by Maddy Barone
“You said no secrets,” Carla reminded him anxiously.
The sharp scent of her fear helped him force back the rage. “I’m not angry. Not at you,” he clarified. “That—” He resorted to Lakota because he couldn’t think of the right words in English to describe the evil man who had abandoned her. “You just relax and enjoy your bath.” He patted her shoulder. “I’ll be back in a couple hours.” He couldn’t resist a quick sniff of her neck, a brushed kiss over her jaw.
He took the memory of her scent with him on his run. Her scent mingled with the memories of his parents and rocky beginnings of their relationship. At the edge of the den he gestured Sky and Quill over and invited them to go hunting with him. If they wondered what a newly mated wolf was doing away from his mate on their first night together they didn’t say anything. They had come from the Clan that lived on the plains a few months ago to live near a town and learn how to interact with settled humans. Neither of them had earned the right to question him, which was why he had chosen them and not wolves from his Pack. Part of him wanted to be alone, but he knew he was too frazzled to watch his back properly. The two younger wolves would be able to watch out for him. They changed and took off for the open land outside of town. He needed to kill something, and since his mate’s former man was out of his reach he’d settle for a deer or three.
It was past midnight before they returned to the den. He paused in the kitchen to wash the blood from his body and hair and pull on a pair of sweatpants. He didn’t want to alarm his mate by sleeping naked as he usually did. She was sleeping soundly, curled on her side facing the door, but he was careful to be silent when he got into bed behind her. Even with the blankets the flesh of her arms was cold. She was wearing one of his short-sleeved shirts, and her jeans. Most humans were cold compared to wolves, but she was colder than most. He wrapped his warmth around her, his bare chest to her back, his knees behind hers, his arm draped over her waist. She slept through it, only murmuring something about warm, and wiggling her bottom snugly into his groin. Taye clenched his teeth, wondering if she should sleep on the couch after all. This was going to be torture. But she sighed in her sleep and laid her arm over his where it curled over her waist in a gesture so trusting it soothed him. Maybe it would be worth it. He inhaled her delicious scent and kissed her nape through her hair. He would spend time with her so she could get to know him. They would talk together. He would heat water so she’d get a hot bath everyday if that’s what it took to win her. Soon they would be doing more than just sleeping in this bed.
Chapter Four
Taye woke late, feeling almost peaceful. He inhaled the wonderful scent of his mate lingering in the bedclothes but knew immediately she was not beside him. He heard the shower running and realized he had been woken by a soft yelp from the bathroom. He relaxed against the pillow that smelled of Carla and listened to her moving around the bathroom. After a few minutes she came out, dressed except for her socks and boots, her wet hair wrapped in a towel. She rubbed her arms briskly. He kept his eyes mostly closed so he could watch her unobserved as she went to the bureau mirror to comb out her hair. When he heard her teeth chatter he stopped pretending. Wolves didn’t feel the cold like humans did, so fifty degrees was comfortable for him. For her, though, he would need to have a fire to keep her warm. He would see to that today.
He came out of bed with a smooth, stretching yawn. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?” He ran a gentle finger over her cold cheek. “You’re awfully cold. Will you let me hold you? I can warm you up.”
She jerked away. “No, thank you,” she said with frigid courtesy.
His wolf howled silently at him to take care of his mate. He wrestled with his Alpha instinct to command and won. “You’re cold,” he pointed out in his most reasonable voice. “I’m a wolf. I’m always hot. I can get you hot too.”
She looked at him sharply, probably looking for innuendo, but he had been sincere. She seemed to realize it, because she stepped close to him and shook. “I didn’t think the shower would be cold,” she shuddered.
“Water has to be heated. Your hair is wet,” he chided. He reached for the dropped towel and wrapped her hair up again. “It’s too cold for a human woman to walk around with wet hair.”
“I know, I forgot about the blow drier not working.”
Taye let her go for a moment to pull an extra blanket out of a drawer. He draped it around her shoulders and pulled her tightly against him and then tucked the blanket around them both. “I’m a wolf,” he said simply. “What is a blow drier?”
“It’s a machine that blows hot air and dries hair fast.”
“That would be handy,” Taye said solemnly, “if I had hair as long as yours.” As beautiful as yours, he added to himself. Maybe she would let him comb it?
The were easing, and Carla seemed relaxed against him. He savored it and her breath on his chest. Ever since he had showed her his wolf she had seemed to trust him more. Strange, he would have thought it would have been the other way around. That had not been his mother’s reaction to his father’s wolf. But whatever the reason, he welcomed the chance to hold her in his arms. She pushed away too soon. He made himself let her go. Earning her trust might half kill him, but he would do it.
“Warmer now?” he asked briskly. “Let me help you dry your hair, and then we should get to breakfast before it is all gone.”
“I can do my hair myself,” she said with a touch of her old hauteur.
Taye sighed in inward disappointment, but only nodded. Maybe another time she would allow him to fuss with her hair. Among wolves it was common for them to groom one another and rub up against each other. Not in a sexual way, but just for the comfort of being close. Hugging and rubbing up against another wolf meant they were part of the pack. The boys in the Pack often leaned against each other or put their arms around each other. The humans in town didn’t understand it. With so few women it wasn’t unknown for men to form physical relationships, and that’s what they thought the Pack did. But wolves did not see other men as sexually attractive. They weren’t even attracted to women who were mated to another wolf.
Carla’s water-darkened hair hung in a single braid to the belt of her jeans. Taye found himself bending slightly to sniff it as he held her jacket for her to slip her arms in. She glared over her shoulder at him. Ah, things were back to normal. Taye grinned and straightened the collar of her jacket before opening the door. Then he paused, face sober.
“I’m going to introduce you to the Pack this morning. You have to remember that most of them are not human. No one will hurt you, though. You will be special to them because you are my mate. You are the Lupa. Okay?”
Her dark hazel eyes narrowed. “I’m not your mate.”
So much for her softening to him. “You will be.”
She snorted. “Aren’t you going to put on some clothes?”
He was wearing sweatpants, which was more than he usually wore. “I’ve got clothes on. Let’s go to breakfast.”
The dining room was silent when they got there, more than three dozen men sitting at the tables with an air of expectancy. Normally they would be talking too loud and eating too fast, and wrestling naked on the floor amid howls and laughter. He had given the order last night for everyone to wear clothes until he said different. They seemed to be on their best behavior this morning, because they all were wearing shorts or pants and waited quietly until he had led Carla over to the table at the head of the room before lifting their faces and letting loose a howl of congratulations. It was thunderous and it made him grin proudly. Carla had a frozen look on her face. Shock? Fear? No, he didn’t smell fear, only a little anxiety.
The Pack Betas, his lieutenants, came forward. Pete and Des each lowered their heads to sniff Carla’s neck politely. She stiffened and tried to pull back. Taye held her still. “This is Pete, and this is Des. They are my Betas.”
Pete had come with him to the Bride Fight yesterday, but Des had been left in charge of the den and the
ir surrounding turf. Des sniffed her again. “She’s strong,” he commented approvingly. “I accept her as my Alpha Female.” He leaned closer to Taye to speak very quietly. “Better feed her up, though. She needs more meat on her bones to get through the winter.”
Pete lifted his head to stare hard at Taye. “You haven’t had sex with her yet,” he announced for the Pack to hear. “She is not yours.”
Taye seemed to grow taller, his shoulders broader. “I will take her to bed when the time is right.”
Pete spat on the floor between Taye’s bare feet. The other wolves were silent except for a few soft growls and whines. “I heard you mean to keep us all on KP, when you have a female right there to do women’s work. And you’re going to wait until she allows you to fuck her? What kind of man are you? Are you an Alpha or a lap dog?”
“Careful, Pete,” Taye said casually. “Some Alphas might take that as a challenge.”
“Damn straight it’s a challenge. I’m claiming the girl and the Alpha place.”
Taye laid a soothing hand on Carla’s shoulder, stopping her from saying anything. He shook his head sadly. “Pete, don’t think I won’t kill any man who looks at my mate wrong. I don’t want to have to kill you. Show me your throat and we can leave this behind us.”
Pete’s dark grey eyes shifted over Carla in an insultingly intimate appraisal. “If you want to keep that woman you’ll have to kill me, because I’m taking her. I’m not afraid of her boots. She can scream all she wants, but she’s not telling me no when I want to fuck her. You’ve turned into a soft little pup, Taye. You’ll never kill me.”
*
Carla listened to this with a sense of distant horror. Pete was not an ugly man physically, but the way he looked at her and talked to Taye made her feel sick. If he had been the one to win the Bride Fight, last night would have gone horribly differently. Without really meaning to she took a half-step behind Taye.
“Your challenge is accepted,” said Taye flatly. “Call the Pack. Let them stand witness.”
Pete’s smile was hard and smug. “Good. I’ll meet you outside.”
He and the men in the dining room left. Carla stepped back to Taye’s side. “What was that all about?”
“Pete has been on the verge of challenging me for months,” he answered after a pause. “I’ve always been able to back him down before. Today I gave him a chance, but he won’t yield.”
“I don’t understand.” And I don’t like him, she added silently.
“My uncle told me last year that I was too laid-back for an Alpha. I let Pete get away with too much insolence. I should have done something about it before this. I guess I’ll have to take care of it now. Come on, you have to watch.”
Carla let him steer her through the dining room to the lobby and outside. There was little breeze, which was good, because it was cold enough to see her breath. Off to one side of what had survived of the asphalt parking lot, men and boys were standing around in their bare feet, crushing the frost-crisp grass. Some of them were no older than fifteen by Carla’s estimate. Most of them appeared to be Native American, but some were blond and others brunet. Almost all of them wore only shorts or pants in spite of the low temperature. They turned to watch as Taye led her through the crowd and to the far side of an empty area about thirty feet square. Pete stood facing them from the other side of the square stark naked. Taye stopped her beside the other man he had introduced her to this morning. Des. She thought his name was Des. Taye leaned down to put his mouth against her ear.
“I’m going to kiss you. It’s for show. Don’t push me away.”
His lips were very gentle against hers, his large hand warm on the back of her neck. It was done by the time she got her wits back. She blinked at him while he quickly pulled off his sweats. She gaped at his nudity for only a second before he turned into the big gray wolf she had seen last night. He paced to the center of the square and another wolf, even larger, met him. Pete? Good lord, were they going to fight? She felt the cold air freezing her wet braid, and felt the same sort of icy cold inside.
Des patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. Pete can’t take Taye.”
The fight lasted only about four or five minutes, but it seemed to go on forever. Half the time Carla couldn’t tell which wolf was Taye. The gray bodies writhed together, kicking up clumps of grass and slinging saliva and blood and tufts of fur into the air. Constant growling was broken by occasional yelps. Both were bleeding and limping by the time one wolf clamped his jaws over the throat of another and bit savagely down, shaking his head to break the neck of the loser. The winner stood for a few seconds, his sides heaving, then turned and limped towards Carla.
“See?” whispered Des. “Told ya Taye would win.”
A rush of relief bubbled up in Carla, overwhelming her horror at the brutality of the fight. Taye had won and Pete wouldn’t rape her. She laid shaking fingers on an unbloodied portion of Taye’s gray-furred head. A wave of heat passed pushed her hand up, and Taye stood tall beside her, blood running down from torn-up skin on the back of his left shoulder, over his lower belly from a ragged bite near his navel, down his thigh from a claw scrape. Carla was so horrified she barely noticed he was naked. He slung a heavy arm over her shoulders and swept hard eyes over the dozens of men watching.
“I am Alpha of this Pack, and this is my mate. Is there anyone else who wants to challenge me?”
All the men tilted their heads to the side, chins up, and cast their eyes down. Taye nodded once, satisfied. “Then go about your day, and let everyone you pass know what happened here.”
Carla felt more of his weight leaning on her. “Taye, are you—?”
“In a minute,” he cut her off in a soft voice. “Des, clean this mess up.” Des nodded and went to the dead wolf. Taye watched the men walk away, and when they were a distance off he let her go long enough to pick up his sweatpants and pull them on. “Now we’ll go in and eat breakfast, and then we’ll go back to our room.”
“You’re hurt,” she protested.
He put his arm around her shoulders again. “But I can’t look like it. The Alpha can’t show weakness and neither can his mate. So let’s go enjoy our breakfast. Don’t look like you’re hurrying, but don’t waste time either, okay? And if you can bear it, please look like you’re happy that I won. It will be easier for me if I can lean on you.”
Carla almost blurted out that she was happy he had won. Taye was a million times better than Pete would have been as a husband. She hadn’t felt grateful that Taye had claimed her for his mate until now. But knowing what sort of man she could have spent last night with made her realize how lucky she had been. So she put her arm around his back and walked with him back to the table at the head of the dining room, trying to look like she wasn’t supporting so much of his weight. She didn’t protest when Taye asked her to bring him some food. She picked the biggest and bloodiest piece of meat on the platter sitting in a covered warming pan on the counter, scooped some oatmeal into a pair of bowls, added a couple apples and went back to the table. Other men were also crowded around tables, some talking quietly, but all watching them avidly.
Taye had propped his chin on his fist and was watching her with a lazy smile. He indicated the space next to him. “Bring your chair over here, mate, so I can flirt with you.”
Carla stopped, ready to protest, but then she saw how much of his weight was supported by his elbow on the table, and remembered that he had said he couldn’t appear weak. She set the heavy tray on the table and pulled the chair around beside his. When she sat down he immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulders and leaned against her to sniff her neck. She wondered uneasily if that was werewolf foreplay? When his tongue touched the skin under her ear she was sure of it. But with dozens of men watching she couldn’t slap him.
“Here, darling,” she said stiffly. “Let me cut your meat for you.”
His eyes laughed at her. “I’m wounded, not senile.”
She smiled back and batted
her lashes like a rock star’s groupie. “Are you sure?”
He let her go to reach for the fork and knife and managed to control his expression when the muscles of his lower belly seized with pain. “Well, if it would give you pleasure, sweet mate, how can I refuse?”
Carla cut his meat. The blood oozed out of it like his blood was oozing out of him. “Darling,” she said pointedly. “Hurry and eat. You need … I want to, um, go back to bed.”
The men—wolves?—around them seemed to prick up their ears, and they weren’t shy about watching the Alpha couple. Their tongues were practically hanging out of their mouths while they listened. Taye leaned against her again to nibble her jaw. “Your wish is my command.”
Carla stabbed a chunk of meat with more violence than was necessary. “How sweet,” she cooed between clenched teeth. “Here, eat some meat.”
He accepted it and kissed her fingertips on the knife. “Your fingers are cold. I’ll warm you up,” he promised, his chin resting on her shoulder. “Then I’ll dress you in furs like a Russian princess.”
Carla could feel the weak little tremors that passed through him and took more of his weight. “Won’t that be nice.”
Taye turned breakfast into a mock seduction, but Carla was distressed by how effective it was. Maybe Taye wasn’t pretending to seduce her. With every lick and nibble he gave her fingers she felt herself grow warmer and lose a few more of her inhibitions. Maybe he was serious. Good grief, if this was how he made love when he was wounded she had better stay away from him when he was whole. She tried to look natural when they walked out of the dining room with their arms around each other, but the only acting experience she’d had was when she had made a couple of music videos for her debut CD, and she hadn’t been very good at that either.
It was a relief when she closed the door to their room and Taye let her go to drag himself to the bathroom. But he looked so weak she went after him and helped him wipe the blood away from his wounds. The one on the back of his shoulder was still bleeding, but the one in his lower belly looked worse, the gouge in his flesh going pretty deep and the edges not meeting. Carla felt like crying.
