Embracing the Wolf Read online

  Richard stopped Kate before she could follow. His dark eyes searched hers.

  “How are you holding up?”

  Richard appeared to be watching her like an uncertain child on their first day at school. “My life is spinning out of control.” Her words expressed her frustration. “I don’t know you, I don’t know your family, yet here I am...at your mercy.”

  “If there was another way...”

  “Is there?”

  He shook his head. “None that I can see. You and Joey will be safe here.”

  “For how long, Richard?” Kate swallowed the knot in her throat. She didn’t want to cry again. She was tired of crying yet her eyes burned all the same.

  He moved closer, caught her chin, and forced her eyes to his. “As long as it takes.”

  “I don’t want to impose.”

  “You’re not an imposition,” he assured her.

  She could see the sincerity of his emotion. His caring eyes made her believe him. She didn’t understand his motives. Why did he care what happened to them?

  Richard stroked the pad of his thumb over her cheek, his lips parted as if he wanted to say something. He didn’t. Instead, his head dipped lower, his eyes questioned.

  Oh, God. He’s going to kiss me, she thought. Part of her wanted to back away, a very small part of her. The bigger part, however, wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on hers. Butterflies warmed her belly. Anticipation rushed through her veins. How long had it been since a man had kissed her?

  Embracing the Wolf

  by

  Catherine Bybee

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Embracing the Wolf

  COPYRIGHT  2012 by Catherine Bybee

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Cover Art by Crystal Posey

  Published by Catherine Bybee

  Visit Catherine at www.catherinebybee.com

  ISBN: 978-0-98508882-8

  Publishing History First Previous Edition The Wild Rose Press, 2010

  Published in the United States of America

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Dedication

  To Jeremy and Joshua, who may never read this book because let's face it…

  "That's just gross, Mom!"

  For everyone I've ever shared a graveyard shift with, you know who you are.

  From Diners to Emergency Rooms, it's a war zone out there.

  Oh, the stories I could tell…oh, wait, I just did!

  Praise for Catherine Bybee

  Embracing the Wolf

  Two Lips Reviews: Ms. Bybee is absolutely one of the best authors out there at character development.

  Romance in the Backseat: This book made me want to make a space for werewolves in my life. Richard and Kate's story was so intoxicating. I was so deliriously drunk on their instantaneous chemistry.

  Nights and Weekend Reviews: Expressive writing—along with stand-out characters and an interesting plot—makes Embracing the Wolf a fun, fast-paced, suspenseful novel. It’s an e-book that you won’t want to pass up.

  Before the Moon Rises

  Nights and Weekends Reviews: Satisfying and suspenseful, Before the Moon Rises has earned the distinction of being one of the top e-books I’ve come across in my journey to find the very best that the Internet has to offer.

  Romance Studio Reviews: Before the Moon Rises has everything, great characters, a gripping plot, and some pretty hot love scenes.

  Long and Short Reviews: The material is well written, provides a dash of humor and spice to keep things interesting.

  NYT Bestselling Author, Caridad Pineiro: A page turning mix of fast cars, sexy shape shifters and paranormal suspense.

  Chapter One

  Kate scurried around the worn out Formica counter with three bacon and egg breakfast platters, two orders of wheat toast, and an English muffin, without butter, in her arms. She stopped short in front of the pie case and the only thing that registered in her brain at two in the morning was...

  Why is a dog sitting in the middle of the restaurant?

  Then it seemed all hell broke loose.

  “Hit the floor,” the voice behind the knit mask yelled from the cash register.

  Kate stared, not completely sure the man spoke to her.

  “Hit the floor, bitch!”

  Her eyes shifted to the customers who huddled behind their cushioned seats, eyes wide with terror, then back to the man who yelled. She opened her mouth to talk when the object in his hand leveled her way. “I said, hit the floor.”

  Kate froze. The deadly grey barrel of the pistol aimed directly at her face, slid fear deep into her soul. The plates she held crashed to the floor, and she took one giant step back.

  Her only thought was of Joey.

  The gun she focused on moved toward the register. The man hit the keys repeatedly but nothing opened.

  His eyes shot her way. “Open it!”

  Breath, coming in short gasps that resonated all the way to San Bernardino County, rushed from her lungs.

  “Open it!”

  Go along with him, and you’ll go home. Alive!

  “Hurry!” The gun twitched, or maybe the man. She swallowed the lump in her throat and wiped her damp palms over the polyester of her uniform skirt. Going against every instinct known to man, she stepped over the broken dishes and closer to the deadly weapon.

  The gunman jarred her shoulder with his freehand, waking her from her frozen state. “Hurry.” His voice wavered. Either his patience grew thin, or he had some doubt as to what he was doing.

  Kate’s shaky hand removed the key to the cash register from her pocket, dropped it into the lock, and opened the drawer with a ding.

  She removed the twenties and tens and handed the cash to the thief standing over her.

  “All of it!” His putrid breath rushed past her nose with his command. He thrust the money in a bag he drew from his pocket.

  The animal at his feet snarled, baring massive teeth.

  The hair on the back of her neck rose. Kate’s gaze focused on the ice blue eyes of the dog. Although it didn’t look like a dog at all, more like a wolf, maybe.

  “Hurry up.”

  Reaching inside the till, her fingers scrambled to remove the cash. She handed the masked man every dollar and even grabbed the cash from under the drawer. “That’s all there is,” she told him, cringing away from the gun.

  “Don’t move,” he ordered, backing out of the drab interior of the lobby without taking his eyes off her.

  As if in slow motion, the side door to where the help took the dirty dishes opened, and Julio stepped through not knowing a robbery was taking place.

  The gunman turned, Kate’s mind raced ahead. She thought of Julio’s four kids without their father.

  On reflex, Kate pivoted, shoved the gunman away, and yelled a warning.

  The explosion of the gun permeated the silence of the room. Something hit her and spun her
around. Screams elevated over the blast.

  Kate started to fall and heard the glass from the pie case shattering before her world went black.

  ****

  Something cold pressing against her forehead tore her from the blissful darkness that surrounded her.

  Oh boy, how can so many parts of my body hurt at once?

  Kate struggled to sit up, only to have someone she didn’t know tell her to relax.

  Her eyes fluttered open. The kid, or at least what appeared to be a kid, not more than twenty years old, held her down. Still confused, she watched his head turn to talk with a man dressed in a uniform beside him. A stethoscope hung from his neck.

  He’s a paramedic, she thought.

  The memory of what happened came back in a flash. Kate jolted to an upright position.

  “Julio,” she called out, her voice crazed with panic.

  “He’s okay. Everyone’s okay.” The medic’s concerned face drove away her fears. “You took the worse end of things.”

  Relief swept through her. Kate closed her eyes and sunk back to the cold, hard floor. The aches she knew instinctively were nothing, started to seep in. “What happened?” She peeked again at the kid taking her blood pressure.

  The medic eyed the police officer at his side; their unspoken communication frazzled her already shaken nerves. “Do you remember any of it?”

  The back of her head ached. No, it hurt. Really bad. She grimaced. “I remember a dog,” she told them.

  “What else?” the cop asked with his pen poised in his hand and a small notebook ready for dictation.

  “There was a man in a mask, holding a gun.”

  “What kind of gun?”

  “I don’t know—a gun. Big, black. I’ve seen guns on TV but never before in real life.” She shivered with the memory.

  “What else do you remember?”

  “There was a dog with him. Vicious, barking.”The piercing eyes of the animal would never leave her. How they followed her every move, the way he watched her was downright surreal. Just thinking about it brought moisture to her palms and quickened her heartbeat.

  “What did the dog do?”

  “He watched.”

  The cop slid a sideways glance at the medic, then back to her. “What else do you remember?”

  “Julio came in from the back...the man with the gun pointed his weapon at him. I thought he was going to shoot. I panicked.” Her chin trembled. “And then I fell.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes,” she replied in a small voice.

  The cop, somewhat disinterested, took a couple more notes before walking away.

  The medic took her blood pressure for a second time since she had come around. The sound of metal ground against the tile floor. She peered over his shoulder and saw a gurney being wheeled in. “I have to go to the hospital?”

  “Yeah.” The medic nodded, and then he and his partner loaded her onto the gurney.

  The chime on the door to the restaurant rang. Kate glanced over on impulse and focused on the person at the door. The number on the side of the threshold suggested he was well past six feet tall, his build large. He strode in as if he belonged, his gait wide and confident.

  “This is a crime scene.” The police officer lifted his hand out to stop him.

  “I know.” The stranger pulled back his coat exposing his identification. At the same time, Kate caught a flash of the gun he had holstered on his hip.

  Kate closed her eyes when the gurney started to move. “Is this really necessary?” she asked.

  “You were shot,” the medic explained.

  Her eyes flew open. “I was not.” Kate gaped down at her body and systematically started moving her limbs. Then she noticed the bandage on her left arm. Because she had fallen into the pie case, shattering the glass, she didn’t think anything of it. But when she went to move her arm, searing pain radiated down to her finger tips. “Oh...”

  “Excuse me.” The man from the doorway approached.

  “Yes?” Kate peered up and into chocolate brown eyes that stared down on her with concern.

  “I’m Richard Ritter, with Ritter Securities. Can I talk with you for a minute?”

  Kate glanced at the paramedics. Her mouth twisted. “I’m kind of busy, going to the hospital and all.”

  “This will only take a minute,” he assured her.

  The medics moved the gurney toward the door. “You can question her at the hospital. She’s been here long enough.”

  “I only have one question.” Mr. Ritter scrambled alongside the gurney. “There was a dog with the man that committed the robbery, right?”

  “Yeah, I told the cops that.”

  “Did the dog bite you?”

  “What?” Kate thought the question odd, considering the fact that a bullet had passed through her body. Or maybe still was in her body…Damn, I’ve been shot! Somehow, a dog bite seemed trivial in light of the circumstances.

  “Bite? Did the dog bite you?” he asked again his tone a bit more brisk.

  “No. Wait, I don’t know. I don’t even remember being shot.” Kate winced when the men lifted the gurney to the back of the ambulance. The burning pain grew more insistent. She moaned.

  “You don’t know?” He tilted his head to the side, as if he didn’t believe her.

  “That’s what she said, mister. Now if you don’t mind.” The medic closed the double doors, rounded the front of the van, and jumped into the driver seat.

  “Where are you taking her?” Kate heard the man yell.

  “County General.”

  The sound of sirens filled the cavity of the van as it left the restaurant parking lot.

  ****

  The Emergency Room buzzed with a whirlwind of activity when she arrived. Nurses rushed her into x-ray before she had time to think. From there she landed inside the tube of a Cat Scan machine.

  Everyone asked her the same frenzied questions over and over within the first thirty minutes of her stay. Yet, once the doctor came into the room and told her that her scans came out normal, and the bullet had gone through her body without touching the bone, everyone left her bedside. It was as if she no longer needed anything once the staff realized she wasn’t dying.

  Kate noticed the time on the institutional-style wall clock, 3:30 in the morning. She still had a few hours before she needed to get home to relieve the babysitter.

  Before she could think about that, she needed to find someone in the department who could clean up the hole in her arm and cuts all over her body.

  She carefully draped her legs over the side of the gurney and eased her frame in a sitting position.

  Her head swam. Gripping the sides of the gurney, she closed her eyes to gain her equilibrium.

  What a mess.

  At first glance, it appeared as if she had suffered a catfight instead of armed robbery. Her hands, scraped and crusted with blood, where the small shards of glass cut into them from the fall, still shook. Her head ached, and her arm oozed blood from the bullet wound. There was blood everywhere. Even her legs didn’t go unscathed.

  The medics, in all their infinite wisdom, had sliced her clothing off before she regained consciousness. She sat now in a hospital gown that covered very little and couldn’t help but wonder what she would wear home.

  Standing on wobbly feet, she grabbed the overhead table for support. Big mistake, the thing moved. With a gasp, she found herself spiraling toward the floor without the ability to stop her fall. Pressing her eyes tight, she tried to anticipate the crash when her body jerked to a stop mid-fall. Large capable hands encircled her waist, catching her before she had a chance to hit.

  “Whoa, where are you going?”

  Kate caught her breath and glanced over her shoulder. “Mr. Ritter, right?”

  “Richard,” he corrected, while he guided her back to her bed.

  She tried to ignore the fact that her gown gaped in the back, showing the stranger almost every asset she possessed. Heat hi
t her cheeks at the thought. The same thought must have occurred to him, because he graciously pulled her gown closed behind her keeping her modesty intact.

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  Kate shook her head and waved him away.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Home, I’ve got to get home,” she muttered.

  He glanced beyond the door of the room. “You don’t exactly have the appearance of someone ready for discharge.”

  Kate eased back against the pillow and tried to clear her head. “I was on my way to find someone to help me get cleaned up.”

  “I don’t think the doctor will be agreeable to sending you home if you can’t stand on your own two feet.” He moved a comfortable distance away and folded his hands across his chest. The stance, along with the way he watched her, made her realize he was used to being in charge.

  Well, so was she.

  “Are you a doctor, Mr. Ritter?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Why don’t you be helpful and get one in here so I can go home.”

  His smile took her by surprise. Straight teeth with a small cleft in his chin had her hiding her own grin. Whoever this Mr. Ritter was, he was cute. Annoying, but cute.

  “Why the hurry?”

  Really annoying! “Who are you?” she asked.

  “I told you already. I’m from Ritter Securities; we monitor the alarm system at the restaurant.”

  “And you’re here...why?”

  He unfolded his arms and placed one on his head, giving it a small scratch. “I, ah, we, are always interested in the welfare of the customers we service.”

  What a crock of shit. “So you followed me to the hospital?”