The Challenge (The Pack Book 2)

by Kristin Coley

  “It took me longer than I’d like to admit.” He turned to face me, one massive shoulder propped against the wall as he looked down at me. I wasn’t really short, more like average, but it still gave me a crick in my neck to stare up at him. “I wasn’t really expecting him to be a shifter.”

  “Me either,” I mumbled, flopping against the wall. “He told me in the Jeep that you weren’t ‘like us’. That’s when I realized.”

  “He told you that?” Dom had a puzzled expression as I nodded. “That’s unusually perceptive for one his age.”

  “Are you really surprised at this point?”

  “No,” he drawled hesitantly. “You’ve blown all of my expectations out of the water. But from a shifter standpoint, he’s young to already have developed that sense of other.”

  “You said it’s usually puberty before they….shift,” I stated carefully. He looked uncomfortable and I pushed. “Dom, puberty. Right? Like 14?”

  “Most cases, yes.”

  I sighed. “But not all cases.”

  “No,” he answered apologetically. “There have been times when the shift came early.”

  “How early?”

  “6-7.” He winced as he said it as my heart dropped.

  “6?” I echoed faintly. “Oh God.”

  “That’s rare,” he answered quickly and I just stared at him. “Of course, what we have is rare so, yeah we should probably prepare ourselves.”

  My thoughts hiccupped at his words and I said the first dumb thing that came to mind. “We?”

  He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Yeah, we.” He brushed a strand of hair from my cheek. “I think I might have mentioned this before, but I consider us a long-term thing.”

  “You have – mentioned that,” I stammered, dropping my gaze. “It’s just that was before.”

  “Before what?”

  I steeled myself. “Before I had essentially a stable full of breeding females at my motel.”

  He choked and I let out the breath I’d been holding. “A stable?”

  “It was that or harem,” I grumbled.

  “Both terrible,” he rumbled around a laugh.

  “I know,” I sighed as my head thumped against the wall. “It’s a stupid and irrational fear and an insult to the women and you.”

  “It’s not a stupid or irrational fear,” Dom answered and my head snapped forward as I glared at him.

  “Explain.”

  “Shifters want to mate with females that can give them shifter children…usually. There have been a few exceptions. And now, you’re housing a veritable buffet and trust me, the single wolves have noticed.”

  “Single, like you,” I stated bluntly.

  “No, single like Caleb and Trent, and others.” He reached for my hand, catching the tips of my fingers gently. “I’m absolutely, positively not single.”

  “Mmhmmm,” I hummed, squinting at him. “But we haven’t,” I wiggled my fingers between us as he raised his eyebrows, “You know.”

  He dipped his head, his nose skimming my cheek. “No, I don’t know. Can you be more specific?”

  I growled in frustration and felt his own chest rumble in response. His low growl had my eyes flickering closed. “You have no idea what it does to me when you make that sound,” he murmured, his breath hot against my neck.

  “I have an idea,” I whispered faintly, my hands coming up to grip his shoulders as I swayed. “A little weak-kneed?”

  I felt his lips curl in a smile as he brushed his lips against my neck, oh so close to the mating mark he’d branded on my skin. “Not exactly, but close,” he agreed, as his mouth drifted closer to the brand burning on my skin.

  “I’m finished,” a loud voice interrupted and Dom pulled back slightly as I gazed down at my pesky little brother. “You can do that later. Sissy, you owe me a cookie.” He held his hand out demandingly and I blinked. “I was good,” he added defiantly. He glanced at Dom uncertainly. “Right?” I also glanced at Dom, who was frowning down at Monster.

  “Better would have been if you waited five minutes before interrupting,” he grumbled and I bit back a grin. “But yes, you were good.”

  I reached into the side pocket on my backpack and dug out a Ziploc with two cookies inside. He reached for it eagerly, but I held it out of reach. “Nope. I’ll only give you both if you promise to behave all the way home.”

  “I promise,” he answered instantly, eyes lit up at the sight of those cookies.

  “Really?” I asked doubtfully and he nodded eagerly. “All right then.” I tossed the bag to him and he tore into it.

  “Monster wouldn’t by chance be short for Cookie Monster, would it?”

  “How did you guess,” I answered drily. “But really shortening it to Monster just fit.”

  “Let’s go.” Dom took the backpack from my shoulder, looping it over his wrist as he escorted us from the field house. “I need to have a word with Caleb.”

  Dom dropped us off in front of the motel and instead of going back to the main road; he cut across the field and took the dirt road to the small community where the Pack lived.

  “He’s cool,” Monster told me confidently as we walked to the motel office. Dad’s Range Rover was parked in it’s usual spot so that meant he was probably in the office.

  “You didn’t seem so sure of that earlier,” I reminded him and he shrugged.

  “He explained that he was a shifter.”

  I stopped, crouching down so I was eye level with him. “And you’re good with that?”

  He nodded slowly, his little mouth twisting.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m like him, aren’t I?”

  “Yeah, you are. Or you will be one day.”

  “Are you one too?”

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t get all furry and have four legs,” I teased, tickling his sides until he shrieked. “That’s reserved for little Monsters.”

  “What is going on out here?” Dad stood in the doorway, his face stunned as he caught sight of the familiar copper head. “Monster?”

  “DAD!”

  I heard Dad’s grunt as Monster ran at him full force but he swung him around as if he weighed nothing. He sent me a questioning glance and I lifted my hands. He knew Mom as well as I did.

  “I hope you bought cookies,” I muttered under my breath as I passed him and he nodded mutely, still shell-shocked by the Monster in his arms excitedly telling him everything that had happened.

  “Fire?” I heard him echo in concern as I slipped into the apartment. I made a beeline for the cabinet where the cookies were stashed and immediately moved them. You could never leave them in the same place twice with Monster around.

  My phone buzzed and I fished it out of my pocket. Anna’s name lit up the screen with a text asking if she could come by. I replied yes and headed for my room. Minutes later the window slid open and she crawled inside.

  “When were you going to tell me about your brother?” She demanded the second she was standing in my room. “I had to find out through the Pack line.” I grimaced at her mention of the way the Pack communicated with one another. I had no doubt I’d been the source of gossip more than once.

  “If I’d seen you, I would have told you,” I said reasonably, completely ignoring the fact that I had seen her and hadn’t told her. She proceeded to wave her phone at me. “Or I could have texted you, but honestly I was kind of shocked. He showed up this morning unexpectedly.”

  “How unexpected could he have been? Wouldn’t your mom need to tell your dad and arrange custody?”

  “That’s not really how she works,” I said, sitting cross-legged on the bed. “She sent him via courier.”

  “Courier,” Anna deadpanned.

  “Yeah, and let me tell you that guy hightailed it out of here. Didn’t even let me give him a tip.”

  “Your family is seriously weird.” She thumped down on the desk chair. “I mean mine might shift into wolves but I still feel like it has nothing on yours.�
� She shot me an accusing stare. “You knew he was coming, didn’t you?”

  I wiggled my shoulders. “I didn’t know for sure, but yeah, after I refused Mom’s last invitation I figured he’d be sent here.”

  “And the Pack stuff? How are you going to explain that?”

  “Dom already did apparently.”

  “DOM?”

  “Yeah, Dom.”

  “Wait…..is he a shifter?” The look on her face would have been hilarious if the reality wasn’t so serious.

  “Yeah.”

  “I…wow.”

  “That’s how I felt. I had no idea.”

  “Guess it’s a good thing he’s living here now.”

  “Yep.” I kept my answers short waiting for her to tell me why she was really here. It wasn’t about my little brother, that was for sure.

  “Dom went after Caleb,” she mentioned in a too casual voice.

  “Went after like attacked?” I asked, poking my temple as if that would jumpstart the mental bond I had with Dom. He was damn good at blocking me when he wanted to while I’d yet to perfect the ability.

  “No, he just wanted to talk to him.” She paused. “About you.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh.”

  “Look, Anna, I don’t know what to say.”

  “Don’t say anything,” she replied, ducking her head as she played with the tassel on one of my pillows. “I overheard something I wasn’t supposed to because I was still in wolf form when Dom found Caleb.”

  “You really need to explain this whole Pack bond secret keeping thing a little better,” I muttered as she swallowed hard.

  “He hit on you.”

  “He’s confused and upset,” I tried to say when Anna interrupted.

  “And I’m tired of making up excuses for him.” She attempted to smile, her eyes glossy. “I just need to accept that he doesn’t feel that way toward me.”

  “I don’t know if that’s true or not, Anna,” I said a little desperately.

  “It doesn’t matter. I have more pride than that.” She stood up, her smile more a grimace.

  “Please, Anna, wait,” I called after her as she went back through the window. “Stay, talk to me.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” she said with a shrug, jogging backwards toward the forest. I raised my hand to call out a warning but it was too late as she collided with Trent. He caught her as she stumbled and she shook him off angrily, dirt kicking up as she ran to the trees.

  “Should I go after her?” He asked, pointing where Anna had disappeared. I shook my head tiredly. “She does seem to be in a hurry whenever she leaves here,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. I glared at him and he smiled. “Too soon?” He pulled a sucker out of his pocket and offered it to me. I declined and he pulled off the wrapper and popped it into his mouth. “I don’t guess you’re going to pay a visit to Sam this evening?”

  I raised my eyebrow. “Wasn’t planning on it?”

  “Perhaps you should.”

  I sighed and hoisted myself up on the windowsill. Trent hurried over to help as I half tumbled out the window. “Damn,” I grunted. “Anna made that look way easier than it was.”

  “Shifter strength,” Trent said knowingly as he helped me stand. “Easy to underestimate.”

  “So why do I need to visit Sam?”

  “Well,” Trent pulled the sucker out of his mouth with a mischievous grin. “I haven’t gotten a chance to do my daily checkup yet.”

  “Oh, waiting for me? You know it’s not very manly to hide behind a girl.”

  “I consider it a well-developed sense of self-preservation,” he countered loftily. “Plus, she might have gone a little overboard with your girl power speech yesterday.”

  “Girl power? Speech? I just told her to quit hiding.”

  “She’s organizing a march on the Pack.”

  “What?” I punched his shoulder as I raced for the stairs. “Why didn’t you lead with that?” I yelled over my shoulder.

  He jogged to keep up, not even out of breath after going up the stairs while I had to stop and gasp. “It’s not today.”

  I glared at him as he shrugged carelessly. “I overheard a few of the woman talking.”

  “You were eavesdropping?”

  “No. I just happened to overhear while patrolling,” he corrected without an ounce of shame.

  “Uh huh.” I waved my hand for him to proceed.

  “It seems their independence is reasserting itself.” He frowned worriedly. “Their feeling seemed to be that if the Navarre pack refused to accept them then so would anyone else.”

  I groaned. “It’s not about accepting them. They need to slowly acclimate into the Pack.” I paced in front of him. “Sam knows this. She told me this. Why would she organize a march?”

  “To prove she’s no longer afraid?”

  “God, you say one little thing and people go nuts.” I scratched my eyebrow and started down the hall, banging on doors as I went.

  “Whoa, what are you up to?”

  “Setting them straight.”

  Trent dogged my heels as doors started opening and heads peeked out while I continued all the way up to Sam’s room. As soon as I saw her, I pointed. “No one is marching anywhere.”

  “How did you?” She trailed off, glaring at Trent, who attempted to hide behind me. I elbowed him.

  “You can tell Dom that when you saw her, she was fine,” I muttered to him.

  “That sounds ominous.”

  “You can go.”

  The women had started to gather closer as Trent shifted restlessly behind me. “Now.”

  “You’re definitely perfect for Dom,” he grumbled before jumping over the edge of the railing and dropping lightly to the parking lot below. “He’ll expect her in one piece, you know.”

  I waved him off as I glared at Sam pointedly.

  “We weren’t going to march right now,” she muttered defensively.

  “You’re not going to march at all,” I told her, my gaze going over all the women there. “None of you. That’s not how this works.” I leaned against the railing as I stared at them. “They will accept you, but you have to give it time. You have to try first. Give a little.”

  “We’ve given enough.” Someone cried and there were a few mutters of agreement. Sam looked torn but she didn’t disagree.

  “To the Hanleys,” I answered honestly. “You’ve given everything to the Hanley’s but this Pack isn’t the Hanleys. They owe you nothing.” Stunned silence met my words as I straightened up. “I owe you nothing. But I offer you shelter because you are human and in need. Not all of you will stay here when this is over. Some have already left.” A few shifted, glancing at one another. “The rest of you have nowhere to go and you’re scared. Scared of the Hanleys and scared of the Navarre Pack. You don’t need to be. This is a new experience for all of us. But we will find a way to coexist. To mingle. To not be afraid.”

  Slow nods met my words and I relaxed slightly. I hadn’t really had a plan other than to prevent another war from breaking out. I wasn’t sure I trusted Caleb not to react if a bunch of Hanley women showed up on Pack land.

  “I think we should have a little party,” I announced, surprising myself. Sam eyed me as I rolled with the idea. “We’ll have a party out back. A barbeque. We can invite some of the Navarre pack.” The women glanced at each other uncertainly. “We have to try,” I pushed, glancing at Sam meaningfully.

  “She’s right,” Sam said loudly. “It’s a good first step.” She glanced at me. “You’ll let us plan it.” I nodded, completely okay with that. “It’ll be fun,” she added, and I winced. That sounded like famous last words to me. “We’ll go shopping and set up tables.”

  “You want us to leave here?” I didn’t see who spoke but the voice was scared. “What if they capture us?”

  “You’ll have protection,” I promised. “In fact, Trent will be at your disposal. Consider him your errand boy.”

  I glanc
ed over the railing in time to catch the dark look he shot me. I smiled as I turned back to the women. “Plus you can travel in groups.”

  Nervous whispers ran through the women but slowly they nodded. “Great!” I clapped my hands. “It’s settled. Barbeque in the back on Friday.”

  The women started to disperse as I made a beeline for Sam. “I wasn’t going to go through with it,” she exclaimed and I slowed.

  “Huh?”

  “The march. It was more to help motivate them,” she attempted to explain and I waved her off.

  “Yeah, that’s not why I’m here.”

  “It’s not?”

  “No, I need someone to watch my little brother while I’m at school.”

  “You have a brother?”

  “Yes. He showed up today and he can be a bit of a handful,” I explained, glossing over the truth that he would give Dennis the Menace a run for his money. I smiled and she looked startled.

  “Oh, no. I’m not taking care of him,” she denied, shaking her head adamantly. “You just dumped this party on my hands.”

  “You took the party and come on, Nicky and,” I hesitated before mumbling really fast, “Monster, can play together.”

  “What did you call him?” She asked suspiciously.

  “Monster,” I answered with a sheepish grin. “Cute, huh?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “Kind of terrifying actually.”

  “He’s good. Just a little rambunctious.”

  “Uh huh. Answer is still no. In fact, you can say it’s a hell no. I might owe you, but I am not babysitting a kid you call Monster.”

  “Ah, come on, Sam. I’m desperate. He’s not welcome back at the school.”

  She blinked. “Yeah, definitely no then.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be good for you. I’ll even provide the cookies.”

  “Cookies? I don’t even want to know what that means.” She waved her arm. “Why can’t your Dad take care of him?”

  “He can. He just gets distracted.”

  Sam crossed her arms. “Look, I get it, but I can’t do it.” I started to protest and she held up her hand. “But, I will offer you the name of someone who can.”

  “I’ll take it,” I said happily, knowing it was the best offer I was getting. “Who is she?”

  “Wren.”