“Once you can pull up your wolf partway and send him back down every time,” she continued, “Then you can go full-on wolf.”
“And once your Aunt Terra is ready, then you can shift,” Wolfie called over my head. The alpha didn’t even need to put any command into his voice to make the statement stick—despite their rowdiness, the yahoos were some of the most obedient young werewolves I’d ever met. I smiled up at the man who had made the last seven days a whirlwind of excitement. In human parlance, we still hadn’t made it past second base—Wolfie refused to go further until I felt 100% comfortable about the partnership with my wolf. But boy did second base feel good....
“I think I need the kind of personal lessons Aunt Terra is getting,” Keith said, leering at Fen, who rolled her eyes and responded: “In your dreams, kid.”
***
“Why the big smile?” Wolfie asked as we left the younger set to their cards and retreated back to the stove to finish prepping a pot of chili.
I couldn’t resist smiling even wider as the alpha lightly traced one finger down my bare arm. I hadn’t noticed until this morning that the slowly fading packless ache was completely gone, along with the bone-deep gnawing of my wolf, and the realization had left me feeling even lighter on my feet. And why should any pain linger when I was surrounded by two nurturing packs every day? Each evening, Keith and I headed home to eat dinner with Dale, who was his usual caring self, if completely oblivious to the werewolfery going on around him. Then we’d get up the next morning and spend the day with Wolfie’s pack, helping around the kitchen and garden, or just hanging out with wolves who were starting to feel like old friends. With the easy familiarity of youth, Keith had already become bosom buddies with Blaze, the youngest of the yahoos, and Galena and I were taking the slightly slower, adult path to the same place. Even Quetzalli and I had reached a sort of truce—I ignored her and she didn’t yank my chain...too often.
No reason to tell Wolfie all that, though, because his wolf could sense exactly how I felt. “You alphas always think it’s all about you,” I teased him, but couldn’t help adding, “I’m just happy because of your pack. It feels so good to be around werewolves again without having to put up with my father’s old-fashioned bullshit.”
“It can be your pack too,” Wolfie offered, his rampant wolf making the alpha up-front about his intentions, as usual. “There’s an empty suite next door to my room....”
Despite my good mood, Wolfie’s overt suggestion took a bit of the bounce out of my steps. I wasn’t ready to go there yet. Yes, Wolfie’s pack seemed perfect on the outside, but I’d seen too much pack awfulness to jump right back onto that horse. Plus: “We have to figure out what we’re going to do about Keith and my father first,” I responded, the smile suddenly absent from my face. I’d been putting off thinking about that thorny issue, content to live in the moment for the last week, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my father had scouts with telephoto lenses keeping an eye on me from the surrounding hills. If I didn’t make progress soon, I might be in for another visit from cousin Milo.
“That seems simple,” Wolfie said comfortably. And to a wolf-dominated alpha, the issue of another wolf trying to take what he considered his property probably did appear simple. I could even guess at Wolfie’s solution before the words came out of his mouth. “I’ll confront the old man and he’ll leave you alone.”
“Wolfie, you don’t understand how a pack like Haven works,” I countered. “You can’t just walk in the door and challenge my father to some kind of wolf fight to the death. The Chief would send out a half dozen goons like Milo and you’d never make it off the main road.” Plus, as much as I wasn’t willing to say it out loud, the Chief was my father, and I no more wanted him to get hurt than I ever wanted to see him again. This was one of the reasons I had refrained from thinking about the metaphorical sword hanging over my head—Wolfie and I didn’t see eye to eye on the issue at all.
“Okay,” Wolfie agreed easily. “How about I mate with you and offer to merge packs? Keith can be the heir for both of us.”
That idea startled a humorless laugh out of me. My father wouldn’t dream of allying his century-old pack with Wolfie’s upstart band of misfits, never mind the fact that mating with Wolfie was twice as big of a commitment as moving in with his pack would have been. “Seriously, Wolfie? Do you know anything about my father?” I asked him, just as Keith draped himself across the archway and interrupted our conversation.
“The guys and I were thinking of heading home to check out my gaming system,” my nephew said, a wheedle in his voice. “Is that okay?”
I was glad to have the troublesome topic tabled, and I couldn’t resist wondering whether an afternoon alone with Wolfie might tempt the alpha to relax his standards and allow hands below the waist. And, personal feelings aside, Keith’s charm made the request hard to turn down, especially since I knew the yahoos would keep an eye on the kid. “Sure,” I agreed, tossing the youngster my car keys without further thought. “Just call if you need anything. And Wade drives.”
“And you practice partial shifts every time a game ends,” Wolfie added, a slight growl entering his voice to ensure that his orders, at least, would be obeyed.
“Sure thing, Uncle Wolfie,” Keith said jokingly and shot out the door before the alpha could belt him with a dish towel.
***
Chase had joined us in the kitchen to hunt down a midmorning snack when intruders came pounding on the compound door. Wolfie smelled trouble a moment before the racket began and I noticed his shoulders tensing, so I was prepared for the way his wolf took command behind the alpha’s eyes.
“Go out the back way and over the mountain to Keith,” he ordered Chase, then the alpha hit a red button on the wall that set off barely audible alarms ringing throughout the compound. In response, adult werewolves converged on the common area nearly as quickly as Wolfie and I made it out of the kitchen.
Quetzalli and Galena were the first to arrive, dirt still on their fingers from the garden but all softness gone from their eyes. The human Acacia had her daughter Lantana latched onto one breast, her werewolf husband Berndt hovering protectively over them. Tia was bleary-eyed, as if she’d just woken up from a nap, leaving only Wolfie’s uncle Oscar unaccounted for. Except for the yahoos, Keith, and Chase, of course, who I hoped would all be together soon, safely on the other side of the mountain.
“Berndt, take Acacia and Lantana to the safe room,” Wolfie ordered, jerking his head toward the left side of the compound, and the father seemed glad to obey. I expected Wolfie to send the rest of the women packing too, even though that would have left him with only the missing Oscar for backup, but Wolfie continued to overturn my preconceived notions of alpha behavior. He motioned for Tia, Quetzalli, and Galena to form a protective arc behind us as he and I walked together toward the door.
It’s only been ten days, I told myself. Father wouldn’t show up before the month is over. But I didn’t believe my own lie. I’d been expecting Chief Wilder to arrive on our doorstep ever since Wolfie sent my cousin packing a week before, and it almost felt like a relief to be able to stop looking over my shoulder. Almost.
The pounding stopped abruptly when Wolfie wrenched open the door, leaving one of my cousins to catch his balance as he lowered his fist mid-pound. The cousin sidled away down the steps, giving us a clear view of Chief Wilder leaning against a huge black SUV and flanked by four more male cousins. A fifth cousin restrained Oscar, the older werewolf’s hands tied together behind his back with a zip tie while a bruise rose on one cheek. For the first time ever, I heard a low growl rise out of usually gentle Tia’s throat as she took in the view.
After spending time around Wolfie’s bulk, my father appeared smaller and older, but no less dangerous. In fact, if we’d been in wolf form, I would have expected the Chief to circle around behind our pack and jump on Wolfie from the rear, taking down the stronger alpha through pure cunning. Not that my father needed to use trickery since h
e currently made up for anything he lacked in personal strength due to the presence of hefty enforcers strewn across our front yard. We were clearly outclassed.
But Wolfie would never let another alpha show him up. “Crazy Wilder,” Wolfie greeted the Chief with the nickname I’d never heard anyone say to the old man’s face. “Welcome to my humble abode.”
I waited for the scene to descend into bedlam, but after a moment, my father merely began to laugh. “Bloodling Wolf,” he responded in kind. “Aren’t alphas supposed to protect their women and children instead of vice versa?” The older alpha nodded at one of my cousins, who sent Oscar stumbling toward the front door. “Here, have your mother’s bleeding-heart brother back. It looks like your pack is a little short on testosterone.” As if to highlight his words, my father leered at the women behind me, and I could feel Quetzalli clenching her hands into fists in response.
We parted to let Oscar inside and Tia drew him out of my father’s line of sight to worry at the zip ties around his wrists. But my attention remained riveted on the two alphas. Although I found it hard to believe, Wolfie seemed bored by the exchange, smothering a yawn as he stared down my father, whose face darkened at the affront. Turning his eyes to easier prey, Chief Wilder addressed me.
“Little Terra,” he continued. “I had expected to see more progress after all this time. Why hasn’t my grandson been introduced to his wolf?” When the words of a reply stuck in my throat, a wide smile strained my father’s cheeks, although his eyes remained cold. “So the reports are true—my daughter is a shiftless wolf. As useless as her brother.”
I stumbled backwards as if I’d been struck. Like the term “meat,” “shiftless” was an awful slur to apply to a werewolf. But my father was right. Despite all of Wolfie’s hard work to bring my wolf and me together, the last time I’d locked myself into my basement room and attempted to shift, I hadn’t felt a single hint of the change. I’d have to learn to embrace the term. Shiftless. My head bowed, and I was no longer able to look into my father’s eyes.
Wolfie had been quiet, giving me the chance to respond on my own, but when I seemed struck dumb, the younger alpha angled his body to hide me from view. “What do you want, old man?” Wolfie demanded, his tone as cold as my father’s had been.
“Well, I certainly don’t want her anymore,” my father replied cheerfully, as if he and Wolfie were two farmers leaning over a fence to talk horse flesh. “I looked into your claim, by the way,” he added, “and Keith is no more your heir than Brooke was your mate. I’ve taken what I wanted.”
With those parting words, my father and cousins slid back into their gleaming SUV. Doors banged, and the huge vehicle rolled down the driveway and out of our sight.
***
Wolfie understood what had happened before I did. I’d never heard such a stream of invective flow out of the alpha’s mouth as I did when he grabbed his keys and leaped into his truck, the rest of us still gaping in the doorway. But before Wolfie could start the engine, Chase bounded up in wolf form. Alone.
Understanding dawned on all of us at once, and I sank down to sit on the steps as Wolfie’s head dropped onto the steering wheel. His beta shifted back to two-footed humanity quickly and moved closer to the truck before he reported.
“The yahoos are okay,” Chase told his pack leader quietly. “But Keith is gone.”
Chapter 13
“A bribe,” Chase suggested.
Wolfie’s pack was sitting around the compound’s dining table, and had been for the last three hours. After stopping the hot-headed yahoos from immediately running after my father and nephew, we’d been tossing around ideas for how to bring Keith home, but we didn’t seem to be making any progress. In fact, the pack appeared to be falling apart rather than coming together. The young males were a mass of testosterone despite Tia’s best efforts at maintaining order, and even Quetzalli and Galena were bickering.
Part of the issue was the absence of our alpha. The firm hold Wolfie had maintained on his temper during my father’s little visit slipped its bounds at last when the alpha realized Keith had been snatched out from under our noses—I’d never seen such a fast involuntary shift. Chase had been forced to open the truck door to let his alpha run up the mountainside and vent his temper somewhere safe, and Oscar had quickly shifted to follow after him.
In Wolfie’s absence, Chase should have been in charge, but I could tell the beta was as worried about Wolfie as he was about my nephew. Still, his most recent suggestion was the best we’d heard so far.
“Bribe him with what?” I asked. My father’s favorite possession was power, closely followed by money to prop up that power. Unfortunately, a young pack like Wolfie’s hadn’t had time to earn either of my father’s preferred playthings. Not that I didn’t think Wolfie’s compound was whimsically appealing, but living in mobile homes made it unlikely that the pack would be able to rustle up anything that would capture my father’s attention.
“The usual,” responded an unlikely voice from the front door. “Money.”
We all turned in unison to watch Keith’s father enter, followed closely by Wolfie and Oscar. The two werewolves were dressed in jogging pants that I recognized from Dale’s running collection, and my eyebrows weren’t the only ones to rise at seeing an uninitiated human brought into our pow-wow. Tia was merely the first to voice her concern.
“Wolfie?” she asked. “You didn’t...?” She tilted her head toward Dale in inquiry and the easy-going doctor thinned his lips.
“He did,” Dale confirmed. “It was pretty easy to convince me after two wolves shifted into neighbors on the front porch.”
One of the yahoos started swearing, and I couldn’t help but agree. Wolfie had broken a cardinal werewolf rule—outsiders weren’t to know what we were unless they moved in with the pack. In a pinch, I figured we could argue that Dale had joined the pack when he married Brooke, even though my sister hadn’t seen fit to inform her husband of her wolf nature. Still....
“My call,” Wolfie said simply, and I could feel the pack fitting itself back together at his calm words. As pack leader, the choice had indeed been Wolfie’s call. Now, Wolfie turned his eyes toward Keith’s father, and the attention of everyone in the room shifted with him.
“I understand that bringing in the police is out of the question,” Dale said calmly, and for the first time I could imagine my brother-in-law in the emergency room sewing up a patient as quickly and efficiently as possible so the injured person wouldn’t bleed out. This was a side of Brooke’s husband that I hadn’t been aware of. “Wolfie says Keith isn’t currently in any danger because his grandfather wants him as a sort of leader in training,” Dale continued, “but I’d like to get my son back as quickly as possible. Between my retirement account and mortgaging the house, I should be able to come up with a quarter of a million dollars by tomorrow.”
My eyes bulged. Yes, that kind of money would speak even to Crazy Wilder. Especially if we added in the bargaining chip I’d been afraid to bring up but knew would sweeten the pot.
Unfortunately, now that Wolfie was back, I’d have to wait even longer to mention my contribution. This was one bargaining chip I knew the alpha would disapprove of.
***
As the pack changed gears and began ironing out the logistics of meeting with my father, I drew Dale aside to take care of one of the loose threads in my plan. I expected my brother-in-law to refuse to talk to me—after all, I’d lied by omission and was ultimately responsible for his son’s kidnapping. But instead, he simply enfolded me into another one of his world-class hugs. I could feel tears prickling behind my eyes, and was surprised to notice my wolf adding her sensations to my own. I might be shiftless, but it felt good for a wolf to join me under my human skin.
“I’m so sorry, Dale,” I told him as soon as my brother-in-law released me, seeing tears in his eyes to match my own. “I should have told you, but I didn’t think I could....” My voice trailed off, the words seeming lame even to my
ears.
But Dale was kind even in his grief. “It’s not your fault,” he answered, giving me another pat on the back. “I guessed something was going on with Brooke, but I’d forgotten all about it until you went out for such a sudden run your first day here. If I’d been more present, I would have figured out that Keith’s issues were more than a puberty-onset mental illness.” Dale’s lips drew down as he counted up all of the hours he’d been on call and not present in his son’s life. I’m sure Keith’s age made his father’s guilt much worse since the kid had reached that teenage stage when parents are decidedly uncool, so the boy had kept his head in his video games when Dale was home. Nothing like a teenager to make a parent feel guilty.
“You’ll have him back soon,” I promised, even though I knew that no plan, no matter how sound, was guaranteed while my father was the opposing force. But we had to think positively or we’d all turn wolf and end up chewing apart trees on the mountainside the way Wolfie had.
“I know,” Dale agreed, propping us both up with his certainty. “And I want to thank you for all the help you’ve given Keith already. He’s been so much happier since you moved in, and I know it’s more than just understanding the changes he’s going through. It’s good for him to have his aunt around.”
I glanced over Dale’s shoulder at the yahoos and older werewolves who were deep in conversation around the table, and felt the first wrench of the packless ache I’d thought had been quenched in my stomach. Of course, if my plan worked, I’d feel that ache 24/7 in the near future, so it might as well get warmed up. “You shouldn’t be thanking me,” I answered my brother-in-law. “That happiness is all due to hanging out with Wolfie’s pack. Werewolves aren’t meant to be alone.”