Chapter Text
Tanner watched as Josiah finished helping the older woman with over a dozen suitcases into the hotel. He shook his head at the lovestruck man.
“Who needs that many bags?” he sighed. He hadn’t missed the smell of bricks that came from the bags, no doubt to help give off the appearance of having more than she actually did to look important. Though he would’ve wanted to tell Sanchez the truth about the bags he was carrying, he figured he’d let the man be for now. The older man was instantly smitten and had eagerly volunteered to help her.
Shifting his attention back to the stagecoach, Vin watched as the remainder of the passengers descended. Another woman stepped down, appearing to be by herself. She was dressed equally as fancy as the older woman but was younger. She looked up and down the street, as if searching for someone.
Their eyes met for a moment and Vin frowned. He watched as she finished waiting for her luggage to be unloaded, another woman with more luggage than Tanner thought necessary. If she was expecting someone to help her with her luggage, she was gonna be waiting until another man showed up, because Vin weren’t a gentleman.
The footsteps of Standish approaching had him look away. He watched as the gambler fastidiously swatted at his clothes to remove an invisible spec off them. When Vin looked back towards the stagecoach, the woman had disappeared, along with her large amount of luggage. Tanner frowned, not having heard anyone else come or go. Looking up and down the street he couldn’t find her either.
“What the. . .” he murmured.
“Of all the days this were to happen.” Ezra grumbled as he reached where Tanner was standing.
“What to happen, Ez?” asked the tracker, shifting against the wooden beam he was leaning on to look at his friend.
Ezra started, looking up from his clothes to see Tanner in front of him. Thinking back, he wasn’t surprised that the man had popped up, knowing the silent man had a knack for it.
“It’s of little import. Suffice to say, if I appear as if I’m miserable during this week, it is no doubt that I am.”
“Did your hunt with Buck go that bad? He told me you caught something though.”
Ezra’s attention was fully pulled away from his clothes to the topic, “What did he tell you?”
“Nothing besides that.” Vin shrugged.
“Well, don’t listen to anything else he tells you about it. The man weaves as story as if he’s a con artist himself.”
“You know I could’ve taken ya.” Tanner drawled.
It was true, the man had offered to take him on his first hunt. The only problem was, while Vin was an excellent hunter and tracker, Buck was the better teacher. That is until the skunk incident.
“I shall remember that if there is ever a next time.”
Vin cocked him a wry smile, “Ya gotta learn how to hunt, Ez. It’s as basic ‘need to know’ stuff as defending yourself.”
Ezra didn’t want to think about his lessons with their alpha on how to defend oneself in and out of one’s wolf form. Larabee was not the most patient of teachers, but he brooked no opposition in being the one to give the gambler his lessons.
His wounds had healed, but he was still unnerved at how many new things there were that could kill or send his body into shock now. Chris also had him do a game of chase in which he had to avoid being caught by Chris, Buck and JD. The older men, he wasn’t surprised at the results of being caught. It was humbling however how many times he failed the exercise however when he was caught by JD.
“I don’t require such skills in hunting when I can simply order some of Inez’s wonderful cooking.”
Vin scoffed, “How much cookin’ you think she’ll be doin’ once she has her baby? Don’t reckon any of you want Buck near a stove.”
Ezra had to consider this. Inez’s due date was fast approaching, and soon she’d be too busy with a screaming baby to help manage the saloon. He might have to take on a new hire temporarily.
That of course would have to wait until he dealt with the whirlwind of trouble that had just blown in. He for sure wasn’t willing to let even an ounce of control be given to his mother.
“I’ll sleep on it.” Ezra murmured, tipping his hat before continuing on towards the hotel.
Chris clicked his tongue, stirring the stallion as he did so. He was in the process of breaking in the wild beast. The rope he held onto was not yet taut, wanting the horse to run a bit before he truly began.
His focus was shifted slightly at the sound of approaching footsteps of someone running up to the corral fencing. Larabee slowed the stallion down, slowly drawing the horse to him before making it halt. Patting its flank, Chris finally looked over to the fence where a slightly winded JD was draping his arms over the top, catching his breath.
“JD, something wrong?”
“You got a visitor!” called over the teen.
Chris returned his attention back to the horse, inhaling the wild horse smell while running a hand over its silky coat.
“If it’s Mary, tell her I’m busy.”
“I ain’t Mrs. Travis. She said her name was Ella Gaines, and that you knew her.”
Chris stopped stroking the horse and looked once more to JD, a frown in place.
What in the devil was Ella doing in Four Corners?
“Where is she?”
“In town. Told me to tell you that she was staying at the hotel and would be waiting for you.”
JD had learned his lesson earlier on about inviting strangers who weren’t considered pack to the homestead. Buck had actually been the one to tear into him when he found out.
Chris nodded and joined JD at the fence. Climbing over the barrier with ease, Larabee dropped to the other side and practically ran to the stable to retrieve his horse.
JD followed after him.
“So, who she?” asked the teen as he watched Chris work on saddling his horse.
“Someone I knew.”
“Were you and her ever courtin’? She looks real pretty.”
“Don’t doubt that.” Chris huffed a smile as he climbed on the back of his horse and turned their head towards the entrance of the stable.
“Real nice too. Gave me a dollar to come and fetched ya.”
Larabee looked down at JD who was giving him a cheeky grin, “Make sure the stallion is put back into the other paddock and is fed before I get back. Also rub him down.”
JD’s smile disappeared, “That horse don’t like me.” Which was definitely a first.”
“Before I get back.” Chris called back as he started his horse moving. JD watched him go, the horse being brought into a gallop.
“Didn’t answer my question.” JD murmured as he sighed and walked back out to take care of the waiting stallion.
Larabee slowed his horse down when he saw the town getting closer. Upon reaching the main street he greeted the other creatures of the dark with a head nod as he rode on past them. They acknowledged his arrival with one of their own.
Him and his pack’s presence was what kept them safe from hunters and other creatures of the dark who’d kill them and take their land. Being under Larabee’s territory and protection, any invader would have to go through his men first.
Chris shifted the reins so that he’d head over to where he spotted Vin on the boardwalk and stopped right in front of him. Climbing out of the saddle, Chris tied the reins to the hitching post and gave a nod in greeting to Tanner.
The silent inquiry from the younger man as to why he was in town was answered with a simple glancing look at the hotel.
“Someone you know?” drawled Vin.
“Something like that.”
“Reckon it’s the young woman. I did the usual check over all the new arrivals. For the most part they all check out and are fine.”
“But?” Chris could tell Tanner was still holding onto more information.
“For some reason or another, her scent and her bags were masked. That and when I looked away for only a few seconds, she disappeared into thin air. Her and her bags.”
“So.”
“You didn’t see how many bags she had. No normal woman could’ve carried that many by herself without help.”
“Does it matter how she got her bags to wherever they needed to go?” huffed the man in black, a bit upset at Vin’s implications.
Vin frowned, “Ain’t that the reason you’re here? Because something don’t seem right about her.”
“I know her. She’s fine.” Chris growled before setting off in the direction of the hotel.
Tanner watched him go, leaning against his pole. He frowned, not liking how dismissive Larabee had been of something that literally didn’t smell right about that woman. He would have to ask the others their opinion and keep an out on her.
Larabee stepped onto the boardwalk and opened the door to the hotel. It was much cooler inside and he removed his hat, letting it hang from the stampede cord. Looking around, he caught sight of the owner, another associate of theirs and gave him a nod in greeting. Continuing his survey of the room, he saw someone else there he wasn’t expecting.
To his surprise, Larabee saw Standish sitting at a table across from a woman who, despite her fine clothes and makeup, was older than her current company. Standish was wearing a congenial smile, one he typically reserved for when he was putting on a performance. The woman, as Chris walked on by their table, was wearing a similar one. The pair were putting on the perfect performance of feigning closeness, which begged the question, who were they to one another.
Chris spotted a woman seated alone at a table with a cup of tea in front of her. He walked on over and smiled down at her.
“Ella.” He said warmly.
“Chris Larabee.” She grinned back.
Larabee sat down across from her, settling into his chair.
“It’s been a lot of years.”
“Indeed. Last I, you got married and put down some roots, and started farming. Of course, I thought, why hitch a wild beast to a plow.” She smirked.
Chris nodded with a chuckle. She was right, farming life hadn’t been for him.
“But it looks like you quit.”
His smile faded, thinking about his dead wife and son.
“Yeah. . .” Chris replied, a little gruff before he picked himself back up. “Surprised to hear you were in town.”
“Was on my way to San Fran when I heard tale that you had a new territory here.”
Chris thought back to his old pack and his old territory, which was smaller than his current one, but it held all those who he cared about. Those who he had let down and lost.
“Yeah.”
“Does that mean you remarried?” she queried.
Chris rose an eyebrow, still wondering how she knew he had been married before, then again he couldn’t quite remember all that happened the years after his family’s death and his self-isolation.
“No. There’s no one. Just me and the pack.”
A server came by and took their orders before leaving them again.
“I confess,” Ella began after the server delivered their food, “the reason for my travels is more to do with my current situation. It wasn’t safe back in Indianapolis, not after. . .” she trailed off, bringing up her teacup and blowing on the hot liquid to cool it down. Chris watched the tendrils of smoke float away, smelling the sweet scent of herbal leaves. His eyes focused on her lips as she brought the delicate cup to them.
Larabee had to shake himself to get back to what they were talking about.
Chris frowned, “After what?”
“My husband, Jack Averel, he found out some things about me. Things that made him violently angry. I had to flee in the middle of the night just to escape some other worse fate.”
“What was it?” Chris knew that he probably shouldn’t be asking a woman this, but he was instantly on the alert of someone who was trying to hurt a woman, a woman he knew personally.
“I don’t wish for you to think of me differently. After being friends for so long. . .”
“Ella, what is it?”
“The thing is. . . I’m a witch.” She spoke softly.
Chris’s brows furrowed in confusion for a second, his own thoughts not reaching that similar conclusion.
“You never showed signs of being one before.”
“I never publicized it. I didn’t want people coming after me with torches. I feared for my life, so I never practiced.”
“If you’ve never practiced, then how did your husband find out?”
“I have heirlooms from my mother’s side of the family who were also witches. Books mostly contain spells and a few ingredients to make innocent things. Nothing that would hurt a living soul.”
“Why didn’t you just try and tell him that you were at least a good witch?”
Ella shook her head in disgust, “Jack is a wealthy man who holds a lot of power in the city where we lived. At the idea that his wife could be a witch, he became violent, yelling that I was going to have his name dragged through the mud.”
Chris growled, wanting to give this Jack fella a piece of his mind, possibly tear off his limbs.
“I came out west, heading towards San Francisco, but then I heard your territory was nearby. I thought that I’d at least be safe here for a while. In the meantime, I can come up with a plan once I reach California.”
Larabee thought about it for a while. Even if Ella removed herself all the way to California, there was no guarantee that she would be safe from the brute.
“If you want, you could stay here. I know it’s not the fancy cities you’re used to, but I’ll be able to protect you here if your husband makes his way down here.”
Ella smiled gratefully at him, reaching out and placing her hands over his, “I knew I could rely on you, Chris.”