Carly
Carly padded out of the bedroom in shorts and a tank top, looking for Kiernan. Sean had, once again, been roped into a Lifetime movie with Jenny.
"Oh no he didn't," Sean was muttering.
"He sure did," Jenny said. "That asshole's going to die."
"No doubt," Sean replied. He looked up at Carly. "He's in his workshop, but he doesn't want you to come down. He's in The Zone."
Carly understood being in The Zone while working and nodded. She plopped down on the sofa next to Jenny, all three of them crammed in their like sardines with Sean's bulk. "I wish I could get some more yarn," Carly said. "I was so ding-donged out the last time we were in Hayward that I didn't hit any of the lovely quilt shops."
"If I'd known you wanted yarn, we could have stopped," Sean said. "Why, you have a specific project in mind?"
"I brought some of my scarlet yarn with me to work on Kiernan's sweater, but I didn't bring enough for a whole sweater. I suppose I'll have to make him some slippers instead. It's not as though the dye lot will match, even if I do somehow get ahold of more scarlet yarn, and as far as I know, I'm not supposed to be going out anyway." Carly was a bit sad about this. She really had wanted to make Kiernan a sweater.
Sean squeezed himself out of his spot. "I can take you to Hayward."
"But... I thought I wasn't supposed to go-" Carly began.
"You're not supposed to go alone. You're the Beta's mate now. You can go pretty much anywhere you want, with protection," Sean said. "Besides, Kiernan's going to be busy for hours. We'll be there and back before he even knows you're gone."
"I'd like to go to Hayward. Maybe find some cute little outfits for the baby," Jenny said.
"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Carly asked.
"Boy. Alec's excited about having a successor, of course, but I'll just be happy with healthy," Jenny said.
Sean was about to turn off the TV, then thought better of it and set it to record the rest of the show instead. "I want to see how that asshole dies."
"Me, too," Jenny grinned.
The three of them got up and headed to Sean's car this time, a menacing black thick-grilled Jeep.
"Is it an unwritten rule that werewolf males have big, menacing SUVs?" Carly asked as she and Jenny slid into the back seat.
"Nope. Just one of the perks," Sean said. "Buckle up." He put the Jeep in gear.
They chatted this way the whole trip, Jenny and Carly mercilessly teasing Sean, who shot back with good-natured banter. Carly thought it was terribly unfortunate that Sean wasn't Jenny's mate . He sure seemed like much less of an asshat.
Hayward was sunny and it was a lazy Tuesday afternoon. Carly and Jenny flitted from shop to shop while Sean munched on freshly-pulled saltwater taffy. Jenny found several cute outfits for Baby Alpha, and Carly hit up a few quilt shops, combing them for just the right yarn. When she found it, she nearly squealed. "This is great! Good quality, right color. And there's even enough of it! Damn, but it's going to be expensive." She pulled out her debit card.
Jenny shook her head and pulled out her own black Amex. "Just in case they're tracking you," she explained. "If you really feel you need to, you can pay me back later. But that's not necessary." Then she sneezed.
Sean had stopped eating taffy as soon as the door to the shop opened. Two leather-clad bikers had walked in, sticking out in the quilt shop like bees at a picnic. "Wolfsbane," he whispered to Carly and Jenny as he moved over to the two women.
"Fuck," Jenny said. "Can you hold these for us? Jennifer Lane." She held out a fifty-dollar bill.
The shop owner nodded, the gray-haired proprietress also eyeballing the bikers. "Sure thing, honey." The woman scooped the yarn behind the counter. "Back's that way," she added, dropping her voice and pointing subtly.
"Thank you," Sean said. He herded Jenny and Carly out to the strip of a parking lot behind the building. Carly had taken a tourist map of Hayward off the counter to hide her face.
Sean began moving in a roundabout way in the direction of his car. He had Carly and Jenny wait behind a dumpster, then tiptoed down an alley to see how bad the situation was on Main Street where he'd parked. He was swearing roundly when he returned to them. "It's like a biker gang's descended on the place, and all of them smelling to high heaven of wolfsbane. I can't get us to the car."
Carly shook her head. "No, you can't get me to the car. Get Jenny out of here. I'll-I'll distract them."
Jenny balked. "Carly, that's suicide! They're going to take you!"
"Better me than the Luna and the future Alpha," Carly said, squeezing her hand.
"No, I won't allow it. Sean, don't listen to her!" Jenny said.
Sean looked from Carly to Jenny, and back again. "We're coming for you. You know that, right?"
Carly quickly rattled off the address to her family's farm in Vermillion, Minnesota, then stepped away from the dumpster. "Take her home."
"Carly!" Jenny protested, but Sean had her by the arm.
"Shhh," Sean said. "We'll go get her. You know we will."
Tears slid down Jenny's cheeks, but she reluctantly went with Sean.
Carly circled around to the other side of the strip of buildings, taking a different alley back onto Main Street. She kept her head down, walking away from the Jeep with her face stuck in the Hayward tourist map. When the Jeep's engine turned over, several eyes flicked Sean and Jenny's way, but as Carly was not in the cab, the Jeep was left to go on its way.
Once Sean's Jeep rounded a corner and was lost from sight, Carly sidled into a bar. She folded the tourist map and set it next to her on the counter, ordering a rum and Coke.
It didn't take long. Matthew, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, sat down on the barstool next to her. "Did you really think we wouldn't come looking for you?"
"I really hoped you wouldn't," Carly said. She sipped her rum and Coke. "So, what happens now?"
"Now we go home, Carly. You're safe now." Matthew put his hand over hers.
"Matt, I was never in any danger," Carly murmured, seeking his green eyes, identical to hers.
Matthew, however, was occupied with other things. He looked at the strap of Carly's tank-top, then pulled it aside as though the thin piece of fabric was somehow obscuring the truth. Carly's angry red mating mark was unmistakable.
"Oh Carly," Matthew whispered. "What have you done?"