“What in the hell are we going to do?” Max said. He wasn’t in the habit of cursing when he spoke to his father but he figured he’d be given a pass. He’d called his father after Josette had finally fallen asleep from exhausted, and told his father about his grandmother. There wasn’t time to mourn; it was a time to plan.
“I’m not sure there’s anything to be done. The very fact that that idiot decided to implement an attack of this magnitude speaks volumes of his mental capacity. There hasn’t been a war between the wolves in centuries and never on American soil. These are modern times; it’s not as if no one’s going to notice a wave of murders.”
The idiot in question was the northern wolves king, or Freki, his pack’s name for the title, Thomas Ronin.
“So we just let him stake claim and move into the royal estate, “Max asked. Not wanting to believe that his father was suggesting such a thing.
“For now, yes.” Max heard his father blow out a frustrated breath. “We have to tread lightly Maxwell. The last thing we need to happen is for humans to find out we exist. Right now the authorities are investigating the murders of half a dozen very rich people. Ronin couldn’t have screwed up worst. People are going to want answers.”
“So this isn’t forever. We don’t intend on letting the Freki take over our territory?”
“He’s no king to us Maxwell and you’ll not address him as such,” his father said. The heated words gave Max renewed faith in his father. “We let this die down and while we wait we come up with a plan.”
“What about reaching out to Jean Rene’s children,” Max asked.
The harsh, short laugh his father gave told Max exactly what his father thought of the idea. “Why don’t we call the Wolfe Hunters while we’re at it?”
The Wolfe Hunters were part of the Sun King and White Queens legend. A group of human men bred to hunt werewolves in secret. Max had grown up listening to the fairy-tale himself. What his father didn’t know was that a lot of the fairy-tale was happening right now. Between him and Josette. They shared a lot of what the long dead couple had.
“You ‘d think a race of mythological creatures would have a little bit more faith in their old stories,” Max said.
“Everyone has fables and legends Maxwell, humans didn’t corner the market. Protect our queen, bury your grandmother, keep yourself safe,” his father said and hung up the phone.
Max went to Luke and asked for pen and paper. His father may not believe, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t write. What was it going to hurt? At the least, he’ll seem foolish to whomever open the letter, but at the most, he’d bring their plight to the ears of the true and rightful queen or king of their entire race.
Josette woke up and for a nanosecond didn’t remember all that had happened. For a moment in time she didn’t remember that her father and grandmother were dead. She didn’t remember that her mother was missing and she certainly didn’t remember that she was now the queen of three thousand werewolves. But then she did.
She sat up in the unfamiliar bed letting the light blanket fall around her waist. She looked around the tiny bedroom. It reminded her of her own room back at her old house, full of furniture that was too big for the space. It was comforting. She looked at Max as he filled the doorframe.
“Are you hunger?”
“No,” she said and cleared her throat. “Thirsty.”
“I’ll get you something to drink.”
Josette grabbed her hair and pulled it into a bun on the top of her head using a hair tie that was on her wrist before getting out of bed. She walked into the main room of the trailer as Max was crossing it. He handed her a glass of ice water and led her to the couch.
“Were are we?”
“Luke Johnsons, he’s the beta over the Southfork Clan pack of wolves.”
Josette drank the entire glass of water and sat the glass on the coffee table. “Now what?”
“We wait,” Max said. Anger blew past him like a hot gust of wind and the sound coming from Josette was frightening.
“You can’t be serious.”
“My father is planning what to do next, but Thomas Ronin has started a war between the wolves that could out our existence. That’s something that can’t be allowed to happen,” Max explained. “And I need to bury my grandmother.”
Josette felt like an instant ass. “And my father?” she asked, her throat slick again with tears.
“My father will make sure he’s buried but it’s not safe to have a funeral,” he said. Josette nodded. She knew her life was still in jeopardy.
“What can I do to help with Mrs. Anderson’s funeral arrangements?”
“You knew more of her friends that I did. I’m going to go and report her death to the police. You can come over later today.”
“You’re leaving me?”
“Do you want to go with me?” Max asked.
Josette thought about seeing Mrs. Anderson’s lifeless body. “No,” she said in a low voice.
“Luke and his pack will keep you safe. There are already guards surrounding the trailer in the woods.”
“Where’s Luke?”
“He went to town for supplies. I’ll wait until he’s back before I leave,” Max took her in his arms and leaned back on the couch. She did him one better and climbed into his lap.
“This is so fucked up,” she said after a moment.
“Tehila, I’ll do everything in my power to help you avenge your father.”
“And your grandmother,” she added.
Max nodded. “And her too.”
“I want to speak to your father,” she said. Max pulled away from her to look at her. “I understand about the waiting but I want to know the plan.” When Max didn’t say anything she added. “If I’m the Nonakris I need to know what’s going on and I want the wolves to know I exist.”
“Josette you’ve been a wolf for two weeks. You haven’t even changed forms yet,” he said.
She let out a slow breath; reined in the anger that was eating away at her insides and made her body tight.
“You gave me the whole speech about alpha this and alpha that. That you are head in this relationship, that’s fine. I accept that. But now it’s time for you to accept that I’m head of something too and I’m not going to hide like my mother did.” The thought of her missing mother blurred her vision but she refused to cry.
“I’m not asking to round up the troops and raid the fort. I’m asking to be included in the decisions that concern the people I’m to rule.”
“You don’t understand Josette, you’ll be challenged,” Max said sitting up and pushing her gently from his lap. “A fight to the death, maybe as a wolf you’d stand a chance but you’re a seventeen year old girl. Any man with half a brain would challenge you in human form.”
“And that would be true if I took the throne at thirty,” she said standing up.
“Once we’re married and I become your consort you wouldn’t have to fight. I’d answer any challenge for you,” he said.
“Then I guess we’re getting married.”
The words were out of her mouth before she had time to form the thought completely in her head, but now that it was out there—big whoop. They were going to be married in a couple of weeks anyway.
“Help me Max. Help me be the queen that our people deserve. Help me return the pack to a time where everyone was family and they looked after one another.”
Max stood up and grabbed her face in his hands and pressed their heads together from forehead to nose.
“You’re killing me Tehila,” he whispered but she could feel the smile in his words.
“Then we will die together,” she said. He nodded against her before kissing her.
Max reported a his grandmother’s murder and Josette was taken to Mrs. Anderson’s home after he’d called Luke to report the body had been taken and the police had left the house. Josette had four bodyguards assigned to her and while she appreciated everyone’s concern for her well
being, they were really working her nerves by the end of the day.
She and her group of merry men went to look at the burnt remains of the house her grandparents had worked so hard to buy. She didn’t cry; she let the sight fuel her anger. When she left it was a final farewell to her old life. Janet had not called in and Josette had come to terms that her mother was more than likely dead. There was a small flicker of hope, there always would be without a body. She helped Max with his grandmother’s funeral and the phone call to his father went over like gangbusters with Josette having to pull rank by the end of the conversation. She was so mad at the man that she challenged him. That got his attention. Not because he felt any threat, but because he finally realized that she meant business. By week’s end Max and she would be married. Announcements would be sent to all the wolves of their new queen and king. It was going to be nothing fancy, just Luke and his pack. Max’s father couldn’t risk coming, no one knew the extent of Ronin’s reach. Until they took back their territory and killed him and his wolves, her life would remain in danger.
A day before the wedding was Max’s grandmother’s funeral. Josette hugged Max as he cried into her neck. They packed up the last of Mrs. Anderson’s belongings that Max and his father wanted to keep. The woman had enough jewelry to open a shop. Most of it fake, but they found a couple of very nice, very expensive pieces, tokens purchased by Mr. Anderson or maybe passed down from her mother. They both were crying by the time they’d taped the last box.
Max hadn’t mentioned one very important thing about Luke’s pack. They were nudist. On her first day Josette spent her time averting her gaze. She was only a little more comfortable by week’s end, but word of her distress had passed and most of the pack now walked around clothed. She appreciated it so much she thanked everyone she caught out whenever she left the trailer.
On the day of their marriage she woke to a wonderful surprise. She and Max had agreed to just have the local judge come out and marry them quietly but the pack had different plans. The square was decorated with paper lanterns, strings of white Christmas lights and wild flowers. It was beautiful, it was perfect.
Max was standing outside with Luke in front of his trailer. Josette had been taken to a neighboring cabin to do God knows what in preparations of tonight’s ceremony.
“It’s too much,” Max said again.
“It’s not every day the regent queen gets married,” Luke said popping the top on a can of beer and handing it to Max. “I can’t have people thinking we live like a pack of wild animals unable to show the proper respect to such a momentous occasion.”
“I think everyone would understand,” Max said.
“Maybe, but it’ll do the pack good,” Luke said eyeing a large black SUV coming down the dirt road directly in front of him. “Expecting anyone?”
“No,” Max said sitting his can down on the railing of the trailer. Luke had already sat his down and both men stood up a little straighter. Keeping his eye on the tinted car Max saw out of his peripheral vision half a dozen men come from behind the trailer and out of the wood beside it. By the time the car stopped in front of them all the packs males were standing shoulder to shoulder.
The driver’s side door opened and a redheaded giant got out...wearing a kilt. He looked straight out of Braveheart. His thick hair matted into dreadlocks, his beard covering most of his face and his eyebrows covering the rest. The passenger door opened and a tall thin man with long, bone straight, black hair got out. His stoic expression had several of the men lowering into a fighting stance. He looked dangerous, deadly. The black haired man opened the back door to the SUV as Max saw Josette coming across the square.
“Damn her,” Max said under his breath. She really was going to be the death of him. If he didn’t die in a challenge, she was going to give him a heart attack. At least she had the sense to swing wide when she came around the car. He held his hand out to her as she approached.
An average size man with wavy shoulder length black hair stepped out of the car followed by a large grey....wolf. A few of the men in the line took a step back. Others crowded around Max and Josette; Luke stepped in front of her all together.
“I’m looking for Maxwell Dupre,” he said looking over the group of men. Before Max could answer the man said “Oh my, Mon Lune, come, you must see this.”
Max didn’t need to turn his head, he could feel the power of Josette pushing against his body like F5 tornado winds. When he looked at his mate her hair had gone completely white, she was broader across the shoulders and chest and her hands had claws. There were gasps all around and the rest of the group that had held rank took a step away from her.
The redheaded giant opened the door on his side of the car and a second before the woman stepped from behind the car a white wolf joined the grey one at the man’s feet. He held his hand out to her, the same as Max had done for Josette.
“Look Mon Lune,” he said smiling in amazement. Blue eyes the color of twilight looked at Josette.
The woman stopped in her tracks leaving the man’s hand hanging in the air. He was too astonished to put it down so it was still there, like a flag blowing in the wind. The only thing stopping Max from falling down was his need to protect his mate. The woman could have been Josette’s twin. She was older, a little shorter but they looked so much a like it was like looking into the future, at Josette in ten years.
“Do you feel it Mon Lupe?” she asked in a low voice. She sounded a lot like she looked; shocked, amazed, stunned; like she was looking at an illusion.
“Indeed,” he answered her.
The couple, feet apart, stood and stared. Neither moved, the two wolves approached first. Max stepped in front of Josette throwing his arm out to shield her body. He gave thanks that she stayed there.
“Glorious,” the man said clapping his hands together once, “A mated pair.” His words broke the woman’s paralysis and she went to him. He brought his arm up and pulled her into his side without taking his eyes from Josette.
The wolves took another step forward and Max felt the warning growl rumble in his chest, come up his throat and spill out if mouth. His fangs punched out of his gums so quick he tasted blood in his mouth. He lowered himself in front of Josette.
“Oh my,” the woman said.
“Merveilleux,” said the man.
“Well I’ll be damn,” said the red giant.
The black haired man looked only slightly less menacing.
The wolves were low to the ground, showing they meant no harm. They weren’t whimpering, but their tales thumped the ground. Max felt Josette lower behind him and he huffed in frustration. The wolves approached, still low on the ground, more scooting forward than walking. Josette held her hand out and they licked it, nuzzled it. No biting. Good. Max straightened and watched amazed as the wolves popped up from the ground and stared to play more forcefully with Josette, bouncing around her feet, knocking her off balance.
“Traitors,” the woman said. Max turned his attention back to the group in front of him. The woman was smiling.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” he asked.
“We’ve come to offer aid. We received a letter from Maxwell Dupre,” the man said.
A second SUV was pulling up driving like a bat out of hell. It threw gravel and dust in the air as it came to a stop. A man almost the same height as the red giant got out of the driver’s side.
“Dammit Wallace do you have to drive like the hounds of hell are hot on your ass,” he said before his mouth dropped open. “Holy shit.”
The rest of the doors opened. A small woman whose face was scarred got out of the passenger side. A woman, obviously a daughter or sister, got out the back and a tiny blond man came around from the back driver’s side.
“I’m Jean Rene Laurent and this is my mate, Diana.”
Shit.