by Anna Lowe
Summer took a long, deep breath, trying to memorize which person raised which point. Many of the men in the crowd seemed to want nothing more than peace and prosperity, but a few seemed sympathetic to the Whytes’ cause as they threw question after question at Thomas and Dryver.
“What qualifies you to lead this pack?” That question came in various forms, and both candidates parried it easily.
“What would you do about this pack’s debt?” someone asked as the questioning went on and on.
“What do you think this pack needs most?” Summer spoke up at a pause.
A dozen surprised heads turned, none more disapproving than Gretchen’s tightly drawn face.
I don’t remember you speaking up in meetings before, dear, her drop-dead expression said.
I didn’t think for myself before, Summer wanted to say.
“Stability. Time to recover,” Thomas said immediately. “Strong leadership.”
Dryver nodded and shot out an equally neutral reply. “Firm rules and a common goal.”
She was about to ask what that goal might be when the door swung open and a ray of sunlight sliced into the room. Every head in the room turned, and a pregnant pause ensued — the kind that announced the entrance of a powerful alpha who could change everything. From the shocked look on some faces, she half expected Ty Hawthorne, the imposing leader of Twin Moon pack, to stride into the room.
Whoever it was took a long time to enter. A whisper went through the crowd, but she didn’t catch the words. She was too busy focusing on a sound. The sound of feet wiping on a doormat.
Right, left. Right, left.
Her heart skipped.
A burly figure stepped slowly over the threshold, rubbing a thickly muscled shoulder against the doorframe in a bold move that said, I might not own this place, but I am not a man to be fucked with.
A rumble went through the wolves gathered there as they sniffed his oaky scent.
Drew, her wolf cried. Drew!
“Ho-ly shit,” someone exclaimed.
“A bear? Who the hell invited a bear?” another person whispered.
Drew looked around slowly as if to say, Go ahead and challenge me. No one did. They just stared dumbly.
She stared, because it was Drew, but it wasn’t Drew. This was a rougher, tougher, rawer version of the man she’d kissed. Meaner, almost. All the gentleness had gone out of him, and he was all warrior, all power.
Ho-ly shit was right. Back at Blue Moon Saloon, he’d never shown his full strength. Perhaps he hadn’t had the occasion to. But now…
“Man, oh, man. Let’s not piss him off,” someone whispered.
“To whom do we owe the pleasure?” Thomas said in a carefully neutral voice. He stretched to his full height and turned on his alpha wolf glare that Drew met, watt for watt.
“Pleasure’s all mine,” Drew said. His deep voice resonated throughout the room.
“What the hell do you want here?” Dryver barked in open challenge.
Summer held her breath, watching Drew’s fists clench.
Chapter Four
Drew paused, taking in his surroundings. The room crackled with anticipation like a thunderstorm that had dead-ended in a box canyon. Fear, hate, and suspicion swirled around the room, and a rush of whispers reached his sensitive ears.
“A bear! A bear!”
What, had they never seen a bear shifter before?
“Don’t tell me he’s one of those no-good Vosses,” someone else growled.
Just a distant relative, but hell, yeah. He was all on board with his cousins. The problem would be hiding that from this ugly crowd.
That, and hiding his attraction to Summer. Pulling this deception off. He could scent her from across the room, and his bear was screaming to run over and smother her in a kiss.
Inside, his bear paced, but on the outside, he battled to keep perfectly still. Soren had been right to keep him from following Summer, saying it was much too obvious that he was interested in the she-wolf.
Interested? He was damn near obsessed. He’d barely slept over the past week, and the few hours he’d caught were filled with dreams of Summer smiling at him or nightmares of her screaming for help. He’d even charged out of bed one night, determined to race to her side, but Soren convinced him to turn back, saying Summer was safer without anyone there to give her true mission away.
But then an anonymous message had reached the Blue Moon Saloon, and that changed everything.
I don’t fucking believe it, Soren had muttered, reading the email that came in from an account they couldn’t identify.
Inside man willing to work with you to keep Blue Bloods under control, the message said. There’s been enough violence. Might need your support. Are you with me?
The writer had signed with an X. Nothing more.
Could be a trick, Soren said.
Could be the real thing, Simon shot back.
Can’t trust anyone, Drew had thrown in.
Soren and Simon had deliberated it with the wolves of Twin Moon Ranch and finally decided to send Drew to Hope Springs while they tried getting more information out of the author of that note.
If this guy is legit, we don’t need Summer up there, Soren had said, and Drew had just about exploded out of the saloon in his rush to depart. But Soren wasn’t finished. If they’re trying to con us, Summer could be in more danger than we thought.
Which was when he really did explode out of the saloon and hit the road. And now that he’d finally made it, all the emotions Summer triggered hammered him at once. Love. Lust. Joy. Fear. It took everything he had not to swivel in her direction and reveal all that. Hell, it took everything he had to resist running over and pulling her into his arms.
He took a deep breath and ordered himself not to betray his emotions. A good thing he had some practice hibernating — it helped him force his heartbeat to a crawl. And hell, he’d never had to do that quite as much as right now. His pulse was thumping, his nerves twitching. His bear wanted to maul every wolf in sight, grab Summer, and steal her away from this bad place. Every shifter pack suspected outsiders, but these wolves had knives in their eyes. How had Summer survived a week here?
“What the hell do you want here?” a man barked.
Drew ignored the scarred old wolf and kept his eyes on the younger, fair-haired one. Every instinct told him that was the wolf to watch out for. That one was smarter, subtler, and much harder to read. Was it he who sent the message to Soren?
Drew doubted it. The guy seemed cocky as hell — not the kind to ask for outside help. Was it that older woman sitting to one side, listening intently? She looked capable of anything — like selling out her own pack or faking a call for help. Impossible to tell which. The three bearded men looking at him closely from the front row looked old and weary before their time. Could they have sent the message?
Jesus, was there anyone here he could trust?
No one. Well, apart from Summer.
He channeled all the power of his bear clan into a fierce look and made a slow sweep of the barn, studying every face. He forced his eyes to run smoothly past Summer, but boy, was that hard. She looked drawn and thin — thinner than before. He ached to take her home and feed her berry pancakes covered in honey. His favorite treat. Could it be hers, too?
He buried the thought in the back of his mind and trained all his focus on the two alphas up front. To whom did they owe the pleasure?
“Drew Kovacs of the Katahdin clan,” he said, letting a hint of warning fill his voice.
“Powerful East Coast bear clan,” someone murmured.
His chest puffed out a bit. Damn right.
“Thomas Miller,” the blond guy said. He didn’t mention a pack, which meant he’d either been kicked out of his former pack — unlikely, given that obvious strength — or was the second or third son of a powerful alpha who wanted to run his own pack. The dangerous kind — accustomed to privilege and hungry for power.
“Dryver,” the old g
uy said next. “Of Deer Mountain pack. You any relation to those Voss bears?”
Every shifter in the room leaned forward, and more than one set of claws was unsheathed. He could sense them sliding silently out as the wolves barely held back.
A moment of truth. What he said next would make or break his entire mission.
“Cousin,” he admitted.
Alarmed voices broke out around the room, but one look from Thomas silenced them. Yep, he was definitely the wolf to watch out for here.
Drew had rehearsed his lines a hundred times on his way north, so they came easily now.
“My clan is concerned about the behavior of our relations out West.”
That was near enough the truth. There were plenty of bears at home who disapproved of his cousins breaking tradition and taking mates who weren’t bears. The disapproval was nowhere near the murderous knee-jerk reaction of these killer wolves, though. More like a little headshaking among the older bears. But he didn’t have to share those details.
“They sent me out to talk to the bears who run the Blue Moon clan.” That was mostly true, too.
“It’s not a clan. It’s a disgrace!” someone shouted.
He ignored the source and focused solely on the reaction of the two alphas before him. Were they as radical as he feared?
Dryver bared his teeth at the man who’d called out — more in a you should be seen and not heard gesture than I disagree with your stance disapproval.
“And you came here to…?” Thomas leveled a cool gaze at Drew, still impossible to read. Funny how every look, every question felt like a trap. An ugly, steel-jawed bear trap.
I came here to get my mate out of this sick place, his bear wanted to roar. To take her home and tell her just how I feel about her.
“The leaders of my clan sent me here to report back on the activities of the Blue Bloods. Nothing more.” He kept his voice carefully neutral, just like his choice of words.
Thomas tilted his head in a that can be interpreted in more ways than one gesture, which was exactly what Drew intended. His words could be interpreted to mean that the Katahdin pack was considering supporting the Blue Bloods in their quest for purity. Which was utter bullshit, but Thomas didn’t know that. Second, his careful word choice prevented the scent of a lie from slipping out, because the statement was true, in a way. Soren — a member of his clan, at least in the extended sense — really had sent him to Utah for information.
And to maim, rip apart, or kill any wolf who threatens my mate while I’m at it, his bear added.
Even Drew could smell the warning that wafted off his own shoulders with that thought, but that was fine. Let the wolves see him bristle. Let them stay on their toes.
“To report.” Thomas echoed his words, arching his eyebrows in a question.
A question Drew sure as hell wasn’t going to field right now. The less he said, the longer he could pull off his ruse.
All I want is my mate. Get her to safety. Make her mine, his bear growled.
Yeah, well. He wanted that, too, but there was more to the situation than just him and Summer. The future of all shifters was at a tipping point.
Grizzled old Dryver folded his thick arms and glared at him. “That is our pack’s business, not yours.”
“Whose pack?” Drew retorted, looking between the two men before him to make his point. Who would lead the Blue Bloods, and what would his agenda be?
The old man scowled. “That will be decided soon.”
Soon could never be soon enough for him — and Summer felt the same. He could feel her impatience, even from this distance. The tension, too, that he wanted to massage out of her shoulders. The anxiety about what might transpire next.
He kept his arms away from his sides just in case, because the crowd had broken into dozens of separate conversations — all of them heated. A brawl might erupt any minute, and he’d better be prepared to fight his way to Summer and help her escape.
But Thomas and Dryver managed to get the place settled down again — Thomas with seething looks and no noise whatsoever, Dryver with harsh shouts. Drew would put his money on Thomas winning the position of alpha. That was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out what Thomas would do next. Would he lead the pack into a new era of live and let live, or would he set off a shifter war?
“Order! Order!” Dryver pounded his fist on a table. Between that and Thomas’ glare, the place settled down.
“The alpha of this pack will tell you what you can report to your clan, bear,” Dryver said. His voice dripped scorn at the word bear.
“Yes,” Thomas murmured. “He will.”
“That question will be settled tonight,” Dryver replied, giving Thomas the evil eye.
The crowd broke into chatter again. “A fight! A fight!”
Drew looked around. Shit. He’d never seen shifters so eager for blood.
“Tonight.” Thomas nodded.
The gauntlet had been thrown down; the challenge accepted. Everyone started jabbering at the same time, and all the focus was on the two candidates for alpha. The two who would duel, wolf style, for leadership of this pack.
Drew risked a glance at Summer. Every wolf in a fifty-mile radius would attend the fight, which meant…
Summer’s warm brown eyes sparkled as she caught the gist of his thoughts.
If everyone was glued to the fight, no one would notice the absence of one quiet she-wolf and one brawny bear.
His inner beast all but rubbed his paws together in anticipation.
He turned away from Summer before anyone could notice and faked a bored look that said, Wolves. Such heathen creatures. Nothing like bears.
Which was partially true. Bears deliberated carefully, while wolves reacted from the gut. Bears proceeded with caution, not hot heads.
He thought of Summer, and his blood rushed. Bears knew the meaning of passion, though, in the things that counted most. Like honor. Like duty. Like love.
He’d serve his clan, and he’d do whatever it took to keep his mate safe. But the question was, could he do both?
Trust me, a voice deep in his mind said. When the time comes, trust me.
He shook his head. There it was again. The voice of fate. He wanted to snort. No way was he trusting anyone but himself.
“You, bear, have been heard,” Thomas said when the room quieted down again. “The alpha of this pack will meet with you tomorrow.” He made a subtle motion toward his own chest.
“Yes.” Dryver scowled. “He will.”
Drew looked over both candidates. Which of them would be dead by morning? Thomas was a wolf in his prime, but the experience of a veteran like Dryver was not to be discounted.
“Tonight,” Dryver said, glaring at Thomas.
“Tonight,” Thomas barked back.
They meant the fight, of course. But when Drew reached his thoughts out to Summer, he had an entirely different meaning in mind.
Tonight, he thought, hoping she might read his thoughts.
Tonight. A faint, hopeful whisper tapped into his mind. Tonight.
Chapter Five
Summer left the meeting by one door, while Drew left by another, and it killed her to see him drive away. It hurt him, too — she could hear his bear’s anguished cry the same way she felt his inner pain.
Tonight. She shot the thought out after him. I’ll find you tonight.
She would have remained standing there for a good hour watching the plume of dust kicked up by his truck rise then slowly fall, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t afford to show any interest in the bear shifter who’d had the courage to enter this den of wolves.
What had brought Drew to Hope Springs? Was something wrong? She longed to voice the questions racing through her mind.
“Goddamn bear, coming up here like that,” Mett grumbled beside her.
She jolted in surprise. Whoops. She’d tuned out of the world for a minute, and that was dangerous. A good thing Mett interpreted her shiver of fear the wrong way.<
br />
“Don’t you worry, Summ.” He slithered an arm over her shoulders and drew her close. “I’ll keep you safe.”
It was all she could do not to dig an elbow into his ribs to keep him away. Far away.
Drew will keep me safe, she wanted to say. But shit, Drew was driving away, so the only one keeping her safe was herself. She couldn’t let Mett catch on to her. Not now.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to create a gap between his body and hers. “Thanks.”
“Anything for you, darlin’.”
Claws itched under her fingernails as her wolf begged for release.
“Anything for my mate,” Mett added, and she froze.
“Mate?”
“Of course, Summ. Don’t you feel it, too?”
All she felt was a churning stomach and a yearning for Drew.
“Just think,” he said.
She tried really, really hard not to think of the horrors being mated to Mett might entail.
“We can make a new start, and we can continue my dad’s work. Carry on the crusade you fought so hard for.”
The only thing that made her more nauseous than the idea of being mated to Mett was the idea that she really had assisted the Blue Bloods’ sick crusade. She hadn’t meant to, yet she had.
A few weeks ago, she would have crumpled in shame at the thought. But she was stronger than that now. Wiser. More determined than ever to set a wrong right.
Tears and regrets wouldn’t change the past. All she could do was prevent the same from happening in the future by staying focused. Which meant keeping an eye on the goings-on in this pack and reporting to her friends at the Blue Moon Saloon. And it meant finding Drew to understand what had brought him to Utah. But how on earth was she going to sneak off unnoticed?
Mett tightened his grip on her arm, as if reading her mind.
“I’m just preoccupied about tonight,” she bluffed. “Who do you think will win?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Mett whispered with a sly smile. “I have a plan.”
All of a sudden, her whole body went on red alert.
“A plan?”
Mett nodded, looking supremely satisfied with himself. “A plan for both of us.”
