Territory - Prequel

by Susan A Bliler

  Cindy.

  “What are you doing here?” Cindy demanded.

  “I’m here to speak to Dell.”

  “No.”

  Chloe slammed her car door, “I’m not leaving ‘till I do.”

  “Yes you are…”

  “CINDY!”

  Both women turned to find Dell and Briggs approaching.

  “But brother, she…”

  “Enough!” Dell barked.

  Chloe noted how the other woman was instantly silenced. When the brother’s were close enough, Briggs grabbed Cindy’s arm and pulled her away, “Come on.”

  Chloe didn’t bother with preamble when her eyes locked on Dell. “I want you and your family to leave us alone.”

  Dell was watching her. Staring too intently. “Please come inside.” He moved aside and extended a hand in invitation.

  “No.” she fidgeted nervously, “I just want to come to an understanding.”

  He tilted his head as he watched her, his nostrils flaring.

  Chloe swore he leaned in marginally. Is he smelling me?

  “It’s going to rain.” He kept his arm extended.

  Tilting her head back to eye the sky, Chloe was about to protest his forecast when a clap of thunder sounded in the distance. She dropped her head to eye her surroundings nervously. They could bury you in the woods and no one would ever know.

  “Chloe,” his tone was soft, “I swear on my life that no one here is going to harm you.”

  When she looked about to cave he continued, “And you’re right. We do need to talk, for the sake of both our families.”

  Mom. With a confidence born of concern over her mother’s safety, Chloe took a tentative step and then another before Dell dropped his hand and stood back allowing her to pass.

  When she nearly brushed him, he recoiled as if he’d been shocked. He recovered quickly, but not quickly enough for Chloe not to have noticed. It wasn’t the first time he’d reacted in such a manner to her touch. At first it had been insulting, but now frankly, it was beginning to scare her a little.

  Chloe stopped to stare at him with brows raised. “I’m not diseased.”

  Dell shook his head, “Of course not.” He shook his head before following her back to the house.

  Back inside, Dell took the lead and led Chloe through an immaculate kitchen down a long corridor and into a large office.

  “Please have a seat.”

  She pulled off her jacket and hung it over the back of the chair before taking a seat. She expected Dell to take the seat behind the desk. Instead he took the chair directly across from her.

  “What can I do for you Chloe?”

  His amenable tone was grating. “I want you and your family to back off!”

  “Back off?”

  “Yes! Back. Off.” She reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear then wished she hadn’t when Dell’s eyes lingered there then slowly slid down the satiny column of her throat to rest on the pulse that beat there. She swore the path his eyes took felt like a caress. Christ! She prayed he couldn’t see her heart rate hike as he watched her.

  Dell didn’t lift his eyes from her throat, “And just which members of my family are the cause of your distress?”

  “Your mother came to see me.”

  With the revelation, Dell’s eyes snapped to hers and he instantly noted that for once he didn’t have to grind his teeth against the pain. Proximity appears to be soothing. “And what exactly did my mother want?”

  She couldn’t hide the flush that stole across her cheeks. “It’s irrelevant, but I want you to call them off. All of them.” She dipped her head, “I apologize for any disrespect I may have exhibited, but when Donnie died…” she didn’t need to finish. “I don’t want any trouble.” She raised her eyes to his then, “I want this to end before my mother is involved, she doesn’t need to be hurt any more than she already has.”

  Dell sat back in his seat, his dark eyes flashing in anger. How dare his pack act so irrationally that this woman, his woman would have to come to him to beg for peace. He knew she would rather die than have to beg, especially of him.

  “Other members of my family have harassed you as well?”

  Again she averted her eyes. “Someone’s been following me.”

  “Who,” he demanded.

  She shook her head, “I’m not sure. I’ve only seen them in the woods.”

  “The woods?”

  “I go jogging. They’ve been,” she shrugged a shoulder, “following me. I think they want me dead.”

  Dell sat straighter. His grip tightened on the arms of the chair and he had to force himself to relax when Chloe’s eyes flashed to the sound of the creaking wood. “You’ve seen this person. What does he look like?” His gut wrenched when she caught her plump bottom lip between perfect white teeth.

  “I didn’t see much, it happened too quickly. Reddish fur, smaller than the first wolf.”

  Her nonchalance with the subject was unnerving and had him questioning whether or not it was some form of well laid trap. “Wolf? You’re being followed by a wolf?”

  She raised her eyes to his. She knew he needed to see the truth in her words. Hell, she couldn’t understand herself why she even believed it. “I encountered a wolf about two weeks ago. He was large and approachable.”

  “And you encountered a second wolf?”

  “Yes. It wasn’t as…”

  “Approachable,” he supplied.

  She nodded.

  “Has it tried to harm you?”

  “I can’t say for sure.”

  Dell ground his teeth together. If someone tried to hurt her… “What do you mean you can’t say? Either it has or it hasn’t.”

  “I tried to stay away from it, leave it alone. I almost fell off a cliff in the process. I’m not certain if it was the wolf’s fault or mine. It seemed to be steering me in that direction. Luckily I’m fit enough that I was able to save myself.”

  “And you think these wolves have something to do with my family?”

  “I’m not saying they do or they don’t. I’m just asking that since you’re the Alpha if you could call them off, ask them to leave me and my mother alone.”

  “Alpha? What other stories has my mother told you?”

  She shoved out of her chair then, “Look, I’m not accusing you or your people of anything. I’m just asking—if it is your family—for you to make them stay away.”

  Dell stood too, pacing slowly to put himself between her and the door. “Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?”

  She felt her cheeks flame, Oh God, what if I was wrong. “It’s hard to believe and it’s even harder to say.”

  “So you think I’m the Alpha to a pack of shape-shifting werewolves?”

  “When you put it like that it sounds ridiculous.”

  “It is ridiculous.”

  Her shoulders slumped as she dropped her head and mumbled under her breath, “I knew I shouldn’t have come.”

  “You don’t find it alarming that your standing here appealing to what you think is the leader of a fictitious breed of humans?”

  “I don’t care what you are,” she challenged angrily, “I only care how you conduct yourselves.” Tears stung at the back of her eyes, “I’m here being as honest and as forthright as I can possibly be. I had hoped you’d have the fucking decency to approach this in the same manner.”

  When Dell laughed mockingly, she jerked her jacket up from the chair and made to leave when he intentionally blocked her path.

  “Get out of my way!”

  He couldn’t let her go yet. This was the first time in weeks he’d been at peace. He’d have to take the chance that he could trust her.

  “It was me.”

  She lifted stunned eyes to his.

  “T
hat first wolf in the woods, it was me.”

  She rolled her eyes as she shoved an arm into her sleeve, “Yeah? Ten seconds ago I’m a freak and now you wanna play along?”

  She needed proof. Dell cleared his throat, “You were having a break down over Donnie.”

  Chloe stilled with her second arm halfway into her sleeve, letting silence hang between them for several long moments before whispering, “It was a very personal moment.”

  “I know.”

  She fought the wave of embarrassment the swamped her, “It wasn’t yours to witness.”

  “I know and I apologize for intruding. It was unintentional. When I scented your pain…”

  Her mouth opened slightly.

  “I thought someone was injured.”

  The frown he’d been so accustomed to seeing on her soft features returned. “Someone was injured.”

  “Chloe, please sit down. We need to finish this.”

  She chewed on the inside of her lip before crossing her arms over her chest and reclaiming her seat. “Are you going to call them off or not?”

  He followed her then sat behind the desk before he nodded once, “Yes.”

  “Thank you.” she stood again, “Then we’re finished.”

  “Wait.”

  Why did she have the strangest feeling that she should leave and leave now? “I have to go.”

  “I want to know what else my mother told you.”

  She cursed the telling flush that stole across her cheeks. “Nothing, just the truth about your people.”

  “You should know I can scent deceit.”

  Her eyes found his, “That must be very useful.”

  “It is.” He slowly stood leaning forward and bracing his hands on the desk. “What else did she tell you Chloe?”

  She smiled, shaking her head as she dropped her eyes to watch one small hand massage the other. “She threatened me.”

  “Threatened how?”

  She kept her eyes down. “She said you were coming for me.”

  “Did she say why?”

  Taking a step back she looked up, “She thinks I’m your…” she gave a weak laugh. “She thinks I’m your mate.”

  “And that’s threatening to you?” he challenged.

  “I don’t want any trouble. I don’t want my mother brought into this, and I don’t want whatever it is that you are to affect my mother’s life. You have no cause to hunt me.”

  “Mating is not hunting.”

  Her flush deepened. “It is for those who won’t allow it.”

  “You’re behavior here today suggests you might be agreeable to our way of life.”

  “I’ve done nothing to suggest that.”

  “Your apparent ease of acceptance of my people is sufficient enough in and of itself for any shifter to want to claim you.”

  “So my flaw is my acceptance?”

  He slowly came around the desk and smiled as he dipped his head to eye her, “I didn’t say it was a flaw.”

  Her heart rate kicked up and she wondered if he could hear it. “I don’t know if there’s any truth to it and I don’t care. If your mother’s intention was to frighten me, it worked.”

  He stepped closer, “It was not her intention.” Still he stalked closer, “And it is true Chloe.” Finally, within reach he lifted a hand and reached for her, “You are my mate.”

  “Don’t touch me!” she jumped back. “Every time you touch me, something happens.”

  He smiled then dropping his hand, “It’s because we’re bound.”

  “No,” her brows knitted, “we aren’t!”

  “It’s funny actually. At first, when you dropped me to my knees at your mother’s house, I thought you were using medicine on me. I hadn’t been concerned in the least with the mating ritual so I never bothered to learn anything of it. I wasn’t aware of what was actually happening.”

  “I didn’t harm you.”

  He fought the smile that her honesty drew forth. “I know now that you did not, but I didn’t know what was happening at first. I wasn’t aware the ritual had begun.”

  “Ritual?”

  “We don’t just date and then decide to marry. Our mates are pre-destined. When we meet them…”

  “Wait,” she held up her hands, “I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want to hear any more of your family’s secrets.” She backed up until she hit the wall, “The less I know, the safer for everyone involved.” She reached around and clicked the door open behind her, “We agree to stay away from each other, leave each other’s family in peace. Thank you for that.” She turned to exit the room, but his next words halted her.

  “That’s not what I agreed to.”

  She turned to eye him over her shoulder, anger sparking to life. “But you said…”

  “I said I’d call off my pack, that they’d leave you and your mother in peace.” He grinned, “I didn’t agree to stay away from you.”

  “Why are you backing out of our deal?”

  “Deal,” he challenged. “A deal signifies that there has been some bargain struck. Here, only I’ve agreed to give you what you seek. You have yet to agree to reciprocate.”

  She didn’t bother to disguise the incredulity in her tone. “You want me to give you something in exchange for calling your pack off my family?”

  Dell let his eyes slide up and down her slight frame, noting how she shivered under his scrutiny. “Yes.”

  “What do you want?”

  Silence hung between them and she couldn’t seem to pull her eyes from his.

  “Your character is as intriguing as your beauty. Pity the first can be used to manipulate you.”

  “What do you want?” Chloe demanded again angrily.

  “You.”

  The simple word hung between them for several breathless moments.

  “No,” she yanked the door open and walked away.

  “Not even for the sake of your mother?”

  The words drew her to a halt. She turned her head but didn’t meet his eyes as she whispered, “You’d use my mother to get what you want from me?”

  He walked slowly toward her until he was towering over her, his chest a breath away from her back as he lifted his fingers to rub her satiny hair between them. “Right now, I’d use anything I could, but it’s not what you think. The red wolf you described must be an outsider. None of my pack would be so foolish. If he’s not one of mine you’ll need our protection.”

  “No one else has cause to bother us.”

  “Until I know for sure, I’ll assign a security detail to you and your mother.”

  “NO!” she spun on him then, “I don’t want you coming closer, I want you moving further away.” She threw up her hands, “Look, if you don’t know who it is, it’s probably just a real wolf.”

  “Real wolves are just as dangerous.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “You no longer need to.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that you coming here was the biggest mistake you could have ever made. You should have stayed away. Now, you know too much.”

  Her eyes grew wide. “I would never tell…”

  “That’s not a concern of mine.” He groaned and raked a hand through his hair, “I wish you’d have never come.”

  Chloe jumped, her eyes shooting over her shoulder when she heard footsteps at the other end of the hall. Two large men stood, hands balled into fists, clearly prepared for battle. Her body began to tremble and she turned imploring eyes to Dell to whisper, “Wh-what are you going to do?”

  He pinned her with his gaze, “I’m going to let you go home. I’m going to assign you and your mother protection. Unfortunately for you, your presence here has stirred my wolf within. He’s making demands and I must comply.”

&n
bsp; She shook her head in confusion.

  “I’m going to give you the opportunity to come to me of your own free will. I expect you here every Friday. Pack a bag and plan to stay until Monday.”

  “But. I can’t…”

  “If you fail to come to me of your own accord,” he stepped closer slowly drawing in the scent of her, “then my mother’s threat will come to fruition. Don’t make me come for you Chloe, you won’t like the consequences.” His eyes darted to the two men at the end of the hall, “AJ, follow her home. Ensure she arrives safely. Pony! Get to the forest just south of her mother’s residence. I want to know who’s stalking those woods.”

  Chloe watched as one man disappeared and the other slowly approached as if waiting on her. When she turned back to Dell he was letting his eyes rove her features.

  “I’ll see you Friday. In the mean time no jogging in the woods.”

  For a brief moment, she thought he was going to lean down and kiss her. Instead he turned and walked back to his office.

  “Dell! Why are you doing this?”

  He stopped and turned back to her, “I want to see if there is in fact something to this mating bond we share.” He kept his eyes on her face, “AJ, get her home.”

  “Wait!”

  Dell ignored her plea and entered his office, closing the door firmly behind him.

  Chloe turned to stare at AJ. “Is there someone else I can talk to, someone in charge?”

  AJ smiled cynically, “Sorry. He’s the Alpha. There’s no one higher on the totem pole than that. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.”

  Unsure what else to do, Chloe followed AJ out and climbed into her car. She drove through the rain as quickly as she could down the mountain road that led to the highway. Unlike her arrival, she was no longer concerned with the undercarriage of her vehicle as she pushed to put some distance between herself and the Blackbird compound.

  To her surprise and terror, a large gray wolf shadowed her vehicle, not even attempting to conceal itself.

  AJ?

  “Ridiculous! This whole fucking thing is just...” she couldn’t supply a better word, “RIDICULOUS!” What in the hell had just happened. She’d gone to Dell hoping to appeal to his sense of righteousness. It was apparent now that he didn’t have any. She’d feigned belief in their stupid myths and what had it gotten her? Mated! Or claimed, or whatever the hell it was he said.