Yours, Mine and Howls: Werewolves in Love, Book 2

by Kinsey W. Holley

  “Okay, Wargman,” she said, propping her elbows on the table and leaning forward. “Show ’em.”

  He grinned at her as he laid down his hand. “Here you go, Kendall,” he growled triumphantly to a chorus of wolfish “whoos”.

  She stood up and leaned forward on the table a little more, peering at his full house as he watched her smugly. She looked up at him in wide-eyed gravity, and a couple of wolves began to chuckle.

  “Michael,” said one, “that doesn’t look like a female about to lose some money, bro.”

  Michael’s smile froze, his eyes narrowing at her expression.

  “You know what, Michael? Most of the time a full house would do it, but tonight I got—” now she began to lay her cards down one at a time “— a seven, and a nine, and another nine, and another nine and…one more nine.” She beamed as widely as he had just a moment ago. Wolf-whistles and applause erupted.

  Michael couldn’t speak for a minute. “I don’t believe it,” he whispered.

  “Neither do I!” she laughed once she’d finished high-fiving everyone in the room. “I had three of ’em to start with. I mean, when am I gonna get dealt something like that again? And why doesn’t it ever happen in a casino?”

  “Did anybody bother to shuffle the fucking cards?” Michael addressed the air with feigned heartbreak. “Hey, where you going?” he asked as she scooped up her chips.

  “I’m going inside. It’s late and I’m tired and I don’t want to take all your money, because that would just be mean.” Michael started to smile but managed to turn it into a grimace. “Besides, I want to check on Becca.” Another wolf had already slid in to claim her seat at the table.

  “Ally, you don’t have to check on Stinky Butt.” Michael shuffled a fresh deck and looked up at her with that sardonic smile. “You’re not really the nanny. Cade would never let you work for him.”

  “Why not?” she huffed, wounded.

  “Well, I mean—because, you know, he’ll hire someone to do that, and you…”

  “I do know how to take care of children, Michael.” She hadn’t realized the idea was rolling around in her head until he shot it down.

  “Oh yeah, I know, I know. I just meant, you’re a guest, and Cade wouldn’t expect…”

  “Whatever. I’m going inside,” she muttered.

  Michael stood up. “Ally, wait, you don’t understand…”

  Stung, she stuffed her winnings in her jeans pocket and hurried out of the woodshop, nearly running into Seth as she rounded the corner at the front of the house. He grabbed her elbow as she brushed past.

  “Hey, what’s up? Where you going?”

  “Nothing. Inside.” She pulled away and hurried on.

  “Wait, what—? Ally! Stop! What’s the matter?”

  She didn’t want to explain it to him. If he knew how messed up she’d allowed herself to get over Cade MacDougall, how much she wanted to stay here and was afraid to leave, he’d worry. She wouldn’t allow that. Seth was enjoying himself here, she could tell, and he deserved the chance to relax and let himself be part of a pack for the first time in his life.

  And besides, what the hell did Michael know? Cade might think hiring her was a great idea.

  Just because they bickered didn’t mean she couldn’t work for him, she thought as she stamped into the house. They wouldn’t fight all the time if she just shut up and let him be the boss. And she could. She could be polite, do as she was told. She could live here, take care of Becca, stay with Dylan and Seth.

  And Cade.

  Could she work for him, feeling the way she did? She paused halfway up the stairs to ponder that. Why not? He’d soon be distracted by some other woman—maybe he already was. Besides, constant proximity offered the surest cure for infatuation. And Becca already adored her.

  Okay, Ally, there you go—a practical, efficient solution to the pitiful-Dead-Girl-has-no-place-to-go problem.

  She could make it work. She had to.

  She walked into Becca’s room to find an empty bed. A Hello Kitty nightgown lay on top of the sheets, but there was no sign of the little girl who’d been wearing it.

  For a split second she suffered one of those heart-stopping panic seizures, like when she’d lost Dylan at an Astros game for all of ten minutes.

  Wait a second—she’s just rambling.

  A quick check revealed no Becca in Ally’s room, so she headed downstairs. Sarah Jane and Sindri were talking in the kitchen. She didn’t pay attention as she hurried to Cade’s room.

  His bedroom. Where his bed was. Where he slept and showered and dressed. And made love to hundreds of women… No, that was stupid. He wouldn’t bring hundreds of women up here. Maybe just dozens. He probably got most of his nookie in town, away from Becca.

  Cade’s four-poster bed stood at least two feet off the floor. The kid couldn’t climb up there by herself. A quick glance in the spacious bathroom revealed a garden tub that set her heart to racing. No sign of Becca, though.

  Maybe she’d joined her grandmother and Sindri.

  Once out of Cade’s room, she was about to turn left into the kitchen when she paused. Sarah Jane and Sindri were whispering. Ally had no trouble picking up every word and, only somewhat ashamed, she couldn’t resist.

  “How can I tell him now, after all these years? He would never forgive me. Why have I waited? Why did I not talk to him when he returned?” Sindri sounded as if he were weeping.

  “Calm down, honey, please,” Sarah Jane urged. “Don’t do this to yourself. I promise you, everything will be all right. We’ll talk to him soon, and in the meantime, the three of us can keep an eye on her. That’s the main reason I’m here, to look after her. You’ve got to quit fretting, baby. Shh…” They fell silent.

  Very quietly, Ally padded back the way she had come, stopping when she got to the door of Cade’s room.

  Sindri and Sarah Jane were friends? And who were the three of us? Should she mention it to Cade? She’d have a hard time explaining the circumstances, especially since it didn’t concern her and eavesdropping wasn’t an attractive habit.

  But she’d pay close attention to them in the future. That wasn’t nosiness, it was just…interest.

  She walked back through the den and into the kitchen, calling out to make sure they heard her coming.

  “Sarah Jane? Sindri? Have you seen…oh. There she is.”

  Sindri sat at the big kitchen table with his head in his hands. He didn’t look up when she walked in. Sarah Jane, cradling a nearly naked, soundly sleeping Becca in her lap, smiled warmly. “Ally, honey, were you looking for our girl? It seems she likes to wander at night. I found her clear on the other side of the house.”

  “Yeah, Cade had told me she does that sometimes.” She dropped into a chair across the table from Sarah Jane. “I was pla—” she almost blurted out that she’d been playing poker with the wolves “—planning to take a walk when I decided to check on her. I got scared when she wasn’t in her room, but I figured she had to be somewhere in the house.”

  “Sindri gave her some milk and she fell asleep before she finished it.”

  “Would you like some? Or hot tea? I will make you something to eat…” Sindri stood up and pushed his chair back, his wizened face drawn but dry-eyed.

  “No, Sindri, that’s okay, really. I’m ready to turn in myself. Sarah Jane, I’ll take her on back to her room. Unless you’d rather do it?”

  Sarah Jane laughed. “Oh, honey, these old legs can’t make it up those stairs with thirty pounds of sleeping girl. I’ll let you do it.”

  “Okay.” Ally stood up and gathered Becca in her arms. “Well, good night.”

  “Good night,” they both replied.

  She listened as she climbed the staircase to Becca’s room, but she heard nothing more from the kitchen.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Has Cade called yet?”

  “Yeah. He’ll be home around eight.”

  Ally knew Michael didn’t want to talk, but anti
cipation was killing her. “Did he say how the meeting went?”

  “It went fine.” The tension in Michael’s voice was contagious.

  She couldn’t leave it at that. “Did you tell him about Sarah Jane? How’d he react? Was he okay with you not telling him sooner?”

  “Yes. Bad. Fuck no.”

  He stalked off in the direction of Cade’s office.

  Ally was nervous about Cade’s arrival as well, but for a different reason.

  She and Sarah Jane had taken Becca to Mass that morning and then to lunch. It thrilled the child just leaving the ranch two days in a row. Becca had to start spending time with other children. She needed a real nanny, someone young and active. Someone who took a personal interest in her development. Someone, despite what Michael might think, like Ally.

  Asking for the job would cost her nothing except maybe her dignity. When it came to Cade MacDougall, her dignity wasn’t all that safe anyway.

  Only Michael, Ally, Dec and Sarah Jane were in the house for dinner that night. A heavy blanket of tension smothered their halfhearted attempts at conversation. Becca took her dinner in the kitchen with Sindri. Seth and Dylan were now eating and sleeping in the bunkhouses with the rest of the pack.

  It felt weird, not seeing them every night and each morning, but they both seemed happy. Seth was more relaxed than he’d ever been, and Dylan had shown no signs of teenage angst in over seventy-two hours. She didn’t feel she had any right to whine, no matter how much she missed them.

  Everyone scattered immediately after dinner. Michael shut himself up in Cade’s office, Dec disappeared, and Sarah Jane said something about needing to go to town.

  Ally thought equine company would be preferable to anyone else’s under the circumstances, so she pulled on her boots under her sundress and headed for the stables.

  But not even the horses could relax her tonight. She didn’t know what disturbed her more, the prospect of asking Cade for a job he wouldn’t give her, or simply seeing him again. It made her neck tingle and her pulse pound and her stomach flip to think about being in the same room with him.

  And you think you can work for him? Stupid Dead Girl.

  Walking back to the house, lost in thought and worry, something in the twilight shadows caught her eye. If there’d been a lot of wolves around as usual, she might have missed the two figures standing close together between the house and Sarah Jane’s cabin. As she got closer, she observed Dec and Sarah Jane deep in conversation. She was surprised, since it had been less than two hours since Sarah Jane left for town.

  She took care to approach unobtrusively, walking softly toward the north side of the house to remain out of their line of sight. For one of the few times in her second life, she liked being able to hear like a wolf. She didn’t even know why she wanted to eavesdrop. It just seemed weird to see them talking like that. First Sarah Jane and Sindri, now Sarah Jane and Dec? She’d figured Dec had the hots for the older woman, but if so, they’d already hit turbulence.

  Sarah Jane stood stiffly, glaring up at the Irishwolf with her arms folded tightly beneath her breasts. Dec paced restlessly, gesturing as he peppered Sarah Jane with questions in cold anger.

  “Are you trying to provoke him, girl? Do you want an alpha wolf at your throat?” Dec’s accent was heavier than she’d ever heard it before. It almost didn’t sound Irish—it was thicker, more guttural. “Or,” he grabbed Sarah Jane’s upper arms as if he were about to shake her, “are you thinkin’ you can provoke him and take the barn away? Because I’ll not let you do it, darlin’, you better know that right now, I’ll…”

  “Leave off, Declan MacSorley!” Sarah Jane exclaimed, putting both hands on his chest and shoving him away. Her accent, too, had changed, but the difference was subtler. The soft Southern smoothness was gone, the words harder around the edges. Her voice had taken on a strange but pleasant lilt. “I don’t want to take her away from her father. I just want some time with her and I can’t ignore what I’m sensing! Something’s wrong, something bad is coming…”

  “Aye, and we’ll handle it. Cade can take care of himself and his daughter, and we can… Ally, what are you doin’ here?” They both turned to look straight at her.

  Fascinated by the fight, she’d crept closer without realizing it. And Dec could smell her, of course. She didn’t attempt to act casual or make up some lame excuse.

  “I was coming back from the stable and I heard y’all arguing.”

  Dec folded his arms, waiting for her to go on. Somewhat defensively, she continued, “Sarah Jane, how’d you get to town and back so fast? I didn’t even hear the Lexus come back.”

  Sarah blinked in surprise. “What? Oh. Oh, well, I got halfway there, realized what time it was, and decided I’d rather wait and go tomorrow, when I don’t have to worry about driving home late at night. Besides, I’d rather spend a little more time with Rebecca before her father gets home.”

  At the mention of Cade, Dec shook his head and muttered something about Sarah Jane being an idiot.

  “I’ve already put her down for the night,” Ally replied. “I’m sorry, I—”

  Sarah Jane appeared to brighten a little. “It’s all right, dear. She wasn’t asleep yet. So I took her out to my cabin and we had a little slumber party, just the two of us.” She beamed with grandmotherly contentment, and maybe a calculating glint in her eye.

  “What? You just hauled her out of bed? I mean, that’s—” She stopped, flustered. Granted, Sarah Jane was Becca’s grandmother, but still, it seemed…weird. Presumptuous.

  “Daft, is what it is,” grunted Dec. “And maybe suicidal.”

  At Ally’s shocked gasp, Sarah Jane rolled her eyes and patted Ally’s arm. “Don’t pay any attention to him, Allison. He’s a fine one to be calling other people daft.”

  Ally, still stuck on Dec’s “suicidal” crack, recalled Michael’s tension earlier in the evening, and his report of Cade’s reaction. “Dec, do you think Cade will be upset when he finds Sarah Jane here?”

  “I think he’ll be ‘upset’—” his tone put audible quotes around the word “—to know that Mrs. Ferguson showed up unannounced. I think he’ll be livid to find Becca in Sarah Jane’s cabin tonight on top of it.”

  “And I think that if the young whelp’s going to be furious with me just for showing up, Rebecca doesn’t need to hear it.”

  “That young whelp is a Pack Alpha! You do not ambush a Pack Alpha on his own feckin’ turf, woman, especially not when he thinks you’re after his child!”

  “But if Sarah Jane just explains how she wanted to see Becca…”

  “And if she just explains it before Cade’s so enraged that he shifts, maybe all’s well. But it’s not the kind of thing I’m comfortable assuming. And since when do you spy on me, Ally girl?”

  “Leave the child alone, Declan,” Sarah Jane said from behind him. Her normal accent had returned. Ally wondered if she’d imagined her losing it.

  He held up a hand. “I’m asking Allison a question.”

  Sarah Jane thumped him on the back, hard. He stumbled forward a bit.

  “And I’m telling you to leave the girl alone, you arrogant gobshite. I’ve no reason to be afraid of Cade MacDougall, and you know it.” She smiled at Ally again, and this time Ally was certain about the gleam of calculation in Sarah Jane’s eyes. “As long as Ally’s here, Cade will be fine.”

  “What?” Ally squeaked. “What on earth are you—?”

  “Good night, dear,” Sarah Jane said calmly. She looked up at Dec, rolled her eyes, and walked back to her cabin muttering something about “daft” and “hundred years”.

  “Dec,” Ally said slowly as the older woman walked away, “is Sarah Jane crazy?”

  “Eh,” he said heavily. “It’s hard to tell with females like that, love. Very hard to tell.”

  Before she could ask what the hell that meant, he ambled over to the house and flopped down in a rocking chair on the porch. “Would you care to join me for a while until the fi
reworks start?”

  Ally got a little chill down her spine. This grave and troubled wolf was a stranger to her.

  When she had settled on the top step of the porch, she asked, “You think I should go get Becca and put her in her own room?” She didn’t care if it made Sarah Jane angry as long as it kept Cade from freaking out.

  Dec didn’t answer right away, running his hands through his dark hair and scratching at his unkempt beard. “Shite. I don’t know— No, she’s probably right. If he goes mad, the child shouldn’t be in the house.”

  “Why’d you call her a barn?”

  “What?” he said, looking startled. “Why’d I call who a barn?”

  “Becca. I thought the word was bairn.”

  He smiled. “Oh. It is, it is. That’s what I called her. You must’ve misheard me.” He gazed at her appraisingly, one eyebrow cocked. “Y’know, Ally girl, I’ve always found your nosiness rather charming, but it could land you in trouble one day.”

  Her face burned as she stammered, “I’m not nosy, I’m— I’m curious.”

  “All right, then. Your curiosity could land you in trouble one day. Cats and all that, y’know.”

  “Never mind that, Dec,” she said impatiently. “Look, Cade already knows Sarah Jane is here, so it won’t be a complete ambush. Don’t you think he can control his temper when he gets home?”

  “Under normal circumstances. With all the stress he’s under right now, the way she just showed up—it was stupid.”

  “I like Sarah Jane.”

  “I like her too, Ally. Always have. Shite,” he repeated. “Ah, well. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll attack Michael first.”

  “What?”

  Dec abruptly ceased rocking and stared out across the front yard. He spoke slowly and softly. “Maybe Cade’s spent the drive thinking about what Michael told him, and by the time he gets here he’ll be angry but calm. Or he could’ve spent the two hours thinking about how Sarah Jane showed up without warning, and Michael didn’t call him, and he’s already got Aaron and his father to worry about, and he just had the most important meeting of his life, and he’s exhausted, and he’ll get madder and madder with each passing mile, and when he gets home he goes straight for Michael’s throat. It’s occurred to Michael. That’s why he’s so tense.”