Ripples of Threat
By Rebecca James
Published by JMS Books LLC
Visit jms-books.com for more information.
Copyright 2017 Rebecca James
ISBN 9781634864817
Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com
Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.
All rights reserved.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published in the United States of America.
* * * *
Ripples of Threat
By Rebecca James
Chapter 1: Gabriel
Chapter 2: Christopher
Chapter 3: Xavier
Chapter 4: Gabriel
Chapter 5: Christopher
Chapter 6: Vincent
Chapter 7: Gabriel
Chapter 8: Xavier
Chapter 9: Christopher
Chapter 10: Vincent
Chapter 11: Gabriel
Chapter 12: Duncan
Chapter 13: Xavier
Chapter 14: Gabriel
Chapter 15: Vincent
Chapter 16: Duncan
Chapter 17: Christopher
Chapter 18: Gabriel
Chapter 19: Xavier
Chapter 20: Roanan
Chapter 21: Vincent
Chapter 22: Gabriel
Chapter 23: Emory
Chapter 24: Christopher
Chapter 25: Canaan
Chapter 26: Roanan
Chapter 27: Gabriel
Chapter 28: Roanan
Chapter 29: Duncan
Chapter 30: Gabriel
Chapter 31: Christopher
Chapter 32: Canaan
Chapter 33: Vincent
Chapter 1: Gabriel
Breath held, Gabriel watched his son guide the child-size spoon to his lips. Sometimes it felt like he would watch the little boy forever and never stop wondering at how amazing Finny was. When the toddler managed to get most of the peas into his mouth before spilling the rest, Gabriel smiled and clapped his hands.
“That’s my big boy!”
Finny grinned, mashed peas running down his chin, and eagerly scooped up another bite, managing to get more than half into his mouth.
Laughter broke out behind them, and Gabriel turned to see his mate and pack alpha, Grey, standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
“Don’t laugh at him,” Gabriel scolded.
Finny held his arms up and squealed in delight. “Daddum! Hold you! Hold you!”
Grey swept the boy out of the high chair and, heedless of the green mess, reigned kisses all over his son’s face.
Gabriel chuckled at the funny sight they made, the handsome and imposing pack alpha with peas all over his face, and the little boy with his mass of golden hair that stuck up all over like a dandelion.
“I guess he’s had enough.” Gabriel prepared a wash rag at the sink and cleaned up his son and mate.
“Where’s Ian?” Gabriel asked as he washed out green mush down the drain.
“Greenhouse,” Grey said, and leaned in to give his omega mate a different kind of kiss from those he’d lavished on his son.
Gabriel’s limbs melted, and he leaned against Grey, hand over the alpha’s beating heart. His fingers skimmed a pebbled nipple, and Gabriel felt Grey suck in a breath. Sky blue eyes met his.
“Don’t start anything you can’t finish, omega mine.”
Lips slick from their kiss, Gabriel wanted nothing more than to finish, but that would have to wait until Finny went down for a nap.
“How’re you feeling?” Grey asked as he passed Finny to Gabriel. He crossed the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Good.”
Gabriel was pregnant with his second child from his mating with Grey and Ian. The first pregnancy had ended abruptly with the pack doctor having to surgically remove Finny when Gabriel’s blood pressure had shot up so high the omega had been in danger of going into seizures. Fortunately, the baby was able to live outside the womb, and, although on the small side and a bit behind others his age, Finny was perfectly healthy.
Grey poured milk into his coffee and glanced at Gabriel. “I’m going on my rounds. What have you got planned for this morning?”
“I think I’ll take Finny for a stroll and, if Ian’s back by nap time, go help at Tarz’s stables for a while.”
Grey’s mouth thinned. “Be careful. I don’t know if being around horses in your condition is a good idea.”
“I’ll be fine,” Gabriel said.
Grey kissed the omega, and Gabriel carried Finny to the small nursery that originally had been his room until he’d mated Grey and Ian.
After coming to Angel Hills Pack as part of a trade with River Wolf Pack, Gabriel had been a nervous addition to the family, an omega uncomfortable with his heats and embarrassed at the wanton way he acted during them.
Since then, with patience and guidance, Grey and Ian had helped the omega settle, and although Gabriel still blushed when he thought about his needy actions during heat, he was more than happy with his mating to the two wonderful Angel Hills werewolves.
“Want to wear this?” Gabriel held up a green shirt and matching shorts for Finny to see from where he sat in his crib, gnawing on the foot of a stuffed bear. The little boy nodded, and Gabriel set about changing him and readying him for their walk.
He felt the baby within move more and more often. Such a singular feeling, as though an organ suddenly decided to take up residence in another area of his abdomen. Gabriel smiled, thinking about how he fell asleep every night with both Grey’s and Ian’s hands on his pregnant belly. When he’d first come to live with the two long-time mates, Gabriel had been certain they could never love him as they did one another—that to them he was merely a means to have babies—but had been proved wrong. Since Finny’s harrowing birth and the stark love and concern the two men had shown the omega, Gabriel had been confident of his mates’ total love and devotion to him.
Even Gabriel’s guilt over his and Ian’s deception couldn’t dampen Gabriel’s happiness. After several of the omega’s heats had passed with no pregnancy, Ian and Gabriel had colluded to have Ian rut with Gabriel at the beginning of his next heat without Grey knowing about it. The beta had explained to Gabriel that if Grey were sterile, it would devastate the pack alpha and encourage deep-seated doubts Grey already had about being worthy of the title.
Looking at Finny, Gabriel felt a pang of guilt. His alpha had the right to sire Gabriel’s firstborn, but he reminded himself Finny could still be Grey’s. The baby’s eyes were blue, and not as light a shade as Gabriel’s, and there seemed to be a resemblance to the pack alpha around the mouth. Then again, Gabriel could well imagine the stubborn chin as Ian’s, along with the expression that so resembled the beta’s irritated look.
Gabriel pushed these thoughts aside, t
elling himself for the hundredth time they didn’t matter, just as it didn’t matter who had sired the baby currently in his belly. Now Grey thought he had his heir to the title of pack alpha, he was content and no one paid any attention anymore to who fucked Gabriel when.
Once he had Finny dressed, Gabriel pulled out the stroller they’d bought in Angel City from the closet and strapped the toddler into the seat. The little boy loved taking walks and squealed all the way down the wooden ramp from the house built between two huge elm trees.
The day was pleasant, the heat of summer having burned off and the trees beginning to brighten with color. Hard to believe Finny was almost a year old. Werewolf pups normally developed faster than humans, but Finny’s premature birth had set the boy back a bit. Still, he had quite a few teeth and could stand and say a few words.
Gabriel stopped to pluck a crimson leaf from the ground and hold it up to show the boy in the stroller. “Pretty? Say pretty leaf.”
Finny scrunched up his face and made a grab for the prize, but Gabriel pulled it away. He couldn’t help but laugh when Finny made a growling sound.
“Say pretty leaf, and then you may hold it.”
“Pwetty weaf,” Finny said, and Gabriel handed the leaf over.
“Don’t eat it. Only for looking.”
Finny leaned back in the stroller and studied the leaf, one foot propped on the rim of the seat, as Gabriel maneuvered them onto the path that circled the compound. Nestled in the Eufaula Mountains in Alabama, Angel Hills contained cool, dry caves that provided gems for the werewolves to sell and houses for the pack. Gabriel passed several on his way to the park, waving to the beta guards high above on the cliffs where they could see for miles around.
When Gabriel neared the small park with its waterfall and pool, he spotted Justin sitting on one of the benches. The omega looked content and happy with his brood of five, and, remembering the other omega’s former life with an abusive mate, Gabriel was happy Justin was now with Milo, Grey’s second-in-command.
As Gabriel approached, pushing the stroller, Justin looked up.
“Hi! It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”
Gabriel nodded and took a seat beside his friend, turning the stroller so Finny could watch Justin’s two sets of twins where they romped in wolf form in the shallow pool. He turned to look at the baby in his friend’s arms. Born the same night as Finny, Cal was quite a bit larger.
“He’s getting so big,” Gabriel said, reaching over to pet Cal’s light brown hair.
“Finny will catch up; don’t worry.” Justin smiled as he regarded the boy in the stroller. “I love that hair.”
Gabriel smiled. “Don’t think it’s for lack of combing. It just won’t stay put.”
“I know Grey and Ian are over the moon you’re expecting another, but what about you?”
“It wasn’t exactly planned, but I don’t mind. I want a big family.”
Justin laughed. “That’s a change from what you used to say.”
Gabriel grinned. “I know, right? But…I’m really happy.”
“I’m glad.” Justin’s eyes softened. Omegas were naturally close, but Justin was more than that to Gabriel. The small omega was so sweet and kind, he’d slipped past all Gabriel’s defenses early on, becoming more like a brother than a friend.
“How’s the omega den coming along?” Gabriel asked. Milo was overseeing the building of the house like the one the omegas had had back at River Wolf Pack compound.
Justin’s dark eyes lit up. “It’s almost finished! Won’t it be great to have somewhere for all of us to get together?”
By all of us, Gabriel knew Justin meant the five omegas who had been traded to Angel Hills; the pack had lost all of its omegas to an illness over a decade ago that many had started referring to as the “great sickness,” and the numbers of the once great pack had since reduced alarmingly. Grey had been eager to replenish the dwindling population with the extremely fertile omegas, and the move was already paying off.
Considering several of the younger generation appeared to be omegas, including Justin’s oldest twins, Tim and Tyler, Gabriel thought the omega den would be put to good use for years to come.
Being together was important to the happiness of omegas, along with having a quiet place to spend their heats whether they were mated or not, and since leaving River Wolf Pack, Gabriel had missed having those things.
Gabriel caught sight of movement down the path and looked that way. “Oh, gods. Look who’s coming,” he murmured.
Justin turned to look. “Come on, Canaan’s not so bad. When we were mates, he was kind to me when Stone was at his worst, and I’ve talked to him a lot since we came here. He’s changed over the years.”
“He’s had his sights on Grey,” Gabriel said, remembering how the pack alpha had rutted with Canaan when Gabriel went into heat before they were mated.
Ian had been busy helping Gabriel, and, miserable and frustrated at not being with his omega, Grey had been easy pickings for Canaan, who loved to be fucked by an alpha.
“Not anymore. He knows Grey’s not interested. Canaan’s hung up on someone else now.” Justin stopped talking as Canaan walked within hearing range and smiled and waved the beta over.
Canaan changed course and stopped by the bench. “Hi.” He leaned down to greet Finny and then Cal, who had slid off his father’s lap and stood beside the stroller. “They’re both so handsome.”
Gabriel had to admit Canaan had a way with children, and the compliment to his son put the beta in a kinder light. Both Finny and Cal seemed captivated when Canaan talked to them, and Finny even raised his arms to be held.
“Hold you!”
“That’s what he says when he wants you to pick him up,” Gabriel said.
Canaan glanced at Gabriel for permission, and then lifted the toddler from his seat.
With a baby in his hands, Canaan looked like a different werewolf; gone was the shrewd cast in his deep green eyes, replaced by a sweetness Gabriel wouldn’t have thought the man capable of. Too bad Canaan had already had his only child, and that his son Teddy had been killed a few years ago.
When Canaan set Finny back in his stroller, he stretched and announced he had to get home. “Only have so much time for lunch, and then the kids will be back to the schoolhouse. See you later.”
Gabriel and Justin watched the beta walk away.
“He’s totally different around kids,” Gabriel said.
“I know, right? He really is, which is why it was perfect Grey put him in charge of the little kids at the school.”
“Why doesn’t he mate again? He could be a parent to another mate’s children.”
“He doesn’t want to be a third, and he says no single mate would want him because he’s already born his child.”
“What’s wrong with being a third?” Gabriel asked.
“Nothing, and that’s what I told him, but he’s stubborn.”
“You said he’s hung up on someone. Who is it?”
Justin peered over his shoulder to make sure no one was within earshot. “X.”
“What?” Xavier had appeared at Angel Hills just in time to save Justin from Stone, and the big alpha had stayed. “But he’s still mourning Trace!”
Justin sighed. “I know. I’ve told Canaan it’s a bad idea, but X just keeps coming back, and Canaan can’t refuse him.”
Gabriel frowned. “Why did X pick Canaan?”
“I told you; Canaan’s not so bad once you get to know him, and I guess sex is the only release X has for his pent-up emotions. Ever since Trace died, the poor guy’s been a wreck.”
Trace, a human, had come to River Wolf compound with a few others in an effort by the Human/Werewolf Congress to encourage good relations between the species. Xavier and Trace had fallen in love, and X had bitten the human. Trace had wanted the bite, otherwise he would have wound up becoming one of The Turned—a fate Gabriel wouldn’t wish on anyone.
“X using him isn’t really fair to Canaan
.” Gabriel was surprised to find himself sticking up for the beta.
“I agree. I’ve thought about saying something to X, but I decided to mind my own business.”
Gabriel watched the leaves on a grove of oaks rustle in the wind, glad he was mated and happy and not in the position to be used. “Maybe we can think of someone for Canaan.”
Justin looked interested. “A little matchmaking? I’m in.”
Promising to think about the possibilities, Gabriel stood to leave. “I’ve got to get Finny down for a nap before he has a melt-down.” The toddler sat in the stroller, rubbing at his eyes with his fists.
“I should get Cal down, too,” Justin said, gathering his things. “Boys!” He called to the kids in the pool. Tim and Tyler were the first to obey, further proof they were omegas. Oscar and Ollie needed to be reminded a few more times before they shook the water off their coats and trotted over.
“Cal, can you shift for me, baby?” Justin asked the toddler. With a look of concentration, the little boy transformed into a small, brown wolf.
“Good job, Cal!” Gabriel praised. He looked up at Justin. “Finny hasn’t changed to his wolf form yet.”
“It’ll come. Cal just started doing it, and you know you have to subtract the months Finny was premature to figure out what he should be doing developmentally.”
Gabriel hadn’t thought of that. It made him feel better. They left the park, Justin going one way with his brood and Gabriel the other with Finny.
When the omega entered the house in the trees, Ian rose from the sofa to greet them. Finny had fallen asleep in the stroller, and Ian lifted the sleeping boy into his arms.
“He’s worn out.”
“We’ve been at the park. He’s been watching Justin’s pups play, and I guess it wore him out.”
Ian kissed the baby’s blond head. Older than Grey by ten years and Gabriel by fourteen, Ian had a kind of nerdy sex appeal. Naturally slim and graced with refined features, the intelligent, dark-eyed beta lived up to Grey’s nickname for him: the professor.
“I’ll put him in his crib,” Ian said.
“Are you going to be here a while? I’d like to get in a couple hours work at the barn.” And maybe say something to X while I’m there, Gabriel added to himself.