Animal Desire: A Paranormal Romance (Werewolf and Shapeshifter) (The Animal Sagas) (3 page)

“No,” Ben replied quietly, but sternly.

“What do you mean no?” Lynda looked at him in shock, she had no idea what was happening, why he would deny her the right to punish this young witch for attempting to harm her children.

“Tell her,” Tanis smirked as she tilted her head slightly to the side. “Tell her who was forgotten in the woods, brother.”

Ben’s jaw clenched as he knew there was no evading the truth. He whistled shortly to call back his guards. At his command the men escorted Tanis away from the shack.

“What did she mean, Ben?” Lynda asked Ben as she took the babies back from Sonya.

“She’s my youngest sister,” Ben explained to his confused mate in a regretful tone.

Ben started explaining things before Lynda had a chance to say anything else, “Many years ago, when we were kids, we went for a run in the woods one day and I lost track of her. We searched for her for weeks,” he gasped slightly as he had carried the burden and the guilt of this story for so long. His shoulders drooped and his face was filled with sorrow.

“All of us… the entire pack searched for her… night and day.” Ben continued, obviously ready to share the tale after all these years.

“We put our best trackers on it… and we even had help from a few neighboring packs too out looking for her. Everyone looked… everywhere. But when we never found her after weeks, it was assumed that she had succumbed to the wild… and we stopped looking. My parents were never the same.”

“Oh Ben,” Lynda said quietly. She understood how he must have felt, searching so frantically for his young sister. “But she’s not that young child any more,” Lynda reminded him. “She knows what she did – she stole our babies.”

“I know,” Ben said gravely and met Lynda’s eyes with determination. “She will pay for that. Of that you can be sure.”

It took a little work but Ben finally managed to have Lynda and Sonya escorted back to the cabin by Clay and a few of the others. Ben assured them he would be fine but he had to talk with her now and the sisters understood from his manner that he meant business. As soon as they were safely out of sight Ben headed for the tiny cabin where his men had already taken their newest “guest”.

He needed time to talk with Tanis for so many reasons – but mostly to answer all those long buried questions that had haunted him for the past several years ever since her disappearance. His mind was swimming with thoughts of her life over the past years. Where had she been? Who had raised her? What happened to her on that day all those years ago?

As soon as he reached the building, his men, completely surrounding the perimeter of the structure, bowed their heads and moved out of his way so that he could enter.  The tiny cabin was only two rooms – a tiny bathroom with a small shower, sink and toilet, and the rest of the house was an open room basically divided into a small living area with a recliner, couch and table and a small little bedroom, equipped with a twin bed. It was clean but sparsely decorated. After all, this space was not meant as a living area – only for short stay guests.

Ben walked up the three steps to the small porch and stood  there for a moment before he knocked on the front door. There was no answer even though he felt the presence inside. He knocked once more and said quietly, “Tanis? It’s Ben… can I come in?”

He waited for a response and one came a few seconds later, “Come in, Ben. After all, it’s your house.”

And with that, he opened the front door and walked on in. Tanis was sitting at the tiny table with a can of soda and an uneaten PB&J sandwich right in front of her. She watched him as he entered the room, like a cat would watch a sparrow entering its home. He fought the urge to walk around and hug her, but he could tell from her body language that she was not receptive to that.

“So I see they made you some food.” Ben smiled, then went on, “I wasn’t sure what you wanted but I asked them to get you something just in case you were hungry.”

“I’m not hungry,” Tanis replied still watching Ben carefully.

“I can have the ladies fix you anything you like,” Ben countered as he pulled back a folding chair and sat at the table directly across from her.

“That’s not necessary. Maybe later,” she said flatly as she pushed her white blonde braids back over her shoulder.

“Just let me know…” Ben said wondering how exactly to carry on this conversation. Then he leaned in and rested his arms on the small card table between him and Tanis. The food slightly jiggled as his arms rested on the flimsy surface. Tanis did not move but continued to watch him.

“So, I don’t know of any way to do this other than to just come out and ask you, Tanis, what happened to you all those years ago? I mean… we were out having a good time that day out in the forest and the next thing I know you’ve completely vanished. I looked for you… we looked for you, all of us, including the best trackers in the area at that time… for weeks…  and never found anything.”

Tanis sat there and looked at Ben for a few seconds – he could tell she was thinking about her answer before she said anything. And even though she was his sister, she was also a stranger – so he waited patiently for her reply.

“I don’t know what happened that day Ben,” Tanis started. “I really have very little recollection of that day. I can remember us going to the forest… I was looking at mushrooms I think… and you were on the trail of something . I don’t know what, maybe a squirrel or something. But the last thing I really remember about that day was that I went into a patch of trees and found a whole bunch of mushrooms – I was so proud of my discovery… and I went back to get you to show them to you… but you were gone!”

“That’s not at all what happened,” Ben exclaimed, completely caught off guard by her implications of his abandoning her. “I was looking for squirrel and rabbit nests, yes, but I never just left you alone. Is that really what you think – that I just abandoned you?”

“Well, wasn’t it?” Tanis asked. “I looked for you for 3 days after that and never found you or anyone. I was all alone out there!”

“Tanis, I’m so sorry… but I didn’t leave you.” Ben said. “After you went missing we all looked for you for weeks. It was like you just disappeared from the face of the earth.”

“I wandered around for days out there… I never saw any dangerous animals thank goodness… but I lived off berries and a small stream I found. Finally I found a little cabin and a little old lady way out there. I was dirty and hungry… I think I had poison oak and my clothes were ripped…  but she took me in anyway and I lived with her from then on. She was my new family.”

“Tanis, I am your family…” Ben interjected. “And there are even more family members now. Mom and Dad are gone… and I have a wife and children now you know… and you have other in-laws too, not too mention all the pack members.”

Tanis just sat there silently no longer making eye contact as Ben talked, and it was obvious she wanted to be anywhere but there.

Ben watched her before he went on, “And we need to talk about what happened tonight too… about the babies… but I know it’s been an eventful night and we all need some rest.” He hesitated giving her time to speak but when she didn’t he went on. “So for now, I will leave you alone and we’ll talk again in the morning, alright?”

Tanis just sat there looking at the floor.

“I’m glad you’re back,” Ben said as he stood up. He pushed the folded chair back up under the table and headed for the door. He wanted to hug her but knew she wasn’t ready for that kind of contact yet.

“I’ll be back in the morning and we’ll talk some more. Until then I have several of my men posted outside to make sure you are okay. If you need anything at all you just let them know… and if you need me for some reason… any reason, then have one of them come get me and I’ll be here in just a few minutes. Okay?”

“I can do that,” was all she said.

He smiled at her, trying to make eye contact with her once again. But when that didn’t happen he simply walked over to the front door and went on out, closing it behind him. Once out on the small front porch he motioned to his nearest lieutenant to come on over. Ben walked down the stairs to meet him.

Ben motioned to the side and the 2 men walked out of earshot of the cabin before Ben gave him more orders about what to do concerning the young girl inside. Once he was sure everything would be taken care of he walked back to his own house alone, dreading the next battle he was sure he was about to have.

Lynda sat in a rocking chair beside the window, her two little ones nursing as she gazed out at the stars. She rocked slowly back and forth, trying to release the fear that she had experienced earlier in the day.

Ben was taking care of things with Tanis, providing her a comfortable but secure room to sleep in. He had guards on her at all times. He had tried to explain why he would allow such a dangerous person to be near the babies a dozen times, but Lynda still didn’t understand it.

She had gone to great lengths to protect her own sister, but her sister had not tried to steal her children either. But when she heard the front door of the cabin swing open and then close again, she let her eyes fall shut. She wished she was in bed so that she could pretend to be asleep.

After a few minutes Ben opened the bedroom door quietly, in case the babies were sleeping, and looked inside. When he saw them suckling he smiled sweetly at Lynda. Lynda did not smile back.

“Don’t be angry,” Ben pleaded as he walked into the room. He knew already that he was in trouble.

“Is that a request or a command, Alpha?” she asked him quietly with more than a little attitude. She got up from her seat and gently placed the babies inside their bassinets before turning swiftly to face him.

“Just who do you think I am?” she asked him in a whisper, the question so full of venom that he was startled by the tone of her voice. He had no idea how to answer her question.

“I know who you are Lynda,” he said hesitantly.

“No you don’t,” she snapped, still trying to keep her voice down and her temper in check. “Because if you did, you would know, that if someone tries to steal or hurt my children, that individual is going to pay, and I will be the one to deliver the punishment.”

“Lynda,” he sighed as he stepped in closer to her. “Please try to understand. Tanis… she  was only a baby herself when she disappeared. She told me a little about what had happened to her when I was talking to her just a bit ago. She was abducted… well I call it abducted, but that wasn’t her choice of words.”

Ben walked even closer to her as he went on, “She never came right out and said it, but I think it was the witch… the witch we dealt with all those months ago. And I think she raised Tanis to be her apprentice. And yes, before you ask, I really feel it was the same witch we dealt with not too long ago… but I can’t prove it.”

Ben continued on, “Lynda, it’s not who she truly is, since she got lost way back then…  she’s never had the chance to become who she truly was going to be.”

“So that’s an excuse?” Lynda snapped, her anger surfacing once more. Then she quieted down before going on, “That’s an excuse for stealing our babies while they slept?”

“No,” Ben agreed quietly and as he walked even closer to her and wrapped one arm around her waist.

Lynda struggled with him a bit before Ben said, “What she did was wrong, and the terror that you felt… that I felt… that the whole pack felt is something that she will have to find a way to make up for.”

Lynda’s eyes widened, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What do you mean, ‘make up’ for? Benjamin Wilder… you’re not seriously thinking of letting her stay here, are you? Are you?!” Lynda asked breathlessly as she pushed Ben away. “She can’t stay here! It’s not possible.”

“Lynda, she’s my sister,” Ben slowly reminded her. “She is a part of my family too. And she’s been alone for a very long time. You can’t expect me to abandon her… to turn her away… again.”

“Yes I can,” Lynda nodded quickly. “She’s a danger…”

“But she didn’t hurt them,” Ben pointed out. “The twins are fine.”

“Because we found them first!” Lynda shot back. “Who knows what she planned to do with them? What might have happened to them if we hadn’t found them so fast? There’s nothing good that could come of someone stealing your children.”

Ben breathed a heavy sigh of frustration. He knew that he was not going to win this battle.

“People don’t steal children with good thoughts in their mind!” Lynda continued, frustrated that Ben was thinking of keeping the kidnapper of her children around. “You know that as well as I do, Ben!”

Yes,  he nodded his head with that point. He could command her to obey him, but that was not the kind of marriage they had, and that was certainly not the type of man he was.

“Fine,” he reluctantly agreed after a few seconds of silence. “If you want me to make her leave, then I will.”

“I do, that’s exactly what I want if I can’t have what I really want… and thank you” Linda said sternly. “Lock her up in the woods somewhere, I don’t care. You can visit her there anytime that you want to. Feed her there, visit her there… rehabilitate her there… far, far away from our children.”

“Okay,” he finally agreed as he walked back to her and drew her closer in his arms.

“Lynda, you know, you and the babies are what’s the most important thing to me.” Ben assured her. “If this is what you need… if this will make you feel more secure, then I will do it to make you happy. Anything for you. You know that right?”

“Thank you,” Lynda said quietly and then pulled away from him still holding one hand in hers. She climbed into bed, and he climbed in beside her. When she felt his strong arms encircle her she relaxed with the sense of safety that they offered her. She wasn’t sure exactly why – was it the run, the baby-napping or just being a first time mom – but her old friend sleep finally visited her that night and decided to stay around for a while.

The next morning Ben and Lynda slept in just a little past their usual, got ready and went together to the room where Tanis was being kept as soon as Lynda had fed the twins. Sonya was left in charge of the babies once more, as Lynda had come to trust her with them after seeing how protective she was of them throughout last nights ordeal. She knew the kidnapping was in no way her fault.