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Howard answered his phone and immediately regretted it. It was Cynthia again. She’d left so many messages on his cell phone that he couldn’t get through them all without sitting down for an hour. And with each one of them, she got angrier and angrier.

She started out being angry with just Cass. Then, as the messages progressed, she was mad at him and Howie too. He never figured out what she was mad at her brother about, something about him being twenty-nine, but she was very clear on what Cass had done to her to piss her off.

“Where are you, Daddy?” He’d never hated a name as much as he did her calling him ‘Daddy.’ Maybe if she was five or so, but not a forty-year-old woman calling him that. “I’ve been looking for you and Mother for days on end, and I can’t find you. You’re on my list now, Daddy. You don’t want to be on my list.”

“No, I’m sure that I don’t. Where are you, Cynthia? Have you decided to get back on your meds? You’d better, or you’re going to be sick again. You remember the last time, don’t you? How sick you got when you’d get those headaches?” She told him that she was never going back on them again. They made her feel doped up all the time. “That’s why you take them. They keep you calm. You need to be calm, and all the headaches will go away.”

“I don’t want to talk to you about medication, Daddy. I want to know what it is you’re going to be doing about Mother and Cass. They’re into things together, and I need for you to put a stop to it.” He asked what they were doing together. “Plotting my demise. Not really. I’m stronger than they are. Smarter too. I want you to divorce mother. That’s the only way to keep her out of my business. And Cass needs to be put down.”

“Put down? I don’t think I want to understand what you mean by that, Cynthia. And I will not divorce your mother. You do know that she’ll still be your mother if I were to divorce her, don’t you?” She told him that she was messing in her business. “I don’t think she’s messing in anything that you’re doing. I want to talk to you about your medications. You need to start taking them again.”

“Stop bringing up the fucking medications.” Her voice echoed in his mind. Her anger was almost palpable to him. “Now, what are you going to do about Cass? She’s dating, and I’ve not given her permission to do so. I’ve told her and told her that she’s not to date men until I don’t want them. Then she can date my sloppy seconds. After I’ve had them, they won’t want to downgrade to someone like her. Howie won’t get involved unless she starts dating the people he’s dating. That’s the point I’m trying to make with her. No one wants her after they’ve been with me, and that’s the way it has to work.”

She was making no sense. What did Howie have to do? Dating women? Nothing that she said was clear to him, and he was going to have to nail her down a bit to get clearer answers. Before he could, however, she was on again about rules that Cass wasn’t following, and somehow that was her mother’s fault.

“Calm down, Cynthia. You’re confusing me. What are you going on about with rules?” She was calm for the briefest of moments. “Now tell me what’s this about rules. I don’t understand which rules she’s breaking.”

“All of them. I have rules, and she’s not following any of them, Daddy. She’s supposed to be living here, and I haven’t seen her in days to explain to her about coming in late. She’s to not date unless I say it’s all right.” She growled low in her throat, and it made him think of a caged animal. A wild one at that. “I just know she’s seeing those Valley men and fucking them. There isn’t to be any of that either. Not until I’m finished with them. I want her to hand over her phone to me so that I can monitor her calls. She’s keeping me in the dark about her life. I won’t have it.”

“She’s a grown woman, the same as you are. I don’t even want to know what she has on her phone. Or if she’s…why do you care who she’s seeing? It’s frankly none of your business who she’s with. And the young man that she’s seeing is a nice man.” He knew his mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. “His name is Conri, and he’s going to marry her. Now, that’s going to happen and—”

“She. Is. Not to. Date. Anyone. Until. I say. So. Did you understand me that time? Do I fucking have to spell it for you next? Not anyone, and she will not marry before me. Christ, you’re off your rocker, Daddy. You’re lingering around is going to cause me trouble. I’m going to have to talk to your doctor about speeding up your death. I hate that too, but you’re messing things up now, and I will have to take charge.” He didn’t hear anything past her telling him she wished that he’d hurry up and die.

Closing his cell phone, he laid it as gently as he could on the table that was in the room they were renting. She wanted him to hurry up and die. And he had no doubt that she’d call his doctor if she ever found out who he was. And she’d tell him just what she said she would. She wanted him dead. When the phone rang again, he calmly picked it up and broke it in half. He wasn’t going to speak to her again, not without witnesses. He almost didn’t believe his own ears when he thought about what she’d said to him.

When Elizabeth came back from shopping, careful to never be alone in their own town, he told her everything that had been said and how she wanted Cass to be put down. She was just as shocked as he’d been.

“I don’t know what to do now. She needs to be put back in that asylum. Never to be let out—I don’t know why they ever thought it was a good idea to let her out in the first place. They were able to keep her on her meds. And that fool of a doctor said he could monitor from her cell phone. Obviously, that didn’t work. She’s back to being like she was only worse. At least then we could calm her down by just talking to her.” Elizabeth agreed with him, but he could see the worry on her face. “We’ll have to make some calls. Get her back where she was before she hurts someone or kills them.”

It took them nearly an hour to get back with the doctor that had taken care of her in the asylum. He was just as shocked as they’d been when the other doctor, the one who was supposed to keep an eye on her, was doing it from her cell phone.

“Where is she now?” They told him that she was at their home. “We’ll get with the police to be able to take her in quietly. I don’t want her to be harmed, nor do I want anyone else to be harmed. We’ll have to sedate her to bring her in.”

Arrangements were made to get the police involved and how they were going to do it. Howard felt terrible that it had had to be done this way and held onto his wife for support. They didn’t have a choice in the matter. Cynthia was a danger to herself and others. Next, he had to call Cass and Howie to let them know what was going on. Cass answered first, and then they brought their son in on the call, as well as Conri.

After telling them everything that was going on, including the phone call with Cynthia, they asked questions about how it was going to work. Conri said that he could have some of his pack there that would help the police if he wanted, and he was all for that. The more help they had, the better things would go, he thought.

“I’ve spoken to the police here in town. The doctor told them that it would be better to try talking to her in the morning. Before she has time to go over her notes. We’re going to meet them at the house at dawn to make sure that she’s at home.” Howard told Conri that she never leaves the house. “We just want to make sure that she stays there if she’s there or find her if she’s not. As you said, there is no way of knowing what she’s been up to while living there alone for the past week. I’m to understand that the staff has left, too.”

“The men are still taking care of the horses, but they’re far from the house. I don’t know that she’d go down there at all. She feels that the place is beneath her and dirty. The one and only time I know she’s been there was when she was looking for me.” Howard thought again about how she called him ‘daddy’ all the time and had to swallow a bit of his grief for what could happen out at the house tomorrow. “You’ll keep us informed, won’t you, Conri? And Cass, you and Howie should come here to stay with us. I’d feel better if you were both here where I can watch over you.”

“I can be there, Dad.” After Howie spoke, Cass said that she’d be there as well. “Dad, you just make sure you are going to be all right, too. I don’t want anything to happen to you two either.”

“Thank you, son. I’m going to rest tonight. This has been so stressful for us all. I’m going to have to get me a new number and phone soon. I can’t stand to listen to her anymore. I broke my phone after the last time she called me.” Howard held onto his wife’s hands and told the kids how much he loved them. “Conri, you make sure that you’re not hurt either. You’ve only just become a part of the family, and I can’t stand for anything to happen to you, too.”

That night, when they were getting ready for bed, he cried softly into his pillow. He hurt for his children and, especially, Cass. She’d done nothing wrong to bring this down on her head, and Cynthia was blaming all her woes on her. He thought about how Cass had been asked to move out, and it hurt his heart every time he thought about it.

She’d lived in the big house for all her life. When she’d turned fourteen, she and Cynthia never had a cross word until then. He thought that she’d found competition in her little sister, but Cass was too busy forming her own way in the world to be bothered by her sister’s complaints. Then, one night, Cynthia had gotten violent with Cass.

Cass spent the next month in the hospital recovering from the wounds that her older sister had inflicted on her. She had drugged her with one of her own tablets and then tied her up. Finding her tied to her bed and Cynthia standing over her with a bloodied riding crop had nearly done him in.

She’d hit her with it fifty-seven times before she’d been caught, and only then because Cass had woken up and was screaming. He didn’t want to think about the things that had spewed from her mouth when the police had come to take her away. He had no doubt that this time would be no different, with her saying things that were never true about Cass.

“Are you asleep?” He told his lovely wife that he wasn’t and didn’t know if he could. “Yes, me either. I keep thinking about the things she’d said to me that morning that I left. She was set to kill me. Or have you do it. She told me that you loved her more than you did me.” He said that wasn’t true. “Yes, I know that love, but she was saying things that I believe will haunt me for the rest of my life. She hated me that much, enough to have said you were going to take care of me.” He felt her shiver.

“I never gave into her like she says I did. Like I was the only one to be able to make things right for her. I just don’t know where she got that.” Elizabeth said she’d never been a daddy’s girl. “No, not at all. And I hate that she calls me ‘Daddy’ all the time. I’ve tried to tell her she was too old to be calling me that, but she wouldn’t have it. Like she was just a child, calling me that.”

“She’s called me Elizabeth for the last few years. I didn’t mind that so much as her calling me ‘Mommy.’ You’re right. I hated her calling you ‘Daddy’ too. I thought that it was very immature of her. Do you believe that she’s going to be forty-one soon? And we’ve always been slightly afraid of her. At least I have been. Sometimes, she looks at me like she’s wondering where to stick the knife.” She shivered again. “I can’t get over how much she’s taken over our lives. We’re supposed to be in our golden years right now, not having the police go in and arrest her because we’re afraid of her. And I am, too. How about you, honey?”

“I’ve been afraid of her since she hurt Cass. If she could do that to her own sister, there is no telling what she could do to us.” He pulled his wife into his arms and held her. “We’ll make sure that she doesn’t get out this time. I don’t care if we have to pay with every penny we have. She won’t get out to hurt any of us again.”

“No, you’re right. We can’t live like this. And with you only…I’m going to miss you so much, Howard. I just don’t know what I’m going to do with myself.” He held her while she cried softly. His own heart was breaking, too. If only, he thought they’d of found it sooner, he might be around a bit more. Just a little more time to see Conri and his Cass’s children.

~*~

Conri was nervous about this whole thing. Not only was Cindy not at home, but she wasn’t at the horse barns either. He had his brothers go around as their wolves to find her, but so far, no one was having any luck. Conri was the most worried about Cass and the fact that he’d never claimed her as yet. Too much going on. And now he had every reason to wish he’d just done it to keep her safe.

The two of them were getting along better than he’d ever had with Carol. She’d been spending a lot of time with her father, for which he couldn’t blame her. She had the kind of dad that he thought he would have loved to have. Even Elizabeth was someone that he loved to be around. It had only taken him a couple of times being at the bed and breakfast together that he’d fallen in love with the entire family.

He knew that he loved Cass, too. She was funny and articulate. She could play chess and wasn’t a sore loser when he did manage to beat her. Just hanging around them all made his days seem to go better. His mood had improved as well.

Cass wore the ring that his mom had given him. And just as he’d thought, she loved the plainness of it. When asked if she wanted something different or even bigger, she told him no, the one that he’d given her was perfect. A couple of days ago, he’d even stopped comparing her to Carol as much as he had been. She was just Cass Warmer Valley, and he’d fallen head over heels in love with her.

“I’m not finding her scent anywhere around the house. I mean, not even at the doors. I’m thinking that she has to be inside and we’ve just missed her. Her scent is the strongest in the house, too.” He said that they searched every room in the place. “I don’t know. Perhaps call Howard and find out if they have a secret room or maybe a cellar that we didn’t find.”

“Give me five minutes, and I’ll call him. Just be careful of her. She could just sneak up on you in a heartbeat.” Conri called Elizabeth as Howard still didn’t have a phone. When she answered, he had a feeling that something was wrong. “Is she there with you, Elizabeth?” Her whispered answer made his wolf snarl at him.

“She’s just outside the building. It’s like she knows we’re in here but is teasing us until she comes inside.” He asked where the others were. “We’re all huddled up in the bathroom. Don’t ask me why, but that seemed to be the most logical place. However, now that I think about it, it’s also a good place for her to get to us all at once.”

“You’re right. Go into the little lounge. Just be careful. I’m sending my brothers and the police to you. Don’t be alarmed if you see some wolves. My brothers will be safer as their other half.” She said for him to hurry. “I’m speaking to them now.” After telling them where Cindy was, they took off towards town. Then he spoke to the police.

Since they knew that they were wolves, too, they knew not to be freaked out by seeing them either. Catching a ride with the police, leaving two behind in the event she got away from them, he couldn’t get the officer to go fast enough for him. He was right. They didn’t need to get into a crash before getting there. But he was worried about Cass.

“When we get home today, if we do, then I want you to claim me in whatever way will make me the safest. I can’t protect my family, being just a puny human. I should have thought of that sooner.” He was so glad to hear from Cass that he nearly shifted to be with her sooner. He told her what was going on with the police. “You stay out of harm’s way, too. I know my sister well enough to know that she’ll hurt you if given the chance.”

“I am. I promise that I don’t want to be hurt either. But if she harms you in any way, I’m going for her ass.” She told him she was glad to hear that, which surprised him to no end. She was her sister, after all. “I just heard from Rette. He said they’re coming up on the bed and breakfast now. Stay alert.” She said that she would but to stop talking to her so she could pay attention to what was going on around her.

The police were there when they pulled into the street across from the place. They had spread out all over the big home and were waiting for orders. He’d gotten to the point that he just wanted her out of their lives, but it wasn’t his decision to make. When Lamar said she was coming around the front, he watched her as she came around the building with her empty hands up and a huge smile on her face. There was something so not right about that.

Cindy was arrested without incident. She still hadn’t spoken to anyone by the time she was put into the car but to ask for her daddy. He went into the place to make sure that the Warmer family was all right. Things couldn’t have been better when Cass leapt into his arms and hugged him.

“Everyone all right?” They said they were, but he still checked them all out. “She’s asking to see you, Howard. The police are saying that it’s up to you. They have her in shackles and arm restraints. The doctors are waiting for the ambulance to come to take her with them.”

“I don’t want to see her.” He nodded. “Do you think I’m a terrible person for not seeing my daughter, Conri?”

“What I think doesn’t matter. However, I would say that if you don’t see her, I wouldn’t blame you one bit. She’s caused enough trouble over three lifetimes to warrant what you’re saying. Also, I’m going to say this now. I don’t believe for a minute that she’s going to be this easy to take care of. She’s planning something. I can feel it in my bones.” Just as he was helping them leave the room, he felt the ground rumble under his feet. Then, a second time.

“Christ, what was that?” They all scrambled to get out of the house and into the streets. Whatever it had been, there was another explosion and another rolling of people around. Just as he was thinking that it sounded like a bomb went off, Yuri, who had stayed at the Warmer home in the event that Cindy returned, contacted him.

“It’s gone. Conri, the entire house is gone.” He asked him what he was talking about. “The house and one of the smaller barns up close to the house have exploded. We felt it all the way out to the horse barns. It’s just in splinters still tumbling down onto the remains.” He pulled Cass into his arms and told her in whispers what Yuri was telling him.

“No, she didn’t do it. Please tell me that she didn’t just blow up our home.” They both looked in the cruiser that she was sitting in the back of. Cindy was laughing hard and pounding her fist against the window. He didn’t know how she’d done it, but he knew that she’d just destroyed the home of her parents.

Telling the Warmers that their house was gone nearly took them all three to the floor. There had been police in the house not thirty minutes ago. His brother could have been closer to the house and been hurt badly. He wanted to pull Cindy from the car and make her tell him why she’d done such a thing. People could have been killed.

When she was taken away in the ambulance and heavily sedated, they all didn’t say anything. Almost as soon as Howard came up to him, he nearly missed grabbing him up before he fell down. The man was a mess, and so was his family. Cass was telling them that they could stay with them until they rebuilt. If they rebuilt. He couldn’t imagine the things, small and large treasures they would have lost in this senseless act of violence.

“I’m telling my parents they can stay with us in your home. I should have asked, but I didn’t think about it not being mine.” He said that everything that he had was now hers. “Thank you for that. But I still should have asked.”

“Tell them there is plenty of room, and we’ll get the insurance company on it right away. Yuri said the horses were all right, if not slightly startled. I’m just so glad that no one was home. I wonder if she had figured that into…I can’t believe that she did this to their home.” She told him she couldn’t believe it either. “I have to keep telling myself that no one was hurt. Yuri told me that everything is gone.

Everyone followed the fire trucks out to the ranch. There really wasn’t anything to see. Like Yuri said, the house was totally destroyed. The little fires that were still burning were easy enough to get under control. Howie knew enough to call the vet and have him come out and check on the horses.

“We have nothing but the few clothes that we took to the bed and breakfast with us. Nothing else. No photo albums. None of the blankets that were made by my mom’s and Howard’s. It’s all gone. Oh, my jewelry, too.” Elizabeth looked up at him. “Things keep popping into my head that we lost, but I have to keep telling myself that we’re all right, all of us are.”

“And you’ll be staying with us in the house until you get things figured out.” She said she didn’t want to put him out. “You won’t. The pack house is big because it has room for families that have had something happen to their home, and they stay there. My mom doesn’t live there anymore. It’s just me and Cass, and she is staying in another bedroom from mine.” She thanked him for that.

“As soon as your insurance company says it’s all right, we’ll get a construction crew out here to clean this up and get started on the rebuild. I’m assuming that you’d like to start fresh, new home and all.” She told him they’d been thinking of remodeling the house for a few years now. “Well, now you can. “It’ll be cheaper to start this way from what I told. No places that you have to work around.”

“Are you always this upbeat and positive?” Conri told her that only since he’d met Cass. Before that, he couldn’t stand to be around humans at all. “Yes, well, I just have to remember that staying positive can go a long way. Right now, all I want is a bed and a shower. For as much fun as it was staying with the kids last night, they wore me out. As I said, too much positive is just too much.” She looked at him again and cried. “You’re a good man, Conri. The best person I can think of for my little girl, too. Thank you.”

“You’re so very welcome.” He grabbed Cass as she was going by him and smiled. “Cassidy Lynne Warmer Valley, I pronounce on this day that you are my mate and give you all that I have from this day forward. Standing here in front of witness, I proclaim you as my mate.”

She swayed on her feet for a few seconds before she grabbed him by his arms. He could see her face and knew that she was getting magic from him. When she grinned at him, he wondered what she’d do now.

“Conri James Valley, I pronounce on this day that you are my mate and give you all that I have from this day forward. Standing here in front of witness, I proclaim you as my mate.” She looked up at him and then laid her head on his chest. “Did I do it right? Your mom helped me with your middle name, and I’ve been practicing all this week for when we had time. I figured that if you didn’t do it soon, I’d just take you as my mate and see how that worked for you.”

“Are you going to be like this all the time, staying one or two steps ahead of me?” She told him that she was going to try. “Good. I like that in a mate. I’m in love with you, Cass.”

“And I’m in love with you.” She was congratulated and hugged by everyone around them, including the police, who had come out to the house with them. “Now, let’s get my family home so that they can rest up. I have a feeling that the next few days are going to be hectic trying to figure out what else Cynthia has done.”

“Do you think that she’s done more than this?” Cass told her dad that she had no reason to believe that she’d done a few things in the name of destroying things that belonged to the family. “Oh my, I never…well, I never thought she’d blow up our family home, but here she’s done it. Yes, you might be right in thinking that we have plenty more to look for. It’s a scary thought, too, to think that she’s been plotting things out in that head of hers. At least we don’t have to worry about her getting to us anymore.”

“I wouldn’t even rule that out, Dad. There was something just too easy about her giving up. I don’t believe for a moment she thinks that she’s done. No way would she have gone away quietly. I think for the next few weeks, we keep on our toes and look out for her still.” Howard said that he would. “I don’t mean just her physically showing up, Dad, but something that she might well have done, and it needs to…well needs to go off yet. Remember, she’s still plotting and planning. And I have been the source of her plans for long enough to know that she’s coming for me one way or the other.”

Conri hoped that she was wrong, but he also believed that she would still be coming around. Her planning had already taken out an entire house and barn.