And that was the least of her problems. Without the protection of a pack, she’d be vulnerable. There were packs that were known to kidnap lone shifters, so most likely she’d be forced to serve as some Alpha’s concubine and scrub his floors.
She finally got tired of pacing, grabbed a box of cookies from the small pantry located next to her walk-in closet, and flopped down on her four-poster bed. She was lying there eating cookies and glumly contemplating her bleak future when the bedroom door swung open and Tina marched in.
Dakota sat up. “How did you get in?” she asked her. “My father has the door guarded and he said I can’t have any visitors.”
Tina plopped down in the chair facing her. “I just batted my eyes at that idiot Drew, and he melted. Typical guy – thinks with the wrong head.” She smirked. Then her expression grew serious. “So, I’d ask how it went with your father, but from the expression on your face and the guard on the door, I already know the answer.”
“Yep, you were right and I was wrong. It went about as well as could be expected,” Dakota muttered as she shoved another cookie in her mouth.
“Well, first of all, are you sure Roy cheated on you?” Tina asked. “What did the picture show, exactly? Was it him with another girl?”
“No, just him, naked and asleep on his bed. But it was very clear that he’d just had a good time with someone else.”
“And your father wouldn’t listen to you? That sucks,” Tina said sympathetically.
Dakota shook her head. “So does my entire life, now. My father said I still have to marry him, and moved the wedding up to next week. He crushed my phone. He has me under house arrest. I mean, I could sneak out – I’ve done it before – but where would I go? I don’t know what to do.” She grabbed another cookie, and Tina snatched it out of her hand.
“Well stop eating cookies, for one thing,” Tina said.
“Comfort food.” She reached for the box of cookies, and Tina grabbed it.
“For God’s sake, stop eating,” Tina snapped. “Why do you think Roy cheated on you?”
Dakota set her cookie down and stared at her friend in shock. “Are you saying that Roy cheated on me because I’m fat? So I deserved it?”
Tina flipped her long, shiny blonde hair out of her face and leaned forward with exasperation. “Dakota, for God’s sake, when it comes to women, men only care about one thing. One thing. Looks. They want a gorgeous arm bangle. Why do you think I starve myself and exercise until I’m ready to puke every day?” She gestured at her body, so slim that her collarbones and hip bones were prominent. “Why do you think I skip lunch and spend every spare cent I have at the beauty salon so my hair always looks perfect? Because that’s the only way to get a guy and, more importantly, keep a guy.”
Dakota shook her head. “That’s not true,” she protested. “My mother was full-figured, and my father loved her. He worshipped the ground she walked on.”
Her father had been deliriously happy with her mother. It wasn’t until after her mother had died in a car accident that her father had turned into a cold-blooded, hard-hearted asshole. He’d pushed Dakota away from him, throwing himself furiously into the business of running the pack and building new developments for shifters. All the joy had drained from his life. He hadn’t dated since then. He never did anything for fun anymore, never went out to restaurants or movies or plays or concerts the way he had when Dakota’s mother was alive.
Now his entire focus was on making their pack the biggest, wealthiest, most powerful pack on the West Coast. He’d issued death challenges left and right, taken over and absorbed several smaller, weaker packs into his own, and still it was never enough. He was like the Genghis Khan of the shifter world with his endless drive for power.
Tina shrugged. “Your mother was a very rare exception to the rule,” she said. “Irrelevant. A guy like Roy – any decent guy – is going to want a woman who looks like she belongs in a beauty pageant. And if you ever let your looks go, he’ll cheat on you and neglect you and your marriage will be miserable.”
Dakota grimaced. “That’s a depressing outlook on life. And you’re worth more than your looks, Tina. You’ve always been a loyal friend to me.”
It was true. They’d met when they were fourteen, the year Tina and her mother had moved to town, and they’d bonded right away because they were both social outcasts.
Oh, everyone at high school had tiptoed around Dakota because her father was the Alpha, but she’d heard all the muttered insults and seen how the popular crowd sidled away when she walked by.
Tina had been an instant pariah because her mother was dirt poor and single, and also the popular girls had been jealous of her looks.
Tina smiled wryly. “Thanks. But that and a dollar won’t get me a latte at Starbucks. Because lattes cost more than a dollar. And without my looks, I’ve got nothing.”
She looked at Dakota. “It’s not too late for you to lose weight and attract a better guy than Roy, you know. Just stop eating. Go on a liquid diet. I mean, you’ve got such a pretty face…”
Dakota had heard that so many times in her life that she was ready to choke on it. She was sick of it – just sick and tired. “Get out,” she said.
“What?” Tina looked at her in shock. “Dakota, I’m just trying to help.”
Dakota fought down a wave of hurt and fury. “Get. Out.”
Tina leaped to her feet. “Fine,” she said bitterly. “I see what my friendship’s worth to you.” And she tossed the box of cookies back to Dakota and stalked out of the room.
After she left, Dakota hurled the box of cookies into the garbage, buried her face in her hands, and burst into tears.
Had she been wrong to kick Tina out? She was angry and miserable and frustrated. She couldn’t even think straight anymore.
She spent several wretched hours curled up in her bed wishing she could fall asleep. For a year. Then Tina burst through the door again and hurried over to her, her eyes shining with excitement.
“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty,” she said. “I solved your problem.”
Dakota sat up, rubbing her face with her hands. She was exhausted, but sleep had eluded her. “You did? How?”
Tina sank down onto the chair. “I’ve got a way to get you out of here,” she said. “You won’t have to marry Roy. You deserve someone better than that. I’m sorry about what I said before. I’ve got my mother yelling at me all day to hurry up and get married before I lose my looks and nobody wants me, and do I want us to live in a shack forever after everything she’s done for me, and…I’m just sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Dakota sighed. “I probably overreacted. I know life’s not a bed of roses for you either.”
Tina’s mother Maureen was convinced that the only path to the riches and prestige she craved was snagging a rich man. Maureen was always humiliating Tina by having affairs with rich married men, and pressuring Tina to find a sugar daddy who’d move them out of their trailer park. Once, Tina had fallen in love with the very hot but very poor high-school quarterback, and he’d seemed to love her back. Maureen had made sure she broke up that romance – by seducing Tina’s boyfriend.
Tina had about as much chance of marrying for love as Dakota did.
“Well, at least one of us is going to be happy. You’re going to disappear,” Tina said triumphantly. “Remember when I went away to cosmetology school in Oregon? Well, I made friends with this girl, Jamie Roberts. I just got off the phone with her. You know that huge shifter land grant in New Hampshire? Her pack arranged to send her there to get her away from some guy they don’t approve of. But she doesn’t want to go, so you’re going to take her place, and she’s going to run away with her boyfriend. They’re going overseas.”
Dakota raised an eyebrow. “Aha. Okay. And to think they call me the crazy one.”
“No, it’s perfect! I’ve got it all worked out!” Tina protested. “I’m going to drive up the coast and meet up with her and get her identity card tonight, and we
’ll swap out your picture for hers. And she’s going to give me her bus ticket too.”
“But what if her pack calls and wants to make sure she arrived safely?”
“Well, it’s a new territory, so there’s not going to be any cell service, internet, anything like that. It’ll be pretty hard for them to get ahold of you.” Tina looked her up and down. “She’s larger figured, like you, but she does have shorter hair. We’ll just give you a quick haircut. Other than that, you’re good.”
Dakota frowned. Could this possibly work? Shifter identity cards were pretty easy to alter. They didn’t even have an online database like humans did; shifters liked to maintain a low profile.
“What would I do for work?” she said.
“Do anything. Waitress. Babysit. It would be like a vacation in the beautiful mountain region of New Hampshire.”
That did sound tempting.
“Bottom line. Do you want to be forced to marry Roy?”
Dakota found herself actually considering it. It was probably her only chance. She and Tina used to meet up in an abandoned hunter’s cabin when they were in high school; nobody else from her pack knew about it. She could hide out there and wait for Tina to bring the fake ID and bus ticket…
“My dad would search everywhere for me,” she pointed out.
“How would he find you, though? He wouldn’t know you had a fake ID and new name, and he doesn’t know about the cabin, and the shuttle you’d be taking leaves from Los Angeles the day after tomorrow.”
“But how long would I have to hide out?” Dakota felt a clenching in her chest. There were many, many things she hated about being here, but still…she liked some of the pack members, and she clung to the hope that someday her father would come around.
“Probably just a few months,” Tina said. “If Roy’s that much of a man-slut, he’ll move on and find someone else, so then your dad can’t force you to marry him. And your dad will be so grateful to see you again, he’ll back off and let you marry whoever you want.”
Or he’ll lock me in my room until I’m a hundred years old, Dakota thought. But she’d deal with that when the time came.
Tina was right; Roy was eager to marry so his father would let him start his own pack, and he wouldn’t wait for Dakota.
Even a few months living under another name sounded so tempting. No more people being fake to her face and spitting insults behind her back. People could like her or hate her, but it wouldn’t be because she was the daughter of Brandon Sheffield.
“Let’s do this,” she said. “Where’s a pair of scissors?”
Chapter Three
“Looks like the Montenegro pack chickened out,” Anders said to his cousin Miles Williams, the Alpha Prime of the Fenris Pack.
Anders, Miles, and the pack Omega Baldwin had arrived at the town square early – and been disappointed.
“Yep. What a surprise.” Miles flicked an annoyed glance across the town square at the shuttle bus that had parked there a few minutes ago. The last of the shifters had climbed off…and all of them were either females, or species of shifter other than wolf.
Baldwin just shrugged. He was a wolf of few words.
“Man, I was looking forward to a little recreational killing. Everyone’s going to be disappointed.” Anders grinned and stuck his hands in his jeans pockets.
It was true. The town square was much more crowded than usual. Half the shifters in the territory had taken off work and gathered at the center of town for the bus’s arrival. They were itching to see the fight between Miles and whatever suicidal fool the Montenegro Pack had sent to “lay down the law”. Their Alpha, Ludwik Torville, had sent formal notice that their challenger was arriving on this morning’s bus to seek revenge against Miles for killing one of his grandsons.
Of course, the Montenegro Pack knew their challenger was a dead wolf walking, but they had little choice. If they didn’t send someone, they’d appear weak, and other packs would start moving in on them. Miles had heard a rumor that they’d all drawn straws, and the one who’d picked the short straw had been the one forced to come up here to die.
Miles scowled at the bus. “So the Montenegro pack are a bunch of liars, as well as thieves,” he growled.
Miles had killed Shaun Torville after he’d been caught stealing from the Fenris Pack’s job site. Shaun had been nothing but trouble since he’d showed up at the Greenlands territory a couple of months earlier with his ratty little nieces and nephews in tow. He’d drunk, he’d stolen, and he hadn’t done a lick of work. At first Miles had let it slide because of the cubs, but then he’d figured out that Shaun left them to fend for themselves anyway.
“And my ribs had just healed,” Anders mock-groaned, patting his broad chest. When Miles didn’t have anyone to fight, he sparred with his packmates. The power that coursed through him needed a release – or the consequences would be deadly, for him and everyone around him. Baldwin did his job as Omega and absorbed as much as he could, but he could only cycle so much through his body without getting desperately ill.
“Don’t get your fur in a knot,” Miles said. “There’ll be another death challenge before the week’s out.”
Well, no arguing that. In this raw, newly developing territory, packs were still jostling for power and land – and everyone turned to Miles for answers. He didn’t have a problem with that; he was Alpha Prime, and death challenges came with the job. He and his pack had been the first to arrive there six months earlier, and Miles had made it clear from the beginning that he would be the one laying down the law.
Everyone needed to register with a pack, pride, or clan; no lone wolves (or other shifters) allowed to settle in the western half of the territory. East of town was where all the troublemakers gathered, but they knew to behave themselves when they came to town.
Each pack would lay claim to an acceptable parcel of land, and would not encroach on other pack’s territory unless they wanted to challenge them for it. All disputes would be settled by traditional shifter rules – death challenge between Alphas, or a formally declared pack war.
It was the only way to ensure a decent quality of life for the many packs and clans and prides who’d made their way to the new territory, seeking to escape the human encroachment onto their lands that was happening in other parts of the country.
However, the human government was doing its best to dispose of all the nation’s shifter riff-raff by sending them to Greenlands, and it was a slow week when Miles didn’t have to step in and remind everyone who was boss – by ripping someone’s spinal column out.
Miles hadn’t told his pack members yet, but it was starting to take a toll on him. Not physically, but emotionally. Having to constantly summon up that bloodlust was dangerous for an Alpha Prime. Miles found himself struggling to keep control more often than he’d like, these days.
“Well, the news isn’t all bad. No challenger on the bus, but there’s some fresh talent right there,” Anders said, inclining his head at the women who’d just arrived.
The women were unloading their suitcases, stretching out after their long trip and looking around in wonder at their new surroundings. Off in the distance, the mountains were outlined in sharp relief against a pale blue sky. The town of Granite Flats, the center of the new Greenlands territory, looked like a set from a Western movie. Buildings up and down the main street were still under construction, but the businesses around the square were all complete. Thom’s General Store and Grocery, the meeting hall, the barbershop, the Watering Hole Saloon, Sam’s Steakhouse, the First National Shifter Bank, the Grubstake Restaurant, the Early Bird Café, and Finnegan’s Fine Furnishings were all so new you could still smell the paint drying. It was a beautiful thing.
Baldwin looked over at the women with mild interest. “I see some possibilities,” he allowed. “I see one I like. Hmm, that’s very interesting. I could work with that. I may have just spotted the future Mrs. Phillips.” He glanced at Miles. “With your permission, of course.”
/> “Wow, that’s a lot of words, Baldy. Must be true lurve,” Anders scoffed. “I see a date for Friday night. I’m just trying to decide who’s going to be the lucky lady.” Anders surveyed the women, his gaze roving over each of them.
Miles followed his gaze and found his attention drawn to a woman who was standing apart from the others, stretching and arching her back.
Hello. His day just got a little more interesting.
He felt a sudden rush of heat. Delicious full figure. Silky brown hair. Sweet round face with pouty lips. And on a bus full of single shifter females. How was it that no male had snapped her up already?
Anders’ two-way radio crackled, and he unsnapped it from his belt holster to answer it. “Pack Fenris, go,” he said, walking a few steps away so he could talk.
The brunette was talking to a redheaded fox shifter and a tall, skinny coyote female, pointing excitedly at the buildings in the town square and the mountains off in the distance.
Miles felt a smile tugging at his lips. He liked her enthusiasm, and how she wanted to share her happiness with those around her.
Anders was saying something, but now Miles’s attention was entirely focused on the new shifter female.
“Are you ignoring me?” Anders asked.
“Sure, sounds good.”
Anders spoke louder. “There’s a naked zebra unicorn running across the town square.”
“Uh-huh.”
“A thousand vampire bats just flew out of my ass.”
“Yep.”
“Are you even listening to me at all?” Anders said in exasperation.
Miles tore his gaze away from the sexy brunette who kept self-consciously touching her hair, and focused on Anders – but just for a moment.
“Nope,” he said. “Not in the slightest.”
Then he returned his attention to the brunette. The other women were invisible to him now.
Miles was so keyed up these days that he’d even stopped dating. Couldn’t enjoy it anymore. He turned down all the women who hit on him, to the surprise of his packmates.
Shiftily Ever After: A BBW Paranormal Romance (Alpha Prime) Page 2
