Charity's Storm (Charity Series Book 4) Read online

  With my lips overly and psychotically moistened with lip balm, I squared my shoulders, took in a deep breath, and followed Levi into the building.

  The first man I visited, the one that I hit in the eye with the remote control, and the one who actually pulled the trigger and killed my dad, wasn’t at all surprised to see me. He was a tall man probably in his fifties now, with thinning hair and a full beard. He started the conversation by saying he had expected me sooner. He was actually relieved when I told him I forgave him, and thanked me, saying he was sorry things had turned out the way they had. It seems he had found God only months after being sentenced.

  The second man, the one who had his manhood damaged by my aggressive kneecap, was also relieved to have my forgiveness, although at first he was shocked to see me and took a few minutes to recover before we could begin our conversation. I was surprised when he actually cried. He had had a change of heart after the birth of his grandson, Luke, who he talked about most of our short time together.

  These men had surprised me and turned their lives around for the better. The first man, Ralph Connors was actually engaged to a woman he met on the Internet, and was planning the wedding for after his release in two years. And the second man, Josh Davies was getting his degree in psychology. But it was the third man that I was most nervous about meeting—and he was my next stop—Jason Franco.

  I’m not sure what I expected to see when he came into the room, but the threatening smirk on his scarred face was not it. His hair was still dark but long and greasy, and he needed a shave. I heard Levi growl slightly from a ways behind me where they made him wait. I turned to him. “It’s okay, Levi. I’m fine.” He settled down slightly, but I could tell by his posture that he was on full alert.

  Jason Franco took his seat from across the glass. I picked up the phone with confidence although my hands were shaking.

  He did the same. “Well, well, if it isn’t little Miss Bell. Come to see old Jason in hopes of getting some closure, have we? And I must say that you look mighty hot,” he added with another creepy smirk.

  I squared my shoulders and narrowed my eyes. “First off, I’m Mrs. Drake now. The big guy behind me, that’s my husband, and he’s come to collect your head, so I’d be nice if I were you.”

  This got his attention, and he studied Levi more closely, his expression shifting to a more serious one.

  “Honestly, I just came to tell you that I have forgiven you. It’s been ten years and I need to move on. So I forgive you. That’s all.”

  His eyes narrowed and his face turned angry. “Well, isn’t that sweet of you, but I don’t need your forgiveness nor do I want it.” He spat, I mean literally spat at the glass. “I’d do it all over again except next time I would’ve put a bullet in your head—yours and your wimpy mother’s.”

  Without warning, Levi growled and charged at the glass. Jason Franco flew backwards in his chair, his eyes wide with fear.

  I rushed to Levi, stepping in front of him and grabbing his shirt in my hands. “Levi! Levi, look at me!” His eyes were yellow and his teeth were sharp. “Levi,” I whispered, “You have to control yourself. You’re showing. Levi, you’re showing.”

  He peered down at me then and slowly began to reign in his control. His eyes returned to their normal purple color and his fangs slowly receded.

  I sighed in relief. “Let’s go.” I pulled on him. “Levi, come on, let’s go. Please.” He finally let me pull him away, but not before he gave Jason Franco another threatening glare. “I think he got the message. Now, let’s go.”

  We made it to the car without Levi killing anyone, but he was still so worked up that I had to drive back.

  “Levi, I need you to listen to me. You can’t ever do that again. Do you hear me? You can’t risk exposing yourself to anyone no matter how mad you are, or how bad you think you need to protect me. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes,” he answered. “I hear you. I’m sorry. It’s just that that guy ruined your life, and the way he was looking at you and threatening you!” He banged his hand on the dash. “I wanted to kill him!”

  “I know, baby. I know,” I said, rubbing his hand in reassurance. “You’re my hero…and always will be. But he’s not worth exposing what you are…no one is.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The next night was a full moon so Ashley and I made plans to spend the evening together at our fake apartment. We had decided to keep it all these years because it was a great escape for us both. We had missed the last few months because of the children. We found out that it wasn’t safe to leave them because they kept trying to sneak out to catch a glimpse of our men shifting into huge, snarling wolfy beasts. I didn’t fear that seeing the men in their wolf forms would really scare the boys, but they made sure to take the girls: Glory, Ashley’s daughter and Journey, Eli and Destiny’s adopted daughter, with them. The girls were much more fragile, and we always protected the young ones from seeing the men’s wolfy forms until they proved to be mature enough. And ages four and five were definitely not the right age.

  This evening we made the children spend the night with my mom and Doc. Doc had promised after supper to show the boys a video of him applying a cast to a man’s broken arm. They thought this would be fascinating, and it would definitely keep them preoccupied until bedtime.

  Ash and I spent most of the night reminiscing about some of our past sleepovers, including the one where Raven was assigned to watch over us and we got him addicted to popcorn. We laughed about that! But afterwards we were slightly depressed, because the truth is, we both missed Raven very much—him and Rose. I kept up with them and their beautiful daughter, Rain, through letters and pictures they regularly sent, but it wasn’t the same. The wolf pack hadn’t gotten even a hint of vampire scent after the battle with Raven’s brother, Griffin, who Eli killed. We were sure Raven’s father, Julius, would come after him—and us, but it never happened. Raven took Rose and their then unborn child to live with the Mason pack in Alaska to be safe. They had said they would try to return when they felt it was safe here again.

  Realizing that talking about Raven and Rose was making me sad, Ashley jumped up and ran into the kitchen, bringing back with her a box of Godiva chocolate truffles. They were one of my favorites!

  “Ashley! Where did you get these?!” My face lit up with joy.

  “I knew you’d love ‘em! I got them on the way here. Now, let’s eat ‘em—let’s eat ‘em all!”

  We both squealed, yes, I did too, and we did just that…ate them all and licked our fingers afterwards. Yes, it was an overall fun time. I had missed hanging with my girl—very much.

  The next afternoon, I had a meeting with the boys’ teacher, Miss Emily to go over their schoolwork. We had regular monthly meetings to make sure the boys were giving their all to their schoolwork. I sat at the table with Miss Emily, going over their work, while the three boys lay on their stomachs on the rug at my feet with their tiny feet kicking in the air, coloring.

  The boys’ writing pages were improving greatly from the last month. Their handwriting was almost identical, except Dixon’s had a slight slant since he was the one that was left handed. Miss Emily then handed me the boys’ artwork. Most of them were drawings or paintings of simple things like sunsets, fire trucks, or mountains. But the next one caught my eye. It was of Fang smiling big and exposing his missing front tooth. But it wasn’t this that made me laugh. It was the fact that the crazy dog was playing the piano…while riding a bicycle. And, surprise, the name on top of the page was Deacon.

  I laughed out loud. “I’m not sure if this is cool, or whackadoo!”

  All three boys glanced up at me and giggled. “Whackadoo? Mom, that’s a weird word,” they said to me.

  “A weird word?” I said. “A weird word?!” I slowly stood, and with my hands curled like claws, I stalked toward them. “But that is exactly what all of you are—whackadoo!” And then I pounced. “Whackadoo! Whackadoo! Whackadoo!” They squealed and laughed as I tack
led and tickled them. We were all arms and legs, rolling around on the floor when Levi burst into the room.

  “Not without me!” he said as he tackled us, grabbing all four of us in his arms and the tickling and wrestling resumed. Screams and giggles engulfed the room as my precious family rolled along the floor, arms and legs flying in the air.

  Minutes later, we all fell back on the floor in exhaustion, the little ones still giggling in amusement. Then Darrow said, “Let’s do that again!”

  And before I could catch my breath, Levi scooped all four of us up again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The last half of winter had been cold, wet, and soggy, so when the weatherman said the next two weeks were gonna be dry and warm, we all planned to take advantage of it. I, for one, had plans to take the boys to Windrake Mountain Park as many times as I could. What with all their pent-up energy for being cooped up for so long, we were all about to kill each other. Actually, it was more like they were about to kill each other, which meant I was about to kill all of them.

  Early Saturday morning, I packed us all a healthy lunch, thanks to Chef Barney, and we headed to the park: me and the boys, along with Ashley and her beautiful, sassy spirited daughter, Glorianna or Glory as we called her. Destiny was bringing her daughter, Journey and meeting up with us later for lunch. It was nice when we could all schedule a playdate together. And while the kids played, we girls got to catch up. Which you think would be easy to do since we basically lived together, but with the demands of husbands and kids, it wasn’t as easy as I once thought it would be. But I loved my life and I wouldn’t change a thing.

  It was a beautiful and sunny morning just like the weatherman had predicted. I was thrilled he got the forecast right for a change.

  Ash and I were talking about her new running shoes, which she made clear were not for running, when I noticed that I no longer heard loud, obnoxious noises coming from our children.

  “Ash, do you see our children?” I asked, trying to keep the alarm from my voice.

  She waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, don’t worry, Charity. Hector’s watching them.”

  “Umm, okay, then where is he?” I asked, still looking around in unease.

  About that time, all five of the children came flying from around the outer edge of the woods surrounding the play area of the park. They were laughing as they tried to out run each other.

  “There they are!” Ash called, a slight relief in her voice.

  “Boys, where have you all been?” I asked sternly. “You know I told you to stay in our range of sight. And where is Hector?”

  Darrow pointed to the woods. “He’s checking out a dead wolf he discovered in the woods.”

  “A what?!” I squealed, placing my hand over my heart as if that would slow down the wild beating.

  “It was cool, Mamma,” Dixon said. “Hector let us look at it. He was sad, but we thought it was cool.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Deacon, “We’ve never seen a dead wolf before. Well, except on Animal Planet, but it’s not the same.” He pouted.

  “Well, I guess I’ll have to have a talk with Hector about showing dead animals to my impressionable children, now won’t I?” I didn’t let on to them how nervous I was about a wild wolf being found so close to the park…and the children.

  “Oh, Momma,” they complained.

  Hector finally came into view, but as he approached his face was glum, and I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  “What is it, Hector?” I asked once he was close.

  “I’m not sure, Mrs. Charity. I found a dead wolf, but I couldn’t find any injuries. I’m thinking he was poisoned.”

  “Poisoned?! Do you think it was because of the wolf being so close to the park?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s not good that it came this close, but I’m just not sure if it was poisoned or not. I’ll let Levi know what happened, and he can look into it.” Then he glanced up at me and smiled, which was always a bit creepy to be honest. “It will be fine, Mrs. Charity. You and the kids are safe.”

  I smiled back, reaching up and rubbing him on his forearm. “I know, Hector. I know.”

  The next day at the park, there was a park ranger stationed at the play-area. He was positioned along the wood’s edge. This gave me some comfort, and I was able to relax knowing all was being monitored.

  “Look, Momma!” the boys said as we approached the car that afternoon. “That park officer gave us some badges. Now we can be officers too.”

  “Oh cool,” I said, pretending to be impressed. “When did you talk to him?”

  “Earlier. He asked us if we had heard any howling.”

  I snapped to attention. “And what did you tell him?” I was suddenly feeling nauseous as I quickly ushered them into the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Oh, we said ‘all the time’. The officer laughed at us. He thought that was funny. I think he thought we were joking.”

  I laughed nervously. “Well, remember that talk we had about telling people or even hinting that you are werewolves. It’s very important that the humans never know about us. It’s the most important secret ever! The werewolves have kept their existence a secret from humans since the very beginning, and we would all be in danger if they found out about us. I want to make sure you all understand this.”

  I looked into the rear-view mirror to see all three heads nodding.

  “I mean it, no more hinting. This officer cannot know or even suspect that werewolves exist. Do you understand?” This time I was stern.

  “Yes, Momma,” they said in unison.

  “Good boys.” I smiled. “Now, how ‘bout we make a stop at Happy’s for some ice cream?”

  “Yay!!”

  Chapter Fifteen

  So it turned out that the body of that wolf had been poisoned after all, but it had been dead for a few days before Hector found it. What this meant no one knew. The park service was denying any blame for the death. Yes, they didn’t want any wolves near the park, but they denied any knowledge of the existence of the wolf. So what did it mean? Levi was working on it.

  The dead wolf was all everyone was talking about at dinner that night, but at least they were talking. Everyone had obeyed me and were now leaving their iThingys behind while we ate together. To my enjoyment, the dining hall was obnoxiously noisy once again.

  I had to give the boys a lecture during their meal after catching them throwing pieces of their food at each other. Actually, it was Grandmammy who pointed out their behavior to me, no surprise there. She watched them intently during most of our meals together. Part of me was annoyed by this, but the other half knew she only meant to help, even if it was overstepping her bounds at times.

  “Boys, we’ve talked about this. How many times do I have to tell you? The Bible tells us to live at peace with one another. As long as it’s in your power, you have to live in peace. That means no throwing food at each other. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they said in unison, but I wasn’t convinced—at all. It looked like they were just waiting for me to turn my head so they could throw more food.

  Will they ever remember all the things I try to teach them? It seems like I spend most of my time repeating myself. I suddenly felt old and tired.

  I let out a deep sigh as I stood to leave the table. At that moment, Mr. Bones approached me. He simply laid his hand on my shoulder and whispered, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” And then he walked away.

  I thought about that for a minute, and then I smiled to myself and nodded. “Well, alright then.”

  Later that night, after the boys were tucked into bed, Levi and I snuggled and caught each other up on all the current events like we did most nights. I told him about what Mr. Bones had said. He seemed genuinely touched by the scripture. Mr. Bones never spoke normal words to people, only speaking or answering in scripture, but I had grown to love and respect the man very much. He h
ad never steered us wrong, and it seemed he always had the right thing to say—every time. I actually looked forward to the times that he had words of wisdom for us, and this latest one would prove to be the best one so far. If the scripture was right—and it always was—then my kids would turn out all right after all. Whew!!

  On most nights, after our catching up, Levi and I just laid in each other’s arms, our palms pressed against the other’s and said nothing at all as our heart connection symbols touched and tingled—mine on my left and his on his right—reminding us of what had drawn us together over six years ago. Our commitment to love and life was stronger than it had ever been. In those six years our symbols had grown two inches and formed a fragile leaf to add to the growing blue vine-like shape. We wouldn’t know what final design it would form for years to come, but we continued to relish in every new addition. It was our heart connection that kept us strong and our feelings so intense, and we were constantly surprised by the new things it allowed us to experience—things that even surprised the pack’s historian. Like one night while we were sleeping, Levi’s hand brushed against mine and our symbols touched, ushering me into the nightmare he was in the process of having. And one day I got very sick after eating at a restaurant with Ashley and Destiny, and Levi somehow knew I was sick and showed up at the restaurant to take me home. What new surprises lurked around the corner for us we didn’t know, but one thing was for sure, this was a brand new thing for the wolf pack—and all of them continued to be amazed. As for me, well I knew we were a special couple unlike any before us. I just didn’t know to what extent.