by MJ Compton
“Sendall had the perfect set up. He’s part owner of a crematorium between here and Fort Collins, where he could dispose of any potential bodies. Can’t extract DNA from cremains.”
“And no one would question a hearse transporting a body,” Abby whispered.
Luke tightened his embrace.
“Your sister has been helpful. She’s a very lucky little girl.”
Luke couldn’t even imagine what was going on in Libby’s twisted brain. She’d willingly gone with Digger. Had willingly shed her clothes. Hadn’t thought to fight what was happening until Digger tried to strap her down.
“We’re unearthing all kinds of things from Sendall’s computer. Let me repeat. Your sister is a very lucky little girl. Your stepfather, it turns out, sold her to Sendall to pay off a gambling debt. Gary Porter wasn’t, as far as we can tell, a child predator. Anything he did was to pay off what he owed to Sendall.”
“Did he kill Gary?” Abby asked.
The only thing Luke cared about was that it should have been him ridding the world of Gary Porter.
“We may never know for certain,” the suit said, “but there’s a notation next to Porter’s name in Sendall’s files that says paid in full.”
After the federal guys left, Restin and Tokarz took over.
“Now you understand why mated males can’t work on treaty fulfillment,” Tokarz started out.
“In the future, my mate and her family won’t be involved,” Luke countered.
His mate. Oh, that felt so good to say. So right.
“I’m damn good on the DeepNet. I don’t even need to leave home to access it. I can take care of treaty fulfillment for the whole pack, so we never have to deal with that scat again.”
“That’s something you want to do?”
Luke shrugged. “Somebody has to.” His tone turned grim. “Those girls—those girls are daughters, sisters. Someone has to protect them. Avenge them.”
Tokarz studied Luke for a long time. “You’ve changed.”
“I’m a mated male in this pack. I’ve done treaty fulfillment on behalf of this pack, more than once. More than any other living adult male has. That includes you, Tokarz. And you, Restin.”
“What’s your point?” Restin snapped.
“Omega shouldn’t have to serve. Omega isn’t worthy to serve. And yet I have served with honor.”
Tokarz narrowed his yellow eyes.
“I am not Omega.” Luke lifted his chin. “My grandfather was Thibodaux, a good and decent delta in this pack until your grandfather decided to punish him for obeying the Ancient Ones’ wishes. My grandfather and his descendants for seven generations have been humiliated, are being humiliated, will be humiliated, for doing something you yourself have done, Tokarz. We are lowest of the low, but still not too low to work for the good of the pack. Which I have done.”
“What are you saying, Omega?” Restin snapped.
“I want my name back. I want my father, my aunt, and my grandfather’s names back. We are Thibodaux. We have brought no shame to this pack. Granny is no more shameful than Delilah. Abigail is no more shameful than Lucy Callahan Smith. If we are to be Omega based on that, then you and Stoker and Hank Hawkins should all be with me, not alpha-ing over me. As for you, Restin, if Tokarz were punished as my grandfather was punished, you could be alpha. The lycan who would be alpha. That ought to suit you.”
Restin’s upper lip curled. But he didn’t deny the allegation.
“I’ll think about it,” Tokarz finally said.
“You do that.”
“You do not speak to your alpha in that manner,” Restin growled.
“Leave him alone,” Tokarz snapped at Restin. “He makes valid points.”
Abby’s head weighed next to nothing on Luke’s chest. He wondered if she was as comfortable as he was holding her. The lump on her forehead was shrinking and fading. It looked kind of green this morning.
The other bruises Abby had sustained when she’d fallen down the stairs were also fading. He hoped he’d be able to make love to her again, and soon. The way her warm breath ruffled the hair on his chest was heating him up. All she needed to do was inhale, and he was ready to tear off her clothes.
Too bad he was in his father’s childhood room, where there was no lock on the door. Since Abby’s injury, people didn’t hesitate to visit, without any concern for privacy or anything else. Luke couldn’t wait to get her back to his own—their own—place.
There were still too many loose ends for that to happen anytime soon.
Abby stirred. “Luke.”
“Gotcha,” he said.
“I need to get up.”
He helped her put on a robe, helped her down the hall to the bathroom, waited outside the door she refused to leave open while she took care of nature, then helped her back to their room.
“What was all that stuff with Tokarz about?” she asked once she was settled back in bed. The walk had leeched color from her cheeks.
“I think Granny or Macy explained about the treaty our pack has with the government to you. Service for sanctuary.”
Abby nodded, then winced.
“We usually don’t allow mated males to work on treaty fulfillment because they’re so vulnerable. Our devotion for our mates and families supersedes everything. All a bad guy has to do is threaten our loved ones, and that’s it. The only thing our brains can do is . . . protect the mate. I never knew how strong that instinct is until I saw you with Digger.”
“I’m not your mate.” She sounded sad.
“Oh, you are wrong. Everyone else saw it, and I was too busy fighting it to acknowledge it.” He grabbed her hand. “You are my life, Abigail Grant Omega.”
“Thibodaux.”
His smile went crooked because it was too difficult to maintain. “Is being the mate of omega that bad for you?” He braced himself for her answer.
“No. I’m not lycan. I don’t understand the fine points of whatever it was you and Tokarz were saying. But it matters to you.”
He waited for her to finish saying it. But she couldn’t. Because she didn’t trust him. He had a lot of making up to do. For the rest of his life.
He’d seen how awful Tokarz and Delilah’s start had been, the rough beginning to Stoker and Lucy’s mating. His with Abby should have been better.
Wasn’t he one quarter human? Instead of fighting that part of him, he should have embraced it. Should have used it to woo Abby. Whether his mate was human or lycan didn’t matter in the long run. It was the kind of person you were. And he needed to be a better person.
He hadn’t been a good person the day he met Abby. He knew that now. He’d been immature. Cocky. Full of himself.
To see how Abby tried to protect her sister, tried to rise above a really scat-infested situation with grace and with dignity—thank the Ancient Ones he had a lifetime to learn from her.
He slid to his knees in front of her. Took both of her tiny, dainty hands in his. “I am the luckiest male in the world. I know I have a lot to make up to you, and I will, every day for the rest of my life. You are my mate. My reason for being. My forever after woman. Messy Christmas mornings, burnt biscuits, and all. I could kneel here and quote sappy love songs to you for hours, if that’s what you want.”
“I don’t want.”
Luke squeezed her hands. “Things aren’t going to be easy.”
“I know I have a learning curve. But your grandmother will help. And Delilah, even if she is an alpha mate.”
“I meant with Libby,” Luke said. “We have to make sure she has counseling. You, too, if you want it,” he hastened to add. “But I think you’re tougher than she is. You are a strong woman, Abs. A survivor. If you can survive what Gary did, living here in Loup Garou is going to be a vacation for yo
u. In case you haven’t figured it out, we lycan males tend to worship our mates. Be prepared to be adored.”
“Are you going to keep on with the FBI?”
She didn’t mention leaving. Blessed Ancient Ones, she didn’t contradict him about staying in Loup Garou.
“I think so. That will let me stay here with you. No more touring with the band. Not that we tour that often. Tokarz doesn’t like to leave Delilah and Daniel for any length of time.”
“Is my neck going to hurt every time you go to work?”
Luke jerked back. “I . . . I don’t know.”
“Your grandmother has a theory.” Abby lowered her gaze. “I don’t know much about the process or anything, but Granny thinks you didn’t really mark me. I don’t know what that means. But she thinks you only nibbled so when you look at other women, my marking spot hurts.”
Luke was flabbergasted. Granny’s theory made sense. “There’s one way we could test it,” he said as he reacted to his wife. His mate. “We could fix the problem once and for all.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Abby said. “But you’d better rig a lock on the door first.”
Epilogue
The woman in the ruffled pink dress pushed a double stroller across the park toward the stage where Toke Lobo and the Pack would be performing in a few hours. Her yellow hair turned the sunlight into prisms of color, her deep blue eyes sparkled, and the gap between her front teeth made Luke Thibodaux hard every time he saw it.
Okay, it wasn’t the gap between her teeth. It was her. Abby. Abigail Grant Thibodaux. His mate. Some days, like today, he wanted to raise his muzzle to the sky and howl his happiness to the world. But that wouldn’t go over well with the employees of the Moonsinger Brewery. Or with the twins.
Twins. Joseph and Rosie. He still couldn’t believe he was the father of twins. Perfect little beings. Half him, half Abby. The best of both of them.
Abby had spent her pregnancy stressing over the spiteful words Digger Sendall had told Libby, who had parroted them back to Abby. Stories about mutant babies had turned out to be more of Sendall’s warped vampire assholery. It had taken Luke a while to track down Tina Grant’s physician, but the effort had been worthwhile. The doctor had told Abby the truth about her dead sisters: stillborn, not mutant. Not malformed.
Libby—the dark cloud on the day. She was living with his grandparents and seeing a counselor at the Rape Crisis Center once a week. One of the first things Abby had done was to take Libby back to the specialist who’d prescribed Ritalin for her ADHD. The difference in Libby was like full moon to new moon.
Luke hurried across the grass toward his family. There was a booth selling strawberry lemonade and a pretty girl in a valentine colored dress he needed to seduce. Doting grandparents had already agreed to babysit that evening. The July weather was perfect for a moonlight ride to a secret lake high in the mountains. And maybe, just maybe, he’d get lucky. Again.
Also from Soul Mate Publishing and MJ Compton:
MOONLIGHT SERENADE
Alpha male werewolf Tokarz de Lobo Garnier will do anything for his headstrong human bride . . . except trust her. She’s a reporter, and she’s on the trail of a story that could destroy the sanctuary his pack has enjoyed since the American Revolution. But she’s in danger, and risking her safety goes against everything he believes. When the evil turns its sights on him, he must make a decision: the safety of his mate or the security of the pack he leads.
Available now on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/muv4cjx
AND JERICHO BURNS
Lucy Callahan will do anything to rescue her sister from a cult, even marry a werewolf she’s just met. But the werewolves are working undercover for the government, and Lucy fears a confrontation between the agents and the cult could be deadly.
Stoker Smith longs to be the best thing that ever happened to his human mate. He wants to take her home, start their family, and compose his music. And although his pack’s treaty with the government says he doesn’t have to work undercover now that he’s mated, he promised Lucy he’d get her sister out of the cult’s heavily armed compound. Lucy’s sister is now family and to a werewolf, family is everything.
But Operation Jericho quickly turns ugly, thrusting Lucy into the middle of her worst nightmare, where she must choose: her sister or her husband.
Available now on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/gue46dq
