A brown blur that Annie didn’t recognize intercepted David, tackling him to the ground. Without waiting for any explanation or plea, the new wolf grabbed David’s throat, tearing it out with one swift move, spraying the ground in a shower of blood. David twitched for a few moments before going still.
The kid told you to shove it, the new wolf said, huffing with exertion. He was brown with a white patch on his chest. He seemed a bit wobbly on his feet as he sighed heavily and turned back to Bradley and Annie. Are you okay? he asked the boy.
“Y-yeah,” Bradley said incredulously. “Huck?”
The wolf nodded.
Annie had to process this for a second. She looked back at the spot where her mate had been tied up. The chains had been broken, despite the fact they had been made out of silver. The two wolves on guard were unconscious on the ground.
Huck gave her a wolfish grin that seemed remarkably like him in his human form. There was a hollowness to his grin though. He must have realized that he wasn’t innocent any more; he had killed another person. Annie knew it was going to haunt him for a long time.
Annie ran to Bradley and hugged him.
“I’m proud of you,” she said. “You’re going to be a good pack leader.”
Bradley looked up at her, tears glistening in his eyes. “I’ll need your help, Annie,” he whispered. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to do this.”
“And you’ve got it. For the rest of your life.”
A pair of arms embraced the two of them, joining in their hug. Annie grinned up at her mate, who had transformed back into human.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he murmured to her.
“I’ll try not to,” she said with a smile. “And I don’t think I’ll have to worry about it for a while.” She looked at Huck. Up close, he looked scared of himself. Now he knew what she meant when she said that she was one of the monsters.
Later, she mouthed to him.
He nodded slowly. For now she just wanted to hold and be held by the ones she loved.
Someone draped a cloth over her shoulders. She grabbed it, realized it was a robe, and looked up to see Carmichael grinning down at them. “I told ya t’ wear somethin’ stretchy,” he said. He dropped similar robes on both Bradley and Huck. “Y’all hafta learn not t’ get nekkid.”
Annie laughed and shrugged her robe on. “Thanks, Carmichael,” she said.
“So it’s really over?” Bradley asked.
“I think so,” Huck said. He ruffled the boy’s hair. “You did well, kid.”
“Far better than Mark or I would have done when we were his age,” Gemma cut in. She walked up, Adam at her side. “Our wolves are rounding up the traitors in your pack, Bradley. It’s up to you what to do with them.” She gestured behind her to a line up of prostrate wolves. “We’ll decide what to do with our own traitors.” She pointedly glared at a group of kneeling wolves. They visibly shrank underneath her gaze.
Annie started to tell her that he was too young to make the decision, especially with how terrified Bradley had been for weeks and especially with how close he came to killing David. Huck held up a hand to hold her back while Adam shook his head, a small grin on his face.
Bradley seemed to consider this. “C-can I—” he asked, stuttering. “Can I talk to them?”
Gemma nodded. “Yep. They’re all yours.”
Bradley grabbed Annie’s hand with a white-knuckle grip and pulled her with him to the captured wolves kneeling in a line before him. They wouldn’t look up. Whether it was from pride or shame, Annie didn’t know. Bradley looked at them, tilting his head.
“Why do you guys not want me to be pack leader?” he asked.
Annie’s heart broke at that question. He had to know that it wasn’t about him. That it had everything to do with greed and power. It was nothing to do with him as a person.
One of the wolves looked up. Larry was a Delta wolf who had hit on her once or twice. She wondered what he thought of her now.
“Speak,” Bradley commanded, and Annie marveled at how well he was picking up the role of pack leader.
“We wanted what’s best for us,” Larry said. “And having a kid in power who couldn’t transform... That would leave us open to attack. We wanted to be safe.”
Annie closed her eyes. Could they really consider them traitors? Had they thought of all the different ways they could survive with a young pack leader? And maybe the best option for them was to find new leadership altogether. But then she remembered the way they howled when David was about to challenge Bradley. They had enjoyed that.
She knew then that she couldn’t forgive them, even if though it was the right thing to do, and she wondered if Bradley should. Suddenly, she regretted having him in this position.
“I can transform now,” Bradley told him. “And Annie is an Alpha who is going to look after me. Is that good enough for you? Otherwise...” He faltered, trying to decide. “Otherwise it’s exile. For all of you. I can’t have people I can’t trust.”
So he was giving them a choice. He really was going to be a good pack leader.
Larry murmured something. Bradley leaned forward. “I can’t hear you.”
“I’ll follow you,” the Delta wolf said.
Bradley nodded. “Is that okay with all of you?” he asked.
All of the captured wolves shouted their assent, louder this time.
Bradley nodded, accepting their pledge of fealty. “Then you’re free to go.”
One person at the end hadn’t said anything, her head cast down, as she stayed in a kneeling position. Annie’s stomach turned. This was one wolf she really had no idea what to do with.
“Julia,” Bradley said. “I’m sorry that David is gone.” He cleared his throat. “But you and him—you chased Annie and me. A lot. And you hurt Huck, too. So,” he shifted, “I want you gone. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
Exile. She was dead to them, as she should be.
Julia didn’t say anything.
As the Austin wolves united with the New Orleans pack, Bradley hugged Annie. She picked him up and he wrapped his legs around her torso, being cuddled like he was still a toddler. He looked at her sheepishly and said very softly, “I just want to go home, Annie.”
CHAPTER 11
“I do love a happy ending,” Adam told Gemma with a huge grin. “I know it’s not very Alpha of me, but fuck it. I’m happy for them.”
She kept a smile to herself. Despite their fast metabolisms, her mate was pretty drunk after eleven beers. They were lounging on the deck of the house that served as the New Orleans wolf pack base. He had celebrated with the New Orleans wolves and Mark. Gemma knew that he was going to feel it in the morning.
“Carmichael thinks he saved the day again,” she said.
She remembered her conversation with the Dallas leader. He claimed that he had helped to save the New Orleans pack. Just as he had with the Austin pack when Gemma needed help. And granted, he was joking, but she reminded him that someone else had saved the day.
“What do you think he does in his spare time?” Adam asked.
“Probably practices his pirate accent,” she said wryly. “Har me mateys.”
Adam laughed and she laughed with him. He took another swig of his beer, and she could feel her mouth watering for a drop. “I’d give anything for a gin and tonic,” she groused.
He clumsily leaned over to her, alcohol on his breath. “Can’t,” he said simply. “Because you’re having my baby.”
The thought thrilled her to her core. Parents. They were going to be parents.
“Can you promise me one thing?” she asked. He nodded somberly. “Can you promise me that no matter what, we’ll be there for our child? I don’t want this,” she waved her hand around, “happening with our kids. I don’t want to die and leave them to fend for themselves like Bradley.”
It was an impossible thing to promise, she knew. Who knew what was going to happen in a year, ten years, twenty years? But right t
hen, she needed to hear the words from Adam.
Her mate looked at her, meeting her eyes, a moment of clarity in his inebriation. “I promise you, Gemma Branford, that we will always be there for our children. Through thick and thin, at least one of us will be there. Though I’d prefer it be both of us.”
She grinned, tears forming in her eyes. “Thanks,” she murmured.
“Now,” Adam said with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “What do you say ‘bout changing that last name of yours?”
***
While the bar had been a public area for pack members, Emily and John had kept a private apartment on the second floor for their family. Annie tucked Bradley into his own room that night for the first time in more than a month. He said that he didn’t want to sleep with Annie, that as pack leader he needed to sleep in his own bed. It was kind of hard to believe that he was pack leader with the Legend of Korra and Adventure Time posters plastered to the wall.
But Annie was proud of him.
As for her and Huck, they were going to sleep in the guest room. She was going to have to go through Emily and John’s things at some point, but she didn’t want to do that tonight. Now, she wanted to rest. She wanted to take things one day at a time. She deserved that. They all did.
Annie lay on the queen-sized bed and closed her eyes.
“Did he go down all right?” Huck asked from the doorway of the en-suite.
“Like a light,” she told him. “Said he needs to grow up.”
“He’s already growing up too fast. You should tell him that.” Huck grinned, a faraway look in his eyes. Annie wanted to reach out and touch him to make sure that he was still there. He had turned into a wolf, became a lifelong mate to his childhood girlfriend, killed a man, and now had to take care of a ten-year-old boy.
“Are you okay?” she asked him. “After...everything that’s happened in the last couple of days?”
He paused, considering his answer before speaking. He looked down at her—his faraway look had vanished. He was here, with her, in the now.
“It’s a lot to take in,” he admitted. “But I’ll be fine. I’ve got you and Bradley.” He took a deep breath and combed a hand through his hair. “I had to kill David, otherwise this was going to keep happening. And I couldn’t let that happen to Bradley. I couldn’t let you go through it.”
She reached out and pulled him down to the bed with her.
“I love you,” he whispered, stroking the side of her face. “I’m so glad I found you again.”
She kissed him. “Me too.” You have no idea, Huck.
Huck’s phone vibrated on the bedside table.
“Text message?” she murmured sleepily.
He reached over and thumbed it on. “Yeah,” he muttered. “From Mark.” Suddenly, he went still reading the message. “Holy shit,” he cried, straightening up in bed. “Holy fucking shit, my band was signed!”
“WHAT?” Annie asked, sitting up. She was no longer tired.
“We played the night before you called me. And there was a scout there. I didn’t—” He stopped, obviously trying to get his thoughts in order. “I didn’t think anything would come of it.”
His hands immediately started to shake as he sent a reply back to Mark. At one point, he accidentally cracked the screen with his fingers, and began to gingerly punch the letters in. Annie put her head on his shoulder, watching him reply. She couldn’t believe it.
He sighed and put the phone down on the bed. He leaned back against the pillows, apparently shell-shocked. Annie grinned as she straddled him on the bed, kissing his lips. “I’m so proud of you, love,” she whispered. “I told you your music wasn’t shit.”
“I can’t...” he started, unable to put the words into coherent sentences. “Fuck, I mean, that means that I might have to tour across the country. And write albums. And I might be gone for long periods of time...”
“Hush,” she said putting a finger to his mouth. “It’ll all work out, Huck. I promise. You and I—we’re connected for life. You’re not going to get off easy, just because you’re now famous.” She laughed playfully.
A slow smile came to his lips. “I wrote a song about you, you know,” he said slyly. “The morning after you and I made love. I lost the piece of paper, but I’ve got most of it here.” He tapped his temple. “I’ll just need a bit of work recalling the rest of it.”
She remembered seeing him tapping on his knees and writing on a piece of paper as she came back to their room in Carmichael’s mansion. So he’d been writing a song about her? Her heart was beating heavily in her chest.
“I think you’ll need some more inspiration to remember it,” she said, kissing him deep and hard. He grinned, holding her to him. She started taking off his shirt. “And in the process, let’s make you an Alpha. Sound good?”
He chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.”
BECOMING HER WOLF
CHAPTER 1
The wedding dress was a bit tight around Gemma’s middle, even before it was zipped up.
“When Adam said, ‘Let’s get married in Paris’, I had imagined something a little different,” she grumbled, although there was humor in her voice.
She felt her sister-in-law, Bernie, tug the zipper up in the back, fighting the bulge in her belly. “I’d say a destination wedding to Vegas is still pretty good,” the smaller woman laughed.
Gemma found herself smiling at the thought. Leave it to her fiancé – soon to be husband – to be a bit coy with something like that. They were actually in Las Vegas on official pack business for the convening of the Council of Wolves, but she didn’t know about that when Adam had asked if they could get married in Paris.
“Good thing you guys didn’t postpone any longer,” Bernie said. “You wouldn’t have fit into your wedding dress even tomorrow I reckon.”
“I know,” Gemma agreed.
God, it was so tight, she didn’t even know if she could make it through that night. Originally, they had wanted to elope when they first found out she was pregnantmarried. She and Adam both knew how quickly things could change in their world. But they had to keep moving the wedding date further and further back because they both had to keep stomping out fires, both in their pack and surrounding packs, as a lot of werewolves weren’t happy with the situation in New Orleans. Bradley might have been a full-blown Alpha pack leader at eleven years old, but there were still quite a few packs that resented the that dissented with the fact that the Austin and Dallas packs’ decision to aid the boy.
Bernie let out a satisfied sigh as the zipper cinched past the tightest part in the dress and eased up. “There,” she added. She peered from behind Gemma, meeting her eyes in the mirror. “Now you look like a bride.”
All dressed in white, Gemma felt like a bride. She looked at herself in the mirror, noting how her face was a bit more round and how her boobs had grown two cup sizes in the last four months. Her dark hair had grown out a little bit and her green eyes glowed with an ethereal, healthy aura.
Something like butterflies fluttered in Gemma’s stomach. She held her breath, wondering if she was feeling the baby for the first time. She reverently touched her hand to her stomach. The doctors said that, as this was her first pregnancy, she wouldn’t be able to feel anything until twenty-five weeks, which was still a ways out, but she kept hoping for it.
The door opened and there was an excited shriek. Gemma winced and glanced behind her. Her best friend Annie was standing in the doorway with Bernie’s sixteen-month-old daughter squirming on her hip. But Annie’s attention wasn’t on the baby – she had a huge grin on her face as she watched Gemma. Gemma matched her smile.
Since becoming the Regent Leader of the New Orleans pack, Annie had really stepped out of her shell and blossomed into a confident young woman. Gemma also suspected that had to do with plenty of hot sex from Huck, her rockstar boyfriend. And now, dressed in a slinky little number for the wedding, Annie looked the part of a carefree young woman in every way.
“What do yo
u think?” Gemma asked wryly.
“Oh my God, Gemma, you look gorgeous!” Annie exclaimed.
On her hip, Alba gurgled appreciatively. Annie always had a way with kids. Gemma made a mental note to keep her on call as a babysitter. Granted, Annie and her brood lived in New Orleans while Gemma lived in Austin, but she’d find a way to make that work.
Annie crossed the hotel room and drew Gemma into a one-armed embrace. “I’m so happy for you,” the young woman whispered.
That turned on the waterworks for Gemma. She started crying almost immediately, and she pulled back, meaning to wipe the tears before they fell.
“Oh, Gemma, I’m so sorry—” Annie started.
“I’m fine,” Gemma answered with a self-deprecating laugh. “I think it’s just my hormones.”
“You don’t want to mess up your makeup, hun,” Bernie said. She handed over a handkerchief.
“Thanks,” Gemma said gratefully. She dabbed at her eyes, trying to protect the delicate makeup job. Everything was finally happening. Everything.
Annie summarized it the best. “Time to walk down the aisle, Gemma.”
***
Jon Chase had never seen Adam so nervous.
The werewolf guard sighed and leaned against the wall, watching Adam pace about the hotel room. Mark, Gemma’s brother and Adam’s soon-to-be brother-in-law was chatting idly with him, trying to fill the time before the ceremony.
Jon didn’t understand it. It wasn’t like she was going to say no. Gemma was carrying his baby and they were already mates. This whole wedding thing was just a formality for humans. Jon was a practical man and had never gotten the point of it. It wasn’t that he was cynical. He just knew that there were many other things they should have been putting their energies towards.
Paranormal Magic (Shades of Prey Book 1) Page 85
