Claiming Kristen

by Jenny Penn

  As strong as their Alpha might be, Kort didn’t think he’d be up to fighting The Narin and the four commanders he had clipping at his heels. The only thing those men looked like they’d come for was a fight. Falling into line behind JD, Kort cast a quick nod at Tex, but the other man had already latched on to Kristen’s arm and started to pull her back from the two walls of men charging at each other.

  The Narin’s head snapped in the direction Kort’s had taken. His feet followed a second later as he curved around Kristen’s bumper. The sudden turn left Tex completely unprepared for the fist that had him whipping backward as he stumbled, almost going all the way to the ground.

  “Get your hands off my sister!”

  Chapter 9Kristen gasped as Tex suddenly disappeared under the meaty thud of Derek’s punch. Almost as soon as Tex released her arm, Derek latched on to her. His grip was stronger, enough that Kristen couldn’t control the wince when he jerked her after him, clearly intent on dragging her off.

  One look in her brother’s eyes silenced the complaint dangling on the edge of her tongue. Kristen had expected Derek to be angry, but not homicidally enraged. For the first time ever, she feared her twin and what he might do, not to her but the three Covenanters blocking the path back between the cars. What the hell had Claire told him?

  “You’re not taking her, Derek.” JD McBane spoke calmly, reasonably, but with enough hardness to his tone to make his statement sound like a threat. Derek’s gaze cut to his lieutenants, and Kristen watched his jaw start to fall open. She knew what command would come next. There would be no way somebody didn’t end up dead on this road today.

  “No!” Fear, not aggression, powered her shout and the struggles that managed to pull her arm free. “Let me go! You’re hurting me, Derek.”

  That statement received instant twin growls that rumbled over the sheriff’s shoulders. Suddenly JD was surging forward under the press of her mates as they struggled to get past their Alpha. Just as quickly, Derek’s commanders started to crowd in on the Covenanters, responding instantly to the threat to their Alpha.

  “I said stop!” Kristen shouted at nobody in particular, encompassing all the men in her glare. “There isn’t going to be any fighting today.”

  “You don’t want to get involved in this, little sister. I’ll handle it.” Derek growled, his gaze focused with lethal intent on her two mates. Kristen didn’t doubt that her brother could smell the men on her. He’d never really handled the idea of her having sex well. Mating a set of Covenanters had clearly pushed him over the edge.

  “You’re right,” Kristen spat. “I don’t want to be involved in this macho pissing contest, but unfortunately, I’m stuck in the middle. So as long as I’m here, there isn’t going to be any fighting.”

  “Then leave,” Derek retorted instantly, snatching her up by the arm again and starting to shove her back behind him. “Now get in your car and go—Boy, did you just growl at me?”

  Her brother shot that question back at the snarls rumbling from behind JD. This time, though, the sound formed itself into a roar. Kristen felt Derek tense with that final stillness he got before he sprung into action. Nobody challenged an Alpha, not unless they wanted to be bloodied.

  “I’m still here.” Kristen reversed the hold Derek had on her by wrapping her free hand around his arm and clinging to it. “And I said no fighting.”

  “And I told you to leave, and, son, if you growl at me one more time, I swear to God I’ll—”

  “She’s my mate.”

  Kristen closed her eyes as that declaration rolled over her brother. Whichever one of her boneheaded mates thought that clarification would help the situation had vastly misunderstood the situation. Her brother hadn’t grown stiffer at that revelation, but turned to hard stone. A state Kristen knew he’d rouse from only once his mind caught up with the blood-rushing rage his wolf was no doubt quaking with.

  As protective as Derek was of Kristen, it didn’t compare to the sacred place her wolf held in his beast’s heart. It was a rare and special bond shared only by twins. Kristen doubted even the Covenanters would understand the depths that Derek would go to protect her despite the fact that they only ever had twins. They only had male sets.

  Her mates might not have realized that Derek was only storing up energy to fuel the compete meltdown coming, but JD appeared to. The big sheriff stepped forward, clearly using his bulk to barricade the narrow gap between his car and Kristen’s. Her brother would need to go through or over to get to her mates. Kristen didn’t figure that would be an easy task.

  “Try to take a deep breath, Derek.” Still calm, still cool, The Covenanter’s tone had lost its bite and taken on an almost apologetic sound.

  “You promised me,” Derek growled back, surprising Kristen with his comment. She might not have understood what promise her brother referred to, but JD did because he answered without hesitation.

  “And I didn’t break it. Those two numb-nuts didn’t inform me until after the fact.”

  “That. Doesn’t. Help.” Derek’s words grumbled out in short spats, making it quite clear that his fangs had started to lengthen. That was another thing a wolf didn’t threaten an Alpha with unless he wanted to be bloodied. Derek being The Narin didn’t stop JD from responding in kind.

  “Doesn’t change that she’s Covenanter now, either.”

  “Nor does it change that I’m Kristen Jacob, his sister, and standing right here.” It was probably suicidal to get between the two, but Kristen didn’t see any other option to keeping the two men apart. If nothing else, they’d have to spare a moment to move her.

  She could only hope that bought somebody else the time they needed to keep this bloodbath from happening. Of course that wish would have a better chance of happening if she wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of male wolves.

  Derek’s commanders kept narrow-eyed watch over her mates, who had their gazes fixated on Derek. Not that he noticed given his whole focus remained on JD, who met him glare for glare. The only one not looking ready to take out the enemy was Tex. That idiot stood behind Derek, well out of striking range and grinning like a fool despite the swelling in his cheek.

  “Get out of the way, Kristen.”

  She turned her chin up at Derek’s command, used to challenging him as his sister despite his status as pack Alpha. “I will not. Not until you calm down and start to see reason.”

  “There is no reason in this,” Derek snapped. “You hate Covenanters. You avoid them and their territory like the plague. How did you even—” Derek froze for a second, his eyes shifting up as he appeared to come to a conclusion that was too close to right. “Was this consensual?”

  Kristen’s lips went lax, too soft with shock to form the assurances they should have to keep the murder flashing through Derek’s eyes. They went cold and hard, just like his voice as he repeated his question.

  “Was it consensual?”

  “Are you implying my men would do anything dishonorable?”

  “Don’t play me, McBane,” Derek roared, stepping up and almost onto Kristen. She could feel the heat of his anger coming off of him in waves that only made her sweat harder as he ripped into his friend. “I’m not some young pup who hasn’t been around you guys. I know what kind of savage beasts you turn into when you go into heat. Your kind doesn’t give a shit about rules or laws then.

  “Now I’m asking if it was consensual?” Derek roared right over her head, sparing her the humiliation of having to blush through a lie as he accurately guessed what really had happened. “Or did those two dickless shits behind you musk my sister into becoming some kind of sex toy for the night?”

  That should have led directly to violence, but instead everybody froze at the crisp alarm sounded by one of Derek’s commanders. “Somebody’s coming.”

  Maybe they didn’t want word spreading the police chief and sheriff of two neighboring towns were having a thrown down on the side of the highway. Perhaps they didn’t want to have to keep themselves
in human form when ripping each other to shreds. It might be that they didn’t want to give the other the luxury of dying a pleasant death by being run over.

  Kristen didn’t know what had all the men freezing but figured it would probably be a combination of all three explanations. Whatever the reasoning, the sudden halt to the boiling argument gave her an opening to at least try and keep things from returning to where they’d left off. What to do, though, she didn’t have a clue.

  Figuring nothing she thought of would succeed, Kristen decided to simply give in to her own anger. If anybody had a right to start a fight, it was her, after all. She’d been wronged by just about everybody present.

  Her two mates had taken liberties beyond the pale. Their dipshit friend had only made that crime worse with watching. The sheriff had pulled her over, and she knew damn well she hadn’t been speeding. Then her brother had shown up and acted like he owned her, like she couldn’t take care of herself.

  That burned worse because Derek should know better. Focusing in on that thought, Kristen let it build until enough anger fueled the kick she leveled at his shin to make it hurt.

  “Ow!” Derek danced backward, his glare turning indignant. “What the hell did you do that for?”

  “That’s for telling me to go away like some infant who can’t handle her own life.” Kristen leveled another kick at him. This time she slammed her heel into his other shin, prompting Derek to growl as he shifted forward.

  “Stop that.”

  “Or what?” Kristen shot back. “You gonna beat me up, too?”

  “Or I’ll tie your ass up and stuff you in the trunk.”

  He wouldn’t, but Derek did love to threaten her. Whenever she did something he didn’t approve of, he’d always felt the need to try to bully her into doing things his way. His concern could be considered sweet. It could also be very annoying.

  “Derek,” Kristen sighed his name the way she always did to let him know he’d worn her patience through. “I’m not a little girl anymore, and I don’t need you to make all my decisions for me.”

  “Yes, you do,” Derek contradicted her with full sincerity and no hesitation. “Especially when it comes to mating. I’m your Alpha. You have to petition me for approval before you mate. I’m also your brother. You’re supposed to at least introduce me to the men you’re dating.”

  Kristen couldn’t argue against any of those points, and Derek knew it. He didn’t even pause before leading her back to the very conversation she didn’t want to have with him right then and there.

  “We both know you would, too,” Derek stated. “Which is why I know this isn’t consensual, because you wouldn’t break all those rules. Not for a couple of Covenanters. You don’t like Covenanters, and they don’t date. When they find a mate, they mate, no waiting, no asking. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  Kristen couldn’t. Derek wouldn’t believe the lie anyway. Instead, she focused on the one point her brother couldn’t argue. “It doesn’t matter how it happened. It happened. Even you can’t undo a mating.”

  “I could kill them.” Derek glanced over at her two men and smiled slightly. “That would solve my problem.”

  “And make me the reason for war between our packs,” Kristen concluded grimly. “I don’t want that, Derek. Please don’t make me live with that kind of guilt.”

  That got a scowl and probably would have earned a rude retort but the squeal of brakes sliced through their conversation. The sound had both of them snapping around to watch the car that everybody else had been staring at for the past minute. Instead of speeding past, it went crashing through the sandy shoulder across the lanes.

  Horn blaring in pulsing trumpet call, the Mustang slammed to a stop with enough force to send a dust cloud whooshing up over its roof. As the spray cleared away, Kristen began to make out the shape of a woman waving out the window and yelling.

  “Hey, honey!”

  “Oh, crap.”

  Kristen didn’t know who the woman was yelling at until JD growled and shoved through the men to start storming toward the car. As she trailed away, so did his muttered complaints about the inconveniences of females. By the way he grumbled, Kristen bet the woman was related. Given the huge, obviously pregnant stomach that blocked her view of the woman as she struggled to get out of the car, Kristen narrowed it down to mate.

  A second, skinnier woman came around the bumper to help. Kristen’s eyes widened over the sight of her sister-in-law giving the pregnant lady a helpful tug to get her out of the old Mustang. It figured Claire would be with her. Kristen knew they’d become friends over the past few months. Two converted werewolves mated to Alpha males, this was just the kind of reinforcements Kristen needed.

  “Samantha.” JD intercepted his mate with what could only be best described as restrained tolerance. “You should not be here.”

  “Don’t you even start with me, JD.” Samantha might have been a foot shorter than her mate, but she pushed past the oversized male as if he were barely a pebble in her path. “I’m going to have my words with you later. Right now I have duties to attend to.”

  “Your only duty right now is to stay off your feet and grow my babies,” JD snapped back at her.

  “I’ll certainly attend to that once I’m done here. Now you can either threaten my fragile condition further by annoying me more and elongating this moment, or you can behave as a gentleman and help me expedite this matter.”

  Kristen had to admit that she was impressed. She hadn’t even worked up the balls to look at her own mates yet. It would help if they didn’t stare so intently. Kristen didn’t need to turn her chin to feel the penetrating heat beaming down on her.

  JD might have relaxed along with Derek, but her two men still hovered too close. Without the sheriff holding them back, they’d started to shift ever so slowly in her direction until a warm, musky scent started to invade her head and make it begin to spin.

  “Kristen.”

  “Don’t touch my sister.”

  She barely had a chance to recognize the brush of a hand along her arm before Derek smacked one of her mate’s hands away. Suddenly she found herself the only barrier between two snarling, bristling males.

  “She’s my mate. I can touch her whenever I want.”

  “Over my dead body.”

  “That can be arranged.”

  “Hey! Hey, hey.”

  Claire pushed her way between Kristen and her brother, saving the moment when all Kristen could do was long to curl closer into the heat of her mate. With the fresh air came the revelation that the sons of bitches had been musking her. Again. Right in front of her brother.

  “There is not going to be any death arranging today. Okay, guys?” Claire gave her the time she needed to get over the effects of the intoxicating odor along with her anger.

  “Why don’t we give Kristen some room? You,” Claire pointed at one of Kristen’s mates, “whoever the hell you are, why don’t you back up and stand right over there. Then we’ll,” she began to pull Derek backward, “go over here and leave Kristen right there in the middle. Nobody will touch her, and she wouldn’t show any favoritism by moving. All right?”

  Kristen didn’t think the men were really all right with the situation. She certainly wasn’t. Given the opportunity, Kristen would have loved to shove her mates on their asses and haul, but in the opposite direction. Barricaded in on either side by solid walls of male muscles, Kristen didn’t have the opportunity and no choice but to obey. A circumstance that made her bristle, failing to return the suddenly strong hug she found herself trapped in.

  “Welcome to our pack.” Samantha jerked Kristen back to arm’s length with impressive strength. “I’m Samantha Hark-McBane, and I’m here to help.”

  “Samantha, you have got to let me handle this situation.”

  Samantha turned and gave her mate a bright smile. “By all means continue to handle it, dear. I’ll just take care of Kristen.”

  “You don’t understand. I—”

&nb
sp; “I understand. Kristen is mated to Jakob and Kort, right?”

  “Technically, yes,” JD growled.

  “Then technically that makes her a Covenanter bitch and under my authority. Now given the details as I know them, I would say that Kristen has a valid grievance against her mates for their treatment of her.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Derek perked back up, his gaze going immediately to the men standing across from him. Thankfully Claire was there to make sure he only roared at them instead of starting to rip limbs off of them. “How the hell did you treat my sister?”

  “I’m not sure that’s proper for us to discuss outside the individuals involved.” Samantha lopped her arm around Kristen’s shoulders and pulled her close.

  “I’m her brother!”

  “Really?” Samantha had to be faking that surprise. She’d arrived with Claire after all. Still the woman pulled it off like a seasoned actress. She turned to flash Kristen a big smile. “Let me congratulate you on your fine and proud heritage. Sister of the Narin Alpha is quite a position. I’m sure your family will be pleased to learn that you have mated the first lieutenants in the Covenanter pack. Such strong and capable men will give you many fine sons, however—”

  “Samantha, please let me handle this.” JD groaned, sounding downright desperate now.

  “Oh, I am. I’m going to let you handle Derek and the details of how this marvelous event took place. I’ll see to Kristen’s comfort.”

  “That’s her mates’ job,” JD growled.

  “That’s my job,” Derek corrected him.

  “Actually, it’s my job.” Samantha overruled both Alphas without blinking. “The Covenanter pack rules give me complete rights to govern over any complaints a female brings to me, and I am allowed to grant judgment on how to handle the matter without question.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, woman?” Derek snapped. “What complaints?”

  “JD will answer all your questions.” Samantha shot her mate a too-bright smile. “After all, that’s his area of authority.”