by J. K Harper
Then again, she'd clearly told him the first time he'd met her that she was from her own pack. He'd assumed she'd just been throwing him off her trail, but maybe she was serious. He hadn't brought it up in Denver because he picked up on her wariness about the general subject of packs. And, of course, they'd been too busy with a more single-minded pursuit.
Her existence was a fascinating and fast-becoming aggravating mystery. However, he knew the last name on her books, Anderson, was definitely not a shifter name. Unless she'd been raised by wild humans—his wolf chuffed at the play on words—Claire was hiding something.
He'd looked for her online, but all the information he could discover on her merely said she was an up and coming young fiction author, she lived in Colorado, and when he checked with her publisher they wouldn't release any more information on her than that. In the age of rampant social media and excessive navel-gazing, Tate was surprised he could find no traces of her. Of course, he barely went online himself except to update his website with new photos and videos of his clients' horses and where he might be giving a demonstration of his training skills. Quietly, he was pleased to think she might be just as private about her life as he was about his.
“So you'll cover this afternoon's shift with Lily and Kieran, correct, Tate?”
He jolted badly at his Alpha's bland voice. “Yes, sir,” he automatically said, despite not having the slightest clue what had just been discussed. He found a roomful of Guardian eyes on him, everyone seated in chairs in the Alpha's office. There were only nine pack Guardians, with him included in that count. At this particular moment, it felt like an army of a thousand staring at him.
His father raised an eyebrow at him. “And you'll be gathering what information before heading out with them?”
Damn. Well, nothing to do about it but confess he hadn't been remotely aware of the past five minutes of conversation.
“Sorry, sir. I wasn't paying attention.” His voice fell into the stark silence, although he was pretty sure he saw Lily covering a smile. Rafe, of course, frowned.
“Indeed,” his father and alpha said in a dry tone. “I am certain you'll be following my words quite closely this time, of course.”
“Yes, sir,” Tate said again in submissive tones. He focused his entire being on his leader as Black Mesa Pack Alpha Channing Bardou reiterated exactly what Tate was supposed to be doing the rest of the day.
As soon as the interminable meeting was over, Tate slipped into the long hallway outside his father's office and waited for Lily and Kieran. His smart leader of a sister was destined to be a powerful alpha female who one day would lead the Black Mesa Pack with Kieran. For now, though, she was happily a Pack Guardian alongside the others. When his fiery red-headed sister and her equally spirited mate joined him, Kieran shook his head at Tate, although he was grinning.
“Can't be off your game like that today, Tate. Because if you are, I'm going to lose a bet I have with your lovely sister. And since the stakes of this bet are very interesting, I definitely don't want to lose.” Kieran sent a very suggestive look toward Lily, who managed to blush while at the same time awarding her mate a come-hither look.
Tate threw up his hands and took a step back. “I have no interest in knowing the stakes of this wager.” Shifters were very sexual and they were accustomed to that most awesome fact of life. Even so, he didn't want to know or see details about his sister's private time with her mate. He gestured at Lily and said, “Sister here. Way too much information.” He gave a pretend shudder while Lily lightly smacked him. “But I do want to know why you have a bet going on about me?”
Lily laughed, then grabbed Tate's arm and dragged him farther down the hallway, away from the small clump of wolves still in the office talking to Alpha. Kieran followed.
“Because,” Lily said when they were father away, lowering her voice a little, “I am your all-knowing big sister and I have magical powers of perception.”
“Except right now she doesn't really,” Kieran said, “and I decided to call her on it with this bet. Which is part of why I requested you come with us today on patrol.” His tone was mildly triumphant.
“Okay,” Tate said, dragging out the word in bewilderment as he looked from one to the other.
Lily leaned in a little toward him. “Ever since you came back from Denver, you've been distracted, gone a lot, and asking about wolves in other packs. I know exactly what's going on.”
“No,” Kieran broke in, dark eyes sparkling as he slipped a hand around his mate's waist and tugged her close to him, “she's got it all wrong.”
Tate threw his hands up in the air again, this time in surrender, laughing despite his confusion. “I still don't know what either one of you is talking about. You make it sound like I'm involved in espionage or something.”
Lily tucked a red-gold lock behind her ear and gave Tate an earnest look. “It's a woman,” she said at the exact same time Kieran said, “It's a horse.”
All three wolves burst out laughing, drawing quizzical looks from the ones farther down the hall.
In a heartbeat, Tate decided to come clean. Not being able to find Claire was driving him nuts. After two weeks, he was climbing the walls with impatience and frustration. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Claire's face, head thrown back in ecstasy beneath him.
Mine, his wolf growled, so clearly both Lily and Kieran fell silent and gave him searching looks.
Yes, indeed. His. But he needed help finding the darned enticing woman, and he knew it. Taking a breath to calm his wolf, he nodded at them.
“You both got me. There's a woman. And there's a horse.” He winked at his sister's first excited, then slightly crestfallen expression. “Bunch of horses, of course. New clients are keeping me busy.”
“Aha. So we both win the bet.” Kieran leaned down to nip at Lily's nose before settling a quick kiss on her lips, which turned into something deeper and longer when Lily drew him in closer.
Tate sighed and looked away.
Lily giggled. “Sorry,” she directed at Tate. “I don't like to miss any kisses from this guy. However, I'm very interested in the fact that I was at least partially right! Tell us all. I knew there was a special woman. You're not usually this distracted. In fact,” she went on, narrowing her eyes at her brother, “you're never this much out to lunch.”
Tate snorted good-naturedly. “Since you're both super-sleuths, I'll tell you about it when we go on patrol. And frankly, I'm hoping to hell at this point you can both help me.”
He hadn't yet mentioned Claire to any of the Black Mesa wolves. For some reason, he hadn't been ready to share the knowledge of her existence. Her agile mind and earthy sense of humor; that rich, lingering laugh; the lustrous white-gold hair he couldn't wait to have brushing over his naked skin again; her incredibly clear green eyes; and those lush, fascinating lips were all things he'd been holding close to himself. But if he didn't find her soon, he was half afraid he'd either explode or melt into a puddle of senseless idiocy. That, or his Alpha would really teach him a lesson in paying attention.
Kieran placed his hand to his chest and staggered back, a look of mock shock spreading across his face. “What's this? You're asking for help from your elders? Will wonders never cease,” he finished, shaking his head in a grave fashion.
Tate pretended to tackle him, which turned into a playful rough and tumble as Caleb spotted them just as he came in the main front door to the den and sprinted toward them, whooping as he crashed into them both.
“Who's top dog now?” Tate's younger brother shouted as he tried to flip Kieran to the floor while fending off Tate's undercut.
Lily stood back with a critical eye before she, too, leapt into the fray with a blood-curdling howl that momentarily froze every wolf in the hall, if not the entire building. “Ha!” she yelped as she managed to snatch Caleb's arms into a clinch hold and land a soft but well-placed drop kick at Kieran's lower leg, felling him instantly. “Never underestimate the females in this
pack!”
As Tate fought his way out from the bottom of the pile, laughing and wrestling simultaneously, he wondered for the millionth time in his life how any wolf lived without a pack.
* * *
The desert ground thwacked Claire's paws with a low thumping noise before her next bounding stride took her into the air, then back down to earth again. Thwack. Thwack Thwack. The rhythmic sound eased her as she loped through the cool night air, every sense alive under the star-dappled sky overhead.
Her ear cocked toward a slight sound in the distance. An owl sliced through the air, hurtling toward its tiny, hapless prey on the ground far below. Lolling her tongue just a bit, Claire picked up the pace, curving more northward. Deeper into the moonlit shadows of the canyons.
To the oldest ruins, her human whispered. My favorite.
Yes. The crumbling, tumbling down rock ruins of ancient homes for the people who used to live here. They scratched things into the rock, dug storage holes down into the earth, and left their bones behind to turn brittle under the weight of the dry sands. She enjoyed slipping into their sites, alone and lonesome but for the ghosts they'd maybe left behind. Not that she'd ever seen a ghost. Even so, she'd heard things some nights that didn't account for owls or coyotes or small animals like mice or squirrels. It was most likely her human's imagination—her human snorted at that—but the ruins were still very intriguing.
I wonder if Tate would like them as much?
Claire silently loped along, thinking of the male wolf who captured her interest so strongly she could hardly think of anything else the past few weeks. No matter how she tried to turn her mind to other things, such as working on her next book, or ignoring the phone calls of her ex, or mulching her sparse garden, his face would slowly drift into her mind. The perpetual laugh, the kindness in his chocolatey hazel eyes, the strength of his sinewy body, the expression on his face when he'd claimed her body as much as she'd claimed his—the images would form in her thoughts until she suddenly found herself panting.
She wondered what his wolf looked like.
Strong and lean and gentle. Her human imagined a dark gray wolf with amber eyes like her own. Her white pelt would show brightly next to his.
Claire ran on, pulling the desert scents into her nose as the miles disappeared under her steady paws. Sharp sagebrush, a whiff of hackberry, the soft, lazy smell of the puffy bright yellow flowers, the ones that blanketed arroyos and lined the sides of the highway cutting through far to the east behind her.
Rubber rabbitbrush, her human thought, picturing the yellow flowers.
Claire shrugged away the thought. Unless the plant hid real rabbits beneath it, she didn't need to know those details. All she needed to know was the sliding movement of her muscles under her coat, the strength of her legs as they carried her through this quiet landscape, and the certainty that the quiet, gentle, wildly sexy wolf she'd met the other day was part of her destiny. Even if she didn't understand why, she knew the truth of that down to the tip of her tail.
A coyote's mournful howl pierced the late night air. Claire abruptly pulled up and stood still, breathing hard but evenly. She listened for more voices. One by one, the other coyotes in their small pack joined in, yipping and barking until the full-fledged howls left their snouts and spiraled up into the air. She sat firmly on the sand. Here, she was so far off from any human habitation no one could hear her. Even if they did, none would believe their ears. Pointing her muzzle at the sky, she opened her mouth and loosed a long, singing howl of her own, crying deep into the dark night.
The coyotes immediately hushed. A silence even deeper then the one already holding the night fell over the desert as Claire's voice rang out, echoing off the cliffs of the nearby canyons. She could sense all living creatures within earshot of her keeping their own mouths shut, not moving a muscle as the cry of an arctic wolf howled across the desert lands. No one else would dare share their presence when they knew she was there.
No one, that is, except another wolf. A long, soft howl answered hers from far up the canyon opening ahead of her. Pricking up her ears, Claire howled back in answer before leaping forward again, racing toward the other wolf.
She hadn't seen her mother in nearly half a year.
11
“Your mate, really? Tate!” Lily jumped across a small sagebrush to grab up Tate in a hug. “Are you sure? I'm so thrilled for you. Oh, you have no idea,” she said, joy spilling over in her voice as she cast a quick glance at Kieran, who smiled back at her. She pulled back and critically regarded her brother for a moment. “I thought it might take longer for you to meet your mate, actually. You've just always seemed the most balanced of us all.”
Tate smiled. By “us all” she meant them and their siblings. The eldest, Rafe, was balanced enough, but he'd seemed too aloof for a mate. Until Sara finally tamed him, of course. Caleb—well, it had been a surprise that any woman could handle his graceless wild side, but sweet Rielle was actually the best thing that had ever happened to him. And Lily. For a few years, everyone had worried about her after a devastating tragedy had caused her to shy away from anything to do with men or much else. When Kieran had shown up, he'd been the perfect answer to helping Tate's sister find her smile again.
Tate shrugged. “I wasn't really sure what it would feel like. But the second I scented her, I just knew. I've never felt anything quite like that before, actually,” he added, hearing the wonder creep into his voice again.
He'd been out on patrol with Lily and Kieran for the past several hours. It was late at night now, and there was a definite bite to the wind in the mountains above the den. Fall was completely present at the higher elevations. Even with his human nose, he could smell the promise of the colder months already hovering at the heels of autumn. He wouldn't be surprised if snow began to dust the flanks of the mountains in the next few weeks. It wasn't uncommon here for snow to first appear at the higher elevations during October.
Despite being focused on his Guardian work now, after his mild chastisement from his Alpha earlier, images of Claire kept drifting in and out of his mind all day. He saw her laughing face, caught a whiff of her scent, clean and sharp and wild like the snow he predicted would soon appear. The reality of her existence teased him to distraction. There was something about her life she wasn't yet convinced she could share with him, unless he proved himself worthy of making the effort. That, and he sensed she'd been burned by whomever she'd dated last. She wanted to make sure Tate wouldn't do the same.
Never, his wolf's low, certain voice rumbled deep inside. She is mine.
Yes. As soon as he found her again, that is.
“So why do you think she wouldn't mention what pack she's from?” Kieran asked, echoing the question that most tugged at Tate. “From what you've told us so far, she's not from any of the nearby packs, but she lives somewhere around here. Or out more in the desert?”
“I got the sense she lives on her own, so probably not at any pack den.” Tate paused to reach down and grab for his clothes near the car. They'd just finished their patrol in wolf form and were about to head back to the den for the night. “But the only packs I can think of whose boundaries touch ours say they've never heard of her. Even knowing her last name has to be a pseudonym for her books, none of the wolves I've talked to know a wolf by her description. Wouldn't Dad tell us if there was a lone wolf living nearby?” he asked Lily.
His eyes, still keen from his wolf, could see his sister shrug in the darkness. “Not if he didn't think we needed to know,” she said. “Besides, I'm sure all the packs that have lone wolves have called them in anyway. Especially a female. There'd be too much danger in the rogues trying to take her.”
Lily's voice darkened with her last words. Tate sensed the protective growl coming from Kieran despite his human form. As a Guardian, Lily could take care of herself. But if she were faced up with a group of rogues looking for females, she wouldn't be able to put up a fight for long. A lone female wolf, one who wouldn't ha
ve the training a Guardian did, wouldn't stand a chance.
Lone wolves chose a life spent not directly in the melee of a pack. As such, they usually lived on the outskirts of pack boundaries. Although generally loyal to and protected by their packs, they held no significant pack roles, such as Guardian, or historian, or medic, and they had the choice of either joining another pack that would take them in, or remaining lone for the entirety of their lives. Often weaker than most pack members or pushed out due to hierarchy issues, lone wolves were extremely rare.
They also almost never found a mate.
Tate frowned as he carefully thought this out. Claire was definitely not a lone wolf. She was too confident, had too much of a sense of self. She definitely wasn't weak. And he knew with every fiber of his being she was his mate.
“Earth to Tate.” Lily playfully snapped her fingers in front of his nose. “This is why I made the bet with Kieran. I had a hunch even the most amazing horse in the world couldn't distract you as much as the most amazing woman in the world could.”
On that sly note, she opened the door to the car and slipped into the front passenger seat.
Kieran eyed Tate over the roof of the car before opening his door. “Truer words were never spoken, my friend. We've got to help you find her. Trust me when I say life won't be the same until you do.”
“I'm getting that,” Tate said ruefully. “Earlier today I forgot about a client appointment I have tomorrow morning. I would have been a no-show if they didn't call me to ask a question about what part of the training we'd be working on.”
“When it comes to the right woman, you might just forget your own name at times,” Kieran said softly before he slid into the car beside his own right woman.
As they drove down the curving road back toward the den, Lily continued to pepper Tate with questions. What were the names of Claire's books? Did she remind him of any neighboring pack members? Where exactly had he looked for her so far? Even though he'd asked himself those same questions over and over for the past two weeks, he eagerly answered, hoping she'd come up with a new insight he hadn't been able to see.
