Brac looked at her hand and then back at her face, the arrogance not lost on her. She didn’t care. They were starting as they meant to go on, and she did not mean to go on as a squashed Alpha female, run over by the prejudices and fears of others. Marc came up beside her, adding his muscle to her stance. His warning growl rumbled in his throat.
A gasp drew her attention to the little girl, whose hands were clasped in front of her, something clearly in their grasp. She looked at Jace and her face crumpled, her eyes filled with tears as terror replaced the determination with which she’d stepped out of the crowd. Jace squatted down. Brac shifted. Miri didn’t remove her hand from his chest. “Jace would die before he’d hurt a child.”
Brac didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t push her aside. Which was good, because if he had they probably would have had a whole new issue to deal with. Jace wouldn’t have stood for that.
The violent aura around Jace softened. “Hello.”
The little girl’s lip quivered. Miri could imagine how that affected Jace. All Peanut had to do was think about crying and he was mush.
“Is your mother here?”
The child nodded and motioned to a pretty young woman pushing through the crowd. The woman caught sight of Jace kneeling in front of her daughter and cried out, “Brenda Lynn!”
The little girl’s eye rounded more. “Uh-oh.”
From where she stood, Miri could see Jace’s amusement and the twitch at the corner of his mouth. He raised his hand. The woman stopped. Her fingers curled into fists. Miri gave her an encouraging smile. It was ignored.
“I guess you weren’t supposed to say hi to me, huh?” Jace asked in that deep, warm drawl that invited trust. Brenda Lynn wasn’t any more immune to it than any other female. Her lip paused in mid-quiver, and her expression relaxed.
“I didn’t want to say hi to you. You’re a vampire.”
“Brenda Lynn!” her mother gasped.
“It’s all right,” Jace told the mother. Miri could hear the laughter in his voice, though she doubted it was evident to anyone else. He turned back to Brenda Lynn. “Who were you looking to say hi to?”
She stared at him, the wobble in her chin firming before she glanced at Miri and pointed with her cupped hands. “Her.”
“Why?”
Brenda Lynn opened her hands and carefully parted her fingers to reveal her treasure—a very tiny frog. “I’ve brought it for her.”
“That’s a mighty nice frog.”
“She’s special.”
“I see.”
Her lips circled into a pout and she frowned. “I want her to kiss it.”
It was a sickly looking frog, with lots of bumps. Miri grimaced. There were limits to what Miri would do for a child. Beside her, Marc coughed. Or laughed.
“Do you think it’s a prince?” Jace asked, maintaining a straight face with obvious difficulty.
Brenda Lynn gave him a look that clearly questioned his intelligence. “It’s sick.”
“And you think Miri’s kiss can fix it?”
The little girl nodded so hard her pigtails bounced.
“What makes you think that?”
“My mommy said so.”
Brenda Lynn’s mother groaned.
“She did?”
No doubt the woman had said something not meant to be overheard and probably not too flattering. Definitely something she didn’t want repeated, to judge from the worry in her expression.
“What did she say?”
“She said the female Alpha is either a saint or a devil…”
Miri could hear the punch line coming in the carefully recited quote.
“Because if she thinks she can make a no-good vampire into an Alpha, she has to be backed by either heaven or hell.”
There was suddenly a flurry of coughing and face rubbing in those near enough to hear, which, with the acuity of wolf hearing, involved quite a few.
“Your momma is right. It takes someone special to do that.”
I am not kissing a toad.
It’s actually a frog, so you’re good.
Frog, toad, she wasn’t kissing it, and it was time to step in before Jace promised she would. Miri dropped her hand from Brac’s chest. She handed Penny to Marc, who took her awkwardly, juggling the gun and the infant before he had to accept the inevitable and toss the gun to Brac.
Jace’s energy reached out to her as she approached, circling her as she braced her hand between his shoulders. The thickness of his coat prevented her from feeling the shift of his muscles as he looked back at her. Nothing could prevent her from feeling his hug of comfort and his amusement. “This is Brenda Lynn. She has a problem.”
“So I heard. Hello, Brenda Lynn.”
All she got back was a determined look.
Leaning over, she studied the sad little amphibian. “I don’t think he needs a kiss,” she told the little girl, who reeked of lilac perfume. “I think he’s just very thirsty.”
The little girl didn’t look convinced but she brought the frog up to nose level and stared it in the eyes and asked, “Are you thirsty?”
The frog didn’t move, but Brenda Lynn’s eyes crossed. She was beyond precious, and Miri couldn’t help wondering if Faith would be that precocious at her age. And whether she’d get to see it. She took a slow breath to balance the agony before answering, “I don’t think I can cure him with a kiss, but would you like me to take him up to the house and see if I can make him better?”
Brenda Lynn frowned. “It’s a she. Her name is Wilhelmina.”
“That’s a pretty name.”
“Pretty enough to kiss,” Jace offered.
Miri slapped his back. “Hush.”
Brenda Lynn went absolutely white, staring at Jace in horror. She didn’t even blink as she stepped back. Around them, growls rose. Men moved in. Brenda Lynn’s mother pulled her back. No one was looking at Miri. Everyone was looking at Jace.
In the same easy way he did everything else, Jace reached up, caught Miri’s hand—the one that had slapped him—and brought it over his shoulder. The kiss he placed on her palm was neither discreet nor innocent. Flames licked up her arm, seared her chest, and suspended her breathing. By the time he was done, her knees were weak and her cheeks red.
“Pay no attention to him,” Miri, struggling for normalcy, told Brenda Lynn as Jace stood, his arm coming around her shoulders. “He’s always joking.”
“He’s awfully big.”
Miri patted Jace’s chest. “He’s no bigger than Marc.”
“He’s big different.”
Because he was Alpha. Because he could do whatever he wanted and, technically, no one could stop him. He could even bully little girls and their mothers and it would be his right.
Miri forced her smile to stay soft and her anger to stay buried. “That’s so he can protect you. You know that’s why he came, don’t you? He knows Tragallions don’t like vampires, but the D’Nally told him there was a little girl here who needed a special protector, someone to keep her safe. She needed someone big and strong who isn’t afraid of bad guys.” She shrugged as if the choice had been obvious. “He sent Jace.” Brenda Lynn blinked, and her jaw dropped just a little. Part of her fear turned to awe. “The D’Nally sent him for me?”
The implication of that breathless query landed hard. Someone had dared hurt this precious little girl? “Yes.”
“Will he protect my mommy, too?”
The question dropped into the silence like a stone pitched into a pond, the ripples spreading outward among the watching weres. Brenda’s mother covered her daughter’s mouth with her hand. She licked her lips and said in a voice as helpless as her glance around, “I’m so sorry.”
Over the edge of her mother’s fingers, Brenda Lynn’s gaze shifted to Jace. She was clearly waiting for an answer. The same anger Miri felt inside was reflected in his energy, but not in his voice as he asked gently, “What’s your mother’s name?”
Brenda Lynn twisted free of h
er mother’s grip. “Marjorie.”
“That’s a pretty name, and yes, I came to protect you both. No one threatens either of you without answering to me. And sweetheart, I’m one mean vampire when I want to be.”
The statement was pitched to carry. A promise for everyone to hear. Another murmur rumbled through the crowd. Marjorie paled further and there was no disguising the panic in her expression.
Miri could have kissed Jace for having the understanding to say in a much lower voice, “There’s no string on that protection, by the way.”
“You don’t like strings?” Brenda Lynn asked.
Marjorie covered the little girl’s mouth again and apologized in a faint voice, “She…she just never knows when to be quiet.”
Jace shrugged, still looking completely male, completely in control as he smiled indulgently. “Never knew a kid who could, and my promise still stands. If you know of anyone else who needs protection from anyone, outsiders or family, you have them send me a message. I’ll handle it.”
“You can’t come between a male and his females,” Brac protested.
Jace hitched his rifle up, looking more Alpha in that moment than she’d ever seen, standing shoulders back, feet slightly apart. Pride poured through her as he smiled that “I dare you to do something about it” smile and lazily drawled, “I can do whatever the he—heck I want.”
The modified curse was obviously for Brenda Lynn’s benefit.
“The males won’t like it.”
“The males will have to get used to change. I’m Alpha and a vampire. It’s a guaranteed shake-’em-up combination.”
“You left off that you are one of the Johnson brothers,” Marc interjected, pulling the corner of the quilt out of Penny’s mouth and replacing it with the pacifier. “Which is probably your most irritating characteristic.”
“More irritating than being vampire?” Miri asked.
“Heck yes. Everyone knows once one of the Johnsons gets an idea in his head it’s all but impossible to knock it free.”
And Jace had decided to lead the Tragallions. Miri didn’t know whether to take Marc’s words as a warning or a threat.
Brac cleared his throat. He wanted to get moving. So did she. The pain was starting in her stomach and the knowledge of how damaged this pack was wasn’t helping with the stress it added. “How about I take Wilhelmina up to the house and you have your mother bring you up in an hour and check on her?” she asked Brenda Lynn.
The child didn’t hand over the frog. “I can’t tell time yet.”
Marjorie didn’t step in with an offer to do it for her. Miri forced the woman’s hand, relying on pack order to get the agreement she needed. As Alpha female, she had to start somewhere. This little frog was it. “Your mother can.”
The woman said something under her breath Miri couldn’t catch, then: “I’ll bring her up in an hour.”
She sounded like she’d rather face a firing squad.
Miri didn’t care. With great reluctance, Brenda Lynn placed the frog in Miri’s palms. With great reluctance Miri took it. The frog just sat listlessly in her hands. Not even trying to get away. She wanted to drop it. Instead she forced a smile and passed it to Brac. “I’ll see you in an hour, then.”
Marjorie placed her hand on her daughter’s head. There was both exasperation and love in the gesture. “Thank you.”
Miri knew just how she felt as Marc handed Penny to her, and the baby immediately began fussing. There wasn’t a lot convenient about being a mother.
“Be careful,” Brenda Lynn warned Brac, rubbing at her eyes. “You can break her.”
His expression was properly solemn as he responded, “I won’t break her.”
That was good, Miri thought, because from the looks of things, enough was broken here already. The child was still rubbing her eyes. “Is there something wrong with your eyes?”
“No. They just get itchy.”
Jace gave the frog a wary glance before putting his arm around her shoulders. “If I get warts I know who to blame.”
Miri looked at him. “Warts are the least of our problems.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Saving Wilhelmina here is our first official leadership job. If we fail, we’re never going to be able to redeem ourselves in that little girl’s eyes.”
Jace eyed the little frog. “Then we’d better not fail.”
THEIR new home was spacious, with big rooms and windows that let in a lot of light, which would be a good thing if Jace wasn’t a vampire. A glance up revealed skylights blacked out by something.
Brac’s gaze followed hers. “The pack didn’t have much in the way of warning. We covered them securely, though.”
Jace nodded as he looked around. “I appreciate it.”
Miri didn’t like the feel of the house. It was too open. She moved a step closer to Jace. “No light will get in when the shades are drawn?”
Brac’s lips thinned at the implication. “I checked the shades myself.”
Which didn’t tell her anything. She didn’t know how trustworthy he was. Jace put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug, and when he let go, somehow she was behind him again. She frowned up at him. How did he keep doing that?
His fingers grazed down her arm. “I’ll be fine, Miri.”
She had a sick feeling in her stomach that none of this was going to be fine. The pack was hostile, and Jace too exposed. And while this was just dawning on her, none of it was surprising to Jace. Which meant he’d known all along what he was risking for her, and he’d done it anyway. Because he was her husband, and because it mattered to her.
She didn’t have a hand free, but she pressed herself against his back and kissed his shoulder blade through his coat. She’d thought the caress too light to feel through all the material, but when he glanced over his shoulder, flames flickered in his eyes. Along with questions. All she had to offer in the way of answers right then was a smile conflicted with the mix of emotions inside. Penny fussed again.
“Sounds to me like someone’s getting hungry.” Marc moved past her. “I’ll get her bottle ready.”
Brac looked at her, the frog in his hand. “Wilhelmina needs care, too.”
He clearly was itching to get rid of the frog. She was very glad she still had Penny to hold. She hitched her up on her hip. “Why is all this suddenly my responsibility?”
“You’re the female Alpha.”
Of course he’d pull out that answer. “That’s not working out to be nearly as glamorous as I was led to believe.” The frog blinked. Being a little girl’s princess in disguise apparently wasn’t working for her, either. She sighed as Penny sucked on her shoulder, making wet smacking sounds. “We might as well head into the kitchen.”
Her stomach was cramping, but not with the need for food. She needed blood. Specifically, Jace’s. Her appetite seemed to split between blood and real food. Feeding on one over the other just caused an apparent imbalance that twisted her insides. Ignoring either had an equally painful result. “Miri?”
Rats. Jace had sensed the discomfort. She gave him a smile. He hooked his hand behind her neck and pulled her face in to his throat, letting her know he felt her pain. He lowered his lips to her ear. “You need to feed.”
“Later.”
His hand opened over the small of her back, massaging lightly. “Not much later.”
It was an order. She immediately felt the conflicting needs to obey and to resist. Because neither was reasonable, she turned her mouth to his and kissed him. “All right.”
His lips brushed her forehead before he let her step away. “Thank you.”
Across the room Brac watched, his face expressionless. She lifted her chin and ignored her blush. She had nothing to be embarrassed about.
“It’s all right,” she told the man. “We’re married. We get to take all sorts of liberties with one another.”
The corner of the mean-looking were’s mouth twitched. No other indication gave her an
idea of whether he was annoyed or amused, whereas the cock of Jace’s brow clearly indicated his amusement.
“Staking your claim, princess?”
“Maybe.”
Jace’s energy touched her with the intensity of a shock. A shiver ran down her spine as the heat of his query slid along her nerve endings. She didn’t look around. She might not be running from their mating, but she wasn’t making public knowledge how he could strip her down to defenseless and panting with just a look.
A sedate escape to the bedroom off to the right of the living room was called for. “Penny needs changing.”
Jace watched Miri’s retreat, everything Alpha in him demanding he follow up on the surrender in her words, her scent. Everything human in him understanding what a mistake it would be to embarrass her that way when she so clearly felt vulnerable. He listened as she spoke to the baby, heard the little fuss Penny made as Miri laid her down, heard the zipper slide as she opened the diaper bag.
In the kitchen, he heard Marc opening the refrigerator. Somewhere in the back, a generator hummed. He made his way through the hodgepodge of beautifully crafted furniture and lamps, frowning at the lack of uniformity in the pieces, except their value. They were obviously expensive. In his experience with the D’Nallys and the McClarens, the Alpha, while entitled to the best, served himself last. Judging from the poverty without and the wealth within, Travis hadn’t subscribed to that philosophy.
Marc looked up from unpacking the bottles from the insulated bag when he entered. His gaze went past him, searching for Miri. Or maybe Brac? When he found neither, that blankness all the Tragallions seemed to muster at will replaced caution. Jace knew the look. Knew what it meant. This pack had secrets—bad ones, if he wasn’t mistaken.
“Don’t take this wrong, Marc, but I’m getting the impression that the Tragallion pack has fallen on hard times.”
Jace Page 29
