by Rose, Renee
It was why we had a shifter council. My brother Clint used to be a council enforcer, carrying out their form of justice, which often was death. He’d retired when he mated Becky, but if anyone had seen what happened when a shifter committed a crime, it was he.
I didn’t know whether Rob would take Nathan to the shifter council or deal with him here in the pack. There weren’t strict laws governing these things. Most packs dealt with their own, and the council only got involved if they couldn’t or wouldn’t.
Levi’s sheriff car was already parked out front, and Nathan Brown sat in the back seat behind the cage. Again, it wasn’t the handcuffs or cage that held him, but Levi’s presence. He leaned against the car, guarding his prisoner.
I had to shove down the rage that flared in my gut toward the fucker. He’d nearly killed my mate. I wanted to tear his fucking head off and pitch it like a bowling ball off the side of the mountain.
But Rob was in charge, and we were dealing with this thing formally. Pack law would take care of Nathan.
Rob and Willow stood at the doorway, and Rob lifted his hand when I climbed out of my truck. I walked over and shook his. He pulled me in for a man-hug, thumping my back. “You look a helluva lot better than you did last night.”
“Much better,” Willow agreed.
I let out a shaky laugh. Yesterday had been harrowing for me, but it wasn’t because of my own burns. It was thinking Natalie had been in the burning house.
“You gave us all a little scare,” Rob said.
I shook my head. “You weren’t worried about me, were you?”
“Well, not entirely, but I was the one holding your screaming mate back from running in to find you, so some of her fears got under my skin, I have to admit. And then when the place collapsed, and you still didn’t come out…” He shook his head.
I blinked, my eyes burning a bit, my love for both my mate and my packmates overwhelming me. This time I pulled Rob in for a man-hug-shoulder-thump. Willow embraced me when we were done.
“She yours now?” Willow asked. I’d showered since claiming her this morning, and my scent was embedded in her instead of the other way around, but it had been pretty fucking clear how things stood between us. Everyone who’d been at the fire knew.
I nodded.
“Go on in, most everyone is here,” Willow said, a brilliant smile on her face.
I stepped inside where a semicircle of chairs had been set up. My parents and brother were there, along with all thirty or so other pack elders—mostly shifters my parents age or older. Nathan’s mate was there, along with his grown daughter, who was mated to another pack member.
My mother got up and hugged me tight. “I heard everything,” she said in a teary voice. “I’m so glad your mate wasn’t hurt.”
“What about me?” I teased. But of course, they knew I’d be all right.
She cupped my face. “The house is gone, but that’s not what’s important, is it?”
It wasn’t. I hadn’t even thought to ask Rob after it, just assuming it was gone. I had what was important from that place. We’d rebuild, make it a home again.
“Have a seat. Levi’s bringing in the accused,” Rob rumbled from the door, stepping in and taking his seat at the front, facing the semi-circle.
I sat down and Clint and Colton flanked me. I had to guess they’d positioned themselves to hold me back if I insisted on exacting my own justice. I didn’t plan to, but I wasn’t ruling it out either. Especially after Nathan Brown stepped in, handcuffed, but holding his head up proudly, as if he had nothing to be ashamed of.
Levi walked him to an empty place, apart from both Rob and the semi-circle.
“Nathan Brown, you stand accused,” Rob’s alpha timbre boomed in the lodge. “You burned down a pack member’s property.”
Nathan sputtered. “The fuck I did. That property belonged to a human.” He spat out human like it was a bad word. “A human who intended to open a bed and breakfast right next to pack land.”
“A human who is now mated to a pack member,” Rob countered. “Which makes her an honorary member of this pack as well.”
Nathan scoffed. “She wasn’t mated at the time,” he sneered.
“Silence!” When Rob put alpha command in his words, everyone felt it. The room rang with silence, all of us instinctually going still to appease him. “You could have killed her, and you nearly killed Rand, who was trapped inside the house searching for his mate when it collapsed.”
“The girl wasn’t in the house when I set fire to it,” Nathan said, as if that excused everything. “If she hadn’t left on her own, I would’ve made sure she was out before I lit the match. I meant her no harm. Rand, of course, will heal.”
Many of the elders murmured in their seats. I didn’t think they expected Nathan to so openly admit his crime.
“Was the house insured, Rand?” Rob asked.
I nodded. Natalie and I had talked about it this morning, and she’d had to put it on her credit card, but she’d paid the insurance bill last month.
“That’s good. Of course the personal effects in the house will never be recovered,” Rob said.
“Why did you do it?” someone asked Nathan.
Nathan scoffed. “Well, isn’t it obvious? Our alpha here is too weak to deal with human encroachment. Not only did he refuse to shut down the bed and breakfast idea, he invited the weak human into the pack. That makes her what-—the fifth human you’ve brought in in the past two years? Is no one else concerned about this trend? About an alpha who apparently wants our kind to die out through matings that go against nature?”
“Enough!” Rob ordered, silencing the menacing growls that had gone up from me, Clint, Boyd and Colton.
Levi hadn’t growled, but he shoved Nathan to his knees, a ferocious scowl on his face.
“Nathan Brown, because you did not intend Natalie Sheffield direct harm, I will not demand your life. But for breaking human law and endangering pack and humans, as well as for your continued lack of respect for my position in this pack as alpha, I hereby banish you and all your kin from this pack. Your house will be sold to another pack member and any expenses not covered by Natalie’s insurance will come from the proceeds and the remainder sent to you. If you ever return to these parts again, I will take it as a direct threat to the pack and send my enforcers to end you. Understood?”
Nathan’s wife gasped, and his daughter let out a small sob of dismay.
“You have twenty-four hours to leave. During that time, I will keep my pack members from exacting their own revenge.” Rob glanced my way, and I let my upper lip curl to show Nathan some fang. “If you delay your departure, though… I will not stop them. Go now.”
Levi unlocked his handcuffs and gave Nathan a kick.
Nathan’s wife, daughter and her mate all stood and congregated at the door to the lodge, waiting for Nathan to join them and leave together. Nathan’s wife was crying as they left the building.
The rest of the pack members stood and began to talk and mingle. I didn’t sense any dissent from them over Rob’s ruling. The elders remembered the pack with Rob’s father as alpha. Some even remembered his father before him. Traditions had been upheld, but Rob was his own man, his own alpha and was forging the future for the pack in his own way. While some elders may resist or not like everything Rob did, only Nathan had been so outwardly hostile.
Hopefully a meeting like this would be the last.
“Are you gonna be cool?” Rob asked me as he came over, a warning in his tone.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m cool. I would’ve preferred to get a few swings in first, but I can live with his banishment.”
“I got a few swings in for you last night,” Levi said. He raised his eyebrows. “Quite a few.”
I grinned. “Good.”
“Everything okay with Natalie?” Clint asked, dropping a hand on my shoulder.
My smile grew wider. “My mate?” I couldn’t help but gloat by calling her that. It felt so good to
have claimed her. To be able to legitimately call her that. “She’s great. In fact, I need to get back to her.”
The guys all chuckled. “I’ll bet you do,” Clint said.
“Yep, you get back to your mate,” Boyd said, thumping my back.
“Give her a big hug from me,” my mother said. “We’ll have you both over for lasagna later this week.”
“I will,” I promised and walked out to my truck.
Nothing—not even Nathan Brown—could keep me down today.
Not when Natalie was in my cabin waiting for me. Not when she’d be there again tomorrow, and the next day and the next day after that.
Epilogue
NATALIE
The insurance adjuster’s truck turned onto the main road, leaving Rand and I to stand in front of the rubble that was my house.
“So, know a good builder?” I asked, not looking at him.
“How will you pay, Red? I only take payment in sexual favors.”
I spun and faced him, poked him in the ribs, which made him grin.
“From all your clients?”
He pulled me into his arms, planted a kiss on my lips. “Only you. Guess we’ll have to get some plans drawn up. Time to build your dream house.”
“Don’t you mean our dream house?”
It had been five days since the fire-—not that I was counting—and I’d spent almost all that time with Rand. I wasn’t sure if it was because Rand didn’t want to let me out of his sight or if we were newly mated. Either way, I didn’t care. Either way, I agreed. I wanted Rand to be where I could see him at all times, waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares.
He’d soothe me with his touch, making love to me which always put me back to sleep. And when we were awake… it was almost impossible to keep our hands off each other.
But with the sobering sight of the house, all that history of Uncle Adam that had burned to rubble and ash, reality was right in front of us.
“Our house,” he replied. “Got something in mind?”
I pursed my lips. “Besides no creepy basement with spiders…”
He grinned. “Besides that.”
“I’m thinking log. One story. Big windows across the back to take in the view.”
He slung an arm around my shoulder and stared at the rubble, as if he could picture what would be put in its place.
“A three car garage,” he added.
“A deck off the back.”
“Five bedrooms.”
I turned in his arms to face him, tilted my chin back to meet his eyes. “Five? I thought you didn’t want a B&B.”
“I don’t. I was thinking more along the lines of kids.”
I did the math. “You want four kids?”
“That’s if they have their own rooms. But if they shared…”
I punched him in the stomach. “Rand Tucker, what you want is a football team.”
He laughed, and I loved that sound.
“How about we start with one.”
He went still at my words, his dark eyes meeting mine. “You ready?”
I shrugged, and my cell rang. I pulled it from my jeans pocket. “Hello?”
“Hey, Natalie, this is Kurt from the Barn Cats.”
“Hi, Kurt,” I replied and Rand nodded, knowing who it was.
“I heard about your house. I’m glad you’re all right.”
“Thanks. I’ll rebuild.”
“That’s good to hear. I was hoping you wouldn’t leave town after that.”
“Oh?”
“Not sure if you know, but I’ve been the music teacher at the high school for the past twenty-six years.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Well, I’ve been planning to retire, even bought an RV to go roaming the west. There just haven’t been any replacements, being that the school’s so small, and Cooper Valley isn’t exactly a metropolis. But now, I’ve got one.”
“That’s great! Congratulations on your retirement.”
“It depends on you, though.”
I frowned. “Me?”
“I think you should be my replacement. You have the qualifications. You know your way around an instrument, and the kids will love you. Know how to lead a marching band?”
I stepped back, and it was Rand’s turn to frown. He snatched the cell from me. “Kurt, why are you upsetting my woman?”
I bit my lip at his protectiveness.
“Uh huh, uh huh. Oh. That’s good then. Here.” He thrust the phone back at me.
I couldn’t help but laugh as I took the phone back.
“Kurt?”
“You got a good one there, Natalie. A little bit bossy though.”
I laughed some more which made Rand frown.
“The job’s yours.”
“I know nothing about a marching band. I don’t even have a teaching license.”
He made a funny scoffing sound. “The job’s yours,” he repeated. “Think about it and get back to me. School starts in a few weeks.”
I thanked him and ended the call.
“Well?” Rand asked, pulling me back into his arms again.
“Well, it’s a job. Doing music. Here.”
“I think you’d be good at it.”
I’d never considered teaching high school before. But the idea was appealing. Kids were the ones who needed the nudge toward music, to discover how it could enrich their lives. God, there was so much I could do with a music program although I wasn’t sure about the marching band part.
“I wouldn’t have to open the B&B after all.”
Rand chuckled. “Do I get to call you Miss Sheffield now?”
I felt the hard prod of his dick against my belly.
“Got a school teacher fetish?” I asked.
“I’ve been bad.”
I hopped up into his arms, and he made a funny sound of surprise as he caught me with his hands on my ass. I grinned at him. “You want sexual payment to build my new house, and you’ve got a teacher thing. Any other kinks I should know about?”
He squeezed my butt playfully and walked me back toward his truck. “Let’s get back to the cabin, and I’ll show you every single one.”
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