by J. K Harper
“Isn't that what we've been doing?” Wiggle, wiggle.
She was killing him. He took a step back, even though that almost killed him too.
Lily relented. “She's sussing him out, asking questions, and checking his scent up close. Seeing if the rogues were talking to him and what he might have told them.”
Kieran was impressed. “I like your Pack's techniques. They're pretty effective.”
A tinkling laugh from the counter. Lily turned her head toward Kieran in a swirl of red hair to hide the giggle that escaped. Sara said a meaningful thank you full of lingering promise to the now clearly besotted human, and headed their way.
“And?” Lily drawled the word in the sort of tease that only female friends could achieve.
“Oh, he was so helpful,” Sara whispered. She flung a look over her shoulder at her new friend. The poor guy actually waved, which Sara returned with such earnestness now Kieran had to choke back a laugh. “These rough biker types came in, asking about rooms, girls, partying. Their scents were all over him. It's them for sure. He said they asked if they could check out the hotel, walk around, maybe see a room in case they wanted to stay.”
Sara paused and flicked her eyes at Lily. “They specifically asked about redheads.”
Lily's indrawn breath and sudden lifting of her shoulders were the only sign of the words' impact.
Kieran muttered a colorful swear word that had both women raise their eyebrows.
“Damn them to hell and back.” His voice was so grim Sara actually took a step back, bristling in agitation. “They know who you are, Lily. They know you're the only redheaded female in the Black Mesa Pack. The only red wolf.”
Every wolf within a three hundred-mile radius knew that. Lily was unique in many ways. Apparently these rogues were smart enough to recognize Lily's potential...but stupid enough to try to get close to her. She was his. He would run them the hell away from Black Mesa's territory before they opened their mouths.
Lily growled low in her throat. Her gaze had shifted from Kieran to something behind him. Sara stiffened beside her. The hunting urge emanated off her in waves, rousing Kieran's own response.
“Well, look here.” The rough voice carried from the front doors of the lobby, which had whooshed open seconds before. “That clerk was right. There is a sweet little redhead in this neck of the woods. It's our lucky day, boys.”
Keeping his calm, Kieran turned with an almost insolent slowness.
Rowdy biker types indeed. These rogues also seemed well-fed and well-organized. The lack of basic needs met by Pack living—companionship, social structure, protection, mating, food, money, meaning to life—eluded the average rogue. Rogues either shunned or were shunned by Packs, for a wide variety of reasons. Usually, rogues simply lacked the personality required by the Pack hierarchy. Life inside a Pack demanded utter loyalty, fealty to the Pack alphas, and unwavering adherence to Pack law. Most rogues just turned their noses up at what they perceived to be the rigidity of rules, and they left. Some came back, humbled and tail-tucked, once they discovered the sheer difficulty of life as a rogue. Even so, most were still cast back out. The streak of rebellion and individuality ran too deep in most true rogues to ever adapt well to Pack life.
For sheer survival, most rogues created mini-Packs of their own, ones that were not formally recognized by the regional Pack Councils. They simply banded together and existed in a slipshod gathering of loose rules, poor morals, and generally dissolute lifestyle. Kieran knew he looked down at rogues. Their outright dismissal of the Pack life that defined his very being disturbed him. They suffered hardscrabble lives, most of them, and died far before the centuries of life most wolf shifters enjoyed. It seemed an unfathomable concept when all they had to do was swear loyalty to a Pack, any Pack, and enjoy a hell of a better life.
But these rogues...something about them prickled the fine hairs on Kieran's body, spurred his own hunter lust along with wary realization. They seemed alert. Healthy. Strong.
The speaker, who seemed to be channeling a Sturgis bike rally persona, was their pseudo-alpha. His very stance screamed stature, dominance, leadership. What the hell was such a wolf doing as a rogue?
Before Kieran could wonder more, he noticed the wolf's brazenly possessive, appreciative gaze...on Lily. Bright blue eyes, ice chip cold, took in her every inch with bold arrogance. Kieran's wolf reared up in fury, pushing to be loosed. No other wolf looked at his mate that way.
His mate? Kieran didn't pause to analyze the thought now. Focus.
The rogue wolf spoke with an unconcerned tumble of words that belied a cold calculation. “Seems like you don't want to share your women. Too bad about that. We need a few.”
Sara sucked in a gasp at the sheer audacity of the challenge, then snarled. Kieran sensed Lily holding her Packmate back from lunging.
“Feisty,” the rogue leader murmured, slicing his eyes toward Sara. “Now, you could be fun. Darlin'.” He drawled the word in a mocking tone that elicited laughter from his crew, ranged behind him in menacing, if slightly desperate, rogue fashion.
Kieran's wolf bared its teeth in his mind. Kieran did too, letting his lip curl up over his human canines. A snarling shifter in human form was an oddly menacing sight because of the animal self lurking just beneath the surface. He leaned forward a bit, trusting himself to dominate these rogues—and stopped.
Lily, bold and unhesitating, had stepped forward. Her entire being radiated anger as she pinpointed the rogue leader with a calculating gaze of her own. Not a shred of fear leaked through, if she even felt any. Forcing himself to stay back, Kieran admired his tough she-wolf more and more.
“Who the hell do you think you are, coming into our territory? And levying fighting words like that? If you want Pack re-induction, that's not the way to go about it. At all.” A ripple of scorn underlined her clipped words. A Pack Guardian, through and through. Kieran wondered if Lily realized she was slipping back into her natural mode.
The rogue leader stared at Lily for a long moment. His expression teetered between amusement and primal desire. Again, Kieran's wolf snarled.
Finally, the rogue laughed, which his followers naturally echoed. Lily straightened in surprise.
“Oh, now, that's funny.” Again, the rogue's eyes made a leisurely journey of Lily's form, taking in Sara's as well. The rude stare bristled all three Pack wolves, although Lily stared the rogue back down, not giving an inch. Damn, she was going to make a fine alpha mate.
“What makes you think we want Pack re-induction?”
Before Lily could answer, Sara snapped, “Why the hell else would you come here looking for females? You want to breed. You need a Pack for that.”
Rogue wolves sometimes mated with human women, but offspring never happened. Human women couldn't carry wolf shifters to term, so nature in all her resourcefulness made such couplings sterile. If the woman actually caught, she always miscarried early. For wolf shifter young to be born, two full shifters had to mate. Since females almost never went rogue, it posed a serious problem for any rogues who wanted to procreate.
A mocking smile turned up the rogue's lips. Kieran's distaste of all things rogue immediately ratcheted up.
“Well done, sweet thing. Yes, we do want to breed.” He leaned forward, eyes still fixed on Lily. “But you've got one thing wrong.”
He went silent for another moment, again appraising Lily in that unnerving way that had all Kieran's instincts screaming. Something was happening here that he didn't understand. Kieran hated to not understand any situation.
“We want full Pack status. Of our own. And for that, we need not only a female of breeding age, but special dispensation from the Pack Council. Which we intend to get.”
***
Lily wanted to check her ears. She couldn't have heard right. These rogues, these outcasts, wanted a Pack of their own? Pack status? She had to admit, they were organized. The pseudo-alpha facing her down with his laser eyes clearly was their leader. She wond
ered which Pack he'd come from originally, and why he hadn't stayed. He could have been an alpha in a recognized peripheral Pack of his own by now, one that self-governed yet remained attached to the dominant area Pack. The four other wolves semi-circling him clearly deferred to him. It was hierarchy, the ancient kind all Packs followed.
But full Pack status? He had to be crazy. The regional Pack Council would never go for that. Lily should know—her own father led the Council. He was a stickler for the rules, and he never swayed from them unless circumstances dictated. And circumstances had dictated only twice in Lily's memory.
No, these rogues were nuts. And they were on her Pack's territory, barging in on her time with Kieran—her wolf rubbed in agreement—and threatening her. Unacceptable all the way around.
Lily's wolf, so close to the surface from the dual needs to mate as well as protect the Pack, made her steel her voice even more. “You'd do well to remember, rogue, that the Pack world doesn't work like that. Just because you want something doesn't mean you automatically get it. There are rules in our society.”
The rogue's eyes narrowed a bit at that, but the sardonic grin never dropped.
“And you chose to turn your back on those rules,” Lily went on in the same implacable tone. “So they no longer apply to you in any form, and your misguided wish for them will never be granted. Never.”
Flanking her, both Kieran and Sara stiffened suddenly before each relaxed just as quickly. Tightly focused on the threat before her, Lily didn't waste time wondering what that was about. She trusted them to have her back while she faced down these impertinent interlopers.
The rogue wolf chuckled again.
“Who's going to stop us from taking what we want, little wolf?” His eyes bored into hers with the intensity of a storm. “There are five of us to the three of you. I think we can take what we want. There aren't enough of you to stop us.”
Lily's anger rose a notch. Any wolf who thought to bully her never fared well, even when she'd been licking her wounds and hiding from her role as Guardian.
The thought almost slapped her with its flash of insight.
Oh, what a self-centered little fool she'd been. She'd been hiding ever since that night. Not just running, but hiding from what and who she was. And in the process, she'd also neglected her duty to her Pack.
No more. This Pack Guardian was back, and she wouldn't go down without a fight.
Well, maybe to Kieran. But only Kieran. Her insides heated again, a brief molten flare that bolstered her itch to fight.
“Then let's take this outside, rogue,” she said with unyielding force. His grin finally slipped. Good. She had surprised the cocky bastard. “We'll see who's better trained, better nourished, and better motivated. When you mess with the Black Mesa Pack, you get more than you bargained for.”
Even as she tossed off the threat, she wondered how the hell they could possibly run off five rogues without sustaining real injuries. Her words were half truth, half bluff. Kieran and Sara were in full fighting form, but Lily herself was merely in shape. She hadn't been participating in full training for two years now, and it would show as soon as they started to scrap in earnest.
Kieran gave her an imperceptible nudge, more of a tightening of his arm muscle against hers. He had an ace in the hole. What was it?
“Sure,” said the rogue. Smug assurance again permeated every word, his entire stance. “Let's go.”
Before he could take a step, though, a familiar voice cut through the uneasy air from Lily's right.
“You might want to rethink that decision, rogue. The odds just got stacked...and now they're well against you.”
Lily's heard Sara's inhalation, laced with—interest? Then she smiled at the rogue, whose own smile had suddenly evaporated.
“Darn. I was really looking forward to seeing what you've got. Guess it'll have to wait for another time, rogue.” She inserted as much bravado into her voice as the rogue had, while never taking her eyes off him.
Lily's brothers, all three of them, stepped into view. They had somehow come up the stairs from the other adjoining bar and slipped down the connecting hallway. Why the hell hadn't she scented them before now? She took a deep, unobtrusive breath through her sensitive nose and only now, when they were mere steps away, could it faintly detect them. They'd covered their tracks well with a simple product designed for hunters. Masking scent was an art form many wolves employed when necessary.
Briefly wondering how her brothers had known about the intruders, Lily let a victorious grin suffuse her face. The rogue curled his lip. Frustration, annoyance, and something Lily couldn't quite put her finger on altered his expression before it once again settled into the earlier disdain. He spared a glance for the male Bardous. Big, fit, and positively reeking of power, Lily's siblings stood there, an additional flanking force. They didn't need to take intimidating stances. Their mere presence was enough to scare most wolves, Pack or rogue, into instant submission.
The rogue leader's troops shifted nervously on their feet, although they didn't break and run. But the rogue leader...his reaction was strange. He was outnumbered, and he knew it. Yet he wasn't afraid. Before Lily could attempt to parse that reaction, he spoke in cool tones.
“We'll be back. You can't deny us. Your alpha knows why. Maybe you should ask him.”
With one last ice-chip look at Lily, the rogue leader pivoted on his motorcycle boot-clad feet with an oddly elegant fury and stalked out of the hotel. His followers crowded behind him in their haste. Whatever he had meant, they didn't seem to buy into his same assurance.
As soon as they'd exited, Lily spun toward her brothers. Kieran's scent tickled at her again, supportive and already familiar.
“What—? How—?”
Rafe, the eldest of her younger brothers, laughed and stepped forward to throw an arm around her in a half-hug. She sensed he was checking her mental and emotional status as he did it, scenting her, making sure she was really okay on all levels. When he pulled back and cocked a pointed eyebrow at Kieran, Lily felt her face flush. But she met Rafe's stare without standing down. Back off, little brother. I accept Kieran.
Rafe's lips quirked up in a grin of some surprise, though clearly he was pleased. “Well done, Lils. You looked like a full Pack Guardian with those rogues.” He shot the briefest glance at Sara. “Nice to see you, Sara.”
There was no mistaking it. Lust was on Sara's mind, and it was focused on Rafe. Lily forced her face into a blank expression despite her sudden curiosity. Well, she was about to jump Kieran's bones herself, and that would take up enough of her thoughts. Let Sara try for Rafe, the reserved, workaholic eldest male Bardou. Although if he hurt Sara, Lily would personally thump him.
She fixed her brother with another look. “How did you know about the rogues? Why were you all masking your scents?”
Caleb, the youngest of her brothers so of course the biggest, broke into the delighted chuckle of a man who's pulled off a good one.
“Dad tipped us. The northeast border scout scented them two days ago and reported back. And apparently they'd sent Dad some sort of communication. He knew they'd be coming, he just wasn't sure when. So he had us all on recon for the past few days.”
“That explains why you knew to be here so darn fast.” Lily grinned and tugged Caleb into a quick embrace. She would never admit it to anyone alive, but she had a soft spot for her very youngest brother. Not that she would ever use the word “favorite.”
“We aim to serve the Pack.” Rafe rubbed a finger along his cheekbone. The move was an unconscious carbon copy of their father's favorite mannerism when sunk in thought. “Being expedient is in our contracts.”
Tate, Lily's irrepressible middle brother, rolled his eyes at Rafe's slightly imperious tone. “What he means is, we busted our asses getting here because Dad called and told us to step on it.”
Sara covered a grin by coughing lightly into her shoulder. Lily took in Rafe's aggrieved oldest-brother look and reached over t
o give him a playful smack on his arm.
“Lighten up, Rafe. I'm just relieved you got here when you did. That rogue...” She paused as her thoughts landed on the interaction again. She sensed this would not be the last time they would deal with the rogues. But right now, she didn't want to think about them. “Good timing, baby brothers.”
As planned, her playfully bossy words sent her siblings into protestations that ranged from good-natured to halfway demanding an outside brawl to prove who was top wolf.
Kieran's breath caressed her ear as he leaned into her. “Your brothers come remarkably well to heel when you lay down the law. And they had no idea that's what you were doing.” His amused murmur sent chills down her skin. She wanted to mate. Soon.
“Now,” Kieran whispered against her hair. Could the man hear her thoughts? He pressed his hard body against hers and all other thought but the drive to melt into him fled her ricocheting mind.
“That room I mentioned. It's on the second floor. I'd like to show it to you.” His voice rumbled with tension that coiled itself around Lily's senses in a delightful surge of need. She nodded against him, afraid of what she might say out loud. Afraid it would cause her to strip first her clothes, then his, right here in the lobby.
A delicate throat clearing sounded somewhere nearby. Kieran's body tightened in annoyance, but he didn't step away. Sara's giggle reminded Lily that yes, indeed, the room upstairs would be a good idea. Like, now.
“See you in the morning, Lils?” her Packmate asked with a lascivious wiggle of her eyebrows. Lily groaned, then paused as her brothers stopped their playful bantering. As one, they stared first at Lily, then Kieran. The air clouded with suspicion, and something else. Lily looked hard back at Rafe. His expression was that of a satisfied wolf that had maneuvered its prey into just the right spot. Meddling little brothers.
“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered at him, while leaning more strongly into Kieran. A small grin cracked her brother's face, but that was all. “See you all at breakfast?”
