Prey to the Heart (Wolves of Wild Junction Book 1)

by Kristen Banet

  “No,” Thomas bit out, giving her a displeased look. “It’s nothing. Stop thinking whatever you’re thinking, little cheetah.”

  “Well, fine!” She began to laugh again. “Let me get my camera, you go get your wolves and we’ll get some photos in. You guys can be my project after I’m done with the Pride.”

  “Who else are you thinking about?” Thomas asked as she grabbed not only her camera, but a sketchbook and a case he assumed had pencils and other stuff inside.

  “Sheriff and his wife, Patty.” Riley hummed and tapped her chin. “Finn, I hope to get. I’m not sure he’ll be okay with it though. That fox has some problems, but I hear he doesn’t want to talk to Abigail yet. Well, he does but he’s not quite ready. Brenton is going to keep her on until Finn gets one session in, at least.”

  “He needs to,” Thomas agreed. “That’s really kind of Brenton.”

  “He’s protective in ways that don’t seem obvious. He loves us, the Pride. We’re his family, but he looks at others and has a need to just…make sure everything is okay,” Riley informed him.

  “Oh, Riley, I’m the last person you need to explain that to.” Thomas chuckled. “I’m an Alpha, remember?”

  “Is that an Alpha thing?” Riley frowned at him.

  Sometimes Thomas wondered if she knew anything about being a shifter. Where Abigail seemed to know everything, Riley was missing information she should have grown up with. He knew why. She was a half-breed who grew up without her shifter parent, who’d faked her death and disappeared. Riley didn’t even know she was a shifter until she’d met the Pride that she was now with.

  “Normally, with some glaring exceptions like Chris or…that one fucker you nearly torched, Abel Cartona. Better Alphas, we’re naturally drawn to wanting to help weaker or hurting shifters and bring them in to the community. It’s not healthy for most shifters to go it alone, and now Finn is very alone. Brenton is called to at least give him something, even if it’s not a place in the Pride,” Thomas rambled to her. “I don’t see him enough to feel it, but I know what it feels like from Brenton’s side of things.”

  “Have you felt it for anyone? The need to protect them like that?”

  “Yeah, and I picked you up, got you into a cave, and built a fire,” Thomas admitted, smiling at her.

  Riley elbowed him, grinning. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For that, ya know.”

  “Any time, little cheetah.” Thomas kept it gentle and easy. He would never hold that over her.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Riley teased softly, and Thomas just nodded to her.

  “I know. I expect you to. Can’t rely just on your guys - you got friends too,” Thomas reminded her. “Your Pride has friends now.”

  “I do, don’t I?” She sighed, in a happy little way that Thomas thought only really females could. “Plenty of you now, it seems. You do too, by the way.”

  “Not as many as I used to,” Thomas conceded. “But, I think the ones I’ve got now are better.”

  He followed her downstairs, and they grabbed Antonio and James for pictures. It was a fun afternoon, all in all. They heard from Brenton that shit was annoying and fucking bad in Denver for Kingson, Inc., but Thomas couldn’t help him with that. He was really only good to step in if things got dangerous. It irked him that he really couldn’t help the Pride with their mess, but he only had three wolves in the Pack. The Pride deserved the Pack’s loyalty and they were good allies, but Thomas didn’t know what he could do for them. He was already back to staying at the mansion while Brenton and Zachary were away just in case something did happen.

  It would have to be enough, Thomas thought, watching Riley laugh as Andrew came out and teased her over something.

  A pang of jealousy made his heart clench. When they’d gotten here, when they’d escaped the hunting compound, Zachary had told him something that stuck with Thomas. Thomas had asked him what sort of Pack he should have, and Zachary’s answer had been the most honest thing he’d ever heard.

  “Whatever makes you happy and keeps you alive.”

  Thomas held that close to him for a moment. Happy and alive. That’s all a Pack needed to give him: happiness and a measure of safety.

  His boys were safe. Neither of them would get him into the kind of trouble that would get them all killed, and allying with the Pride shouldn’t prove to be life-threatening, not for the wolves, anyway.

  But happy…none of them were really that happy. They were trying. They were focusing on the future. Maybe the bar would make them happy - maybe a quiet life, just the three of them, could do it.

  No, Thomas thought, that would never make us really happy.

  Chasing after a doe was the happiest he’d felt since before the hunting compound. It was the happiest he’d seen his brothers since before the hunting compound.

  Thomas would stew on that thought for a long time, watching the Pride males, Riley, and his brothers all joke around as they started up a barbecue for everyone.

  13

  Abigail

  Abigail sat on her family’s back porch and just listened to the online shifter radio station. Her heart was still, her stomach in knots. Was there more news?

  She’d gotten two texts since leaving Wild Junction. Both were from Thomas, of all people. The first said the Pride was attacked. The second was worse. He didn’t know if Zachary and Andrew would make it.

  That had been two days ago. Two days. The entire world had been talking about it since. Brenton killed his aunt, the only other blood Kingson left on the planet. Riley presumably killed Marco Cartona, Alpha of the Cartona Pride and father of Abel Cartona, the man who assaulted her. Troy and Gabe, the leopard brothers, had killed the assassins that shot Zachary and had been aiming for Brenton. Andrew had been severely injured. It had been a reckoning to knock the Pride down and the Pride had come out on top.

  She was sitting in South Dakota, feeling like she messed up. She should have been there for Riley, she should have been standing next to her friend while they were waiting for Zachary and Andrew to be okay.

  Abigail felt like she’d failed, and her heart was broken from it. Riley hadn’t texted her yet and Abigail was scared to text her. She knew Riley was probably busy with so many other things and Abigail should text her, but since she’d heard about the craziness in Colorado, she’d felt awful for running. That’s what she had done, just run. She knew Brenton had wanted her gone in case there was trouble and sure enough, there had been - only a week after she’d left.

  “Daughter,” her mother called from the backdoor. “Turn that garbage off and come inside for dinner.”

  She sighed. She’d come back to the Herd for some peace of mind and a reminder of the past. She was regretting every second of it.

  “Coming,” she mumbled, closing her laptop. She took it and her glass of wine inside and saw her sister and brother-in-law laughing with her father. Abigail resisted the urge to gag.

  Deer shifters always had twins or triplets, and Abigail’s family had been no exception. Abigail and her sister, though, only had their appearance in common. Karli was the perfect doe. She’d stayed in the Herd, married a nice buck they went to school with, and only did college so she could help the Herd continue on its own, without the Pack or any nearby feline Prides looking too closely at it.

  Perfect Karli looked at Abigail and smiled brightly. It wasn’t that Abigail didn’t like her twin sister; they were just very different people. She loved Karli more than the world, but they were so different..

  “Come here, Abigail, and tell me what you think,” Karli called, and Abigail wandered over slowly, putting her laptop down on the kitchen counter as she passed it. “So, you know I’m pregnant, right?”

  “I do,” Abigail laughed, taking a sip of her wine as Karli nodded.

  “You’ll be an auntie soon. I’m having boys, right? I think blues and greens will be perfect, but should Greg be the blues or Alan? Which one should be green?”

  She held back a sigh and a
n eyeroll. Oh dear. She was the last person to have this discussion with. She had known Karli was pregnant. It was obvious; the baby bump was ever-present. But Abigail knew nothing about babies, really. They had never been in her life plan, even when she was with Gavin. She didn’t know what to say so she went with honesty as the best policy.

  “Does it matter?” she asked, trying to make it sound less harsh.

  “I mean…” Karli trailed off, frowning at her and a little concerned. “Yeah, Abigail, it does.”

  “She’s been too preoccupied with her radio,” Abigail’s mother cut in. “Who really cares what the Kingson Pride is up to anymore? It’s not our problem. They’re always in some trouble or another. It’s depressing to listen to all that death and war those felines get up to.”

  “Riley is a friend of mine,” Abigail muttered, spinning her wine glass in her hand. “It matters to me.”

  “You always did have bad choices in friends.” Lewis, her brother-in-law, laughed. “That wolf you were with, now one of the Kingson felines? Madness. Daniel, get your daughter. She’s going to get herself killed.”

  “Don’t I know it,” her father grumbled, glaring at her. She should have kept her mouth shut, and she knew it. She hadn’t told them anything about the work she’d been doing recently, if she could even call anything in Wild Junction ‘work.’ It was a strange place full of shifters that wanted to talk to a doctor and needed a doctor, but also wanted more. “You need to settle down, Abigail. Get your head back on straight and remember our place in the world: nowhere near predators. They are always problems.”

  “How are things with the new Pack Alpha here?” she asked quietly, hoping to shift the conversation. “I don’t know who it is.”

  “Awful,” her father snapped. “It’s Heather Davis.”

  Abigail nearly dropped her wine glass. Why in the hell was her ex-fiancé’s sister the new Alpha of South Dakota, and why didn’t she know it already?

  “Yeah, you be shocked,” her father said, groaning. He then turned gentler as he continued, and she saw something akin to pity enter his eyes. “She hasn’t given us any real trouble. She’s just curious. No other communities like ours. She’s promised not to get involved, just wanted a tour and to understand what she had in her territory.”

  “That’s good,” Abigail whispered, turning away to take another sip of her wine.

  “Rumor has it she’s thinking of a Pack merger with her brother,” her father continued. “They would co-lead both territories and become one of the strongest Packs in North America.”

  “Good for them,” she sighed, beginning to walk away.

  “Wait up, sis,” Karli called softly, waddling to follow her. “Sis, talk to me. You’ve been weird since you came home. How’s work? You said you got hired by a Pride to do therapy for them?”

  “Yeah,” Abigail sighed, walking into the kitchen. It was about as private as this house would get. “You know I can’t talk about the who.”

  “You can tell me where,” Karli reminded her. “Like where in the world. You always get to travel.”

  She saw the want in Karli’s eyes. She’d been a dutiful daughter and Abigail knew she loved Lewis, but Karli also grew up wanting to see the world.

  “Colorado,” she said carefully and quietly. “Make the assumptions you want to make. Tell no one.”

  Karli’s eyes got wide. She gave a small nod. “Confirm something for me?” she asked quietly.

  “Maybe?” Abigail answered, frowning.

  “Is it true that one of the Marek boys and the remainder of the old inner circle is there, too? I don’t follow the news like you do. We’ve only gotten whispers.”

  “They are allies to the Kingson Pride,” Abigail answered. “They do live in the area. Why?”

  “They led this area for ten years,” Karli chuckled. “It’s natural for those of us still here to be curious what they’re up to after losing everything.”

  “That’s a good point,” she agreed, feeling a bit easier about it.

  “Father invited Harry and his son over for dinner tonight while you were outside,” Karli told her. “So there, a trade in information.”

  “Oh, thanks,” Abigail chuckled. “At least I won’t be surprised by it.”

  “Right? I told him not to, but he and Lewis are convinced you need to meet Dennis and settle down with him.” Karli giggled. “Bucks have never been your type, though.”

  “No, they haven’t,” she agreed. “Dated a few growing up here, but…”

  “You met your first predator in college and that was that.” Karli laughed, throwing her head back. “It’s in their eyes, isn’t it? I could see in the local bear. They are intense compared to us.”

  “They are,” she murmured. “They are quite intense. But Father was right, bad for me.”

  “I don’t think Father was right,” Karli told her. “I think Gavin was bad for you and you spent too long with him. You had, what? A seven-year relationship with that prick?”

  “Yeah,” Abigail mumbled. “We met our last year in grad school and stayed together for seven years, nearly eight.”

  “Yup, all the way to him becoming Alpha of the North Dakota Pack and throwing you away like an idiot.” Karli was nearly growling. It was sweet. Prey couldn’t growl.

  Abigail smiled at her. Karli always knew how to make Abigail feel loved after the Gavin thing.

  “I mean, you supported him through all of it and what does he do? Fucks all of the females in his inner circle without telling you.”

  “Well, wolves are very open about their sexuality,” Abigail began but Karli cut her off.

  “Here comes that excuse again. That’s fine, but he never told you because he knew you weren’t comfortable with it. So he did it behind your back. I have no problem with wolf sexuality, Abigail, but he did you fucking dirty,” Karli reminded her.

  “I know,” Abigail sighed. “I know he did. But that’s wolves, ya know? Predators in general are freer with their bodies and sexuality than we are. We walk too close to humanity for it.”

  “I think you just picked the wrong wolf,” Karli huffed. “You’ll never settle for a buck, and I won’t see you alone. Maybe a feline would be good for you, since they are less…well, wolf. Not a bear though – they’re home-bodies, a little too much like us and…maybe too big for you.”

  “The wrong wolf?” Abigail groaned as Karli rambled off a few different other predators. “Please, Karli.”

  “Seriously, there are plenty of wolves out there who do just fine with monogamy. Find one of them or fish in a different pond, like the felines.” Karli waved her hand around as she spoke. “Just promise me something?”

  “What’s that?” Abigail smiled indulgently at her, leaning on the counter. Her sister always had something to ask or say.

  “If you think you meet the right one, don’t run from him. You’ve been skittish of anyone you’re attracted to for years. You haven’t gotten laid since probably before it ended with Gavin.” Karli touched her arm. “I want you happy, however that may be, with whoever that may be. I fell in love with Lewis years ago and I knew he was the one in high school. You thought it was Gavin and it wasn’t. Don’t be afraid to try again.”

  Abigail watched her sister walk away after that and finished her glass of wine. Damn. She had run, though. She’d run because a certain tiny wolf Pack in Wild Junction had made her body come alive again and reminded her of everything that nearly ruined her.

  She was a damn coward, Abigail realized. She’d never even given the wolves a real chance and even here, thinking about it, she wasn’t sure she could.

  When Harry and Dennis showed up, Abigail ignored Dennis. She wasn’t going to play her parents’ games about this. There was no arranging a happily ever after for her and she wouldn’t even attempt it. Dennis was a good-looking guy, but he had soft eyes. There was something gentle and human about them, about everything with him. Nothing caught her interest in him. He was just good-looking and nothing el
se.

  It was a nightmare of a dinner, as he tried to talk to her and she shifted the conversation over and over again. After dinner, she helped clean up the plates while all the men went out on the back porch to do man things. She was left with her mother and sister to do the good lady things and cleaning up.

  “Abigail,” her father called out. “Bring us a few beers.”

  “Does he never ask for anything?” She muttered under her breath, and her mother glared at her without giving an answer. Abigail reached into the fridge with an attitude, grabbed four beers out. Father, Lewis, Harry, and Dennis. She wasn’t going to carry more out there. They could learn to walk after this, because she was going to her room and listening to music.

  She walked onto the back porch and passed them out, but her father caught her before she went inside.

  “Abigail,” he started sternly, “stay out and talk for a moment.”

  Well, that wasn’t good. No one ever intruded on the man time post-dinner on the back porch. This was a trap that she didn’t know how to get out of yet.

  “Yes?” she inquired, tilting her head at him.

  “I was just hoping you would spend some time with us,” her father replied innocently. She narrowed her eyes at him. Lie. She could smell it, but knew better than to call him out. “Dennis was just telling us about how he is a doctor, like you.”

  “That’s wonderful, Dennis. What’s your specialty?” she asked him politely. She already knew. He was a veterinarian.

  “Vet,” he chuckled. “I just opened my own practice.”

  And suddenly, Abigail found herself being preached to about it. That’s how it felt. Preachy. She was a psychiatrist and therapist, and she knew what was coming.

  “I work the real problems, ya know? Broken bones and stuff. Animals don’t suffer from things like mental illness or anything,” he ended chuckling. They all did.

  “Yeah, the family dog doesn’t get sad and cry about it,” Lewis laughed.

  Because for some reason, mental illness wasn’t a real problem. She clenched her jaw.