She sat up, the sunlight passing through the thin tent wall and casting her in a warm orange glow. Outside she could hear the soft snore of Corey, who had set his tent up close to her own. She smiled to herself. He might not be a suitable mate for her, but he was doing his best to be her friend and she couldn’t help but find comfort in his easy grins and joking chortles. It had been such a long time since she had a good friend that it felt odd to her. She was also grateful that Dru had placed his tent further away. He had initially suggested that they tent together, but Nicci had refused and he had eventually relented. As his bottom lip had dropped and his jaw had tightened, he had reluctantly set up his own tent area.
She ran her fingers through her hair and pulled it back into a bun, knotting it with a band from her bag. Stretching her limbs, she wondered what time the potential new members would be arriving. Corey had been so excited the previous night that he had spent the entire evening regaling her with tales about all their distinct personalities. But they seemed unreal to her. Like figments of an imaginal world where being a were-panther was a normal thing. In her experience, it was anything but.
She put on some clothes and headed out into the brisk morning air, small droplets of moisture running off the side of her tent as she slid the zipper down and stepped out. It was going to be a beautiful day. The smell of eucalyptus hung in the near forest, the soft chirping of birds, and further down in a gully she could hear the soft cry of a kookaburra. His chortle made her smile. She set to her task of gathering wood for the morning fire. She didn’t really need to; they had purchased a gas cooker with the camping supplies, but it gave her purpose and she enjoyed being out in amongst the trees. The feel of the breeze on her face, and the soft rustle of their leaves, made her feel connected and grounded. With her arms laden, she arrived back at camp to find Dru had already started the gas cooker and was preparing some bacon and eggs in a frying pan.
‘Good morning,’ he greeted her. She was struck by how natural it was to see him like this after such a short time. The smile on his lips that was highlighted by the soft dimple in his cheek. The ocean blue of his eyes as they reflected the morning sun. The hard line of his jaw and muscles that showed what he was capable of if he wanted to. She sighed. A deep yearning had begun again and was burning brighter the longer she looked at him. Shaking her head, she walked to the firepit and began stacking the wood.
‘Morning,’ she muttered through her clenched teeth. Her own body was her greatest betrayer. The sputter of cooking bacon woke Corey and he emerged, stretching as he went.
‘Morning gorgeous!’ he called to Nicci, stepping towards her and pulling her into his shoulder. Beside them, they heard a soft growl emit from Dru’s lips. Corey instinctively took a step backwards.
‘Morning Dru,’ Corey turned to face him, his shoulders squaring. ‘It’s a beautiful day in paradise.’ Dru didn’t reply, instead he pushed the eggs around the pan. ‘So who’s ready for the team to arrive?’
Nicci felt a tremor along her spine. She wasn’t sure she was ready. After all Corey’s tales about them, it seemed like the eclectic crowd that were descending would be noisy and busy. She was enjoying the quiet life they were having here. It was uncomplicated and easy going. Well, mostly.
She caught Dru’s eyes and watched a sad smile ghost his lips.
‘I think it will be great,’ she said, wanting to support Corey’s enthusiasm, despite her concerns. It would be nice to meet some of my kind, she told herself. Forcing a smile, she said to Corey. ‘You have to promise that you won’t leave me stuck to fend for myself with all those women though. Okay?’
He grinned back, giving her a wink. ‘They’re going to love you Nic. Don’t you worry your little head about a single thing. I got you.’
Dru’s brows dropped and his lips pulled taut again.
‘Enough of that rubbish,’ he snarled to them. ‘Let’s have some breakfast. I got a message some are already on their way and it probably won’t be long until they’re here. They stopped off down the road last night. We need to set up some space for them to camp. So if we finish clearing out a couple of the houses and yards here, we can give them some options.’
He pulled a plate out, slapped on some bread, and threw eggs and bacon on it before thrusting it in Corey’s direction. Corey looked at Nicci and raised an eyebrow before stepping forward and taking the plate.
‘Cheers,’ he thanked him.
Nicci was next, Dru’s eyes drilling into her own as the plate passed between them. The feel of his fingertips only fractions of a centimetre from her own was enticing. She gulped and pulled back.
They ate in silence, the three of them hunched over their plates. Nicci was the first to finish.
‘Did you want me to do the dishes?’
‘Nah, don’t worry I got this one.’ Corey gave her a smile. He knew about her previously job, and she knew that he was showing her that things were changed for her now. She appreciated his support, and was grateful that he didn’t judge her for her past. But Dru? If things were different, he probably wouldn’t have even noticed her. She would have been in the kitchen while he and his ilk drank champagne and ate caviar, all the while oblivious to the workers behind the scenes. Whatever her desire for Dru, she knew they were in two different leagues. Even if he refused to acknowledge it.
‘Okay, I’ll start clearing out the brush behind the house three doors down. If nothing else, it might make it look a little more appealing for the new occupants when they arrive.’
‘Good idea,’ Dru gave her a brief smile. But it didn’t reach his eyes.
As she strolled down the street, she took a moment to look around. With broken roofs, husks of houses and the plants pushing their way up through the pavements, she knew that rebuilding this place was a mammoth undertaking. But this place reminded her of herself. Yes, it was broken, but there was potential everywhere she looked. A once glorious garden that could be uncovered and restored. A shop that would yet again bustle with patrons and smell of fresh coffee. This was a town that was going to transform and become something more than what it had been. Something she desperately wanted to do herself.
As she pulled on some gardening gloves and wrapped her fingers around the leafy weeds that were inundating the area, her jaw clenched. She was going to help save this place. And she hoped in the process she would also save herself.
#
CHapTEr NiNeTeeN
Dru had never gone so long without sex. As he sat there and pushed the cooling eggs around his plate, he considered his current state of chastity. Sex had always given him a purpose. The thrill of the chase as he felt his adrenalin building, and his desire heighten. The darkening of their pupils, and the flush on their cheeks as he dove into his first arduous attempts at winning their affection and their bodies. He loved hearing their groans of pleasure as he found the places that gave the most response. It was like a drug to him. For so long the face attached to the feel had become unimportant. Just another body that could help fill the void that was his life. Underneath it all, he had always felt unworthy of their attention in a strange way, his desire for their response driven by his feelings of inadequacy, by wanting to prove himself. But with Nicci it had been so very different. His body had responded in ways he didn’t even realise it could. His desire to please had been genuine and aimed solely at her needs and wants. He had, for the first time in his life, given himself entirely to another person.
Now, as he watched her body sway away from his, he could barely talk to her. She had pulled away from him so far that their close bond of that night was like a distant memory. A sigh escaped his lips.
‘Are you okay?’ Corey had taken a seat next to him and was watching the departing figure. ‘You and Nicci seem to be a bit...’
He paused. Long enough for Dru to understand the meaning.
‘Yeah, things aren’t going great.’
‘Well
, it’s not surprising mate.’ Corey took a mouthful of food before he continued. ‘Nicci’s being smart, giving you distance. You have only just broken up with Ashley, quite spectacularly I might add.’’
‘Hmmmm.’
‘But you haven’t even processed the feelings you or her might have around that. You know she wanted to be the new pack leader after your parents retire. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep her place. Hell, I doubt that there would be a person in the world that could change her mind, at this point, unless you can show her a different way through building this pack.’
Corey took another mouthful. ‘And that leaves Nicci stuck in the middle. If you try to leave Ashley for her, Ashley’s going to assume that Nicci is her replacement as Alpha and she’s going to get vocal with her friends to protect her status. But if Nicci stays here as your mistress or whatever, in the eyes of all those who know and believe Ashley, Nicci automatically goes to the bottom of the pack for being the home wrecker. By default. Because you know that the pack won’t respect her for taking the leadership from Ashley. And I reckon she has been at the bottom of many people’s lists for long enough. She seems to look for something more from life. Are you sure you can give her that? Something more than the bottom tier?’
‘I can!’ Dru spat out. ‘We just have to get through this, and then I will be free to be with whoever I want.’
‘I know you think that’s true, but you need to prove it through how you set up this pack. It’s going to be important when the rest of them arrive today that you set some boundaries and tell them how things work around here without becoming your father in the process. They bring with them years of being under his rule, and they will be expecting you to be as brutal as he was because you are his son. They watched you being hand raised by him, and they are sceptical. Those I have spoken to also openly admit that his way, for better or for worse, kept everyone safe. But he never shared a second of his energy on equality, and that’s a cold, hard fact. If you want to get Nicci, and you want to show Ashley that being separated from you isn’t a threat to her own safety and security, then you need to show them how equality can work and still keep them safe without the brutal need for pack regulations. Without that, you will never be free. From your father, or Ashley.’
Corey was right. These people arriving were hoping for something better in life than his father could offer them. They wanted to achieve their own places in society, but they needed to feel protected and listened to. The very thing that Dru himself had never felt from his own family. Doubts about his ability to pull this off began to slide under his skin.
‘You’re right,’ he admitted. ‘Okay, let me make a couple of calls. I have to get this sorted out.’
Corey smiled and gave him a pat on the shoulder. ‘You got this, mate. I know you do. But this whole thing has become bigger than your cock. And maybe, if you get this right, Nicci might hang around long enough to realise that she needs you. If you’re lucky.’ He got up and threw his dishes into the bowl they had designated for washing up.
Dru scrapped his remaining breakfast into the fire, before handing his plate to him. As he walked back to his tent to get his phone, he started plotting out a business plan. A trust. Formed to govern the pack’s investments, and to help fund the pack based on a fair and equitable voting system for the election of Directors and CEOs. But the trust deed would have to be airtight. If he knew his father, there would be a legal challenge brewing the minute they put it in place. Ashley wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t go down without a fight. He needed to be smarter, not tougher, than his father.
Pulling his phone from his bag he noticed there were a couple of missed calls from Ben. Punching the reply button he called him back. Ben answered quickly, his voice sounding strained.
‘Dru, thank God you finally called. I have something I need to tell you.’
‘What?’ Dru could feel the blood starting to pound in his veins. Something was off.
‘Your Dad has put in place a legal challenge to your Trust. Now he doesn’t have any authority on the account, so he can’t stop the purchase going ahead. He’s made a claim that the Trust owes loans to his company and he’s revoking them for failure to pay. Which would, of course, affect your liabilities ratio and your credit score with the bank.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ Dru scoffed. ‘I got the money from my races and sponsorship deals. He hasn’t got a legal leg to stand on.’
‘I agree,’ Ben confirmed. ‘But I don’t think his point is to win. It’s to delay you. I think he’s trying to tie up enough of your funds in legal proceedings that you won’t be able to spend it on anything, or have any lending capacity, until you either get the case thrown out, or he relents. He’s going to make things very, very difficult for you. Luckily the funds for the deposit on the land already went through yesterday by electronic transfer, before we got the court order placing a hold on the account. But, I’ll be honest, this is some low-ball stuff. You won’t have enough left to finish the building that you wanted to and I can’t even apply for lending for you, because of the pending liabilities.’
Dru swore loudly, the sound of it echoing through the trees. ‘I fucking knew he would do something. I knew it. The guy is a complete sadist. He must have rushed straight to his lawyers from here.’
He paced around on the spot, his brain throwing together ideas as he went. ‘Right, well what can I do? I was going to ring you this morning anyway to see if I could change the structure of the Trust, but maybe I need to think about creating a new Trust? Something with no ties to him at all?’
‘Well, that’s not a stupid idea,’ Ben mulled on it. ‘But that won’t save you financially for a while unless you can get some borrowing capacity. I know a guy in the bank who might help us get an idea on the lending requirements if we could use the land as collateral. Especially if we can get some mining rights for it. Maybe we could transfer the land to the new Trust, since that’s not tied to the claim directly, and then we can look at borrowing for the rebuild portion? Might be worth a shot.’
‘Do whatever you can,’ Dru sighed. His head was pounding and his mouth was dry. ‘Just make sure he can’t touch this place. Any way you can.’
‘Sure thing. Talk soon.’
As Ben hung up, Dru’s shoulders slumped. He had known his father wasn’t going to make this easy, but this was low even for him.
Corey loped over to him, concern etched on his face. ‘Everything alright?’
‘My fucking father is in fine form again,’ he growled. ‘But don’t worry, we will get it sorted.’
‘Anything I can help with?’
‘You can find me a sledgehammer and give me a wall to knock down,’ he grumbled.
‘Not yet,’ Corey smiled. ‘But I’m sure chopping up some wood, or pulling some weeds might help. Follow me.’
#
CHapTEr TwenTy
Nicci heard cars arriving in the distance, and she stopped working. Sweat glistened off her skin as her ears pricked in the direction. Two cars, no wait, four maybe. The rumble of a van and the sounds of a couple of motorcycles. She swallowed. Well, it was going to happen whether or not she liked it.
Standing up, she wiped the back of her hand across her forehead and stepped out into the street to greet the new arrivals. A couple of houses down, she saw Dru and Corey. Dru’s face was drawn and grey, his lips set like a stone statue. Corey was smiling and waving as the vehicles descended on them in a roar. From behind windscreen and windows she could see their faces staring back at her, or checking out the town. They looked a little confused in their new surroundings. She didn’t blame them.
The head of the pack was a dark blue ute loaded with four burly looking men. As they piled out of the car, they greeted Corey loudly and there was much backslapping in the joyous reunion. Three of the men looked very similar, all tall and blond with broad shoulders and round chests. The third was short
er, his hair darker and his body a more youthful stature.
She listened into their conversation.
‘Welcome Brad, John, Lachie and is that you Callum?’ Corey greeted, his voice louder than it needed to be. The younger one nodded.
‘Wow, you’re getting big. Soon you’re going to be taller than Mark here.’ He slapped one of the older men on the shoulder who had strode up to him, and gave a bark of laughter.
The young lad gave a shy smile.
By now the other cars had unloaded, and men, women and children of all shapes, sizes and hair colours were encircling Dru and Corey, giving them hearty greetings and hugs. Nicci watched from the sidelines, feeling an anxious twinge in her feet. Normally with this many people around she would have left and come back when things had quietened down, but she felt suddenly thrust into the spotlight thanks to Dru hollering for her.
‘Nicci!’ Come and meet everyone.’
She could feel the rushing roar of the blood in her veins as her feet refused to move. All their eyes turned to stare at her in unison, and a hot flush rose to her cheeks. Corey gave her a small grin, pushed his way through the crowd and came up to her. ‘Don’t be afraid,’’ he said softly, tucked her hand under his arm and brought her into the fold. She was grateful for the support, even if it meant getting a glare from Dru.
‘Everyone, this is Nicci. Nicci, this is... well, everyone.’
A woman who seemed a little older than her came to meet her first. Her eyes were a lovely deep shade of brown and they softened like chocolate as they took Nicci’s hand in a shake.
A Town Called Nowhere Page 11
