Silver-White (The Great North Woods Pack #1) (22 page)

“She’s getting what she wanted,” Eli
said. “Let’s hope she pulls through okay. The hotter the fever is, the hotter
the wolf that usually results.” He took his phone from his pocket. “Sarah will
want to know,” he said, and he took a few steps away to make the call.

Evie looked to Matthew. “The hotter the
wolf?”

“Wilder. They wake up ready to raise
some serious hell.”

“Were you hot?”

“Nah, I was average. Most of us are.”

“You know,” Evie said, crossing her
arms, “I used to think of this town and this farm as the most simple, tranquil
place on earth. Y’all hide the craziness very well.”

“It’s not always quite this exciting,”
Matthew reminded her. “The most action we’ve had the past few years is tearing
down game cameras. Now and then a hunter puts one up near one of our borders.
They’re looking for deer and moose, but we’re afraid they’ll catch a shot of
one of us instead.”

“I never even thought of that,” Evie
said.

“It’s one more reason why young wolves are
kept close to home. If someone gets a picture and realizes they’re seeing a
wolf of our size, it’s gonna bring a
lot
of attention we don’t want.”

“Exactly,” Eli broke in after his phone
call; then quickly changed the subject.
“Maybe I should go up to the house,”

“They were just getting ready to lite
into each other when we left,” Matthew warned him.

“I’m not going back in for a while,”
Evie said. “No one has left yet, so I guess that means my mom is staying
another day.”

“Yeah,” Eli said thoughtfully, “I’ll go
up and check in. I feel like I should.”

Evie looked to Matthew again.
“I’m good here.
At least horses and cows don’t yell.”

“No they don’t. I’ll stay with you. It’s
gonna be a long day, Red.”

For the next two hours Evie brushed and
tended horses, one of her old, favorite pastimes. Matthew took over Eli’s cattle
chores. During that time half a dozen vehicles passed the barns moving in the
direction of the house; none left. Evie knew her mother had decided to stay.
She was glad. Glad for her mother’s presence but still worried for Erica. Even
the calming effect of caring for the horses couldn’t drive the worries completely
from her mind. And the one person she knew who could reassure her, could truly
make her feel like everything would be all right, was a thousand miles away by
now, somewhere in the sky between New England and Montana.

“The situation is fairly good in there,”
Eli told Evie when he finally returned to the barn. “Erica’s hot but stable.
You’re safe to go in, I’d say.”

“Whatcha think?” Evie said, looking to
Matthew.

“I need food either way,” he answered
rubbing his belly.

The two cousins walked out of the barn
and up to the house, going straight for the kitchen as they entered. Most of
the family was on the far side of the great room, near the study doorway. They
made roast beef sandwiches and ate at the island bar before taking their turn
to look in on Erica. She was very pale. The two went back out to the great
room. Evie took the time to catch up with several relatives. It was good to
visit, but the hours passed slowly and uncomfortably.

It was mid-afternoon when Erica woke for
the first time. She opened her eyes to the large crowd of family gathered
around her and asked weakly for water. After she drank, she passed out again.

The fever broke early in the evening.
Erica’s pulse had increased greatly within the last hour, and she’d been
sweating and shivering. Then, when the family could be no more worried, and
they were on the verge of calling the doctor, she awoke.

The scene was like something from a
horror movie. One moment she lay muttering in her sleep, and the next moment
she shot up straight on the couch. Her eyes were wide, her face crinkled up,
and her breathing was like she’d just sprinted a football field.

As the family began clapping and
cheering, Evie held back during the first few minutes of Erica’s consciousness,
allowing Uncle Earl, Aunt Ruth and Matthew to be nearest to her. When she heard
her name being called, she worked her way through the crowd to the side of the
couch where Erica still sat amongst strewn pillows and wrinkled blankets.

“I told you,” Erica said to Evie with a
scratchy rasp. Her eyes were darkly narrow; her sharp bangs were clinging to
the side of her face. “I knew I wasn’t far behind. I told you.”

Evie nodded and smiled a halfhearted
smile. “I never doubted,” she said.

“Somebody get her some more water,” Earl
called.

Erica began struggling to stand from the
couch before anyone could, pushing against her mother and her aunt. “I’m good,
let me up,” she complained. “I don’t need it. Let me up!”

Evie stepped back. Earl moved closer to
his daughter. All the elders were imploring her to calm herself.

“Relax,” her father said, standing over
her. “Do you hear me? Keep your cool, you little devil.”

“I’m fine,” Erica said, swaying where
she stood, bouncing from one relative to the next for support. “I need air. Let
me out of here, I’m hot. Let me out!”

Earl moved through the crowd ahead of
his daughter, clearing the way to the sliding glass door. He stepped out and
Erica followed. Matthew came along supporting her, and shut the door after he
was out.

“It’s best to let them handle it,”
Evie’s mother said.

Evie nodded weakly.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Evie said. But she didn’t feel
it.

“It’s the excitement stirring you up,”
Janie said. “Go relax. Sit quietly.”

Evie nodded and turned away. Quite
suddenly she had a terrible thirst of her own. She went to the kitchen to get herself
a cold drink. Though she was greatly relieved for Erica, there was a nervous
feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. Whether it was just “the excitement”
or concern for all the “wild” talk or something else, she wasn’t sure. She
drank down a glass of cold water and stood leaning against the kitchen counter,
until she felt too hot to remain inside.

On the porch near the front door Evie
sat in one of the Adirondack chairs. In long and steady breaths she took in the
cool air, trying to calm herself. The sun was setting on the opposite side of
the house, and the driveway full of cars before her was darkening under the
creeping shadows. Erica had made it through the fever. She should have felt
ecstatic. But all she could think was,
Please,
Papa, get home soon.

She had not been in the chair for a full
five minutes when she heard a very distant howl, a mile or two away. She could
not be sure of the wolf that made it, but she understood the message clearly;
her spine tingled and she began to shiver. From what seemed to be the center of
town, a pack member had sounded a call that Evie had never once heard but
instinctually recognized. Carried within the single call there was at once a sorrowed,
urgent plea for assistance, and an angry summons to battle.

-16-

From the rear porch Evie heard an
instant scuffle breaking out the moment the howl died away. She knew what was
happening. Erica was changing. Or wanting to change. Earl and Matthew were
fighting to control her.

The front door opened beside her. Before
she could fully rise from the chair several of the men rushed out. Eli, Nathan,
her older cousin, and his father, Uncle Anthony, sprang from the porch steps,
shifting as they flew, and landed in a dead run. Yipping short and halting
return cries to their troubled pack mate, they tore down the drive and
disappeared in the early dark. Evie knew as she stood shivering that they were
making for the corn filed. There they would take the wide southbound snowmobile
trail and enter downtown Ludlow from the cover of the trees.

“Don’t move,” said Evie’s grandmother
from behind her.

Evie turned to see Evelyn’s worried
face, just as she felt her strong hand grip her nearest arm. “What’s
happening?” Evie asked.

“There’s been an attack, by the sounds
of it. It’s no place for you.”

Evie pulled herself from her
grandmother’s grip, but she did not run. Instead she hovered on the porch step
as several more family members rushed out and by her. At the same time, from
out back she could still hear the confrontation surrounding Erica. It grew,
indicating that at least some of them had shifted as well. “Let me help them,”
Evie said to her grandmother.

“Go around the back of the house,”
Evelyn said. “Do not leave. Focus your mind on them, not the southern dispute.
Understood?”

Evie rushed around the northern corner
of the house. From there she climbed the steps onto the back porch, closing on
the scuffle that now involved Aunt Ruth in addition to the others. Three gray
wolves had formed a circle around Erica, corralling the newest wolf that was
sleek and dark. Not a hair on her upper body was anything lighter than blackest
black, and to Evie’s eyes, only traces of silvery gray marked her forelegs and
chest. The black wolf’s eyes were deep amber, like smoldering coals. Evie
stopped short when those eyes found her on the far end of the porch.

Two thoughts of differing opinion crowded
Evie’s mind at once. One; keep calm and remain human. Two; let go and shift;
she’s going to run anyway. The corral is merely a speed bump. Evie knew exactly
the rush of energy Erica was experiencing, and highly doubted that she’d be
kept from running.

The black wolf turned from Evie and made
her most violent protest yet to her captors. Her charge was met by rearing
wolves pushing her down with strong paws. Clearly attempting to leap the
railing to an escape, she was thwarted at every try. But then, snapping and snarling
as she thrashed her newfound weight and strength, she suddenly calmed, lowering
her head. And as her family relaxed around her, she stretched herself thin and,
barely fitting between the porch floor and the middle railing, in a second she wriggled
her way to freedom, stumbled, gained her footing, and was off.

The gray wolves sneezed clumps of black
hair snapped from Erica’s long tail as she fled. Within a second they leapt the
railing and tore off in pursuit, leaving Evie alone on the porch.

Evie took one glance into the house
through the windows. The remaining family was in an uproar, scrambling to get
control of the younger children and prevent them from seeing more than they
already had. Then she turned away from the house, thinking,
here goes another outfit
. She took off
into a run, hurdled the railing, and landed on the grass below with four white
feet.

The fear sweeping through the animals in
the barn met Evie’s ears as she ran, tearing the grass, then the dirt of the
driveway as she raced for the lower cornfield. Ducking into the corn stalks,
she followed the sounds and scents of the wolves before her, gaining on them by
the minute.

On the wide snowmobile trail Evie
reached full speed within seconds, and soon the four wolves of Earl’s household
were in her sights. Gulping the cool air, she breathed as a machine, her heart
beating madly, propelling her sleek speeders frame to within yards of her
quarreling-on-the-run family.

“Help us,” Matthew grumbled, looking
back to Evie. “Keep her from cats. We must fight.”

Evie yelped her reply, noticing only
after the mention that there was a slight scent of cat in the air. She passed
Matthew and drew up alongside of Erica. “Shiny black,” she said in a weak
attempt at distraction.

“Get way,” Erica growled.

“Run with me,” Evie said.

“Out of my way!” the black wolf roared
with a snap of her jaws.

“Stay near her,” Earl said to Evie.

“Yes,” Evie acknowledged.

The pack of five sped on until a smaller
trail broke off from the larger one. There they turned sharply, heading toward one
of the southernmost houses of downtown Ludlow. At the center of the running
corral the young black wolf snapped and snarled, but ran on as their mobile
prisoner.

Ahead Evie now saw a clearing, which was
a yard behind a house. From that yard the original howl had come, she suddenly
understood, because from there now the sounds of battle increased in her ears,
and a smell of shed blood entered her head. They, the five, were upon it sooner
than Evie had expected, and at once she set her mind to the coming task of
taming the black wolf once the others had entered the fight. Which fight would
be worse, she could not guess.

The five entered the yard at a trot,
surveying the scene for several seconds. Even the young black wolf hesitated,
taking in the surrounding chaos with pricked ears and nervous whines. Like Evie
had done with the wolf circle, Erica had followed her instincts to a confrontation,
only to find on arrival a very disturbing scene.