by Zena Wynn
“It means shifter females have a shorter gestation period than human women. At the rate Shayla’s progressing, even though you conceived before her, you’ll be delivering around the same time,” Alex explained.
“Have you told Auntie Yona?” Kee asked.
Shay’s eyes widened. “Have you lost your mind?” she asked.
“Shay, you have to tell her,” Kee fussed.
“I will.” Eventually.
“What I want to know is why you didn’t call Laurie Bell to check you out. She’s the pack’s midwife,” Caleb stated.
When Shay glanced over her shoulder at him, she could tell he was displeased. Tough. “Alex is family.”
“Pack is family,” Caleb argued.
“I’d still like to know what this is about,” Alex stated.
“And I’ll be happy to tell you, after Rory arrives. Now, Shannon, Kiesha, and I are going shopping,” Shay told the men as she stood.
“Shopping?” Caleb asked. “Does Rory know about this?”
“Rory’s my mate, not my keeper. I don’t have to report my every movement to him,” Shay said, frowning.
“You’re right. Which store are we going to?” Caleb asked.
“We’re not going anywhere. I’m going with my two friends,” Shayla said.
Caleb was shaking his head before she finished. “You don’t have to report your every movement to him, but I do. Rory’s not here, which means I’m your shadow until he returns.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but the sight of Alex and Nikolai rising halted the words before they formed. “Where—”
“Where she goes, I go,” Alex answered, pointing at Kiesha.
Shay turned to Nikolai. When he merely smiled, she gave up. She glanced down at Kian. “I suppose you’re coming too?”
Kian shook his muzzle. Shay was getting used to having a wolf respond like a human.
“Fine! The one person that has a valid reason to ride doesn’t want to. All right, if we’re going, let’s go,” she ordered.
* * * *
The trip to the nearby dollar store took less than a half an hour. When they returned, the men couldn’t simply let the women hang the pictures. No, they had to pull out measuring tapes and tap for studs. God forbid the females hurt themselves doing such dangerous activities. In retaliation the women hassled and teased the men. They were laughing and having fun when Shay heard Rory’s truck pull into the yard.
It was a measure of her distraction that Shay didn’t notice Kian disappear from the basement. He’d been doing so off and on the entire time everyone was present. Shay marked it down to Kian being a loner.
“Shayla!” Her name was roared loud enough to rattle the windows.
Realization hit. “Kian, you traitor! I told you not to say anything!”
Shay flew up the stairs and ran headlong into Rory at the door of the basement. He gripped her by the arms, snatched her off her feet, and gave her a shake. “Why the hell didn’t you call me?”
“Take your hands off her, you bastard! She’s pregnant. You can’t be shaking her,” Kiesha hollered, coming up the stairs behind her.
“Kee, this is mate business. Stay out of it.” Alex’s voice drifted up the stairwell.
“I’m fine,” she said to Kiesha. “We’re fine,” she told Rory in a softer voice, cupping his face gently.
Rory pulled her close into a bear hug. He literally shook in her arms. “She could have killed the babe, and it would have been my fault.”
“Shhh. She didn’t, so stop talking stupid.” Shay rubbed his back, nuzzled his cheek, and held him until he calmed. She understood his fear. She’d been frantic when she’d first found out, but now that Alex had verified everything was okay, she’d settled.
“We’re blocking the doorway,” she told him when the shaking stopped.
He backed farther into the kitchen, then slowly lowered her to the floor. His gaze staring calmly into hers, he said in a cold voice, “She’s dead.”
Knowing better than to argue with him when he was in alpha protective mode, Shay merely nodded. She’d talk to him about it later when he wasn’t as furious.
“He’s here now,” Shannon said from behind her. “Tell us why you called us all together.”
Shay motioned everyone into the living room. Caleb, in his role as the alphas’ protector, lagged after. “The food?” she asked him.
“Should be here in another thirty minutes or so. I estimated for Rory’s arrival,” Caleb said. In his eyes she saw a curiosity as great as the others.
Rory all but carried Shay into the living room. He plopped down in his recliner and pulled her sideways across his lap. Kiesha, Alex, and Caleb claimed the couch, Shannon and Nikolai the love seat, and Kian slunk in, ears and tail low, and stretched out on the floor.
“You are so busted, Mister,” she told the wolf.
He lowered his muzzle to the floor and placed one paw over his eyes. Shay bit back a smile at his antics.
“Leave my brother alone. At least one of you knew the right thing to do,” Rory drawled. “Are you sure the babe’s fine?” He placed a hand over her stomach and rubbed it in a circle.
Understanding his need for reassurance, Shay glanced at Alex and said, “Alex, you tell him.”
“She’s healthy. Her pregnancy is progressing at a nice, if accelerated rate,” Alex assured him. Then he pinned Shayla with a steely-eyed gaze and said, “Now that your mate is here, will you be so kind as to tell me what this is all about?”
“You didn’t tell him?” Rory asked.
Kiesha rolled her eyes. “She refused to tell anyone anything until you got here.”
“Well now, thank you for waiting,” Rory said, sounding mildly satisfied. “Go ahead and tell them.”
With Rory’s permission, Shay told the group about the tea she’d been drinking and what she’d discovered about the ingredients.
“Shay, I told you all that herbal stuff can be dangerous. It’s not regulated the way medicine is and while I know you’re extremely knowledgeable, some things you need to leave to the professionals,” Kee said.
Her cousin Kiesha was a traditional sort of gal. She preferred pharmaceuticals over natural remedies. She also preferred junk food to the healthy stuff, but that was another issue altogether.
Alex was a bit quicker on the uptake. “Someone gave you the tea, hoping you’d miscarry,” he guessed quietly. “That’s why you insisted I come.”
“Who would do such a thing?” her cousin asked, horrified.
Caleb stiffened and leaned forward out of his formerly relaxed but watchful pose. “Laurie Bell.”
“Aye,” Rory all but snarled.
“Laurie Bell?” Shannon’s voice was high, filled with disbelief.
“Who’s Laurie Bell?” Kiesha asked.
“The pack’s midwife,” Alex answered.
Shay laid her head on Rory’s shoulder, and he stroked her back in a gentle caress. She wasn’t sure which one of them the gesture was meant to calm—him or her.
“But that’s—” Shannon sputtered.
Shay shared a glance with Kian. “Kian said she hates you—all of you—and always has.”
Kian’s gaze flicked past hers to Rory’s, and Shay had the sense that they were communicating.
“Kian warned me and Da about her, but we never listened. Thought his dislike of the pack was skewing his perception. I’m sorry,” Rory said to his brother. To the rest of them he said, “It didn’t seem possible, and after my mother died, well, Laurie Bell was a great help. Almost a surrogate mother. She definitely smoothed my transition to alpha.”
“And you felt guilty for killing her mate,” Shay added.
“Why?” Caleb asked. “It was a fair challenge. He knew the potential outcome, even insisted on it. Why should you feel guilty for giving the man exactly what he asked for?”
“We outlawed death challenges a long time ago, but even so, there are times when you aren’t given a choice,” Alex said. “It’
s the nature of the beast.”
“But I don’t understand. Why would Laurie Bell do such a thing?” Shannon burst out. Nikolai pulled her closer to him and stroked her arm in a comforting manner.
“A woman scorned,” Shay murmured.
They all looked at her.
“What did you say, Shay?” Rory asked.
“A woman scorned,” she repeated a bit louder. “You know the saying, ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Shannon stated.
Shay shrugged. “It makes perfect sense to me. Rory told me Laurie Bell was raised with the expectation she and your father would mate. Can you imagine how she felt being tossed over, and for a lowly omega?”
Shannon scoffed. “Shay, everyone knows my father mated my mother because she was pregnant. Besides, he was a right bastard. Who would want him?”
Shay shook her head. “I don’t believe that. I think what really happened is your father impregnated your mother because he wanted to mate with her.”
There was a stunned silence in the room.
“I’m feeling a little lost here,” Kiesha admitted. “Could you go back to the beginning for those of us who don’t have a clue what you’re talking about and explain?”
Very aware of Rory’s silence behind her, Shayla explained her thought process. “When explaining the history of this house and its occupants, Rory mentioned that not only the alphas, but at one time the betas and members of the council used to live here. He said his father and Laurie Bell grew up together under this very roof, and it was always understood the two of them would mate.”
Shay looked at Shannon, who appeared pale and shaky. “Shannon, you’re the one who explained how shifter males valued strength in a female. The stronger the female, the stronger the pups,” she reminded.
“Yes,” Shannon agreed with a slow nod.
“So, that being the case, your father mating your mother because she accidentally got pregnant never made sense to me. She was a shifter. From what I’ve learned, shifter females can only get pregnant while they’re in heat. Your father could have easily avoided her during this time if he’d really wanted to. Correct?”
Shay paused for a moment to let that sink in, still aware of Rory sitting entirely too still and quiet. “I think what happened is your parents fell in love. Maybe it started out as a casual fuck on his part, but something about her captured him. He knew his father, hell, the entire pack would never accept your mother as their future alpha’s mate unless he had a pretty compelling reason so…”
“He got her pregnant, knowing how shifters feel about bastard children,” Kiesha concluded.
“That’s my take,” Shay said in agreement.
“With twin boys,” Shannon added. From her expression, Shannon was beginning to agree with Shay’s analysis of the situation.
“Rory and Caleb will have to confirm if I’m right, but I’d imagine with the pack’s mortality rate being what it is, your mother being a proven breeder would have given her instant status,” Shay commented.
“It did for a while,” Rory mused.
“But it wasn’t enough,” Shannon added. “Ma was always having to prove herself, prove she was worthy of being alpha-fem. The pack never fully accepted her as my father’s equal, or his mate.”
“How much you want to bet Laurie Bell kept things stirred up? Nothing that could be traced back to her. Just a few seeds of doubt planted here and there.” When no one commented, she continued, “Again, this is all speculation on my part.”
“It’s a good theory and would explain much,” Nikolai said.
“So what do we do now?” Kiesha asked. “I hope you plan to fry the bitch.” She placed a protective hand over her rounded belly, and Alex’s hand covered hers. Her expression showed her horror at the thought of anyone trying to harm her unborn child.
“I’ll handle it,” Rory said in a tone that said the issue was closed.
“Dead woman walking,” Caleb said in an undertone.
“No,” Shay disagreed, glaring at her mate. “We’ll handle it together. My biggest concern is that she may not be the only threat.”
That started another round of questions, this time from the men in the room. Ignoring the others, Shay kept her gaze on Rory’s until he finally nodded. “We’ll handle it.”
She gave him a small smile. “Right answer.”
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. The e-mail she’d been waiting for from the herbalist was in her in-box. “Kiesha, Shannon, tell Alex, Nikolai, and Caleb what Conor told me,” she instructed as she opened the e-mail.
She vaguely heard Nikolai say in a grim voice, “Conor’s involved in this?”
“What’s that?” Rory murmured.
Turning the small screen where he could view it to, Shay said, “The herbs in the tea.”
As Rory read, his hazel eyes sparkled with gold. A flush rose from his neck to fill his face. His gaze lifted from the screen. “You know I won’t let her live for this insult. Don’t even think of trying to talk me out of killing her. She threatened you, our child. Pack law allows me to exterminate her.”
“You’re alpha. You make the law,” Shayla reminded him.
He bared his teeth. “Exactly.”
Shay judged the others’ conversation to be winding down, and handed her phone to Alex. “These are the herbs she placed in the tea.” The herbalist had listed each ingredient and its effect on her pregnancy.
After reading the screen, Alex said, “She’s canny. The mixture she gave you would have taken time to take effect, long enough that no one would have suspected her of being the cause. One of these herbs increases blood flow. There’s a good possibility you would have bled out if help wasn’t rendered in time.”
“And in a crisis situation, we’d have called for the nearest medical personnel—Laurie Bell—leaving her on hand to ensure the results she desired,” Shay said.
Shannon shook her head. “Say she did manage to kill you and the baby, Shay. What would be the purpose? What satisfaction could she possibly gain?”
It was Caleb who answered. “With you gone and Shay dead, Laurie Bell would once more be the most powerful female in the pack.”
Could it really be that simple?
“All this to be top dog?” Kiesha asked in disbelief, then sheepishly added when Alex fired her a warning look, “No pun intended.”
“It’s possible,” Shay answered, considering it. “Think about it. As…Magnus?” Shay shot a questioning glance at Rory to make sure she had the name right. When he nodded, she continued, “As Magnus’s mate, she’d have been alpha-fem. When he mated your mother instead, she settled for second best, Magnus’s beta. Being the pack’s healer gives her a certain amount of clout. Rory said the healer is outside of the pack hierarchy, correct?”
“That’s true with all packs,” Alex agreed.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Laurie Bell was behind her mate’s decision to fight for the position of alpha. Had he won, she would have stepped up to her rightful place, the one stolen by your mother,” Shay said.
“That’s a whole lot of evil attributed to one person,” Kiesha said, her tone and the frown on her face showing her doubts.
“Women and men have done less for power,” Nikolai reminded.
“All this is interesting conjecture, but what if you’re wrong?” Caleb asked.
“I guess I’ll just have to ask Laurie Bell why she did it,” Shayla answered smartly.
Rory gripped Shay’s chin and turned her face toward him. “You won’t be getting close enough to Laurie Bell to ask her anything.”
“Of course I will,” Shay countered. “We have to continue on as normal, like we don’t know.”
“No.” Very firm. Very final.
“Rory, be reasonable and think for a moment. I’m all for pack justice, but you can’t just kill the woman, not without proof. She’s damn good at what she’s doing. She’s the pack healer, for God’s sake. She ha
s almost as much, if not more, clout than you. Who’s going to believe she intentionally tried to harm our child? By your own admission, Kian’s known her true nature for years and no one believed him when he tried to warn you. You think the pack will believe you?” Shay asked, her eyes gazing appealingly into his.
Rory opened his mouth to answer, but she continued, pressing her point. “Some might, but there’ll always be this question in their mind. This fear. Worse, you’ll undo everything you spent these last years trying to build.”
Eyes narrowed, a hint of gold around the pupils, he said, “Fuck the pack.”
Shay shook her head and cupped his clenched cheek. “You say that now because you’re angry and frustrated, but you also know I’m right.”
He growled low and fierce, the sound rumbling through his chest. The gold edged out a little more of the hazel.
“We need to trap her. Force her into showing her true face, not only to us but to the pack,” Shay finished.
“And how do you propose to do that?” Caleb asked. As the man most responsible for the alphas’ safety, of course he’d want to know.
Shay’s gaze was measuring, watching closely to see his reaction to her coming question. “Rory, do you trust Caleb?”
“Shay!” Kiesha protested.
“Aye, with both our lives.” Rory’s answer came swift, with no hesitation or qualifications.
Caleb’s eyes crinkled with suppressed humor, and the corners of his mouth tilted up ever so slightly. “Shay, I have no desire to rule. I’m content where I am. Besides, if something happened to Rory, I’m not the one the pack would look to for leadership.” He glanced pointedly at Kian, who showed no reaction to Caleb’s claim.
Shay allowed a small smile to appear. “I thought so, but it doesn’t hurt to be sure. Okay, first I think we should let Ms. Thing believe her plan is working. I’m sure half the pack knows you guys are here. Caleb, maybe you could let it leak that Alex examined me and is concerned about the progress of my pregnancy.”
Rory’s body turned to granite beneath her. “Not just no, but hell no. You will not set yourself up as bait.”
Shay turned so they were face-to-face. “You know this is the only way. Conor said our enemies were treacherous. They won’t come against us openly, so we’ll have to outtrick them.”
