Tuesday Teaser 10/22/19: Gina’s Wolf Part 53

Hello! I need your opinion here. As I close in on the finish of the last book I will write in this world (at least for a while. I kinda a have an idea for a story for Laura the Lobo) I want to let everybody see old favorite characters. It’s not really feasible though. I have started a scene at the Plane Women’s House where the weary wolves and their ladies sit down for a meal. My intention was for characters to have a walk on parts, Just a minute of screen time as a sort of a final farewell. But I am not sure that is really best. It drags the story out. And how much will Gina care about people she doesn’t know?

It might be better for me to have an epilogue where Carla, Rose, Lisa and Tami sit down in a year or so for a cup of coffee while they watch their children and grandchildren. They can talk about how their lives are so different than they expected them to be the morning in 2014 when they boarded the plane.

What are your thoughts?

Meanwhile, here is your snip with the beginning of the scene at the Plane Women’s House.

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Chapter Sixteen

“Almost home,” Cole said.

Gina leaned over him to look out the train window. At first, she saw nothing but dead grass wet with spring melt. No town. No farms. No trees. No people. In a minute, the train chugged up a slight rise, and by leaning further over Cole she could see a panorama of grasslands bordered by bare trees, and faintly, a low line of buildings in the distance. Kearney?

“Twenty minutes,” Cole said, pulling her back into her seat with an arm around her waist. “We’ll be at the station in a bit, and two hours after that, we’ll be home.”

Anticipation twirled around nerves. “And you ― I mean, we live outside Kearney, right?”

“Yes, about six miles north.”

She took his hand and held it tightly. Soon she would see her new home. He had described the place he called the den to her, and she wasn’t sure she understood it. It was a one-story building from the Times Before with lots of sleeping rooms. It had once been a hotel, where many people could stay during their travels. There was a big kitchen and a large dining hall where they all ate together, and a communal room where the Pack gathered in the evenings to sing and play games. It would be nothing like the formality in the President’s mansion in Kansas City, so Gina was sure she would like it. The only thing that nagged at her was the lack of privacy. He’d said they would have their own room in the den, but with wolf hearing, everyone would know what they were doing in their room. She ran her gaze over Cole’s handsome face, down the thick column of his neck, to his wide shoulders tapering to a narrow waist and sighed. He still hadn’t made love to her even though she felt much better. Even her mom was on the road to recovery

She glanced back over her shoulder. Her mom rested on a cot near the back of the train car. Jay sat next to her, holding her hand and whispering to her. The rhythmic rattle of the train drowned out what he was saying. Her mom’s mouth, less swollen than it had been three days ago, had a gentle curve. Gina was sure it wouldn’t be long before she had a new stepfather.

In the seat across the aisle, Patia and Ray also held hands and murmured quietly together. Considering that only a few days ago Ray had been near death, he looked incredibly healthy. Ray’s dad, Mayor Madison, was drowsing with his head slumped against the window, his wife’s head on his shoulder. Even as Gina glanced at them, they straightened. There were a dozen other pack members in this car, and their excitement, though suppressed, was clear. Everyone wanted to be home.

The sliding door at the front of the car opened and Taye came in. Half the men from the Clan and Pack had left Omaha on four feet, running over the Nebraska prairie to bring word back to their kin of what had happened in Omaha. That still left over one hundred men to board the train and guard their women and wounded. Too many to fit into one train car.

Taye walked down the aisle, swaying easily with the rocking of the train, nodding at the men from his pack. He paused to touch his daughter’s head with gentle fingers before giving Gina a smile.

“Almost home,” he remarked to the train car in general.

Mayor Madison stood up and stretched. He said with feeling, “I can’t wait to be home and quit of this Omaha business.”

His wife said teasingly, “Eddie, are you afraid that Marty has run Kearney into the ground?”

Mayor Madison’s face creased in a smile. He was a handsome man. Thirty years from now Ray would look just like him. “I’m sure my brother has been conscientious, but his new wife might be a distraction.”

The train whistle shrieked. Gina looked out the window again and saw they were entering Kearney. Home? She gripped Cole’s hand tighter. He looked down at her with a smile so tender her breath caught. She didn’t know what living at the den would be like, but Cole would be there, so it would be home. She smiled back.

“How are you feeling, Mrs. Summer?” Taye asked.

Her mother had decided to go back to her first husband’s name. She said since Todd had already had a wife, she had never been legally married to him. Gina approved.

“Well enough to walk off the train on my own, Mr. Wolfe. I don’t need to be carried on the cot.”

Taye considered. “The wounded in the car behind this one will disembark first. Jay, when they are off, you’ll help Mrs. Summer down the steps and into the station. Then Ray will go. Cole, you and Gina will be third. Then everyone one else will follow.”

The train slowed as it passed through Kearney. It wasn’t a big city like Kansas City or Omaha, but it looked well kept. The streets were clean and the buildings she saw seemed to be in good repair. A gaggle of pre-teen boys ran alongside the train as it passed, waving excitedly. With a hissing of brakes, the train slid to a halt beside a long building whose roof extended into a shelter over a platform.

Gina watched Jay help her mother up from the cot and guide her slowly, gently, along the aisle to the door with one burly arm around her waist. Ray stood up without any help, although Patia hovered close as they exited the train. Gina took a deep breath and stood up. Cole walked very closely behind her, and for once he didn’t push her aside so her could go out first and check for danger.

After she stepped down from the train it was a whirlwind of new faces and some that were vaguely familiar to her. Ray Madison was there, hugging his brother, Eddie, and sister-in-law, Lisa, and his nephew who was almost his own age. His wife, the big blond woman named Victoria, was there. Gina remembered her in the coffee shop the first time she’d laid eyes on Cole. Victoria almost smothered her in a giant hug, congratulating her boisterously for accepting Cole’s mate claim. She met an older man with long iron gray hair in two thick braids. Des was the head of the pack that lived in Kearney. Connie, his wife, was a gruff woman with direct gray eyes and silvery white hair.

“Come over to the house,” Connie said to Taye. “Renee has been cooking since White Horse brought the news that you’d be on the train today.”

Taye cast a considering gaze over his wounded, especially Gina’s mom. “That would be great. Might not stay too long though.”

“No problem,” Said Des gravely.

His wife nodded. “Bet you’re all tired and longing for your own beds.” She turned to the Madisons. “You’re welcome to join us. We’d be glad to have you.”

Eddie Madison shook his head with a smile. “Thanks. We appreciate it, but I want home.”

“Another time,” Des said, still grave.

Patia raised appealing eyes to her father, who shook his head sternly. Patia sighted and gave Ray a tender kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

It took about twenty minutes to walk to the house they called The Plane women’s House. It was a three-story brick building with stone lions perched on either side of stone steps. Gina had heard of this place. It was a famous restaurant. At the top of the steps was an older man whose gray streaked black hair was as thick and long as Des’.

“That’s Hawk,” Cole whispered in her ear. “Renee is his mate. Do you remember her?”

Of course, she remembered Renee. She was the chef whose food had made The Plane Women’s Eatery famous. But she knew Renee for other reasons. Renee had been taken prisoner along with Victoria when her Todd’s men had stopped their train and taken them captive back in … Gina caught her breath. That had been only a month ago? Shock rooted her feet to the stone step she was climbing.

Cole instantly stopped too. “Gina? Are you okay?”

A month ago, she had barely known Cole. In fact, she’d been scared of him. She shook her head in disbelief.

“Dad!” Urgency sharpened Cole’s voice. “Get a doctor. Gina’s―”

“No, I’m fine,” she cried. “I’m fine.”

 There were at least seventy of them here, and all of them stopped to look at her with worry.

“Really, just fine.”

To prove it, she gave everyone a big smile and started up the steps again. Hawk watched her with concern in his dark eyes. His sharp gaze moved to spot a little behind her. “Bring the ladies right in.” He sounded as bossy as Cole at his worst, but kind too. “Clear the way.”

In only a minute Gina was seated at a square table with Cole on her left and her mom on her right. Jay was across from her.