5. Savvy

5

Savvy

“ H ey, guys. I have the day off and I thought that maybe we could go somewhere fun,” Rory announced at breakfast.

“Where are we going?” Drake asked.

“Can Savvy come?” Cat asked.

“I was thinking that we could go to Santa Fe. It’s not too far from here, and they have some fun things to do there. And, of course, Savvy can come. It’s not a family day without her.”

He looked at her and smiled. Savvy’s heart skipped a beat and a thousand butterflies danced in her stomach.

“Woohoo,” Drake yelled and started gobbling his breakfast faster.

“Slow down, kiddo, or you’re going to give yourself a tummy ache, and you aren’t going to enjoy anything.”

“I’m a wolf. We can eat fast and be okay.” Drake caught his father’s eye and then said, “Yes, ma’am.”

“I’ll have to get me one of those looks.” Savvy laughed.

Rory refused to tell them where they were going until they pulled up in front of the Reptile and Bug Museum.

“Reptiles and bugs?” Cat asked skeptically. “If we want to see bugs, we can go in our own backyard.”

“Give it a try,” Rory said. “I’ll bet that you’ll like it.”

“It’ll be fun. I love bugs,” Drake said.

“You eat bugs when you are in wolf form,” Cat said. “I don’t think that you can eat these.”

“The owners probably wouldn’t appreciate it.” Savvy laughed.

The kids were mesmerized almost as soon as they walked in. The owner pointed out some mounted insects that were behind a display case. Some of the insects were so rare that they couldn’t be seen anywhere else.

“Can I have a pet tarantula?” Cat asked after she fell in love with the huge tarantula.

“I think we’re going to pass on that for now,” Rory said. “Besides, your brother would just eat it.”

Cat growled and showed her fangs at her brother.

“Put those away,” Savvy whispered in her ear. “You cannot be mad at your brother for eating tarantulas you don’t have.”

The little girl nodded and retracted her fangs. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone close by who saw anything.

Rory’s arm brushed Savvy’s and a lightning bolt exploded inside of her. She looked up at the handsome man standing next to her and felt as though her breath had been taken away. He stared into her eyes for a moment, until Drake grabbed her arm.

“Come on. I want to see more stuff.” Drake enjoyed the scorpions that glowed under the ultraviolet lights and announced, “If Cat got tarantulas, I want scorpions.”

“Not gonna happen, kiddo,” Rory said.

When they left, Cat asked, “Savvy, what was your favorite?”

“I really liked the giant monitor lizard.”

“Not that anyone asked me, but my favorite was the chameleon,” Rory said, pretending to be sad.

“Don’t pout, Dad. We were getting to you. Ladies first,” Cat said.

“Yeah, ladies first,” Drake echoed.

Savvy and Rory burst out laughing.

After lunch at a local diner, they went to the Santa Fe’s Children’s Museum. The kids had a blast as they explored as many exhibits as possible. Both kids were enthralled with the carnivorous plant terrarium. Cat liked the fairy village, and Drake pretended that he was Blackbeard on the pirate ship.

Everyone was tired at the end of the day.

“I’m hungry,” Drake said.

“Me, too,” Cat added.

They ate at a restaurant called The Ranch House and then headed back. Both kids were asleep as soon as they had their seatbelts fastened.

“That was fun, but wow,” Savvy said.

“I know. I don’t think I’ve seen the kids asleep at seven before since they were babies.”

“The world would be a much better place if all parents were like you – moms and dads.”

Rory sighed and said, “I do the best that I can. I feel like I have to be both parents.”

“Well, you have the mom look down.” Savvy laughed.

The kids were still asleep when they got back to the house, so Savvy and Rory carried them upstairs to their bed.

“Just take off their shoes. They can sleep in their clothes,” Rory said. “One night of missing their teeth brushing and a shower won’t kill them.”

“Hopefully, they’ll wake up if they need to potty,” Savvy said.

Rory laughed. “I’m going to catch up on some paperwork. Thanks for hanging out today.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

The night air called Savvy and drew her out. Cassia flew around her, talking animatedly.

“I’m just glad that the people at the museum didn’t see me. I would have never escaped.”

“I would rescue you. Besides, they would know that they didn’t have any dragonflies there.”

“But they would want one, especially one as pretty as me,” Cassia said. After a minute, she said, “You like him, don’t you.”

“He’s a nice man. Of course, I like him.”

“There’s more to it than that. I saw the way that you guys looked at each other. I could almost see the electricity passing between you.”

“Nonsense. He’s my boss. I’ll admit that he’s sexy, but that’s all there is.”

“Yeah, right,” Cassia said. “You’d jump into bed with him in a hot minute.”

Savvy just shook her head. They had wandered into the wooded area behind the house. The leaves on the tall trees danced in the breeze. Pine cones and needles littered the ground, while the stars and moon glittered in the sky. She breathed in the sweet, cool night air and enjoyed the sense of peace that surrounded her like a shield.

Suddenly, a chill went down her back, like someone had run an icy finger down her spine.

“Do you feel that?” she whispered to Cassia.

“Yes. We better go back.”

Just then, three wolves stepped out from behind the trees, surrounded her, and shifted.

“Look what we have here,” one of them said. “A pretty little girl all alone in the woods.”

“I don’t want any trouble,” Savvy said, gearing up for a fight. “Just leave me alone.”

“We’ve got no beef with you, gorgeous, but we want you to give a message to your boss for us,” the second man said.

“I’m not a messenger. If you have something to say to him, be man enough to say it to his face.”

“Oooh. The girl’s got some mouth on her,” the third one said.

“Well, what kind of men are you? Three against one woman. That doesn’t say much about you, now does it?”

“You’re lucky we’re in a hurry. We sure would like a taste of you.” The first one grinned.

“I guarantee you wouldn’t get far,” Savvy said with a grin.

Her lack of fear seemed to unsettle the men a bit because all but one took a step back.

“Tell Rory that there’s a new club in town, and the Griffins need to watch their backs.”

Before Savvy could react, his paw shifted to a wolf’s and he scratched her face. Then, they all three shifted to wolf form and ran off into the woods.

“Your face is bleeding pretty badly,” Cassia said.

“I have some salve that Beth made,” Savvy said.

“Why didn’t you evaporate them?”

“They ran. I wouldn’t ever shoot anyone in the back.”

“You witches with your honor codes. Matilda almost killed Conner before Beth would stand up to her, and let’s not even talk about your mother.”

“Yeah, let’s not.”

Rory’s deep rumbling laughter could be heard from the kitchen, so Savvy headed that way. Rosa and Rory gasped when they saw her bleeding face.

“Oh, my lord. What happened to you?” Rosa yelped.

“Some members of Rory’s fan club,” Savvy said.

She repeated their words.

“Damn it,” Rory said. “I was hoping that they would be smart enough to stay out of Angel’s Creek and Griffin territory.”

“They aren’t,” Savvy said as Rosa carefully washed her face off with a paper towel.

“They might cause an infection. I’m sure they aren’t the cleanest fellows around,” she said.

“I have some really great stuff I got from a healer upstairs,” Savvy said.

“I’m so sorry,” Rory said. “I hope this doesn’t mean that you’re going to leave us.”

“You have no need to apologize. This wasn’t your doing. And, of course, I’m not going to leave. There is no way that I’m going to let a few assholes scare me away, pardon my French. I’ve never let anyone scare me or intimidate me.”

Rory laughed and said, “I knew there was something I liked about you.”

Savvy was sure that she could see the relief in Rory’s eyes.

Colby came downstairs and asked, “What’s up?”

Rory saw the question in Savvy’s eyes. “Shifters can communicate telepathically even in human form. We can even hear non-shifter’s messages if we are close to them.”

She nodded.

“What in the hell happened to you?” Colby asked, shocked.

Rory filled him in and said, “Let’s go make sure that they’ve left.”

Savvy went upstairs and washed her face, wincing when the warm, soapy water stung the gashes. She fished some healing salve out of her bag and dabbed it on.

Several minutes later, there was a knock on her suite door.

“We saw the wolf tracks just inside the wood line. Colby will be keeping a close eye out when you guys go outside. Hopefully, the cowards won’t come around when the kids are out during the day.”

“I will be very vigilant, and I can promise that no one will hurt those kids. I have enough defense skills that I can protect them. I chose not to fight them when they scratched me because they ran.”

She just chose not to tell him that those defense skills were magical and that she could annihilate a large group of shifters quickly.

Savvy saw the doubt in Rory’s eyes, but he smiled and said, “I appreciate that.”

He reached out and touched her cheek briefly. Savvy had to fight the desire to lean into his touch. She suddenly felt an incredible need to have his arms wrapped around her and it had absolutely nothing to do with fear.

Rory stared into her eyes for a moment, frozen. Then, he snatched his hand away as though it had been burned, sucked in a huge breath of air, and said, “Well, I’ll let you get some sleep.”

She wondered if he had felt the same need, the same magnetic pull that she had.

What would he have said if I asked him to hold me?

“He would have said yes,” Cassia said.

“Stop reading my mind,” I told her.

“Nope. It’s my job. How else can I help you?”

“Ugh.”

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t zap those shifters. They struck out at you first.”

“Like I said, they were running away. Plus, if anything happened to them on Rory’s property or near here, it would have brought hell down on the house. I don’t want trouble anywhere near the kids.”

“That makes sense,” Cassia said.

The next morning, Rory and Savvy stepped into the hallway at the same time. He stared at her face in amazement. “That is unbelievable. Those gashes were deep and now they are barely visible.”

“It’s the salve from a healer I knew in Wyoming.”

She chose not to tell him that the healer was Beth and that she had used a little spell to help the healing process along.

“I think I need to order a vat of that stuff because I have two little ones who are always getting into some kind of trouble. Shifters heal very quickly, but they can always use a little help.”

“I’m not sure she makes it by the vat, but I’ll ask.” Savvy grinned.

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” he said. He gave her an impromptu hug and then said, “Tell the kids I’ll see them later.”

Savvy was sure that her knees were going to buckle and that her body was going to explode from the heat that the full-body contact with Rory caused.

“Down girl,” Cassia teased.