At Sixes and Sevens

by M. A. Church

  “Okay, if it looks like Baylor is getting worse, I’ll just have to interrupt Carter’s private time. I’ll catch up with you guys later. Come on, Wes, let’s get over there.” Shea dragged Wes off with him.

  “Poor Jack. I hope everything is okay with Baylor,” Temple said, watching as Shea towed Wes along with him.

  I kept my opinion to myself. I didn’t wish anything bad to happen to them, but Jack had caused a lot of turmoil in my clowder. He was the werewolf who hooked up with Marshell a while back. After a roll in the hay, Marshell stopped seeing Jack because of some comments Jack made toward Lawson.

  When Marshell finally did find his mate, Jack had turned his attention to Remi. It all came to a head one night in the parking lot of the business Marshell, Janelle, and Lawson owned. Jack ended up saving Marshell when Baylor, a hunter who was after Marshell based on inaccurate information, attacked Marshell.

  As soon as Jack smelled Baylor, he knew Baylor was his mate, and stopped Baylor from truly hurting Marshell. Only then did Jack fully understand the importance of mates.

  In fact, the reason I met Carter was because of the destruction Jack caused at Marshell’s rental. If Carter hadn’t come to the clowder’s lands to make reparations to Dolf, I might not have met my mate. Odd how things worked out.

  “Okay, since Shea is handling that, why don’t we go back inside? Lunch should be about ready soon,” Temple said.

  I shrugged. “Yeah, I could eat.”

  I was glad I didn’t have to tag along with Shea. I’d seen Jack from a distance a couple of times since I’d been here. Part of his punishment was working almost nonstop in one of the businesses Carter owned, and Carter had certainly kept him busy. He was younger than what I would’ve thought.

  I knew he wasn’t a very old wolf, but he also looked it. In his human form, he looked like a nineteen- or twenty-year-old. Baylor I hadn’t seen yet and was just as glad I hadn’t. The clowder never had many problems with hunters until Baylor showed up. Needless to say, Baylor wasn’t high on the list of people I wanted to spend time with, since he was an ex-hunter.

  I was following Temple toward the pack house when suddenly his cell phone went off. Groaning, Temple jerked it out of his pocket and answered. He stumbled to a halt, and I stopped too. Since weres had excellent hearing, it was impossible not to eavesdrop. After a few choice cuss words, Temple hung up and turned to me.

  “Unbelievable.”

  I agreed. From what I overheard, there had been a rash of petty thefts at a couple of Carter’s stores by a gang of young human boys. Only this time their luck had run out, and they’d gotten caught. Since they were human, the werewolf manager let the human authorities deal with it, but he still wanted someone there who was a werewolf.

  “I need to take care of that, so I’m going to drop you off at the pack house.” Temple tugged on his hair. “I know you’re not supposed to go anywhere without either me or Shea, and Carter is still dealing with Keegan, so….”

  Annoyed, I crossed my arms over my chest. “How long is he going to have somebody babysit me?”

  “It shouldn’t be much longer.” Temple leaned closer to me and sniffed. “You guys haven’t fully mated. You don’t wear his mark either.”

  “Well, I hope this doesn’t last much longer. I may no longer be a beta for the West Falls Clowder, but I’m still capable. You can take the cat out of the beta, but you can’t take the beta out of the cat.”

  “As soon as you have the mark signifying you’re his, I’m sure Carter will let up some.” Temple walked with me toward the pack house, and the bell rang. “There’s the signal for lunch. Look, hang around here, please. I’m sure Carter will show up pretty soon with Keegan. See you later.”

  I watched Temple stride off. With nothing better to do, I walked up the steps of the pack house and made my way to the cafeteria area. It was one of the few times I’d been left on my own since arriving here. Always having somebody tail me was annoying, but now that I was alone, I missed it.

  Pleased to see there were some people already in the dining room, I walked inside. All conversation stopped. Standing in the doorway, I fidgeted. Well, now, that was kind of hard to ignore. Several werewolves glanced at me as I looked around the room.

  There were groups of young wolves scattered about, along with more wolves who were definitely older. One or two of the younger ones I’d met waved, but the majority ignored me. Those who didn’t cast hostile gazes in my direction. Any appetite I had vanished. Was I fooling myself to think I’d be accepted here? Was Carter?

  Unsure what to do, I stood in the doorway. Perturbed by the lack of welcome, I hesitantly ventured inside. As I drew closer to the buffet line, I caught snatches of conversation. Even though the older werewolves were speaking softly, I heard them clearly.

  “The pussy is here, I see.”

  Several snorts of amusement followed the comment, but even more of the wolves looked uncomfortable. Like raging fire, anger washed over me. Pussy? Really? That joke was older than time itself.

  I stopped by the table and glared down at the one who made the comment. “Do the female wolves around here appreciate such a derogatory term? No? Guess what. Neither do I.” No longer hungry, I stormed toward the door. As I left, I tossed over my shoulder, “And they say felines are catty. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you guys were cat shifters.”

  That was probably not the most brilliantly insulting thing I could say, but it was the best I could do at the moment. Aggravated with their stupid, small-minded mentality, I stomped outside. I needed a breath of fresh air.

  Drawing a deep lungful, I wasn’t surprised all I could smell was the heavy musk of werewolves. I set off walking, not really paying attention to where I was going. All I knew was I needed a moment to myself, away from judgmental eyes.

  Pissed and mature enough to admit the comment also hurt, I tried to think of what I could do to make things easier, but unless I was met halfway, there wasn’t much I could do. Kicking a limb out of my way, I walked on, lost in thought.

  But why should I be the one to make the first overture? I was Carter’s mate, so fuck them. Why should I do all the bending over when it was their attitude that was the problem? For once I wished I had some really cool abilities like Marshell.

  The werewolves here didn’t respect me; that much was obvious. Bet they wouldn’t call Marshell a pussy. If they had, he probably would’ve thrown them through the nearest wall. While I was strong, there was no way I could take on a room full of wolves by myself.

  Especially not since they were twice as big as me. Dammit, I hated this. Nearby a mockingbird called out. Sighing, I looked up at the tree branches. Birds always knew when there was a cat in their territory.

  Only then did I notice exactly where I was. In my anger I’d walked farther than I intended. I wasn’t worried about getting lost since I could follow my scent trail back to the pack house, but I had gone farther than I knew Carter would be comfortable with.

  How sad was it I couldn’t even walk the lands of a pack I was soon to be bound to? Once again I questioned if this thing between Carter and me was going to work, which was kind of stupid since we’d already started the mating process.

  My nose twitched as I caught a musty smell—a bit like stagnant water, decaying leaves, and something dead. The overwhelming need to sneeze caught me off guard, and the sound echoed around the forest. Gods, whatever that was, it was just gross.

  Was there a pond around here Carter hadn’t told me about? I knew the lake wasn’t far, but—the hair on the back of my neck stood up as a low, menacing growl rolled across the area. The snap of broken limbs and the crunch of dead leaves drifted to me. From the woods stalked three wolves.

  A tingle ran down my spine, and my heart rate picked up. These were no ordinary wolves. The air carried a scent that was undisputedly from a werewolf: the musky scent of dog. But the three didn’t smell like anything I’d ever noticed on Carter. His scent was clean and alluring. What I sme
lled now was just plain disturbing.

  Cautiously I took a step back as they crept closer, their lips pulled back from their muzzles, exposing long, deadly teeth. Yellow eyes tracked my every movement. Little pricks of fear raced over my body.

  Did these werewolves belong to Carter’s pack? Or were they trespassers on his land? They didn’t smell familiar, but it was hard to tell since I couldn’t smell anything but that stench. Plus I hadn’t met everybody.

  They spread out as they skulked closer on silent feet. Despite the low growls, there was no aggressive barking. They weren’t lunging at me either. Unease spread through me. If this was an intimidation tactic by some of Carter’s pack, it was working, but it felt like more than that.

  Their intent struck me as serious. Deadly. They spread out in a half circle, a tactic wolves used while hunting. Menace reflected in every step they took. They meant business. Deadly business.

  They were hunting, and I was the prey.

  Fully aware that running was the worst thing with an apex predator, waiting to get torn apart wasn’t high on my list of things to do. Fighting wasn’t an option either. Three werewolves, who each stood taller than a Great Dane, against me wasn’t a battle I could win, even on a good day. That left only one option.

  Decision made, I turned and ran as fast as I could, stripping off my shirt. There was no howling behind me, just a steady pounding of paws closing in on me. Shit. There was no way in human form I could outrun a shifter.

  Praying harder to my goddess than I’d ever prayed before, I shifted, pushing my body to go through the transformation as quickly as I could. The pain hardly touched me for once. Fear overrode everything else.

  I didn’t get tangled in my jeans, and my shoes didn’t trip me up, which would’ve been disastrous. Shifting while running took an agility I didn’t normally have, but fear was a great motivating factor. Getting back to the pack house was out of the question. They were herding me, driving me farther away from safety.

  But I could do something they could not. Spotting a monstrous oak tree not far away, I fled toward it. Moving as a blur across the landscape, I poured as much energy as I could into the much-needed speed, but they were gaining on me. Over the pounding of my heart, the sounds of low growls edged ever so closer.

  Five feet. Five feet was all I needed. Was that hot, panting breath close to me? Was that real or not? Pain exploded in my back leg as I leaped at the tree. Yowling in pain and anger, I sank my claws into the bark and sped up the tree. I kept going until I was halfway up, a good fifty feet above them.

  Satisfied they couldn’t get to me unless they shifted and tried to climb the tree—yeah, best not to think about that—I crouched on a limb, whipping my tail back and forth in aggravation. Below me they circled the trunk, three pairs of yellow eyes glaring up at me. I hissed at them. Snarls and snapping teeth answered me.

  I absorbed every detail I could about their coats and mannerisms. Unfortunately there wasn’t much I could glean. They all looked like gray wolves. We were at a standoff. They couldn’t climb up, and I damn sure wasn’t going down.

  They nudged each other, whining softly as they looked up at me, then back at each other. The pain in my back leg reached a new level of agony, and I carefully turned away from them to look at the damage.

  One of the fuckers had caught me when I jerked away from his bite and a fang ripped my leg. Blood dripped from the wound, staining the tree. Shit. I healed quickly, but the damage was deep. My muscles burned in my hind leg.

  I needed to shift, but there was no way in hell that was happening with me this far up and werewolves circling below. The way my luck was running lately, I’d fall to my death. Scared, hurting, and aggravated, I threw back my head and screamed.

  The wolves, recognizing my cat’s scream for his mate, took off. Now that they were no longer pacing on the ground below me, I licked at the wound, then lowered my head on my paws, trying to rest as I waited on Carter to find me. I was shaking, which wasn’t easy as a cat. The bleeding felt like it was slowing. Hopefully by the time he got here, I could calm down enough to get down.

  I refused to do the whole cat-stuck-in-a-tree thing.

  Chapter Twenty

  Carter

  KEEGAN FOLLOWED me up to my room so I could finish dressing. My gaze lingered on the messy bed, and more than anything, I wished Aidric and I were still there. I hadn’t had a chance to claim my mate before Bram called.

  After I dressed, Keegan and I returned downstairs, Keegan’s stomach rumbling every step of the way. The bell for lunch had already rung, but Keegan hadn’t been ready to face everybody. I’d say he was past ready now. We entered the dining room, and I was surprised to see some of my pack was still eating, since we were so late.

  “I’ll introduce you to Aidric at lunch,” I said. “How does that sound?”

  “I can’t wait.”

  “Good. After lunch maybe he’ll show you his cat. I’ll ask him if—” My sensitive ears picked up the wail of a cat, and my gut clenched. There was only one cat I knew of in my territory, and that was Aidric. What the hell was he doing in the woods?

  “What was that, Uncle Carter?”

  “Stay here!”

  “But—”

  I dropped down to one knee and looked him in the eye. “Pup, I need you to stay here, please. Something’s wrong. That was Aidric. And no, I can’t take you with me.”

  Keegan opened his mouth, then shut it. Slowly he nodded. “I would be in the way.”

  “Not in the way, but if there was danger, I can’t afford to have my attention split between you and Aidric. I need to know you’re safe, okay?”

  Keegan nodded. “I understand.”

  Standing, I pointed toward two werewolves who held the rank of deltas. “Nash and Evan, come with me.”

  Turning, I ran toward the front door, trusting my two deltas were right behind me. That sound. I’d never forget it as long as I lived. Fear wasn’t something I was used to feeling, but gods, that sound.

  Stopping, I sniffed the air. Thank Fenrir Aidric’s scent trail was easy to pick up. There were three more scents I didn’t know, but there was something about them that teased my memory. Where had I smelled that musky scent before?

  “Come with me,” I yelled over my shoulder. My wolf growled. Intruders, and Aidric was somewhere out there with them.

  “What’s going on?” Nash asked, following close behind.

  “Something’s wrong with Aidric, and we have intruders.”

  Racing toward the woods, I concentrated on Aidric’s scent. I didn’t smell Shea or Temple, which annoyed me. I’d stressed to Aidric how important it was to have somebody with him, but here he was wandering around in the woods alone. How the hell had he managed that?

  It didn’t take long for me to pick up the scent of three more wolves also going in the same direction as Aidric. Aggravation turned to dread. I had trespassers on my territory, and they were stalking my mate. Roaring with anger, I sped up.

  The feline scream came again, and my heart nearly stopped. Now I had an inkling—a very small one—of what Bram was going through. The sheer thought of something happening to Aidric was more than I could wrap my mind around.

  “Hurry!” I snapped at Nash and Evan.

  I followed Aidric’s scent but stumbled to a halt when I saw his clothes on the forest floor. For a moment my heart stopped. A quick examination showed me they weren’t ripped, and I didn’t smell blood, but that didn’t relieve me.

  Something significant enough happened to make Aidric shift, even though he was smaller than us in his shifted form. The wolves I scented trailing him… had they attacked him? They must have. It was the only thing that made sense as to why Aidric felt like he needed to shift.

  “What’s going on, Alpha?” Nash asked, glancing around.

  “Whose clothes are those?” Evan added.

  “That feline cry we heard was Aidric. Can you not smell the strange wolves in my territory?”

  “
Shit.” Nash sniffed, then quickly scanned the area. “Are you saying you think they attacked your mate? But what was he doing out here alone?”

  “And where are Shea and Temple?” Evan asked.

  “Good question.” One I didn’t have an answer to.

  Holding Aidric’s clothes, we returned to tracking my mate. I followed his scent trail straight to a tall oak. Ridiculously relieved all I saw on the forest floor was dead leaves, it still freaked me out that the land underneath had been disturbed.

  Wolves—several wolves, according to the tracks—had paced around the trunk of the tree. My wolf was infuriated. But besides the tracks left around the tree, there was nothing else. No blood, no fur… no dead cat, thank the gods. I smelled Aidric but didn’t see him anywhere. If Aidric wasn’t on the ground, then there was only one other place he could be. I looked up.

  About halfway up sat a large tortoiseshell cat. “Aidric?”

  “Meow!”

  Mostly black in face with a little brown, black, and red mixed in throughout his coat, Aidric was simply stunning. Tortoiseshells had no white in their fur like calicos, and his coat was more blended or flecked in appearance. I sniffed the air again, then trembled. Why was I only now noticing the smell of blood?

  “Do you mean to tell me all of this has been because the pussy is stuck in a tree?” Evan snorted. “Figures.”

  Aidric hissed. Loudly, and his fur stood on end. It appeared my mate didn’t like being referred to in such a way, and I didn’t either. Instead of replying, I dropped Aidric’s clothes on the ground, turned around, and punched Evan in the mouth.

  Sprawling on the ground, Evan looked up, holding his jaw. Blood seeped around his fingers. “What the hell?”

  “You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” Disgusted, Nash shook his head. “That’s the Alpha-mate you’re talking about.”

  Glaring down at Evan, I took a step closer to him, pleased to see Evan crab-walking backward. “You’re fortunate all I did was hit you.”