Wolf's Mate Mpreg Romance Box Set

by Kiki Burrelli

  In the background, Sorell squeaked from the doorway for Silas to let Pippen go. He was stuck where he was, busy protecting the babies and wouldn't dare leave them to come to Pippen's aide. Pippen didn't need it anyway.

  Silas inhaled and then narrowed his eyes at Pippen, all playfulness erased from his face. "You smell like him, that other shifter." He growled and squeezed.

  Whether he meant to crush Pippen to death or not, there was no way he was waiting to find out. There was a commotion behind them, probably Oscar stumbling back in. At this point though, Pippen didn't want to be saved. He had to prove to himself as much as Silas that he was as deadly as he had been. He pulled his head back as far as he could and then slammed his forehead against Silas' nose. Silas roared in pain and dropped Pippen just as Pippen's world threatened to go black.

  Warm, familiar hands grabbed him from the back. Pippen didn't fight them, he knew those hands. They lifted him and held him close. "You stubborn shifter," Conner said into his ear, grimly. "I know you heard me."

  Pippen bent his neck up, noticing with watery eyes that Oscar had returned, with Felix and apparently, Conner. They held Silas like a prisoner across the far side of the room, away from Pippen and Sorell. He disappeared with Oscar and one of the downtown shifters in the laundry room. Pippen slumped down, using Conner's strength once he realized his friend and the children were truly safe. Silas couldn't do anything to them now.

  Not right now, you mean, he thought. Silas could always come back, unless they killed him, which Pippen doubted they would. Would he be strong enough to fight Silas again?

  "You've gone soft, Pips."

  Had Silas been right? The altercation he'd had with Silas wouldn't have even registered on his radar at his old pack and right now Pippen felt like he'd been shoved through a grinder.

  He straightened, pulling away from Conner's warmth. Conner glanced at him from the side of his vision but didn't make a comment in front of everyone.

  Pippen put a hand on the sofa to keep his balance. "If you've got this all under control..." he said, stepping away from the chaos.

  "I should take a look at you," Felix said, unwilling to leave Sorell's side. Sorell looked at Pippen with worry.

  Pippen shook his hand, waving off Felix's offer. "Just some bumps and cuts. Nothing like a bullet wound."

  He turned around and walked away just as they were starting to discuss what they would do with Silas.

  Pippen took the step out of Sorell's house slowly and still stumbled a little on the melting snow and ice. Conner caught him by the arm and Pippen jerked his arm out of his grasp.

  "I can handle it, Conner." He stopped, suddenly overcome by frustration and anger. His damned wolf's reaction to this man was too strong. When had the relationship become so intense? "I can handle a lot more than you think actually. I don't need your help, I don't need anyone's help, so stop." He walked quickly to the pack house then, glad that he was able to make it over without slipping.

  ***

  Conner watched Pippen cross the street. Pippen favored his right side and Conner could tell he was desperately trying not to limp. Conner's heart pounded in his chest, as it had been doing since the moment he spotted Pippen on Felix's security footage, crouching in front of Silas as if he was protecting him from Oscar.

  He remained outside as Pippen made it up the path to the pack house and stepped inside. Frannie or Finn would make sure he got cleaned up and would let him know if it looked like Pippen needed further medical care. His face was going to bruise up something fierce. Conner snarled, thinking of Silas' arms around Pippen. If he'd known this morning when he let Pippen think he'd gotten the slip on him that this was what was going to happen, he never would have pretended to follow the false trail.

  Conner had heard Pippen's crazy heartbeat on the roof that morning when he ran out looking for him but had figured that if Pippen was willing to jump on a roof,—naked—to get some space from him that he could give it to him.

  He'd gone to the downtown pack's headquarters, a bar called Howling where Felix was still trying to learn the ropes of being not just an alpha in a shifter world but a pack master. Felix had been in the back, combing over the pack's remaining finances. Their last pack master had left them in a worse place financially than anyone thought. It was each pack member's responsibility to provide money to the pack, similar to a tithe, but the pack itself was meant to make and save money as well. Conner sympathized; it would be no easy feat digging the pack out of the debt it was in. He offered a few suggestions of things that had worked for him back when he'd been pack master. Before his pack had only wanted to make the easy money.

  Luckily, Felix had checked his home's video security system and that was when they'd witnessed the altercation beginning with Silas. Conner exhaled harshly. This Silas was turning into a major pain in his ass. Not only had he harmed Pippen, but something the dick had said or done had gotten into Pippen's head again.

  Last night, they had shared something Conner wasn't sure he would ever get again. Not just sex, but sex with his mate. There was no denying it any longer. Conner wasn't sure how he had become so lucky, after leaving his old pack, he was sure he had left his mate behind. Not by choice, but when he decided to go, she had been first in line with a blade in her hand. She had made it clear that her future was not with Conner and Conner had assumed that was it for him.

  But the past couple of days had changed something inside of him. He felt more and more like his old self, like something was waking up. There could be more than he ever hoped for between him and Pippen. Except, the shifter inside the house behind him wanted to ruin all of that.

  He went back in and followed the voices through the kitchen and into a laundry room. Silas sat tied to a chair with Oscar and another downtown packmate beside him, Glenn. Felix was in front of Silas, sitting down as well.

  "So, you're saying you were curious after Isaac sent a scout and left your Mississippi pack—with no one to defend your leadership—so you could come here and check things out?" Felix said, clearly not believing a word of it.

  "My position in my own pack is secure. I wouldn't expect you to understand how to lead a group of people successfully. I can give you pointers if you like," Silas replied with a snarl.

  Conner was perversely happy at the angry bruise that was beginning to blossom in the middle of Silas' face. It marred his perfect features and filled Conner with pride. That's right, love, you're a badass.

  "No, thank you," Felix replied. "I don't want pointers on how to lead with fear."

  "There isn't any other way to lead. I understand you are new to this. You'll see that wolf shifters are predictable, they say they want one thing but in reality, they crave the danger, living outside of society. What you are doing here," he looked purposefully at Conner standing in the doorway, "and what they are doing across the street is an affront to shifter packs everywhere."

  "How much of an affront?" Conner asked, thinking he might understand what was happening here. "Is the hope we are giving here enough of a threat that you'd come to disrupt it? Make an example of it?"

  Silas blinked slowly as if Conner had said something very stupid, but it only made Conner more sure that he was on the right track. "He thinks he is very special, doesn't he?" Silas whispered conspiratorially to Felix.

  Felix leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "What the hell are we supposed to do with you?"

  "I know what I would do," Silas said, a violent twinkle in his eye.

  Yes, Conner knew what Silas would do if the situation was reversed. The person tied up in the chair would have been dead already, most likely. But what Silas had been saying about how different their packs were from other shifter packs, it was true. They couldn't simply kill Silas. Not while he was tied to a chair. It wouldn't be like killing Lucian, who had threatened the safety and wellbeing of Finn, who had attempted to hurt and kill them all repeatedly. And it wouldn't be like Isaac, he'd shot Pippen and still they'd handed him over to his
pack for their members to deal with him. Harming Pippen was enough of a reason for Conner, but it wouldn't be enough for anyone else. Not even for Pippen.

  Would sending him back home on a bus do any good?

  "I'm not positive killing him isn't one of his contingency plans," Sorell said from behind Conner. He was alone, having put both babies asleep for their morning naps. "Think about it, we kill him and then the packs around us will just think we are making up how different we are. They won't know the reasons behind it. They'll just know that we said one thing and did another. He'll still win."

  He wasn't wrong.

  "This isn't just an issue for us," Felix said finally. "Silas is a threat to both packs. Oscar, Glenn, take him to Howling. I happen to know there are places to hold people inside the bar," Felix said darkly. He knew there were places to hold people because he himself had rescued his sister from such a place when Isaac had been pack master.

  "Brother, you overestimate me," Silas said.

  Conner doubted that he did. "I'll let Luke know."

  Chapter Seven

  "What the hell happened to you?" Daryl asked, too loudly in the otherwise quiet pack house.

  He was a sight himself, his long, gray hair was not pulled back and instead hung in clumps down by his face. His pajamas hung loosely from his body. There was always something odd to Pippen about seeing older people in their PJs, like the older population should be always dressed.

  He held Serena Ann, propped up on his hip like a pro, and a still steaming mug of coffee in his other hand. It looked like he had been in the process of walking from the bedrooms to the living room and had passed the front door just as Pippen was trying to sneak inside. "Who did that to you?" Daryl asked, obliterating any chance Pippen had of sneaking anywhere.

  Lucas stumbled in from farther down the hallway, obviously drawn by Daryl's tone and volume. He glanced over at Pippen and then growled. Stomping closer, he reaching his hand out like he was going to touch Pippen's face but then stopped, his hand floating just below his chin. "Who did this?" he asked, much more quietly than Daryl's question had been.

  "Silas," Pippen replied.

  "Damn it!" he exclaimed, not quite yelling, but louder than a conversational tone. He called down the hallway he'd just exited from to where the bedrooms were. "Finn, Frannie, in the kitchen. Someone call Conner, I'm calling a meeting."

  Pippen went to the bathroom and cleaned up his face the best he could. Frannie offered to help and then Finn did after Pippen had declined her offer. He refused them both with Silas' words repeating in his head.

  He applied antiseptic to a cut on his nose, most likely acquired when he'd headbutted Silas. It stung, but Pippen latched onto the pain. Other than some bruising around his midsection, neck, and face, he was unharmed. Once cleaned up, he changed into his own clothes out of the pair Sorell had lent him—now splattered with blood—and joined the rest of the pack in the kitchen. Conner was already there, hovering next to an empty chair that was clearly meant for Pippen. Pippen ignored the chair and the shifter, choosing to stand against the kitchen wall instead.

  "Now that we are all here," Luke announced, standing at the head of the table. "Who am I?"

  There was a moment of quiet as they all looked at each other.

  "Luke?" Frannie offered.

  "No. Well, yes, but I am also your pack master. And yours," he looked to Finn, "and yours and yours." He pointed at each of them. "With that in mind, what is this new trend of me being the last to learn about things? I am sick and tired of my pack members walking through that door with bruises, cuts, and bullet holes!"

  Pippen looked at the ground. He had done all of that in the past month.

  "I can't lead a pack of martyrs," Luke said, real pain in his voice.

  The front door opened then and Sorell and Felix walked in with their twins. They sat down quietly, Sorell taking the open spot Conner had left, despite not technically being part of the pack.

  "That goes for those who are just my friends and not in my pack. I can't help any of you if you are all constantly flinging yourselves on the grenade." His voice was deep with authority. "I need your help. There are too many of you for me to know what is happening in your lives at all times. Sometimes I will know, but sometimes I won't know there is a problem unless you tell me. I want to protect each and every one of you. I want to be there as a leader and friend to each and every one of you. Help me do that. Can you? All of you? Stop taking one for the team." The group of them nodded. Luke took a deep breath and when he exhaled it was like a weight had been lifted. "Now, Pippen. Your face looks fucking terrible. Can anyone fill me in?"

  Pippen knew what he meant. Luke was trying to help him and by making his appearance a joke he didn't make him feel helpless.

  "Silas, my brother and pack master of the pack Pippen and I fled from, showed up in town last night. He said he wanted to catch up and…I don't know…Pippen, what did he say to you?"

  Pippen shrugged.

  "He said he wanted Pippen back," Conner replied with a deep growl.

  Frannie whistled low. She looked back at Pippen and waggled her eyebrows.

  Pippen rolled his eyes but couldn't help the smirk.

  "Anyway," Sorell continued. "He showed up this morning at my home while Felix was away and...He was so fast, I had Kofi and before I could do anything he had Franklin."

  "No one blames you, Sorell," Felix said affectionately, rubbing Sorell's lower back.

  Sorell didn't look like he was forgiving himself as quickly as Felix had. "I don't know what he was planning on doing, what he would've done. Maybe nothing. Maybe not."

  "Do you think he is after the children?" Luke's question was more like a bark.

  "I don't know what he wanted. Maybe nothing. Maybe just to mess with me. But Pippen came out of the shower and dealt with it."

  "Good on ya," Daryl said proudly.

  At the same time Frannie asked, "Why were you showering there?"

  "Good job, Pippen," Luke said, saving Pippen from having to answer Frannie's question. "But I still want us all to refrain from taking on trouble alone. We are a pack. Sorell, you should have called for help, Pippen you should have as well, as soon as you realized there was danger, or even before. I'm sure there was a moment you suspected danger. You are all already heroes. No one needs to prove himself. We're going to be a new pack, stronger with Felix's connections," he stopped to give Felix an acknowledging nod, which Felix reciprocated. "But we can still improve. Daryl, I want you to come with me and Felix back to his pack house and just find out what you can about Silas. You are the oldest shifter at this table, maybe you have some insight into his motives. Is that okay with you, Felix?"

  "Of course," Felix replied.

  "Pippen and Conner, I want you to work with Frannie and Finn for the next couple of days. They are our weakest links—sorry, baby," he said with a wink to Finn. Frannie's mouth was wide open with outrage. "Because you are both so loved," Luke tried to save himself. "Anyway, I want you to teach them some self-defense, concentrate specifically on getting to safety and away from danger. Together, we are going to stay safe."

  Luke excused them but asked that Felix, who was still acting pack doctor, look over Pippen's injuries. Pippen was sure nothing was broken or bleeding internally. Felix poked and prodded each mark with a frown on his face.

  "I'm sorry, Pippen."

  Pippen shifted uncomfortably, unused to Felix using that tone with him.

  "You got hurt protecting my family. That's twice now. I owe you everything."

  Pippen looked away so he wouldn't blush. "Don't worry about it," he said, but what he really wanted to say was that they were his family, too. He could never say something like that out loud though.

  "I will worry about it," Felix said with a smile. "Just like everything else."

  In the end, he declared Pippen to be banged up but with no major bleeding, bruising, or broken bones.

  Later that afternoon Pippen joined Finn and Fran
nie in the back yard. Conner was already out there, clearing some of the snow away in the center of the yard creating what looked like a boxing ring. Sorell was in the kitchen, watching them from the warmth of the house as he took care of his twins and Serena Ann.

  "Come line up," Conner told Finn and Frannie.

  The two of them stood side by side in the snowy yard. Frannie wore a black hoodie and black yoga pants, her brown curls piled in two buns on either side of her head. Finn stood next to her, in a matching outfit, his curls cut shorter but just as riotous. Standing next to each other, they were clearly siblings. They also looked young and vulnerable, like children. Pippen would teach them to use that to their advantage.

  Out of all the outcomes of that morning's meeting, never did Pippen think he'd get to do something he actually thought was worthwhile. Frannie needed to be able to defend herself as best as she could. Luke had been spot on in asking them to teach the two. Frankly, he should have ordered this a long time ago.

  "Do either of you know the best line of self-defense?" Conner asked.

  "A gun?" Frannie suggested. Finn kicked the back of her knee. It was well known that he hated the fact that his little sister owned a gun.

  "Offense," Finn said.

  "Prevention," Conner said clearly like a sensei speaking to his class. "Trust your instincts, never travel alone if you can help it, try not to be predictable in your day-to-day duties." He listed off a number of preventative measures.

  Prevention is all well and good, Pippen thought, but what do you do when that fails?

  "There may come a time when all your preventative measures have failed," Conner continued as if he'd read Pippen's mind. "When your instincts tell you to run, but there is no escape and when all of your best efforts to avoid danger have failed, then you must fight. Pippen, can you come out here?" Conner asked without looking in his direction.

  Pippen stepped carefully out into the yard beside Frannie.

  Conner stalked him.

  "Let's say your attacker comes at you from behind, like so."