Claimed by the Mate, Volume 3

by Kate Douglas

  Chelo was inside with the rest of the women, and he was so damned glad Nellie hadn’t been caught. Thank goodness she was safe with Zach. He felt horrible. He’d really wanted to have a chance to tell her what he—what they all—were. The look on Nellie’s face had been utter shock, but what else should he expect? He should have told her. He’d had every opportunity to tell her, but he hadn’t done it and now it was too late.

  But these women needed help. He’d have to worry about Nell and what this meant to them later. Right now, he needed to find that fourth wolf.

  * * *

  Trak shifted, turned, and tapped Cain’s shoulder. “Shift,” he said, pushing when he gave the order. Combined with Cain’s natural strength, it gave the wolf an extra boost, and he stood as a man beside Trak in mere seconds. The others backed off a bit, a subconscious act with so much power in the air, but now wasn’t the time to explain.

  For the first time ever, Trak was damned thankful for Cain’s alpha nature and innate power—a power that could help save lives tonight.

  “What’s the plan?”

  “You go in from the back; I’m walking in the front door. When I step into the lodge, I want you coming through the back door at the same time. We’re both going to command them to drop, and the combined strength behind the directive should at least throw them off stride, if not have them belly down on the floor.”

  Cain nodded. “I can do that. It might drop the women, too.”

  Trak merely shrugged. “If it does, it might piss them off, but it’ll save their lives.”

  Cain touched Trak’s shoulder. “I’ll know when you go inside. I’ll do my best to match your timing.”

  Trak nodded. He’d wondered sometimes if Cain could do that, something only the strongest alphas had—the ability to sense other wolves, to know exactly where they were at all times. Trak occasionally had a flash of such power, but it was not a natural part of him. It explained Cain’s success as an enforcer. After this was over, he really needed to spend some time with the guy. They still had issues, or at least Trak did.

  Issues heavily colored by admiration.

  Trak mentally drew the attention of the rest of the pack. He rarely used his alpha power, and their response was immediate. “I want the rest of you surrounding the lodge. Be ready to catch anyone who might try to escape. Manny? You and Drew stay behind me and out of sight, in case I need help. Tuck? Follow Cain as backup. The rest of you, spread out and be ready. Once Cain and I are inside, I want you right behind. Hopefully we’ll get them when they’re still confused by the strength behind the order.”

  He watched as his pack mates shifted into position. Then he stepped out onto the front drive, in full view of the lodge. Cain headed into the forest, running silently on bare feet. Trak walked across the parking area and up the stairs. As he reached the deck, he had a clear view inside, the women sitting against the north wall, the fourth wolf, a big gray beast, standing in front of the women. Guarding them.

  Not a single woman looked frightened. Meg, the only human in the room, looked flat-out pissed. He liked that. Darnell was safe at Growl with Zach. That was good. Chelo looked absolutely regal. She was the only one standing, and she glared with unfiltered hatred at the big man across the room. Even better. Damn, she was absolutely perfect. A true alpha bitch.

  Trak shoved the door open. It hit the wall hard enough to rattle the building. Everyone turned his way. Rube stepped forward, pushing the other two men back. The wolf turned and snarled.

  * * *

  Chelo hated the fact that she was stuck here with the women, unable to fight. She knew the men must know by now that something had happened, hoped Darnell had seen something and warned them, but where were they?

  The front door suddenly flew open so fast it slammed against the wall hard enough to shake the room. Trak stepped into the lodge. He was utterly magnificent, standing tall and muscular, his nude body a study in masculine beauty. At the same moment, a door behind the men opened and Cain was there, equally beautiful, his power filling the room.

  Rube’s men spun around to see this second threat when both Cain and Trak shouted as one.

  “Drop!”

  The word was infused with power, two strong alphas working in tandem, but that never happened! Chelo felt the power wash over her, but she fought it, fought to stay free of it. The wolf in front of her had gone down and two of the men were on the floor, but Rube somehow fought it off. He turned and raced toward Chelo, grabbed her around the waist, and threw her over his shoulder. She screamed as both Trak and Cain converged on Rube, but the bastard tightened his hold on her and went straight for the big plate-glass window.

  He leapt into the air and hit the window midway, shattering it. Chelo cursed as shards of glass flew all around. Rube went to his knees on the deck, but he was up and over the railing in a heartbeat.

  There was nothing to stop him. The dark forest was mere steps ahead. He held her tightly, locked against his foul body as he raced toward freedom.

  Chapter 12

  “He’s got Chelo.”

  Zach gripped Darnell and jerked her back and down behind the rock as glass exploded outward and shards flew through the air. Rube leapt over the railing with Chelo over his shoulder, but she was struggling, throwing him off balance.

  Darnell pulled free of Zach’s grip, stepped into Rube’s path, raised the gun, and shouted, “Stop!”

  Rube stopped, but he threw Chelo roughly to the ground and reached for Darnell. She spun out of his grasp, raised the pistol in both hands again, and fired.

  The blast deafened her. Rube stopped and shook his head at the noise. How the hell could she miss this close?

  Lunging forward, he grabbed the gun out of her hands as Chelo scrambled out of his way. Cursing, Darnell slipped beneath Rube’s hands just as Zach launched himself from behind the rock. He tackled Rube around the knees at the same moment Evan flew off the deck and grabbed Rube around the shoulders. The three men tumbled to the ground.

  Darnell ran to Chelo. She was still on the ground, holding her head, obviously stunned by the fall. “Are you okay? I can’t believe I don’t see any blood.” She reached up and picked a large splinter of glass out of Chelo’s hair. “That’s got to be good, right?”

  Chelo cursed and tried to sit. Darnell helped her sit upright while Evan and Zach wrestled with Rube. The fight rolled closer and Darnell practically lifted Chelo to her feet. They backed out of the way. Rube was thickly muscled and fighting like a crazed berserker, with both Evan and Zach struggling to hang onto him.

  His face began to change, his canines growing.

  Darnell shouted, “He’s shifting! Evan, he’s turning into a wolf!”

  Evan didn’t hesitate. He wrapped his forearm around Rube’s head and jerked. The loud crack turned Darnell’s stomach. She’d never heard that sound before, but there was no doubt what Evan had done. Rube went limp. Evan lowered his body to the ground, Rube’s head lolling at an unnatural angle.

  Zach was on his knees, head down, gasping for breath. Evan straightened slowly, but he didn’t even look in Darnell’s direction. Instead, he held his hand out to the other man. Zach glanced at Evan’s hand and took hold. Evan pulled him to his feet. They both stared at Rube’s body for a long moment, and then Zach shook his head, a short, sharp jerk as if shaking off the fight. “Thank you.” He raised his head and looked at Evan. “That guy’s the strongest sonofabitch I’ve ever disagreed with. If you hadn’t shown up, I think he would have had me way too easily.”

  “We’ll never know.” Evan stared at the body. “I should feel badly.” He looked at Zach again. “I’ve never killed before. Came close, but . . .” His words sort of faded out and he turned as Trak leapt over the railing and went straight to Chelo. Unlike Evan, who was still gloriously naked, Trak had found a pair of sweatpants. He didn’t say a word, just gathered Chelo up in his arms and held her close. She didn’t cry, but Darnell noticed she was still trembling.

  For that matte
r, so was Darnell. She wasn’t sure what to do. She wished Evan was holding her the way Trak held Chelo, but he still hadn’t even looked at her. She wanted to go to him, but she didn’t know what to say. Instead, she picked up the handgun that Rube had taken away from her, opened the chamber, and removed the bullets. She stared at them a moment and would have laughed, but they’d all think she was crazy.

  Carefully she replaced the shells.

  Meg came running down the stairs and straight into Zach’s arms. “I didn’t even know you were here. The guys said you were keeping Darnell safe at the bar. Are you okay?”

  “I am.” He glanced at Rube lying on the ground. “He’s not.” Pulling Meg into his arms and turning her away from the body, he kissed her. “Do you mind calling off the party? I want to take you back to the cabin and just hold you all night long. This was a little more excitement than I ever want to be in the middle of again.”

  Meg laughed, but it was a pretty watery laugh from what Darnell could tell. She tried to smile at Meg but couldn’t manage more than a grimace. “Let’s try some makeup and hair ideas tomorrow. Is that okay with you, Meg?”

  Meg sniffed and raised her head from Zach’s chest. There was a soggy spot with smeared mascara on his shirt. She used the hem of his shirt to wipe the tears from her eyes—and further smeared the mascara. “Yeah. I don’t think makeup would work right now.”

  Zach kissed the top of her head, but he kept his arm around her. “If you folks don’t mind, I’m taking my woman to bed. Trak, do you need anything from me?”

  Trak slowly stood and Zach held out his hand. Trak took it in his. “I need to thank you. You and Evan and Darnell. He had to die. We couldn’t let him live, knowing he’d never give up trying to take Chelo. I owe you. All of you.” He smiled at Darnell and then focused on Zach again. “Yes. Take your woman home to bed. We can figure out the details tomorrow.”

  Cherry walked down the steps and over to the small group standing around Rube’s body. She handed a pair of sweatpants to Evan. “You look cold,” she said. “Cover the dangly bits, Evan. We don’t want anything to get hurt.”

  He smiled at her. He still hadn’t even looked at Darnell. “Thanks, Cherry. What’s with the three inside?”

  “The wolf shifted and apologized. The other two are sitting at the table having coffee and spilling their guts. It appears that Rube, here, is . . . was the pack bully. He’s got something over each one of them, enough to force them into this trip. I promised them that Rube won’t be going back. Obviously I was right.” She kissed Evan on the cheek. “As I usually am. I think we should just let them go.”

  Trak nodded. Then he turned to Darnell, who sat by herself, though closer to Chelo than to Evan. He held out his hand. “Gun, please?”

  She nodded and handed it to him, but she wouldn’t look at him.

  “That was a good move on your part, Darnell. How’d you find this thing?”

  Shrugging, she stared at her toes. “Like I told Zach, I’ve never once been in a bar that didn’t have a handgun under the counter. I looked and found it, saw it was loaded.” She finally raised her head and glared at him. “I did not, however, expect blanks.”

  Smiling, Trak merely shrugged. “A good loud noise is usually pretty effective with werewolves. We’ve got really sensitive ears.” He glanced at Evan. So did Darnell, and he looked so miserable it made her feel even worse. “For what it’s worth, Darnell, Evan had orders not to tell you about us. If you want to blame anyone, blame me. In a werewolf pack, there’s only one leader, and that’s me. I’m the pack’s alpha and it was my decision that he not tell you anything, but there are good reasons for not saying who and what we are. In this case, because this jackass was after Chelo and we had an idea he’d be trying something at some point we weren’t willing to take the risk with your safety. Evan can explain it to you since it appears this particular cat’s out of the bag.” He turned to Evan. “Or wolf, as the case might be.”

  Darnell stared at the body lying on the ground. She’d been so angry at Rube when he was carrying Chelo and coming at her and Zach. Angry and frustrated, and sad that Evan had kept such a huge secret. And now Trak was telling her not to blame Evan, that he was only following orders. “Then it’s okay now? He can tell me about you guys? About himself?”

  She chanced a quick look at Evan. He was staring at her as if she held his life in her hands, like maybe she hated him, but that wasn’t it at all. She’d been shocked when they all stripped out of their clothes and shifted, though it explained a lot of things she’d wondered about.

  “He can tell you whatever he wants, and that’s whether you choose to stay or go. We don’t usually tell anyone about us. It’s frightening to think about what would happen to our simple lives should our secret get out, but you’ve proved that you have what it takes to join the pack if you choose, and I think we can trust you should you choose not to. It’s all up to you, Darnell. Talk to Evan. Let him tell you our story and we’ll see you in the morning. Find out what you’ve decided.”

  She actually smiled at Trak. “I’m amazed you can call your lives simple and actually say that with a straight face, Mr. Jakes.” Then she focused on Evan.

  He held out his hand. She placed hers in his, thinking just how right it felt.

  “What do you want to do, Nellie?”

  “I think I want to go into the lodge and pour a pitcher full of that punch Meg put together and maybe carry it back to your cabin. And then I want to crawl into bed with you and hear all about what you’ve been hiding from me.”

  “You do, eh?” He nodded. “I think we can manage that.” He tugged and she turned to follow just as the three men who’d come with Rube walked down the stairs. They had an old blanket and some rope. Darnell had a feeling she knew what they planned to do with it, but she wanted to see what they had to say.

  The largest of the three stepped up to Trak and bowed his head. “We’ve come to apologize for defiling your land and scaring your women.” He glanced at the men on either side. “What we did was wrong and we hope you’ll forgive us for something none of us wanted any part of. We also ask for permission to take our fallen one home. Our alpha will want to be assured he’s finally gone.”

  “Granted.” Trak had folded his arms over his chest and he kept his eyes focused on the three men. None of them appeared able to meet his steady gaze.

  “We want to thank you, too.” The spokesman glanced at the body between them. “He was an evil man. We’d hoped that when his brother died someone would finally take it into their head to kill Rube as well. None of us had the balls to try, but we all wanted him dead. Chelo? We owe you even more of an apology. None of us wanted any part of this, but we were afraid to cross him. Or his brother. Please forgive us.”

  Chelo merely nodded. Darnell tugged Evan’s hand. She’d heard enough from them. She really wanted to hear what Evan had to say. It still hadn’t sunk in, not entirely. All these people she’d grown so fond of, every single one of them except for Meg and Zach, were werewolves.

  Never in her wildest dreams. And then another thought struck. Cherry and Elle? Darian, Jules, Christa, and Steph? All of them . . . were they wolves, too? She and Evan stepped into the lodge and Darnell headed straight for the punch bowl. She spotted Brad in the kitchen. “Have you got a large pitcher I can borrow?”

  She heard laughter, and Cain stepped out of the kitchen with a big half-gallon Mason jar with a screw-top lid, filled to the brim with punch. He handed it to Evan and then leaned over and kissed Darnell. “Don’t say we never think of your well-being, Darnell. Have a good evening.”

  She glanced at the jar in Evan’s hands. “I fully intend to. Trust me on that.”

  They were all laughing when Darnell spotted Trak and Chelo coming up the steps to the lodge.

  * * *

  Trak really wanted to take Chelo home, but he needed to speak with the members of his pack, all of whom were still hanging around the dining hall. Tonight’s event had been unsettling,
but he had a feeling they were more concerned with Cain’s role in what happened than the danger they’d faced.

  A few of them knew that Cain was an alpha, though the man did his best to hide his nature, but Trak didn’t think any of them had any idea just how powerful Cain was. Trak had needed Cain’s help tonight or he never would have asked him to reveal himself so publicly.

  There would be questions.

  First, there was Chelo. He stopped outside of the door into the dining room and dropped a light kiss on her forehead. “I need to speak with them. They’re going to be concerned about Cain’s part in tonight’s attack. Even more important, I want to tell them about us.”

  She nodded. “Good. Because I am very proud of the fact that we are an ‘us.’ I love you, Traker Jakes. I love you so much, it fills me up.”

  This time his kiss found her mouth. It was much more satisfying.

  Chelo blinked away a nicely dazed expression on her lovely face. “Okay. Now, please stop interrupting me. I would like to speak with the pack as well. Your people have been so welcoming. They’ve all done whatever they could to protect me. I was not one of them, merely a stranger who disrupted their lives and brought danger to their homes. I’m not proud of my role in this, but I am so proud of your pack. There aren’t enough words to thank them all, but I need to try.”

  He took her hand and they walked into the lodge together. He paused long enough to set the revolver on the mantel over the fireplace, then glanced around the room. Everyone was still here. Even Darnell and Evan, who were holding hands and laughing about something. He imagined it had something to do with the big jar Evan was holding, filled with what looked like punch from Meg’s punch bowl. He’d heard Brad laughing about the quantity of Long Island Iced Teas he was mixing up for the ladies’ evening, and they all knew Darnell’s history with that particular drink.

  Tonight he wouldn’t mind one of those for himself.

  Their gender-separate celebrations certainly hadn’t turned out the way any of them had planned, but thank goodness the danger was over, Rube was no longer a threat, and—most important—Chelo and his pack were safe.