"I'm doing great," Sarah answered, confirming my assessment. The girl's voice was still quiet, but her stance no longer suggested that she expected us to turn into wolves and rend her limb from limb at one wrong word, which was definitely a sign of improvement. "Thanks for coming," she continued, speaking to me and ignoring the way Blaze's eyes followed her every mood hungrily. "Actually, I was hoping to speak with you before All-Pack," she added quietly, yet firmly, "so I'm glad you dropped by."
"If there's anything you need..." I started, but Sarah didn't give me time to finish. The girl had obviously put a great deal of thought into her request and needed to get the words out before I could shoot her down, so I didn't even growl at being spoken over (something that, I suspect, the Chief had never allowed to happen in his entire career as alpha).
"I want to go with you to the gathering," the girl said, then took a deep breath and hastened to explain. "I know there's a good chance that my baby and I won't survive childbirth, but if we do, we'll need somewhere to go, a family to become a part of. So I want to attend All-Pack...as a pack princess."
A pack princess—an eligible young girl seeking a mate. And you thought the female selection for All-Pack would be the easy part, my wolf snickered silently, tossing my own words back in my face.
My wolf was right. I had thought that the lack of pack princesses in the Wilder clan would make my life easier. And, to be honest, I still felt like there were no eligible young women whom we should bring with us. Because, while I hated to tell this girl no, Sarah's idea was misguided on so many levels.
First, there was her health—Bev had told me that Sarah needed to stay calm until the baby was born, and our regional gathering never lacked for stimulation. Then there was the issue of Justin, who would have to become my ally, no matter what kind of concessions it took to win his aid, especially now that Thomas Bell had written me off as a viable alpha. And while I'd been willing to put up with the political repercussions of Sarah choosing Blaze as her new mate, I had also been hoping to put that drama off until next year, when my hold over the Wilder clan would be a little more sturdy and less likely to crack into a million tiny pieces.
On the other hand, Wolfie had given Sarah into my care, and I didn't want to let my mate down. "I hope you know that you have a place with us for as long as you want it," I told the girl, trying to make her feel more secure in our pack. Perhaps I could ease whatever crazy whim made the girl think that going to All-Pack nine-months pregnant made sense?
But Sarah simply looked away as I spoke, her wolf seeming to droop beneath her skin as girl and lupine alike succumbed to disappointment. I glanced at Bev in search of support, but my aunt simply shrugged her shoulders, as torn as I was about whether to let the girl have her head. "There's no real reason why she can't go," the midwife confirmed eventually. "It would be better for Sarah not to be upset, but she doesn't absolutely have to be on bed rest."
As I weighed our guest's wishes and needs, Blaze spoke up. "I'd be glad to be part of your honor guard," the yahoo said, his voice drawing our guest's eyes at last. The object of Blaze's attention smiled prettily in response, and the yahoo's cheeks turned bright red at her regard.
"You and David both," the girl agreed. "I'd like that."
And I was so sick of being the bad guy that, even though I knew Sarah would be better off if she remained here in Haven, I agreed. And so I made a decision that I would soon come to regret.
Chapter 11
Don't play your cards too soon.
The telegram arrived mere minutes before our entourage set off for All-Pack, and I couldn't resist immediately lifting the sheet of paper to my nose in search of my mate's signature aroma. Because the message had to be from Wolfie, even though there was no odor of shifter about it, and even though the human delivery guy professed to have no knowledge of who the anonymous sender might have been. I grinned to think of my tech-savvy partner working the system to bypass both the Chief's restrictions and his brother's nosy interest, all the while managing to get his words in front of my greedy eyes exactly when I needed him to contact me the most.
Just three hours until I see the handsome shifter himself! That thought was enough to put a faint replica of the Chief's bite into my voice as I hurried along the shifters who were currently loading our camping equipment into the convoy of cars. The sooner we left Haven, the sooner we'd reach Justin's territory...and the sooner I could enjoy a long-awaited reunion with my mate.
Unfortunately, that reunion would have to be put off just a little longer, because I realized that a fist fight was poised to break out between the young shifters under my care. Seven of us would be traveling from Haven this morning, and the relatively small number of travelers should have made it easy to divide the participants up into three partially-loaded cars. Or so I'd thought. Instead, both Blaze and David turned out to be adamantly opposed to our pack princess riding in the other's vehicle, and the male shifters' repeated attempts at halting the girl in question from taking a seat in either car meant that Sarah was now starting to sway from exhaustion.
Worse, the contestants' voices were growing more heated with every exchange, and I could tell that my opportunity to intervene had nearly passed. "Are you sure you're even old enough to drive?" David was asking the youngest yahoo when I finally pulled my nose out of Wolfie's telegram. My relative's taunt was particularly maddening because of its lack of heat and, while I wouldn't have wanted to be a passenger in a car driven by Blaze either, my cousin wasn't being entirely fair when he made it sound as if the youngest yahoo's voice hadn't yet broken.
"Maybe Sarah doesn't want to ride with a Wilder who'd like to regress to the days before women had the right to vote," Blaze rebutted. I rolled my eyes, thinking that the yahoo's words would have carried more weight if David wasn't one of my more open-minded relatives. But I still saw my cousin clench his jaw in anger—the verbal blows were apparently finding their mark on both sides.
"Hey, how come nobody's fighting over the opportunity to ride with me?" Fen spoke up, trying to interject a bit of humor into the occasion. But the males ignored her voice of reason and continued to glare at each other. Both shifters were obviously waiting for their opponent to back down, but the combatants seemed pretty evenly matched...which was a recipe for the verbal altercation turning into a physical fight.
My leadership style was generally pretty hands-off, but the person most likely to defuse this drama—Sarah—seemed either unable or unwilling to elucidate which shifter she had her eye on. In fact, based on the girl's complete lack of eye contact at the moment, I couldn't be sure that she actually liked either of the males in the first place. Instead, our guest seemed content to allow the males to duke out ownership of her body while she sagged against the hood of my car, all effort going into standing upright.
And while I was still considering the best way to get out of this altercation without slapping both young men down, Blaze took a step forward, his arm raised and his hand clenched into a fist, proving that I couldn't put off my own decision any longer. "Sarah will ride with me," I interjected quickly. "Sarah and..." scanning the waiting faces, I settled upon the female yahoo as the odd woman out. "...and Fen."
And so I lost the opportunity to bond with my new pack during the ride to All-Pack. But at least the schism between yahoos and Wilders didn't grow any wider that afternoon, and no blood was shed on my watch.
***
The Young's campground was a bit smaller than the field my father had always earmarked for All-Pack participants, and the ground was rougher, but the same heady mixture of excitement and danger filled the air. My party had arrived just after sunset, when bonfires were being lit around the dance floor while meat sizzled on spits, and the lack of light should have made it harder to find our potential allies. But, even though the gathering had been transported to an entirely different state, every clan had still opted to set up camp in the exact same configuration as in years past. I could smell the small Bell contingent nearly hi
dden beneath the trees and could make out Camilla's new clan right in the thick of the action. Scattered around those superpowers were several smaller packs, generally located closest to the clans that they allied with most often, the lesser alphas seeking protection from the stronger pack leaders in their midst.
Finally, my eye picked out the host of the gathering—Justin Young, whose entourage was parked off to one side. It was traditional for the hosting alpha to camp alongside his guests even though he and his honor guard would possess houses with real beds nearby, so I wasn't surprised to smell pine needles, leaf mold, and gun metal as soon as I stepped out of my car. The only really unexpected part was that the Youngs hadn't plopped down right in the middle of the field, asserting their dominance over the other packs through pride of place. Perhaps that omission was a sign that Justin wasn't quite as confident in his coup as he wanted to appear?
No matter how I analyzed Justin's camping location, though, the more relevant sight was a thousand-square-foot patch of empty ground waiting for the Wilders at the opposite end of the field from Justin's encampment. Like satellites orbiting a planet, the Griffins and Reeds had plunked themselves down beside the spot that would belong to their strongest ally, and I felt a bit bad about leaving our affiliated clans in the lurch. But if I wanted to play this new hand of cards a few at a time as Wolfie had suggested, then I couldn't just slide into the niche that my father had left behind. Instead, I needed more allies beyond these two small clans who were always quick to follow where the Wilders led. And the obvious way to showcase my hypothetical strong backers was through proximity.
So, instead of setting up camp in our traditionally designated spot, I abandoned my companions by our cars and strode alone through the thick of the action to the edge of Justin's campfire. With so many alphas concentrated in such a small space, All-Pack managed to prevent bloodshed by dint of ceding each patch of earth to the clan in question as their temporary but unilateral territory. So I had to zig and zag to avoid trespassing on Gray, Price, and Cooper land as I approached my destination. But once I'd arrived, I didn't wait to be acknowledged and instead walked right into the glow surrounding the campfire.
"Justin Young," I called, wishing that my voice was deeper as half a dozen heads turned in my direction and as the odor of raised hackles filled the air. The signature aromas of Justin's honor guard all smelled faintly like Wolfie's, but the similarity wasn't enough to prevent my stomach from clenching up in anticipation of the battle of wills to come.
I was gambling on the hope that Justin still thought I was simply a weak pack princess, and that the alpha had simply seized hosting rights because he'd noticed a power vacuum instead of because he'd seen through my charade a few weeks previously. In this best-case scenario, Wolfie's brother would welcome me as a potential mate whose relatives could further shore up his own power, my partnership bringing with it the weight of the entire Wilder clan when the time came to face down Justin's opponents.
On the other hand, if the Young leader had gone behind my back to seize control of All-Pack after realizing that I was trifling with his affections.... Well, in that case, I was an opposing alpha who had just walked uninvited onto another pack leader's territory, and he and his henchmen would have no compunction about tearing me apart.
So I stood alone in the firelight and waited for Justin to respond to my greeting, wishing all the while that I'd paid more attention to Sarah's fashion advice during our recent car ride. At the time, I'd been stressing about losing sight of Wade's and Hawk's cars during each of my pregnant passenger's frequent bathroom breaks, so the girl's chatterings about clothes and makeup had drifted over me like a passing cloud.
But as Justin's eyes trailed down my form, searing a path of physical awareness in its wake, I realized that a true pack princess would have gussied herself up before running to the side of her potential mate. Wolfie had told me that my lupine half was beautiful, and I loved the way my true mate's eyes lit up when they passed over my curves in both human and wolf form. And yet, I'd never felt particularly attractive in anyone else's view, and I knew that my ragged jeans and wrinkled t-shirt weren't what Justin was used to seeing from a pack princess.
My traitorous cheeks blushed in embarrassment at the thought...and perhaps that was the signal that Justin had been waiting for—a hint that I was girlishly taken with the alpha in front of me, even if that's not actually why my cheeks had turned red. But I couldn't argue with the results. A smile that reminded me of my father's malicious grins now stretched across a face that reminded me of my mate's, and Justin rose and walked toward me with arms extended in greeting. Taking my hand and raising it to his lips, the alpha purred out his next words. "The beautiful Terra Wilder," he greeted me. "Shall I help you set up camp?"
"It's not the how I need help with so much as the where," I replied, steeling myself not to jerk my hand away from Justin's firm grip. And then, suddenly, the alpha in front of me faded from my awareness as I felt Wolfie's eyes lock onto my back. Instantly, my previously grumpy wolf woke up and began to dance beneath my skin. Enough games, she demanded. It's time to greet our mate!
But I couldn't simply turn around and approach Wolfie. Instead, I had to smile at his brother and attempt to make nice as I pouted over the Wilders' designated campsite. "I thought I'd get to camp here, beside you," I continued, trying to figure out what Sarah would have done to wrap Wolfie's scary brother around her finger. In fact, now that I thought about it, how had the girl managed to produce not one but two shifters willing to fawn over her within a week of her arrival? How had she attracted their regard even as her belly grew to roughly the size of a small boat? If Sarah's success was any indication, then attractiveness couldn't be based on looks alone, giving me hope that I'd yet be able to tempt Justin into letting me park my tents next to his.
"I just assumed..." Justin began, then paused. "Tradition..." he continued, shaking his head as if to clear it.
And perhaps the little bit of advice I'd gleaned from Sarah was working after all if this terrifying alpha was tongue-tied in my presence. I peered up from beneath my lashes even though my wolf put her paws over her face in disgust at the action, and I hoped that my efforts had indeed been a success.
"Chet, Luke, tell the Grays and Coopers to scoot over and make room for Miss Terra here," Justin said, finally regaining his ability to speak in time to bark orders at his underlings. "The Wilders will be camping beside us."
***
When I'd suitably thanked my supposed-beau and turned away from the light of the fire, I was finally able to fall into Wolfie's eyes. Our lupine halves spoke without the need for words—possessiveness, love, and joy all shimmering through the darkness between us in the split second it took for our gazes to meet. And then my feet were taking me toward my lover's arms before my rational brain could slow us down or turn our body in another direction.
"Wolf ears." Wade was suddenly by my side, clearly having dogged my footsteps through the ranks of foreign shifters, and the oldest yahoo took my arm now before I could ruin the entire charade that I'd taken so much effort to set up.
As much as I hated to admit it, the shifter's warning was apropos—with werewolves surrounding us on every side, Wolfie and I really couldn't risk sharing a single word since even whispers could be easily heard from nearby campsites. In fact, the extended glance that we'd already shared was probably being torn apart and analyzed by the other werewolves at this very moment.
That thought was like a bucket of cold water splashed over my head, and I was finally able to breathe, if not yet to look away from my mate. At least my attention was able to shift beyond his eyes, though, giving me the opportunity to notice that the unconventional alpha hadn't set up a territory for his contingent at all. Instead, he appeared to have chosen to attend All-Pack entirely alone. Trust Wolfie to be so confident in his own superiority that he wasn't afraid of being set upon by however many shifters the other alphas might point in his direction. My mate probably figured that
he'd be able to whip a hundred wolves into shape just as easily as twenty, and so far, no one seemed to doubt his abilities. Wouldn't it be nice if I could also eschew All-Pack power plays and do the same?
But of course I couldn't. Not with half of the local clans already turned against me due to my father's past actions, and with the other half quite willing to vanquish a seemingly-weak female alpha for the sake of taking over her pack. Instead, I allowed Wade to turn me back around so I could make apologies to the less-powerful clans that Justin had displaced in order to do my bidding. And before long, I was so caught up in determining who should share Sarah's tent (that would be me), that both Young brothers faded from the forefront of my mind.
But I couldn't force the aftereffects of either of their gazes to fade from deep within my belly. Because my mate's eyes had been so full of wolf that I was almost afraid of the passion I saw therein. And Justin's gaze had been so coldly assessing that I couldn't quite convince myself that the latter had truly fallen prey to my nonexistent wiles.
Chapter 12
Somehow, in the midst of dismantling Cooper and Gray tents and setting up Wilder tents in their place, no one noticed what Wolfie was doing until it was too late. But I'm getting ahead of myself. At the time, I was still coming down off the adrenaline high of facing off against Wolfie's brother in plain view of several other alphas, and the drama that subsequently cropped up within my own ranks kept me too busy after that to spare more than a passing glance for my mate. So after Wolfie faded away into the crowd that afternoon, my lupine half fell back asleep and my attention focused on keeping my immediate pack in line.
Pack Princess: A Fantastical Werewolf Adventure (Wolf Rampant Book 2) Page 9
