by Bonnie Vanak
The other wolf howled. I’m sure it was a laugh. Alex.
Nosing aside the others, the black wolf padded toward me. The others made room for him as he sat down on the blanket, resting his head upon my lap. I stroked his thick fur.
Dante shifted back. Nude, he lay on the blanket, looking up at me. A lazy smile graced his handsome face.
“Hello dimples.”
Playfully, I punched his arm. “Hey. That’s supposed to be private.”
The large gray timber wolf to his right gave a wolfish grin.
“Few things are that private around me,” Dante murmured.
Thoughtful, I kept stroking his hair. He whistled, and the pack dispensed, bounding playfully off into the woods, Alex and Gabriel among them.
“Shouldn’t you be with your people?” I tried to keep the hope out of my voice. I did want him to stay and was pleased he had opted to be with me in human skin.
“Alex and Gabe will take care of them. I need to start giving them more responsibility.” Dante smiled up at me. “I wanted to be with you. My dimples. My Peyton.”
I couldn’t stop thinking about Cherise, the frightened girl who worried she’d lose her home. “Dante, I have a question about Cherise.”
He remained relaxed, but in the moonlight, his dark gaze sharpened. Intense, protective green flashed through his aura. I inhaled the sharp, earthy musk of him, all male and leather and wolf.
“Go on.”
“How did you handle her when she first came to your pack?”
Dante rolled upward, sat on his haunches, staring into the forest where the pack had run. The children were safe inside the lodge, asleep, guarded by two of Dante’s best fighters, who opted to stay behind. If trouble threatened, they’d press the alarm and the entire pack would come running.
But I sensed the tension in him, the alertness that never fully fled, except when we made love. Even then part of him held back, as if he feared losing all control.
“When she came here, Cherise was suffering from severe trauma. Being separated from her parents, unable to find them, shoved into an iron cage like a wild wolf, had left her mute.”
A weight settled on my chest as I imagined Cherise, terrified of everything, wondering what would happen next.
“She was detached and unhappy, jumpy every time someone tried to talk to her. Tragedy does that to a shifter.”
To a human as well, I thought, remembering my parents’ deaths.
“I knew we had to restore her sense of security and safety. Everything had been taken from her. I simply did what any good alpha would – used visualization exercises for Cherise, meditation in the open field to center her on nature, and guided her to recognize her own triggers when she would get scared. I encouraged her to seek any one of the pack if her parents were not present, for example, if they were out hunting. Everyone in the pack was instructed to be a big brother or sister to her and reassure her. Finally after six months of constant therapy, she became verbal again.”
We both went quiet when he finished speaking. His aura flickered angry black, threaded with sorrowful red, the kind of red that bleeds, not the passionate crimson. Dante was a compassionate soul, and a strong one, but seeing that little girl so traumatized must have eaten away at him.
It hurt me as well, even though I wasn’t pack, wasn’t directly affected. I hated it when children were in pain. It does something to my insides, makes me angry and grief-stricken. Shifters have it worse than most human kids when they lose their parents because they’re unable to defend themselves against predators, both human and shifter. Most shifter children don’t experience their first change into animal form until they’re fourteen.
Dante opened my arms and I went into them. For a few moments we rested there, staring at the stars. It wasn’t sexual, and it was quite comforting.
The pack returned, circling around us, but Gabriel and Alex entered the circle and curled up next to me, one at my feet and one at my back. I sensed this was more than mere affection, but perhaps a ritual unfamiliar to me.
I didn’t care much for secrets, as much as I enjoyed the body heat and comfort they displayed. As if sensing my distress, Dante sprang up, pulled me to my feet.
“Everyone, go about your usual activities. Your assignments for tomorrow will be handed out tonight by your team leaders.”
At his words, the pack ran off, some shifting into human form as they left, others choosing to remain as wolves.
In wolf form, Alex and Gabriel circled around us, like a wagon train, as Dante escorted me toward the lodge.
“Would you like to watch a movie? I need to check on the children,” Dante asked.
I gave his nude, amazing body a long look. “You’d better put some clothing on, big guy.”
Laughing, he snapped his fingers and jeans, a loose white T-shirt and sneakers appeared on him. He looked relaxed and happy, not at all like the powerful leader of a pack that faced a bloody battle in the morning.
Instead of leading me toward the lodge, he walked toward a copse of trees about 100 yards away. Dante pressed his finger on a small metal pad in the center of the tree. Upon close examination, I realized the tree was fake, but blending in perfectly with the others.
The pad lit up and a portion of the ground opened, showing stairs. Intrigued, I followed him.
The stairs ended in a small hallway. The air was fresh and cool, and pretty glass sconces lined the carpeted hallway. It looked like someone’s house.
“Welcome to the underground bunker,” he said solemnly. “This is where the vulnerable adults and all our children hide when there’s a war.”
He took me down the hallway as Gabriel and Alex followed, still in wolf form. Everyone in the pack had their designated positions during a battle or when war threatened. Children under 18 were confined to this secret bunker, and so were pregnant women, mothers with young under the age of six, the elderly. Lately, all the women had been confined here because of the raids targeting them.
Dante paused before one of the bedrooms lining the hallway. Each bedroom had bunk beds with lots of toys strewn on the floor. “Some of the women protested because they wanted to fight. I ordered them to remain here. I will not risk losing any of my pack to the Browns.”
We continued the tour. Some bedrooms had queen-sized beds and were private, but most were dorm-style. The walls were painted bright blue or yellow, some with colorful murals of wolves running through the forest.
A few had large photos of the outdoors. All the lighting was soft and inviting.
The bunker was lined with steel, had its own separate air filtration system and water supply, as well as a generator. There was a large kitchen with granite counters, a stainless steel refrigerator/freezer, oven and range and a well-stocked pantry.
You could survive for weeks there.
Dante showed me the office, the most Spartan room in the bunker. Dark walls, black leather chairs and banks of computer monitors displaying the outside – several sections of the ranch.
They’d put in a mini theater and a rec room to make the conditions playful and less stressful for the young.
He led me now to the theater, where Wonder Woman played on the wide screen. Rows of theater-style seats were before the screen, but there was a large carpeted area in front.
Felicia sat in the one of the seats, away from the others. Several children were on the floor on their stomachs, watching with avid interest.
I hung back, watching as Gabriel shifted back to human form, clad in jeans and a baseball shirt. No shoes. He swaggered inside, his long hair unbound and swaying, and sat behind Felicia, tickling her.
“Fight like a girl,” he chanted.
Alex came inside to join them, still in wolf form. The kids climbed all over him, cuddling next to him.
Werewolves adored cuddling.
Dante strolled inside, sat next to his sister, put an arm around her. She rested her head against his shoulder.
Then Dante signaled to me to joi
n him. I walked with him to the room’s other side, and then out into the hallway.
Dante leaned against the wall, his gaze troubled.
“We will fight tomorrow, Peyton. We will fight to protect you, and our young and our vulnerable elderly and females. You need to know why Earl is really after you.”
For once, my infamous sense of humor fled. I waited.
His troubled gaze met mine. He cupped my cheek, stroked a thumb across my jawline. The tender caress fired all my nerve endings, yet there was nothing sexual about it.
“You’re unique, Peyton Jackson. You’re a human psi, but much more.” Dante drew in a deep breath. “You have the ability to not only read shifter auras, but control shifters when they are lost in a feral state.”
I stared.
“Is this a joke?”
“No.” His voice went very soft. “I saw it when you handled Felicia. Peyton, she was one step away from turning feral, being lost to us forever. You read her aura, used her energy to tame her and calm her.”
This was impossible. “No, I just talked with her.”
“You did much more. You used her energy, taking it into yourself, and releasing it as calm, glowing white energy.” Dante’s mouth compressed. “Any alpha worth his salt knows if he has you at his side, you can control other shifters. For a good reason, such as you did when you calmed Felicia, or a bad one… to control their energy to distract them so another pack can close in for the kill.”
My stomach twisted in knots. I had no idea of such a power. “I didn’t intend to do it.”
His gaze hardened. “This is what the Browns knew…and why they wanted you in their pack. You can be a formidable asset, or a weapon, to a shifter pack.”
“How could they know? How could you know, when I’m not aware of this myself?!”
Dante went silent a moment, and then spoke. “It was the night I threw out the drunk shifter. He may have been aroused and wanting sex with you, but you used his aggression, channeled it into yourself and calmed him.”
“How could you know?”
“I watched you,” he said simply. “I saw his mood shift. Then I took him outside. He told his alpha what you had done, how his mood had changed because of your influence.”
“Earl Brown is his alpha. But the Browns were banned from the club.” I felt dumbfounded.
“That shifter was new to Earl’s pack. Too new for anyone to know his allegiance.” He kissed the corner of my mouth. “It’s your heart that endears you to me, my lovely Peyton. My dimples. You have a kind heart. You do not do this for power or influence, but out of genuine caring.”
He kissed me again, lightly. “We’ll talk more of this after tomorrow morning. Let’s return to the others. Felicia wants to see you.”
When we returned, I took the seat on Felicia’s other side.
Wide-eyed, she looked at me. “My brother won’t let you go with the Browns, Peyton. But even if he did, I would stop you. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I gave her a reassuring smile, my heart tightening because of her words. I had grown equally fond of Dante’s sister. Even if the alpha’s words troubled me.
“It will be fine,” I reassured her.
If only I could convince myself of that.
24
Monday, dawn arrived at the ranch in a whisper of lavender and rose streaking the leaden sky. Restless, I had managed to sleep only when Dante insisted on giving me a long massage, complete with two glasses of wine.
I’d fallen asleep in the arms of my boys, who wrapped themselves around me, fierce and protective.
Me, Peyton, who could apparently control werewolves.
But now with the break of dawn, I awakened to find myself alone. The chill in the air had wakened me, along with the first shafts of sunrise streaming into the bedroom.
Dawn, and I was still at the ranch, not Earl Brown’s prisoner.
Dawn, and the pack would pay for my boys refusing to surrender me.
Unsure how the pack would react to my presence, I showered quickly, dressed in pragmatic jeans, a comfortable T-shirt and boots, and went downstairs. In the living room, two shifters with long guns stood next to the door. I nodded at them and they touched their foreheads in the same measure of respect shown to the alpha.
The gesture gave me no comfort, for their weapons were a grim reminder that peace would soon be shattered.
All because of me.
Anxiety churned in my stomach as I headed for the kitchen. I didn’t see anyone, but Dante was in the dining hall, talking quietly to Alex and a few other men. No sign of Gabriel.
Everyone glanced up at seeing me.
Dante strode over to me, kissed my right cheek while Alex kissed my left.
“Do you want breakfast?” Dante asked.
“I can make eggs and toast,” Alex offered. “There’s fresh coffee on the sideboard.”
I shook my head. Eating was the last thing on my mind.
“Where is everyone?” I rubbed my arms as I walked over to the papers strewn all over the table. They looked like legal papers.
“Gabe’s out front with a contingency of our best fighters, guarding the front gate.”
I knew Gabriel headed Dante’s security forces and was the pack enforcer. But knowing he remained outside, on the front lines of trouble while I was inside, being offered food and coffee, made my chest hurt.
What if something happened to him? Or one of the others?
I thought of Felicia, sleeping in the underground bunker, for all the children spent last night there, along with two of Dante’s best men.
No one should have to fight for me, die for me, Peyton, the psi human woman who belonged at a desk cubicle, not a shifter ranch. Peyton, the human who only immersed herself in the shifter world because she’d needed to moonlight.
I didn’t belong here.
But now, I could not leave.
The gaping canyon between our worlds seemed too large to bridge.
I pointed to the table. “What’s that? Looks like you’re fighting a legal battle, not an actual one.”
“We are,” Alex answered.
Well, this was welcome news. Maybe the attorneys could battle it out and no one had to use fangs and claws.
“Steel cage death match with lawyers?”
But no one smiled. Alex sighed. “These are the wills of all the shifters fighting today, and the rules laid out by the Council of Shifters for a pack war. We have to make absolutely certain that protocol is followed.”
“If we don’t, Dante could be removed as leader of our pack,” added Ryder, the handsome cowboy I’d seen training Felicity with barrel racing.
Wills and last wishes, along with rules. It seemed too bizarre and yet this was their world, and they lived in it.
“What’s the prime rule you have to follow?” The small print on the paper interesting them the most seemed like a headache to read.
“If the alpha of the pack dies, the pack belongs to the winning alpha,” Alex said simply.
My chest felt hollow with panic. I stared at Dante. “If you die, the entire pack belongs to Earl Brown? Not to Gabriel or Alex?”
Dante nodded, his jaw tight, his gaze avoiding mine.
“Well, I’m not going to let that happen,” I decided.
They stared. The man beside Ryder snickered, but Ryder scowled and elbowed him. “Show some respect,” he hissed.
Ignoring him, I looked at Dante and Alex. “I’ll be out there with you. I can help.”
“No, Peyton. I’ll fight, and you’ll remain below, in the bunker.” Dante gave me a hard, swift kiss. He nodded at Alex.
Next thing I knew, Alex swept me off my feet, carrying me in a fireman’s hold. He was far less muscled and more slender than Dante, but my boy was strong. He ignored my protests, my fists hammering on his back and carried me outside.
He did not stop until I was down the stairs and in the dining area of the bunker. Then Alex gently deposited me on a chair at the tabl
e. Felicia sat there with some younger children, drinking glasses of milk.
Crouching down, he took my hands.
“Sweetheart, we all love you. We are not going to let you get out there and risk your life. Stay here, and watch over our young. It’s for the best.”
“Alex,” I said in a small voice. “I don’t want to lose any of you.”
“You won’t. I may not be big as Gabriel, but I can fight.”
“Like a girl,” one child chimed. “Wonder Woman!”
Laughing, Alex stood. He ruffled the boy’s hair. “Yes.”
Then Alex whistled, a high, piercing sound. A big, burly man in camouflage came running, long gun in his hand. He touched his forehead. “Yes, boss?”
“Stay here, guard Peyton.” Alex kissed me on the mouth, a lingering kiss. Then he kissed my forehead and left.
The man planted himself in front of the doorway. Terrific. Imprisoned here, I had little choice but to remain.
I sat at the table, frustrated at my situation. Trapped. Soon, the Browns would invade, and I could do nothing to prevent it.
Or aid Dante and my boys.
If Dante died, the entire pack would suffer.
It seemed like forever as I sat with the children, two of the older women supervising their breakfast. They made small talk, but I remained too tense for polite conversation.
Too worried.
Felicia finished drinking her milk and shoved back her chair. “Come on Peyton.”
She took my arm, and headed for the doorway. The giant blocked her way and frowned.
Felicia sighed. “Seriously?”
“Boss said she was not to leave.”
“We’re going to my room.” Felicia waggled her fingers. “Manicure time. You know, girl stuff.”
When we were halfway down the hall, she glanced over her shoulder. “Come on.”
She ducked into the office with the banks of security screens.
“He won’t check your room to make sure I’m there?”
“Hank is big, tough and dumb as a bag of rocks sometimes. If I tell him we’re doing girly stuff, he’ll avoid my bedroom.”
