Amber's Ace

by Taryn Kincaid

  “You have any other siblings I should know about?” she asked her mate.

  “Well.” Brick hesitated and then pressed his hands to his temples, closing his eyes, as if in the throes of a sudden, agonizing headache. He dragged in a deep breath, expelling it in a whoosh.

  “Are you all right, baby?” She tensed with concern.

  “Yeah.” Brick turned toward the mantelpiece and slanted the painting above it to one side to reveal a wall safe. “I may. Haven’t seen any of them in years. Have no idea if they’re alive or dead.”

  “Maybe they’ll start coming home now. Like Chance.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know what happened to them. They just…randomly vanished.”

  Summer bit her lip, but remained silent. It was totally unlike her mate to act so uncaring, but she’d never heard him mention any family before. He’d once been plagued by hearing the whispers of packmates in his head, along with visions of their deaths. Were the disappearances of his siblings related? The mystery nagged at her, but first they had to deal with Chance.

  Brick twirled the combination lock counterclockwise and back and then reached inside to draw out the strongbox containing his last month’s take from his thriving carving company. Happily, thanks to the cats and tourists in Shady Heart and the wolves in Los Lobos, all clamoring for his unique work, his business flourished. Summer’s friend Brenna couldn’t keep her Shady Heart boutique stocked with Brick’s signature pieces, and with the influx of hundreds of new customers drawn from her web site, Brick could barely keep up with the demand. Back orders alone ensured their prosperity. Good thing, since Summer’s Uncle Cal, the Shady Heart alpha, was likely to hold him up big time before he’d release Chance to Brick’s custody.

  “This should be interesting,” he muttered.

  “You have no idea how much I want to go with you,” Summer said, lifting her chin in the direction of their scrappy young, now happily mewling, yipping, and wrestling with each other in the playpen. “I’m on mommy patrol, though. No time to find a sitter.”

  “Not to worry. I’ll get Chance out. You can meet him in Los Lobos.”

  “Wait. You’re not going to bring him home, Brick? We’ve got plenty of room in the cabin. He can have the guest room.”

  He shook his head, his scruffy hair tumbling over his brow, almost kissing his broad shoulders. “Not on your life, baby. I’m not letting Chance within an inch of my offspring. Besides, if he’s planning on making a permanent move, Drew and Ryker will have to clear him first.”

  “What’ll you do with him then? You can’t leave him in Shady Heart. From what Cal said, he’ll just get locked up again.”

  “Nah, I’ll drag him back to Los Lobos, get him settled at The Den, and let the bear deal with him. Drew and Gee and Ryker can read him the riot act. Sounds like he can use their brand of lecture. ”

  ***

  Chance gripped the metal bars and shook the cage he’d been tossed into, drunk, bleeding, only semi-conscious. The horrendous hangover beat against the bones of his skull, the squishy gray matter pounding in agony. That’ll teach me. Except it rarely did teach him. For more than ten years, he’d attempted, uselessly, to drown his sorrows and forget the mate he’d left behind. He might as well have tried to plunge a silver stake into his shriveled heart.

  Picking up the tin cup resting on the floor of the cell, he strummed it across the bars, raising a clattering racket as if he were in a B prison movie. Instead of the guard he’d expected to see, the Goldspark clan alpha appeared in his line of sight. Calhoun Bartholomew Seven held the town of Shady Heart and the territory surrounding with an iron fist. To what did he owe this honor, he wondered? Eyeballs throbbing in pain, Chance squinted at the panther shifter.

  “Let me the fuck outta here, you damned cat.”

  “Not a chance, wolf.” The corners of Cal’s implacable mouth quirked upward, as if the pun amused him. “You’ve caused enough damn damage in my town and my saloon for me to own your hairy ass for the next twenty decades.”

  Chance pushed the tin mug between the bars. “This is cruel and unusual punishment, even for a cat. I’m dying of thirst in here. How about some hair of the dog, at least?”

  “The puns just keep coming.” Cal shook his head. “You don’t seem to get it, badass. You haven’t shown you can hold your liquor. I’m cutting you off. No way I’d give you more, even if you could pay for it. Your wallet looks to be a mite on the thin side.”

  A growl of protest bubbled up from deep in Chance’s chest. A solid enough bank account from his gambling and speculative ventures cushioned him, but carrying a wad of cash into Shady Heart would have been a total chump’s move. No fuckin’ way he’d tell the cat alpha he had the dough.

  He settled for a disgruntled throat clearing. The noise emanating from his thorax didn’t seem to impress Cal in the slightest. “What are you going to do with me, then?”

  “You’re a wolf problem, boyo. I wash my hands of you. Well, once your brother pays me sufficient funds to cover your bail and all the property damage and havoc you wreaked last night.”

  “My brother?”

  “Yeah, Brick Northridge, right? Booked you as Chance Northridge and that’s what it says on your driver’s license. Jesus. You don’t even remember the conversation we had an hour ago?”

  Chance shut his eyes. Not how he wanted the reunion with Brick to go. He hadn’t seen his baby brother in more than ten years. He needed to grovel for forgiveness for fleeing Los Lobos and its insane Alpha, Magnum Tao, and leaving poor, addled Brick to survive on his own. Had Brick figured out anything yet about the clamoring voices he heard in his head? Over the years, Chance had pondered Brick’s “affliction” long and hard, finally reaching an unsettling conclusion. He’d have to find a way to explain his theory to his brother, if Brick would listen.

  Even if things had changed for Brick with Magnum’s son, Drew, the new Alpha in charge, and Los Lobos turning around and rebuilding from the dilapidated hellhole it used to be…Chance had still fucked up his homecoming big time. He stank like a sewer filled with dead vermin and swamp gas. Blood spattered his torn clothes. Hell knew how much money it’d cost Brick to spring him. Money his brother might not even have. Thankfully, “Lucky Chance,” could pay him back. His success at the card tables of Vegas and A.C. and his flourishing construction and solar energy business ensured he wouldn’t have to beg scraps from Brick’s table.

  “Can’t I work something out with you, cat?”

  “No. You should thank your sweet ass Brick’s mated to my niece, doing well, and lets me spoil the cutest pair of young you’ll ever hope to see. Or I’d leave your stinkin’ mangy wolf hide to rot in here forever.”

  Brick is mated to a cat? Holy fuckin’ shit. I’m an uncle? To kittens? Half kittens? What the fuck?

  He’d definitely been away too long but he’d never been able to return before. Not with Magnum in charge and the threats he’d made hanging over Chance’s head. And Julie…. Goddess. His eyes stung. Sweet Mother of the Moon. How would he live? How would he stand it? His bold, beautiful Julie compelled by Magnum to mate another male. His eyes might bleed if he saw her with the guy day after day. Witnessed her conjugal bliss with another. Watched her radiant glow of satisfaction after rising from another male’s bed. Or, even worse, her despair from a loveless and unhappy marriage.

  A bolt of pain tore through him, so intense it rivaled the agony of his hangover. He wanted to be happy for her. He did. He told himself he wanted nothing so much as her contentment, but wave after wave of desperate anguish washed over him until he thought he’d drown in misery, like he had so many times before. Torment drove him time after time to reach for the bottle to momentarily blot out the oppressive torture of knowing Julie walked the earth and he could never have her.

  Yes, Los Lobos might have changed, but had the circumstances driving them apart? Would he be forced to watch his Julie living in peaceful domesticity with her mal
e? Maybe with a houseful of brats? His legs buckled and gave way. He slid to his knees, his hands still gripping the bars of his cell.

  Why the fuck had he returned? Had the pull of family, of pack become too strong to ignore any longer? Jesus. How fuckin’ pathetic was he? He was a grown man, damn it. He’d lived life as a lone wolf among humans a good long time now and had done okay for himself. Better than okay. As a successful builder and developer directing and juggling his human crews, and a damn lucky poker player, he didn’t need the embrace of any staggering, decimated pack. If he stayed in Los Lobos, seeing Julie on a daily basis would rip his fuckin’ heart out.

  What would he do to ease the pain? Get blitzed on rotgut bourbon and tear up Shady Heart night after night? What had seemed like such a good idea yesterday…now so fuckin’ lame. Not to mention the others he’d left behind. He hung his head in shame.

  “One more thing, wolf,” Cal continued pitilessly. “You harm a single hair on those little ones’ pelts, or let my baby niece and nephew see you in this condition…and there’ll be fuckin’ hell to pay. You can count on that.”

  ***

  “I have to piss and puke.”

  “Not in my truck you don’t.” Brick slammed on the brakes and brought the vehicle to a screeching halt. Chance shoved open the door and barreled out, tumbling to his knees in one not-quite-fluid motion. Which was fine. Because he had enough fluids to deal with. He collapsed, retching, in the thick grass on the side of the graveled road. He’d have laughed if he wasn’t so sick. The rutted, unpaved byway winding around the mountain from Shady Heart to Los Lobos gave the overgrown path a title it didn’t deserve. Chance could do something about the seedy neglect, though. Would do something…with the new Alpha’s okay. He had skills, after all. He’d learned a lot in the ten years of his absence, and he could provide jobs to other wolves, put them to work. He hadn’t returned completely empty-handed, even if nothing but air currently filled his pockets.

  Waves of nausea steamrolled him again. Only dry heaves, though. He’d apparently brought up every remnant of his last forgotten meal and the gallons of alcohol lubricating it.

  Struggling to his feet, his hands on his zipper, he froze in mid-zip when a raven circling overhead began squawking as if hawks were tearing it apart. When he looked upward, the crazy bird pelted him with a shower of acorns.

  Brick opened the driver’s door and exited the vehicle. He glanced up at the sky and laughed. “I suggest you don’t take your pecker out here unless you want it pecked off.”

  “Friend of yours?”

  “My mate.”

  Chance nearly choked. Was his brother running some kind of harem? How many fuckin’ mates did he have? “I thought your mate was a cat.”

  “You thought semi-wrong. She’s half cougar, half skinwalker. The raven’s her favorite form, though. She prefers to soar and she likes to see what’s going on from the bird’s-eye view. Be glad she only hit you with a few acorns. She used to drop black walnuts on me. If you have to take a leak before we get back to Los Lobos, my advice is to book it into the woods under the tree canopy and do your business behind some thick brush.”

  Chance didn’t need to be told twice. He loped off into the darkest part of the forest. So far, his return had been astonishing. Nothing the way he’d expected it to be. His baby brother, a scrawny, troubled teen who couldn’t trust the voices in his head when Chance had hightailed it out of Los Lobos, had morphed into a big, rugged, happy, and assertive dominant male, broad with the kind of rippling muscles hard work built. Contentment played in Brick’s eyes, and an air of self-assured confidence wrapped around him like a second hide, evident in everything he did. He didn’t seem plagued by his voices and visions anymore. When had he eased into his skin and accepted his worth? Chance had missed so much.

  Was Brick’s demeanor and attitude due to Drew Tao, nut-job Magnum’s son, who had ascended as the new Alpha in Los Lobos after finally taking out his demented father? Or because of the damned screeching bird Brick had mated? Cat. Cat-bird. Whatever.

  Zipping his junk back into his filthy jeans, he returned to the truck. One of the most stunning and alluring women he’d ever seen stood next to his brother, as if Krazy-glued to his side. Brick draped his arm around her shoulders, demonstrating his possession, as if the mate scent didn’t already hang heavy in the air around them. The raven turned out to be a lithe and willowy woman with gorgeous green eyes reminding him strongly of the forest from which he’d just emerged. Her gleaming ebony hair flowed nearly to her waist. Still slim, despite the, what was it again? Kit and pup cubs?

  Well done, li’l bro. Well fuckin’ done.

  A fleeting pang of envy crackled through him then vanished. Once, when he was still a kid, he’d thought he might have something as good with Julie Pembroke. One day, when they were both older, Magnum had decreed otherwise. The rest of the world had barged between them, getting in the way. He might as well flush all those might-have-been regrets down the toilet. If he had any hope of making a new go of it in Los Lobos, he needed to ditch the past and start fresh. Forget…everything. Forget Julie. As. If.

  “Betty swung by to play with the kids and I left her in charge of them,” the green-eyed woman informed Brick. “I hope they don’t make her pull out all her hair by the time we get back.”

  “Yeah, I doubt Drew would like that too much.” Brick grinned and puffed out his chest, his pride at his boisterous brood evident.

  “Drew and Betty managed to patch up their differences?” Chance mused. “So maybe….”

  Brick eyed him thoughtfully. “A lot of people seem to be finding their way back to Los Lobos and to each other now,” he said. “Isn’t always easy, though. Forgot you’d known them before you…left town. Some folks manage to forgive and forget. Others find it harder.”

  “Listen, Brick….” Chance stumbled over his words. What was he supposed to say, anyway? That he’d never forgotten the family he’d left behind? Not for a single moment? That Magnum had threatened them all, including Brick, and then had focused his evil sights on Julie, making it completely untenable for Chance to stay? That every time he’d look at Julie and the male Magnum decided to mate her to, his guts would bleed?

  He and Brick would have to hash out where things stood between them over a couple of shots of tequila at Gee’s bar, if he couldn’t find the right phrases before then. For the moment, he was supremely grateful his brother had done so well and had been willing enough to put bygones aside to bail him out of the Shady Heart jail.

  “I’m good for it, you know,” he murmured.

  “For what?”

  “Whatever you paid the damn cat alpha to spring me. Soon as I get set up here and have my funds wired to Rapid City.”

  Brick shrugged, and the green-eyed woman nudged him in the side, saving Chance from the awkward moment. His brother nodded and dragged her a little closer, offering her a slow wink. “If you haven’t guessed by now, babe, this is my disreputable brother, Lucky Chance.”

  Lucky Chance? Really? How the hell had Brick known that?

  “We may not have a bank, but we’re not exactly cut off from all media, bro.” His grin widened. “This is my glorious Summer. My mate.” He nuzzled the woman’s neck and his voice dropped an octave. “My heart, my soul, my savior.”

  Good thing the contents of Chance’s belly had already emptied or he might have started retching again. Jesus. Brick was the last person he’d ever expected to hear such mushy sentiments from. Back in the day, when Magnum had torn Chance and Julie asunder, Brick had been on the light side of the sympathy scale regarding their broken romance. On the other hand, his baby brother had been battling a legion of demons of his own back then.

  Chance made the appropriate, hello-how-ya-doing-welcome-to-the-family noises, nodding and smiling at Summer, without extending his hand. He didn’t need her rejecting him, and he smelled like crap. Plus, for all he knew, the half cat could bite his limb off and he needed a
n arm to wield a hammer. Willing as he might be to carouse in Shady Heart, the idea of Calhoun Seven’s niece mated to his brother was still a little much to swallow.

  “A lot’s changed around here,” he mumbled.

  “Indeed.”

  “I was so glad to hear you’d returned,” Summer said sweetly. “Brick’s told me…nothing…about you.” She shot her mate a devilish look. “The kids can’t have too many adoring uncles looking after them. Can’t wait for you to meet them. As long as you don’t end up as smitten and spoil them as much as my Uncle Cal.”

  “And everybody else,” Brick added.

  “And everybody else,” she agreed.

  “How about we get Chance settled at Gee’s first, babe? I’m sure he’s looking forward to a shower and a snooze.”

  “Okay, but….”

  He wondered if Summer had been about to argue with Brick, and invite him back to their home. Then he heard the faraway rustling, the faint cry. All thoughts vanished, except one: Julie.

  “Everybody shut up,” he barked.

  They turned to him, stunned by the abrupt command. Brick’s brow creased and the downward tilt of his hard lips showed displeasure far beyond annoyance. Clearly unused to being dictated to anymore, it seemed. He edged still closer to his mate, his brandy-colored eyes flashing wolf amber. Summer’s own eyes widened as she cocked her head to one side.