The Wolf's Pack

Sequel to Mate of the Wolf

The Wolf’s Pack Shelly Star has run away with her Alpha werewolf lover and disappeared from the grid, but not the spotlight. The tabloids are still having a field day with the story of her disappearance, ironically making Shelly even more famous now than before she left. This makes her very presence in the pack a danger to their secrecy, and what’s worse, there are some people in the pack who want her, and Michael, banished before the vampires return for his silver pelt and before the police and reporters show up for Shelly. Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves Length: 35,329 words

THE WOLF’S PACK Sequel to Mate of the Wolf

Mandy Rosko

EROTIC ROMANCE

Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com

ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer. WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at [email protected]

A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

THE WOLF’S PACK Copyright © 2011 by Mandy Rosko E-book ISBN: 1-61034-767-6 First E-book Publication: September 2011 Cover design by Jinger Heaston All cover art and logo copyright © 2011 by Siren Publishing, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers Dear Readers, If you have purchased this copy of The Wolf’s Pack by Mandy Rosko from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book. The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment. This is Mandy Rosko’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Rosko’s right to earn a living from her work. Amanda Hilton, Publisher www.SirenPublishing.com www.BookStrand.com

THE WOLF’S PACK Sequel to Mate of the Wolf MANDY ROSKO Copyright © 2011

Chapter One Shelley Star made a break for it when she punched the werewolf in the face. Alex was so pissed his transformation was inevitable. The stunned look on his mug would have been funny—open mouth, eyes wide—had she not been a whole foot shorter than the guy, and a human whom he could snap in half with his Iron Man hands. Her knuckles even hurt from when she’d punched him. His face hadn’t even discolored. Then those big eyes narrowed, heavy brows coming down, and the ripple that Shelley recognized as part of the transformation process shimmered under his skin. She got the hell out of there, faster than a bullet train, before his wolfy self could wake up and hunt her down. Running into the trees surrounding the house would’ve been a too-stupid-to-live move that even her panicked brain could figure out. Her first thought was to run into her bedroom, hide under the sheets, and stay quiet-as-a-mouse still, and no, hiding under the sheets was not a dumb move on her part. In fact, she’d been here a couple of minutes so far, and nothing had broken down the door. Yet. The door opened. She could hear the gentle turn and click of the chrome knob. No wolf could do that, only a man. There was only one

8

Mandy Rosko

man allowed to enter this space. The wood slid across the carpet, and the muffled clomp-clomp suggested heavy-booted feet. Michael’s big hand gently pinched the comforter over her face and pulled it away. He looked just as confused as Alex had been before his face twisted, stretched, and sprouted hair, at any rate. He wore a blue button-down plaid over a white T-shirt and his usual faded jeans. Not faded from work, or designer, but from age and constant use. It was pointless to be constantly buying new whenever the fancy struck, despite all the money Michael had—this fortress house being proof enough of that—since the transformations usually left clothing barely wearable. Whatever new clothes were purchased tended to get sealed up in bags and hidden around the 350 acres of forestland that made up the property, just in case. A single light brow on Michael’s face lifted high into that sandy hairline, and his pink mouth parted a little, as though not sure what to say to her. She grinned at him. “You heard?” “Jake came and got me.” That took her aback a little. “He was human when he saw you punch Alex. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile at anything before.” Michael sat by her knees. “I take it you’re not happy?” She had enough energy left in her to form an angry pout in his direction. “No.” Silence, then a little smile. “Alex wouldn’t have attacked you. His wolf knows better than to touch his alpha’s woman, but what did you think this would do?” He flicked the brown comforter. “I was hoping your smell would keep him out.” Hence why it’s not stupid to hide under the covers, Shelley thought. A crinkle of paper alerted her to something in his hand. He tossed it onto her chest. She sat up and took the magazine, and the Star logo on the corner immediately had her insides knotting.

The Wolf’s Pack

9

Her most recent personal picture took up the whole front cover but for the right side. That was reserved for the smaller photos of Shelley’s mom, dad, and her two sisters. They looked like a unit, a little battalion of brunets, her parents standing behind Stacy and Sissy, their hands on their remaining daughters’ shoulders, as though protecting them and keeping them close. The whole group had grim expressions. The caption, printed in yellow below them, read simply We Miss Her. Shelley had to look back at the picture of herself. It wasn’t from when she was going to the Grammys, or even during the premiere of any of the movies she’d done, few that there were. It was a picture from home. The last time she’d been at home, anyway. She’d been seventeen then. Her formerly blonde hair was slicked back from sweat and a red bandanna. It had been longer then. Her clothes were gray joggers and a sports bra. She’d been working to lose some weight after being told she was too heavy to get the role of a dancer in a music video. Shelley frowned. This was staged. She could tell because she’d had her photo taken enough for Cosmo, Elle, and several others to recognize when the photographer, or someone else, wanted to elicit a certain emotion out of the viewers. Just a normal hometown girl, smiling for the camera, at home with her family, and there was her family, looking perfectly groomed, unhappy, and victimized. She tossed the paper away. “So what?” His jaw became tight. He looked like he hadn’t shaved that morning. Something he usually forgot to do. Then it clicked. “You don’t think I’d want to go back?” “Of course not. You’ve made your feelings perfectly clear on the subject of…them.” Yes, she had. “Then why would you order me not to leave the house?” That was what had pissed her off enough to hit Alex.

10

Mandy Rosko

Alex was the second-in-command for Michael’s pack. If Michael was the alpha, then technically, Alex was the beta, even though no one actually used that word for him. Alex was usually the one to carry out the commands Michael made. Which meant that she’d punched the messenger. She hadn’t thought about it in that way when her fist flew. She hadn’t been thinking at all, and now that she did, she felt a little bad. “Shelley,” Michael said, making his voice softer, more tender, to turn her into mash. “Yes?” she asked, the strength leaving her voice despite herself. It had been a month since Michael Hunter had brought her to his home, introduced her to the members of his pack who were living here, most of whom had a great big laugh when they found out about how she and their alpha had met, but in all that time, they’d only gone to bed once. Their first night in this room. It had been a totally wild night that left Shelley blushing like crazy the next morning, unable to look her new roommates in the eyes, even hours after they’d stopped smirking over it. Since then, Michael had to be called away to answer questions his family all seemed to have about the vampires and their current status. Hence why she’d been so uptight when Alex had delivered the latest order. Not all vampires were a problem for werewolves and their packs, but the ones who were, were after Michael, and well, they were on a whole new level of insane. Michael had left his pack, exiled himself, hoping to draw the vampires away. Upon his return with Shelley, he needed to reassert his command over his wolves. Shelley was beginning to feel like she’d married the CEO of some big company, whose spare time was precious and little. Though they shared the room, they rarely slept in this bed at the same time, and when they did, Michael was always too tired from arguments he had over the phone with unruly pack members or negotiations with the

The Wolf’s Pack

11

vampires not loyal to the king, to do anything more than pass out over the covers. This was the first time in weeks they’d both been perfectly awake and aware while on a mattress. Middle of the day and house full of people or not, Shelley felt his closeness, watched the rise and fall of his chest under his tight button-down as he breathed, and noted the way he looked at her. She scooted closer to him, wrapped her arms around his muscled arm, and tilted her head to rest it on his shoulder. She felt the heat radiate from his body. “Shelley,” he said again. She reached up to kiss the spot just under his jaw. It was strong and prickly, the way she remembered and liked. “Mmm?” “We might have to leave the pack.” That stopped her mouth from traveling farther up to his lips hella fast. She pulled back. “What? I thought—” “I am leader of this pack, but that leadership still depends on certain factors. You know there were some members who did not want me to come back.” She did know. Shelley could remember plainly finding those letters under Michael’s bed in that worn-down cabin in Washington. Some people—Chris, Alex, and Deena—wanted him to come home so badly. She imagined Jake would’ve written the same but doubted he knew how to read or write. Others in the pack, mostly Cal, wrote how his absence was benefiting everyone. She still wasn’t entirely up to date on werewolf pack law, but so far, none of them were like anything she’d read about in romance novels or seen in horror flicks. Then a scary thought hit her, and she gripped Michael’s arm tighter. He chuckled, reading her thoughts. “No one’s going to kill anyone. We’ll settle it the way we always settle things.”

12

Mandy Rosko

Shelley narrowed her eyes. “The last time I saw you settle anything, there was blood all over the lawn.” The mix of green and dark, shiny red hadn’t been pretty, either. His grin showed off perfectly white teeth. It was hard not to melt all over his lap at that face. She slapped his arm instead. “Stop that! This is serious. Are you going to fight them?” She hadn’t met Cal, or many other pack members who didn’t live in this house. To her, they were just faceless voices across the distance that so far had done nothing but cause her trouble. “Cal was the one who issued the challenge. I’ll be expected to battle him. The winner will have the final decision, but, because I am alpha, if I lose…” “You won’t be in charge anymore.” He nodded. “Alpha battles tend to be that way.” Michael could handle himself, but Shelley was a glass-half-empty kind of girl. She was worried. In most werewolf books she’d read, pack members were all best friends who had each others’ backs and handled their matters with a vote. This was different, more real somehow, since everything needed to be settled with a fight. Chris and Alex once fought over what to order for dinner. Chinese or pizza. They both had bites and deep gashes all over the place in the end. Deena had been pissed because she was the one who had to break out the first aid kit and stitch bloody wounds every time someone got hurt. But Shelley supposed it made sense in a twisted kind of way. It was, however, really inconvenient under current circumstances. “You’ll beat them, right?” “Only Cal issued a challenge. Most likely I can. It’ll happen the minute he gets here, but I’m beginning to think that I should just step down and get it over with.” “No,” Shelley said immediately, “you’re safer here.” “Shelley, Pearl may or may not read those types of magazines,” he said, his eyes going down to the crumpled paper still on the

The Wolf’s Pack

13

bedspread, “but she will eventually see your face somewhere. She knows where I am, and she’ll know you’re with me. If she knows half the humans in the country are looking for you, she can stir up some serious shit for the pack.” Pearl being the vampire princess who was most interested in bringing Michael to her father. The same vampire Shelley came into contact with the last time the vampire and Michael had battled. Shelley’s blood chilled. Memories of dyed-purple hair, long nails dripping poison, and fangs in her neck brought a chill to her bones that she shivered off. When that didn’t entirely work, her hands came up on their own to rub her arms. “Your family is thinking I’ll cause trouble?” “Not all of them,” Michael assured her, “but if the police were to suddenly show up and collect you because Pearl tipped them off, that could lead to a lot of awkward questions.” Especially since the papers seemed all too happy to write about her kidnapping. When Shelley had disappeared with Michael a month ago, she’d left everything behind, even her rental car and all the camping equipment she’d brought out when she first met him. She’d been taking a break, time to herself to figure out whether she really wanted to sign a contract to act in so many movies in one year she’d likely have gone insane. Michael had been a wolf when they’d met. Naturally, she’d freaked out and run for it. She was in pretty good shape, but he’d chased her down until she passed out, but Michael’s wolf form was able to recognize something that his human self could not. She was his mate. That’s why he hadn’t torn her to itty-bitty pieces. She’d woken up with him on top of her, totally naked. She’d been scared out of her mind, but he didn’t want to risk that he’d scratched and infected her, so he took her and chained her to the inside of his little house, hidden away in the woods. It wasn’t until he transformed a second time that he figured out what she was. Then Pearl had shown up and ruined their short-lived peace.

14

Mandy Rosko

Michael’s wolf didn’t just have a rare silver color to its pelt. It was, like, real silver. The kind of silver people made into jewelry and wore on their bodies, mixed in with actual gray wolf hair. She kept a bit of the coarse stuff in the locket around her neck, and, to complicate things further with paranormal politics, the vampire king wanted to use it for trimming on his royal robes, so he sent his halfbreed daughter out to collect. It was the reason why Michael had left in the first place. Michael nearly killed Pearl that last time they met, but, being the honorable man she loved, he showed mercy instead. He let her go. For a while, when nothing else happened and no other vampires attacked, Shelley’d hoped that would be the end of it. Or…had it really been the end? Michael obviously saw where her thoughts had headed—he could hear them half the time, a product of their mating—because he took on a guilty expression. “You know something else! Have you heard anything about Pearl? What have you been hiding from me?” He sighed, reached out, and took one of her hands away from gripping her arms and held it in his giant palms. “There’s a rumor in the vampire circles that Pearl is collecting a small group of her father’s soldiers. They can only be for one thing.” Great. “That’s why I had Alex tell you my new plan, and I know what you’re thinking. You’re not confined to the house, just the land. It’s safer for you here with Chris, Alex, and Jake to protect you, and no one from the town comes here. I know you dyed your hair,” he said, touching the red locks that had once been blonde, “but with your picture everywhere, that won’t do it anymore.” Shelley crossed her arms and sat away from him. His face twisted in confusion at the movement, but she couldn’t enjoy it because of how pissed off she was. “I don’t understand,” he said. “Me neither.”

The Wolf’s Pack

15

He cocked his head, still staring at her wearily. “I’m not some chick you chained to your cabin anymore, but the idea is the same. I didn’t like it then, and I don’t like it now.” He still looked confused. “But I just explained—” “It doesn’t matter if you explain it. The point is that you made this decision, and then had your second tell me about it like I was one of your underlings or something. That doesn’t sit well with me.” Especially since she promised herself to never, ever let herself get pushed around again. Not after she let her parents do it her whole life. Michael’s face softened. “Shelley, would it be all right if you stayed on the property and always had an escort while outside the house, for the time being?” She took a breath, his half-lidded eyes taking all the anger out of her. “I’ll keep myself on the property and promise not to do anything that’ll expose your family.” He leaned in and kissed her, his mouth a firm press that made her grip the sheets. Shelley’s eyes fell shut. Then he pulled away, contentment on his face as he stared at her, his bright gray eyes looking more and more silver. “Thanks. I’ll go find Alex now before he wanders into Clearwater and scares a jogger.” The bed shifted heavily as Michael rose up. With a parting glance, he left their bedroom. Shelley drew her bare knees up and wrapped her arms around her crossed ankles. The pack wanted her out, a vampire stalker wanted her man dead, and the whole damn world just refused to forget that Shelley Star existed, but so long as he kissed her like that, everything was going to be okay. Then a familiar, heavy dread lodged itself in the pit of her stomach, like a sticky tar she couldn’t escape. The realization was almost too much to bear. She and Michael still hadn’t had sex.

16

Mandy Rosko

Chapter Two If Shelley couldn’t throw any of her pent-up energy into sex, she figured she’d go jogging. It was either that or work on her manuscript, and at the moment that project was going a whole lot of nowhere fast. She switched out of her jeans and T-shirt and got into her loose beige trousers with the pink stripe and matching short top, tied her hair back, and headed for the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. Chris and Deena were in there, sitting in the breakfast nook, sun shining through the curved windows behind them. Their conversation sounded awkward, so Shelley tried to get by unnoticed. Yeah, not going to happen with a werewolf in the house. Even with their backs to her, Chris’s head snapped around when her foot stepped from carpet to tile. Shelley sent him a limp wave and continued on to the stainless steel fridge. He looked reasonably embarrassed for having spun around as though an enemy could be prowling in the house, then turned and continued on with Deena, his voice lower this time, but Shelley still heard. “Can’t you just pee on a stick?” Deena wasn’t as embarrassed by the topic to keep her voice down. Shelley almost wished she was. Despite the pixie-pink hair and tiny unicorn earrings, Deena was well known for getting her point across the way grown-ups did. Most of the time. “I’d rather know for sure this time. I’m seeing a female gynecologist anyway. What are you acting so prissy about?” Shelley quietly opened the door to the fridge, grabbed the first thing her hand touched, then slunk back toward the exit. She totally didn’t want to hear this conversation.

The Wolf’s Pack

17

“Okay, I get that you need to go to make sure you’re actually, hopefully…” He trailed off, making a vague motion toward her gut. “My human self gets it, but my inner wolf isn’t happy about anyone poking around my mate’s hoo-ha, regardless of the reason.” “God, will you shut up?” From her peripheral vision, Shelley watched Deena lift a dish rag from the table and throw it at her husband with a laugh in her voice. Chris caught it in his teeth, then thought better of it and spat it out real fast, making a face. They were always teasing each other. With a tiny pang of envy, Shelley left them to their banter. In the month she’d lived in this house, Deena, the only other human woman living here and the pack veterinarian, had become the sister Shelley had always wanted, and Chris became the big brother she never had. Chris even teased her, too, in the way Shelley assumed older brothers teased their sisters. When she’d mentioned she was writing a romance novel, he’d surprised her by saying he was writing one too. They’d become critique partners for about a week. It ended when Shelley read his first chapter and realized she was being had when the heroine of Chris’s novel described the hero’s penis as being pricktastic and demanded he enter her heavenly woman cave. She hadn’t been too angry with him for that. The couple had been trying to have a baby with no luck, but two weeks ago Deena had announced to Chris that she was late. They’d had enough false alarms that Deena was going to see a doctor for the confirmation this time, and Shelley desperately hoped the couple was going to get their child. The woman was having the weird food cravings, at any rate. That had to mean there was something more than her wishful thinking brewing in there. Shelley didn’t run into anyone else on her way out. Must be in their rooms, she thought. Good. Sometimes it was hard getting alone time in this house, and after what she’d just seen and what Michael

18

Mandy Rosko

told her, she wouldn’t mind keeping more mood killers out of her head. A long dirt road stretched into the woods of the property, winding off in several places, sometimes thinning into a trail barely fit for one, but that was only if she went deeper into the trees. Shelley knew to stay along the fences to keep from getting lost. Even then, there was no way she’d be able to do a full circle around the entire property. It was just too big. When she got tired, she’d turn back. Michael said to not leave the property, and she wouldn’t be, as long as she stayed inside the fence. She took her first drink from her bottle of what turned out to be orange Gatorade and was just adjusting her iPod in her armband when a silver wolf appeared, trotting into sight from the other side of the house. Shelley’s hand stopped. Then her heart did a little jump at the sight of Michael in his wolf form. “Hey!” she called, waving to grab his attention. He must’ve just transformed after leaving her in their room. Whatever. She was just glad to see him again. He spotted her and returned her greeting with a bark and a sway of his shaggy tail. She was already jogging toward him, thinking to interest the wolf into running with her, when another larger, scruffier canine came into view. Shelley stopped. Jake. He usually followed other members of the pack around who were in their wolf forms. The need for company, Shelley supposed, though he stayed at least five feet away from Michael in his wolf form at all times. Michael was not allergic to silver because of the silver in his pelt, but everyone else still felt the effects. Shelley had yet to see what the exact consequences would be, but it was enough that the pack gave Michael’s wolf the right of way. Always.

The Wolf’s Pack

19

Michael trotted toward her, tongue hanging out of his yap, and Shelley hunched down enough to rub his ears the way he liked. Jake followed at a slower pace, head bent a little, watching her with that suspicion his wolf still had of her, even after a month living on the same land. “Hey, come on, you know who I am.” Shelley stretched her palm out, inviting him for a closer sniff. Jake hesitated, his furry head cocking at the offer, then he came, his paws slowing more and more as he neared until he was finally close enough to stretch out his neck and nose just enough for a better whiff. His wet snout touched her thumb, and he began sniffing in frantic earnest now. Michael sat on his haunches, watching the exchange with clear silver eyes. Jake sneezed, shook his head and body out, and that was the end of that. Tail wagging, he passed by her and headed down the trail. “Good seeing you, too,” she called after him, wiping the hand he’d callously sneezed his dog slobber on onto the grass. When he was a man, things were easier. He recognized her on sight, usually. Jake was the kind of werewolf who, for the most part, was more wolf than man, and his wolf needed the sound of her voice or her scent to figure things out. It was like that with all the werewolves. Their wolves were like separate entities that needed releasing every once in a while. The man never had any memories of being the wolf, and the wolf had no memories of being a man, though Shelly suspected Jake, being so in tune with his wolf, carried some of that part of himself over when he transformed, rare as those occurrences were. It was why the packs had to be as isolated as they were—not because of Jake, but because of how wild the werewolves could become. Shelley might be able to walk amongst them without a problem, but that was only because she was mated to one of their own and had Michael’s scent all over her. These wolves were anything but tame animals. Normal people didn’t mix so well when the wolves

20

Mandy Rosko

thought their territory was being stomped all over, so it was best to keep things quiet. Any member of the pack who didn’t live on the property with Michael and the others only did so because they owned houses of their own, houses that were far enough away from any humans to cause trouble. If they did cause trouble, they still had Michael to answer for it. Shelley stuck her earbuds in and looked down at Michael. “Coming?” His answering bark was cut off by the string of violins in Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.” He followed her as she headed down the path, eventually coming up alongside her and keeping pace. Jake followed, sort of. He wandered here and there, vanishing into the thick pines after something that’d caught his eye, returning other times to run on Shelley’s other side so she was surrounded, but always he remained a constant presence. Shelley liked him well enough but longed for it to be just her and Michael. Another thing that had changed when she came here was that she had never once been alone with his wolf. Michael had made her promise up and down that she would never, ever have him playing fetch in front of anyone else in the pack, or scratching his belly, or doing anything that would make him look less than fierce. It made sense. His status here was protected by his strength, and if she was treating him like a puppy, well, then anyone could challenge him, and Shelley would be seeing a whole lot more blood splattered around the house. So she had promised. Still, Shelley couldn’t help that she’d almost started to see his wolf as her pet, and now that she couldn’t play with him either, it was just another thing to bring her down. There was way too much reminiscing on this jog. Shelley skidded to a halt when she realized neither wolf was beside her. Jake taking off was one thing, but Michael would never have veered away from her in his wolf form. She turned back and

The Wolf’s Pack

21

spotted them. They both stood on the trail, closer than was usual, heads turned to look at what was beyond the old wooden fence. She nearly whistled for them but caught herself. She turned off the iPod on her arm and pulled the buds from her ears, running to them. “Hey! Michael, Jake, what’s wrong? What’s the…oh…” As Shelley got closer, she could see the hackles of both wolves raised high. Michael stepped in front of her in a protective stance, a low growl in his throat that Jake angrily backed up. A figure stood beyond the fence, thirty or so yards away. Shelley could tell it was a woman by the slim, hourglass figure that her cloak and hood could not conceal. Twilight stretched just behind the girl, and Shelley put her hand over her eyes to block out the sun’s rays. The glow of red eyes made her heart jump, and she stumbled back so fast that she nearly tripped and landed on her ass on the dirt trail. Memories from last month came back to her in a dizzying clash. Teeth in her neck, her body becoming weak, useless, and Michael fighting for their lives, dark blood spreading over clothing like a rose blooming in high speed. Shelley reached for the place where she’d been bitten without thinking. “Pearl.” In the distance, Pearl’s canines flashed. The vampire’d heard her, and the undead bitch was grinning. Suddenly, every nerve in Shelley’s body was on high alert. Pearl had recovered from that stab wound fast, but then, she was a vampire. It was just a matter of time before she came back to get what she really wanted. Michael. A soft whine sounded far away, then closer as a cold nose bumped her hand. Shelley looked down as Michael wiggled his head so that her palm was resting on top of it, between his ears. His silver eyes were soft as he looked at her, then his head turned to Pearl, and another growl rumbled out of his chest, the hair on his back rising high.

22

Mandy Rosko

And just like that, she knew. Even as a wolf with little to no human reasoning skills, Michael would still not leave her to chase a vampire through the valley. Jake was likely doing the same just because his alpha hadn’t taken off after her, but he looked like he wanted nothing better than to run to her. He lifted his paws onto one of the fence rails and whined. Pearl definitely couldn’t attack yet because the sun was still partially up. If she threw off her dark hood or revealed her wings, she’d be cooked. Literally. Not when the sun went down in the next couple of minutes. “Let’s get out of here,” she said, and ran back in the direction of the house. The others needed to know Pearl was back and she still wanted to make a try for Michael’s silver pelt. Michael was beside her the whole time, paws pounding the dirt. Shelley doubted he would appreciate it if she was more worried about him than she was about herself. It wasn’t like the vampire king would want the dyed hair of a burnt-out actress to line his royal robes. Shelley made the mistake of looking back as she ran. Pearl was on the trail now, looking like a grim reaper with her face concealed beneath the hood. All she needed to complete the image was a scythe. Five other vampires, similarly dressed to protect them from the dimming sun, stood in a V formation behind her. Shelley picked up the pace. Princess Pearl had backup this time.

The Wolf’s Pack

23

Chapter Three The vampires didn’t chase her, though she was constantly looking over her shoulder until she got in the house. Two wolves in the sunlight were too much even for them, it seemed. Thank God. “They were trying to scare you,” Deena said, putting a steaming mug of coffee into Shelley’s hands. The sun was completely down now, but even with the doors all locked and surrounded by at least four other werewolves, she didn’t feel safe. She wrapped her fingers around the warm ceramic cup, trying to hide from Deena how they trembled. “It worked.” Vampires, like werewolves, didn’t seem to follow all the rules Shelley had grown up reading about. One of which being that they didn’t need an invitation to enter onto someone else’s property. As the sun was currently down outside, the only thing that was keeping the vampires away now was the houseful of angry werewolves. Either that or they were biding their time. Maybe that show was meant to be a message? A loud roar sounded through the walls, and a heavy slam shook them. A framed painting rattled until the tremors settled. Angry voices spoke, but Shelley couldn’t make out what they were saying, just the tone. Shelley had never seen, or heard, as the case was, Michael so outof-his-mind angry like this. “Is it a good idea to keep Jake outside? With them…” Shelley trailed off.

24

Mandy Rosko

Deena poured herself a cup from the pot on the marble kitchen counter then took her seat on one of the high stools with Shelley at the bar. “The boys can handle themselves when they want to, and Jake wasn’t too eager to come inside.” Jake was still in wolf form out there. The second Shelley’s sneakers had touched the first stair of the deck, he’d halted, sat, and stayed, refusing to go any farther despite Shelley’s calls to him to come to safety. Michael ran up the stairs and into the house with her, transforming almost instantly back into a man, the wolf leaving her now that she was safely at home. Sometimes Michael’s transformations were spontaneous, difficult to control, but could be predicted depending on his mood. Sometimes too much anger, other times too much pleasure. One time he was just working out too hard, and it happened. There was never any knowing for sure what would do the trick. When he became a man again, heart racing with adrenaline and not knowing why, he’d grabbed her and demanded to know why she was crying. Shelley hadn’t even realized she was doing it. She did her best to keep her voice coherent while she told him. In his anger, he’d nearly transformed again, and she had to calm him down. He was getting his emotions out by punching the walls and trashing his office. Another roar sounded, and this time that rattling painting did fall. Deena said nothing. She silently stirred sugar into her coffee, concern on her face, and neither she nor Shelley moved to pick up the frame. It hadn’t broken anyway. Stuff in a werewolf’s home needed to be sturdy anyway. Shelley couldn’t take it anymore. “What are they so mad about? It’s not like we didn’t know they were coming.” Deena’s green eyes flickered to her, then back down to her coffee. She pulled her spoon out of the mug and dropped it onto the bar with a clatter. “It can’t be that bad,” Shelley said.

The Wolf’s Pack

25

“No…I…” She ran her pink nails through equally pink hair. “I don’t really know, I mean, if it’s my place to say anything.” Shelley still didn’t get it. “You’ve been here for a while now, and I’m all but married to Michael. Can’t you—” The side door opened, and Chris, completely, gorgeously naked, entered the house. Deena scrambled to the cupboard under the sink where more clothes had been hidden, her beaded bracelets and necklaces clattering as she did, and she came back with some jeans for him. Clothes were kept all over the house for just this reason. “Didn’t see anything while I was out running. Smelled them, though. Changed into the wolf when I caught the scent, so I don’t really know anything else. I think they’re gone, baby, the scent was weak when I changed back,” he said as Deena handed him the jeans with a kiss. Shelley kept her hands over her eyes until the rustle of fabric told her that Chris was covered in the places that mattered. When she pulled her hands away, he wore the jeans, button undone, and a grin. “You’re so shy,” he said. “Quit teasing her. Go tell Michael what you saw,” Deena said, pointing toward the office. “I was just playing around, and they’re gone.” When Deena continued to stare hard at him, he put his hands up and stepped cautiously around her. “All right, all right.” He headed for Michael’s office. Deena hesitated a half second before catching up to him, grabbing his muscled arm in her small hands. “Wait.” He turned, and she pulled him into a kiss. Shelley turned away from the show of affection. The men in the house walked around naked, a lot, a product of their conditions. It was something she had yet to get entirely used to, but while she had nothing against Deena and her husband kissing each other, all things considered, the moment called for some privacy.

26

Mandy Rosko

That, and she didn’t want to acknowledge the ache of jealousy. How long had it been since she and Michael kissed like that? They finally pulled apart, whispering to each other before Chris released her and went toward the office. “Sorry about that,” Deena said, ducking her pink head sheepishly. “I’m scared too,” Shelley said. The door opened about two minutes later, the voices became clearer, and their steps closer as they came into view from the dark hall. Michael in front, barking orders to Alex beside him, Chris trailing behind, shrugging into a borrowed plaid button-down shirt. “E-mail everybody, too, regardless of whether or not they’ve answered their phones. Take no chances. For the ones who didn’t answer, use every number and every address we have on them and leave messages for them all, then keep calling until a real person answers. This was a message”—Michael’s silver eyes landed on Shelley —“and we got it loud and clear.” She was on her feet in an instant. The look in his eyes made her insides shift. “What’s going on?” Michael’s muscles rippled beneath his cotton T-shirt as he struggled for calm. “We just got off the phone with the local vampire regiment. They don’t know anything, or they say they don’t, about the king’s men entering our territory.” He put his large hands on her bare shoulders.. “I know I asked you not to leave the land, but now—” “Wait.” She shrugged away. “You can’t ask me to leave. I won’t leave.” Michael shook his head, hands finding her arms and clenching tight. “No, nothing like that, but”—he looked to Alex before turning his eyes back to her—“because I’m not entirely sure whether or not Pearl was targeting you, or just letting me know she’s back in fighting condition, I don’t want you leaving the house, even with escorts.” Shelley inhaled sharply then bit her lips together to keep the shocked yell from escaping. Well, at least he’d told her himself this time instead of getting Alex to do it. She released her pent-up breath,

The Wolf’s Pack

27

imagining her anger escaping her body with it. It helped. A little. Then she nodded. “All right.” Michael waited a beat. “All right? You’re fine with this?” “Not really,” she said. “I hate it on every level I can imagine, but I know this is for my safety, and if I don’t want that psycho chick’s teeth in my neck again, then I’ll stay put.” Michael heaved a sigh, his lips turning up a little at her words. Shelley hadn’t even thought about how concerned he might’ve been just over her reaction. He kissed her, long and languidly, and this time, the anger inside her really did melt away to nothingness. It was going to be temporary, until everything could get settled with the vampire king, she told herself. She put her hands into Michael’s sand-colored hair. He wore it loose today, and it fell to his shoulders, just the way she liked it. A shifting of feet and a cough had them pulling apart. Michael cleared his throat, going back into alpha mode. “Deena, this goes for you too. I don’t want either of you becoming targets for Pearl or her men.” She nodded, and Chris went to stand next to her, taking her hand into his and squeezing. “Understood,” she said. “What about the others?” Shelley asked. “You just came out of your office talking about sending messages and calling the others until everyone was spoken to. Are they coming?” “Yes,” Alex answered, “an alpha’s summons can’t be ignored, and I’m making sure that everyone gets the message. There’s enough of us here to keep Pearl from outright attacking the property, but by tomorrow, we’ll have enough wolf power to go to war with them, if that’s what they want.” “Will Cal be coming?” Her question seemed to echo off the walls with the force of a wrecking ball in the silence she got.

28

Mandy Rosko

“Yes,” Michael answered, then cracked his knuckles. “He’ll be here, the same as everyone else, and when he comes, we’ll have it out.” Terrific. Shelley took in another breath, and this one made her chest shake. She couldn’t help it. Up until now, whenever one of the men here fought over something, it had only been over what to eat, what to watch on TV, and once, which car to drive. But Cal wanted Michael out of the pack. Whatever fight they had wasn’t going to be some friendly wrestling match where the only blood came from a busted lip or a long scratch. They were going to be tearing each other’s heads off. Michael’s hand caressing her cheek pulled her out of her fast and furious thoughts. She looked into his eyes and knew he heard everything going through her head. “I’m not going to fight him.” That caught her attention. Everyone else’s, too. Chris and Deena went rigid, and Alex was at his side in an instant, hand on his shoulder. “Sir, you have to fight him.” “I should’ve stepped down the second I got back. This way I can work out a deal to stay in the pack and keep Shelley safe.” “Wait, stop, you’re going way too fast for me,” Shelley said, her hands coming up to halt any more protests from the others. “Why should you have stepped down?” Michael rubbed his stubbly jaw. “Do you remember that night we were in the truck, right after Pearl’s first attack?” She thought back to their conversation. A lot of things had been said. “When I said I would send you back home but have my men watch over you, make sure Pearl didn’t try anything again?” “Yeah.” “I made that offer that because alphas don’t usually take mates.” “What?”

The Wolf’s Pack

29

“What I mean is, they do, but when they do, they don’t always acknowledge them.” “Why?” “Well…” “They create distractions,” Alex said, saving his alpha from making the explanation. “Distractions?” A flair of annoyance ignited within her. “Is Deena a distraction to Chris?” “No, Shelley, it’s not like that,” Michael said. “Alphas who take their mates, like what I did with you, bring complications to their packs. It…” He started to look like he was struggling again. “Spit it out. I promise I won’t be mad.” Much, she silently added, knowing he would hear it. Was this what Deena had been trying to tell her only a few minutes ago? “We should split,” Chris said, taking Deena’s hand and heading for the opposite direction of all the negative energy. “Right behind you,” Alex said, following suit. Michael watched them go, waited for the sounds of their steps to disappear down the hall, and then waited another ten seconds after that. “Remember when I also asked you to not treat my wolf like your pet dog?” “Yes, I remember, and I promise I haven’t been.” “I know, and no one appreciates that more than me, but I don’t think I ever told you why I needed you not to do that.” “I figured it was because of your image. Your wolves need to see you as a strong leader, not someone who plays around or is all lovey to a woman in his spare time.” He looked taken aback. A surprised smile lifted his lips. “That’s exactly...How—” “I was looking up dog and wolf behavior in packs on the Internet. I read up on wolves marking their territories, how to spot alphas by their stance, the way they treat the puppies—”

30

Mandy Rosko

He stopped her with a kiss, pulling her body to him until she was pressed into his hard chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck, let him open her mouth with his tongue, and just enjoyed the closeness and the feeling of his unshaved skin against her mouth. When he pulled away, he kept her close enough that the warmth of his breath still touched her. “Should’ve known better than to doubt you.” “Yes, you should have,” she said, entirely mellowed by his heat. If it had been a case of men having too much testosterone to show any affection to their wives, then Shelley wouldn’t have put up with it for a second, but this was different. Michael was a werewolf, as were all the men who lived here, and the ones coming as well. What they had inside them was an instinct that couldn’t be fought. If the other wolves smelled weakness, then Michael couldn’t be alpha, couldn’t protect them. “So, you’re not going to fight Cal? You’re just going to give him the pack?” “No, if I step down, any member of the pack who wants to lead will step forward, and they’ll fight to be on top. My money’s on Alex to win. He won’t banish us from the pack like Cal.” Shelley released a long breath. “Is that why you’ve been distant?” He hesitated then kissed her hair. “I’m sorry, but we’re almost done with this. I won’t fight for the pack, Alex will take over, and everything will be okay. We’ll go somewhere the vampires won’t find us and spend more time together. I promise.” Shelley got the feeling there was more he wasn’t telling her, but she didn’t feel like doing the whole guessing-game thing right now, not when they were so cozy, and talk of a romantic getaway did have its appeal. “We could start right now.” He grinned as her hands reached for his belt buckle. She welcomed his kiss, the slide of his hands over the curve of her back, his fingers slipping under the elastic of her jogging pants. Then he got a firm grip on her rear, lifted her into the air, and sat her on the counter.

The Wolf’s Pack

31

Shelley laughed as he pushed aside the coffee cups she and Deena had been using, spilling them in his haste. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer, gripping his hair, and— “Michael.” They pulled apart. Alex stood in the doorway, and he looked sheepish for having walked in on them. His face was red and eyes looking at the opposite wall. Michael clenched his jaw at the interruption. “Yeah?” “Uh”—Alex scratched the tip of his nose with his thumb— “there’s a call for you. A local vampire is talking, thinks he saw something.” “Are we sure it’s a local?” Alex shrugged. “No. Figured you’d want to check it out anyway.” Beneath her hands and between her thighs, Shelley felt as Michael’s muscles bunched up, torn between duty and desire. She pressed a kiss to his neck. “You can go. I need to finish my workout.” “Are you sure?” This was one of those times where Shelley had to use her skills as an actress to hide her disappointment. She had to force herself not to feel it in order to make sure he didn’t feel it either. “I’ll be in the gym finishing my run. Don’t really need to do that outside if there’s a treadmill in the house.” His hand went to the back of her head, and he pressed their foreheads together. That werewolf version of a kiss, even though he was not in wolf form. That alone must have been a lot for him to do, considering they had an audience. “Really soon, I promise.” He kissed her one last time, a real kiss. It was a chaste thing that left her wanting, and he went with Alex to take care of business. When alone, Shelley took a deep breath, slid down from the counter, grabbed another water bottle from the fridge, and went to the basement gym to finish her workout.

32

Mandy Rosko

The land the house was settled on was sloped, so even though she was in the basement, it wasn’t entirely underground. The windows stretched all along the outer wall and went from floor to ceiling, giving the perfect view of the trees. Jake was still sniffing around outside, and he stopped at the edge of the inground pool, sat on his haunches, and stayed. Shelley wondered if he knew she was on the other side of the glass and that was why he was parking it. Maybe he scented Pearl and her minions nearby. Either way, she was glad for his protection. If the only thing she could do to help the men in this house rest a little easier was stay under house arrest for a while, then she’d do it gladly. Shelley bypassed the enormous dumbbells and weights and went straight to the Smooth Fitness treadmill. It faced the windows, as did the other machines, so she’d be able to keep her eyes on Jake while he watched the land. She plugged in her iPod, set the timer, and got to work. She all but fell off the thing an hour later, muscles sore and stiff, but otherwise she felt great, especially since it was an hour of not thinking about killer vampires. She dragged herself back to her bedroom and had her sweaty clothes half-off when she spotted the little brown bag sitting on her pillow. She went to it and grinned. Michael had left milk chocolate M&M’s for her. Her favorite. It was better than getting roses.

The Wolf’s Pack

33

Chapter Four The next morning, Shelley could hardly take two steps without walking into someone two feet taller and packing at least a hundred pounds more body muscle than her. Everyone seemed to arrive all at once, and for the first time, Shelley understood the need for such a huge house when so few people actually lived in it. Because when the pack came, they took up a lot of space. A whoooole lot. She and Deena had been the only humans in the house before, but now with thirty-some-odd other men and women finding space for themselves, the same was still true. Everyone was bigger than her, even the women, few that there were, and with their sharp, animalistic eyes that seemed to see through everything, they all stared. Now she knew why Chris, Alex, and Jake had such a hard time adjusting to her presence. Not because she was the new girl on the land, or the semifamous actress, but because of how rare it was for an alpha to take a woman and then stay alpha. Despite the odd looks, she was still welcomed into the circle they created in the living room. The leather couches, chairs, and love seats had been rearranged to give Michael the floor. He stood in front of the fifty-inch flat-screen mounted on the wall above the fireplace behind him. It was turned off. No need for it when an announcement was about to be made. Everyone had drinks in their hands, and Shelley had even prepared cracker trays with meats and cheese, a giant plastic punch bowl so the guests could grab their drinks—the whole deal.

34

Mandy Rosko

Occasionally a curious hand would reach out and grab for something, but from the otherwise unenthusiastic response, Shelley got the impression these meetings weren’t intended as social calls. Deena took a seat next to her on the arm of the black leather couch, drink glass in one hand, and reached out to take Shelley’s hand in the other. She could have cried for her appreciation of the support. “Is it pointless to ask which one is Cal, or can everyone already hear what I’m whispering?” “They’ll either hear you or’ll be too caught up in their own conversations to pay attention. The guy right there with the dark hair and fancy cut is Cal. The little guy beside him is his cousin, Isaac.” Shelley looked, sipping punch from her cup and trying not to be obvious. The two men were talking, so if Deena was right, then they weren’t paying enough attention to notice they were being talked about. Not like it mattered anyway, as they were sitting under the window, away from everyone else. The pack seemed to create a natural bubble around the cousins. Shelley knew they weren’t the only ones who didn’t agree with Michael’s return. Maybe Cal just did it in a more open way that made everyone uncomfortable. Cal looked like a movie star, and Shelley knew all about that. His hair was the same shoulder length as the majority of the other men in the pack, but she recognized a stylist’s touch when she saw it, the hint of highlights and gel to keep every strand in place. His hands were smooth, nails well trimmed. He looked like he was getting ready for a head shot instead of a meeting. Shelley hadn’t known that werewolves could look so…well, good. Seriously, her former agent would’ve loved to get ahold of him. The serious, I don’t fuck around look in his eyes would hardly have acted as a deterrent. His cousin looked similar in the way that relatives did, with the same pale blue eyes and the same dark hair, but it was cut shorter and

The Wolf’s Pack

35

his build was smaller. Not without muscle, however. Isaac wore a red T-shirt, and she could see that what little muscle he had was sculpted. That kid spent time in a weight room. The only thing Shelley knew about Isaac was that he was quiet and followed his older cousin around religiously. The fact that he was more polite than Cal about his wishes for Michael to stay away hardly made her appreciate him, though. As if they’d sensed her eyes on them, both men suddenly stopped talking and looked her way. She snapped her head away, mortified to have been caught. Deena laughed at her like a traitor. “You need to get used to that. The people in this room are all really in tune with what goes on around them. You can’t just stare for so long and expect them to not notice.” “Thanks,” she muttered, hardly grateful for the advice. Alex stepped in the middle of the room and called everyone’s attention to him. The murmur of voices quieted down almost instantaneously, a show of obedience if Shelley had ever seen one. Alex cleared his throat. “Okay, thanks for showing up on such short notice, everyone. As you all know and can now see for yourselves, Michael is back, and he’s got a couple of things he wants to set straight.” When Alex stepped away, giving the floor to Michael, Shelley half expected everyone to break out clapping like at a convention. The room remained oddly silent as he stepped forth, every pair of eyes on him. He didn’t shift his feet or clear his throat. He just stood tall and spoke with a clear voice that carried. “All right, you all got the message. The vampires are still here, and they still want my pelt.” “Step down, Hunter,” Cal interrupted, getting to his feet. All eyes turned to him. That serious glint in his eyes was strong as ever, but now with a sparkle of self-righteous anger to add to the nasty mix.

36

Mandy Rosko

“You being here puts us all in danger. You left. Things were safer then.” “Sit down, Cal, before I knock you down,” Michael said. Shelley clutched Deena’s hand tighter. Was it just her or did everybody in the room get even bigger? She wasn’t imagining anything, though. Maybe it was the testosterone doing it, or that they all just sat a little straighter at the challenge to their alpha’s authority. The low growling was definitely there, too. “We should’ve had it out by now, but you wanted to call this Girl Scout meeting to attendance.” Alex stepped forth. “Cal, sit.” Whoa. Shelley now understood why Michael thought Alex would do well as alpha. Cal had no choice but to sit under the harsh order, like a dog that had been severely commanded by its master. The air was thick with tension afterwards, but Michael continued on. “I called everyone here to let you know, officially, that I’m stepping down.” Murmurs filled the room, but not shocked ones. A lot of eyes turned to Shelley. She turned just enough to see the happy smirk on Cal’s face. He stood again. “I wanted to fight you for it, but this is good enough. I nominate myself as alpha.” Alex’s voice rang loud and clear. “I nominate myself as alpha.” Shelley leaned into Deena. “Is Chris going to nominate himself?” “No, he’s better suited as an omega, but he might take the beta position. A lot of the wolves in here are omegas. There aren’t many who are alpha material, but the ones who are will most likely step up, and only if they’re single. Jake’s an alpha and could probably nominate himself, but with the way he is…” Deena didn’t need to finish. It wouldn’t have been good for anyone with a pack leader who could barely control himself.

The Wolf’s Pack

37

Shelley caught Michael’s eyes on her. He seemed at peace with the way things were going, happy to be stepping down from such a high position, so long as Alex was part of the nomination process. He knew what he was doing. I have every faith in you, she thought, willing him to hear it. In total, seven potential alphas, only one of whom was female, stepped up for the nomination. Isaac quickly stood as well, but not to nominate himself. “Is it wise that you step down now? When we’re on the brink of war with the vampires?” Cal grumbled at him, but the smaller were held his ground. “I’ve taken a mate,” Michael said. “I can’t keep the respect of your wolves with her in my life, nor can I make proper decisions as a man if I’m worrying about Pearl attacking her. It’s better that I step down now and that we decide who becomes alpha as soon as possible. Deena, we’ll need you to see to anyone injured in the fights.” “My stuff’s all ready,” she said. “She won’t be needing to see me,” Cal said. “And when I do become alpha, the first decision I make will be to get you out of here, Hunter. The vampires want you. I haven’t forgotten what happened the last time they attacked.” Every head in the room bent a little, as if in memory of their fallen. Michael had told her people had been hurt and at least one person had died. Shelley’s insides boiled. Cal was using that information to his full advantage in this situation, trying to lure out the sympathy of the pack to better turn everyone against Michael. That bastard. She wanted to punch him and make that perfect nose all crooked but held back, clenching her hands into fists instead. “I’m not putting Eric’s death on my shoulders, Cal. They attacked us without warning. There was nothing I could have done, or said, when they weren’t even interested in sending a messenger before they swarmed us.” “You could’ve stayed away,” Cal countered.

38

Mandy Rosko

Shelley caught the occasional nod, even from a few of the nominated alphas, and she decided she really hated those people. She prayed hard none of them would become the head alpha. “We’re a pack,” Alex said. “We take care of our own. Michael left for a reason”—he nodded toward Shelley—“and he came back for a reason. He’s gonna step down, and we’re going to have this out real fast because the vampires are still out there. If I win the trial fight and become alpha, I’m letting each and every one of you in this room know that I will not turn one of my own away, Michael and his mate included. Anyone with a problem with that, say so now.” The room remained silent, with barely a breath to break the trance Alex’s words seemed to put everyone in. Cal’s fists clenched up. What exactly was he supposed to say to something like that? “All right.” Michael brought his hands together in a single resounding clap, gathering the attention of the room back to himself. “The nominees are decided. Let’s get outside.” Everyone got to their feet and moved toward the door. Alarm bells were ringing in Shelley’s head. “We’re doing this now?” “Guess we have to,” Deena said. Chris had come over to them now that the meeting was adjourned and wrapped his whole arm around her waist. “What’s wrong?” he asked at what was no doubt a shocked look on Shelley’s face. “Why are they having this out now? The nominees were only just decided.” “Yeah, so now they have to figure out which of them gets to be leader. They need to fight to do that.” Holy fast-as-lightning Batman. Shelley figured there would be more procedures to be followed, times to schedule the fight, where it was going to take place. Didn’t anyone fighting need to call whomever they worked for to arrange for time off should they get hurt? Boxing fights took months to set up. She knew they wanted this

The Wolf’s Pack

39

done fast, but Shelley had still thought this whole setup would take at least a few days. This was happening in minutes. Michael took her hand. She hadn’t even noticed he was in front of her. “Are you all right?” he asked. “Yeah, I guess. Are you still fighting?” “Have to. The nominees still have to prove they can beat me to be alpha. But I’ll only fight the last man standing. Hopefully that’s Alex, in which case, since I’m stepping down, it’ll be mostly for show.” “And if Cal’s the last man standing?” He flashed his teeth in a dangerous grin. “Then I’m going to knock his ass out.”

40

Mandy Rosko

Chapter Five Every member of Michael’s pack filed out the front door and onto the green lawn with an eager anticipation that Shelley could feel thrumming throughout their collective bodies and into the surrounding air. Two omegas had run into the nearby brush to collect twigs and sticks and were now placing them on the grass in the shape of a large octagon that went at least fifteen feet around. The wolves who were not participating in the fight were either crowding around the alphas they were rooting for to win or running back and forth to their cars and trucks collecting foldout chairs and coolers with drinks. “They look like they’re getting ready for a barbecue,” Shelley said, miffed that the pack picked now to be all social. Michael took her hand and led her closer to the octagon. “These things tend to get turned into parties. It’s a big deal when a leader is chosen.” Made sense. Shelley had gotten totally wasted and had partied like there was no tomorrow at the last election. Of course, there were the usual pictures in the gossip mags the day after to highlight that particular night. “What are the rules?” she asked, putting herself back in the present. “Well…” A loud roar resounded through the air. Cal leaped into the octagon, tearing his shirt from his chest, knees bent, feet bare, and giant hands clenched and looking ready to rip into the next person he ran into.

The Wolf’s Pack

41

Another alpha roared and jumped in with him, muscles bulging similarly. The guy even grinned as he licked his lips, obviously more than ready for what was to come. Shelley didn’t know the man, but he was bigger than Cal was, and by the size of his snarl, just as eager for the title of head alpha. A spark of hope lit up in Shelley’s chest. Cal might not be the only wolf who wanted to see Michael completely thrown out of his pack, but Cal was the only one so far who had rudely come out to make those thoughts known. For that reason alone, he was on her hit list. If this giant here had as much strength as he looked like he did… The two men threw themselves at each other. The larger of the two jumped high, and Cal kept low, diving entirely under the huge space between the larger man’s legs, pulling a dirty move by kicking him in the groin on his way through. A pained sound echoed through the onlookers as every male’s hand seemed to find their crotches, faces twisting in sympathy pain. No one felt it more than the giant wolf who’d been hit. He clutched at crotch and fell to his knees, catching himself on one hand to keep from completely falling on his face. He was a fighter, though, and despite coughing and gagging for air, he was already struggling to get up when Cal caught him from behind, one hand gripping the back of his belt, the other his neck. The veins in Cal’s throat swelled to the bursting point, and his face turned red with the effort, but he hauled the larger were into the air and launched him out of the octagon. The guy flew like a regular bird, despite his size. Several members of the pack who’d set up their chairs and drinks in the landing zone had to scramble out of the way before they got squashed. Their chairs were all but destroyed in the hard fall. The giant hulk of a wolf wasn’t knocked out from it, but when he got to his feet, the whole of his body seemed to ripple and shift. He fell back to his hands and knees just as his body burst out with fur,

42

Mandy Rosko

bones cracking and taking knew shape. He was a wolf, a real, gray wolf, almost before his paws touched the ground. Everyone watched as he shook himself out of his pants and shoes. He was so huge as a man that, even though he was a pretty big wolf, the transformation did nothing to his clothes. The wolf’s head came up as though suddenly aware that everyone was watching him, which Shelley found strange because the wolves had no sense of being men. Maybe his shame for losing was so bound to him that he felt it even in this form. He raised his head high, neck stretching out, howled a low, sad tune, and ran off. Shelley blinked as the defeated party disappeared around the house. That was it? That was the first trial fight? It lasted less than thirty seconds! Cal’s answer was more of a victory roar than a howl. Shelley half expected to see foam dripping from his mouth. He exited the octagon instead, snatching a towel from Isaac, who had been waiting with it, and stomping into the house. “The fighters pretty much get to choose their own partners. Anything goes. That’s the rules,” Michael said, answering the question that by now she’d forgotten she’d asked. “What’s going to happen to that other wolf? Is he okay?” “He’ll be fine. Just embarrassed and needs to run it off. Alphas don’t like being beaten.” No, she imagined they didn’t. “And Cal?” “As per the rules, he doesn’t have to fight until at least two more people have fought and won. There aren’t enough fighters for that, though. He’ll rest up and get back in the game after this fight ends.” Shelley frowned. “Why does Cal hate you so much?” Michael looked at her. “He keeps talking about the safety of the pack, but he definitely hates you.”

The Wolf’s Pack

43

A crooked smile touched Michael’s lips. “Yeah, it’s pretty obvious. He thinks I became the head alpha unfairly.” Shelley cocked her head, no longer paying attention to the other weres who were milling about, passing around drinks, and fixing the positions of the octagon twigs. “Silver pelt,” Michael said. “He and I were the last two competitors fighting for the spot to go against our then-head alpha. I transformed into a wolf and won the fight. People said it was no contest.” Explained the hatred thing, but… “That’s his problem. You’re both werewolves, you both fought, and you won. Did you win the fight against your alpha as a man?” Michael seemed definitely too pleased with her praise of him and even seemed to stand a little taller. “Yup.” “Then it doesn’t matter anyway. He’s just petty and jealous.” “And he’s going to take that out on the fighters in the circle,” Michael said, becoming serious and pointing toward the octagon. Shelley thought of the werewolf whom Cal had given flying lessons to just five minutes ago. Suddenly her mood had been killed. Just then, something occurred to her. “Have I ever met him? Your previous alpha, I mean.” She took a second to scan some of the faces around her, wondering which of them could possibly have been the man formerly in charge of Michael’s safety. Michael looked at her, his jaw clenching as he turned back to the octagon, his arms folding over his massive chest. “Eric was our previous alpha. One more reason Cal wants me gone.” Shelley hissed, as though the new knowledge had stung her. She reached her hand out to him, an apology on her lips, but already someone else was stepping up to the plate to issue a challenge, and the cheering and clapping drowned out anything she was about to say.

44

Mandy Rosko

The fighters seemed to be decided based on who wanted to immediately volunteer. At the rate this was going, a winner would be declared by dinner time. It was the female alpha, her black hair cut Emma Watson-short. She, too, had removed her shirt, only she hadn’t ripped it off in a show of strength like Cal had, revealing a simple gray sports bra that held up small breasts and showing off a flat stomach with the hint of a six-pack. She wasn’t hugely muscled like Cal or the giant who’d fought before her, but as Shelley had seen, that wouldn’t necessarily be her downfall. Alex entered the octagon with her, Chris and Deena loudly cheering him on. Even Jake had sulked over to silently offer his support. There was no ding of a bell, no one, two, three, go. It seemed to begin as they circled each other. This fight was different from the last. The female wolf stepped in confident but not overconfident. She didn’t count on her strength to win her the match. Alex must have known this from the beginning, as he didn’t charge her right away. They circled, knees bent, ready to spring, each searching for whatever openings they could find, the crowd around them cheering. Alex made the first move. He dived down and grabbed her legs, pulling them right out from under her before the female could do anything about it, but to Shelley’s surprise, she bent backward, nimble as a piece of elastic. She caught herself on her hands, kicking her legs back up in the air, catching Alex in the face in her backflip, and spinning back onto her feet. The onlookers went insane. Some of them transformed into their wolves right there with the adrenaline rush they got from the show. “Macy is a good fighter,” Michael said, his voice monotone. Shelley looked at him, saw the twitch in his muscles, and knew he was working to keep his own body from reacting to the fight. “Would you choose her as alpha?” Shelley asked. Macy lunged for Alex’s exposed torso, gripping him much the same as he’d done to

The Wolf’s Pack

45

her, lifting him clear off the ground, and putting him onto his back. She scrambled to pin him. “On a good day, maybe. Otherwise, I’d stick with my first choice.” Cal had stepped out onto the deck, holding a brown beer bottle by the neck, white towel over his bare shoulders, ready to watch now. Shelley turned back to the fight just as the heel of Alex’s palm came up and caught Macy in the jaw in an attempt to throw her off. A tiny spray of blood flew out from her spittle, and she went rigid over top of him. Uh-oh, Shelley thought as the dark, coarse hairs began sprouting through the pores of Macy’s skin. Her neck thickened, her face became longer, and fingernails lengthening to sharp claws. It was almost like watching a woman grow a beard in super speed. Macy tore clean out of her clothes in the transformation, unlike the last alpha whose body was so big his wolf could walk out of his clothes. Alex was not at a disadvantage. Her transformation sparked his own body to react, and his arms thinned and fingers shrank into paws, gray hair rising out of his peach skin in the same Miracle-Gro way it seemed to do with all the wolves. The result was worse than watching an actual fight. Shelley felt like she should be arrested for animal cruelty for even seeing two wolves go at each other the way Alex and Macy did, all teeth and claws and flying fur mixed with blood. Despite how neither wolf had their human memories or thoughts, the emotions and instincts must have been the same, because they knew to only attack each other, and several other onlookers had to leave as their own transformations took over their bodies. Jake was the only wolf who sat calmly during the whole of the fight. The fact that he spent most of his time as a wolf must have given him an edge over keeping both of his minds under control.

46

Mandy Rosko

Shelley’s eyes went up to Cal. He was just handing his empty bottle to Isaac, a little satisfied smirk on his face, as though certain that the fight would turn out in his favor. Shelley turned away before he could catch her staring again, silently willing Alex to end it, to bring her down. Cal seemed to think Alex was his only competition, and that meant Alex needed to stay in the game just a little while longer. Finally, Alex’s wolf managed to sink his teeth through the protective layer of fur around Macy’s neck. He twisted and brought her down so hard Shelley feared he may have actually broken her neck. Macy whimpered as she went down but then twisted onto her back, exposing both her belly and her neck, paws coming up, but not in retaliation. Shelley didn’t need to be a wolf expert to recognize a submission show when she saw one. Alex released her, and Macy rolled to her paws, shook the dirt from her body, and left the octagon. Alex had won the fight, and the surrounding members of the pack who were still in their human forms cheered, fists and beer bottles raised at what had so far been the best fight of the...tournament? Whatever it was. Deena threw her arms around Chris’s neck. Jake only sneezed as the dust that had been kicked up finally made it to his nose. Shelley couldn’t help but look back at Cal. He was frowning now, hands gripping the rail of the deck so tight his knuckles lost their color. He pushed himself off and stormed inside, pushing past Isaac just as the younger man came back out with another bottle. **** Alex’s victory put both Shelley and Michael in a celebratory mood. They left just as the third set of fighters entered the octagon.

The Wolf’s Pack

47

“I missed you,” she said, sighing as Michael released the clasps of her bra, the cool air hitting her breasts. That sensation was quickly replaced by the wet warmth of his mouth. She laughed at him. “I take it you missed me too?” “So, so much, baby,” he said when he came back up, but then quickly sealed his lips over top of hers. He had her back pressed into the door of their bedroom, hands under her ass so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Her hand fumbled down for the doorknob, and when she finally found it, she pressed her thumb into the center button that would lock it and keep out anyone who might want an audience with their still-alpha. They’d had him all month, even if it was sometimes by phone. Now it was her turn. His ears picked up on the little click. “No one’s bothering us, Shelley. I promise. Even if anyone knocks, I am not here.” “Good.” She worked the buttons on his blue plaid shirt, pushing it off his tanned shoulders. “’Cause we’ve got lots of catching up to do.” Had it really been a month? It was a wonder Shelley hadn’t imploded with sexual energy. His grin showed off his white teeth. He spun them both around and all but fell on top of her on the heavy sheets of their shared bed. For one of the first times since Shelley had been in it, it really did feel soft and welcoming instead of hard and way too big, now that they were both in it at the same time, that is. Shelley untangled her legs from Michael’s waist and threw away her jeans. “There’s my little hornbug.” Michael fingered the rim of her pink lace panties. “Remember the first time we did this?” Of course she did. That night in his little hideaway. She’d still been chained to the post in the cabin, hadn’t known she was his mate at the time, but she’d felt safe enough with him to allow him to pull her panties away and fuck her.

48

Mandy Rosko

Shelley almost missed that day, when it had just been the two of them and no one else in the world had existed. She swatted his hand away, gingerly removing the lace herself. “That I do, and I like this pair, so you’re not stretching it out like the last one, or the one before that.” The last two times Shelley found herself in bed with her manwolf, Michael had a habit of taking off all of her clothes except for her panties, his impatience driving him to just shift them out of the way before plunging into her, which then left them ruined afterwards. His face took on an expression of mock hurt. “You didn’t mind it at the time.” No, she certainly had not. “Come here,” she demanded. He complied, and she kissed him, long and deep, their tongues intertwining and thrusting in a mimic of the sex they were going to have. Shelley had one hand gripping his hair and the other on his back, pulling him as close as she could get him. “Does that make it better?” she asked when she pulled away. “A little.” He looked down at the exposed triangle of curls between her legs. “Maybe it’s better we take our time.” He slid down her body until he was off the bed. He gripped her knees and pulled her down until her legs hung over the edge, her feet barely touching the carpet. She tried to sit up until he pushed her back down. “What are you doing?” “Has no one ever done this to you before?” Knelt down in front of her when he was supposed to be on top of her? “No.” The feral grin was back. “That’s perfect, baby.” And he disappeared down her legs again. She found out what he was up to reeeeally quick, and her back arched in a near-perfect, half-moon circle. Oh, so that was what he wanted to do. She should’ve known, really, she did read romance after all, but she hadn’t exactly gotten

The Wolf’s Pack

49

around much before she met Michael, and, well, it had been a while since they’d gone to bed, too. The strange thing, and not so strange, was how his mouth was basically doing everything he’d been doing when he’d kissed her just then. Ugh, God, she loved it. Loved, loved, loved the feeling of him kissing her nether regions. She expected him to pull away as a wet warmth flooded her sex, that had to be unpleasant, but he kept right on going. Then the touch of his slick tongue deep inside, flicking over that spot that made her go wild, had her nearly flying off the bed. She would have, had his giant hand not shot out to press down on her belly. He pulled back a little, eyes serious. “Stay still, trust me.” She barely heard him. Her eyes were on his glistening mouth. It looked so incredibly erotic that she had no choice but to nod and let him get back to business. He smiled and returned his mouth to what it had been doing, eyes sliding half-shut as though he was enjoying himself just as much as she was. The familiar touch of his mouth, then the slide of his tongue once again, harder this time, and the delicious throbbing it brought to her was nearly too much. Shelley’s breathing turned heavy, throaty moans escaping her next. She gripped his hand then curled her leg over his shoulder to let him work. Her hips gyrated as if they had a mind of their own, her chest heaving and gasping for breath as the knot in her belly got tighter and tighter as his tongue went in and out of her, her inner walls clamping around him. I could come like this and be totally happy, she thought. And she did. Her pulsing inner walls clamped down over his tongue, and Michael pressed his mouth harder to her cleft, encouraging the bloom of her orgasm all the more. Shelley couldn’t contain her pleasurable shout even if she tried, and try she did by holding her hands over her mouth.

50

Mandy Rosko

Not nearly enough. She came back down from her buzzing high to the feel of Michael’s mouth on hers. She wasn’t even disgusted by the feel of her own juices on him. He certainly didn’t seem to mind. “We should do that more often,” she said when he pulled away from her. “And we most definitely will, beautiful, but there’s one more thing I’d like to take care of.” Shelley fully woke up when her body registered the firm length of his cock, pressing against her thigh through his jeans, pulsing and needy. She laughed at him as he struggled to get them off. Right, didn’t want to be cruel and forget about him. Only with him had she ever laughed in bed. That laugh melted into something else entirely when he abruptly pushed her down, spread her legs, and thrust into her. There was no more willpower to hold back. Instantly his hips began a hard, fluid pumping motion that made her inner walls sizzle. There was nothing soft or gentle about this. They’d gone from lovemaking to fucking, and Shelley loved it. Her fingers clawed along the muscles of his back. She threw her head back and moaned wantonly as the thrusting of his cock inside her still brought pleasure even after she came. She thrust her hips up eagerly to meet his. Then, holy shit, she couldn’t believe it. “I’m—I’m gonna come again.” A noise escaped Michael’s mouth, maybe it was a reply, maybe it was a moan. She couldn’t tell since her brain was no longer functioning. After a month of barely any contact, this was exactly what she wanted, what she needed. The best part was knowing that it didn’t matter how wild for it she went, because when it was all said and done, Michael would still respect her. Suddenly her brain started working again. “Gonna make you howl, baby,” Michael panted in her ear. She didn’t doubt his words.

The Wolf’s Pack

51

Chapter Six Shelley left Michael to snooze off their activities under the duvet. The trial fights had apparently ended, Cal, Alex, and one other alpha coming out on top, and the next round wouldn’t take place for another hour or so. Michael hadn’t been around when Shelley overheard the news, but he did know how these things were scheduled, and he’d told her what would be expected for the final fight before his eyes shut and he passed out from several fabulous orgasms. He totally needed his rest, and she needed to walk the soreness out of her legs. She was eager to talk to Deena about her progress with Michael and figured she’d find her in the kitchen. The conversation of about fifteen men and women halted the second she entered the room. Everyone stared at her, and Shelley felt her face go hot. She’d damn near forgotten about how many people were in the house, and it looked like not one of them sitting at the bar, or the table, or even mingling in front of the stainless steel stove or fridge was Deena. Rather than just walk out and let everyone know how meek she really was—werewolves responded to acts of assertiveness after all— Shelley moved into the center of the kitchen and around the bar. She kept her back straight and her head high, but every pair of eyes followed her. Was it because she was the reason their alpha was stepping down? Or had they heard her having sex? She had forgotten to hold her hand over her mouth after a while.

52

Mandy Rosko

Don’t think about that, she scolded herself, really wishing they’d knock it off. The two men in front of the fridge stepped out of the way so she could grab a Pepsi can. She nodded her thanks to them and all but bolted. Not before she heard, “Can’t believe she’s human.” That made her pause. She was already out the door, but she’d heard what she heard, even if she didn’t know who said it. Still, she wasn’t about to march back in there and demand to know just what it meant. Michael told her that taking a human for a mate wasn’t that uncommon. Hell, Deena was human, and no one looked twice at her. Shelley set off to find her again. She was probably hiding out in her room. Maybe Alex and Chris were with her. She got to her door and knocked. A masculine voice called for her to enter. So Chris was with her. And everyone else in the inner circle of the pack, apparently. “All the Small Things” by blink-182 was playing on low volume on Chris’s CD player. Chris lounged in front of his TV on a leather swivel chair, playing one of his old 8-bit video games. The wall that shared the TV was floor-to-ceiling shelves loaded with more games. Most of them old systems, some of which Shelley recognized, most she did not. The one sitting on Chris’s lap being a prime example, but it was small and red and had the word Famicom written on it. Whatever it was, the text was English, and he seemed to know what he was doing. He didn’t even look at her as she entered the room, too engrossed in his little pixelated Pac-Man knockoff. He did have a lousy little smirk on his face as he spoke. “You disappeared for a while,” “Shut up,” she snapped. Alex was lying on the bed, and Deena had a cotton swab and brown bottle of peroxide in her hand and was gently swabbing a cut over his eyebrow.

The Wolf’s Pack

53

Jake was inside as well, in his human form. He sat on his haunches in the corner, naked, and watching everyone like he always did, dark hair shadowed over his serious face. Shelley shut the door and moved for the bed. She put her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “How’re you feeling?” He smiled. “Pretty good. I’m fighting Cal next. After that there’s only one more alpha to beat down, and then you’ll be looking at the new head alpha.” “I heard.” She smiled at him as he winced over another treatment of disinfectant. “Hold still,” Deena said, zero compassion in her voice. “She’s heartless,” Alex accused. “Don’t know how you put up with her, Chris.” “Well, for starters, she has yet to make me sell my games,” Chris said, not bothering to take his eyes away from the screen as his little dragon-creature thing collected ice cream cones. Deena shook her head, but Shelley caught the smile on her face. Men would always be little boys on the inside. Though Deena herself could hardly be against her husband owning every gaming system known to man, being the free-spirited type with pink hair and all. Shelley grabbed a spare chair and pulled it up to the bed. “Can I ask you a question?” Alex sat up, gingerly touching the bandage over his eyebrow. “Is this girl talk, or is it the kind of question we can all hear?” “All of you, sort of.” Deena shifted so she was sitting on the edge of the bed. “What is it, sweetie?” Shelley didn’t hesitate. “It is normal that I’m human, right?” Chris half turned, taking his eyes away from his game for only a second. “You and Deena are the only normal ones in this room, last I checked.” “I know, I mean I don’t know, you are all normal to me, but when I left the kitchen, someone was muttering about how they couldn’t

54

Mandy Rosko

believe I was human. I thought it was normal for werewolves to take human mates.” Shelley knew something was up the instant Chris turned the TV off, and Deena reached over to lower the volume of the music. Chris turned to look at her from his chair, and the silence from everyone else spoke volumes. Shelley just wished she knew what they were saying. She couldn’t take being stared at anymore today. “What?” “Well, it is normal,” Deena said, taking her hand. “I mean it’s not common, but there’s nothing irregular about it.” “If people are talking about you because you’re human, they’re being dicks,” Chris said. “Or angry that I’m the reason Michael is stepping down.” “They can’t be angry about that,” Alex assured her. “It’s the responsible thing for him to do. He gave his reasons at the meeting, and those reasons were just.” “Maybe what they really meant was how shocked they were that you’re a famous movie star,” said Deena. “Not that famous. By the way, how did your appointment go?” Shelley asked. “Oh, well…” Deena blushed as she and Chris looked at each other. “We rescheduled the appointment for later, because of the trial fights,” she said. “Oh,” Shelley stamped down on her disappointment at not yet knowing. She wanted so badly for there to be good news for them. Jake growled in the corner. It was such a sudden sound to interrupt the awkward direction the conversation had taken that everyone turned to look at him. Shelley slid from the bed and got to her knees in front of him, but she didn’t touch him. Jake could be more wolf than man, but in his man form, it felt wrong on all kinds of levels to stroke his face and hair the way she would attempt to calm the rise in his fur, or in this case, the bunching of mega-huge muscles.

The Wolf’s Pack

55

“Jake, what is it?” He didn’t answer. His lips lifted in a snarl that had Shelley scrambling back, and fast, but he didn’t attack her. In fact, he wasn’t even snarling at her. He just continued to stare into space, growling and showing off his teeth, heavy muscles rippling, ready to transform him back into the shape he was most comfortable in. Alex and Chris were on their feet, looking as battle ready as Jake. Shelley feared they thought Jake would strike, and she shot her hands out to hold them off. “No, he’s not—” Alex grabbed her wrists. “You need to hide.” “What?” Chris already had Deena by her arm, yanking her up and none too gently pulling her toward the closet, despite her many attempts at questioning. He ripped the door open and began rearranging the clothes, shoes, and various other items inside to make space. Enough for two people, it looked like. “No matter what either of you hear, stay down and don’t come out until—” The power went out. The sun was still out, so it wasn’t like they were shrouded in darkness, but Shelley could tell by the sudden silence around her. The TV and music had already been powered off, but the central air stopped humming, the block numbers on Deena’s clock radio had blacked out, and above her head, the ceiling fan was quickly losing its momentum. Chris stopped throwing boxes and shoes around. He, Alex, and Jake all remained perfectly still, heads tilted slightly to the side, as though listening for something. Shelley and Deena hardly dared to breathe, not wanting any of the boys to lose their concentration. The windows shattered. Glass sprayed inside the room in a shower of glittering crystal, and Alex swayed back before dropping to his knees, then falling flat on his chest on the carpet. Shelley had the presence of mind to note the three little green darts sticking out near his right shoulder blade just as a single sharp sting caught her near the

56

Mandy Rosko

collarbone. She looked down at her own little dart. She tried to lift her hand to pull it out, but her arm was suddenly as heavy as though it were being tied down, and then the floor came up and met her face. She was still aware of her surroundings for another several seconds, having only been hit with a single dart instead of the three like Alex had, so she caught sight of the figures in black coming in through the broken windows. They looked like they could be on a SWAT team with the way they moved and dressed, covered from head to toe. Sunlight protected. The vampires. Shelley recalled the venom that spread through her body when Pearl had bitten her the first time. Could the vampires have put that same stuff, only a whole lot more of it, into the darts? Chris grabbed Deena’s arm and was already running out the door with her. It was strange, Shelley was almost watching them go in slow motion, shouts echoing inside her ears, and she caught Deena’s terrified expression as she looked back at where Shelley lay. She wanted so much to run, Shelley could tell, but still fought her husband, hating that she had to leave her friends behind. Shelley didn’t blame Chris. She might be the pack alpha’s mate, and Alex and Jake might be his friends, but if she were in his place, her first priority would be her possibly pregnant spouse as well. Besides, Jake was still with her. He was still in the middle of his transformation, bones breaking and rearranging themselves, but he stood over her, looking ready to tear into anyone who so much as went near her. Go. Hide. Don’t let them get you, Shelley thought, willing Deena to disappear, even though human-to-human thought talking was impossible. That part didn’t register to her drugged brain. Finally, Deena stopped fighting, running off with Chris to hopefully a safe place, barely dodging the shower of darts that were shot at them. Shelley had only enough energy left in her to remember that she’d left Michael sleeping in their room. More helpless than anyone in the

The Wolf’s Pack

57

house now, because since this was a surprise attack, what little time there was left to strike back and defend oneself was gone, even to him. With that, Shelley fell into the pool of darkness.

58

Mandy Rosko

Chapter Seven When Shelley opened her eyes again, her entire body jerked upright. The darkness around her struck a fear in her that someone had shoved a bag over her head. She calmed herself. Had that been the case, her face would have felt hot from the heat of her own breath, and her entire body was shivery cold. It was just the darkness of the room. She hadn’t been moved. Jake was gone, and so were the vampires, and through the broken window, the cold night air breezed in gently. Shelley got to her feet, careful to keep her bare skin out of the broken glass, but was afraid to move any more than that. It took a couple of seconds for her night blindness to leave her then she watched the lace curtains flutter in the window, listening for anything that could give her a hint of what the situation was. There was no sound coming from outside, nor in the house. Commands, cries for help, nothing. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Finally, some rock-solid courage thrummed through her blood. Jesus, if it was dark outside, that meant she’d been out of it for hours. “Michael.” Shelley ran out of the room and down the hall. The power must have still been out because there wasn’t so much as a lamplight on, but she’d lived there long enough to know the way without it. Shelley might’ve known the way, but that didn’t help at all when she tripped over a heavy something and fell onto her chest. Air whooshed from her lungs, and the fear came back as she waited for something to attack her, but everything in the house

The Wolf’s Pack

59

remained motionless, the only sound the shaky inhale-exhale of her breath. What the hell was that? It was still under her legs. She turned around and righted herself, then wished she hadn’t. The night no longer blinded her so much, and she made out the form of a body easily. It was smaller than most of the others, a wiry frame, hair dark, male. Isaac. A black pool seemed to be blooming beneath him, and Shelley shivered when she realized it was blood. He was freshly dead if that was happening. But she’d been out of it for so long. How could—? The vampires are still here. She got back to her feet and ran for it. She burst into her bedroom, locking the door behind her. The bed was empty but for the rumpled sheets where she and Michael had made love. She was too late. Christ, even if she had made it in time to do anything, what could she have done? She was nothing. Not superhuman in any way, shape, or form that she could stand up to any vampire even on her best day. Shelley fell to her knees at the bedside, her face falling into the sheets where she could still smell Michael’s scent. She couldn’t call the police. They’d lock her up for being a lunatic. After she got hauled back to L.A. to answer a boatload of questions from both the press and her parents. Even then, Michael had been taken hours ago. Assuming the vampires who took him had immediately left with him, they could be God only knew where by now. And where the hell was everyone else? Had Chris and Deena escaped? Had they been taken as well? And what about Jake? Shelley clenched her fists in the sheets, anger taking over in place of the helplessness that surrounded her like a coffin.

60

Mandy Rosko

The texture beneath her fingers felt off, gritty. Shelley lifted her head and pulled her hands back, the fibers on the blankets sticking to the sweat on her palms. Not fibers. Hair. In the dim blue light of the moon, the silver hairs shined like polished jewelry. Michael had woken up. He’d had time to transform and defend himself. There was no time for Shelley to celebrate that fact, because it still left too many questions open to her. Had he escaped? Was he hurt? Had he returned to his human form? She still didn’t know where anyone was. Well, she was going to find out. So far as she could tell, there was no blood in the room or on the bed, which meant there hadn’t been a struggle. Then her eyes found the claw marks along the wall behind the bed. She tried to piece together what that meant, but she wasn’t a detective by any stretch of the imagination. The door wasn’t smashed open, and the windows weren’t broken, so someone would’ve had to open it for his wolf to have gotten out. The vampires had either come in, prepared to drug him, and had messed up, allowing him to run out the door by mistake, or they’d done what they came to do and dragged Michael out by the scruff of his fur. She wasn’t going to sit around wondering which it had been. She left the room, keeping her ears open just in case someone, or something, tried sneaking up on her. The faraway slam of a car door halted her in midstep. Shelley’s foot stopped before it could touch down on the carpet, and she listened again. There were people outside. Shelley heard frantic voices shouting out commands, a wolf’s bark, then a pained whine. Shelley ran for the nearest window. There were no lights on outside, and the high lampposts that should have lit up the gravel drive and lawn were just as affected by the cut power as the house itself. Shelley knew this place had a

The Wolf’s Pack

61

generator for backup. The vampires must have taken it out when they ambushed the house. They would have preferred to work in total darkness. The moon was Shelley’s lamp, and she could see clearly how quickly and silently the vampires worked. Most of the werewolves of her pack were in their wolf forms, unconscious, tethered to the ground with chains and spikes. The remaining ones in their human forms were in similar condition, some naked and some still clothed, hands tied behind their backs with chains that were also piked into the grass. The thing that made Shelley’s heart jump was the white truck parked on the dark lawn. It was an animal transfer truck, with cages lining up the back. Alex was still conscious, but in wolf form. Shelley cringed as she watched two vampires struggling to get him into one of the cages. He was muzzled, and they each held on to him with long snares. He fought and snarled and shook around in a mad frenzy, desperate for escape, but they lifted him into the truck and slammed the cage door on him, locking it with a padlock in case he returned to his human form. Alex rammed the cage bars with the weight of his body, causing the metal to dent and the vampires to jump back. One stepped forward and stuck something through the bars. There was a flash and a loud whine, and Alex stayed down. A Taser. The next wolf they had took less effort to get into the cage because he was limp and unmoving. The coat of the wolf shimmered in the moonlight. Michael. Everything inside Shelley dropped, and she bit down on one of her knuckles. He hadn’t gotten away. He must have made them chase him around the land like crazy for it to have taken so long for them to bring him to the truck, but they still got him. Shelley bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out, the muscles in her legs tensing with the urge to run out to him, grab him, and take him away from those monsters, but there was nothing she could do.

62

Mandy Rosko

She watched helplessly as they picked him up by the fur and threw him into his cage with a heavy bang. “Careful, you idiots!” Shelley ducked down as Pearl came into view, hair as purple as the last time Shelley had seen it. She still wore the creepy cloak from yesterday, but with the threat of sunshine gone, she wore it open, exposing her tight-fitting black T-shirt with a Hello Kitty skull, leather pants, and ankle boots. Shelley could hear the woman’s angry shouting from across the lawn even with the window closed. “The pelt needs to be undamaged. I want no stretching and no holes!” Shelley shivered. Jesus. Then her breath caught and eyes flew wide. No way. It was almost as bad as seeing the vampires hauling Michael away. Jake. Their Jake, in his wolf form, was sitting at Pearl’s feet. There were no chains on him that she could see, and he was just sitting there. Had Jake been drugged up, even a little, he would still be on the offensive, swaying a little drunkenly perhaps, but definitely not sitting with his back straight, chest puffed out and proud, looking ready to defend Pearl from even her own men. Whenever one of her vampire minions came a little too close, Shelley caught the way his lips lifted in a fang-revealing snarl. He did nothing to help his pack, or his alpha, though he did look up toward the cage as the vampires locked it up, then reached up and pulled down the sliding metal door that would conceal the wolves from the drivers, locking that as well. Pearl got on her knees in front of Jake, rubbing his ears between her thumbs and fingers, the way Shelley had done with Michael in an obvious show of affection. But Pearl looked at him differently, not with love, the way Shelley would look at Michael’s wolf, but with a curious sort of wonder. Then Shelley got it. It was the same when Michael’s wolf first came across Shelley in the woods. It hadn’t mauled and killed her

The Wolf’s Pack

63

because she was his mate. Jake was doing the same. His wolf would never harm his mate, even if she was harming his pack, and now he was caught between loyalties. Did Pearl even know? Maybe Jake’s loyalty to her was the reason why most of the werewolves on the lawn were still alive. If he wasn’t fighting Pearl, then the others wouldn’t have had any reason to do so either. They would have been so easy to take out. Poor Isaac must’ve fought them too hard. Not now, she thought, wiping away the building moisture at her eyes, going back to watching the vampires pack up, as casually as though they weren’t kidnapping two people. Pearl went to her sleek silver Porsche and opened the driver side door, letting Jake hop in and settle himself in the passenger seat before getting in herself, starting up, and pulling off the lawn where she’d parked. The animal transfer truck followed her, as did a black car with the remaining vampires. Shelley made her move. She couldn’t lose them! If she lost sight of them, Michael was dead. She flew down the hall, avoiding Isaac’s body this time, but nearly tripping over her own feet at the sharp turn that would take her to the front door. Please be there, please be there, please…yes! The keys to Michael’s truck were still hanging on the key rack. She snatched them up and flew out of the house and down the stairs of the deck. They could’ve slashed the tires of his truck, for all she cared. She was driving it and following them even if she left a shower of sparks behind her. With a silent apology to everyone in the pack whom she left chained in the grass, Shelley ran to the garage. The doors were shut. She’d just bent down to lift them when a hand gripped her shoulder and spun her around. She screamed before recognizing Chris, who jumped back at the painful screech she no doubt put in his ears.

64

Mandy Rosko

“Are you okay?” he asked, shaking it off and bending his head to crack his neck. He was naked, meaning he’d just come from a transformation. She threw her arms around him. “Perfect.” She had to assume Deena was safe if he was bothering with her. Shelley couldn’t spend a second on anything but getting Michael back. “You’re going to help me,” she said, bending down to lift the garage doors. They were heavy, but then Chris bent and, with a single hand, had the doors flying up so fast she half expected them to fall right out and crush the cars. “You’re following their cars?” he asked, already heading for Michael’s truck. There was nothing wrong with the tires. The vampires probably hadn’t thought to do anything to the cars with the wolves chained down. Not to mention they were a little preoccupied in getting their werewolf hostages off the property. “Yeah. I’m going to kill that bitch,” Shelley snarled. She’d work out the details of that one later. Chris snatched the keys from her hands before she got to the door. “I’m driving. I saw them locking the cages. There’s bolt cutters on the wall. Grab ’em.” Shelley wasn’t about to argue with him. Not with precious seconds being wasted already. She saw what he’d pointed at amidst the variety of tools hanging from hooks along the wall. A pair of heavy-duty cutters. No doubt they could cut through the locks. Whether or not Shelley would be strong enough to use them was another factor entirely. Worry about that later. Shelley grabbed them and hopped into the passenger side of the truck. Chris already had the engine humming and nearly pulled out before she had a chance to jump in. He shifted gears and pressed the gas pedal down to the floor, launching the truck out of the garage like a rocket.

The Wolf’s Pack

65

He drove it like a pro. She had to give him that, even as she bounced around on her side. He avoided the other wolves still stapled to the ground and got them onto the road leading off the property. Then he took a sharp right onto a dirt path. Shelley’s blood spiked in alarm. “What are you doing?” “The way they went is the only road leading from this house into town. This way we can catch up to them before they get there, because”—he sent her a crooked smile—“I don’t really want to have an all-out brawl on Main Street naked.” Shelley had almost forgotten about his lack of clothing. She was getting way too used to seeing naked men walking around. That, and she had other things to keep her brain occupied. “And when we catch them?” “I’ll distract them.” Right. Neither of them had thought this through. “All you need to do is get them out of the truck and get back to the house. Deena should be untying the others right now.” “But they’re drugged.” “Smelling salts,” Chris explained, reaching over to the glove compartment and pulling out a tiny bottle. He handed it to her. “Works really good after a bad transformation. Sometimes the shock of the whiff can even force a transformation.” “You guys hide these around the house, too?” Shelley asked, thinking of all the pairs of clothes kept under every nook and cranny. “Just in the cars and medicine cabinets. There they are.” It was all happening so fast. Shelley looked out the window, and there were the three vampires’ vehicles, the Porsche leading the way and the white transfer truck in the middle. They were on the road at the bottom of the hill, going past the speed limit in an attempt to get away with their cargo. They were so close. The top of the Porsche was down, and Shelley could see Pearl’s purple head. Her lips were moving. There was no way she was talking to Jake, who was still in wolf form in the

66

Mandy Rosko

passenger seat. Then she reached her hand to her ear, and stopped talking. An earpiece. She was probably calling her father to let him know that she’d finally caught the werewolf with the silver pelt. Shelley clutched the shears tighter in her fists, imagining herself driving them into Pearl’s heart. “How do we stop them?” He tilted his head. “These roads are going to intersect in the next twenty seconds. I’m pretty sure this truck doesn’t have airbags. You should buckle your seat belt.” “Jesus.” Shelley put the little bottle of smelling salts in her pocket. She hurriedly reached behind her, scrambling to catch hold of the buckle in her shaking fingers. She tried yanking it down in her haste but had to calm herself and slow the process before it would cooperate. She wound it around her waist and strapped herself in. Chris took his hand off the wheel long enough to press a button on the stereo. Guitars strummed, and Axl Rose began to sing “Welcome to the Jungle.” Shelley glared at him. “I need this, okay?” he snapped. “It centers me. This isn’t going to be easy.” Then the road tilted downward, and Shelley got a whole new view of the three vehicles they were chasing as the roads merged, and they got into a collision course. Then she noted that Chris hadn’t bothered with his own seat belt. “Wait! What about you?” He released a loud roar, foot ramming on the gas, and in the split second before impact, it almost looked like the engine side of the truck was coming toward them and not the other way around. The crash of glass and crunching metal was earsplitting. Even with the seat belt to hold her into her seat, Shelley felt as if her body suddenly put on an extra ton of weight that struggled to pull her out of her seat. The metal cutters in her hands were suddenly too heavy for

The Wolf’s Pack

67

her to hold, and they flew into the windshield. Her head and hair flew forward in the whiplash. The tires of both trucks screeching long and loud as they skidded over the pavement was deafening. Despite that, the last noise Shelley heard came from that fucking stereo before Rose’s voice was silenced by the crash. I wanna watch you bleed.

68

Mandy Rosko

Chapter Eight When Shelley came to, the hiss of the crushed engine was the sound that first caught her attention, then boots stomping along the pavement as the vampires who had been in the black car behind the animal transpo truck ran right past her. The undead boys probably thought she was for-real dead or were too caught up in seeing to their princess to notice her. Shelley kept her movements slow, wiggling her toes, clenching her muscles, and turning her neck only a little. Nothing hurt, much, so that meant nothing was broken, right? Then she saw the gigantic hole punched through the windshield, right in front of the driver’s seat, and Chris was nowhere to be found. A roar and another crash caught her attention. A vampire wearing black flew up so high that at first Shelley thought he might actually be flying. Nope. No bat wings spread out from his back, and he came down hard, crash landing on the crumpled hood of the truck directly in front of Shelley. Her hands shot to her mouth to keep her scream inside. It barely helped. His neck was at such an odd twist that, even though he was on his back, he was looking right at her, eyes open and speckled with blood. His face had been punched in so severely that his left cheek was crumpled in on itself, and one of his fangs had torn through his bottom lip. Shelley had to look away before she puked, neck clenching at how gross it was. Definitely dead. Shelley undid her seat belt, moving fast now as shouts and roars of rage became more prominent. With the dead guy on the hood of

The Wolf’s Pack

69

Michael’s truck, it was one werewolf against at least five vampires, if the number of them had stayed the same from when Shelley last saw them on her jog. Regardless, she didn’t have a lot of time, and that didn’t make for fair odds. The heavy metal cutters had punched through the glass like Chris had, but they hadn’t flown all the way through. They were stuck. Shelley grabbed their handles, doing her absolute best not to look back at the dead guy staring at her, and yanked them out, taking little pieces of glass with them. Didn’t matter. She opened the truck door and slipped out. On the driver side of the vampires’ white truck, another vampire, a male with a shaved head, lay slumped against the wheel. Blood, some of it in chunks, coated whatever glass was not yet broken. No seat belt on that one, but she doubted the crash had been what killed him. On closer inspection, she noted the gash that tore long and deep through his neck. There was no broken glass around his open window, suggesting he’d been driving with the pane down, but their truck had crashed perpendicular to the van. Chris’s exit hole in the windshield was directly in front of the driver side door. Shelley could just imagine Chris using his claws to kill that vampire while still midair from the crash. It was a strong reminder that these were warriors she lived with. Okay, be in awe of that later. Shelley found the padlock of the sliding metal door to the cages, lifted her cutter, and tried to cut it off. She barely scratched the thing and was huffing from the strain in seconds. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered, staring at her handiwork. She’d done this in a miniseries where she’d played a detective. It had been so easy on set. Leave it to Hollywood to get the facts wrong about how goddamn hard it was to break a lousy lock!

70

Mandy Rosko

She put the blades of the cutters around the lock again and this time put all of her 110 pounds into the squeeze. She exhaled sharply at the snap, checked the lock, and grinned to see it was broken. She pulled it off and lifted the sliding panel. There they were. Michael was still out of it, but Alex had awoken from whatever daze that Taser had put him in, and his jaws were around the bars of his kennel, twisting the metal with fierce determination despite the crash his ride had just suffered. He growled at her. Shelley jumped back. Right. He was in wolf mode and confused. He didn’t recognize her. “It’s me, Alex.” She dropped the heavy cutters and stuck her hands near the bars, forcing herself to not flinch back even as he rammed his head into them. Not just wolf mode then. Attack mode. “You know me, Shelley. Right?” Her voice, familiar and calm, brought him down a little. His wolfy lips still revealed his fangs, but the hackles were no longer standing straight up. He started to sniff, and Shelley let him take in her scent, coming closer now. “That’s it, good boy. I need you as Alex now, though.” She pulled the little bottle of salts out of her pocket and, keeping it as far away from her own nose as possible, twisted off the cap. Chris had said it only sometimes forced a transformation. She severely hoped this would be one of those times. She put the bottle to the warped metal bars. Curiosity seizing the wolf, he bent his head to get a better look at what she was presenting him with. Then he jerked his head back when the scent caught his nose, sneezing, coughing, and whining in the way that canines did when they were hurt, or sick. “I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, but you—” “Oi, what do we have here?”

The Wolf’s Pack

71

Hands still gripping the bars to Alex’s cage, Shelley turned her head, and her heart stopped. Caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Two more vampires, one with three long claw marks, fresh, from the looks of it, trailing down the left side of his face, stared at her with grins on their faces. “Looks like the mutt was only distracting us, Jimmy,” said the one with the Irish accent. Jimmy’s black-painted fingernails became long, pointed daggers. “So it would seem. We’ll go teach that little dog a lesson when we’re done here.” Teach him— “What did you do with Chris?” They stepped forward, and Shelley moved back. “We were told not to put holes in the silver one. Miss never said anything about the others.” Shelley put her hands up and took a step back, recalling the poison, the fangs, the complete disregard for life that had come from Pearl. These men were no different. “Please.” Alex busted through his cage, the whole door, bars and all, creating a metallic clatter as it forcefully skidded over the road. He was in human form. He landed on his knees, and the first thing he looked at was the two stunned vampires closing in. Shelley got a good look at how the skin of his back bunched up. “You—” The vampires didn’t give him a chance to finish as they attacked, but Alex was ready, and he met them halfway, all three creatures clashing in the air as they leaped. Shelley didn’t have time for this. She went to Michael’s cage as the fight commenced, heart lurching at the sight of him, lax and unmoving on his side. “Michael.” She reached through the thinly spaced bars, quickly threading her fingers through his coarse fur, along his ears, and down his muzzle, then repeating the process.

72

Mandy Rosko

Her spirits lifted as his tail sleepily lifted up and down, tapping the metal bottom of his cell at her touch. His silver eyes opened but only halfway before sliding shut again, and a wolfy groan rumbled out of him. The drug was still working through him. Shelley got her bottle of smelling salts ready. He was about to get the next best thing to taking a shower in an ice storm. She was getting him on his feet and sober whether he liked it or not. She waved the little bottle frantically under his nose, making sure he got a supreme dose of it. His long face scrunched and shook as he sneezed, his body quickly jerking away from her. He hid in the back corner where she couldn’t reach him and where he’d be safer from the bottle she held. Bingo. That was more like it. “Oi! Get away from there, you little bitch.” Shelley turned as the vampire still fighting with Alex scrambled out of the heap they made on the ground and moved toward her. Alex held on to the other one, choking him with that huge bicep around his neck, but he couldn’t do anything about the one advancing on Shelley without releasing his prisoner. “Run!” he screamed. Ten steps ahead of him. Literally, she’d already started running for shelter around the two twisted vehicles. There was no way she was going to make a getaway down that dark road, not with Michael, Alex, and Chris fighting for their lives. She could do this. Cardio was her best skill, and all she had to do was keep Batman back there chasing her in circles until backup could arrive. The vampire must’ve caught on to her scheme pretty quickly, because the next thing Shelley knew, he jumped high, and arching over the truck, he dropped, landing on his feet, knees bent, right in front of her. She screamed as she skidded to a stop, falling backward into the weeds and rocks on the side of the road.

The Wolf’s Pack

73

He straightened then smiled, showing off fangs that got longer and longer before her eyes, until they nearly touched his chin. “End o’ the road, pretty.” He took a single step then was rammed into the side of the truck with the force of a bullet train, knocking it onto its side with more loud groaning from the bending metal and crunching glass. Michael! He was still in the cage! Shelley got to her feet and ran to the other side of the truck. Whatever it was that rammed into the vampire about to attack her and the transport truck had pushed both ruined vehicles into the middle of the road. Neither Alex nor the vampire he’d been struggling with was anywhere in sight, but Shelley saw the dark circle of blood expanding from under the white truck. Her fingers found their way to her hair where they gripped tightly, and her heart skipped several beats. It was something that had never happened to her before, and it felt horrible, making her light headed and her bones weak. She stepped closer. “Michael?” “Shelley, get away from there!” She spun just as she was engulfed in a pair of thick, muscular, familiar arms. Shelley hugged him back and couldn’t contain her sobbing. He was human again. He was alive. She kissed him everywhere her mouth could reach, delighting in the feel of his warm skin. When awareness hit her again, Michael was pulling her away from the crash site. “Alex,” she started, worried now that the lake of blood might just belong to him. “Right here,” he said, and Shelley pulled away from Michael’s chest to see him. He was naked, but his body was red with blood and littered with claw marks. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought he was the one who had been attacked by a werewolf. “Jesus Christ, Alex, are you okay?”

74

Mandy Rosko

“Nothing I won’t live through,” he said, touching his shoulder where a particularly nasty set of gashes were. He barely noticed but for a wince when he put his fingers there. He nodded toward the truck. “One of the cage bars that got mangled must’ve stabbed that bloodsucker where it counted. We got out of the way before it could pin us.” Pin, he’d said. Not crushed like a pancake. Shelley held onto Michael a little tighter. Of course. Something like that wouldn’t have killed them, but it would have been a really big annoyance under the circumstances. A vampire could die from a broken neck and getting stabbed through the heart, but those were only some of the few ways their deaths could be attained. The creatures on this road were still built Ford tough. It hardly made Shelley feel better. “I know you didn’t do that,” Michael said, looking at the enormous crater on the side of transport van. Then he looked at her. “I thought you did it,” she said. The scratch of fingernails over metal had her pulling away from the site and dragging Michael with her as fast as she could. No one would ever accuse Shelley of bravery, and she was perfectly comfortable with it staying that way so long as Michael stayed safe with her. Unfortunately, Michael would not allow her to take him very far. She got him two steps away before he planted his feet and stayed like he was superglued to the spot. “The vampire,” Shelley said, still clinging to his arms. “Something pushed him into the truck, I don’t—” “He’s dead, baby,” Michael said, eyes firmly on the shaking truck as Cal pulled himself up and over the threshold, his body, from the hair on his head to his perfectly sculpted chest, was as covered in blood as Alex’s, though all that color likely came more from the vampires he’d crushed rather than any battling they’d done.

The Wolf’s Pack

75

Cal jumped down from his place on top of the wreckage as easily as if he hadn’t just crashed into it and violently killed an enemy. Shelley pointedly kept her eyes on his face as he marched toward them. She was nearly at her limit of how many naked men she could handle, and it was just, well, there. Cal didn’t bother her with a look. Michael was his whole focus. He stopped just in front of the man and pointed his finger in a jabbing motion at Michael’s nose. “Now you owe me.” Because she still held tightly on to his arms, Shelley could feel the sudden tension in his body as everything became tight. He clenched his jaw, struggling for patience. His eyes went down to her for just a moment before nodding. “Understood, but I can’t give you alpha status. You’ll still have to earn it.” “Looking forward to it,” Cal snarled. What’s he talking about? What does he want? Shelley thought, putting her energy into making Michael hear it. However, unlike the many other times when they’d conversed like this, Shelley felt as though her words were being reflected off a brick wall. He was blocking her. A loud shriek erupted into the night, echoing into the darkness, cutting off any questions Shelley was about to throw out there. Another body flew into the air in a steep arch, but this one did not have the graceful landing that the previous vampire did. It wasn’t a vampire at all. Chris. He sailed high with the grace of a dishrag and came down hard, his body smacking onto the gray pavement and sliding forward until he came to a stop, smearing blood and skin along the rough surface of the road. Shelley’s heart pumped in her throat. All three men still standing ran to their fallen brother. Michael was the first to get to his knees before him, but no one put their hands on him.

76

Mandy Rosko

Shelley didn’t move. She couldn’t. If she’d thought Alex and Cal looked bad, Chris was worse. The vast majority of his body resembled ground beef. Had it not been for his hair, she wouldn’t have recognized him right away. His face was in pieces, eyes glued shut with blood. The fact that this had been done to him and yet he’d still bought her the time required to free Alex and Michael meant that he’d worked a miracle and was also the bravest man on the planet. Now her feet started to move. “Is he alive?” Shelley reached out to touch him, fingers shaking. Michael snatched her wrist before she could get near him. “He is, barely, but you can’t move him, baby. We don’t know what’s broken. We need to wait for Deena.” Deena. She was going to have a panic attack when she saw what had been done to her husband. Maybe everyone else had the same thoughts, and maybe their werewolf link somehow blasted that into Chris’s mind, because he suddenly jerked. His throat gurgled as he lifted his head and coughed blood all over his ruined face. Helping hands tilted his head enough so he could spew vomit mixed with red over the pavement, the fear of a broken neck done away with by Chris’s movements. All three men proceeded to wipe the blood from his face, being careful of the places that were missing strips of flesh and talking him into lying still. The animal transport truck was toppled over, but Shelley ran to it and grabbed one of the dog blankets pinned under the wreckage. She shook the glass and little rocks from it before bringing it back to Chris. Cal saw her coming and held his hand out for the blanket. She wasn’t thinking. She saw the hint and reacted accordingly. She gave him the blanket, and he gave it one last hard shake before gently placing it over his brother’s naked form. It was like watching a man, drunk off his ass, trying to stumble to his feet. Chris’s attempts to lift himself, to throw the blanket off, were

The Wolf’s Pack

77

pathetic at best. The only noises that came from his mouth were broken moans and loud wheezes. The constant flow of blood and the bits of flesh hinted that he’d bitten his tongue, maybe several times as his face had been punched in. “Deena woke the others up too, right?” Shelley asked Cal. If he was out and about, that meant the other wolves had to be too, and Deena needed to get here pronto if Chris was going to make it. “Where are they?” “It hardly matters.” Shelley looked up, and all three kneeling men growled, crouching their bodies protectively over Chris as Pearl stepped out from behind the wreckage. One other vampire guard was still standing by her side, though his cloak was in tatters and he had bloody scratches across both cheeks. Shelley couldn’t see the damage done to his eyes because of the shades, but he looked about as pleased as Pearl did. What got the men to stop their territorial hissing was the sight of the scruffy black-and-gray wolf that went and stood by her side. Jake. After everything that had happened, Shelley had forgotten all about him. Michael, Alex, and Cal stared as if they thought they might’ve been hallucinating. Another bout of blood spattered from Chris’s mouth, followed by a low wheezing. Not even the three men with her seemed to hear him, or even know he’d spoken, with their attention being on something else. Shelley had to get down on her hands and knees, tilt her head to the side, and put her ear to his mouth to understand what he said. “He’s her mate.” Shelley’s heart fell and then shattered like the glass from the trucks. Chris hadn’t known. He hadn’t known and Shelley did. Chris must’ve tried to attack Pearl as well as that one vampire standing beside her, and Jake would have reacted. Chris wouldn’t have seen it coming from what was supposed to be an ally. What made it so much

78

Mandy Rosko

worse was that by the time he’d transformed back into a man, he still wouldn’t have known because his memories did not transfer from wolf to man. He would have continued to take on the attacks from Jake by the time he’d figured it out. That made every scratch on his body entirely her fault. Jake had done this to Chris, and he’d done it because Pearl had ordered him to. All of Shelley’s self anger turned toward Pearl and boiled her alive from the inside out. “You fucking bitch.” Shelley shot to her feet. Jake stepped forward, his whole body going into the pouncing position, hackles raised and lips lifted to reveal his jaws. The fur of his chest rustled with the rumble of his growl. Michael was in front of her in an instant. “Don’t run,” he said, keeping his voice quiet and his eyes on Jake. “If you run, he’ll chase you.” “You can’t control him anymore?” “Not if he thinks Pearl’s being threatened,” Michael said, eyes on Jake. He might not’ve heard Chris’s gurgled voice, but he was observant enough to know what he saw. Cal and Alex must’ve seen the signs, too, as both were staring at Jake with a mix of shock, anger, and a boatload of other things she didn’t have the writer vocab to describe yet. “I can beat him, but he’ll go wild first and fight me to the death.” Michael said. Terrific. “Alpha, I’ve had enough of this,” Pearl said, taking position behind Jake, her other minion staying to her right. Her alreadypointed nails became longer, like skewers, reminding Shelley of the first time she’d ever seen them. The only thing missing was the bat wings.

The Wolf’s Pack

79

When she got down on one knee, just behind Jake, and put the tip of her index fingernail just under the gray hairs at his neck, Michael growled. Jake returned that rumble. Shelley’s heart was pounding like a blacksmith was going at it in her chest. That fingernail was as tough as metal and would go through Jake’s throat and punch out the other side if Pearl really wanted to do that. Jake stood in front of her, protecting her, in attack position, staring and growling at his friends with the utmost distrust, while the woman he defended threatened his life. “You can’t kill him!” Shelley exclaimed. “And I will not,” Pearl said, her smile flashing her fangs, “so long as he surrenders peacefully and ends this.” She pointedly looked at Michael as she spoke. “That’s not going to work, Pearl,” Michael said. Her brows shot up, the victory smile vanishing completely. “You would put your safety above those you are charged with protecting?” Her nose crinkled, disgust vibrating from her. “Shameful, dishonorable creature.” “That hurts me in here, Pearl, it really does,” said Michael, knuckle tapping the spot over his heart. “But I’m being serious. He will never abandon you, not after this. So you really have nothing to bargain with.” Shelley was still standing behind him, being protected by him, but she could still see the way his back muscles tightened. “But make no mistake, if you kill him, I will give you a life worse than death. I’ll rip those wings of yours right out of their sockets so you can never fly away from what I will do to you. I’ll break your hands so you can’t defend yourself and throw you to my pack as a chew toy.” “My father—”

80

Mandy Rosko

“Will send no one to avenge you because you’re just his little half-breed bitch.” Pearl’s eyes went to Shelley, and her lips thinned as her eyes narrowed. Shelley half expected Pearl to start threatening Shelley’s life now, but she didn’t. Her nails returned to their normal size, however, and Shelley was able to breathe again. “I allowed you to goad me once before, and that battle ended with a knife in my back, a coward’s attack.” This time Shelley was the one to snarl, as though she herself was a wolf. Pearl ignored it. “End this, here and now. My father will send no one to avenge me, but he will send others for the silver pelt. He will always have what he wants. Fight me now. If I lose the battle, I will leave and your comrade can be seen to by a healer,” she said, not even sparing a nod to Chris, who was still choking back gargled breaths on the ground. “And if I win, I will take you as my prize.” Michael shook his head. “Still not going to work. Do you really think he’ll allow me to fight you?” Pearl sneered down at Jake, then kicked him in the ribs, eliciting a shocked whine. “Be off with you, creature!” she snapped. Jake looked at her like a puppy would after being abruptly struck by a beloved owner for no reason. His ears were down and his brushy tail curled between his legs. Shelley’s heart lurched. Pearl stomped her foot when he didn’t move, producing a flinch out of the deadly werewolf. “I said begone!” Then it clicked for Shelley. Right, she’d totally forgotten. Pearl didn’t know. She didn’t have an inkling of a clue. “You can’t order him away like that. Why do you think he’s betrayed his pack and helped you?” “Because he is an idiot canine beast with no sense of loyalty.” That last bit was so off base it wasn’t even funny. “He’s so loyal that he turned against his family for you. You’re his mate.”

The Wolf’s Pack

81

Pearl’s face jerked up to Shelley, who put all kinds of serious on her mug. Pearl’s jaw dropped, cheeks becoming a shade of white that Shelley hadn’t known was possible. Then, in her rage, Pearl lunged out in attack, claws extended toward her prey. Shelley’s neck.

82

Mandy Rosko

Chapter Nine Michael intercepted Pearl before she could reach Shelley with those eagle claws of hers, all stretched out and dripping that horrible pink venom. Michael avoided those by simply reaching out and grabbing her small wrists as quickly as a striking cobra, but in turn, Jake was thrown into a frenzy, leaping into the fray all muscles and teeth and claws. A gust of wind whooshed past Shelley as Alex and Cal flew forward at speeds that kicked up the wind and her hair to defend their alpha. Pearl’s vampire guard stood around like some kind of useless accessory, watching the ball of creatures roll around, claw, bite, and hiss at each other. Cal cried out from a slash wound inflicted by someone Shelley couldn’t even see, and then another massive ball of fur was rolling around in the mix as he lost control and transformed. Shelley could hardly watch as she winced again and again at the low-pitched, angry barking, snarling, and the flash of several pairs of knife-like incisors pulling at any exposed flesh. Way too much. She couldn’t watch Michael or Alex take quick claws to their faces in their free-for-all. Shelley had to focus her eyes on something else, so she looked at the vampire to be sure he wasn’t up to anything. He still hadn’t moved. Not a muscle. He was like a lizard staying motionless on a rock or something. Maybe he’d had orders from Pearl to keep out of the fighting, because, for whatever reason, he didn’t offer any help to the woman who was his princess.

The Wolf’s Pack

83

Shelley didn’t want to take her eyes away from him, so she began to inch back toward Chris. She needed to sit with him, be with him until help could arrive, but she couldn’t take her eyes away from the only other vampire standing. Then the hand of a giant clapped over her shoulder from behind, and she screamed, fist swinging out. Another hand caught it before she could do any damage. The face was barely familiar, but the full head of shaggy hair, lightly sun-gold skin, and entirely naked body suggested this man was not a vampire. He was part of Michael’s pack. Shelley suddenly felt like she was about to drown in stupidity. Right, like she could’ve done any damage. “Sorry,” she said, pulling her hand away. The were in front of her only nodded. A shout sounded as the other members of the pack, all untied and sober from the vampire drugs, arrived. Some gathered around the fighters in a circle, trapping everyone within the space they created. Every face was serious, searching for the moment when they were needed to jump in and start ripping limbs off, but so far they all stayed put, observing the winning team, much the same as the creepy vampire guy was. Shelley turned her eyes back to the fight, but Michael’s attention was on her and not his opponents. What the hell? Don’t look at me! she yelled into his head. It shook him, but she’d still gotten the wash of confusion coming off him in waves, and the sound of her own previous scream echoed in her mind. Shit! She’d completely distracted him. Well, now that he knew that she wasn’t in harm’s way, he could go back to— Pearl’s dagger-claws reached through the swarming bodies and caught Michael across the face in a downward diagonal pattern. “Michael!” Shelley screamed, but his focus was back on the fight and he didn’t hear. Shelley bit her lips together to keep from crying

84

Mandy Rosko

out again as Jake managed to wiggle through Alex and Cal’s hold enough to put his whole mouth over Michael’s forearm, incisors ready for a bite that could probably take off the whole arm. Alex tightened his arms around Jake’s neck, pulling the wild werewolf back just as the teeth came down, but Jake still managed to rake them across Michael’s flesh, leaving so many lines in varying sizes that it looked almost like a cheese grater had gotten him. The werewolf who’d halted her punch turned her back to face him and not the wild fight. He now had a grip on both of her shoulders. Because of his size, he had to bend his knees a little to look her in the eyes. “Are you all right?” She looked past him. The other members of the pack who weren’t caging the fighters with their bodies were behind him, some clothed, some not, all ready to stand by their alpha. Some of them twitched and physically trembled, struggling with the urge to transform, the scent of blood and the sight of fight itself going straight through them to ramp up their adrenaline. Shelley was impressed with the level of control they displayed. Maybe that explained why that one vampire was so afraid to move. The guy was as trapped as Pearl, and he knew it. “I’m—What about Chris?” She shoved past the hulk of a man in front of her but went no farther than that. Deena was here, having come with one of the others. Shelley nearly breathed a relieved sigh at the sight of the woman, but Deena was not facing her. She knelt in front of Chris, her back to Shelley and the fight going on behind her, rubbing Chris’s large hand with her much smaller ones. Shelley’s heart got that horrible, fluttery feeling, like needles pricking at it from every different direction, with the realization that she wasn’t administering first aid, and Chris looked deathly still. Then Deena sniffed, wiped her face with the back of her hand, and then pulled the blanket up and over Chris’s face. No. Fucking. Way.

The Wolf’s Pack

85

This time Shelley did step forward. She got one foot in front of her before she fell to her knees next to him. “Chris?” What the hell did she expect him to do? Get up and answer her? His wife wasn’t a human doctor, but she sure as shit wouldn’t have covered her husband’s face with that hideous blanket if she wasn’t a hundred percent on the fact that he was dead, that there was nothing she could do about it either, because she had tried everything. She wanted to reach out and touch him, put her hands on his neck and wrists to check for herself that he was gone, even though she had zero idea about how to go about something like that. She kept her hands to herself, and not because of the whole lack of medical training thing. Even had that not been the case, her body was screaming at her to go to her almost big brother and…and…do something. Kiss his forehead, give him one last hug, even hold his hand. Fuck, she wanted to shake him and scream at him until he woke up or something. She didn’t touch him, because despite how much she’d grown to love Chris, he wasn’t hers to cry over. That was for his wife, and Deena must’ve been going as psycho-crazy on the inside as Shelley was because all she did was kneel at Chris’s side, hands fisted on her thighs, lips thinned so tight it looked like she was biting down hard enough to take them off. Her whole body was trembling like she was on permanent vibrate. It was only then that Shelley took note of how the other naked werewolves behind her were either on their knees or still standing, protecting Chris’s body even in the face of the fight in the middle of the lonely highway. Half the pack was with Chris, and the other half circled around the fight. A canine howl pierced long and high, faintly echoing before it disappeared into the night. It broke through the growling and shouting ball of chaos behind her, and Shelley abruptly turned her head to make sure that Cal wasn’t the one to make that noise.

86

Mandy Rosko

No. It was Jake. Michael was on his knees and had his arm wrapped under the wolf’s throat, his other hand adding strength by pulling back on his own wrist so that Jake’s back was pressed into Michael’s bare chest, his hind legs barely supporting him as he was held in a vertical position, his front paws reaching out and finding nothing to steady himself against. He, Alex, and Cal had finally managed to separate Jake from Pearl. They’d taken control of the situation. Michael was whispering into Jake’s bent ears. “That’s enough. Calm down. You know who we are. Stop fighting us.” Jake’s body lurched and he shook his head, attempting to wiggle or muscle his way out of Michael’s hold, but Michael wouldn’t let up, wouldn’t release one of his own even though the position could potentially strangle Jake. Pearl was pinned chest down on the gritty asphalt. Cal, still in wolf form, stood on top of her back. Alex panted heavily, gripping Pearl’s wrists behind her with the strength of iron shackles. Both wolves far outweighed Pearl’s vampire abilities, and while there was nothing to stop her legs from kicking out in retaliation, Cal’s teeth around her throat, biting down only enough for droplets of her blood to speckle the wolf’s mouth, was all the incentive she needed to keep still. Shelley smiled. Checkmate, bitch. In about a half a second, one of the wolves behind Chris’s corpse rushed forward to add her own strength to the mix. She was the female who Alex had bested in that battle. She was all soldier then, and she was all soldier now. Even though all she did was hold on to the vampire’s legs, she really looked like she wanted to rip them off. “Fight with me, you idiot! Defend me!” Pearl screamed, twisting her head as much as she dared to bark at her lackey, the only other vampire still alive and standing. All at once the entire pack seemed to recall he was there.

The Wolf’s Pack

87

The guy might have looked impressive with his MIB suit and shades, but he was not looking down at her, only at the three wolves coming for him, one of whom was cracking his knuckles as though readying himself for a beat down. A gust of wind kicked up, and black, leathery wings exploded from the vampire’s back in a loud ripping sound that could have been his flesh and his suit and cloak turning to shreds. His wings arched out, catching the wind and sending him backward into the sky just as the three wolves ran for him, realizing too late that they should have taken him down sooner. One man with a shaved head vaulted after him with all the energy of a sprinter, running after his prey while the vampire violently flapped his wings in an attempt to launch himself higher into the sky where he could not be followed. The werewolf kept his pace even while he was on foot, leaped into the air, reached out with his hand…and missed. In a complete stroke of luck, that suit-wearing bastard made it high enough to avoid the claws that reached for him. Baldy landed on his feet, knees bent, back arched, and released a tortured roar after the prey he’d lost. “Traitor!” Pearl screamed into the sky. Shelley could no longer make out the retreating shape in the black, starless sky, but there was no doubt in her mind that Pearl could clearly still see the last of her cavalry escaping without her, leaving her to the very people she’d come to attack. She was toast. Despite the near hopelessness of her situation and the multiple incisors that were ready to add several brand-new throat holes in her neck, Pearl twisted and screamed in a rage that Shelley had never seen before, adding more blood to Cal’s muzzle as he did not pull his teeth away. Cal’s front paw pressed hard on Pearl’s cheek so that her face squished into the road, not quite silencing her screams, but definitely

88

Mandy Rosko

keeping her still and twisting her snarling lips so that what came out wasn’t as hard on the ears. Despite the awkward position, her eyes were still capable of sending spears of hatred at everyone around her. “Kill him! Don’t stop, kill him!” She shouted at Jake this time, her last sliver of hope. So much for wanting to get at Michael’s silver pelt. Survival was her only issue now. Jake obeyed the command from his…mate. Shelley could hardly think the word without a creepy shiver passing under her skin. Despite her disgust and the twisted and uncomfortable looks being passed around the other members of the pack, Jake still fought. Michael’s grip tightened, but now it looked like the wolf was almost as wild with the need to defend and escape as the vampire was. “Goddamnit! Someone get me the smelling salts!” Michael barked. Of course. Shelley launched to her feet and ran to Michael just as the others started to make for the twisted metal that remained of the two trucks. Michael’s eyes widened when she got close, Jake’s claws still swiping out like he wanted to cut her in half. Knowing how those things worked, it would be hot-knife-through-butter easy if he got a decent shot at her. “Shelley!” “It’s okay, I’ve got it,” she said, pulling the little bottle out of her pocket and stopping out of Jake’s range. Shit. How was she supposed to give the bottle to Michael? He couldn’t exactly hold out his hand for it. “Miss?” Shelley looked up. The bald werewolf from before was in front of her now, his green eyes flicking down to the little brown bottle in her fingers before he held out his hand. “May I?” Most definitely. She gave him the bottle without a word and watched as he got up close and personal with Jake.

The Wolf’s Pack

89

Jake snarled his defiance and swiped at nothing but air molecules as Baldy avoided the attacking claws with the grace of a dancer. Or, in this case, a supernatural werewolf. “Thanks, Logan,” said Michael as Logan got to his knees to be perfectly level with both the flailing wolf and the man who struggled to hold him. Shelley would’ve gotten bitten or scratched for sure if she’d been the one to try this, but Logan stayed at Michael’s side, out of the way of the teeth and claws now. The venom in them that caused humans to become werewolves wasn’t so much the problem for Logan as the carnage they would cause him if he was caught in their warpath, as had been proven by poor Chris. Logan uncapped the bottle, and even though neither his nor Michael’s noses were anywhere near the tiny lip of the bottle, they both still twisted their faces, repulsed by the scent that their super noses picked up on. It didn’t matter as Logan reached around and stuck the open bottle directly under Jake’s flaring schnoz. Jake’s whole body reacted, his head twisting and yanking around, claws sliding over the pavement, trying to avoid the horrible scent that made it up his nose and tickled his lungs and brain. The wolf coughed, but Logan was relentless, not taking the bottle away until Jake’s fur began to twitch and shift, as though a hundred thousand tiny ants were crawling beneath his skin, causing that ripple effect that made the hairs all over his body stand on edge and wave about. Michael released Jake and stepped back, as did Logan, leaving Jake to collapse onto the road and do the bacon dance as his body broke, cracked, lengthened, and shed fur. “No! No!” Pearl screamed as her loyal wolf was replaced by a naked, panting man. Jake, the human Jake, coughed with the strength to pop the veins in his neck, dry heaving and chest spasming. He batted at his nose, sniffing and snorting, still attempting to drive away the scent that had

90

Mandy Rosko

caused him to transform. His body continued to tremble, but that was likely due to the sheen of sweat that glistened over his taut muscles and the cold night air that touched down on him. Everyone was silent now, even Pearl. Jake put his palms flat against the pavement and lifted his upper body enough to look at all the faces that stared silently back at him. He said nothing, but then, he rarely did. He just observed with animal curiosity. Shelley could almost hear the whir of his brain, working to piece together what was happening. Then his eyes caught sight of the covered body laying not ten feet from where he was. He must have put together who was underneath it without the help of his nose because Deena was still sitting next to her husband, his lifeless hand now held in hers. “Chris,” he said, allowing the name to escape his lips, a harsh whisper through a throat that had rarely bothered with human words. Jake scrambled up to his knees and then to his bare feet, drunkenly stumbling toward the man he’d killed, as though the insides of his legs had turned into Jell-O. Shelley expected one of the alphas to stop him from coming any closer. They didn’t get the chance to move before Deena flew at Jake’s face with a scream flying from her mouth that sounded like a flock of seriously pissed-off crows. She must have shocked him, because her weight coupled with his inability to keep his feet steady knocked him on his back. The only difference was that Deena wasn’t fighting for escape. She had her target, and she wasn’t about to let him go. Not that Jake was putting up much of a fight. Or any fight at all, for that matter. Deena’s manicured fingernails targeted his eyes, his cheeks, anywhere she could dig them in and cause damage. Blood spattered everywhere so quickly Shelley thought for sure Deena would transform into a wolf herself.

The Wolf’s Pack

91

She didn’t. The carnage she caused to Jake’s face was all her own rage. There was nothing animal about it. Or maybe it was just the opposite and entirely animal after all. “You killed him! You fucking killed him!” she shrieked, eyes squinting shut as her tears fell down her cheeks like a faucet had been left on. Jake’s face was bloody from the abuse, but he kept himself perfectly still, even when Deena dug her nails into an untouched part of his cheek and began ripping— Shelley had to look away before she got sick. The wet sounds went straight to her gut and mixed around in there in a puke-inducing way. The sounds of scuffling feet and calming voices added to Deena’s shrieks of rage told Shelley that the other wolves had finally deemed that enough punishment had been smacked down on Jake, and they were pulling her off. Deena struggled and wiggled in the arms of the man who held her as though her life depended on it, as though she could somehow bring Chris back to life if she put just one more hole in Jake’s face. The wolf who held her remained strong despite her struggles, deftly avoiding her bloody nails. Soon, the coarse screams turned into raw exhales of air as she lost her voice. Only then did she collapse against the chest of the wolf holding her. Her near-voiceless weeping reminded Shelley of a dying animal. Michael went to his friend and got down to his knees. Jake still did not move, even when his head alpha put his hand on his shoulder, some of the blood from his face having spattered there during Deena’s rampage. It put blotches of red over Michael’s palm. Too weird. Shelley used to see fake blood all the time while working on set, and now that she’d seen the real thing she could vouch for how damn good the stuff looked that her make-up team used. The gigantic difference here was that no matter how dark red and for-real the fake stuff looked, it did not make her guts do the onetwo inside her belly.

92

Mandy Rosko

Of all the carnage she’d seen, her body picked now to respond to it. Fan-fucking-tastic. One noticeable difference, aside from the smell, between the fake stuff and what was leaking from Jake’s…everywhere was that the blood on his face was broken up by thinner tracks of red that were less dark, as though— Oh. Jake was crying. “Did I kill him?” he asked. His voice seemed so small compared to the backdrop of Deena’s weeping, Pearl’s struggles and the grunts of the men and wolves who held her, and the howl of the nighttime air. Michael smoothed back some of Jake’s hair, wet with blood and sweat. “Yeah.” Jake’s face scrunched, and he put his fists to his bloody eyes to hide the show that followed, but Shelley got a nice earful of the long moan that yanked its way out of him, the sound a mix between tortured and enraged. “You didn’t mean to,” Shelley said, having tentatively stepped closer until she was on Jake’s other side. Michael’s head jerked up at the sound of her voice, as though he were too preoccupied to notice her approach. That was mega-rare. Shelley kneeled the way Michael did, but she couldn’t bring herself to touch Jake. She didn’t think Michael would want her to right now, all things considered. “It’s not your fault.” “It is.” “Pearl made you do it.” The sudden silence from everyone, everything really, was hint enough that maybe Shelley should’ve kept her mouth closed on that little tidbit. Michael’s eyes slid painfully shut at her words. Jake dragged his fists away from his pockmarked face, smearing the watered-down blood until it dripped down the sides of his cheeks and chin. “What—?”

The Wolf’s Pack

93

Michael’s hand was on his shoulder, gripping him hard. “It’s okay. We’re going to take care of you. It doesn’t matter. Jake!” Jake flew up so fast there could’ve been dynamite planted beneath him. Shelley launched to her feet and backed up several steps, but despite her deliverance of the bad news, she wasn’t the target. “What’s wrong? I don’t get it.” “Stay there, Shelley.” Michael held out his hand to her as he made the command, and this was definitely one of those times when he meant it as just that. She was not to move a muscle. No problem. As of that second, her body was as still as the Washington Monument, only not quite as tall. Jake was on his feet now, but they were hardly steady as he spun around, head twisting, searching, until he finally found her beneath the mountain of her captors’ bodies. He was no longer a wolf, but Shelley could’ve sworn she saw the hairs on his head stand up just a little higher. “You—” Pearl’s face went from enraged to wide eyed and terrified. Her struggles renewed as Jake marched toward her, his fingers becoming claws as his transformation came onto him. “Stay away from me, monster! Stay away!” She looked kind of like a bug, wiggling around, but the wolves on top of her held her steady. They wanted her dead, and if Jake was going to do it for them, so much the better it seemed. Michael launched forward, his body making contact at Jake’s midsection as he tackled him and pulled him back down onto the pavement, the rough surface only creating more bloody track marks against their flesh as they skidded and rolled. Shelley screamed and several surprised barks sounded, but nobody went to break them up. Michael was still the head alpha, and all anyone could do was watch as he brought the man under him back in line. Michael kept the whole of his body weight spread out on top of Jake’s back, pressing his elbow firmly into the back of Jake’s neck,

94

Mandy Rosko

the human version of a bite against the one place that would get the most attention. From her place, Shelley could see as Jake’s hands and eyes became normal once again, but he continued to struggle, his legs kicking, hips bucking, arms flailing, anything to throw Michael off, but he would not be budged. “Set me loose! I need to kill her!” “Jake—” The wail that left Jake nearly broke Shelley’s heart. “I want to kill her!” “Listen to me! Jake, listen!” Michael grabbed a fistful of Jake’s hair and shook him so hard Shelley feared his neck would snap like a dry spaghetti stick. It didn’t, and it got Jake’s attention. “She’s your mate, Jake,” Michael said between clenched teeth into his ear. “No…” Jake moaned. “Yes, I’m sorry, Jake, but she is, and if you go wolf on me, she’ll turn you against us again. Focus. You need to stay in this form.” Jake’s breathing remained labored, but his struggles for escape ceased all too quickly under his alpha’s logic. He took two gulping breaths, then allowed his body to relax, the tensed up muscles no longer riddled with bulging veins. Shelley released a breath. She wanted to come closer again, but then caught Alex’s eyes from where he still held on to Pearl. He shook his head, and she stayed put. Whatever else was going to happen was something that she, as a non-wolf, would not understand right off the bat. Hell, she was only now beginning to see that not only did the werewolves not choose their mates but they could also find themselves mated to the absolute worst possible choice for them. All this, and one of his close friends had been killed by his own, well, paws. Jake must be dying on the inside. Michael waited another beat before lifting himself off his friend. Jake remained still at first, before he planted those enormous palms of

The Wolf’s Pack

95

his on the asphalt and lifted himself up. He got to his feet and stood before his alpha, head down and occasionally tilting toward where Chris lay and where Deena was being held. His face had aged ten years and become as chalky pale as any vampire’s. “If you can kill her, she’s right there waiting for you.” Jake looked up at him sharply, and Michael only motioned with his head toward Pearl. “He was defending me! It’s not my fault!” she yelled, desperation sneaking into her voice now. She didn’t bother struggling any longer. Perhaps she recognized that there was no point. Either way, Alex, Cal, and the others didn’t so much as loosen their grips or let their guards down on the chance she was waiting for them to do just that. “Did you, or did you not, command him to attack Chris?” Michael barked. “Of course I did! He was going to kill me, you stupid mongrel!” Several low, wolfish grumbles sounded at Pearl’s poor choice of words. The strange thing about all of this was that, on some backward level that was totally not right, Shelley understood. She understood, but that didn’t mean she liked it or agreed with it. Pearl was a vampire sent on a mission from her king-father. When she found herself in enemy territory taking her prisoners only to find one of the wolves was mysteriously loyal to her, she took him as well, and while she was at it, hey, why not take Alex too? Because they would probably make great guard dogs. “You deserve everything you get,” Shelley snarled “And I am not mated to that wild dog!” Pearl shrieked, ignoring Shelley. Yep. She definitely didn’t get it. Jake growled low in his throat and approached her. Pearl’s eyes became the size of baseballs as he walked toward her, her mouth opening and closing like a dumbstruck fish.

96

Mandy Rosko

Shelley could only keep her eyes on the scene with the same morbid fascination that prompted drivers to turn and look whenever there was a car accident. She didn’t really want to see anybody without a head and gushing waterfall amounts of blood, but her brain wouldn’t make the commands for her to avert her eyes. “Put her on her back,” Jake said, and the command was obeyed instantly. Pearl yelped as she was yanked up, flipped, and then pressed back down, her body spread out as more naked men came to hold her, since at this point, Cal could be nothing more than a guard dog. Not that she’d ever say that to him. He’d bite her head off. Alex and the female alpha held Pearl’s arms out and away from her, and the two other men pinned down her ankles. She was helpless. “You can’t do this. You’re loyal to me,” she said, shaking her head as Jake straddled her waist. “He said I am your mate. You cannot—” Her words were cut off with a choke when Jake’s hands closed around her slim neck. Immediately her face became red, her body becoming tight as a bowstring beneath the hands of her captors, but their combined effort left her totally under their control. The only sounds escaping her were the gurgled chokes as her throat tried like the little engine that couldn’t, desperate to put some air into her lungs. Shelley couldn’t look. This was the part where her brain started to function and she had to turn away. She hated the woman, but watching that… Jake released a long roar, then a crack sounded. Shelley cringed. She should’ve plugged her ears too. Alex cried out, and there was more barking and outraged yelling. “Jake,” Michael said. She couldn’t help it. The car-wreck thing again. Shelley had to see. Pearl was alive. He hadn’t killed her. Jake held the cuff of Pearl’s dark shirt in his fists. Her neck was limp and blood trickled from her

The Wolf’s Pack

97

mouth and there was the beginning of discoloration under her eye already. Alex, Logan, and the other werewolves didn’t bother holding her anymore. They didn’t need to, considering she was out like trout. He’d punched her. A couple of times, it looked like. Jake’s shoulders continued to shake, the tears mixing with the drying red over his cheeks as he turned to Michael. “Alpha, I—I cannot.” Michael blew out a breath from between his teeth, shoulders sagging limply. “I want to go home,” Deena said, her face still buried in the chest of the man holding her. Her next words came out choked and desperate. “P-please, I want to go home.” One of the female alphas came forth and took Deena from the arms of the male. “I’ll take her,” she said. Deena was all too eager to go into her arms, but then she turned back. “Someone needs to take care of Chris. Bring him home with us. I want him to come home with us.” Deena didn’t need to say it as someone had already volunteered and was silently lifting Chris into his arms as though he weighed about as much as a toddler, careful to keep the blanket covering him. “Wait, shouldn’t we—” Shelley stopped herself from saying anything more. Shouldn’t we call the cops had been on the tip of her tongue, the kind of thing someone in a normal situation would have said. Right. That wouldn’t have worked here. The female alpha who comforted Deena wasn’t paying attention to Shelley’s protest. She was already out of the range of the yellow streetlight, walking into the dark night and back to the safety of the house. And the dead and injured who still needed tending there. The male who held Chris, however, had stopped and turned at her words. “Should we wait?” he asked.

98

Mandy Rosko

What was there to say? Maybe the reason all of this looked so wrong to her was because it wasn’t the way her world dealt with these kinds of things. The police would have been called about a thousand years ago, and several ambulances too, by the looks of things. You couldn’t have those sorts of people sniffing around a property filled with supernatural beings who shouldn’t exist. “Nothing. I’m sorry.” “Would you like to come with us?” Her eyes went to Michael, who was still looking down at Jake. “I’ll stay here.” That was all he needed, and he walked in the same direction as the other alpha and Deena. You should go with them, Michael said, and the sound of his voice inside of her mind startled her. They hadn’t spoken like this in so long. I want to stay with you. She couldn’t bear the thought of being alone in that house, even though there were so many other people. She couldn’t explain it, but she just needed— I understand. We’ll be quick about this. Michael’s stance shifted, his eyes locking onto the peepers of the other remaining alphas, and apart from Alex, everyone either got up from where they knelt or turned about-face to go back to the house. A silent command to his pack. Shelley hadn’t known he could do that. There were lots of things she apparently still didn’t know, but it wasn’t so far-fetched, considering he could mindspeak with her. Even Cal did as he was told. That, however, could be because, as a wolf, he was more prone to obey the commands of his superior, even if he didn’t like that superior. “Are you going to kill her?” Shelley asked. She wasn’t sure which outcome she was hoping for in this fucked-up situation. The wolves and men were still in earshot, still within sight, as they left the sad yellow light surrounding the crash site. No one turned

The Wolf’s Pack

99

back at her words this time, as if they already knew what was going to happen. That gave Shelley all sorts of messed-up mental images. Don’t worry. Michael’s voice was calm in her head, a soothing balm. But it was only a slight fix over a burning desire to know what the hell was coming next. Alex got to his feet, stepping away from the unconscious vampire. Jake picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder, fireman-style. “I’ll give you twenty-four hours before putting a howl out,” Michael said. What the hell? Jake clutched Pearl’s legs tightly to his chest. Shelley didn’t know why she suddenly registered that the vampire’s ass was shaped like a heart. Her head was definitely messed up. Too many bad things happening. “Thank you,” Jake said, silent tears flowing down his cheeks. He looked like he was walking to his own execution on Christmas morning. “Her car still looks good,” Alex said. “You should probably dump it after a couple of miles. The vamps don’t have much to say about her, but she is still aristocracy, and they might come looking. If not for her then definitely their property.” What the hell? she thought again. “Especially considering the mission she was on,” Michael added with a hardly pleased grumble. When Jake nodded and made for the silver Porsche, Shelley could take no more. “Wait, wait, he’s leaving? With her?” No one answered her, and Jake didn’t stop. He gingerly placed Pearl in the passenger side of the car before moving on to the wreck of the animal transpo truck. He avoided the blood, glass, and vampire bodies as he picked up one of the broken-off cage doors before going back to the car. He yanked Pearl’s hands out and twisted the metal around her wrists, tight as a set of cuffs.

100

Mandy Rosko

Alex appeared next with a pair of pants in his hands. They were dark, like they came from a suit. Ew. He’d gotten them off of one of the dead vamps. Jake took them without a word and put them on. They were so tight he couldn’t do up the button at the top. He got into the driver side of the car. Shelley hadn’t known he knew how to drive. He started the car. “Wait, Jake!” Shelley ran to him. “You don’t have to leave. You could stay. Something can be worked out!” Michael grabbed her shoulders. It was like she’d run into a brick wall with an extra three feet of steel to reinforce it, for all the strength she had against him. “You can’t make him go! Jake, don’t leave!” Chris was gone. She couldn’t let Jake go, too. Not with Pearl. Jake didn’t answer her or even spare her a glance as he put the car in gear and drove off. When Pearl had stopped the car, she hadn’t even bothered to pull over. He could just go, and he did, the car vrooming off into the night, quick, smooth, and clean. The rear red lights became smaller and dimmer as he drove farther and farther away. Shelley called after him for as long as she thought he’d be able to hear her, but the sound of the engine faded as the driver put distance between himself and his pack. The drop in her stomach went on forever. It was like another one of her adopted brothers had just died. She wanted to collapse and cry. It was only proof of her own strength that she held back her tears and rounded on Michael. “Why did you make him go? Why did you make him leave with her? She’ll kill him!” “She’ll force him to kill more of us,” Michael said, his features as emotionless as his voice. Somehow that made the long scratches running a diagonal track over his eyes, nose, and cheek all the more prominent. And that just pissed Shelley off more.

The Wolf’s Pack

101

“She’s going to murder him in his sleep. Why didn’t you just kill her?” That got a reaction out of him. His brows came together, teeth bared, fists clenched, and body as tense as the air after an inappropriate joke. It wasn’t an explosive eruption of anger or shock, but definitely something. The unnerving thing was that Shelley had never seen him angry with her before. First for everything, they said. “You didn’t want us to kill her anymore than he did.” True, but… “Why did you make him leave?” Now she was crying, and doing that in front of two macho werewolves only made her feel weak and small and totally out of place. It got to the point where she could barely see through her tears. The world was a dark blur with only the butter-colored artificial light of the streetlamp to light the way. Strong hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her into a warm embrace. She was angry as hell and wanted nothing more than to punch and kick at him for banishing Jake, but Shelley found herself hugging him back and hanging on. Michael smoothed her hair in long, soothing strokes that centered her in ways she hadn’t thought possible. Was this how he felt when she petted him as the wolf? “I sent him away for the same reason I can’t stay the head alpha. I gave him a full day before I sent the word out so he could get as far away with her as possible.” “You sent out a howl on him. What is that?” Shelley asked. “It’s a banishment and a warning. If he’s ever caught on any pack land, ours or otherwise, members of that pack have free rein to hunt him, and anyone with him, down. Even our wolves know to keep away from that kind of hostile territory, and it’s the only thing I could think of to keep Pearl from coming back here with him,” Michael

102

Mandy Rosko

said, his mouth coming closer to her ear. He was taking comfort from her as well. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry this had to happen.” She didn’t respond. She just molded herself to his chest, her body greedily taking in his strength until everything was far away and distant. She suddenly felt so tired. She was vaguely aware of Alex’s voice. “Michael, we need to get this stuff off the road.” That was right. The totaled vehicle and vamp car and the twisted bodies. The road they were on was still a private one, but there was always the one-in-a-million chance that someone could take that wrong turn that would leave them witness to the highly difficult-toexplain carnage. In a world where werewolves and vampires existed, anything was possible. Something would have to be done. Shelley wanted to help them with the cleanup, but her body was clocking out. She was fried for energy and couldn’t spare the strength to pull away from Michael and get started. The earth suddenly left her feet as she was engulfed in a warm heat, and the sound of Michael’s commanding voice penetrated her brain without offering her the actual words he used. Shelley couldn’t even make herself care that she was slipping away anymore until she was finally gone.

The Wolf’s Pack

103

Chapter Ten Shelley woke up to the sun in her face, then flew up as awareness crashed down on her. Mistake. Her legs were tangled in the comforter, like a boa wrapped around her lower body, and she went down hard on the carpeted floor of her room, a tiny scream escaping her lips before it was cut off by the ground hitting her chest. She had no time for this. She fought with the damned thing, kicking her legs and yanking the blanket away from her. Apart from her shoes, she was still wearing the clothing she’d had on the night before, which was no help as her jeans seemed to cling to the other fabrics like Velcro. With one last hard kick, she managed to get the heavy blanket off. She shot to her feet and hoofed it out of the room before launching herself down the hall. She’d fainted. Like the most worthless human being on the planet, she’d punched her ticket and created another problem for Michael to handle without even helping with the cleanup or staying with Deena, who had by far experienced more tragedy than Shelley had last night. All the doors to the guest rooms were closed. The other pack members were still recovering from last night’s exertion, mourning the loss of those who’d died, or sleeping. The sun was bright this morning, but the chill in the air and one quick look out the nearest window told her it was only dawn. She went to the kitchen first, since, apart from the billiards room, it was the main place of gathering.

104

Mandy Rosko

Yup, spot on deduction there, Holmes. Sitting around the circular table that made up the breakfast nook, Michael was overlooking a map, and Alex, Cal, and even the bald-headed werewolf whose name she couldn’t remember stood circled around with him, each male freshly showered and shaved, from the looks of their gleaming skin and smooth faces. Guess that meant the cleanup on the road and burying the vampire bodies part of the night was all done. What made it all worse was the way they looked at her, as though they understood and weren’t mad at all for her uselessness. It was weird how it would’ve been so much better if someone had just yelled at her or something. Michael left the table and the men around it and went to her. His arm was bandaged from where Jake had sliced him with his teeth, but the scratches on his face were already scabbing and healing. “How you feeling?” His big hands found her shoulders then slid up her neck in a comforting near massage. She didn’t want him to have to comfort her all the time. She wanted to be there for him too, and not just because she needed to prove she could handle this new life. “I was wondering the same about all of you.” Michael’s face took on that of a man stunned with the whole wide eyes, mouth opening kind of thing, but that lasted for about one and half seconds before a warm smile took the place of all that. The problem was that Shelley could always tell when someone faked a smile. She knew because she used to do it all the time for a living. “We’re holding up.” Someone cleared their throat back at the table, the awkward, remember us? sound. It got Michael’s attention back to their group. His next look to her was apologetic, and that wasn’t being faked. “Do what you need to do. Where’s Deena?” “Her room. I’ll be here if you need me.”

The Wolf’s Pack

105

“Right,” she nodded, almost afraid to ask. She licked her lips and worked up the courage. “What about Chris and Isaac?” Although she barely knew Isaac, didn’t know the kid at all, in fact, it seemed only prudent to ask about him too, being that Cal was in the room and she didn’t want to be insensitive to him. Cal looked away at the mention of his younger cousin’s name. “Their funerals are in a couple of hours,” Michael answered. “You should see Deena.” She nodded, lifted herself onto her toes to plant a kiss on his mouth, one that she allowed to linger for a couple of seconds before coming back down, then left the men to their revenge planning. His words almost lifted her spirits, but there was no place for happiness where she was going. Her best friend needed her, and she needed to make sure Deena survived her loss. God knew Shelley wouldn’t have been able to survive it if Michael had been taken so abruptly from her. Just the thought that she was never going to see Chris again, when yesterday morning things had been as normal as apple pie between them, was enough to make her chin tremble and eyes sting. No. She needed to be the strong one. She needed to mourn with Deena, comfort her, not burst out sobbing in front of the one person who was in the most pain. Hell, even Cal was handling the whole dayafter thing a lot better than Shelley was, and Isaac was his little cousin. Shelley found her knuckles rapping on the door to Chris and Deena’s room all too quickly. Her little whisper taps barely made a sound. The coward inside of her hoped Deena would be sleeping or something. Going comatose to avoid the pain of a lost loved one seemed like a great idea. Maybe it was why Shelley had shut down like she had. The door clicked softly, the lock from the inside being unbolted, then the door seemed to exhale as it opened just enough to reveal the lonely inhabitant of the room.

106

Mandy Rosko

Deena appeared like a ghost on the other side, her body halfhidden by the door, eyes sunken, red, and darkly rimmed. Her pink hair was flat and dull today, and her tweenager beaded jewelry and unicorn earrings were gone. Stale air wafted out from the space within as though her windows and shutters were closed up so tight nothing fresh could come inside. Of course. What in the freaking the hell did Shelley think she was going to say that would reverse this? She felt like a total idiot. A tiny squeak did manage to get past her tongue. “Hey.” The sound Deena made in response was pretty much the same. “Hey.” “May I come in?” she asked, too depressed to be proud of the fact that she’d spoken properly. Deena hesitated, using the door as her crutch, then nodded, stepped aside, and opened the door a fraction more so Shelley could slip in. One look at the open suitcases, half-filled already, and Shelley wanted to cry. She valiantly held it back. “Where’re you going?” she asked. She walked to the bed, as though getting a better look at the packed luggage would convince her they were there for some other reason. She looked up, and yup, the dressers were open and empty. Everything that had once sat on the tops of them, pictures, assorted makeup, even Chris’s NGP and robot Schwarzenegger action figure were gone. Only a couple of things belonging to Chris remained inside the open closet, from what Shelley could see. His video games were still stacked beside the TV. Shelley had no doubt that if she checked the bathroom, Chris’s toiletries and electric razor would still be there. Maybe Deena was leaving it all for when she came back. Maybe she was leaving it because she wanted Alex and Michael to have something of their friend’s, too.

The Wolf’s Pack

107

Or maybe there just wasn’t any room in her luggage to take any of it yet. “I figured I should get out of here before Michael had to ask me to go,” Deena said. Shelley spun on her. “What? Deena you need to stay here. The funeral…And Michael would never kick you out, not ever.” A cynical smile touched Deena’s pale lips. It vanished pretty fast. “I keep forgetting you’ve been here only a month.” “Which has what to do with anything?” Shelley demanded, no longer caring about being gentle when her friend was talking about leaving. “You need, I don’t know, some moral support or something. You shouldn’t be on your own right now, Deena.” Shelley put her hands on Deena’s arms—they were so cold—and tried to do the whole soothing, rubbing motion. Deena’s countenance remained miserable. “Stay here with me.” Deena’s chest rose and fell in a sudden, rapid succession, and here it came, Shelley thought, the flow of tears that she had to brace herself for so she could offer the support that Deena would desperately need. They didn’t come. The other woman’s eyes became diamond bright as the tears threatened to take over, but whatever dam inside her eyes held up. Nothing came. “I am going to stay for the funeral. I won’t leave until after, but the only thing keeping their wolves from ripping me up is Chris’s scent. Soon it’s not going to be here to protect me. I need to leave.” “What about…” Shelley couldn’t say the word for fear of any sort of negative reaction, so she just motioned with a limp hand to Deena’s belly. Way too much, it seemed. Deena’s face crumpled, and she put her hand over her face before sinking down onto her bed. She sucked in a sharp breath through her nose then wiped her face with the backs of her hands and her palms, but she couldn’t keep up with the flow. “There’s no baby. I started my menstrual cycle this morning.”

108

Mandy Rosko

Shelley fell onto the bed with her, wrapped her arms around Deena’s suddenly thin shoulders, and hugged her with all the strength she possessed. She kissed Deena’s pink hair, made shushing sounds and hopeful promises, but everything was empty and worthless, for all the good it did. **** Shelley left Deena’s room a little under an hour later. Deena cried to her heart’s content, but there was no way she’d have gotten all of that emotion out of her in one go. She had a road ahead of her so horrible that Shelley didn’t even want to contemplate it. Let alone the fact that she would be facing it alone. Deena hadn’t wanted any help packing her things, and truthfully, Shelley didn’t want to help her leave, either. There was only one place she wanted, needed, to be. Despite his claim to remain in the kitchen, Michael and the others had taken their little meeting into the billiards room. They were all sitting around the circular, dark wood coffee table in their leather chairs, making Shelley think of a sort of mashed-up knights of the round table. They looked beat, and their shoulders sagged. Cal was rubbing his face with his palm, and no one was really speaking, but they all looked up as Shelley came into their space. Her eyes were on Michael and Michael only. “Can I get you to take a break for a minute?” He blinked at her. “Yeah,” he said, breathing a sigh, a little too eager to get away from whatever they were discussing. Probably how much longer they had until they had to put the howl out on Jake. She didn’t give him a chance to speak. When he got close enough, she snatched his hand and started pulling him away, back toward the east hall where all the bedrooms were. She tried not to look at

The Wolf’s Pack

109

Deena’s door as she passed it. Vaguely, she was aware of Michael speaking to her, but she barely heard a word of what he said. Finally, they were in their own bedroom, and she had the door slammed shut and locked behind them. Thank God Deena’s room wasn’t immediately beside this one, but she would still work to be relatively quiet. She turned on Michael. There was a cautious concern in his eyes. “Baby, what—” She shut him up really quickly by putting her mouth over his, winding her fingers into his long, sandy hair. There was that one second where he tensed up, the shock of her forcefulness stunning him into immobility before he swooped down on her like an eagle on prey, arms surrounding her much smaller frame, winding around her back and her legs before picking her right off the floor. Instead of tossing her onto the bed like she’d expected, he slammed her into the door. He swallowed her gasp with his mouth, never releasing her lips, and Shelley wound her legs around his hips, her sex swelling in anticipation as it came into contact with Michael’s throbbing prick. Her hands left his shoulders. She was more than confident he could hold her weight without any of her help, and her fingers found his belt and fly. Putting one arm beneath her ass, he used the other to help ease down the jeans he wore, kicking them away. Somehow, the fact that he was holding her up with just one arm made her lose it that much more. She yanked her mouth away from his biting kisses. “I want you to fuck me right here, as hard as you can, to make up for all the nights we missed or slept apart.” A low growl sounded from deep in his throat, and suddenly both of Michael’s hands were at her waist, lifting her farther up. They were totally going to do this without her feet even touching the ground. Oh God.

110

Mandy Rosko

Michael’s hands found the hip of her jeans, and if Shelley hadn’t gotten the button and zipper down in time, he probably would have destroyed them as he yanked them down. He wasn’t above destroying her favorite jeans to get at what he wanted, if she recalled. Her panties, however, the pretty pink lace ones with the black bow that she’d specially ordered online, weren’t so lucky. She couldn’t bring herself to feel any annoyance over their loss as Michael’s palm and fingers started rubbing and touching her in ways she’d been handling herself for waaaaay too long. She groaned at the shock his finger brought to her clit. “I’ve missed you too,” Michael said. “We haven’t done this nearly enough since we got here. Your pretty, wet cunt is all I could think about for the longest time.” Her eyes flew wide. He was so good with just his hand and probing fingers she hadn’t been aware of closing them. Holy shit. No one had ever said that word to her before, ever. It always sounded so dirty even Shelley only ever used it as a name she called someone she really didn’t like, but while he was doing what he was doing, his body pressing hers into the door, warm, panting breath heating her face and eyes half-lidded with lust, it was strangely beautiful and erotic. Shelley trembled as she moaned. Michael smiled. That one time they’d gone after Alex won his round of alpha fighting hadn’t been nearly enough to satiate what either of them needed. She banished the thought from her mind. She didn’t want to think about anything right now, especially not how life had turned on its damned head after Pearl decided to pay them a visit. “Fuck me, please, I need it.” She caught only the slightest flicker of a question mark behind those silver eyes before he was inside of her, and the only thing she understood was the sound of her own high-pitched moaning and keening.

The Wolf’s Pack

111

Keep the noise down, keep it down, she thought. The pulsing of her inner walls had already begun long before he decided to start up his engines and begin with the surge and retract. His cock filled her, touched everywhere inside her, and holy hot damn, did that feel good. He couldn’t hold himself back, it seemed. Now that he was going, he was really going, hips pumping like he had horsepower to back all that strength with speed. Good, oh God, so good. She couldn’t think, and every nerve inside her was tight and pulsing and, and… “Don’t stop,” she moaned. He grunted a reply and kept right on moving. His rhythm slowed only briefly to allow his arms to drop away from her waist, hands moving down just to settle at the sides of her ass, should he need to catch her quickly. “Spread your hands out. Palms to the door.” Without a rational mind, she would’ve leaped into a tub of acid if he’d commanded it. She did as she was told, then caught on to what he was doing when he began thrusting in earnest once more, and she cried out with just how god-damnably Olympic-gold-medal amazing it felt. He was using her weight to make his pumping motions harder for the both of them. She kept her balance using her back and her hands, and he just barely held on to her with his suddenly gentle grip. It left her almost entirely balanced on his cock, and gravity took care of the rest. Shelley lost it right then. The door must’ve become loose on its hinges or something because she could hear a banging similar to what a headboard against the wall would make, but they weren’t in their bed. The rest was all her and the sensations she’d fallen into—the feel of Michael’s hard body, his prick inside her, the delicious pulsing that spread from her sex to her brain and kept all thoughts of anything else away.

112

Mandy Rosko

Her orgasm was sudden and ripped through her with a Jedi force that had her arching her back off the door, shocking her as she hadn’t felt it coming on, too far gone to notice even that. Her next coherent thoughts came with the observation of the warm spurts within her, then of Michael’s tensing shoulders and back spasms, the pumping of his cock becoming slower and more jerky. He ducked his head, putting all that sandy hair under Shelley’s eyes and nose, and she could see right away the silver hairs of his wolf sprouting up, like watching grass growing, reaching to the sun at a hundred times regular speed, like on Discovery Channel. No, no. She lifted his chin, forcing him to look at her, and then saw his eyes, golden from the coming transformation, and more thick hairs spiking out through his pores. “Stay with me,” she commanded. A choked sound escaped him, and when his mouth opened, she got a glimpse of his teeth. They were those of a canine now, longer, thinner fangs, meant for chomping into prey and eating meat. “Please stay,” she begged, voice breaking. He couldn’t leave her. She didn’t want to be alone. Michael’s eyes fell shut, his lips thinning as he struggled for concentration to hold back his wolf because his mate had demanded that he do it. His body, every muscle he possessed, remained hard and trembling during this process, his skin going so far as flushing a shade darker, even after a round of vigorous sex, until he finally released a long exhale and sank down with her to the carpet. She was relieved when his skin became its normal shade of tan, and the hairs that had started to grow either fell away or shrank back under his skin. She climbed off his lap and stretched out beside him as he lay back, a tingling satisfaction rippling through her as he pulled her up so she was lying half on top of the mound of his muscled chest. The gentle rise and fall caused by the soft inhale-exhale of his breathing nearly lulled her to sleep before a sharp rise of his chest and deep intake of breath had her looking up at him.

The Wolf’s Pack

113

His large hand was over his eyes, his lips pressed tightly together as though he were biting them shut to keep any noises from escaping. Jesus. “Michael, baby?” He shook his head, still not looking at her. Shelley shifted and wiggled her way up until she was able to pull his hand away from his face, and then she drew him to her. He came easily, wrapping his arms around her, hiding his face in the crook of her neck. He made no noise, but she could feel the wet tears against her flesh, his body so stiff he was locked up tight. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Shelley said, stroking his back, kissing his hair. She’d been so caught up in her own pain she hadn’t stopped to realize that not only had one of Michael’s best friend’s been killed, but he’d been forced to banish another, leaving Jake in the care of a woman who would likely destroy him. When she had said she’d understood before the reason Michael needed her to not treat him like a puppy or be too lovey when he was around, she really didn’t understand at all, and she hadn’t even known it. It wasn’t just about the image for werewolves, and that wasn’t even the real reason for Michael stepping down as head alpha. It was about Shelley’s command over his wolf, the same command that Pearl had over Jake when he was transformed. If Shelley ordered Michael’s wolf to attack any member of this pack, to kill them even, he would do it. That was the real reason a mated werewolf could not be head alpha. It must’ve been an apocalyptic kind of pain for him to hold back this sort of emotion while he was still with the rest of the pack. “I love you so much,” she said, mortified when her throat began to close, her feelings reacting to his. She squeezed her eyes shut. Shit. She couldn’t even be the strong one on the emotional stuff. Michael spoke, his voice thick. “Are you all right?” Shelley took a deep breath. “Deena’s leaving.”

114

Mandy Rosko

Michael’s palm found her hair. He stroked her scalp as he sighed. “I wish...” He didn’t finish. Didn’t need to. Those words were never the opening act to something positive. “You can’t let her stay? What if I was to watch over her? The wolves don’t hurt me.” He shook his head. “That kind of thing would only work if you were around her twenty-four-seven. Not exactly the kind of thing that would allow her to live comfortably,” Michael said. “She’s suffered enough losses. Let her alone for now.” Losses. Michael already knew there wasn’t a baby. Whether Deena had told him or he’d found out through some other means, Shelley didn’t want to know. Michael dried his face with the back of his hand, becoming strong-leader Michael once again. “I know she’s your friend, but she can’t stay without Chris. I know it’s hard to understand—” “I understand.” Shelley shifted so she could look him in the eyes, their noses nearly touching. “I get it.” “You okay with it?” Shelley didn’t answer right away, and Michael touched her cheek with his knuckles. “You have no idea how fucking scared it makes me that you might leave, that all of this’ll be too much and you’ll pack up and go,” he said. “I would never do that,” Shelley said, putting a whole lot of emphasis on the never part. “You say that now, but later…” He shrugged one shoulder. The truly fucked-up part was how calm he was about it, as though he saw it as a certainty that had yet to happen and was already prepared for the inevitable. He had once before told her of the possibility of living apart, that month ago when in that little cabin in the woods he made plans to

The Wolf’s Pack

115

send her home, out of harm’s way of any vampires who might come looking for her, the mate of the alpha they wanted so dearly. Proof enough that just because they were mated didn’t mean they had to be together. “This is the real reason you’ve been distant,” she said. “Not just because of the pack or Cal wanting us out, but for that, too?” His whole body went rigid. Uh-huh. Caught. Shelley kissed the expanse of chest just above his brown nipple. What was she supposed to say that would get that notion out of his head? She used to be an actress. That wasn’t exactly an occupation known for its great speakers. All the bold words she’d ever spoken, passionate declarations and powerful speeches, had all been part of someone else’s script. Of course, she was learning how to write and now had to do that part without her critique partner as well, but she was still foggy at best when it came to making up words of her own. So how did she convince Michael that she was in it for the long haul? That she wanted to stay with him for the rest of her life, have his children one day, and grow old with him? “Marry me?” From her peripheral vision, she saw his head jerk down to look at her. Hesitantly—because she’d just frickin’ proposed to him—she looked back at him. His silver eyes were as wide as quarters and gleamed as brightly as if they were hot off the money-making machine. His cheeks were the first to give hint that he wanted to grin his heart out, but his lips struggled not to move, to keep his composure intact. She’d said it, and she meant it. She wasn’t going to change her mind, and she left her thoughts open to him so he could see that too. He saw, and he laughed, pulling her face closer so he could plant his mouth on hers.

116

Mandy Rosko

No tongue, no wild mouths going for dominance or speedy lust, just a long, lingering kiss that took her breath away and left her hypersensitive of everything around her: his smooth jaw with the lingering scent of aftershave, the warmth of his skin, the itch of the carpet that reminded her just why people tended to move the hot stuff onto their beds. Or their showers. They got up off the carpet and stepped into the adjoining bathroom. She knew Michael had already taken his shower, but he didn’t complain about having another. Once under a hot spray with only soap suds to separate them, Michael took her against the shower wall with lazy, deliberate thrusts, their bellies extra slick and slippery because of the soap, which was an extra turn-on. The cold of the tile only caused her a momentary discomfort. Shelley didn’t come down off her happy high until they got out and began to towel off. “I’m going to kill the vampire king.” Shelley stopped in the midst of flurrying her own towel through her red hair, her body still naked as she stood straight and looked at him. Right. That part still needed taking care of. Considering the planning that was going on in the kitchen, she should’ve guessed this part was coming. “When will you go?” “As soon as possible. That’s what the guys and I were talking about. We were looking over the maps of New York, trying to figure out where he’d be hiding.” That part threw her for a loop. “New York?” She thought for sure a king, any sort of monarch, would be hiding somewhere in Europe. “Lots of places to hide from the sun, underground tunnels, not very bright in summertime with pollution, and I could go on. The fucker hides there because he knows werewolves stray from largely

The Wolf’s Pack

117

populated places, never mind cities. It’ll be my last command as head alpha that we hunt him down, and after that, Alex will take over.” She’d missed out on a lot while she’d been out, it seemed. “What about the last trial fights?” “Logan decided to step down from the fight. He wants to be a soldier more than a leader, after everything that happened last night.” “Cal doesn’t mind that part?” Michael slid his tongue over his teeth. “He and I talked. He’s had a change of heart. So long as I’m stepping down, he doesn’t care what I do, but he’s calling in my debt to him for saving your life. He wants to be second-in-command.” Alex’s beta. Great. “That’s not much better,” said Shelley. “I agree, but we’re not getting kicked out.” He had a point. “So, when are we leaving?” He raised a brow. “We?” She waved her finger at him. “I know where this is going because I’ve played out this scene a hundred times before and read it at least a thousand more than that. The hero goes off to battle or his quest or whatever and is gone for months and months, sometimes years, while the wife or girlfriend or significant other stays behind all lonely and pining until she gets word that the hero’s been killed, which will turn out to be a complete mistake and he’ll show up five years after that recovering from amnesia, and she’s moved on and had a kid with someone else. Not going to happen. I’m going with you.” He waited a beat before speaking. “I’m surprised you could breathe through all that.” She took a deep breath, which was indeed pretty invigorating. “You’re not leaving me behind,” she said. He rubbed his face, suddenly appearing very tired again. “It’ll be dangerous. I’m not just saying that either. This is another step beyond simply taking you home with me. You’ll be on their radar.”

118

Mandy Rosko

“I’m already on their radar, and I’m not stupid enough to try and pick a fight with a vampire, anyway,” she said. “I know what I am and what I’m not. I know someone could recognize me, and I know that vampires are ten times stronger than I am. Trust me.” Shelley hadn’t forgotten her encounter with Pearl back at the cabin. “We’ll get a motel room for you and me and one more for the boys, and I will never leave it unless I have to. I’ll stay inside and search the Net for clues or something.” He smirked at her. “Or something.” Because of the hot steam still floating around and warming everything, Shelley was pretty sure Michael couldn’t tell that her cheeks had just gotten hotter. “You’ll need me there to center you. You said it yourself. Werewolves don’t go near big places for a reason.” “Because of the risk it poses, should someone sporadically transform.” “Right, which is why you’ll need me there. If you or the others transform, I can keep your other selves calm, and I know the lot of you’ve been wondering what to do about that part.” She came closer to him, pressing her naked breasts against his chest as she closed the distance between them. “Take me with you.” One would’ve thought she was attempting to use the Force with the way she’d commanded it. “Are you trying to seduce me?” Her nipples pebbled as she gently stroked them over his flesh, which developed goose bumps amazingly fast. “If it gets me what I want, yes.” He curled his arms around her naked back and held on to her tightly, resting his chin on top of her head. He held her for some moments until the air chilled, no doubt thinking over all the points she’d made, because she was totally right. “Wherever we go, I’ll no longer be head alpha, but you will need to do exactly as I say. Exactly. If I command something, you can’t

The Wolf’s Pack

119

think I’m doing it to push you around, but because it’s for your own safety at the time.” “No getting mad at you for bossing me around. Got it.” “I’m dead serious, Shelley. If I suddenly yell for you to duck, it might be because I see a vampire leaping for your head, if it comes to that.” “Which it won’t.” “Just make sure you duck.” “I will,” she promised softly. Michael’s neck and jaw clenched then his mouth melted into a weak sort of smile. “All right.” It was a weak sort of agreement, and Shelley would have to be blind to not see how much Michael still didn’t like it. Forgetting about the vampires, New York was a big city that housed hundreds of professional photographers who would love to get her picture. Not to mention the millions of people carrying around their iPhones, tourists holding videocams, anything. She was determined, however. Even if she could only contribute to their hunt in this small way, she needed to go, to be able to do it. That settled, together they dressed so they could tell the other members of the pack why their plans were going to include Shelley. Michael took her hand and led her back to the kitchen where the others were. “If you ever want to change your mind, don’t feel bad about it, all right?” “I won’t change my mind,” she said, even as convinced as she was that it would take more than herself to keep the werewolves safe and healthy. Deena was the veterinarian of the pack, so unless Shelley could talk her into coming onto this mission with them, Shelley was going to have to bone up on her first aid knowledge. As they walked into the bright kitchen, the heads of all three men turned up to look at her. The female alpha from before had also joined them, as did everyone else coming onto this trip, it seemed.

120

Mandy Rosko

Michael cleared his throat. “All right, just so there’s no confusion, we are going to New York, and to solve the problem of our transformations, my fiancée is coming with us.”

THE END WWW.RIZZOROSKO.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mandy Rosko lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario, is a romance junkie, a lousy web designer, and is working hard to improve the craft of creating an actual plot. She has finally stopped mooching off her big brother for cheap rent. You can visit her website for some free reads at rizzorosko.com. You know you want to ;)

Also by Mandy Rosko Siren Classic: Mate of the Wolf Siren Classic ManLove: Night and Day Siren Classic: Eclipse

Available at BOOKSTRAND.COM

Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com