by T. S. Joyce
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
He led her onto the porch and rapped his knuckles on the door, too hard. “I’m going to Passion Pretzel you tonight.”
“Dalton!” she yelped as the door swung open.
A tall, Nordic-looking man with blond hair and bright green eyes stood there with a cocky half-smile. “Passion Pretzel, huh?”
Mortified, she ducked her gaze to the toe of her sneakers as her cheeks lit on fire. Dalton pulled her forward, and she almost stumbled into the man. “I-I like pretzels. Salted with ch-cheese dip.”
Dalton let off a single, booming laugh as though what she said was the funniest thing in the world. She stomped his foot and wished with all her might she could grow the teats to glare at him right now.
Dalton didn’t even flinch away from her stomp. “This is my cousin, Chance. Sarcastic asshole, terrible beer pong player, least important member of the pack.”
Dalton lurched backward beside her, and she ghosted a glance just in time to see him recovering from a hard shove by Chance.
The giant Viking man leaned down and lifted her knuckles to his lips. “Chance Dawson, sex god, dominant badass, and professional at the Passion Pretzel.”
A snarl ripped from Dalton beside her. “Don’t you lay your fucking lips on her, man.”
Chance grinned up at Dalton as the air grew heavy around them, then quick as a whip, he pecked her hand.
“Aaah!” she cried as Dalton and Chance blurred past her and ended up in the yard.
A tall woman with long, glossy black hair and a dark red birthmark that covered half her face appeared in the doorway. She let off a very non-intimidating, human growl and looked tired. “Not again.”
“They’re fighting,” Kate said on a shocked breath. She winced as Dalton smashed his fist against Chance’s jaw.
A humorless laugh echoed through the clearing and Chance grinned, teeth red, just before he spat crimson onto a melting pile of snow. And then he tackled Dalton.
“Come on inside. They might be at this for a while.”
“Because of me?”
“Because they’re bloodthirsty hellions who are in a constant fight for dominance. They’ll be fine. I’m Nicole.”
“Kate,” she murmured.
She allowed Nicole to lead her inside and help her out of her jacket, but didn’t remove her attention from the brutal fight until the door was closed. And when she turned around, a tall man with dark hair and light gray eyes looked down at her. There was no smile on his face, no spark of humor in his eyes like with Chance. His appealing face was marred with a fierceness that scared her.
“You were my brother’s,” Lincoln McCall said in a too gravelly voice.
Kate dropped her gaze and clasped her hands in front of her. The heavy air was worse in here, making it hard to breathe. “Miller and I dated yes, but I wasn’t ever really his. Not like I am with Dalton. I was only Miller’s plaything.”
“I couldn’t help you then.”
Shocked at his words, Kate dared a look at him. The hardness in his eyes and the set of his jaw had lessened.
“What?”
Link stood straighter with his hands behind his back. “I watched what Miller was doing to you and the others, but I wasn’t alpha. He was.”
“You wanted to help me?”
Link dipped his chin once as Nicole wrapped her hand around the inside of his bicep and leaned against him.
“You weren’t responsible for his actions, you know,” Kate whispered. “He was.”
“He said he bit you.”
Kate closed her eyes tightly against the shame. “He did, but someday, Dalton’s bite will cover it up, and then you and I will be absolved of our guilt.”
“You aren’t angry?”
She shook her head and forced herself to meet his eyes. “Not anymore. Miller made me ready for Dalton.”
She didn’t have to explain beyond that because Link’s shoulders relaxed and a slow smile curved his lips. He held out his hand for a shake. “Link, alpha of the Galena pack.”
Swallowing down her fear of touching someone who felt so heavy, so scary, she gripped his hand and shook it gently. “Kate Hawke, mate to Dalton Dawson, and someday,” she said on a breath, “a hopeful member of your Galena pack.”
A baby cooed in the other room, just a tiny sound, but the effect it had on Link was instant. His attention jerked to a bedroom door, his wolf just under the surface, alert, frozen, all instincts focused on that soft sound.
Nicole excused herself and rushed into the other room, then returned with a baby against her chest. “Shh-shh-shh,” Nicole said, bouncing and shifting her weight from side-to-side.
The little girl was wearing a purple, cotton, one-piece pajama set and was kicking her legs robustly. When Link took her from Nicole’s arms, Kate was helpless to take her gaze from the alpha and his daughter. He had melted like ice in spring, and his lips stretched into an adoring smile as the baby quieted in his arms. She had gray eyes only a couple shades darker than her father’s and a dark crop of hair on her head. And on her jaw and neck, she had a birthmark the same dark red color of her mother’s.
“She’s beautiful,” Kate whispered as she was drawn step-by-step toward the infant.
“She’s my little warrior,” Link murmured in a doting voice. “This is Fina.”
Unable to help herself, Kate pressed her index finger against Fina’s palm, and the tiny baby closed her fist around her touch.
“You want to hold her?” Link asked.
“Really?”
A long, low growl rattled from Link, and the air grew even harder to breathe. “She’ll be fine,” he said to no one in particular.
Nicole plucked the baby from Link’s arms and settled her into Kate’s. “He is talking to Wolf. His animal is protective, but he’ll settle down when he sees you’re okay with his pup.”
Voice trembling, she said, “Okay. I promise I won’t drop her.” Kate swayed from side to side and smiled down at the round-eyed baby, who seemed riveted by the pair of pearl drop earrings she was wearing.
Carefully, she sat on the couch as Nicole took the seat beside her. Across the room, Link opened the door and let off a shrill whistle.
“Don’t you get blood on my floors,” Nicole called as the open doorway shadowed with the massive forms of the Dawson wolves.
Chance filed in first, lip split and face gory, but he was wearing a grin like he hadn’t just been fighting in the yard. Dalton came in after, his cheek cut and freely bleeding, but other than that, looked unscathed. He was wearing a matching grin and chuckling. Suddenly, Kate realized she might never understand men. Or “bloodthirsty hellions,” as Nicole had called them.
“Dalton, that looks bad,” Kate said. “You need stitches.”
He arched his attention to her, and the smile faded instantly from his face. His too-bright eyes dipped to Fina in her arms. “Won’t need stitches. I heal fast. I’m going to wash up.”
They all watched as he disappeared into the washroom, but it was Nicole who broke the thick silence. She patted Kate’s leg comfortingly and cast her a sympathetic look. “Being around Fina is a reminder. It’s hard on him. He’s not mad at you.”
Kate snuggled Fina closer, then settled her back in Nicole’s arms. “Excuse me,” she said as she made her way to the bathroom. Inside, she shut the door after her.
Dalton was standing near the sink, his back to her, arms locked against the counter, eyes cast down as though he didn’t want to look at his reflection in the mirror. He inhaled deeply, then turned and gave her a pitiful attempt at a smile.
“I’m sorry,” she said, approaching slowly. She slid her arms around his back and rested her cheek against his chest. Dalton’s heart was pounding too fast.
Running his fingertips through her hair, he said, “Nothing to be sorry about. It was a beautiful thing, seeing you holding a baby.”
“Not just a baby, Dalton. Fina.”
His ja
w clenched for a moment before he repeated, “Fina.”
She took the dark washcloth that was dripping in his hand and gently washed the blood from his face, but Dalton had been right. He didn’t need stitches. The wound was already closed and looked like a two-week-old scar. “I can’t believe you fought Chance immediately after I met him,” she admonished, dabbing his cheek dry.
“If I didn’t, he’d be sneaking kisses on you just to piss me off. Now he won’t.”
“Monster,” she teased.
Dipping down, he kissed her hard and when he pulled away, his eyes sparked with something hard. “You have no idea.”
Chapter Twelve
Dalton was losing his control.
He didn’t know if it was from the fight with Chance, the fact that he hadn’t Changed in a few days, or if it was being in this house with Link. Maybe it was from upsetting his mate. She’d been quiet during dinner, though not with the others. With them, she’d laughed and even told a couple of stories about life growing up breeding sled dogs. She’d charmed the pack, he could tell. Even now, her cheeks were nearly as red as her hair, but she was still daring glances at the others, who couldn’t seem to take their eyes off her. Likely, she was an anomaly to them, as she had been to Dalton at first. Submissive she might be, but iron strength made her bold in surprising ways. She was witty and smiled easily. She looked so utterly human, sitting beside him in her purple scrubs, smiling shyly at all the banter between them, but she held the attention of the pack like she was a bug light and they were a tiny herd of mosquitos.
Something about her attracted people. Maybe it was her inner glow or the instinct that told creatures like him she housed a good soul, but watching his pack laugh, cater, and build rapport with her, he knew that she harbored something otherworldly that attracted darker beings like him, just to see if her goodness would rub off on them. Miller had sensed that in her, too, but had exploited it. He’d tainted her, jaded her, and tried to turn her dark like himself. Thank God Kate’s light was stronger than the dark.
Dalton pulled her empty plate onto his own as a silent apology for how he’d acted earlier. He would have to Change tonight, and he’d never explained to Kate about the mood swings that came right before the wolf took his body. The hurt on her face had gutted him.
Fina called out in a sweet voice from the other room. Nicole had put her down for bed before dinner, but all the noise was apparently keeping her awake. Pretty baby. Sweet. She wasn’t even crying, just calling out for attention. His grip tightened on the napkin in his lap as a memory of Amelia’s face flashed through his mind like a lightning strike. Gulping down a snarl, he glanced at the cracked door of the dark bedroom for the hundredth time since they’d sat down for dinner.
His chest hurt. Burned, really, like each soft noise from the child added gasoline to the embers in his heart.
Fina settled, and Dalton blinked rapidly in relief, then smiled absently at some story Chance was telling about how they’d gotten drunk on his father’s whiskey one summer and got lost in the woods for an entire night. It was a funny story, sure, but he wasn’t in the mood for laughing.
Kate smelled good. Like honey and sex after what they’d done in his truck earlier. He couldn’t wait to see her swell with his child someday. Stop it. Dalton shook his head to quiet the long growl in his throat.
Fina was calling out again, and for the hundred and first time, Dalton stared at that damned door again.
Kate pressed a soft kiss against his neck. Brave mate, showing affection like this in front of everyone. She inhaled deeply, snuggling him. She smelled worried. He was messing this up. Ripping his gaze away from Fina’s door, he pressed a kiss onto Kate’s hair and murmured, “I love you,” because she should hear that after he’d been coarse with her earlier.
Across the table, Nicole looked sad now. She’d gone quiet, watching him, waiting for something he didn’t understand. Link settled his elbows on the table and stared at him, his eyes lightened to the color of snow. Crazy McCall, or at least he had been before Vera and Nicole had saved him.
Even Chance’s story tapered off, and his cousin’s green eyes went somber as he leaned back in the chair across the table.
Fina cried out again. He had the woodgrain on the door memorized by now. “Does she always fuss like this before she tires herself out?”
“Sometimes,” Nicole said.
“You should hold her,” Dalton ground out.
“She’s not calling me.” Nicole canted her head, her soft brown gaze steady on him. “She’s calling you.”
Dalton gritted his teeth and stood. Kate was still holding his hand, holding him steady so he didn’t run from what they wanted him to do. It was April. He wasn’t ready. Wasn’t steady. Wasn’t capable.
Coward.
Stupid wolf. He didn’t see how this would rip him up. Couldn’t see how filling his arms with a child would bring everything back.
Everyone was staring, watching him stand frozen, connected only to Kate. He would go just to escape their stares, and then they would leave him the fuck alone. It was a good plan.
His hand slid from Kate’s, and he strode into the dim room, lit only by a single nightlight in the corner. Pressing his back against the wall just inside the doorway, Dalton let off a long sigh, but it didn’t help. His chest was filling with lead.
Fina’s soft voice cooed over and over, as if she could sense him there. Tiny siren.
Helplessly, Dalton padded to her crib and looked over the edge. She’d kicked out of her blanket. Tilting her little chin back, she let off a long note, like a little wolf howl. Nicole had been right. She’d been calling him because now his inner wolf was silent, watching, not snarling and scratching at the surface of his skin.
Maybe she was cold. Dalton reached in and brushed his finger tip over the top of her foot, but it was warm. And so soft. Fina smiled. No teeth, gummy, so cute. So perfect. When pain slashed through his chest, he inhaled sharply. Carefully, he stroked the birthmark on her jaw. She was the first female werewolf, not Amelia, and there was nothing that could be done about that. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t Fina’s.
She swung her chubby little fists around, and he caught one. She gripped his finger tightly, as if she wanted him here.
Eyes blurring, he reached in with both hands and picked her up. She let off another happy coo when he cradled her to his chest. Soothing tendrils spread through his body from where she rested against him.
Dalton backed up a few steps and sat on the edge of the bed. Fina kicked and talked, her eyes wide and clear and trained on him like he wasn’t a monster. He doubled over her and squeezed his eyes closed. Tears streamed down his face, but he didn’t care.
“You have me,” he rasped out. “You have us all. We’ll keep you safe, little wolf.”
The scent of honey hit his nose an instant before Kate’s light touch was on his shoulder. She sniffled. His sweet mate, hurt by his loss. He leaned his face against her stomach, and she cradled his cheek as he stared down at Fina and cried for the first time since he’d buried Amelia.
Another hand rested on his back, and then another and another. He could smell them. He could feel them. The pack was piled on the bed behind him, mourning with him. His face crumpled, and he lifted Fina closer to his face, smelling her so he could become familiar with her scent, too, like he was with the rest of the pack. Because this was it, the moment everything changed. It was the moment everything became clear. There would be no more running from them or fighting their bond. There would be no more hiding far away from here and keeping them at a distance.
This was no longer a pack formed on a technicality.
This was the pack he and his wolf chose to bury themselves deeply within.
Fina had his fealty and so did the rest of them—Kate, Link, Chance, and Nicole.
This wasn’t the pack anymore.
They were his pack.
Chapter Thirteen
Dalton was quiet as he drove back toward
the main road that led to town. The moonlight was bright on his face as he rested an elbow on the open window and draped his other wrist over the steering wheel. There was no music, no joking, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence.
Brave Dalton, holding Fina and facing down his demons. Kate didn’t know how she knew it, but things would be different for him now. April First would be different. When she rested her hand on his leg, he cast her a smile. It wasn’t the forced ones he’d given at dinner. This one said he was okay.
Seeing him break down like that had broken her apart inside. She’d walked in on him crying silently, staring at Fina. When the others came in, Nicole had cried right along with her, and even Link and Chance looked heartbroken. She already loved them all so much.
“Can we spend the night at the cabin?” she asked.
Dalton shot her a surprised look, hesitated a moment, then answered, “Yeah, sure.”
“I want to have one night in there with you before you leave. Link offered to help me move my stuff into it this week if I wanted while you and Chance are at Silver Summit. I don’t want to spend my first night there alone, though. I want my first night at our new place to be with you.”
“About everything that happened tonight…”
He sounded apologetic, so she rushed out, “Tonight was perfect. I like them very much.”
Dalton lifted her knuckles to his lips and let them linger. “I could tell they like you, too. I don’t want to leave.”
She raised his hand to her cheek and brushed against him. “I don’t want you to either, but you love your job. It’s good for your wolf to be out tracking in the wilderness. I can’t keep you trapped here, Dalton. You’ll wither, just like I would if you tried to stifle me. I have two days off in a row next week. I’ll ask Ian or Tobias to fly me to you. I’m excited about seeing where you work. You have this entire side of your life that I don’t know yet. And besides, I have a very busy week coming up.”
