Chapter Three: Can I Phone a Friend?

I glanced over at the man beside me, making sure I avoided his eyes. My wolf wasn't too pleased, but God, I needed a few moments before I decided to throw myself to the wolves – pun intended. The expectation I had had of the man was about as far off as it could be. He had been domineering in the bar, but after ordering me to pick up Flick, he had carefully taken the carrier from me, walked past the patrons in the bar, out to the car, and had deftly strapped Flick into the backseat. Then he had silently transferred items from my car to his – all in his 'I'm an Alpha Wolf' kind of way.

Now we were idling in the parking lot of the 24-7 Diner, the man staring straight ahead, Flick waving her tiny arms in the backseat, and me alternating my stares between him, the diner, and the baby.

He was the one to break the silence. "What's her name?"

"Flick."

"Flick?" I could hear the incredulity in his voice.

I shrugged. "She reminded me of the woman who raised me, my … mother. Felicity is a good name, but she seemed a bit more like a Flick. You can call her something else if you want."

His eyes roamed across my face as I kept mine staring ahead. "I like the name Flick. It's cute but not too cute."

I had to agree with the statement. Most people would see the name as prissy, but the name was much more. A name always was.

"So what should I call you?"

This time I could hear the smile in his voice when he answered. "Fin. Finbar Douglas." His slight accent came out a bit more when he said his name, and the little lightbulb went on in my head.

"I've heard stories about you, Finbar of the River Black. You were a force to be reckoned with… and then you disappeared, the stories stopped being told."

Fin laughed. "The Marrok invited me to America."

"How long ago was that?"

"Two centuries? Three? It's hard to keep track of as you age. How long have you been here?"

A sad smile crossed my lips as I chanced a glance at him. He wasn't able to catch hold of my gaze, but I could see the flicker of gold in his eyes. His wolf was close to the surface.

His eyebrow went up and I remembered his question. "World War Two. 1943 to be exact."

"What made you come?"

"Turmoil in Europe. America was safer than Switzerland for someone like me."

"Like you?"

I shook my head. "It's a long story. I might tell you on our drive north…"

He nodded in acceptance. "I need to call the Marrok. You should grab some food for us."

It was said as a suggestion, the principal word being 'should', so I smiled wryly and said, "I'll stay in the car and tell the Marrok my side of the story."

"Very well," he murmured, pulling a cellphone from his pocket. He pressed a few buttons and then placed the phone on the center console, the sound of the dial tone filling his car.

The phone was on its third ring when the Marrok answered.

"Finbar. I assume you have our guest?" the Marrok asked as a greeting.

"Hello, sir," I replied as an answer.

"Kindra Hexenblut! How are you doing, child?"

"Not so well, Bran." If he was going to use my name, I was sure as hell going to use his. Fin gave me an interesting look when the Marrok said my name, but he didn't comment. He hadn't asked me for a name (I was fine being called the Huntsman), and to be honest, I wouldn't have told him anyways.

"What happened?"

This was the Marrok I had been expecting. Getting straight down to business was a talent of his, and one I appreciated.

Fin looked at me, and this time I met his eyes. Warmth washed through me as he inclined his head as offering for me to continue. I took a deep breath and kept my eyes locked with Fin's. "I took on a job that was a bit bigger than I could handle," I said.

Bran murmured in acknowledgement and I told my story. I explained how the human from Oklahoma had approached me with a job and how I had staked out the house. I told him how I had thought there were only two men in the house and that the witch and her child with the second but human man were a surprise. I kept the gory details to a minimum and ended with, "And that's when the fae magic came crashing through the house. I let my wolf take over and when I got back under control, I was at my apartment with the baby."

"What did you name her?" Bran's question threw me. I had just told him how I had murdered three people in front of a baby and he was asking what her name was.

"Flick," Fin answered. "She's a happy little thing. Quiet as a mouse too."

"Did you recognize the type of fae magic, Kinder?"

Closing my eyes I took myself back to the house and let the sensation of the fae wash over me. With my eyes still closed, I whispered, "It is strong. Mächtig. Powerful, but I'm not sure if it is really old. Maybe a century or two, but it doesn't feel like the old school bad asses from the Alte Welt. It had a flavor, a taste to it, but I can't explain it. Seltsam." I opened my eyes.

The Marrok was silent for a few moments before saying, "Do you believe you were set up?"

My gut told me yes, so I didn't answer.

"I thought so," murmured. I could feel his attention switch to Fin as if he was in the car with us. "I want you to check it out. See what it is. No one attacks my wolves without facing me. Keep me updated."

With that, the line went dead.

Fin took his phone and placed it back in his pocket. He glanced at me and then to the backseat at Flick. "I'm hungry, so let's get a bite to eat before finding a place to stay for a few days."

I was about to retort to the last statement when he cut me off. "Your home is not safe. They will be looking for you, and there will be where they look first.

"There's a roadside motel on old 99. It's shady, but it's easy to defend."

This time he nodded with a stern face, got out of the car, plucked Flick from her carrier, and left me scrambling behind him and into the diner.

When I had said the motel was shady, I hadn't been mean enough. A murder could take place in the room next door and no one would bother calling it in. Thankfully, the seedy motel was just what Fin was looking for. The front faced the highway, the back faced the woods, and smells stuck to the place like stink on a warthog. There wouldn't be any possibility that either Fin or I wouldn't be able to smell any foes in our midst.

I brushed another soft caress over Flick's hair and tried to think of something other than the wolf in the room. I had been a big fan of fairy tales growing up, mostly because my mother had forbidden them, but I knew that the stories with wolves never ended well… for anyone.

"Try and get some sleep," Fin rumbled from the opposite bed.

"Too wired. I'll keep watch and crash later."

"Want to talk about it?"

I didn't attempt to figure out what he meant by that. The sun was slowly creeping up the sky and I had been going for a straight twenty-four hours by this point.

"Talk about what?"

He shrugged. He did that a lot, I noted. "The phone call, the contracted hits, the tension in this room… or you could tell me a story… or I could tell you one…"

My head turned slowly to face him. "Ask me a question. I'll try to answer it and see where it goes."

"It might just relax you enough for you to sleep a bit." One of those quick smiles crossed his face - another thing he did a lot, but this time I figured he only did it around me. "Hexenblut. Witch blood."

"My mother was a witch. Black as all get out. I don't really know how we all survived."

"You named an innocent child after a black witch?" His tone was one of revulsion.

I couldn't help but laugh. "No. My birth mother was a witch. The woman, Felicity, who I named Flick after was the woman who took me in when I was first changed. She was the alpha's mate."

"Was?"

"Human, but a kind soul. She passed away in the sixties. I think she might have broken one-hundred." I smiled at the memory.

"Did you have a good childhood?"

That was one question that I had always wrestled with. "Yes and no," I finally said. "My birth mother was a black witch, as were my sister and brother. I had a touch of magic, but I never had a strong taste for blood when I was human." I laughed at the irony of that statement now.

"Guess you got over that."

"Yeah," I murmured.

Our eyes met and this time I held his gaze. He knew who was more dominant, but he also knew that I needed the connection, if just for a little while.

"None of us were named. Mutter was paranoid and believed with all her might that if she didn't name her children, then we would never be found by death. I wasn't found by death, but I was found by a wolf. He attacked. I changed. The pack took me in, and Felicity took to calling me Kindra, as if it were my real name. I wasn't child, I was Child!" The feeling of that name still brought a rush of joy, even after all these years.

"Being born to a witch in 1921 in the armpit of the Swiss Alps wasn't a walk in the park. We were isolated from most everything, but there were times when the world came crashing in around us. When I joined the pack, I was introduced to the real world for the first time."

"How old were you?"

"When I was changed?" He nodded. "Twelve. I was twenty-two when I came to the states with my mate."

Something dark crossed across his face. His eyes changed from brown to gold flecked. "You have a mate?" his jaw was clenched tight.

"Had." The word came out on the barest of whispers. I turned away from him and curled around Flick. "They're all gone."

I didn't look back at him when I heard him stand up, but I also didn't flinch when he carefully covered me with one of the blankets. "Sleep, Kindra. We'll deal with the world when you wake up."

With the way his voice had caressed my name filling my head, I slipped into a deep and surprisingly restful sleep.

Hello All!

I hope you are enjoying the story. I would love to hear what you think of it!

-CG93