Cloe: Two for the Bite of One (2 page)

Cloe entered college when she was sixteen and a half, and graduated Medical School when she was only twenty-one. She would have graduated earlier, but she specialized in three different areas before she decided she had learned as much as she could in school.

Now, Cloe had a small practice in her hometown of Milliken, Colorado. She had gone to Stanford in California for Med School, but hated the big city. Cloe wanted to help the people who had accepted her when she was young, and she hated being so far from her family.

When she was a teenager, and changed for the first time, Cloe felt normal for the first time in her life. She knew there were all different kinds of shape shifters in the world, hell; they had at least five different kinds living in her town. But she was a pure black wolf, and she was proud of her heritage. Her father explained what had been going on with her body, and explained about her birth and childhood. They told her she was some kind of super important wolf and blah, blah, blah. Cloe did not care, the only thing she cared about was that she changed into a wolf; she began her training on the first full moon.

Cloe had a quiet peaceful life in the small-town, and the best part was that all the humans knew they were wolves. It was a secret to most of the world, but in their small little chunk of paradise, they were free to be who they were. Cloe wished it were like this for the rest of the world. She loved the town and all the people who lived there; it was just too bad that her mate was not here. Cloe hoped she would find her mate while she was in college, and be able to bring him home with her. The disappointment did not sit well with her. So, she poured all of her effort into her work and her Pack.

When she found out she was a wolf as a small child, her parents told her, and she would feel best when she was near a pack. Her wolf would feel the need to be a part of a Pack, and even though she was far away, her Pack was still in Colorado. Milliken held a small pack of wolves before they arrived. They had stumbled on the leaderless pack when Cloe was a baby, just after they had fled the European Council Pack.

Her parents explained the whole history behind their previous life. How her father became the Alpha of this pack, when he killed the previous Alpha for beating one of his wolves for helping them repair their car when it had broken down. They had only stopped for gas; Cloe and her mother were in the bathroom when they heard the fight begin. A large wolf tried to bully the owner of the gas station; it turned ugly very quickly. At first, her father stood back and watched to see what would happen. Bryan and Adele, her parents, had made a pact that until they found a place to start over; they would hide the fact that they were wolves and Alphas. Most Alphas tried to hide themselves when they entered another territory, because it tended to cause problems with inferior leaders, who felt threatened.

Her father had waited and watched, while no one helped the owner. He had admired the owner of the gas station for not backing down, but the owner did not know what he was dealing with. When the larger man began to shift and no one still stepped up.

Bryan did. She knew the humans in the town were scared at first when they saw two wolves fighting on Main Street. However, when they realized that her father was protecting one of their popular citizens, they had waited until the fight was over to pass judgment. What impressed Bryan the most was that people had not freaked out; instead, they had an open mind and waited. They had a town meeting and agreed to keep the secret as long as Cloe's father stayed and became the new Alpha. It was not as simple as it sounded. The meeting had lasted for days, as they hammered out issues.

One of the main things they decided was that if a new shifter family came to Milliken and asked for permission to live there, human and shifter leaders had to approve their application. That is how the first human, shifter Pack first started. Cloe was proud of her father, and loved the small-town that they had set up. The only thing she wished for more was her mate.

Since she was young, her father drilled into her head that she needed to know how to defend herself, and her pack. She may be a doctor, but she would kill anyone who threatened her town. Humans and wolves alike were her pack. This was the only place she felt accepted and at peace.

Although she was a female, she was the only child of the Alpha. Because of that and the lack of any other willing and strong wolves in the Pack, her father trained her to be his Beta. She was strong and fierce, and no one in the town doubted she would kick their ass if they got out of line. Since her father had taken over the Pack, more and more families had moved in, and with them stronger shifters. She was proud of the Enforcers they had, and knew that any one of them could step up and take her place if they wanted to. None of them did, because of the respect they had for her.

Cloe shook herself out of the memories she had been indulging in, and looked around at her home. She lived in a small cabin a few miles from the Pack house. To her left, she could see the outline of the Rocky Mountains and to the right flat grassland, she could run free. Sighing she pulled on her gloves, and looked around again, having a strange feeling someone was watching her.

Cloe threw her leg over her newest purchase and smiled. She could not wait for her best friend to see what she received last night. Teagan was her best Enforcer, and her best friend, and assistant. When she went through her rebellious stage, Teagan had been the one who understood and joined her. Together they had formed their own little biker club, which turned out to be the Enforcers of the Pack. It was funny when you thought about it. She was the only female in the group, but she was the leader and the strongest.

Her father had made sure of it.

Revving her engine, she took off from in front of her little house that sat on the edge of town and cruised her way into town. Her office sat right in the middle of town, across from the Pack house where her parents lived. She had built her practice up to include five doctors, three for the shifters in town and two for the humans. She did not see patients much anymore since she was the Beta of the Pack. She still on occasion helped when they needed it, and continued to study new ways to help the shifters different physiology during her down time. The other doctors in her practice looked to her as an expert.

They had built a nice and profitable little Pack, and they stayed under the radar from most of the other Packs that were in the United States, on purpose. It was because they had more than just wolves in their Pack. So far, they had sixty wolves, thirteen cougars, six bears, three eagles, and two foxes as permanent members of their Pack. That did not count the humans who also lived in the town, or the transient members who came and went at different times of the year. Seriously, you can"t expect a polar bear to remain here in the heat or a leopard to stay in the winter. Many more have since moved on, but only after taking a blood oath to protect their secret. So far, no one had told anyone about their small town.

A member of the Pack owned all the businesses in town and Cloe and her Enforcers protected all of them. If someone new came into town, the Pack knew it. So, when she pulled up outside her practice, and noticed the large truck parked in front of the diner, her protective instinct flared. A human named Sue owned the diner, and she was looking out the large front window with a panicked look on her face. That could only mean one thing, strangers were in town, and something unusual had happened. It happened a lot, since they were just off the only highway that led to Denver from the east, but from the look she was getting from Sue, they were more than just crazy tourists.

Cloe nodded and pulled out her cell phone. She pushed her speed dial, and a deep voice answered immediately. “What?”

“Diner, now.” She said gruffly and shut her phone. It was nice to be so in tune with her Pack. She only had to speak a few words for them to respond.

She stalked across the narrow street, and was about ready to open the door when she felt an arm reach around her, and pull the door open. Smiling, she did not have to look to see, her best friend had arrived. Not that it was much of a challenge, since he lived over her practice, in the small apartment she had renovated. After she returned from college, she had lived in the apartment for a few years, until she built her little house out in the country. She loved her town, but she needed a little space sometimes. When she moved out, she gave the apartment to her lead Enforcer and best friend, so he would be on hand in town if needed.

“What"s up?” He said in her ear softly.

Cloe wished Teagan were her mate. He was the kind of man she was attracted to, tall and strong, not to mention gorgeous. Teagan stood a few inches taller than she did, about six feet four. He had long blonde hair, and could have posed on the cover of a magazine. Of course, it would have to be a biker magazine or a tattoo magazine, but still he had the looks. His long chiseled features accented his full mouth. Cloe felt a tingle every once in awhile when she looked at him, but she never told him, because she did not want to ruin their friendship over sex.

When they were younger, Teagan had flirted with her, until she beat the shit out of him, since then they had been best friends. They had matching tattoos on their shoulder that only they understood. It was two wolves howling at a red moon. All the Enforcers had the tattoo, and no one but them, knew what it meant, although many asked. Blaine, one of their Enforcers, was a tattoo artist, and one night had a dream of an attack on the Pack. He had woken and called Cloe asking if everything was okay, and then explained what he saw. The battle had been vicious and bloody, believing that it was a vision given to him by the spirits, Blaine drew a picture. Cloe and Teagan had asked to be marked with the tattoo. They wanted a reminder of what they were training for, because they knew that someday, they were going to have to defend their Pack.

Cloe shrugged and looked into the diner and saw a long table in the back filled with large men. They looked a little like bankers, she was confused why Sue had looked so panicked. She had thought the Hell Angels had rolled into town, when she first looked at the small human who owned the diner. What were these men going to do, audit her to death?

“Breakfast sounds good.” She said softly, entered the diner, and smiled when Sue bustled over to them, grabbed two menus, and motioned for them to follow her. Sue led them in the opposite direction of where the strangers were sitting. She gave them the corner booth and let them settle down, before leaning down and whispering, “Those men are asking a lot of questions about the town and your father.” She then looked over her shoulder and made sure she had not drawn any attention. “They also wanted to know about you and your mom. I ignored their questions, but they have been sitting there for more than two hours. I think they are waiting for your father to show up.”

“Did you call him?” Cloe asked.

“Yes, he was on his way down, said he was going to try to find you first.” Sue said, then stood, and waited with her pad as if she was taking their order. Cloe hated to tell her the men had wolf hearing, and if they were listening, close enough they would have been able to hear their entire conversation. She looked over at the table, and none of them was looking at them, so they must not have thought that Teagan, or she was a threat.

She did not know if she should be offended by that, but she shrugged her shoulders and looked at the menu briefly.

“Usual.” Teagan said and nodded.

Sue wrote something down on her pad and laid it on the table, then yelled over her shoulder to the cook. “Two specials Stan.” She never understood why Sue insisted on carrying the little pad, she always just yelled the orders across the diner, it did not matter who was in, she just bellowed. Cloe used to think it was funny, because you could hear what everyone ordered, but now she did not like to broadcast what she ate.

Her mother would yell at her later for having her spicy little breakfast filled with cheese and sausage. Adele warned her time and time again, that she needed to set an example, and eat healthier. „HA", like that was going to happen. Another one of the perks of being a wolf was the amazing metabolism that they had. Of course, if she did not train everyday with her Enforcers, she may have an issue. However, she kept her figure trim and lean, and told her mom that she was a doctor and knew how to eat. That had earned her a slap in the back of the head, but it was a small price to pay for having her favorite breakfast.

Teagan and Cloe had the same thing every time they came in, a breakfast burrito with the works. Looking down at the piece of paper that Sue had set on the table, Cloe raised her eyebrows. It said one word, WOLVES. Sue recognized them as shifters, which impressed Cloe.

Cloe looked over to the table and saw the large man who was sitting at the edge of the table was looking at her intensely. She knew he recognized her wolf, and probably also recognized her power. She was sure at this point; he was trying to figure out who she was. He was not what you would call handsome, more like interesting. She could tell even from his sitting down, that he had a firm and well-built body. His haircut was close to his head, and his hard features made her instantly think he was a Beta also. He had a rounder face than Teagan, but with hypnotizing eyes, even from where she sat, she could tell they were a beautiful green color, almost like fresh cut grass. The thing that bothered her was the instant attraction she felt just by looking at him.

The bell over the door jingled again, and she pulled her gaze from the man, and saw her father stalk into the room, and pause for effect. Most people would be afraid when her father walked into a room. He was tall and imposing, and usually made weaker wolves quiver a little, from the power he gave off. She looked at him for the first time in a longtime, and really studied him. Gray peppered his dark hair more and more, over the last few years, but he was still handsome. He loved to tell people she got her looks from him, her mother who was just as beautiful as he was handsome, would slap him in the back of the head and laugh.