“They’re not afraid to look at me. That’s a sign of respect, Tommie.”
“Maybe it is,” she conceded, though she didn’t sound like she believed it. “But it’s not a tactic to use when talking to a teenaged girl. Besides, I’m the one she wronged. I’m the one who should discuss it with her.”
“Fine,” he laughed. “You go have your discussion, but you make damn sure she understands that if it happens again, she’ll be talking to me.”
“Yes, sir.” Tommie used the hand she saluted him with to stop him when she placed it on his chest. “Now that I‘ve saved you the trouble of talking to Macey, you have time to kiss me again. And make it a good one, one that’ll make me think of you all night long so I’m extra ready when you come home.”
Bull pulled her to him, and did as she ordered. Slanting his head to the side, he captured her mouth and demanded entry. His tongue force its way between her lips and she immediately yielded. Her body pressed into his. Her arms lifted and circled his neck as she kissed him back.
Damn, but he was going to miss the bossy little bitch when it was time for him to go.
Chapter 19
The celebration had fallen apart. In the few minutes it took them to walk back to the camp, the cries of victory had turned to shouts of anger. Tommie couldn’t believe how quickly the party deteriorated into a near brawl.
“You’re not listening to me, Shorty,” Samuel shouted at a slightly built man who Tommie had seen limping around camp.
“And who the hell are you to tell me anything,” Shorty bellowed in a voice that belonged to a man twice his size. “Just because you sleep in that damned bus doesn’t make you the boss. Me and Sarah and the cub will be better off on our own.”
“You’ll starve on your own,” Samuel argued.
“We’re gonna starve anyway. Bogie lost every last dollar while you and Eli were stuck in that place.”
“That’s your own damn fault. Why didn’t you stop him. Why weren’t you earnin’ instead of spendin’. I can tell you why...”
A third man joined in and Tommie wasn’t sure whose side he was on. Maybe he wasn’t on any side at all. Everyone seemed to have a side of their own.
Samuel and Shorty weren’t the only ones. Boris was squared off with the tall thin man everyone called Stretch. Two of the cubs were rolling on the ground, pounding on each other or grappling for a headlock, Tommie wasn’t sure which.
“Take it back!” one shouted as his fist connected with the others’ nose.
The women were no better, though they were quieter, except for the heavy set woman. Tommie had been introduced, but didn’t remember her name.
“This is Eli’s fault,” she screeched at a sobbing Molly. “If he’d done like everyone else, this wouldn’t have happened. If he’d kept an eye on that little bitch of yours instead of running off all the time, there wouldn’t have been a reason to go, but while he was running, so was she. ‘Cept she was running with that horny hound.
“Macey wasn’t the reason you chose to go,” Cora shouted.
“And I don’t recall anyone inviting you,” another woman chimed in.
There was more than anger. Worry and fear filled the air around them. Tommie felt like she could almost touch it, like it was filling her, too. She raised her hands and called to them for quiet. No one listened to her.
But all heads turned when the air was suddenly filled with something else. It rolled over the arguing crowd in waves. The shouting and screeching was already subsiding by the time Bull roared.
“Listen!”
Everyone listened to Bull. It was impossible not to. Tommie was pretty sure even the birds and squirrels shut up and listened. She, herself, was listening intently. A loose log rolled from the pile. In the silence it sounded like thunder. Beside her, Bull was doing his huffy-puffy thing.
She’d thought Bull used the power of whatever-it-was to frighten people, just as the Alpha had used it that afternoon, but she’d been wrong. The air around them was clear of all worry, anger, and fear. They all felt secure with Bull in charge.
It wasn’t until she looked up at him to smile that she realized her head was bowed, too, and her eyes were lowered like the others. When he looked down at her, she grinned.
“Huffy-puffy,” she whispered and gave him a thumbs up.
Bull shook his head and sighed. The power that held them dissipated as quickly as it came.
“Look at me. Right up here,” he said, and tapped his nose.
He waited patiently while the woman, Sarah, lifted her toddler into her arms and directed the child’s attention to the only wolver who was speaking. Bull gave her what looked like a congratulatory nod, and it must have been, because Sarah beamed in response like she’d been given a gift. He then made eye contact with every wolver in the group, moving from a face to face, and for every one that lowered their eyes, he repeated, “Look at me.”
When his eyes reached her, Tommie felt the she-wolf standing a little taller and she straightened her spine along with it. She felt the burst of pride for her wolver. She didn’t, however, like what the big guy had to say.
“You will all die in one way or another,” he began. “He will destroy you as a group, or he will pick you off one by one, but you will die. The best hope you have is for those pups. If you’re lucky, he’ll raise them up as examples of what happens to the families of those who betray him.”
There was a short, sharp cry from the mother who’d earned Bull’s silent praise.
“Bull,” Tommie complained, “Don’t be so mean.” He’d calmed them down only to scare the hell out of them.
“Shut up, Tommie,” he snapped at her and then he said to the rest, “You stole from him and you humiliated him and he’s not going to let that go. You want to run? I won’t stop you, but you take what you can carry and head out through the woods, because you won’t make it on the road. They’re watching. I know, because it’s what I would do.”
Stretch started to speak, but then snapped his mouth shut.
Bull’s eyes went directly to him. “If you have a question, ask it. If you have a complaint, voice it. If you’re going to lay blame at anyone’s feet but your own, swallow it.”
It wasn’t Stretch who spoke. It was Shorty. “If we’re all gonna die anyway, why’d you make the plan?”
“Because I thought the practice drills would help you come together as a group,” Bull said, his voice rising with each sentence. “Because you said you hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the Alpha or his men. And because, goddamnit, you didn’t mention you stole ten thousand fucking dollars from him!”
Tommie leaned into him. “Bull, there are children listening.”
He glared at her for a moment and then shut his eyes and Tommie got the feeling his eyes were rolling heavenward behind the lids. When he opened them again, he was calmer.
“You did a good job today. You did exactly what you were supposed to do, but you only won because he chose to let you. He had five trained men with him and he held his fire. I have to ask myself why. The only thing I can come up with is that he knows you. He knows none of you have experience in any kind of Challenge or turf war.
“He figured if he gave the order he’d win, but he’d lose one or two of his men before you were all dead or surrendered. He figured he could come back when the odds were more in his favor and win with no losses at all.”
Samuel took a seat on the wooden picnic table. His shoulders slumped. “So we didn’t win.”
“No, Samuel, you didn’t, but that’s not on you. That’s on me. I shouldn’t have left you. Had I been there, you would have won. I would have seen what he was doing and I would have killed him while I had the chance.”
Tommie had been listening closely to Bull. She played it over in her mind, comparing what she saw to what he said, and it made sense, right up until his last statement.
“No,” she said, and only realized she’d spoken aloud when Bull questioned her.
“Excuse me?” he
asked in disbelief.
“Why?” She asked and then, “Oh,” when she finally caught up. “It wouldn’t have worked that way. As soon as that Alpha saw you, his plans would have changed. He did what he did only because he saw weakness. No offense,” she said to the others.
“None taken,” Cora answered and flicked her hand. “Keep going. You’re making more sense than the rest of these yahoos were.”
Encouraged, Tommie went on. “He expected weakness and that’s what he saw. That’s what he based his calculations on. If he’d seen you, Bull, it would have changed the equation.” A shiver ran through her. “He would have shot you first.”
“And then we’d still be up Shit’s Creek,” Shorty nodded. “So it’s good you weren’t there, cuz we’re heading into shittier waters here and you’re the only one who knows how to paddle.”
“That’s comforting,” Bull muttered.
~*~
The woman was driving him crazy. One minute he had visions of his hands wrapped around those narrow hips of hers, holding them high and pounding into her until she cried Sweet Jesus before she cried his name. And the next minute, those hands were wrapped around her neck choking the life out her.
“Do you still have one of those guns from this morning?” Bull asked Samuel. “A handgun preferably. Shotguns are too messy.”
“Sure. What you want it for if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I want you to shoot me with it.”
They were sitting at the picnic table, one to a side. Samuel slapped his hands against the wood as he laughed, lips peeled back and mouth open wide. Four teeth, including an incisor, were missing, which meant that as a soldier, Samuel would not only be short a leg but short a fang as well. The others in the group weren’t much better. Bull had twelve fighters and not an alpha among them. They were doomed.
“Two guns,” Bull corrected. “You need to shoot me twice.”
“Boy, you’ve got it bad.” The old man cackled at Bull’s sour looking response.
“All I’ve got is a dozen headaches and one pain in the ass.”
“Yep,” Samuel continued, ignoring Bull’s remark, “I remember those days. Can’t eat. Can’t sleep. Can’t think of nothin’ but sliding between the sheets. And other things,” he added with a wink. “It can drive a wolver crazy. It ain’t no secret you’ve already tasted her sweetness. What’s your wolf got to say about it?”
No, it wasn’t a secret. He was unmated and so was she. They could sleep wherever they wanted. That didn’t mean Bull was about to give details. It wasn’t anyone’s business but his own.
“My wolf doesn’t know which end is up.” He winced when his wolf said otherwise.
“Mate.”
Shit. Bull bounced his forehead on the arms that were crossed on the table, thinking they might as well be a brick wall. There was no room in his life for a mate.
“Well, son, for your sake and hers, I hope you’re wrong and the Alpha don’t show tonight. Give you one more night of sweet heaven before we all go to hell.” Samuel snickered again.
“Alpha. The Alpha,” Bull groused because it beat thinking about Tommie and what he was going to lose. “What the hell is the wolver’s name?”
Samuel shrugged. “Damned if I know. Damned if the others do either. We’re omegas. Nobody tells us anything. They come and go so fast, it doesn’t mean anything anyway. Easier just to say Alpha and don’t bother with names. Won’t matter after tonight. Either he’ll be dead, or we will.”
After looking so defeated with Bull’s assessment of the morning’s confrontation, Samuel became almost lighthearted when Bull explained that they had no choice but to go to war. His excitement infected the others. Bull tried his best to make them understand the seriousness of what would likely happen. They listened carefully to his words and grinned anyway. He was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t Tommie who was infectious. These wolvers seemed to have caught a case of crazy.
“Samuel,” Bull tried again, but the old man held up his hand and stopped him.
“I know what you’re going to say, but you can save your breath. You think we don’t understand. Well, we do. It’s you who don’t.”
“Then make me.” The thought of leading this unconventional bunch to their probable deaths scared the hell out him. He should at least know why they were so happy about it.
“We’re probably going to die tonight, but see, we don’t mind. Like you said, the Alpha was going to get us one way or another. This way, and for the first time in our lives, we’re going to go down fighting. We may get beat, but we’ll do some beating of our own. We may lose, but we’ll do it with our heads held high. I had some of that, before I lost this.” Samuel held up his scarred stump. “Losing my place in the pack hurt more than gnawing off my paw. Seeing my children grow up as omegas hurt worse. There was no way out and no way up for me and my family, and all I did to earn that punishment was get myself caught in a leg hold trap.”
“You can’t go into it believing you’re going to die, Samuel. If you do, then the battle will be lost before it’s begun.”
“For you, not for us. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
“The pups,” Bull argued.
“Will be fine. I know your woman will take good care of them. They’ll have a better chance with her than they will with us. That’s why you gave them to her isn’t it?”
Bull nodded, rather than lie aloud to the old man, though he supposed what Samuel said was true. Tommie would take good care of those pups and she would have Eugene Begley’s number in her pocket if it all went south. Eugene might ignore Bull’s phone calls, but he wouldn’t ignore Tommie’s, not after Tommie told him Bull was dead. But that wasn’t the reason he’d assigned her to their care.
There was still the question of her sanity and whether or not she would turn feral. She was functioning well, surprisingly well. He’d expected more fallout from her time in the cage. So far, so good, but the final test would come when he took her over the moon. There was a chance that once she shifted to wolf, her wolf would take over completely, and she wouldn’t come home. Exposure to the more aggressive side of wolver behavior, the tearing, the ripping, the blood, would make it even harder. He wasn’t willing to risk it.
He needed to be with her when she ran for the first time. He couldn’t do that in the midst of a battle and he couldn’t take the chance of having both her and Eli running wild at the same time.
He also wouldn’t humiliate her in front of the other wolvers by saying all this aloud, which was how he ended up getting his ears chewed off. The sassy little bitch didn’t understand her place in pack hierarchy. She didn’t get that when an alpha of his stature gave her a direction, her only answer should be “Yes, sir.”
Instead, Tommie’s answer was, "Oh no you don’t. I’ve got a stake in this battle, too.”
He tried to give her the hint. “Been in a lot of battles, have you?”
She didn’t take it. “Well, no,” she said, a little hesitant, but before he could add to her doubt, she turned to Cora. “Have you?”
And Cora, damn her, told the truth. “Not once in my life, but I figure it’s one of those things my wolf knows how to do and she doesn’t need any say so from me. I’ll just let her rip.”
Tommie did that little head bobble thing. “You see? My experience is the same as everyone else.”
So Bull had tried to take a different route. “This isn’t your pack, spitfire. Besides, you’re skinny as a rail. They’ll snap you like a twig.”
Tommie put her hands on her hips and stamped her foot. At him! But then she stuck that foot in shit. “That’s not true. I’m strong. You know I am. Why, just last night you said my legs had such a grip on you...oops” She closed her eyes and turned beet red.
“Just do what you’re told, spitfire,” he’d said without too much of a snicker.
“Fine,” she said. The tone wasn’t anywhere close to “Yes, sir”, but a win was a win.
“You think you won that rou
nd, don’t you, son?” Samuel was chuckling again.
Bull nodded solemnly. He was a man who took no shit from his woman.
“You don’t know much about women, do you, son?” Cackling like an old hen, the old man leaned across the table. “When a woman says fine the way your woman said it, she means anything but fine. She means this discussion is over. For now. She’ll come back later and bite you in the ass with it when you’re not looking.”
Bull let his head drop. “Just shoot me,” he said as he swung it back and forth.
Chapter 20
The nerve. The nerve! She wasn’t a part of this pack? Like he was?
Tommie stomped down the dirt road not much caring how ridiculous she looked to anyone who might be watching. Each footfall was an emotional expression. She imagined each crunch underfoot was Bull.
Snap her like a twig. Hmph. She was in a damn sight better condition than half those women. And... and... She poked her finger in the air. If he could snap those wolfy fingers of his and take those women over the moon, why couldn’t he take her? And what were all those grins and glances about among the women? When he said he could give them the power to shift, they looked at him like he was a rock star who’d invited them backstage. Even Cora was impressed.
“Yes! We got ourselves an Alpha,” she’d whispered under her breath. Tommie didn’t think anyone else heard or paid attention to the utterance what with all the cheering and clapping going on.
What the hell did Cora mean? They threw that word around a lot. Tommie knew the Alpha with a capital a meant leader, boss, prince-of-the-pack, or whatever. The little ‘a’ alpha was a powerful male or prime male as one of the women called it. So yeah, she could see Bull was an alpha. He was smart and bossy and that hunky body of his certainly was prime male flesh.
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