The Alpha's Secret Family: Howls Romance

by Jessie Lane

Sighing in frustration, Dia closed the distance between them and put her hands on his chest. She knew touch was important to shifters, and it could also be very comforting.

  “Just what exactly are you trying to protect me from? My parents? I assure you they would never harm me.”

  Stone uncrossed his arms, wrapped one around her waist and used his other hand to rub the back of his neck. “I can’t explain it, sweetheart, but every instinct I have is screaming not to let you go. I know I’m coming across as a straight up jackass, and I’m sorry. But neither the wolf nor I want to let you go anywhere without us.”

  It was hard for Dia to be mad when she could see the sincerity in his eyes. Her poor wolf was that worried about her.

  Cradling his face in her hands, as she loved to do so often, Dia looked her distressed mate in the eye. “What will make you feel better? Besides staying here with you, because that’s not an option.”

  Stone’s frown intensified. “Short of you talking to me the entire drive there, I don’t think there’s anything that will make me feel better.”

  Slick wolf. He probably thought Dia wouldn’t agree to that because he knew she hated talking on the phone. The ride to her parents’ house was going to take almost three hours, so to be on the phone for the entire drive would be pure hell. But she would do it for him.

  Without saying another word, Dia sighed dramatically, purposely letting her mate think he had won. Then she pulled out her cell phone and pushed the button to dial Stone’s number.

  He watched her movements closely, and even though they were standing two inches apart, he pulled his own phone out and answered it. “Yes?” He cocked an eyebrow at her while waiting for a response.

  “Agreed,” she said to both the phone and her now shocked mate, who was still standing in front of her.

  Leaning forward, she kissed Stone on the lips then pulled back to talk into her phone, making her point obvious.

  “Now, get the hell out of my way. I’m going to have to plug my phone into the car charger if we’re going to talk for three hours.”

  Stone grudgingly stepped to the side, letting his mate get in her car. Dia started the engine, buckled up, and put the car in drive, all while holding the cell phone to her ear. Then, when she was ready to go, she blew a kiss at Stone and drove off.

  Their line was silent as Stone stood there, watching her car drive down the dirt road from their place, and then disappear out of sight. He didn’t know what to say, except for “come back,” and this trip obviously meant too much to his mate to do that, so he didn’t mutter the words.

  He walked into the house, closed the front door, and sat in his favorite chair to brood in silence, completely forgetting that he still had his phone at his ear, until Dia snapped, “Well, are you going to say something or what? Because three hours of silence would be ridiculous!”

  Chapter Five

  Two weeks later…

  “You’re not going to make me talk to you for three hours on the way home, are you?” Dia asked her ornery mate.

  “No,” Stone snapped through the line.

  The man had been unbearable since she had left to visit her parents and take care of her mom after her surgery. Dia had dutifully called three times a day—morning, noon, and night—fulfilling her mate’s demands for contact. Had that been good enough for him? Nooooooooooo.

  As much as she loved her wolf, she was starting to consider how nice a wolf skin rug might look as a welcome mat at her hair salon.

  “Why are you being so snappy with me, mister? I’ve done everything you asked me to do since I left!”

  “You don’t want to know,” Stone grumbled back.

  “If I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t have asked. So again, what’s your problem?”

  “I’m horny!” her mate roared back. “And if you don’t hurry up and get the hell home so I can be inside you, I will track you down and mount you wherever it is I find you. I don’t care if it’s on the side of the road. So, I suggest you get that sweet ass moving, princess, and come home.”

  Caught somewhere between amused and annoyed, Dia said, “I told you not to call me princess. I’m not a fucking princess.”

  When a deep growl came through the phone line, Dia gave in.

  “Okay, okay, I’m leaving now, you impatient mutt. I’ll call you when I’m an hour away, okay?”

  “Good. Love you. Hurry the fuck up.” Click.

  Dia looked at the phone and rolled her eyes. She wasn’t sure if she should be excited or scared about going home. From the sound of her mate, he just might fuck her through their mattress.

  Wait … Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.

  Dia turned to walk back into her parents’ house. She needed to say good-bye. Not to mention, she wanted to check on her mom one last time before she left.

  She was only a few steps from the front door when the world exploded right in front of her face.

  Literally.

  ~~~

  “Ma’am? Ma’am, can you hear me?” a soft, feminine voice asked.

  At least, she thought the voice was trying to be soft. With the way her head hurt, there was a possibility that the person was screaming the words. Every syllable felt like a hammer to her head.

  Slowly opening her eyes, she winced at the bright light that blinded her. She tried to pick her hand up to shield her eyes, but she didn’t have the strength to do it. It was better just to keep her eyes closed.

  “Where am I?” she croaked.

  “You’re in Vanderbilt University Medical Center.”

  Trying to think past the pounding in her brain, she asked out loud, but more to herself, “Why in the world am I in the hospital?”

  There was a short pause before the voice spoke again. “Do you remember anything that happened?”

  Without thought, she went to shake her head no, but that made her groan out in pain. “No,” she croaked in answer, instead.

  A shadow fell over her eyelids and a soft hand grabbed her own. “Can you open your eyes for me, now please?”

  Knowing that the blinding light was blocked for her, she tentatively opened her eyes and immediately saw a brunette in a white uniform leaning over her. She didn’t have time to ask who the woman was before her guest spoke first.

  “Do you remember your name?”

  Her mouth opened to respond, but nothing came out. Her mind was drawing a total blank.

  Starting to become more than a little scared, she searched her mind for something, anything, and still came up with nothing. It was a blank slate where she was sure memories should have been. Her eyes watered with tears as she closed her mouth and gently shook her head no.

  The woman hovering above her gave her a kind, but sad smile. “Your name is Dia Connor. Do you know how old you are?”

  Her name was Dia? She knew she was supposed to be trying to figure out her age, but she was stuck on the name. It was pretty … and different. Surely she should have been able to remember a name like that? That led her to realize something bad must have happened to her.

  “Miss,” the kind woman called to gain her attention again. “You’re zoning out on me. Do you know how old you are?”

  Dia searched the recesses of her mind and still found nothing. Even the thought of her name seemed foreign to her. She gently shook her head no again and started to cry.

  The woman took her hand off Dia’s and, in a nurturing manner, ran her hand over Dia’s hair. “Shhh, don’t cry. It’s going to be okay, Dia. I’m just trying to gauge if your memory is intact.”

  “What happened to me?” Dia asked her on a frightened croak. “Why am I here? Why can’t I remember my own name?” The questions came out in a rush. She couldn’t stop herself as a bubble of anxiety started filling her chest so fast she thought her heart might burst from it. “Who are you?” she finally cried out.

  The woman was still trying to soothe Dia with soft hushes and comforting touches, but it wasn’t really working. Not that she could tell the lady that p
ast the ginormous clog of emotions she had lodged in her throat now.

  “My name is Dr. Bennett, and I work here at Vanderbilt. My job is to take care of you and help you heal.” She suddenly looked up from Dia to across the room and spoke to someone who was out of Dia’s line of sight.

  “Nurse, please give her valium. We’re going to need her to relax and sleep some more.”

  “Wait!” Dia shouted, scared at not knowing what was going on. “Before you go, please tell me what happened!”

  Dr. Bennett looked back down at Dia with a stoic expression. “Miss Connor, you were involved in an accident. There was a gas explosion, and you just barely missed the worst part of it. You are lucky to have survived the blast.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Dia could see the nurse injecting something into her IV line.

  Totally dumbfounded at what she had just been told, she squinted at the bright light around her while asking the doctor, “How long have I been here?”

  Dr. Bennett bent back over so she could block the light from her eyes again, “You’ve been in a medically-induced coma for two months, Miss Connor. Now I know you must have lots of questions for me, but I need you to lie back and try to get some more rest, okay? I’ll be back to check on you in a couple of hours.”

  She watched as Dr. Bennett walked away then stood just outside of the room’s doorway, writing on what was presumably Dia’s chart. The nurse walked out with her and stopped right next to her, quietly bringing the door to a close. Thing was, she didn’t close it all the way. There was a small crack, and as fogginess started to impair her thoughts, she could still hear the nurse talking to the doctor.

  “It’s so tragic what happened to her and her family. And it looks like she doesn’t remember a thing. When are you going to tell her that her parents were killed in the explosion?”

  Dia’s heart clenched so hard in her chest that, for a moment, she wondered if she was having a heart attack. Even though she couldn’t place a face to the thought of having a mother and father, it still broke her heart to know that they were now gone. Dia might never remember them again.

  Her heart monitor went crazy as her chest started to tighten even more, and the nurse rushed back in to check on Dia. “Miss Connor, are you okay?”

  Tears ran silently down her face as she watched the nurse check the machines that had her heart monitor and blood pressure on it. The nurse turned back to her and said, “You’re safe here, Miss Connor. I need you to try to calm down. It’s not good for the baby for you to be this upset.”

  The edges of her vision became black, and the haziness she had felt earlier was now stronger than ever. Dia’s heart was still pounding away in her chest, but it wasn’t enough to keep her awake. Nor was the shock from the nurse’s words.

  In all honesty, through the frantic thoughts racing through her mind, Dia realized she was probably more lightheaded because she was about to pass out than from the meds they had given her. All because of one little word.

  Baby.

  And as the black in her vision spread, her chest gasping for air, Dia had one last thought before she passed out. What baby?

  Chapter Six

  “I got the information you wanted … and it’s not good.”

  Stone sat in his dark living room, not needing the light to see the beta of his pack, Caleb, standing across from him, near his front door.

  His mood was black with the multiple conflicts going on in his life, and he couldn’t help snorting in derision at his beta’s words. There wasn’t much for Stone to like these days, period.

  First, he’d had problems with Sulphur Springs’, the visiting pack, delegate. Negotiations for a truce had gone horribly, and the man had left in such a way that Stone was sure that war was about to be on his doorstep. He had sent Caleb to Sulphur Springs to speak directly to the alpha, asking for another meeting, this time with him personally. Surprisingly, the Sulphur Springs’ alpha had agreed, and said he would be here in Battletown as soon as he could make it. As soon as he could make it had turned out to be a week and a half later, which meant he had come back to visit the same day that Dia should have been coming home. The problem was, she never did.

  That brought him to his next problem. His wolf had been fighting for control from the moment their mate had gone missing. Not that he didn’t know where she was now. He did. It had taken him no more than a day to track down her parents’ house in Nashville, Tennessee, and find nothing but charred remains. From that point, it had been easy to find out what had happened because it was all over the news. However, the situation had spiraled out of his control from the moment he had stepped foot in the hospital to see her.

  The police on site there had not so politely told him that he could not see Dia because he wasn’t listed as a known contact for her, nor was he a relative. She was under police supervision until they determined whether the explosion was an accident or intentional.

  At the thought that someone might have purposely tried to hurt her, his wolf had snapped, causing him to lose control of his temper. It escalated to the point that he had punched one of the officers in the face when they wouldn’t let him see her. Then they had escorted him off the grounds and told him he was banned from coming back.

  There he had stood, in another state, unable to see his injured, but thankfully alive mate, and losing his ever-loving mind about it. If that hadn’t been bad enough, his beta had called him while he stood just outside of the perimeter of the hospital grounds and delivered another blow.

  In Stone’s haste to find his mate, he had dismissed the visiting Sulphur Springs alpha, and in doing so, insulted him greatly. Not that he gave two fucks about it when it came down to trying to get to his injured mate, which was exactly what he had told Caleb. All of his concentration had been on finding out if his mate was okay.

  Fucking Caleb had thrown the truth back in his face. Stone needed to care. Otherwise, he might inadvertently start a pack war with the very pack he had been trying to make an ally. It was at that moment that the police officer he had punched pulled up in his patrol car and told him to leave or he would arrest him for assault after all.

  Stone had no choice but to leave, with only a promise to himself, and his raging wolf, that he would come back soon and find a way in to see Dia. Only, when he had checked into a hotel, shit seemed to spiral out of control again. He had twenty-four hours to come back, meet with the visiting alpha, and apologize, or it would be full-out war between Stone’s Battletown Pack and their closest non-human neighbors, the Sulphur Springs Pack.

  Stone had been left with an unconceivable decision to make: Stay there in Tennessee for his injured mate, or go back to Kentucky and make peace for his pack’s sake.

  Two months later, he still fucking hated himself for leaving his mate that day. Although he had sent three of his most trusted pack members to search over the hospital for any signs of her, and to protect her if need be, it wasn’t the same. He should have been there with Dia, and not here in Kentucky dealing with this bullshit, even if he had discovered that it was for her best interests that he had left her.

  A week after her parents’ house exploded, Stone had accomplished two very important things. First, he had made amends with the Sulphur Springs alpha and had secured that alliance. Then the three pack members watching over Dia’s hospital reported back with the unthinkable. The Connor’s house explosion had been no accident. Someone had purposely set that gas leak so that it would cause an explosion. It was all over the local news there in Tennessee and the human investigators were trying to figure out who had done it. That made Stone wonder: who exactly was the perpetrator trying to kill? Dia’s parents, or Dia herself?

  No matter the answer, Stone had to find out who had done this so he could make sure his mate was safe, and so he could get her justice for losing her parents. That was something Caleb had been helping him with for almost two months now. The problem was, they were having a hard time figuring out who had started the gas leak and why.
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  Now Caleb stood in his living room with an answer, and the hair standing up on the back of Caleb’s neck told him Stone wasn’t going to like it.

  “What is it?” Stone asked with no preamble.

  His beta crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was on edge, and had been since they had discovered the attempt made on Dia’s life.

  “I don’t know who exactly, Stone. I’ve only uncovered why Dia’s parents’ house exploded.”

  A snarl escaped Stone, and he had to reel his wolf back in. He gripped the arms of his chair tight, using all his willpower to keep the powerful beast at bay, when he really wanted to let him loose for bloodshed.

  “WHY THEN?” he snarled out in anger.

  Caleb uncrossed his arms and ran a hand through his hair. The need to fidget told Stone that his beta was probably battling his own wolf for control, too.

  “I was on patrol and behind Old Man Grayson’s barn when I heard two feminine voices. They didn’t realize I was there because I was downwind. They were talking about the attempt on Dia’s life failing and how someone was going to have to finish the job.”

  “Just to be clear, they said her name?”

  Caleb shook his head slowly, then said, “They said ‘the alpha’s human bitch.’ That’s how I know they were talking about Dia.”

  “Did you kill them?” Stone snarled.

  When Caleb shook his head no, Stone lost all control. His wolf’s anger snapped, and the next thing he knew, Stone was across the room, pinning Caleb to a wall by his throat.

  “WHY DIDN’T YOU KILL THEM?” he roared at his beta.

  Wheezing for air, Caleb choked out, “Because they heard me coming and disappeared.”

  Letting go of Caleb, Stone stepped back and tried to regain his composure. “What do you mean, they disappeared?”

  His beta was rubbing his throat, trying to soothe the spot where Stone had grabbed him. His voice was still rough when he answered, “I fucked up. Accidentally stepped on a twig that snapped under my paw. They must have heard it, because the next thing I heard was whispered voices and then nothing. By the time I ran around to the other side of the barn, they were gone.”