3. Willow

THREE

Willow

We rode in silence to the store. Royce kept checking on me in the rearview on the short drive, but I didn’t meet his look. I didn’t know what to do. This was my life. Whoever had done this was messing with all I had.

I was no one. No one .

At the store, I saw the door was intact, but still, I held my breath as I pushed the door tentatively open. Ned gave a huff of impatience, picking me up and moving me out of the way, ignoring my squawk of complaint. He and Royce walked in ahead of me, and my indignant protest faded on my lips as my eyes darted around my store.

Papers were scattered, and the easels with Lorna’s and Peter’s works in progress were knocked over and looked like someone, or someones, had walked over them. The small sales counter I had, with one drawer, was knocked over completely, and one of the doors to the inner shelves was hanging off broken.

I was aware Royce was talking to Ned, but I couldn’t hear them. My attention was on the artwork that was on display to sell.

Each piece had been ravaged, four deep tears ran from left to right on each piece. I had a wild flashback to the film franchise with Freddy Krueger, and I couldn’t shake the image from my head as I imagined the shifter who had been here, ripping their claws into the art as they walked in a slow and steady prowl from one end of my display wall to the other.

Deliberately.

Because that was what this was—a deliberate warning to me. There was no art here that showed their world; Royce and Ned had already removed it.

Had they known that? Had they known that it was gone?

I didn’t know what to do. Ned was in my storage closet, which was as empty as they’d left it this morning. Royce was on the phone, his voice too low for me to hear. My hands were shaking as I tried to tidy up, reaching for one of the easels and lifting it to set it right, but the legs were broken, and it had no stability.

I let it fall again, jumping at the sound of the impact as it fell back to the floor. Looking around my store, I felt disconnected. Here was a mess, and my house was worse. What had they been looking for? What had they hoped to achieve by leaving this obvious mark that they’d been here?

Was it simply to instill fear? If it was, it was working.

Royce was speaking to me, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. His voice was distorted. I felt like I was underwater, and I couldn’t breathe. My movements felt sluggish. My mind was swirling as I thought of too many scenarios of “what-ifs.”

I was against the wall, but my knees were weak, and I slid down to the floor, pulling my knees to my chest, trying to make myself as small as possible. My left hand clutched my phone, and I just wanted to call Lily. I wanted someone I trusted to sit beside me and tell me it was going to be okay.

I wanted Caleb.

The urge to call him was as strong as it was useless. His phone was disconnected. He was disconnected. From me. From the world. He wasn’t the person who was going to be here for me. Even though he had dragged me into his world, he’d left me in it.

Tears burned my eyes, and I rubbed my eyes furiously. I would not cry. I was not weak. I needed to take a moment, and with a deep breath, I pushed myself to my feet.

“You okay?”

Turning my head, I saw Ned in front of me. He looked concerned. “No.” The answer was honest, and I saw his understanding. “But I won’t fall apart.”

“You just had a panic attack.”

“Sue me.” I looked over at Royce, who was still on the phone. “Cannon?”

“Yeah, he wants you on Blackridge Peak.”

I snorted. “No, he doesn’t,” I told him, my voice sounding harsh, my shock probably still overriding my normal manners. “He wants me as far from shifters as possible.” Looking around, I let out a deep sigh. “I don’t want that either.”

“You don’t understand,” Ned’s voice was tight. “Caleb is?—”

“Not responsible for this.” My voice was just as hard as Ned’s. “You don’t know him.”

Ned folded his arms across his chest and watched me. “And you do? ”

“Do I?” I took a long inhale again. Deep breathing calmed you, right? I needed it to, because I was about to lose my shit completely. “No. I don’t. I know very little about him. His past? Not a clue other than what I draw. I know he’s a loner. I know he has really bad skills at small talk. I know he resents my paintings and drawings as much as you do. No, more than you do. Because they may be about your world, but they’re about him . And he hates it. But he wouldn’t do this. He’s always protected me. This”—I gestured to the ransacked room, my voice trembling—“he would never do this.”

Ned was shaking his head in disagreement, his frustration seeping through. “You don’t know what he is!”

I felt a sliver of doubt at Ned’s reaction. “A shifter?”

“A rogue,” Royce told me, putting his phone in his pocket. “Caleb is not the man you thought you knew.”

“Yes, he is.”

Both of them looked at me with sympathy. “No.” Royce’s voice was gentle. “A rogue is dangerous. Wild.” His gaze flitted over the room, taking in the carnage. “Caleb’s lost. The man you thought you knew, he’s gone. Only the beast remains.”

“Beast?” I heard my fear.

Ned winced a little. “Animal,” he corrected Royce. “Beast is misleading,” he muttered.

Royce gave a non-committal shrug as he watched me. “For what it’s worth, Willow, I don’t think this was him. But you need to understand what he is now.”

“I understand he’s gone.” I tried to sound patient. “I understand I don’t know as much about him or much about his past. But if he’s lost?” Royce gave a slight dip of his head. “Then why aren’t you trying to find him?”

“We are. But the circumstances and how we deal with him are different from before.”

Deal with him? That didn’t sound good.

“And while you do that…” I looked at my store, knowing that my home looked in the same state of mayhem. “How do I deal with this?” I knew what Royce was going to say, so I stopped him before he suggested it again. “I will not leave my home.”

He had no idea how much I’d endured to get here. Losing my foster parents, battling a debilitating illness, and fighting through a legal struggle over what John and Jan had unexpectedly left me. Even after it was settled, I could hardly believe any of it was really mine. When I moved to Whispering Pines, it was for a fresh start. Again. As a foster kid, starting over was a way of life, but this move, this time, was supposed to be different. It was supposed to be my last move. I refused to give that up and run away.

“We can’t protect you here,” he told me gruffly.

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on why I need protecting? Who else would do this?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Royce admitted, sharing a look with Ned. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Fantastic.” I could hear my sarcasm, and they didn’t call me on it. I knew we were all struggling with this. “Maybe they’re watching you?” I spoke suddenly. Both men stared at me. “Think about it. No one knows me. I’m literally not even a blip on a shifter’s radar. I have this weird link or whatever with Caleb, and I paint some pretty landscapes I’ve never seen. But think about it, if you didn’t know I knew Caleb or that some of my art was of him, would my landscapes really stick out? Or, are you seeing the link because you have the information any other shifter wouldn’t?”

“Some are quite obvious,” Ned grumbled.

“Obvious to who? You? Your pack?”

Again they shared that look. “It’s not our packlands,” Royce grudgingly told me. “They’re Caleb’s.”

I hadn’t known that, and I thought about it. About him. “I know I may be speaking out of turn,” I said hedgingly, “but I can’t think his home is well known.”

Royce smiled briefly. “I don’t know him, you’re right,” he started, “but I knew of his pack. His old pack, they were…friendly. Welcoming.”

Two words I would never have associated with the man I’d come to know over these last few months.

“It’s possible that the scenes you paint are known to others who knew the old pack.”

“Old pack,” I mused. “Where’s the new pack?”

“Only Caleb is left.” Royce’s emotions were closed off, but I didn’t need him to draw me a picture. This is why they thought he’d gone off the rails. He had no one to rein him in.

Which wasn’t true. He had me. Kind of. And them, if he wanted it, I guess.

“What do we do with this?” Ned changed the subject, which I was relieved about.

“You go and tell Cannon. Maybe ask the shaman if he can speak to your Luna and tell her to ease up a little on me?” Pushing my hair back, I let out a sigh. “And I’ll clean up.”

“That’s it?” Ned asked me dubiously.

“I’m tougher than I look,” I told him with another small sigh. “I’ve handled worse. I just need you to find out if I’m in danger.”

Ned circled his finger around in the air as he gave me a look of skepticism. “Did you miss this?”

“I was here all day.” I thought about it. “This could have happened at any time, but they waited until I was gone.” Turning in a small circle, I considered my line of thinking. “Yeah, this is to scare me, but I don’t think the message is for me.”

Royce was frowning as he considered my argument. “We’ll look into it,” he told me. “I’m not so sure about you being left alone.”

I made the decision. “I won’t be, I’m telling my friend Lily everything.”

“Willow, you?—”

“I didn’t ask for this,” I cut Ned off. “This is my life, my livelihood. I am not part of your world. I left your…home on the promise we’d figure out how to fix this. Once we did, I would return to the reality where people who become wolves aren’t part of that.” I looked between them. “That’s what the plan was before this, right? Sever the tie I have and go back to my life. Lily is part of my life.”

“You can’t tell her we’re shifters,” Royce said firmly. “I agree, bring her in, but I would ask that you keep that part to yourself.” He held my stare. “Please.”

It was the please that did it. I nodded once and I felt the tension ease. “You should go,” I told them both. “Thank you for coming back.” I suddenly had a thought. “Where are the ones you took this morning?”

“We burned them already,” Ned said nonchalantly as he walked the store one more time. Not realizing his casualness was as hurtful as their actions.

“Then I’ll do that going forward,” I offered bravely. “You don’t need to come and get them. Until this is over, anything that isn’t like that”—I pointed to the destroyed picture Royce had admired earlier—“I’ll destroy.” I saw Ned’s doubt. “Trust me, okay. You think I want more of this?” I pointed at my broken store.

“Anything that you doubt…” Royce began.

“I’ll email.” I held my phone out. “I need an email to send it to.” It didn’t surprise me that it was Ned who took my phone. “Who knows, maybe with fewer shifters visiting me, I’ll become as uninteresting as I was before.” Ned’s lips twitched, but he didn’t laugh.

They offered to stay and help, but now that I had decided my plan going forward, I wanted them gone. It wasn’t personal. I was just ready to move on with my life. I needed to fix my store and my house, and I didn’t want to do it with them, but I also didn’t want to do it alone.

When they had left, I resumed my spot on the floor, back against the wall, knees drawn up, chin on my knees. I hit dial.

“Hey, what’s up?” Lily’s cheerful voice almost made me cry.

“Hey, I haven’t been honest with you,” I told her straight. “I need you at the store if you want to hear why.”

Lily’s silence spoke volumes. “Why now?” she finally asked.

“Because someone or someones broke into my house and the store and wrecked them both.” I spoke over her barrage of questions. “And I can’t do this by myself, I need you. But I can’t ask for or expect your help without telling you what’s been going on.”

Lily was silent again and I had a moment where I was sure she might hang up, and then she spoke. “Are you okay? Were you there when it happened?”

“I’m okay. I wasn’t at either place.” The tears fell silently down my cheeks, and I didn’t bother wiping them away.

“Have you called the police?” She sounded so calm.

“They’ve been to the house, seen the mess there.”

“Where are you?” she asked, her tone clipped.

“At the store.”

“Don’t move. I’ll be there in fifteen.”

“Okay.” My head rested against the wall. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” Lily said, and I could hear her moving. “You and I are about to have a really big fight,” she told me, her voice low and controlled. “Then you’re going to tell me everything, and then you’re going to buy me pizza.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” I heard her hesitate. “Should I bring my dad? To clean up?”

“No, I can manage.”

“Okay. Sit tight.” She said goodbye and then I was alone in the store, my life a mess around me.

As the night got darker, every shadow felt like a threat, every creak a warning that someone had been there and could come back. I listened to it all as the panic rose in my chest, and then I remembered what I had told Ned and Royce.

I was stronger than this, and I refused to let my own fear consume me.

Lily arrived like the whirlwind she was. A force of nature that made everything get out of her way. She took one look at the store, at me, who had gotten off my ass and started to clean up, and she phoned in reinforcements.

My students, Lorna and Peter, arrived. Lorna’s mama bear instincts took over, and within an hour of Lily arriving, I had spoken to two police officers, Lorna had called my insurance, basically forced me and them to agree she could talk on my behalf, and had given them my police incident report number as she explained the situation. She directed Peter to take photos of everything. Her husband was a carpenter, and he was taking measurements.

Lily’s dad was here after all, and he was organizing new locks on doors. If I was honest, I was kind of pushed into a corner, given a cup of tea, and pretty much told to stay out of their way.

Which I needed. Because seeing my friends step in and take over allowed me to process the enormity of what happened, and I wasn’t doing as well as I thought I was. Which was no surprise. Who would be?

No, I was grateful for my friends. Lily had given me a look that told me we would talk later, but for now, she was focused on fixing things. Lorna left with her husband when they found out my house was worse.

She returned to tell me she’d packed a bag and I was staying with her while her husband fixed walls, doors, windows…pretty much my house. She assured me it would only be for a few days, but their kindness and their support, it was too much, and I broke down.

They ushered me out of my store, an army of volunteers busy putting everything to rights, and Lily drove the three of us to Lorna’s.

Somehow, I was showered, in one of her son’s beds, wearing jammies that weren’t mine, with a plate of toast and a big mug of tea, while Lorna left “us girls” to rest, and she was going back to the store to make sure the “workers” were fed.

I felt guilty, but Lily shushed me when I started to protest. “Shh, she’s not been this busy since her sons left for college,” she whispered. “Let her do this.”

We heard the door close, and I ate my toast quietly. I felt her get comfortable beside me, and when I’d swallowed my last bite, I met the look of my best friend.

“Start talking.”