The Alpha's Niece (Barton Pack Book 1)

by Jane B. Night

  "As long as you don't get overtired I see no problems with it. Just drink the tea my husband brought over three times a day and send for me if you need me," Martha said. She grabbed her hat and headed towards the door. Remember vaguely wondered if Martha would stop by Tabitha and give her an update. The women seemed to be friends.

  Remember finished her biscuit and then had another. Afterwards, she washed the dishes and went outside where Tabitha knelt before a small garden. Remember recognized lavender, mint, and comfrey along with tomatoes, cabbage, and broccoli.

  "Do you know much about gardening?" Tabitha called to her.

  "Not terribly much," Remember admitted.

  "I've been growing this garden since before my son was born. I'll teach you everything you need to know," Tabitha said.

  Remember knelt down beside her grateful to have companionship as well as a task to do.

  "Did Martha say all was well with my grandbaby?" Tabitha asked.

  "As far as she can tell. He should be here in the beginning of next year," Remember said.

  "You seem certain it is a boy," Tabitha said.

  "I suppose I won't know for sure until he is born," Remember conceded.

  "I never doubt a mother's intuition. I knew the night Cyrus was conceived I was pregnant and carrying a boy. My husband laughed when I told him but I had the last laugh," Tabitha said giving her a wink.

  Chapter 5

  Cyrus felt the weight of exhaustion as he opened the door. He'd been called to attend a child who had drunk lye water. Despite his best efforts the child's throat had been burned terribly and her airway lost. Losing any patient was hard but losing a child was the worst.

  Despite his grief, the smell of fried chicken hit his nose and his stomach growled. He hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast.

  He stepped into the dining room to find Remember and his mother already seated at the table. He carefully lowered himself into the chair next to his mother.

  "How was your day?" he asked.

  "Obviously better than yours. We spent the day in the garden. I will make your new wife into an expert gardener yet. I plan to walk away with at least one blue ribbon this year at the state fair," his mother said. His mother always entered at least one item in the various state fair competitions. Last year she came in third place for her mincemeat and the year before that her sweet potato pie received an honorable mention. So far, the only competition she had won was for the best tasting tomato five years before.

  "I'm sure that Remember's help will give you the edge you need," he said.

  "I am sure it will. There are other competitions too. Quilting and such. If you have a knack for those things you could enter something yourself," his mother said.

  "I do quilt a bit but I hadn't thought to compete," Remember said.

  "The winning quilt often sells for quite a bit of prize money at the auction," his mother said. Remember looked down at her plate and Cyrus barely held back his rebuke to his mother. He was the provider for them. He was not near as well off as Remember's family, but he would make sure she lived in relative comfort. He had promised Isaac that and he meant to deliver.

  "It would allow me to buy some nice things for the baby from the Montgomery Ward catalog," Remember said softly.

  "Take a look through the catalog and let me know what you need. My wife shouldn't have to win prizes at the fair to provide for my child," Cyrus said. It felt strange to call her his wife and even stranger to think that there would soon be a child he would claim as his own. It would take time to get used to it all.

  "I didn't mean anything like that. I just thought-"

  "She just thought if she won she could buy a few pretty things that weren't necessary. Nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, if I manage to win any of the cash prizes I think it will get spent on some indulgences for my grandbaby too," his mother said.

  Cyrus reached up and touched his temple. He was glad his mother was willing to accept Remember's child as if it was his own but he hadn't expected her to be such a doting grandmother. She had never said much to him about wishing he had a family. Then again, he'd never asked her about it either.

  "What does your pack do for the full moon?" Remember asked. He guessed she was changing the subject for his benefit.

  "There is a cabin almost a full day away. It is surrounded by forest for a few miles. We go there. The hunting is good. We take down elk and deer so we can store the meat for winter," Cyrus said. Most of the werewolves in the pack were farmers but since livestock didn't thrive on werewolf land they were forced to either catch wild meat or buy meat from the butcher.

  "Do we need to ready any supplies?" Remember asked.

  "No, the alpha and his family take care of everything," his mother said. Cyrus wondered if that was different from what was done in Philadelphia but he decided not to ask. He didn't want to press her for any information she didn't wish to share.

  Perhaps Remember would share her stories of the full moons in Philadelphia with his mother. She seemed to have warmed to her. He was glad.

  His mother would benefit from the companionship and Remember would have someone to help her adjust to life in Barton.

  ***

  After supper Cyrus went to his office and Tabitha sat down with a basket of mending. Remember offered to help but Tabitha insisted she had done enough for the day and needed to rest. She decided to sit in one of the rocking chairs on the front porch until it got dark. Her body was tired from helping Tabitha but she was far from exhausted.

  The evening was warm. She didn't need a shawl and she decided to forgo her bonnet as well. She deeply breathed in the air. It was so different from the air in Philadelphia. The air there had smelled of busyness and people. The smoke of factories and the smell of industry filled the Philadelphia air. Part of her ached for the familiar smells of home. Her heart ached for her mother and father. She wondered when she would see them again.

  It was good Isaac and Sally were nearby. They were family and she should call on them soon. Her uncle was her alpha now and she was grateful he'd made the arrangements for her to come to Barton even if her new home was so different from her old one.

  In Barton, the air was filled with the scent of plants and trees. She listened to the song of a goldfinch as she admired one of the wild roses which decided to grow only feet away from the porch.

  She thought about writing a letter to her mother telling her about her new home and husband. She would have to give the letter to her uncle so that he could send it with his letters. Her uncle had warned her that if they did not take the proper precautions there was a chance that Jordan could still find her.

  At the thought of Jordan, her body began to tremble. She closed her eyes as tightly as she could and took in deep breaths. Jordan was far away. She was safe here. He couldn't hurt her ever again.

  She screamed when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her wolf rushed forward and she didn't try to stop it.

  ***

  Cyrus jumped back as Remember's clothes ripped away and her wolf rushed at him. His wolf wanted to respond and he might have too if in the next moment Remember hadn't fallen to the ground at his feet in a very human heap. She curled her naked body into a ball and began to tremble.

  "Mother, I need a blanket. Hurry!" Cyrus called into the house. His mother appeared a moment later with a quilt and Cyrus bent forward to cover Remember who had tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Cyrus slowly lowered himself onto the porch beside her. He lay facing her so her eyes met his.

  "You are safe," he whispered.

  "I'll never be safe again," Remember cried.

  "I'll keep you safe," Cyrus said and he meant it. Something about her lying there, naked under a blanket, sparked a deep protectiveness in him. It was the protectiveness a wolf often felt for his mate. He hadn't expected to feel it for a woman he was married to but not mated to. Apparently, his wolf didn't know the difference. Cyrus vowed he wouldn't let any harm come to her.

&n
bsp; "Let's get you inside, my dear," his mother said. Cyrus wished he had two good legs so he could scoop her up and carry her up the stairs and to their room. He wouldn't be able to manage it with his prosthetic leg. Balance was hard and stairs were harder. Likely as not, he would have lost his balance and tumbled with both of them to the floor. He wished it wasn't so, but there was nothing to be done so he did the only thing he could do. He reached out and took her hand. His hand around hers brought on a fresh wave of tears.

  Finally, she quieted.

  Remember sat up and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders as tightly as she could before taking his extended hand and pulling herself up. Cyrus used his cane and the wall to get himself into a standing position.

  "You should get to bed. Sleep will do you better than any other cure," his mother said. Cyrus agreed with her.

  His mother put an arm protectively around Remember's shoulders and led her into the house.

  Cyrus went to his office trying to take his mind off what he had witnessed.

  "Whatever happened to that girl was bad," his mother said when she appeared in his doorway a few moments later.

  "Of course it was. She was raped, and that rape resulted in a pup," Cyrus said.

  "It had to be more than that. I've met a woman or two who was forced by a man. I've never seen one act like that before," his mother said.

  "Everyone deals with their pain differently," he said. Some of the soldiers he knew had come home from war and went back to their wives and lives. A few had gone mad or ended their own lives. He couldn't say what made one react worse than the next. They'd all been there together. They'd all seen the same horrors. Why one man was consumed by it while another pushed it to the back of their memory he couldn't say.

  "Is there nothing you can do for her?" his mother asked.

  "Nothing but give her something to help her sleep," Cyrus said.

  "Laudanum?" his mother asked.

  "I thought we should try tea first," Cyrus said. He didn't give out laudanum lightly but he thought that a small dose of it might be just the thing to calm Remember down.

  "I'll go make the tea," his mother said. She headed to the kitchen and he heard the teakettle whistle. He opened his leather bag and touched the bottle of laudanum. He had enough if she needed it. He closed the bag and busied himself with an article about the effects of a new vaccine for cholera. He was so engrossed in the findings that he didn't hear his mother until she cleared her throat.

  "Did you need that laudanum?" he asked.

  "I didn't even need the tea. The poor girl was already fast asleep," his mother said.

  "Good," Cyrus said though he wasn't sure if it really was. Sleep would do her good but that didn't change the fact that he would have to tread far more carefully with Remember than he had initially expected. If a hand on her shoulder could cause such a reaction from her there was no telling what she might do if startled by a stranger. He would have to keep a close eye on her to be sure she didn't become a danger to anyone, including herself.

  Chapter 6

  Remember was glad when Cyrus did not mentioned the incident of the night before at breakfast. It was bad enough that her dress was so badly torn that it might not be repairable. She hadn't brought a large number of dresses with her and buying or sewing a new one was the last thing she wanted to do.

  "You will want to dress your poorest today," Tabitha said while sipping a cup of coffee after Cyrus left for his daily rounds. Remember's face grew hot and she looked down at her feet.

  "There is a raspberry patch Martha wanted to go to and I said we would join her," Tabitha said. Remember wondered if the other woman knew what she'd been thinking her words meant.

  "I haven't ever picked raspberries before," Remember admitted.

  "It is messy work and the plants have thorns. Your hands will be scratched up and red from the juice by the time we are through, but there will be berries for jams and pies," Tabitha said.

  "That sound lovely," Remember said.

  "The food is. Picking the berries isn't but it must be done," Tabitha said. She opened a cupboard and pulled out two tin pails with the word Lard painted on the front. She put the pails on the counter before setting her empty coffee cup in the sink.

  Remember finished the biscuit she was eating and hurried upstairs to change into a dress that wouldn't be ruined by a few stains.

  ***

  "I can try a few different teas but I need to be careful what I give her. Some ingredients can be dangerous to an unborn child," Aaron said. His horses were pulling the wagon along slowly. They were visibly sweating and would need water as soon as they arrived at Thunder's home.

  "Give her whatever is safe. I haven't seen anything like it since the war. There were a few wolf soldiers who startled easily. I just wasn't expecting it from her. She had to have heard my cane on the porch and caught my scent. How could she not know it was me?" Cyrus asked.

  "I don't know," Aaron said as they pulled into Thunder's yard. Aaron unhooked the horses from the wagon and hitched them near the stream that ran through the werebear land.

  Thunder was the leader of the clan. She was much older than Cyrus's mother and beginning to grow frail. The last full moon she injured her arm. Normally, a werebear healed flesh wounds as easily as a werewolf did but age had started to weaken her body. Last week, the wound on her arm had still been red and seeping despite the rubs she'd been using.

  "It cannot be good on the child for Remember to be so terrified," Cyrus said. He'd asked Martha to check on mother and child when he stopped by that morning. He told Martha and Aaron of the incident from the night before and both were as concerned as he was.

  He wasn't worried Remember would harm him or his mother. The incident had shown she kept her senses even when frightened enough to bring her wolf forth. Instead, he worried about how such fear would impact her and the child's health.

  Cyrus knocked on the front door. Two dogs sounded the alert of their arrival.

  "I'm glad you came today. There are a few of my people I want you to check on," Thunder said.

  "You first," Cyrus said. He knew if any of her clan were seriously sick or injured she would have sent someone for him.

  Thunder sighed and held out her arm for him to examine. Her dark skin was wrinkled and thin. The wound was still seeping.

  "Heard you married and are going to be a father," Thunder said casually as he cleaned the wound.

  "Where did you hear that?" Cyrus asked.

  "Talk of it at the general store," Thunder said.

  "I keep telling her to let me go in her place," Thunder's daughter Citlali said. The people who owned the store were immigrants named Kwiatkowski but most people struggled to pronounce that so they had been given a new name by the community. They didn't seem to mind so long as money was brought into their store.

  "Mr. Shopkeeper is nice but the Missus doesn't think much of us," Thunder's second daughter, Ahote, said.

  Thunder's clan were the mixing of Africans and Indians. The werewolves treated them as equals but some of their neighbors felt differently.

  "You heard the truth. I am married and expecting a pup," Cyrus said. It was likely that everyone who knew him knew of his sudden marriage. He wondered how many people thought he had gotten Remember pregnant and been forced to marry her. He didn't ask what the rumors were saying. It didn't matter.

  "Children are a blessing. May yours be born fit and healthy," Thunder said.

  "Thank you," Cyrus said. Aaron handed him a new cream to try and Cyrus rubbed it on her wound.

  "What should we do about the wound during the full moon?" Ahote asked.

  "Perhaps it will be healed by then," Thunder said. The moon was only four days away so Cyrus very much doubted she would be.

  "Keep it clean and rub cream on the wound during the day. When you are in bear form, try to avoid further injuries to it," Cyrus said.

  "I will do my best," Thunder promised though Cyrus was well aware how difficult it cou
ld be. When he was under the influence of the moon his man-self had some power but it was his wolf who was in control.

  "Now, who else needs seeing?' Cyrus asked.

  "Naira is fighting a nasty cough. Coretta has pain in her ear. Diondre seems to have the colic but nothing is helping soothe him," Thunder said.

  "I will see them all before I go," Cyrus promised.

  "Citlali, bring the doctor his payment," Thunder said. The girl brought a sack and tossed it on the ground at his feet. He picked it up but didn't view its contents before walking out of the door to find his next patient.

  ***

  "Do you need to rest?" Martha asked as Remember wiped her brow with the back of her arm.

  "No, I'm fine," Remember said. The sun was hot but she didn't really mind it. Her pail was half full. Tabitha had been right about the scratches but even that was not bad. She took in a deep breath and exhaled. She was safe here. After her explosion last night she needed to remind herself of it again. She didn't want to turn into a wolf whenever someone touched her shoulder. She should have known from the scent that it was only Cyrus, but her mind had reacted slower than her body.

  "My husband is going to try a few more teas to help you relax," Martha said.

  "I'm fine. Really," Remember said. She didn't want teas to make her relax. She wanted to feel safe and secure. She wanted to move on with her life now that she was far from Jordan.

  "Has your heart been racing today or your breath hard to take?" Martha asked.

  "I would have told you if it was," Remember said softly as she picked the last raspberry. She looked towards Tabitha and Martha. It seemed they too could not find another berry to put in their pails.

  "I will bring over the tea. If you feel anxious I want you to take it but I won't insist you take it every night. The baby's heart rate was fine and your stamina today has been what I would expect," Martha said.