested. “The guy’s just had his memory wiped from the past week. I think we have to create a little backstory for him. Maybe there’s some other news story he would’ve stayed in town to work on. We can print out some information and plant them at his place.”

“You’re the Alpha.” Pierce headed upstairs. He and Holly had hardly spoken to each other on the ride over there. That awkward tension between them had only become more unwieldy with so many of his other packmates surrounding them. He hadn’t liked the idea of just leaving her at her place, though.

“Pierce.” Joan turned to him as he came up out of the basement and passed through the kitchen. She stood at the stove, just taking a kettle off the burner. The retired Luna of their pack, Joan still served the Glenwoods as a wisewoman and an oracle. She turned to him with a sympathetic look. “How are you doing, dear?”

“I’m fine. I’m just tired. This has been—” he rolled his hand through the air as he tried to think, “—a lot.”

“I know.” She took his hand between hers, her fingers cool and gentle. “You’ve got a special connection with that sweet woman outside, don’t you?”

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