David felt his pain. He’d never been close to his father growing up, but Jimmy seemed really close to his—except for the rather big secret he’d had to keep from him.
“Anyway, he ran down the hall to my bedroom and tried the doorknob, but I’d locked it. He asked if I was okay…”
Jimmy clenched his teeth and appeared to be fighting tears again. “I–I didn’t really think through all the consequences. That he wouldn’t be able to work his day job. That he would have trouble with the shifting during the full moon. My mom and sister and I are all royals. I just didn’t think about all that. Not until after I had bitten him, and he left and disappeared. I kept thinking he would return, and I would explain what I was. What Mom and my sister were. That he was one of us now. But he didn’t come back.”
David leaned back, thoughtful. “This puts the situation in a whole different light. We need to locate him and tell him what’s going on.” David never told clients he was a wolf—not that he usually had to with other shifters—or how he became one, but in this case, he thought it might help.
“I was turned a few years back against my will. I didn’t know lupus garous existed. So I know what your dad’s going through. Several of us were turned, and none of us had a clue what we were doing or how to deal with it. We need to teach your dad that he’s not going crazy, that you and your mother and sister are also wolves. He’s going to want to stay away from you to protect you, thinking somehow the wild dog or wolf in the house had turned him and it had nothing to do with you.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. I kept thinking he would come home and I could explain everything to him. Shift and prove I was the wolf and he was just like me now.” His expression was remorseful. He’d created this nightmare and had to find a way to make things right. “My mom’s going to kill me.”
“Okay, look, as lupus garous we mate for life. But since your mom didn’t turn your dad, she’s not responsible for him, so that’s another issue.”
“I’m responsible for him. I know that. I’ll take care of him and teach him how cool it is to be a wolf.” Then Jimmy frowned. “Wait, you mean she could still divorce him?” Jimmy sounded disheartened that his plans could blow up in his face.
“Yeah, she could, and no one would fault her for it. But maybe she will see something different in him now that he’s a wolf. Your dad has been there for you from the beginning, right?”
“He has.”
“Then maybe that will help her see that he’s the right wolf for her. But we can’t plan on it. We just need to find him before he causes havoc as a wolf someplace.” David didn’t want to mention that someone could shoot him. The boy was devastated enough as it was.
“He loves Mom. I had hoped that if he were one of us, she would change her mind about him. But now… I really screwed up, didn’t I?”
“We’ll just have to find him first and see where it all goes. But you need to let your mom know, too, and your sister, if she doesn’t already know. Your mother might even know where he might have gone.”
“Oh, I never thought of that. She’s on duty right now, but I’ll text her.”
David knew the boy had done this because he loved his dad, but man. What a mess.
“Call your mom and then put it on speakerphone so I can speak with her too.”
Jimmy sighed heavily. “All right.” He touched his screen a couple of times, then said, “Hey, Mom? I’m putting this on speakerphone so that a private investigator can talk to you.”
“You’re not supposed to call me at work unless it’s an emergency, Jimmy, and I told you not to see a PI,” his mother said, sounding highly irritated.
“I turned Dad. At least I think I did.”
His mother was dead silent.
“I’m a wolf shifter,” David said right up front. He wanted to be clear with her right way before she had a heart attack, thinking her son was talking to a PI about being a wolf shifter. “David Davis. Everyone at my agency also is a lupus garou. Your son bit your husband, and no doubt he’s probably confused. He might be shifting out of control during the full moon, who knows where. We need to find him right away. Whether you keep him for your mate or not is up to you, but your son wants to continue to see him, and we might have to find a pack he can belong to that will help him out.”
“Jimmy!” his mother said, irate.
“I didn’t want you to divorce Dad. He loves you and we love him. You shouldn’t have married him if you didn’t want to mate him for life like we’re supposed to, like you’ve drummed into Cass and me.”
“Maybe he has gone to his grandfather’s old hunting cabin,” Jimmy’s mom said. “We’ll talk about this later. If I think of any other place he could be, I’ll call you.” Then she hung up on them.
“Do you know where his grandfather’s hunting cabin is?” David asked, annoyed with the woman for not telling him directly. Time was of the essence. What if the dad was out running as a wolf and was shot by a hunter? If he was killed, he would turn into his human form. That would be devastating for his family and could be disastrous for their wolf kind if anyone saw him shift from wolf to human.
“I know where it is. It’s out in the woods so I don’t know the actual address, but I can take you there,” Jimmy said.
Elizabeth popped into the office. “I can come with you.”
“You lead the way, Jimmy, and we’ll follow behind.”
David told Cameron what they were doing and then he and Jimmy and Elizabeth headed out to the parking lot. “Wait here for us, Jimmy. I have to get my Jeep and I’ll meet you over here.”
“Yeah, listen, I’m really sorry about all this.”
“It’ll work out somehow.” It might not work out the way Jimmy wanted, but David would do everything he could to help, even if that meant moving Mel to a wolf pack in another location.
Should he still be alive, that was.
“Would you take him in your pack?” Elizabeth asked as they climbed into his Jeep at his house.
“If his wife keeps the family intact and they all pull together to help him out, it could work. You and Leidolf were there for us when we needed the help, so I would like to think we would be there for him too.”
“Okay, that’s understandable. But if the wife doesn’t want to be there for him, where could he go?”
“There’s a pack in Montana and three in Colorado, and Leidolf’s pack is in Oregon. They’re not really close, but if Jimmy feels strongly enough about being with his dad, he could join him there and help his dad acclimate to the changes in his life.”