by Mandy Rosko
He turned around. He had to get Lois out of there.
When he’d left the table, it appeared she’d gotten the waitress to grab some boxes to take their meals to go. Dane wouldn’t have bothered, but he reminded himself that Lois was still getting used to what this sort of danger meant, and that the proper response to it, at least for her, was to get out of the way fast, not gather up her things first.
“Dane, can you…?” She trailed off, motioning to the waitress who was waiting to be paid and tipped.
“Oh, right.”
If he ever wanted to come back here, it was probably important that he remembered to pay the people who’d served him.
“Sorry about that, Sherri.”
“Not a problem.”
Sherri took the money, a little less suspicious and a lot happier when she saw the tip. “Something wrong?” she asked.
“Just some old friends who aren’t friendly anymore,” Dane said. “Thanks, Sherri, we’ll be back.”
She nodded, and Lois took their bags while Dane grabbed her free hand. They walked fast out of there.
Dennis smiled, and the way his eyes landed on Lois, the way they glowed that bright red…the bear inside Dane growled and huffed. It wanted to walk right over to Dennis, slap his claws across the man’s chest, and open him right up.
And Dennis sensed his need to do it, to let the animal go and shift right in the middle of the street, something he couldn’t do, not with people walking up and down the sidewalks, few that there were.
Otherwise, he might have just left Lois in Flynn’s protection and taken care of Garret’s little problem right now.
“You backing down from a fight? Not like you, Dane,” Dennis called.
An enormous part of Dane wanted to go over there and punch his teeth out. God, that would feel so good.
But Dennis had backup, and Dane knew if he left Lois’s side to go over there, all his strength wouldn’t be able to hold up against the four other men Dennis and Laurence had beside them.
And if he did go over there, he’d not only get held down and have the crap kicked out of him, but there was a better than even chance Dennis and Laurence would make a move on Flynn and Lois. Flynn was a good fighter, was training to become a Seal, but he was a beta, and it would be a two-to-one fight that he wouldn’t win.
That was the only thing he could think about to keep the bear inside him from coming out. He was an alpha, and he wasn’t going to let Dennis make him lose control for the first time in decades.
They made it back to their Jeep, only to find all four tires had been slashed.
“Fuck.” Flynn pulled out his phone.
“In there.” Dane nodded to a linens store. He took Lois’s arm, and they all stepped inside.
There weren’t many people, but it would have to do for now.
“Are we okay?”
Dane looked down at Lois, saw the fear in her eyes.
He nodded. “They’re just being assholes. They’re trying to scare us. That’s all this is.”
“Flynn hung up his phone. “Garret’s on his way. He’s bringing some of the guys.”
“Jax already left?”
Flynn nodded.
It would still be fine. Garret’s pack vastly outnumbered Dennis’s. Even if this was some trick, there was no way Dennis could attack the house and take the property while Garret wasn’t there anyway.
He’d have to actually kill Garret for that.
Which made Dane’s breath catch in his throat as he thought of that little possibility.
“What’s the matter?” Flynn asked.
“Call Garret back, tell him not to show up.”
“He can’t kill him in public,” Flynn muttered under his breath. “He’d go to prison for that.”
Unless he was planning on letting Laurence do it, or one of those scraggly-looking betas beside him.
Kill an alpha, bring honor to the pack, and become a martyr for the rest? It wasn’t the craziest thing he’d ever seen. It fit right in there with the people he’d been trying to bring down back in Kurdistan.
“Tell him not to show up anyway. Someone else can come. Tell him he needs to stay with his mate and protect her.”
Flynn didn’t argue. He put the phone back to his ear and started the call.
He’d make a good soldier someday.
Dane looked back down at Lois, ready to tell her that everything was going to be okay, that he was going to get her safely out of here and he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her.
Except she had that drawing book out and had pulled out some of her new pencils. She was sketching quickly, her eyes darting up to look at Dennis and his men.
Dane’s eyes widened. “Couple more in there you want to get?”
She didn’t take her eyes off her subjects. “Might as well now that I’m here.”
Dane looked up at Dennis, who was staring at them, frowning. He didn’t know what she was doing. Dane wasn’t sure if the man would care or not that Lois was sketching some of his betas for Garret to use against him later, but he didn’t want to take the risk.
“Just keep the book out of sight and don’t move your arm too much. I don’t think he knows what you’re doing.”
Lois nodded.
While they could see each other through the glass, there was a poster on the door around the handle that advertised free pillow cases with a fifty dollar purchase, so Dennis wouldn’t be able to see Lois’s midsection, not with her height. He wouldn’t be able to see her sketching his men while they waited for someone to come and get them.
6
It took less than twenty minutes before their ride came, and when the betas pulled up and rolled to a stop, the tires squealed. It wasn’t often they got to be the ones sent on a rescue mission to get one of the alphas, especially the second-in-command of the pack.
Lois only half finished her first sketch by then, though she’d clearly been struggling to go as fast as she could.
“I can finish when we get home.”
“Can you do anyone else?”
She shook her head. “I’ll try, but I’m not sure.”
With more backup with them, Dane had to take his woman out of the store and walk with her to the truck with Flynn.
Bryce, Johnny, and Howard were there. Bryce was driving while Johnny and Howard were in the bed of the truck, ready to jump out if they needed to fight.
It wouldn’t come to that.
Dane took Lois’s hand, realizing how small it felt, how fragile her fingers seemed, as he walked with her. “At ease, guys,” he said, opening the truck door and helping Lois inside. He handed her the bags of food and her art supplies. The art supplies she cradled with care.
Flynn got into the passenger side, and Dane decided he wasn’t going to get in at all.
He started walking towards Dennis.
“Dane? Dane!”
He ignored Lois’s call, trusting that Flynn would keep her safe.
The betas behind Dennis chortled. They were expecting a fight. They’d be disappointed that he wasn’t going to give them one.
Dennis narrowed his eyes at him. “Getting a little too close, aren’t you?”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Dane asked. “You’re harassing a human woman. That’s a little below you, isn’t it?”
Dennis said nothing at first, then he smiled. “Having some trouble healing, aren’t you?”
The scabs on Dane’s back started to itch. Badly. He couldn’t make them stop. He clenched his fists and didn’t as much as twitch.
“You keep on slinking around like a snake in the grass, it might get you killed.”
“Garret killed me and my father when he let us get tossed out of the pack.”
“Okay, that’s very dramatic. You’re clearly still alive, but no one in the pack feels sorry for you, or your father. After you killed James, then shot Jax, people want you dead.”
Dennis frowned. “Who shot the dragon?”
What?
The look on his face, that confused expression, was gone quick, but it had been there long enough for Dane to know Dennis was talking the truth.
If he hadn’t shot at Jax, then who had?
“Stay away from the woman,” Dane snarled. “She has nothing to do with this, and she’s leaving the pack very soon.”
“The way she grabbed onto Garret’s mate and nearly got killed for it says otherwise. I think she’s important to the pack. She’s definitely important to you.”
“And you’re an idiot if you think that.”
“Uh huh,” Dennis said. “How’d you say your back was doing?”
He knew. He fucking knew, and Dane couldn’t think of anything quick enough to turn Dennis’s attention elsewhere. Dennis knew that Lois was connected to Dane.
Garret and Jax had seen it, and while they hadn’t wanted to use the “M” word around Dane, he knew it to be true. She actually was his mate, and this might not be something he could fight.
Which made her a big target for Dennis.
Dane turned his back on the man. He walked back to the truck, put his foot onto the back tire, and hoisted himself into the bed.
He pounded on the back glass with his fist, and Bryce started driving off.
Dennis’s betas started calling out chicken noises at him, but that didn’t bother him.
Just because he’d left the Seals didn’t mean he left behind the training. It would take a lot more than some shitty peer pressure by those idiots, and their chicken noises, before he did something as stupid as put his mate in danger by fighting.
Now it was just a matter of getting rid of her so she could be safe.
* * *
Lois hadn’t been able to hear anything Dane was saying to Dennis. It was strange, having a man who had killed and hurt people standing so close to her, only a few feet away, while Dane spoke so calmly to him.
He appeared calm, at least. Lois knew better. She saw the tension in his shoulders, in the way his arms locked and his fists clenched.
Not only that, but she could feel it, too. She felt his anger and rage as clearly as if it was her own. But she was able to keep a clear head and keep watching.
Lois used the distraction outside to keep on drawing. She needed to get the basic shapes and shadows of one of the other men if she was going to remember any clear features and keep on going. She might be able to do one more from memory, but it was better not to risk it.
When Dane turned around and started walking back to the truck, Lois didn’t sigh with relief right away. She waited until he was in the bed and knocked on the glass. Lois only allowed herself to breathe when the truck was moving away from this damned place.
Flynn looked at her from his spot in the front passenger seat. “You all right?”
Lois could hardly glance back up at him with all the nervous tension in her body. “Uh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine. That wasn’t weird or scary at all.”
“Sorry,” Flynn said. “It’s usually not like this. He doesn’t normally just walk up to members of the pack like that.”
She nodded. “I heard.”
Sounded like Dennis had a change of plans, and Lois really didn’t want to be one of the people who got hurt because of that. She didn’t want Dane to get hurt either, or Miranda, or Anna, or Garret.
Hell, what she wanted to do was get to know Dane a little better. It wasn’t like she could do that while some psychotic murderers were out there looking to take down the pack where Dane lived.
Lois looked down at the papers in her hands.
Well, hopefully with these, there wouldn’t be much of a problem for Dane and the pack any longer.
When they got back to the house, Lois didn’t think she’d ever been so happy to see it in her entire life. She wanted to crawl into the room she’d been given, curl up into a small ball, and hide under her bed, but first she had to get these drawings to Garret.
She climbed out of the truck when they came to a stop. Her knees were still shaking, but not as much as they’d been before. She could keep standing. She didn’t fall to her knees, so that was a good thing.
Dane jumped out of the back of the truck. He put his hand on her shoulder, then quickly pulled it back. “Are you okay?”
That burning, aching feeling came back when he touched her, and Lois forgot all about the trouble she’d just had staying on her feet. “Yeah, I should get these to Garret.”
“Sure, I’ll go with you,” he said, looking back at the others. “Thanks, you guys, I’ll take it from here.”
Flynn waved at him, and Lois figured the others would put the truck away while she and Dane went to Garret.
They didn’t have to go far. The minute Dane opened the front door, Garret was rushing down the stairs. “You both all right?”
“Fine, thanks for the backup,” Dane said.
Garret looked at Dane, hard. “And you?”
“I’m fine.”
Garret wouldn’t stop staring at him.
Dane flipped him off. “Lois brought you some more drawings.”
“You did?”
Lois only then seemed to remember that she was holding a couple of things in her hand. “R-right.”
She opened her new drawing pad, the eight-by-twelve, and handed it to Garret. “I saw some more people I hadn’t seen before.”
Garret frowned at the drawing. “I don’t recognize this one. How many were there?”
“There was Dennis and Laurence, plus four more. I didn’t recognize them all either.”
Lois was betting that was a bad thing.
Garret made a small noise deep in his throat. It sounded like a growl. He looked angry enough to be growling.
“Is everything okay?”
Miranda appeared at the top of the stairs. She was wearing an oversized button-down shirt that went almost to her knees, and it didn’t look like she was wearing anything under it.
Garret looked back at his wife, opened his mouth, shut it, then finally spoke. “Lois had a run-in with Dennis. She’s fine. She’s right here in one piece,” he added quickly when Miranda came rushing down the stairs.
Lois smiled and let her friend throw her arms around her shoulders. It felt good to hug her best friend, even though she was totally naked beneath that shirt and Lois could definitely tell now that their bodies were pressed together.
“Oh my God, are you okay?”
Lois couldn’t help but smile. Yeah, this definitely felt nice. “I’m fine.”
Miranda pulled back, touching her shoulders, then her face. “But he didn’t hurt you, did he? I mean, it wasn’t like the last time?”
“What? No, nothing like that. He just stood outside the diner where I was trying to have lunch with Dane, acting like a total creep. Totally normal psychotic behavior.”
Lois looked away from Miranda when she saw the movement from the corner of her eye. Their conversation was attracting a few extra people, it seemed. Katie was standing on the sidelines, Flynn beside her, along with the younger man who’d driven them home.
Flynn scratched the back of his head, looking incredibly young in his embarrassment. “You forgot this in the truck,” he said, holding up the bag with their lunch in it.
Yup, Lois had forgotten it. She walked over, taking the bag. “Thanks, Flynn.”
He nodded, smiling softly at her before his brown eyes moved up to Dane and Garret. “Well, I think I’m going to leave you guys alone. Patrol the territory.”
“Report back to me if you catch any new smells. Even if you think it’s poachers. He’s got some new people in the pack.”
Garret turned back to Lois. “I’ll make copies of these if they’re ready.”
“I’ll do some touch-ups on them and get started on the next two,” she said.
Garret looked at Dane. “What’s wrong?”
Lois looked up at the man. She could feel his tension now, too, now that she was focusing on it.
Dane shook his head. “Nothing. You both go do that.�
�� He took the bag of food from Lois’s hand. “I’ll bring these to the fridge for later.”
Something was definitely wrong. Lois could feel it. She felt it itching her back and gnawing on her insides, and she definitely didn’t like it. This wasn’t like whenever he looked at her and touched her before. That energy wasn’t gone, but it was angry, annoyed, and felt a little scared. Lois had never been this in tune with anyone in her life, and without thinking about what would happen next, she followed Dane out of the room.
“Hey, hey, stop,” she said.
He was almost all the way down the hall he’d been walking so fast. He did stop. His shoulders were tense when he turned around, and this time, Lois was worried he was going to irritate the wounds on his back.
“Why are you running away from me?”
Something in his expression changed, but it was gone so fast that she couldn’t read it. It almost felt like he was closing himself off to her. She still felt his irritation, but now he was hiding something.
“I’m not running away from you.”
Yes, he was. Lois shouldn’t care, he was a grown man and he could do whatever he wanted, even choose to not want to be around her.
But her heart thumped a heavy noise in her chest. It didn’t feel good.
“Did I do something wrong?”
Dane’s hand twitched. His eyes widened slightly, and this time, he couldn’t hide his surprise from her.
But then that scowl came back to his face. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Then why are you so angry at me?”
Dane rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. “I’m not angry with you. You shouldn’t be here.”
“My best friend is here.”
He was here, too.
“So?” Dane snapped the word, looked at her hard. Lois tensed under that heated stare. “Just because your friend is here doesn’t mean you need to be. You don’t actually live here.”
That was true, and because it was true, it made it a lot more embarrassing than it probably should have been. “I know that.”
“You’re a human. A civilian. You’re not supposed to know about any of this. You could die by being here. Do you get that?”
