“I’m thinking that Nolan needs help from someone who is familiar with the way things are on and off the rez,” Alex retorted. She wished more than ever that Nolan didn’t have to work today, but it was obvious he was overworked. She glanced over at him.
He was inundated with paperwork, slammed with questions left and right, and generally kept hopping. She wondered how he ever managed to leave. He looked over at her and winked.
Great. He had read her mind again. Well, he could keep reading it. She needed to find out what he knew about the pack killings. If Roxy really was in on the murders of the pregnant females, Alex had to tell her mom. That was against the rules of warfare between packs. Carrying a baby to term was hard for their kind, if not impossible.
Three of the female wolves pregnant at once were a near miracle and Alex wanted to find out how they were able to accomplish such a feat. Within her pack, there was only one wolf close to her age. There were a few younger and older than she was, but the pack was decreasing in size because of the constant miscarriages.
She looked at the woman who had pushed her back into her seat by sheer presence. “Who are you to question your ulfric’s decisions?” She did a quick sweep of the area to make sure no one else was paying them any attention, lowered her voice, and added, “And how did you know I was pack?”
“I’m Moriah, part of his elite guard. It’s my job to know.”
The hard stare made Alex angry, but what was she supposed to do? As the elite guard, it was Moriah’s job to know about anyone around the ulfric. Alex wasn’t in a position to disagree, even though she had a strong desire to do just that.
“Moriah,” a tall, reedy man called out as he approached. “You’re wanted on line three.”
Moriah continued to stare at her. Alex nearly flinched at the gory images crossing Moriah’s mind. There were no clear thoughts beyond taking Alex out of the picture. Not by death but by a fight for supremacy which would leave Alex bloody and torn. This woman was fiercely loyal to her ulfric.
“Moriah,” the man said again, touching her arm.
“I’m coming,” she snapped. “Stay away,” she warned as she left.
Alex stared after her with a small shiver. She stewed for another few minutes before turning her mind back to the situation which had brought them together in the first place. Nolan seemed confident it was her pack.
She did not fault his instincts. He was the ulfric. You do not become the leader without having some idea of who’s dangerous and who’s not. But would Roxy really dare sanction the killing of pregnant weres? The long-term effects would surely outweigh any gains. Sighing and wishing she had a better handle on politics, her mind raced with all the possibilities.
She wanted to ask Nolan if there were more pregnant women—if so, how many, and how many young had they had in recent years. Her brain circled around at the possibilities from estrogen levels to protein levels to diet.
“Three. There are three others. This is the most that have ever been pregnant at once for us as well. We don’t know what happened. I’ll fill you in more later.” He winked at her again before responding to the aide talking to him.
Having him answer her from across the room was handy—and fun. What else could she think at him while she was waiting? What else did she want to know?
His laughter flowed in her mind. “Please, no more. Your smell alone drives me to distraction. We’ll talk later. I promise.”
“Okay,” she replied. She should have known. His sense of smell had to be at least as good as hers. Even across the room, his scent flowed over her keeping her hyper-aware of him. Good to know he was having the same problem. One-sided attractions were no fun.
“Can I at least see the case files? Maybe as a medical consultant? Could be I’ve seen them around or heard of them in my rounds.”
She had to do something. Sitting around waiting for someone else to take care of the problem was not her way of doing things. Besides, maybe it would get her out of Moriah’s path.
“I’ll see what I can arrange,” was all the promise he would give her. “And don’t worry about Moriah; she’s one of my guards.”
Half an hour later, Nolan ordered her moved to an enclosed space with the files and a guard—not Moriah, she saw with relief. She smelled the werewolf on the young officer as soon as the door closed. Likely Nolan’s pack, but she couldn’t be sure. Like most of his kind, being in an enclosed space was difficult and made him edgy. Fortunately for her, she had learned how to get comfortable with it.
She eyed him closely. Clearly, Nolan trusted him. She tried to listen to his thoughts, but all he was thinking about was getting out of the room and wondering how mad the ulfric would be if he left the door open. At least she now knew he was Wahpawhat.
She sat at the table provided and began perusing the files, not really sure what to look for but wanting to do something to help. Each victim had been beautiful and obviously pregnant. She looked at the claw marks carefully. As healer, she was familiar with most of her pack’s fighting style and particularly with their claw markings.
After scrutinizing the pictures, she slumped back dejected. She had come to the same conclusion Nolan evidently had. It was her pack. Warm tears streamed down her face in response to the pain on the victims’ faces. Even in death, the scream of fear could almost be heard when looking at the wide-open mouths. All the women held their hands over their abdomen in the crime scene pictures.
Their clothing and skin were literally ripped to shreds in multiple places. She felt bile rise up in her stomach. Anyone who would do this to a pregnant were is sick. The mother is unable defend herself because she can’t change when pregnant—she sat up. Of course! No one in her pack believed her. That’s it! She was excited. If Nolan were there, she would kiss him.
The sudden opening of the door jarred both her and the officer, and Nolan appeared.
“I heard that,” he said to the confusion of his pack mate as he popped his head in.
She jumped up and ran to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed.
***
He heard her thoughts and saw the crime scene photo images playing through her head in a harsh rhapsody, the wetness of her face. He felt the tears still inside her. Part of him snapped. He wanted to hurt someone simply because she hurt. A dangerous place for him. Their mating would tear apart his pack. Hell, maybe both packs.
She looked into his eyes and there was the same worry there that constantly plagued him. He also sensed her excitement. “What have you found?” he asked, not daring to hope there might be something she had discovered that he had missed.
“It might not help you much with the case, but I think you may have single-handedly saved us. You have an unheard of six females pregnant at once. Before I explain exactly what I think and why, please tell me your packs general rules, especially regarding mating and fertility.” She tilted her head sideways at him in a manner he found endearing.
But now she had disconcerted him. He had not imagined their first talk regarding the rules of mating within his pack would be so clinical. As the leader of his pack, it also put his leadership on the spot.
***
She knew Nolan suddenly felt as if he were under a microscope, would have known even without their telepathic link by the way his feet shuffled and he could not meet her eyes. She could not help how he felt about it. She needed him to explain.
She watched him glance over at guard whose thoughts confirmed her earlier suspicion that he was one of the younger pack members. “I’m sure they’re similar to your pack’s general rules, but I’ve implemented some new things since becoming pack leader.” He grabbed a chair, turned it, and sat so his arms rested on the back.
“One, I’ve encouraged birth control.” At her look of astonishment, he grinned. “I know that’s not the norm for our kind, but I didn’t want unattached weres flying around. Too many times the children of the unmated weres aren’t given the same chances as the other were children or
they’re sometimes abandoned. Two, if you choose to not use protection, no shifting until you’re sure you’re not pregnant except to save your life. Even then, no shifting once you’re sure you’re pregnant. It not only hurts the infant. It can kill both the mother and child. At least, that’s what I’ve seen.”
She had to work not to gape at Nolan even though he looked at her as if he were afraid she would think he was crazy. He wasn’t crazy, he was a genius. Such a simple thing, yet it potentially made Nolan’s pack the strongest in the state, if not the country. She had checked. All packs were having similar problems. If Roxy figured out his pack was growing exponentially, she would kill them. In Alex’s mind, that must be the motive. She looked over at the files, then back at Nolan.
“I was wrong. What I’ve learned may indeed pertain to your case. All this time, the were community has assumed it was a fertility issue with the females, even though all the tests couldn’t find a medical reason for it. What if it was more practical than that?”
“You’ve lost me. You’re thinking too fast, especially when your brain is processing the information from the tests and regarding the weres’ pregnancy information and using medical terminology I’m unfamiliar with.” He was looking at her attentively, which caused her to take a deep breath to help relieve the sudden lust she felt.
This was important and definitely no time for her libido’s uncharacteristic waywardness. She thought he would understand the medical part, but would he see the motive? She didn’t know him well enough yet.
“Well, you’ve basically asked your people to be careful with their pregnancies. I think many people would argue, and probably did, that birth control would mean less pregnancies not more.” She paused. At his nod of agreement, she continued.
“So why does your pack have more women with child than the other packs?” She waited a beat to see if he knew. He shook his head. “Because,” she continued, “you ask them not to shift until they’re sure. I think that too many are shifting in the early stages of pregnancy and killing viable embryos so that only the strongest are surviving.” He was looking at her intently, but although he understood about the pregnant weres and the baby, she sensed no understanding of the bigger picture—and the motive it could be—from him.
“It’s why we’re not extinct. Once everyone’s sure of the pregnancy, they generally don’t shift except in emergencies and not always then depending on how many weeks into the pregnancy they are. But as far as I know, you’re the first leader to require their people to be sure they’re not pregnant before shifting.” This was not the part he did not understand, but she was grasping at a starting point.
She started pacing. She still felt he didn’t quite get what she meant about the importance of it beyond saving the pregnancies. “On the outset, it might not seem like much, but think about it. You have ten couples, say, having regular sex. They run together, live together, etc. You’ve asked them to either control the possibility of pregnancy or be careful.” She was getting frustrated; she could feel that she was right, but the words to convey what she wanted to say refused to come.
“Of your ten couples, two don’t want kids yet. But of the other eight, they’re all being careful, just in case. So what happens? You find out the minute it’s possible to know that you have a baby on the way. The fetus is protected, practically before inception, not two months later.” Ah, there it is. She could tell he was starting to put the pieces together.
“So, to take your analogy the next step, of my eight couples, six got pregnant and were able to keep the baby so long because they weren’t putting it through the stress of the shift over and over so early in uteri.”
“Yes! Exactly.” She felt a rush of gratitude and awe from the other pack member in the room. He’d felt distrust when she had hugged his ulfric, but it disappeared as she spoke. She heard his thoughts clearly. He wanted to mate. Even knew the identity of his mate. But he did not want to go through the same heartache his parents had and avoided being around his chosen, even if it meant not gaining in strength or power with the mating. It took everything in Alex not to turn to the officer and reassure him.
“How does this pertain to my case?” Nolan asked to clarify the points, putting his hands on the files after flicking a glance at his pack member.
“Don’t you see? If you become a large pack, then the stalemate is gone. Your pack is slightly bigger now, but you play by the rules. Otherwise, you probably could’ve taken Roxy down earlier. She cheats, and she’s a smart fighter. It has helped to keep her in control of the pack despite disapproval by some. Plus, bringing in a feral to the pack whose loyalty is only to her has helped her power base enormously.”
“That would be Boris.”
“Yeah, how’d you know?” she asked, reluctantly impressed. She didn’t need more reason to fall for him.
“I’m an officer, and his rap sheet is a mile long. I’m a pack leader, and his kills are renowned among our kind, even if normal law enforcement hasn’t been able to keep up with him,” he said in an emotionless voice she began to think of as his cop voice.
“Oh.” That made sense. She felt a bit dense but reminded herself that medicine, not the law, was her forte. “As I was saying, the Wahpawhat pack is only slightly bigger than the Lupin. What would happen to that balance of power if you were to suddenly grow by twenty-five percent? Fifty percent?”
“It would change to my favor,” he said slowly, thinking it through aloud. “So you’re saying the motive is power. That Roxy’s taking a preemptive strike because killing pregnant pack women, although it will garner the wrath of all the packs, is less risky than having my pack outnumber hers.”
“Yes. On the surface, it may not seem so but look how it has happened. You’ve only gotten lip service from the other packs, maybe some help if you get absolute proof. In the meantime, she has taken out three of your unborn. But what happens when you’re the larger pack in numbers? You’d have the same lip service, as well as other packs fostering with you.”
“Making my power base huge. I think you have a point, but I can’t put that in the official files. Nevertheless, it’s more than I had yesterday. Thank you.” And there it was again. In the blink of an eye, her hormones engaged. She felt a tightening in her womb, and her mouth went dry.
She could smell the pheromones. She blushed and looked away, catching the guard’s eye.
The officer glanced at her and at Nolan, and then trained his eyes back on her. “You two are mated.”
“What?” They both answered simultaneously, growls underlining their voices.
“I’m mated. I know the smell. It’s different than lust alone.” His shoulders were hunched at the double growl he had received, but he needed assurance. He looked at Nolan. “Why haven’t you told the pack?”
“I met Alex last night when she saved my life. There are obvious complications if she’s my mate.”
“She’s of Roxy’s pack. I don’t recognize you. I can smell them on her. But even I can see she isn’t of Roxy’s kind. There isn’t a cruel line on her face.” He stopped, waiting for her to introduce herself. He was brave to speak up of his knowledge, but careful to still be submissive.
“I’m their healer. How did you know I was pack?” she asked nervously. How many people had not been as fooled as she thought?
“I didn’t until the ulfric came in. Your mate’s presence brought out your wolf.”
She turned back to Nolan. “Great. Every time we’re together, I’m going to be outed? That’s not a safe thing for me.”
“You being my mate isn’t a safe thing for you,” he said dryly. “However, maybe your knowledge of healing and understanding of our birth issues will help you with gaining approval of my pack. The fact that your pack doesn’t know you’re a wolf should help as well. That means you haven’t been part of the killing sprees and hunts on humans in pack form.” His voice never wavered. Confidence and command rang through with every syllable. She felt an unwanted flash of hope that maybe
they could make it work.
She watched as he met the gaze of the beta male. “You will keep this to yourself. If they follow my policies, they will get the benefits you heard her list for bearing young. We’ll make a formal announcement of it when we have more information. As for Alex being a shifter, it’s essential that you keep it quiet. I’ll call a meeting to announce my mate soon. I also want to reassure the pack that I’m aggressively following Roxy and her pack for retribution.”
She lifted her eyebrow at Nolan as the officer nodded. Not to do as he asked would be seen as a direct challenge. She didn’t need to be telepathic to know how the guard felt. He had no wish to challenge Nolan; she read it in every line of his body—head bowed, one hand out, palm down, shoulders hunched. Submissive.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
He looked at Nolan before answering. “Matt.”
“Matt, you’ve been helpful and kind to a stranger. I won’t forget it.” Matt’s eyes lit up in thankfulness. She had not only acknowledged him; as mate of the ulfric, the future lupa, she had given him stature and a promised favor.
She and Nolan left the conference room. “How do you do it? It must be hard to consolidate being the ulfric with your job as a detective.”
***
Nolan sighed and took her hand. If Matt could see so clearly they were mated, he knew he was foolish to fight it. “Not usually this hard. The motives are normally more apparent and more human. Money, power, sex, revenge. Even if Roxy and her thugs did this for power, it was power in the supernatural realm, and my fellow cops aren’t going to see the motive. It will be tricky to have her convicted.”
“What if she doesn’t let you catch her as a human?”
“Then she will be killed by our laws. It has always been the choice of our people. Give in to the laws of the land or be held according to the laws of the pack. Most take the laws of the land, since they are less harsh. Some die in prison. Our kind is not meant to be caged.”
The Ulfic's Mate Page 3
