“What’s that?”
“Roxy and Boris.” He heard her groan at the mention of the names.
“And my mother,” she said, surprising him.
“What about your mother?”
“She’s disappeared as well. She’s not answering her phone, she never swore her allegiance to you, and no one who walked back with us had seen her since the fight started.”
Nolan slammed the palm of his hand against the truck’s steering wheel. What else could go wrong? He should have been feeling victorious. Ending the war between their packs after more than a hundred years of fighting was something to celebrate.
Instead, he was worried about the whereabouts of his archenemies and now the location of his mother-in-law was also an issue. “Do you think Roxy kidnapped her?” He reached over and took Alex’s hand in his.
“I don’t know,” she replied in a tear-filled voice. “I want to say of course she was! She has nothing to hide, but I can’t. She could be hiding from us or them out of fear. I don’t know where her loyalties really lie. I know she wouldn’t hurt me directly, but we’ve been at war for a long time. She might not like your pack so much.”
“We’ll find her. I promise,” he said.
Chapter Nineteen
Roxy rushed to grab clothing, jewels, and money and stuffed them into a duffel pack. It was imperative she leave before the pack finished swearing its allegiance to Nolan. He would regret not killing her, but in the meantime, she needed to avoid capture. Going to jail was not an option.
Rushing to the meeting spot with Boris, she looked back at her home. Anger filled her until all she could think of was revenge. Nolan and his pack were supposed to be hers, not that little nobody, Red. She gritted her teeth. Heather would pay for keeping Red’s shape-shifting abilities a secret.
Boris arrived, carrying his pack and a semiautomatic rifle. She smiled. “Come, Boris. We have a wolf to trap.”
Boris’s grin helped salve the wound of losing Nolan to the pipsqueak healer. She led the way to Heather’s cabin. She knew her competition well. The woman would be hiding in shame from her daughter and the ulfric.
Roxy went to the front door and sent Boris to the back. Kicking the door in, she walked through it without preamble. Heather’s startled reaction gave Roxy grim pleasure. She loved surprises—when she was the one giving them.
Yanking Heather’s hair by the braid, Roxy brought the woman’s face close to her mouth. “Why aren’t you celebrating with your whelp? I’d think you’d be happy to be mother of the bride,” she sneered.
Heather’s glare was too defiant for Roxy’s tastes. She yanked harder on Heather’s hair, pulling the insolent woman down. “You’ve been keeping secrets from me, Heather. What shall we do with you?”
“’We’?” Fear crept into her voice. Roxy looked up where Boris entered the open living room. She allowed Heather enough space to look as well.
“’We,’” Boris said.
Roxy pulled Heather back to a standing position. She did not want to give Boris any ideas they did not have time for. Although in the future, she just might let him have at the disobedient healer. “You were supposed to tell me when Alex began shifting. I’m quite unhappy with you. I’m going to have Boris escort you to your room and gather some belongings. Make sure and bring whatever medicines are needed for both the poisons and the antidotes. We’re going to need them.”
She pushed the healer in the direction of the back rooms. Boris followed Heather down the hall. Once they were out of sight, Roxy checked her watch. They needed to move it. Now. The trip to Heather’s home had taken a long time, and they still had a five-hour drive to get to the protection of the Seathe pack. But she didn’t call out to them to hurry. Heather would make more trouble if she knew how desperately Roxy wanted to be gone.
She stood up, too many pent-up emotions rolling through her to sit with ease. Glancing out the window, she took a deep breath and calmed herself. It would take hours for the meeting to end and everyone to meet the new ulfric and his bitch.
Every time her mind’s eye saw Red changing, she became angrier. All those years wasted when she could have had a stronger pack, all because of the healer and her whelp. She turned to Heather and Boris as they reentered the room. Well, she had plenty of time to punish the healer.
“Boris, did she get her medicine bag?”
“Yes. I made sure of that. She tried to leave without it. I used a little persuasion, and she got it,” Boris’s leer let Roxy know exactly what sort of persuasion he had used. Heather’s face was so stoic it could have been on a totem pole.
She smiled at Heather. “I’m glad you’re being so cooperative. I would hate for something bad to happen to the mother of the new lupa. Now get in your car. Boris will be driving with you. I’ll follow. Any funny business and he has my permission to snap your neck. You’re no longer the healer. If I’m not happy with you, he’s going to do whatever he wants to you. If it looks like keeping you around is becoming a liability, well, your neck will snap as easily as the last were we had to punish with death.”
Out the broken door and into the separate cars they went. She almost felt sorry for Heather. She had never seen the woman so defeated before. Not sympathy but elation filled her. It had taken twenty years, but she had finally bested the woman she hated with every fiber of her being.
They stopped in Packwood at the gas station for fuel and food. Roxy sneered at the available goods. They were shutting down the sandwich shop. If she was not currently wanted by the police, she would bully them into making her something decent to eat. Another thing to lay at the feet of the bitch who had stolen her pack from her.
She let out a low growl while filling her cup with soda. No one but Boris and a skittish Heather heard her. Whatever had been happening in the car on the way here had Heather acting like a newborn foal that smells a wolf. At least something was going right.
They paid and filled up their tanks. “She giving you trouble, Boris?”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” he sneered.
“Just don’t push it too far until we get to Justin’s house,” she said quietly, referring to the Seathe’s pack ulfric. “We need to be hidden before we make an example out of her.
Boris grinned. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a very long time. I’ve grown tired of letting her get away with back talking me.”
“Yes, her insolence has too long gone unpunished. You can’t kill her yet. We still have need of her drugs,” Roxy admonished.
Boris bared his fangs. “I have no intention of letting her die. I have years to make up for.”
They shared a laugh that caused Heather to look at them from the passenger seat of the car. Roxy waved gleefully. Who knew defeat would provide such entertainment? She finished filling up her tank and got in. They drove the rest of the way without stopping.
She pulled up in front of a house she had been to twice before. Justin was exactly her type. Malleable, manipulative, and evil enough for her to forgive him for being a white boy. Leader of a pack who believed him to be their knight in shining armor, he did well at hiding his true nature. She had laughed the first time she had met him. His reputation had made her doubtful of her mission. But a reliable source had said he could be bought. They had been right.
She had Boris take Heather’s arm as they moved up the cracked sidewalk. No sense in letting their guard down so close to being safe. She rang the doorbell of the old-fashioned house. Listening to Justin brag about how old it was and how long it had been in the family bored her nearly to tears. It was okay, but she preferred her lodge.
The lodge that no longer belonged to her. It belonged to the alpha of the pack. She snarled just as the door opened. The woman who answered the door stood back with wide eyes. “Tell your master Roxy is here.”
The woman quickly scurried off to do as she was bid. Roxy smelled the fear as it wafted back to her and breathed it in. Better than the smell of coffee in the morning. Justin’s face appeared at
the door, and his smile broadened as his gaze perused Boris and Heather.
“I see you brought entertainment,” Justin said, leering at Heather. “Do come in,” he added with gentleman-like manners, which always amused Roxy.
“Thank you, Justin,” she said and moved through the doorway. “You’ve met Boris. This is Heather, previously healer of our tribe, now our prisoner.” The flare in Justin’s eyes caused her to laugh outright.
“Is the prisoner on the table for negotiations?” he asked eagerly.
“Yes, I’m willing to let you have a go at her for the right price. But before we deal with such pleasurable things, we need to secure her. After which, we need to discuss how our other plans are going.” She took off her coat and handed it to the serving woman who had answered the door. The girl barely looked her in the eyes.
Justin and Roxy settled on the couch in the living room while Boris taught the serving girl some proper manners. “Well, did you get Marty sufficiently worked up?”
“Yes. Your boy Joseph was quite convincing. Marty should have arrived already.”
“What! I haven’t heard a thing. He was supposed to check in with me,” she said, her fury causing her voice to turn more gravelly as she came close to shifting. “He wasn’t supposed to go off half-cocked. Whose idea was it for him to go?”
Justin had inched away from her during her short burst of anger, and the predator in her came awake, happy. “No one’s idea. Joseph never told us to have Marty check in with you first. He left the drugs with me, riled Marty up over his pregnant mate, and went back home.”
Roxy stormed off the couch and started pacing. She forced herself to calm down. She needed Justin, and if he was telling the truth, it was Joseph who needed to be punished. Speaking of Joseph. “When’s the last time you saw him?”
“Few days ago, right after we heard about the other member in Nolan’s pack who was killed protecting his pregnant sister. I think it was the same night the news reached us. Joseph came to me just before a pack meeting. I let him talk to the pack, then to Marty privately. Then he left. Something about a special meeting with you, I think.”
Now she grinned. Yeah, that meeting had been special. Boris had a thing for guys he only indulged when with another woman. And since Joseph botched the job he had been sent to do, Joseph needed more of those special meetings.
“I have that affect on some men,” she said, sex oozing from her pores. She knew it worked on Justin as well. He didn’t have a mate anymore. He had killed her when she had miscarried their twins. So much for the mated life.
Roxy watched the lust rise in his face. His eyes turned a bright yellow in complete infatuation. Her flirting with him was enough to cause that reaction but she knew it also turned him on knowing Boris was teaching his servant a lesson as he always did when they showed up. He had told her so last time she had been here. She decided she might need to use a little softer persuasion when he learned she was wanted by the police.
She slowly walked the short distance to him where he sat on the couch. She stood between his legs and ran a hand through his hair. His mouth dropped open, and his tongue darted out to lick his lips. He was hers now.
“You want some of this,” she asked in a low, sultry voice.
His voice was hoarse as he replied, “Yes.”
“Are you worthy? What can you do for me? And don’t play the sex card. I can get good sex from Boris or any other male I choose.” She pulled his face in to her breasts, letting him smell her perfume, then grabbed his hair, and tilted his face to hers. “What will you do for me?”
“I’ll give you anything you ask for, except the leadership of my pack.”
She smiled at him and pulled his face back into her chest so he could not see her surprise. She had not expected such a complete show of loyalty. Barely noticing his administrations to her body, she began planning what to do with that kind of powerful support. The possibilities were endless.
She could afford to bide her time. One day she would get back at Red for taking her man and spoiling her plans. For now, she would usurp the lupa position here and turn Justin into her puppet. No matter how long it took or who she had to trample, she would get her revenge.
Chapter Twenty
The next night, Nolan stood in the center of the warehouse floor. A day after the battle, his pack and the Lupin pack were all jammed in together in an uneasy truce. Weres jumbled up together, sweating, cursing, growling, pacing.
The unease was palpable in the way gazes skittered away as they met; no one wanted to seem as if they were issuing a challenge. Word had spread of his victory, and the hum in the room was overwhelming to his psychic senses. It made him doubly grateful that Sherona had volunteered her shadow’s help in security once Joseph was in custody. It was imperative that Kamiakin be here for this.
It would be nice if he could fine-tune his sensory input to only traitorous thoughts and feelings and grinned at the idea of discriminate psychic hearing. His mom used to say his hearing was selective. It would sure be handy to put it to use now. Five minutes after the start time of the meeting, he raised his hand for quiet. His pack silenced immediately and the few of the Lupins who had been talking quieted down quickly as well.
“As you can see, I’m now the ulfric for the Lupin pack. There’ll be a few guidelines to follow when dealing with one other. However, many in the Lupin pack have been subjugated to harsh treatment above and beyond what our laws allow. Please help me in steering the Lupin to the way the Wahpawhat pack takes care of things.” A low wave of intelligible sound met his pronouncement.
“We have some other important pack business to take care of now,” he called out above the lingering noise. “I have proof of a traitor who helped Roxy and Boris in the killing of our pregnant weres. He is in an undisclosed location until I can interrogate him. His judgment, whether he chooses human or were, will leave his mate unprotected and his child without a father. I need volunteers for protecting the mate and more for helping to raise the child in the knowledge of our ways. All those interested, please confer with Kamiakin. Any more concerns?”
There was a general murmur as people talked among themselves, but no one brought any more general business before the pack. He waited for it to die down before he continued with the announcement that would really stir things up.
“And I’ve found a mate.”
The upsurge of sound which met this news was deafening. He heard a lot of resentful thoughts being aimed at the unknown woman, and he cringed wondering what they would do when they found out it was from the enemy pack.
The noise did not quiet down like it had over the earlier news. He gave it another minute, then raised his hand for silence. This time it took longer for the chatter to cease. “Her name is Alex George, and she’s a doctor.”
The noise in the warehouse hit a crescendo that slammed his sensitive hearing like cymbals crashing at a rock concert. He winced and waited. This time, he did not try to stop the cacophony surrounding him. He grabbed Alex’s hand, and after the noise settled to a level he could talk over, he spoke again.
“I expect you to afford her the respect as is due my lupa. As a healer, she will help both our packs as we’ve only had an apprentice healer since Andy died. Are there any who’d like to challenge me over this?” Dead silence met him for about a minute. He was getting ready to finish the formal part of bringing in his lupa when a female voice spoke up.
“I challenge her.” It was Moriah. She was dressed in cargo pants and a brown tank top that blended with her skin.
His supernatural senses recognized the smell of the steel knives she kept on her at all times when in human form mixed with her natural alpha wolf smell. She would have made a good mate for him. Too bad he had not felt anything.
“What?” he asked stupidly. He should have known someone might challenge Alex. More worried about people challenging him, he had not considered the possibility of someone wanting to fight her.
“I accept,” Alex’s vo
ice rang out confidently. He looked at her and did not know what to say. He could not forbid it. This fight was not to the death, and it would help Alex solidify her own position as his mate if she won.
***
She looked back at Nolan, waiting for him to voice the protest she felt in his mind. She stood rigidly, daring him to say it. When he did not say anything, she nodded at him before returning her gaze to her challenger.
“I take it she wanted my position,” Alex said, not bothering to remind him she had met Moriah at the station.
“You could say that,” he replied.
Alex smiled, showing lots of teeth. “Good. That’ll make this an easy fight,” she said while looking Moriah in the eyes. “Please tell me this is in wolf form.”
“Yes, as it’s for the position of lupa in the pack, it has to be.” He lowered his voice to a whisper, coming up close behind her. “She’s banking on you not being able to shift,” he said into her ear.
Her body shivered at his nearness.
“Then she has a rude awakening headed her way,” she said with ruthless determination.
She stepped closer to Moriah. “I give you the chance to cede me the victory here and now based on misinformation,” she offered, hoping the other woman would not take her up on it. She wanted to fight. That this woman would try to claim her mate made her want to rip her throat out. This fight was not just for the position of lupa. This was for the man.
Moriah gave out a low, sultry laugh. “No way, honey. You want to be female alpha, you have to earn it.”
Alex nodded and smiled so big that she smelled a whiff of fear come off Moriah. She heard Nolan’s heavy sigh behind her and could not help but look at him. “I’ll be fine. Set up the match.”
He had Kamiakin take over.
Kamiakin looked at Moriah and said, “You’ve been given the chance to cede without a fight and you’ve denied it. Now the fight will be until the other says the word to stop the fight. This fight is not to the death and is in wolf form. Are you ready?” he finished, looking between the two women.
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