Peace and Quiet Ch. 03

"Dad! You're not supposed to tell her."

There were more words, but I tuned them out. I just made my way to the side while trying to seem like I wasn't. I knew I never stood a chance and I'm glad the situation was taken out of my hands altogether. Still, he was the first guy I had ever found attractive enough to even think about anything.

"Long day?"

I looked up at Colton and nodded. "I'm still not use to all of this."

"Me either. I was not prepared for how much I would be taking on when I accepted the job as hunter. This isn't Ohio." I nodded. "Still, the guys are a great bunch to work with and Jon is the best Alpha I've served. Just don't tell him I said that last part."

"I won't. How many have you known?"

"Three. I was part of the East Coast Pack growing up. Dad was a Hunter under Mr. Andrews and I was going through training when the split happened. Mr. McLeod is not a nice man to serve and since I'm not Canis Lupus, I was not well received." My brow furrowed. I could smell he was a canine, but never having smelled too many, I wasn't able to tell what he was. "I'm Latran Lunais, a werecoyote. That and being Lunais...I had to leave. I'm glad that Jon accepted me."

"I'm finding out a lot more about...our race than I ever thought possible."

"Why pause? I'm just being curious." I started talking and he listened. It was a quiet talk within the loud din of the betrothal party and somehow I ended up crying on his shoulder. It didn't mean to, I just couldn't help it. Yet Colton just held me and made sure I was going to be okay.

"And now your shoulder is wet. I'm sorry to unload."

"It's cool, Quint. You can always come to me with a problem. You may not be pack yet, if ever, but that doesn't stop us from becoming friends." I grinned. "And besides, you're kinda cute when you've got snot running down your face." He took off like a shot and I chased after him, threatening dire consequences when I caught him. Which didn't happen because he got lost easily in the crowd and I could not filter out his scent from the rest. I was a bit glad he got away. I didn't want him to see the small smile on my face.

"Kinda cute?" I whispered to myself. Part of me liked that...the rest wondered if Dylan hadn't just found someone to be nice to me so he didn't have to. "That sounds like Amos talking," I chided and stamped that thought down. It wasn't Dylan's way to do that. I at least knew that much about him. Maybe...maybe Colton does think I'm cute, I said, but then I felt a huge wash of reality. I wasn't cute, I wasn't some catch. I was a freak among people who had accepted their own beast. Looking around I saw that no one was looking at me, so I hopped in the car and drove home. I was in no mood to party anymore.

When I got there, I saw the cops were parked outside the house. I pulled up and jumped out of the car and ran. "Mama!" I called out and bolted through the door and past some sheriffs. I saw her on the sofa with a cup of tea in her hands. "Mama, are you okay?" I ran to her side.

"Quintin, I did just as you said I should. That man came here looking for you, and I called the cops." I sat down hard. Son of a bitch!

"Did he hurt you, Mama?"

"No. Scared me, but he didn't hurt me." Letting out a sigh I turned to the nearest officer and told him to garb something to write with because I was going to tell them everything they needed to know about him to put a bullet through his head. I didn't care about him living now. He had scared my Mama. The gloves were off.

After taking my statement and my accounts, they said they would be coming around to check on us once a day for a week. If anything else happened we were to call them. Yeah right. I was going to call someone who could do something about him. It was getting dark and I knew one thing. If he came here tonight he would find one pissed off lynx waiting to tear out his throat. Once they were gone, Mama came running over and hugged me.

"Oh, honey, he was so mean to me. With your father out of town for the weekend, I just don't know what to do."

I had forgotten he was going to be out of town. I made one decision I almost regret to this day. "Mama, sit back down. I...need to tell you everything." She sat, looking more worried than before. "That thing that Amos gave me...it's not like HIV or AIDS." Her hand started to shake. "It's better and worse at the same time. It won't kill me or anything, but it is contagious, which is why I said to leave me be if I bleed."

"Honey...you can tell me. I'm scared enough that it won't shock me now."

"Then...the thing is...I'm a Lycan." She looked blank. "A werebeast."

"You're a werewolf?"

"Not a wolf. Lynx." She almost laughed outright. "I'm serious, Mama, dead serious. He is too. I need you to know because night after tomorrow is the full moon and I will get hairy no matter what I do. He may be back and he's a lot bigger than I am."

"Quintin James Marshall, you best not be lying to me."

"Mama, I have never been more honest with you than I am now. I could change right here, right now, but it would scare you something fierce."

I saw the look on her face right before she said it. "Then change. I won't believe you until I see it. You know I'm from Missouri." I stood and looked at her one time. "Get on with it. I don't want to think you're a liar, Quintin." So I changed. I stripped off my clothes right in front of my own mother, watching her protest, and then I felt myself start to get heavier. The fur grew out as I was panting, still wishing this never had to happen again. I fell over on my side, smelling the fear from my mother and it was making me apprehensive, but I was already turning and couldn't go back now. When it was done I lay there a moment and wished I didn't have to let her know this. I wish Amos had stayed gone so I could just make some excuse to leave for the night of the full moon. When I did look over at here Mama was slack jawed. "Heavenly Father, what did that monster to to you, baby?" I looked at her like it was silly to even ask me to answer. One thing about changing outside of the moon, I kept more of my mind. "Do...do you still understand me?" I nodded. "Good Heavens! And he turns into this?" Again I nodded. "I'm not going to call the sheriff. I'm going to call animal control if he shows up." I couldn't help but laugh, which came out more of a purr than anything else. "Your father will not like this at all."

I knew that. I knew it very well. Waiting a few minutes, I changed back and got dressed. "There is more. A lot. There are hundreds of Lycans around here, which is how I got a job so fast. The company's owner is a Lycan and the pack Alpha."

"Is he a lynx too?"

"He's a wolf. Good man. If it comes down to it, I am going to take you to him and he will assign people to protect you from Amos."

"You can't?"

"No. Mama, I'll tell you he scares the crap out of me and on top of that, he's bigger. If you don't like the idea of going to stay with Lycans around here, I know of one place you can go and they would fight for you with every ounce of power they had." I told her of the Whitebears. I knew I didn't even have to ask, Bridget and Jessup would open their house to Mama in a second.

"Is that who you talk to every night?"

"Yeah. Zeke got me smiling and got me some peace back. Good folks. Bigger hearts than the rest of them, and they're polar bears." She smiled.

"Sounds like it. I...this will be a big shock to your father when he finds out. Honey...I know it must be hard to hear this but you may want to find some place else to live." It hurt but I knew she was right. "Your father...and then that monster coming around."

"I know, Mama. I've thought about it and tonight, with him showing up, it is time that I did get out of the house. You might be safer then." But I didn't believe it. Amos would use them as leverage and bait to get to me. "I'll start looking around for a place. Might not be close, but I'll find something. For now, I'm gonna call Zeke and you can talk to Brigid. If you can, and if you think it best, you can get out of town until after the full moon." She nodded, still a bit shaken.

I dialed the Wolf instead of Zeke directly. "Lone Wolf, this is Zeke."

"Hey kiddo."

"Quint! Hey, why call the house and not me?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to your mom for a bit. Let her talk to mine as Amos showed up here and scared her a bit."

"MOM! We're going to Montana tomorrow. Quint told his mama and that shit stain went by their house." It was loud enough that even Mama could hear it and she smiled.

After a moment the phone was transferred. "Quint, how are you? How's your mom holding up?"

"You can ask her yourself. I just told her about me and what Amos did." I handed the phone over to her and went to my room to grab my cell phone. It was new to me and a gift from Jon. "Just in case," he said and wouldn't take no for an answer. I called Zeke.

"So, you want us to come out there? Dad is thinking about it."

"Nope. I was hoping I could send Mama there. Let the moms talk it out and see what's best, but I don't want Amos anywhere near her again. If he comes over I'll tear out his fucking throat."

"So it's kill on sight now? And FYI that was the sexiest thing I have ever heard you say. All stern and stuff...hot." I laughed and rolled over on my bed. "So...wanna talk about the day?"

"Actually...no. It's been stressful, but I just want to talk to you about anything other than Amos. So...you like it when I talk sternly?"

"Oh god yes. I have a bit of a thing for dominant males."

"A bit? Sounds like more than a bit. Tell me what you did when you saw that picture of me."

"You don't want to hear..."

"I said tell me." I heard him shudder. I could play this game for him.

"God...I woke up and went into the bathroom and jacked off to it. Twice. Each day you've been gone." God, really? Had I made that much of an impression on him? "I would do more...if I had more pics."

I laughed as I could hear the smile in his voice. "If you're a good soldier, I might email you something."

"Yes sir!" Did he just mock salute like I could see in my head? If so it was so adorable. I spent the rest of the evening teasing with Zeke. It was nice to know I could be this person again, at least with him. Made me wonder why I left. Made me wonder when I would be going back.

Morning came and with I could hear a lot of activity down stairs. I pulled on some pants and went down to see Jon and Dylan were in my house and Mama was grabbing some last minute things. "Um...Mama, I guess you met Jon and Dylan."

"Yes. Wonderfully polite men. They're taking me to the airport to fly to the Whitebears' house for a week." So Brigid had been able to convince her that it was safer. It was a lot safer.

"You're going along on the flight," Jon said and I almost heard a command in his tone. "Jessup said he and Zeke would be there to pick her up. Thought you might want to see them again." A good reason, but there was still that tone that said I would be going to fly there for some reason. This did not bode well.

"I'll shower then. When do we leave?"

"We leave the house in twenty minutes."

"Yes, Alpha," I said and bounded up the stairs. I realized what I had said, but when I glanced back he was calmly toting a bag out to his truck. Good enough.

Once we landed I could see Zeke there looking a bit stern, but Jessup was just looking like he was there to pick up a long lost friend. Dylan went off first, followed by Mama and Jon and then me. When Zeke saw me, his facade melted and he waved a huge paw at me. "QUINT! They didn't tell me you were coming." He ran up and pulled me into a massive bear hug...har har har. When he did I almost melted. It felt so good to be back with him, to know that I would always find shelter in these massive arms.

"I missed you too, Zeke. Mama, this is Jessup Whitebear and his son Zeke."

"A pleasure to meet you, ma'am. Quint has had nothing but kind words to say about you and by how anxious he was to get home, I know you'll like it at the house. Brigid is making peach cobbler and it should be done by the time we get there." He grabbed all of her bags with no effort. "I know it ain't much time, but we gotta get going, Zeke."

He groaned and went to put me down, but I stopped him when I gave him a kiss. His arms just stopped and then pulled me in closer. Mama just gawked and it lasted until Jess wuffed at him. Zeke let me go with the biggest grin on his face. "Yeah, you need to come back more often. Phones are great..."

"Come back with us," said Jon. "You can see Montana, get out of the house for a bit, get to spend time with Quint, and hopefully help us catch that asshat as you have his scent in your memory better than anyone save Quint." Zeke looked back at Jessup with the most hopeful look. He was silently begging him to let him go.

"Don't eat them out of house and home," was all he said and Zeke whooped it up like he was getting paroled or something. "You take good care of my boy else you'll have to face his mama."

"We won't get him killed," said Dylan. "I got some stuff that should fit you."

I went over to Mama. "You're safe now. There are a lot more friends around down here with big guns to kill that thing should he show up. That's the new order of business. Kill on sight," I said to Jess and Jon. They nodded. "No one scares my Mama but me." She looked worried but still she laughed a bit. "We'll see you in a week."

"You take care, baby. Don't be brave, run for help. And keep that boy close to you. If he drove that animal off last time, looks at you like you hung the moon, and blushes like that from just a kiss, he's yours for life." It was my turn to blush and the sideways glance I sent Zeke said he was clearly not going to refute her claims. Mama looked Zeke up and down. "Yes. This is the type of man for you, baby. Respectful, happy, big enough to make you feel safe when you need it and a good head on his shoulders to know when to let you be. That's the last I'm going to say on it." Jessup nodded like he agreed with everything Mama said. They hopped in the truck and were gone.

"Lets get going. I'm technically only supposed to come to the fringes for an hour and that is nearly up." We loaded onto the plane and Zeke whistled low when he saw the interior. "Semi-formal intros. I'm Jon Davenport, Alpha for the Homestead Pack. Just call me Jon. That is Dylan, my son and the pack's enforcer."

We sat and prepped for takeoff. "Nice to meet you. Quint has said a lot of nice things about you guys. I don't see the creepy part though." The rest of us laughed. It was going to be a very interesting week. Alone...with Zeke.